Shi Nian returned home to find an empty house; Shi Wang had sent all the maids away.
Surprisingly, only Wanwan remained.
"Why did you not leave?" Shi Nian inquired.
"I decided to continue working for you…" Wanwan hesitated, but she continued eyeing Shi Nian's expression.
"Master Shi Wang didn't compensate them or station them anywhere else."
"I see. You just didn't want to lose a good paying job. You chose well." Shi Nian's voice came from a distance.
Wanwan had her head lowered and didn't notice Shi Nian was no longer standing in front of her.
…
Shi Nian showered directly. She heard her phone ring the moment she walked out of the bathroom.
The call was from a contact saved as "Grandpa Shi," with a grumpy emoji beside it.
As soon as Shi Nian answered the call, an aged voice spoke before she could.
"Come over to the old house for dinner tomorrow."
The speaker ended the call right after.
Shi Nian didn't take the call from Grandfather Shi seriously.
Shi Weicheng was a biased man. Even when Shi Beicheng was alive, he had always favored Shi Wang and his children.
At the same time, he was stern toward the original Shi Nian ever since she was little.
Shi Nian wouldn't be surprised if he knew about Shi Wang's involvement in Shi Beicheng's accident that led to his demise.
She was sure Shi Weicheng would help him cover it up without hesitation.
…
Thinking of the man she had met earlier today, she pushed the Shi family out of her thoughts.
Shi Nian had the intention to check on the man's identity through the restaurant data.
She had heard from Cheng Youlin that the restaurant's private rooms were only open to VIP members.
Since the man had appeared in that lounge, he definitely had to go to a private room. This was a chance!
Shi Nian had tried various means to locate Si Yehan but couldn't. This was the heavens helping me, she thought.
Immediately hacking into the restaurant's data system, she quickly checked the files for their VIP members but couldn't find anything about him.
Finding this strange, she continued searching, but nothing could be found.
Not willing to give up, Shi Nian decided to search through the CCTV footage, thinking maybe he wasn't a VIP member—maybe he had appeared in the restaurant by invitation.
Even if she couldn't find Si Yehan, she could at least trace him after checking who he met today.
Only to find all traces of him appearing on the footage had been erased! She couldn't even find a glimpse of him from any angle, as if he was never there.
No matter how she tried to restore the footage, Shi Nian couldn't.
Shi Nian wondered what identity Si Yehan had that made him so hard to trace and mysterious.
Shi Nian's eyes were bloodshot; the continuous roadblocks in finding Si Yehan had her irritated.
"Why is his information so tightly guarded?" She clenched her fists in agitation.
She refused to believe that this world, with such backward technology, could stump her—yet it did!
Putting away her laptop in a fit, she walked to her bedside and picked up the medicinal book she had kept.
As she flipped through the pages, only then did her agitation calm down. Shi Nian had realized earlier on that this mysterious book had a calming effect on her.
Shi Nian had always prided herself on her self-control and coldness, yet only issues about Si Yehan could make her seem out of control—and more human.
As she held on to the book, a wave of sleepiness overwhelmed her.
…
Somewhere hidden from the capital city's bustle, a mysterious man in a wheelchair couldn't seem to sleep.
Ever since he had a glimpse of Shi Nian, he instinctively knew she was the woman from the traffic.
And each moment, her fleeting back kept reappearing vividly.
"Assistant Bo," he called out. A man walked in.
"Find out who she is." Not having the man mention who 'she' referred to, Assistant Bo seemed to fully understand.
"Yes, Ninth Master," he replied.
After giving his orders, the man sleeplessly watched the skies.
In that moonless night, a nearly inaudible whisper escaped his lips.
"Who are you?"
…
Ye Qiu, after returning home, thought she had finally found something to use against Shi Nian.
Shi Nian's fiancé, Lu Yanchen, had been her crush since her first budding of love.
Ye Qiu hated the fact she never had a chance to be with him. She remembered how, in the third year of junior high school, she naively told Shi Nian about her crush on Lu Yanchen.
After telling her, Shi Nian invited herself over to the Lu's that weekend.
Ye Qiu excitedly thought that Shi Nian had brought her over so she could meet Lu Yanchen.
She had dressed beautifully that day, only to get there and see Shi Nian's parents and Lu Yanchen's parents speaking about their engagement.
Looking at the warm atmosphere between them, Ye Qiu only felt chilled to the bones and betrayed.
She had run out, and Shi Nian hurriedly followed after her. She watched Shi Nian cry pitifully and swear she never knew about the engagement.
Ye Qiu had only felt hate. She wondered why she hadn't realized how scheming Shi Nian truly was.
She remembered how she had feigned a smile and told Shi Nian it didn't matter, and how Shi Nian had happily hugged her, promising they would be sisters forever.
"Sisters?!" Ye Qiu scoffed. She and Shi Nian could never be!
Ye Qiu extracted her mind from the past. Thinking about it for a moment, she decided to send a message to Lu Yanchen via WeChat.
"Hello, Brother Chen, are you there?"
After getting no response after ten minutes, she wrote again:
"Brother Yanchen, I met up with Shi Nian today. The other day, you mentioned you've been unable to contact her since Uncle and Aunt Shi's funeral." Ye Qiu bit her lips aggrievedly as she typed.
Lu Yanchen, most of the time, would only reply when she talked about Shi Nian.
In a brief few seconds, she got a reply:
"Where did you meet her?"