After Faking My Death, My Iceberg Ex-Wife Went Crazy for Me - Chapter 39

Hai City, light rain.

At the airport exit, hearing the announcement of the flight’s arrival, Xiao Xu hurried to the front row of the pick-up area.

Hai City Airport wasn’t large, so she didn’t have to wait long. Soon, two figures appeared at the end of the corridor, one following the other.

The woman in front wore a mask that covered most of her face. Her long hair was casually tied into a low ponytail, with stray strands falling loose, which she carelessly brushed aside, revealing eyes as cold as distant stars.

When their gazes met briefly, Xiao Xu’s heart jolted, and she reflexively plastered on a stiff smile.

Fortunately, the woman’s icy glare wasn’t directed at her. After a brief exchange of glances, she nodded in acknowledgment, slightly easing Xiao Xu’s nervousness.

As soon as the woman cleared customs, Xiao Xu rushed forward. “President Ye, the car is ready. Do you need to retrieve any luggage?”

“No, let’s go straight to Yuexin.”

“Understood.”

With this confirmation, Xiao Xu took the lead by half a step, guiding the way. Only after they were in the car did she begin her report.

“We’ve called all the funeral homes and morgues in Hai City. Due to time constraints, we’ve only managed to visit about half of them in person so far.”

The news came suddenly. When Yuexin learned that Ye Ling was searching all the funeral homes in Hai City for an unidentified female corpse in her twenties that had been found drowned three years ago, she was genuinely thrown into a panic.

Everyone knew who Ye Ling was looking for. Her unwavering certainty suggested she might have received concrete information.

Once this realization sank in, the most anxious person was the captain of Yuexin’s rescue team.

Due to the nature of her work, she regularly interacted with local police and funeral homes. If the body had been discovered elsewhere, it wouldn’t have been her responsibility. But if it had been found in Hai City and not immediately reported, she would undoubtedly face severe consequences.

Remembering the captain’s mournful expression before leaving, Xiao Xu nervously finished his report: “None of the funeral homes, including the one you specifically mentioned, have found… a female corpse matching the description.”

After speaking, Xiao Xu furtively glanced up through the rearview mirror to gauge Ye Ling’s reaction.

Against the backdrop of the receding night scenery, she cast him a detached glance before abruptly asking an unrelated question:

“Tomorrow will be a sunny day, won’t it?”

After showing Ye Ling around the terrace restaurant and escorting her back to her room to rest, Meng Lianqiu closed the door and immediately spotted a pair of bright, observant eyes around the corner.

She walked over and asked, “Still not off work?”

“I wish I were, but…” Xiao Xu sighed, his mind weighed down by unanswered questions. He doubted he’d be able to sleep tonight.

“Don’t you think President Ye is acting a bit strange?” Xiao Xu asked.

Meng Lianqiu offered a wry smile. Of course she thought so, but what could she do? Her boss was her boss, and she was paid to do her job. She knew what she should and shouldn’t do.

“President Ye suddenly fainted today. It’s possible she hit her head and experienced some hallucinations. The CT scan showed no abnormalities, so the doctor recommended observation for now.”

Xiao Xu frowned. “What about the funeral home?”

“Keep investigating,” Meng Lianqiu replied.

Though she couldn’t shake the feeling that Ye Ling didn’t seem particularly concerned about the outcome.

Remembering something, she continued, “Arrange for regular maintenance of the terrace restaurant’s electrical circuits to prevent short circuits like today’s. Also, those exposed string lights pose a significant safety hazard. Have someone remove them.”

“Understood,” Xiao Xu nodded.

“And transplant the hydrangea bushes from the flowerbeds to another location.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Alright, if there’s nothing else, you can go get some rest. I’ll keep an eye on President Ye.”

Xiao Xu nodded and walked a few steps away, then suddenly turned back to ask, “About how long will you and President Ye be staying here?”

Meng Lianqiu paused, then replied, “Uncertain. Prepare for a long-term stay for now.”

“Understood.”

Watching Xiao Xu’s retreating figure, Meng Lianqiu sighed and glanced at the tightly closed door nearby.

She had asked Ye Ling the same question at the terrace restaurant.

At that moment, Ye Ling had just picked up a damp, withered leaf and was about to toss it away.

Then she gave a very strange answer: “The time hasn’t come yet.”

Time… What exactly was she planning?

“Stop overthinking it,” Pu Mengyu said, kicking her feet idly in the pool as she leaned over to talk to Lan Xiao. “It’s just déjà vu, at most a precognitive dream. And not even an accurate one—it’s been a whole day, and there’s no news about what you dreamed in China.”

“But why would you dream about the CEO of Mo Yuan Technology? Do you know her?”

“No,” Lan Xiao replied distractedly, switching rapidly between apps on her new phone.

“That’s a shame. I heard she’s a real beauty, but who knows if it’s true? There aren’t even any photos of her online. If she were really that gorgeous, how could she hide so well?”

Seeing Lan Xiao’s silence, Pu Mengyu muttered to herself and dove underwater, swimming to the other side of the pool.

After graduation, many of their classmates were returning to China or moving elsewhere to start their careers. Uncertain when they’d see each other again, they had rented a party house for a few days of wild celebrations.

Today’s visit was for setting up. Noticing Lan Xiao’s low spirits, Pu Mengyu had dragged her away for a quick swim to unwind.

And she just takes my kindness for granted!

Ignoring Pu Mengyu’s complaints, Lan Xiao put down her phone and rubbed the pendant around her neck again.

System? Are you still alive?

Still no response.

It had been like this since yesterday… or at least, Lan Xiao wasn’t sure if it counted as yesterday. In any case, something seemed to have gone wrong with the world while she was resting, and the System had become unresponsive.

Moreover, from her hazy memories, this was the second time she was experiencing this day.

Lan Xiao glanced at the time. Two minutes until midnight.

In her recollection, it was around this time last time that someone had called her name, and when she opened her eyes, she had been back to the previous day…

“Lan!”

The voice, identical to the one in her memory, rang out. Lan Xiao jerked her head up.

On the second floor of the villa, Wendy’s face appeared behind the window, her golden hair fluttering in the wind. “I can’t find…”

Buzz—

An electrical surge pierced her mind, and Lan Xiao froze instantly.

Motionless.

The flapping wings of birds, the strands of hair dancing in the wind, and the honking horns of passing cars—all stilled.

Even she seemed to have lost control over her own body.

World damage: 5%… 10%… 20%…

As an unknown voice, genderless and ageless, echoed through the air, Lan Xiao remained frozen, her head tilted upward in shock. She watched as the distant horizon vanished bit by bit, as if erased by a giant rubber.

No, it wasn’t just the sky—the ground was disappearing too.

Out of the corner of her eye, countless cracks spread across the earth, revealing bottomless, pitch-black abysses.

The pendant at her chest suddenly burned hot, like ice meeting fire, and Lan Xiao’s frozen limbs abruptly thawed.

But it was too late.

The cracks had already reached her feet. As she fell backward, Lan Xiao heard a series of urgent alarms.

Unidentified temporal-spatial energy detected. Attempting expulsion…

Expulsion failed. Target vanished.

Virus… purging… progress… 3%…

At the same moment, on the other side of the world, another furious scream erupted:

Aaaaaah! I already erased the corpse with the rewind! Why are you still hopping around?! What do you want?!

The world spun violently around her.

It felt like being trapped in a washing machine, tumbling and crashing from the Jurassic period to the modern era.

Dizzy beyond comprehension, Lan Xiao’s first reaction upon hitting the ground was to dry heave, though nothing came up.

Even as she retched, she mentally called out to the System.

Still no response, but this time Lan Xiao was absolutely certain System 823 was still there.

Before she fell, she thought she heard a voice say the world was damaged… Had something happened in her world to break it?

If so, could her “reliving the day” be connected to this?

Then there were the words she’d heard: “expulsion” and “virus.”

The question now was: did this world want to expel her, or the thing inside her—this System 823?

She glanced down. The pendant swayed against her chest, reflecting silver glints.

“Ugh…”

Even dizzier.

Forcing down the urge to retch, Lan Xiao closed her eyes and took slow, deep breaths.

There was one more crucial question: she’d glimpsed her surroundings earlier, and they were completely unfamiliar. Had she been caught in a temporal vortex and transported somewhere else?

Was she still in her original world?

The System continued to play dead, and Lan Xiao had a growing suspicion.

The System is probably the virus itself. That’s why it’s too scared to make a peep right now.

From here on out, she’d likely have to rely on herself.

What kind of pirate ship did I get on back then?

Muttering a curse under her breath, Lan Xiao waited for the dizziness to subside before snapping her eyes open and looking around.

The room was dilapidated, a square concrete structure with half-painted white walls. The small, high windows were old-fashioned green glass, letting in a dim, indeterminate light that made it impossible to tell the time.

Looking in the other direction, she saw a dusty pile of clutter, with only an Eight Immortals Table looking relatively clean. Two chairs were positioned near the door, and the floor was littered with cigarette butts and empty liquor bottles.

From any angle, the situation seemed… less than ideal.

Glancing at the two tightly shut doors, Lan Xiao stood up, about to approach and try opening them when a child’s voice suddenly cut through the silence behind her: “Who are you?”

Startled, Lan Xiao whirled around to see a girl who looked no older than ten, with delicate, porcelain-like features. She was trying to maintain a serious, adult-like expression, but her eyes couldn’t hide their curiosity as she stared at Lan Xiao.

Seeing Lan Xiao’s silence, the girl continued, “Were you hiding earlier?”

“……”

Lan Xiao didn’t answer immediately. Gazing at the girl’s bound hands and feet, and the strangely familiar features of her face, she couldn’t help but ask, “What’s your name?”

The girl frowned slightly. “You should answer my question first.”

“Alright, I was hiding—in the pile of junk over there,” Lan Xiao replied smoothly.

“But it’s so dirty there. Your clothes look perfectly clean,” the girl pointed out.

“……Because I like to keep things tidy.”

As she spoke, Lan Xiao stepped closer, staring intently at the girl’s face until it flushed crimson. Then, she leisurely stepped back.

No distinctive red mole on her face. I must have been mistaken.

Having reached this conclusion, Lan Xiao moved behind the girl to untie the ropes binding her wrists. “If you don’t want to tell me your name, that’s fine. It’s not like I need to know… Just stay still.”

The girl, who seemed so sensible, refused to cooperate. She curled up and said, “The kidnappers could return at any moment. If you have somewhere to hide, you should go. If you release me, they’ll find out.”

“How long can a grown woman like me hide?” Lan Xiao retorted.

Determined not to waste time, Lan Xiao clamped the girl’s legs between her own and forcibly began untying the ropes.

“Do you know where the kidnappers went? How long until they return?”

Pressed down by Lan Xiao, the girl finally stopped resisting, though whether out of humiliation or resignation, she couldn’t say. “There was another child kidnapped with me. She was crying so loudly. I overheard them saying they’d been spotted and needed to find a place to abandon her to throw the police off their trail.”

“They wouldn’t abandon her nearby… It’ll take them some time. How long have they been gone?”

“About five or six minutes, I think.”

Five or six minutes… She needed to hurry.

After untying the rope around the girl’s ankles, Lan Xiao straightened her up and patted her head.

“Call me ‘Sister,’ and I’ll get you out of here.”

“What rotten luck!”

The iron gate swung open, and the lead man kicked over a stool, sending dust and debris flying.

“The cops are like dogs, biting down so hard.”

Another man, shorter in stature, chimed in, “The tighter they bite, the more it proves we grabbed the right person. We barely shook them off. We need to get out of here—this place is no longer safe.”

“I know. That kid’s crying was a real pain. We had to drug him to shut him up. Unlike this one… Fvck, where is she?!”

Several coils of hemp rope lay abandoned on the floor. The Eight Immortals Table had been moved under the window, with a chair stacked on top and various objects piled beneath like makeshift blocks.

Above, the window was half-open, the tattered plastic film fluttering in the breeze.

“Damn it! I told you we should have left someone on guard!”

“Wasn’t it you who refused to go distract the cops alone and insisted I come with you?!”

“Then why didn’t you distract the cops and let me stay?! Am I supposed to just throw my life away?!”

“Well, you should have tied her properly! You said the more she struggled, the tighter it would get, yet even a little kid could break free!”

“I tested it on you first, you idiot! You can’t even outsmart a child!”

“Stop arguing and find her now!”

“The brat’s Jade Token is in the haystack—over here!”

“……”

“……”

As the footsteps faded into the distance, Lan Xiao counted to three hundred. In the vast, silent cement factory, the pile of debris suddenly scattered.

Amidst the swirling dust, Lan Xiao clutched the feather-light girl in her arms and sprinted in the opposite direction.

Thump-thump

Thump-thump—

Her heart pounded at an impossible rate. Only after she had escaped did Lan Xiao allow herself to feel the fear.

The kidnappers had returned sooner than expected. Hearing the engine, she had hastily ripped off the girl’s Jade Token and flung it away before dragging her into the debris pile.

It was a case of hiding in plain sight. The men never suspected anyone would be in the factory and didn’t bother with a thorough search, allowing them to slip past unnoticed.

But who knew if they might suddenly realize their mistake?

Lan Xiao didn’t have time to dwell on such thoughts. She focused on running desperately toward the distant fields, hoping to find people. Where there were cultivated fields, there would be people, and where there were people, they would be safe.

“Stop…”

“Sister, stop!”

Her eardrums throbbed. Lan Xiao slammed on the brakes, turning to look blankly at the girl she had been carrying, whom she had been complaining was too slow.

The girl tugged at her hand, signaling her to put her down. Lan Xiao complied, and then watched as the girl walked to the roadside and dragged a person out of the dry ditch.

It was an even younger girl, her face wrinkled and covered in dirt, her right palm smeared with ash and bl00d.

Lan Xiao: “?”

“It’s her,” the girl said. “She was kidnapped with me.”

Hearing this, Lan Xiao approached and checked the girl’s breathing, then glanced around and spotted a small, still-warm fire pit nearby.

Probably built by some kids playing around and left unfinished, she thought. After being abandoned, the girl must have burned her hand. She regained consciousness briefly but collapsed again from the drugs, rolling into the ditch.

Watching Lan Xiao finish her examination, the girl said, “If they can’t find me, they might come back to try their luck. This place isn’t safe anymore.”

“I understand.”

Lan Xiao crouched down to pick her up, but just as she did, several familiar car horns blared in the distance.

“The police are here!” the girl exclaimed with relief.

“Mm-hmm,” Lan Xiao nodded, a heavy weight lifting from her chest. She swayed weakly and collapsed onto the ground.

The girl startled and quickly reached out to help her up. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine…”

Lan Xiao frowned and lifted the bamboo leaf pendant from her chest.

It had become scorching hot, almost as if it were about to explode.

The moment the thought crossed her mind, the pendant began to tremble violently. In the next instant, it erupted with a fiery red light.

The world seemed to slow down. Lan Xiao clearly saw the firelight reflected in the girl’s eyes. Almost instinctively, she reached out and clutched the pendant in her palm.

But a sliver of light still shot toward the girl’s eye.

At the same moment, Lan Xiao heard a chilling, childlike voice:

I’ve found you.

The flames drew closer. The girl squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head, but a searing pain still burned just below her eye.

“Did your lighter explode?” she asked, opening her eyes. But the pink-haired figure had vanished completely.

“We’ve found them!”

Hearing the shout, the girl looked up blankly at the police car speeding toward her. She tried to speak, but before she could utter a word, her body went limp and she collapsed.

The police car screeched to a halt. Several officers scrambled out, their faces etched with panic as they lifted the two unconscious girls from the ground.

“They’re still breathing! Both of them are still breathing!”

“Thank God! How did they escape? They’re both injured!”

“Report! Both kidnappers have been apprehended!”

“Perfect job! Get the girls to the hospital immediately for a thorough checkup.”

The next morning, the dewdrops held aloft a Jade Token with a lingzhi pattern, which had fallen during the chase.

A figure skipped past, spotted it, and picked it up.

“How beautiful!”