Chapter 11 What Was His Name Again?

She stiffened her neck and looked back. Recognizing the figure, her heart sank abruptly.

It was a tall man with a well-proportioned build, broad shoulders, a slim waist, and an elegant demeanor, dressed in a suit. Not far from him stood a pregnant woman.

Zhuang Zi didn’t expect to see him here.

She held her breath, hurriedly swiped her card, and entered the room. Only then did her heart, which had been in her throat, slowly settle back down.

Leaning against the door, she squinted her eyes. What was his name again?

There are some people whose faces you can remember, but their names slip your mind.

Zhuang Zi usually had a good memory, but she rarely revisited the past. Probably because there was nothing worth reminiscing about, she didn’t want to chew over the bitterness again, so she tried to forget what she could.

On the phone, Jiang Zhihao was still talking, finally pulling her thoughts back.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“Just opening the door.” Zhuang Zi walked into the room and asked, “Why couldn’t I reach you on the phone?”

“Hmm?” Jiang Zhihao chuckled, “When did you call me?”

Zhuang Zi’s expression changed.

She stood there silently for a moment, trying to determine if he was lying or being deliberate.

“Didn’t I call you several times yesterday?” she probed, worried that he might already know the police suspected her and was deliberately dodging her. “How could you have missed it?”

“Really, I didn’t!” Jiang Zhihao emphasized, “If you don’t believe me, I can screenshot my call history for you.”

Zhuang Zi slowly walked to the bed and sat down, pondering what was going on, momentarily forgetting to speak.

Jiang Zhihao waited for a while and then asked, “When did you call me, and what was it about?”

Zhuang Zi frowned and countered, “When are you coming back to the country?”

“Wednesday, I think,” Jiang Zhihao replied. “What’s the matter?”

Zhuang Zi frowned even deeper, paused, and then said lightly, “We’ll talk when you get back.”

After hanging up, Zhuang Zi wanted to tell Xie Kui about the situation.

Every time she called Jiang Zhihao, the call went through, but he didn’t pick up. How could he have missed it?

The lie was too obvious.

What was he up to now?

Mocking her? Provoking her?

After dialing Xie Kui’s number, there was a long beep followed by a standard female voice indicating the call was unanswered.

Zhuang Zi frowned in confusion and dialed again.

Logically, as a police officer, his phone should always be with him. Even if he was on another call, it should not go unanswered.

But the second call also went unanswered.

Sitting by the bed, Zhuang Zi lightly rubbed the edge of her phone, feeling that something was very wrong.

Could there be an issue with her phone?

She suddenly remembered a case she read about in the library today, where the perpetrator hacked the victim’s phone to access all their personal information and track their movements…

At that moment, her phone chimed, breaking the silence in the room and startling her. She stared blankly for two seconds before reacting.

She hastily grabbed her phone. It was a screenshot of call logs sent by Jiang Zhihao.

She looked through the logs one by one. From yesterday to today, there were a dozen calls, including one to his parents this morning. However, her number was conspicuously absent.

Could he have deliberately deleted the records to fool her? But would he go to such lengths?

She pondered for a moment and suddenly realized an important clue—others could call her, but she couldn’t make outgoing calls!

To confirm this, she immediately dialed Xiao Zhang.

After the final ring, the standard female voice informed her that the call could not be completed at this time.

She then called her colleague, Pei Zheng, holding her breath.

One ring.

Two rings.

…

…

Her heart sank. She slowly put down the phone, her whole body covered in goosebumps.

There was definitely something wrong with her phone; otherwise, she wouldn’t be unable to make calls without any reason.

Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down, tossed the phone on the bed, and strode out of the room.

Now, she had to find Xiao Zhang at the Cantonese restaurant across the street immediately.

If her phone was indeed hacked, the hacker would know all her movements. She couldn’t keep the phone with her.

As long as she reported this to the police, they might be able to track down the culprit through this lead.

Downstairs, she exited the elevator and encountered a group of tourists swarming into the lobby. She pushed through the crowd anxiously and hurried outside.

Zhuang Zi jogged to the intersection, standing with a few strangers at the crosswalk, waiting for the light to change.

After a moment, the light on the other side began its countdown. Just then, a low, hoarse male voice called out behind her.

The voice was so low it seemed to be right next to her ear, only loud enough for her to hear.

He said, “Miss, you dropped something.”

The light turned green, and the pedestrians in front of and beside her stepped onto the crosswalk.

Zhuang Zi wasn’t sure if the person was talking to her, but she reflexively stopped and glanced down. There was nothing on the ground.

Feeling uneasy, she started to turn around, but before she could, she felt a sudden weight on her shoulder and a sharp, cold pain on her neck.

“Don’t make a sound!”

Zhuang Zi froze, staring ahead in terror, her pupils dilating.

The thin blade gleamed menacingly in the night. The sharp edge was pressed right against the two fingers’ width beside her throat, where the carotid artery was. If the gloved hand holding the blade applied just a bit more pressure, she would bleed out in minutes.

He whispered threateningly in her ear, “Move, and I’ll kill you!”

Zhuang Zi’s face turned pale, her body trembling slightly. She stood there, petrified, her mind blank.

The pedestrians across the street were only a few meters away, but Zhuang Zi felt an insurmountable barrier between them. She stood at the edge, trapped in an unpredictable and dangerous world.

She glanced at the Cantonese restaurant across the street, desperately praying that Xiao Zhang would come out at this moment.

But things rarely go as one wishes.

Just after watching her enter the hotel, Xiao Zhang felt relieved and went to eat. He was sure that if she had any emergency, she would call him and wouldn’t have thought she would come back looking for him.

She felt an unprecedented sense of helplessness, as if she had already foreseen that she would die tonight.

A wave of sadness washed over her, but miraculously, her mind cleared for a moment, and all her rationality returned.

She realized that although this person was using this method to intimidate and threaten her, he wouldn’t actually attack her here, because the police station was just across the street.

If he acted here, he wouldn’t be able to escape either.

But then a terrifying thought crossed her mind: what if he was prepared to die along with her?

Just as she thought this, the cold voice behind her sounded again, “Walk!”

Zhuang Zi knew that if she went with him, it would mean certain death. When she didn’t move, he applied more pressure, and a sharp pain sliced through her neck. She gritted her teeth in agony, her face contorted in pain.

This wasn’t the bustling main street; at this hour, there weren’t many pedestrians. Even if someone saw them, he was holding her so closely and intimately that they would think they were a couple.

She glanced at their shadows on the ground. The person behind her was half a head taller, neither too thin nor too fat, with a thick scarf covering his face. Judging by his build and voice, he was probably a man in his thirties.

He forced her toward a secluded alley beside the street. She didn’t dare to make a move, even breathing carefully, fearing that a single misstep would result in the blade slicing her throat.

He pressed her to the mouth of the alley, where a cold wind suddenly blew through. The person behind her coughed heavily, loosening his grip on her arm to adjust his scarf.

In that split second, a voice in her head screamed that if she didn’t escape now, she would never have another chance.

Her body tensed, and she held her breath, bracing herself. With all her strength, she stomped on his foot. The man bent slightly in pain, his grip on her neck loosening. Seizing the opportunity, Zhuang Zi bolted. The blade grazed her neck, and she felt warm, sticky liquid oozing out, but no pain.

She ran like an arrow shot from a bow toward the end of the alley, her desperate cry for help echoing in the abyss behind her: “Help!”

But it was a back street; no one could hear her, and no one would respond to her pleas.

She dashed through the dark alley like the wind, their frantic footsteps reverberating in the empty space, indistinguishable from each other.

She raced toward the alley’s exit, a dozen meters away, the wind whistling past her ears. She screamed again, “Help!”

The sound was trapped in the alley as if blocked by an invisible steel dome. No one could hear her.

Her heart felt like it was about to leap out of her throat, her breaths short and heavy, struggling for oxygen.

Luckily, she was wearing flat shoes today. Her legs moved frantically, knowing that a single misstep could cause her to fall.

Her mind went blank, forgetting fear and pain. All she knew was to run with all her might, racing against time and speed to grasp the last thread of hope.

The alley seemed to stretch endlessly, like an abyss pulling at her feet. It felt like she had been running for an eternity before she finally reached the alley’s end.

She saw the busy main road outside, but the footsteps behind her hadn’t stopped. She didn’t dare look back, desperately rushing across the road, nearly colliding with a speeding motorcyclist. The driver barely stopped in time and cursed, “Are you trying to get yourself killed?!”

Zhuang Zi ignored the scolding, sprinting towards the police station across the street.

She left behind stationery stores, small shops, and salons.

Running along the street, she had no idea how long she had been running. Passing a fruit shop, a bucket of water was thrown out, drenching her and causing her to slip and fall.

The desperate chase for her life had finally come to an end.

The shop owner rushed out to help her up. She quickly looked back, finally not seeing that person anymore, and her body suddenly collapsed like a deflated balloon, sitting exhausted on the ground.

She gasped for air, unable to hear the shop owner’s words. Fear and terror slowly dawned on her, and the sharp pain in her neck became more distinct.

Silent tears fell, sliding down her neck and mixing with the blood.

Her clothes were soaked through, making her feel wet and cold, her body shivering.

The wind picked up, signaling an impending night rain. The breeze on her sweat-drenched face took away the last bit of warmth from her body.

The shop owner went to call the police for her. She sat miserably on a bench at the fruit shop entrance, pressing hard on the wound on her neck. She didn’t know how long it took for her breathing to slowly stabilize.

Passersby kept glancing at her.

At that moment, she felt like a wandering, destitute ghost with nowhere to go.

She thought that if she had died in that alley today, no one would have even cared enough to collect her body.

Her life had been a failure. She felt like an orphan abandoned by the world, her life or death irrelevant to anyone.

Her eyes stung with tears again, and she tightly closed them to blink away the moisture.

When she opened them again, she saw a shadow looming over her, covering her entire curled-up body.

Her heart skipped a beat, and she looked up in surprise, meeting a pair of dark, cold eyes.

A man stood in front of her, sweat on his forehead and his breathing unsteady, showing that he had been running too.

He stood while she sat.

They looked at each other in silence.

A few seconds later, she tried to stand up from the bench, but her whole body was stiff and numb, causing her to fall back down heavily.

The next second, a hand appeared in front of her.

A dark sleeve, long and clean fingers, firm and strong.

Her long eyelashes fluttered slightly, and she stared at the hand for two seconds before slowly raising her arm and grasping it.