CHAPTER 9

“Boss, these are…”

 “Footprints,” the man in grey jacket said, interjecting his subordinate’s sentence in a low voice, his eyes following the trail of the prints on the sand.

“Could they belong to him?”

“They are not clear. It looks like a child playing in the sand and dragging leaves on the ground,” the second man stated his observation.

“True, Ye Cheng would have bigger prints than these,” the man in grey jackets concluded. “Follow the trail and see where it leads.”

“Yes, sir.”

Obeying his order, they all ran forward, following the trail left by the footprints.

*******

Throughout that day, Ye Cheng still laid unconscious on Li Jing’s bed. She was worried about his health as he had already caught a fever. Luckily, she took a side course on it in school and went for training as a red cross agent, so she knew some things about medicine when back then, whenever her father wasn’t at home and she was sick, Ding Jiaying and Li Xiu wouldn’t pay attention to her nor call a doctor or send her to the hospital.

She had to learn how to take care of herself during those days and always had some common drugs for fever and the sort in her first aid kit.

It didn’t take long for her to get a new syringe and injection. In a couple of hours his fever had gone down completely.

She felt tired, who knew that taken care of someone after all those years would be this hectic. Li Jing picked up her phone and switched it on.

Since the incident the previous day, she put her phone on silent mode when she got back with Ye Cheng, to shut the world out and just be to herself. Unfortunately, if went dead later, but she plugged it and forgot to put it back on.

She knew she would have lots of messages or missed calls from her friend, Yin Lifen who would have been worried sick about her.

True to her thoughts, immediately the phone came back on, her phone buzzed with several notifications coming in.

She let out an exasperated sigh as she saw the number of missed calls and messages.

“Forty missed calls and twenty messages. Do these people want to blow off my phone? What the heck!” she half yelled when she saw the figures, but immediately quieted down when she noticed she wasn’t alone.

Quickly, Li Jing left the bedroom to the living room as she slowly scanned through her call log. 

“Yin Lifen, Yin Lifen, Yin Lifen, Ding Jiaying, Ding Jiaying, Yin Lifen, Ding Jiaying.”

Her call logs were filled with the names of her adopted mother and her best friend. She stopped scrolling when her eyes landed on another name…

“Luo Jinhai. Why did he call? Is something wrong? Hmm, who should I call first, Luo Jinhai or Yin Lifen?” she asked herself, unsure of whom to pick as her finger hung over the two names.

‘On the other hand, why is this woman calling me? Does she want to gloat and make me feel bad? Sigh, I think I should block her and her daughter first alongside that Duan Tian.’

Coming to a conclusion, she blacklisted the numbers and then proceeded to calling Luo Jinhai first.’

Ring!

The phone rang once and he picked up almost instantly. Before she could say anything, he spoke up first. “Hello, Li Jing!”

She waited some seconds before speaking to him. “Hello, Luo Jinhai.”

“How are you? You didn’t up your call when I called yesterday. Are you okay?”

“Yes, sorry about that. I had quite a bit of a headache yesterday.”

“Oh! Have you taken any meds yet? You want me to get to some drugs from the pharmacy?” Luo Jinhai asked, the concern from his words warmed up her heart, but needless to say, she rejected his help.

Li Jing wasn’t one who liked to take help from others. She hated being a bother especially as Ding Jiaying and Li Xiu never stopped making her feel like a worthless pest in their lives.

“No need, Luo Jinhai. I am fine,” she lied to him.

Of course, nothing about being in her current situation made her fine, bit she didn’t want him to worry about her.

“If you are okay, then would you like to have dinner with me? I would come pick you off.”

Luo Jinhai had been her senior in college and helped her whenever she was in need, he also took a liking to her but Li Jing always thought of him as a senior brother and nothing more. 

Even after graduating from the university, he still kept his feelings at bay because he knew she loved Duan Tian, the jerk that broke her heart.

“I am sorry. I would have to pass up on your offer today. I just need rest, please do nit be offended, Lou Jinhai.”

Luo Jinhai smiled weakly to his phone as though she could see him, but when he recalled it wasn’t a video call, he made use of his speech instead.

“No worries, you rest well. I would see you on Monday. You cannot refuse lunch with me.”

“Sure. Lunch on Monday it is, thanks.”

“Goodnight, Li Jing,” he made her farewell and waited for her response before cutting the call.

“Good night, Luo Jinhai.”

BEEP!

She let out a sigh as her fingers moved on her screen to call the next worried person.

“Hey, Yin Lifen,” Li Jing called her friend. She decided to speak first, not giving Yin Lifen the time to react and scream queries into her eardrum.

“I am sorry for not picking my calls earlier.”

“Li Jing! Don’t you dare ever do something like that again. If anything were to happen to you, who am I to run to for help?”

“I am sorry, Yin Lifen. It would not happen again.’

“It had better not happen, or else…I would deal with the man that made you ignore my call like that,” Yin Lifen threatened through the phone.

“Ennh?”

“Don’t play dumb with me. What happen yesterday?”

**************