The White Moonlight I Chased, the Divorce I Never Expected (GL) - Chapter 12

The early summer cicadas chirped in a dense, delicate chorus.
In the southern regions, the weather often changed abruptly at this time of year.
Under poor weather conditions, all outdoor activities were strictly forbidden.
Fortunately, today was a clear and sunny day.

After a simple breakfast, Chi Yi and Tan Jin suited up, methodically packing tools such as compasses, geological hammers, and other field equipment into their work bags.

It was a morning like any other during the past half month.
They quietly prepared their gear before heading out into the field.

While packing, Chi Yi noticed a small, familiar-looking charm hanging from Tan Jin’s backpack.
She paused for a moment, glanced at the usually reserved Beta she jokingly called “Lord Tan,” but chose not to ask.

“Chi Yi,” a boy with a close-cropped haircut knocked on the door and peeked his head inside.
Scratching the back of his head awkwardly, he asked,
“Could you help me out later tonight? I still have a few questions I don’t fully understand and was hoping to trouble you again.”

Chi Yi glanced at him briefly without stopping the motion of adjusting her sun hat.
“Sure,” she replied.

“Still at eight o’clock?” he asked.

“Whenever it is convenient for you. I am flexible,” Chi Yi answered.

The geological survey team was composed of interns from top universities, all strong in theory but lacking field experience.
Chi Yi, having already excelled in various competitions, naturally became the problem-solver within the team.
Any issues they encountered were quickly resolved with her guidance.

The boy was a dual major in computer science and geological engineering.
Once he entered the field, he realized how tricky practical geological modeling could be.
One particular problem had stalled him for days, but Chi Yi had spotted the issue and fixed it within ten minutes.

Initially, he had thought someone as accomplished as Chi Yi would be difficult to approach.
To his surprise, she was easy-going, although her demeanor made her seem distant.

After receiving her agreement, the boy stepped further into the room and handed Chi Yi two bottles of oolong tea.
Chi Yi casually passed one to Tan Jin.

Tan Jin accepted it without surprise, placing it aside before standing up and dusting herself off, ready to leave with Chi Yi.

“Is that your notebook?” the boy asked suddenly.

Chi Yi was puzzled about why he was still lingering.
She glanced at the hardcover notebook beside her tool bag and frowned slightly.
“No. Why do you ask?” she replied.

“It is nothing,” he said hurriedly.
“I thought if it was your notes, I could borrow them for study. Since it is not, never mind. You two are busy. I will head back.”

“Alright,” Chi Yi responded simply.

“Let’s go,” she said to Tan Jin.

Chi Yi tucked the notebook into the inner pocket of her work bag.
As she picked it up, a few sheets of paper fell out and scattered on the ground.
Tan Jin bent down to help her gather them.

The papers contained sketches with delicate lines and faint colors.
Despite the light touch, the scenes depicted breathtaking landscapes, full of vivid mountains and streams.

From the slight confusion in Tan Jin’s eyes, Chi Yi realized that she herself was not very familiar with the drawings either.
The notebook was indeed a sketchbook, but the loose papers had come from Wen Ranqing’s temporary residence when Chi Yi had helped tidy up.
She had taken them casually, assuming they were torn from some magazine, and stuffed them into her own materials without much thought.

Not giving it further attention, Chi Yi gathered everything and left the temporary housing unit with Tan Jin.

Outside, Bai Qing was smoking.
When he saw Chi Yi approach, he stubbed out his cigarette and walked over.

“Did you sleep well last night?” he asked.

Chi Yi casually slipped one hand into her pocket and shifted her shoulder bag backward.
“Pretty good,” she said lightly.
“Though the hot water came and went, and whatever we ate messed up my stomach a bit.”

“You little rascal,” Bai Qing chuckled, recognizing her attempt to change the subject.
He did not press further and handed her a record sheet.

“Thank you, Uncle Bai,” Chi Yi said.

“Later, two technicians will join you for field sampling. I believe they are waiting up ahead. Be careful,” Bai Qing instructed.

Chi Yi paused for a second but nodded.
“Got it.”

Chi Yi and Tan Jin walked ahead, while Wen Junze and another male Beta followed some distance behind.

In the field, team members had to work in pairs or groups of three at minimum.
The mountain paths were muddy and treacherous, full of steep slopes.
Without considerable physical strength, it was impossible to keep up with the demands of the job.

The night before, many members of Wen Corporation’s technical team had suffered from water and soil acclimation issues.
Today, only a few were in good physical condition.
Wen Junze and another young man had been assigned to Chi Yi and Tan Jin’s group.
As for Wen Ranqing, who usually insisted on participating personally, it seemed she was working in another area further away.

They had not walked far when Chi Yi already felt sweat sticking to her back.
She glanced at Wen Junze, who was walking nearby, looking around curiously.

The boy had done basic protective measures.
Sweat beaded across his pale face, but he said nothing and quietly followed them.
When he asked the technicians questions, he was polite and sincere, showing no arrogance.

His serious demeanor, combined with facial features that resembled Wen Ranqing, plus those puzzling words from earlier, left Chi Yi with an overwhelming feeling of entanglement — as if no matter how far she ran, she could never truly escape.

She felt frustrated.
If there had been no emotional bond during four years of living together, why had he said things that easily caused misunderstandings?

Irritated, Chi Yi punched a protruding rock by the roadside.
She forced herself to concentrate, carefully marking points on the map for today’s surveying work.

As evening approached, the technicians finished sampling this area and returned to the base camp.
Chi Yi and Tan Jin also began their journey back.

Looking up, Chi Yi noticed the mountains in the distance had turned a dark bluish-gray.
The afternoon heat had brought winds that now pushed dark clouds together, merging small patches into a vast black mass overhead.

“Is it going to rain?” Tan Jin stretched out her hand, trying to feel the humidity in the air.
The intermittent, unstable signal made it impossible for her to check the weather on her phone.

Chi Yi, who had been walking with her head down, finally glanced at the sky.
At that moment, a voice crackled through the walkie-talkie.

“Chi Yi, Tan Jin, do you copy?”

It was the deputy leader’s voice.

“Urgent situation.
Weather forecast was wrong.
There will be heavy rain tonight. Return to camp immediately. Acknowledge.”

“Copy that,” Chi Yi replied.

Without exchanging words, the two quickened their pace, moving in sync.

Darkness fell quickly.
By the time they exited the deep forest and saw the narrow trail ahead, the rain had already started to fall heavily.

Although their toolbags were waterproof, Chi Yi still wrapped hers inside her jacket.
A large portion of her chest was soon soaked by the rain.

Tan Jin glanced at her.
“You will catch a cold like this,” she said.

“Yeah,” Chi Yi responded briefly.

“When we get back, drink a packet of medicine. No arguing,” Tan Jin added firmly.
She had noticed Chi Yi’s unusually low spirits today and could not help slipping into an overprotective, almost parental tone.

Almost no one knew that Chi Yi hated anything bitter.
Getting her to take medicine was usually harder than climbing a mountain.
If she agreed now, she might still try to wriggle out of it later.

Unexpectedly, Chi Yi only muttered a faint “Got it” before continuing forward.

Their work boots squelched into the muddy path with each step.
There were still about twenty minutes of walking left before reaching camp when they heard faint movements ahead.

Logically, Wen Ranqing’s assigned sampling section was farther from the camp than Chi Yi’s.
With the tasks being similar, she should have already returned by noon.

Almost the instant she heard the footsteps, a bad feeling seized Chi Yi’s heart.

“You… you are from the geological survey team, right?”
A female Beta gasped for breath, recognizing their work jackets.

Chi Yi’s breath hitched.
Without thinking, she raised her flashlight and shone it toward the woman’s face.

She remembered her.
This female Beta was part of Wen Corporation’s technical staff.

“It started raining suddenly. I… I got separated from President Wen,” the Beta stammered.
She had been running through the rain for a long time.
Exhausted, she raised a trembling hand to shield her eyes before collapsing forward.

Chi Yi grabbed her shoulders tightly, her heart pounding wildly.
“How are you alone? Where is your President Wen?”

The woman’s voice was weak.
“President Wen… she was not feeling well. I told her to stay put. I tried to follow the markers back, but the path… the path was washed away. I could not find her.”

A sharp ringing filled Chi Yi’s ears, as if thousands of cicadas were screaming at once.
She shook her head fiercely, forcing the noise away.
Handing the drenched Beta over to Tan Jin, she said quickly,
“Take her back to camp. I will be back soon.”

“Chi Yi!” Tan Jin called, now burdened with the half-conscious woman.
Reason told her she should stop Chi Yi from going alone.

Not to mention that the mountains here were steep, with constant risks of landslides and falling rocks.
Bad weather and traveling alone were already two of the biggest taboos in field survey work.

However, seeing the panic in Chi Yi’s expression and the urgency of the situation, Tan Jin could not find a single word to stop her.

Chi Yi shoved a spare walkie-talkie into her hand and repeated firmly,
“I will be back soon.”

The wilderness of the mountain region was undeveloped.
There was barely any signal deep inside, and any map pulled out would be instantly soaked by the rain.
Modern facilities were nonexistent.

Relying on her familiarity with the terrain and a geological compass she could barely read through the downpour, Chi Yi managed to find another entrance into the mountains.

The muddy slope was treacherous.
Chi Yi stepped on a loose rock and lost her balance, falling heavily onto the uneven ground.
Her hand, clutching the flashlight, slammed into the rocks, sending a sharp, stabbing pain up her arm.

The flashlight flickered twice and then went dark.

Chi Yi stood up, ignoring the mud and water that soaked her, and lowered her head to carefully examine the ground.

The footprints were chaotic.
At first, they were faint, but as the rain intensified, the tracks grew deeper before gradually blurring and disappearing altogether.

The smell of damp earth hung heavily in the air.
Suddenly, a faint floral fragrance, washed clean by the rain, was amplified.

The rims of Chi Yi’s eyes, already red from the storm, tightened even further.

Aside from the pounding rain, the only sound was the faint static from the soaked walkie-talkie in her pocket.

Chi Yi stood before a dense forest.
The endless blackness of the woods yawned open like the mouth of a giant beast, silently waiting for ignorant prey to stumble inside.

The scent of roses in the air grew stronger and stronger, a clear indication of its owner’s deteriorating condition.

Wen Ranqing’s location was not hard to pinpoint.
It was just that the female Beta from earlier had no ability to detect pheromones.

“Damn it,” Chi Yi cursed under her breath. Without hesitating, she plunged into the forest, clenching her teeth tightly.
“This is such a hassle.”

In the darkness, nameless branches clawed at her from all sides, making the already treacherous path even more difficult.
Chi Yi pushed through quickly, reaching the end of the path.

Suddenly, a gentle beam of light illuminated her feet.

“Xiao Yi.”

Chi Yi looked up and saw Wen Ranqing standing there, smiling softly at her.