Chapter 42: The Mystery of Lin Ruoxuan's Disappearance

Xu Yunzhou's breathing completely stalled at that instant.

On the screen, that woman wearing large sunglasses that almost covered half her face, with trembling fingers, slowly took them off.

The moment the sunglasses slipped off, time seemed to freeze.

It was Lin Ruoxuan! It was really her!

Her appearance was still startlingly beautiful, it was just that between her brows was shrouded a layer of lingering, bone-deep exhaustion and the indifference of having seen all the sails pass by.

At this moment, her pair of beautiful eyes were staring fixedly and in disbelief at Song Jiaru, who was singing. Her pupils crazily contracted and trembled as if encountering a magnitude ten earthquake!

As if what she saw was not a young girl hugging a guitar, but a... ghost climbing out from the deepest, most untouchable grave of her memories!

Her ears even more accurately captured the melody and lyrics that absolutely shouldn't, absolutely couldn't echo in this world and at this place!

That was... "The Ordinary Road"!

It was the song that her "Tyrant" sang only for her to hear, using a voice carrying a trace of desolation and hoarseness, facing the flowing city river of stars beneath their feet on the highest astronomical observation deck in Jingzhou that night!

It was the unique password branded into the deepest part of her soul!

And that song "Chengzhou" just now! It was also the tune the "Tyrant" casually hummed on this street last time he took her to tour Chengzhou!

Later, she used all the resources and connections she could use, searched through all the music libraries and copyright registrations globally, and even privately asked countless top music producers and songwriters, and was incomparably certain—these were two songs that completely did not exist and had never been created in the current world!

Why?

Why could this little girl, whom she had never met, who looked no more than eighteen or nineteen, and who was as clear as a blank sheet of paper, sing them?

Not a single word or sentence was wrong!

The melody was exactly the same!

Even those subtle, unique vocal transitions were exactly the same!

Lin Ruoxuan's expression rapidly turned from extreme shock to a massive bewilderment.

In the next second, this business Queen who once stood at the peak of the world and could talk and laugh freely facing global media, actually wailed loudly like a child on the bustling and lively Jinli Ancient Street where people came and went!

Tears burst the banks and poured down, her thin shoulders trembling violently.

"Ruoxuan! Ruoxuan! Look at me, breathe! Quickly breathe!"

A capable-looking female beside her, who seemed like an assistant, turned pale from fright.

She hurriedly and forcefully supported her limp body, frantically taking out a small white medicine bottle, her voice carrying a crying tone and extreme panic,

"Don't think about it! I beg you don't think about it! The doctor said you can't get emotionally agitated! Quick, take the medicine! I beg you!"

In front of the screen, Xu Yunzhou was also completely stunned!

His heart shook massively!

Searching high and low only to find it effortlessly!

The Lin Ruoxuan he searched for bitterly, and even thought of using Song Jiaru to explore the whereabouts of, actually violently crashed into his field of vision in such a dramatic to the point of cruel way!

It was just that she couldn't see him.

And her sudden, completely broken-down state at this moment was like a blunt knife, fiercely cutting his heart.

"Jiaru! Stop singing!"

Xu Yunzhou immediately ordered, his voice carrying an eagerness and a trace of trembling that even he hadn't noticed,

"Quick! Do you see that woman crying very hard? The one wearing the trench coat! She is Lin Ruoxuan! Quickly go stop her and ask her what's wrong! Quick!"

Startled by the almost out-of-control low roar of "Big Brother" in her mind, Song Jiaru's singing abruptly stopped.

Although she didn't know why, her absolute obedience to "Big Brother" made her unhesitatingly put down the guitar, push through the crowd, and rush over.

"Miss Lin! What's wrong? Do you need help?"

Song Jiaru squeezed to the front. Looking at the other party curled up in pain, her own voice also trembled from nervousness.

However, Lin Ruoxuan had already been completely dragged into the center of the storm of her own world collapsing.

She forcefully grabbed her hair, her nails almost digging into her scalp, her body trembling violently, muttering incoherently:

"It's not a hallucination... these songs... only he knows... only he..."

"He existed... not my imagination... not my second personality... not..."

"I can't find him... can't find him anywhere... I turned the world upside down... wu..."

While desperately supporting her, the female assistant cast a look mixing apology, vigilance, and desperate pleading at Song Jiaru:

"Sorry little girl! Thank you! But my friend's old illness flared up, she can't be stimulated! We must leave immediately! Make way! Please everyone stop filming! I beg you!"

After saying that, using almost all her strength, she half-hugged and half-dragged the completely emotionally broken Lin Ruoxuan and stuffed her into a black sedan that had quietly pulled up by the roadside.

Song Jiaru chased for a few steps, but was blocked by the crowd and flashing phone lenses. She could only watch helplessly as that car slid into the traffic stream like a phantom and disappeared into the night.

Violent stormy waves surged in Xu Yunzhou's heart.

Lin Ruoxuan's broken words, carrying blood and tears, were like ice picks piercing through his cognition.

"Not what I imagined..."

"Not my second personality..."

He understood everything!

That lie of a "second personality" he fabricated back then, thinking it was for her to "let go," not only didn't free her, but under the premise that she firmly believed he truly existed, it became the giant hand that pushed her into an even darker abyss!

She might have been diagnosed with severe paranoia because of this... She had been struggling alone in the crack between reality and illusion all along!

No wonder she retreated bravely from the rapids and vanished without a trace... She wasn't enjoying success, but fighting against the "denial" of the whole world and the disillusionment in her heart!

And her appearing in Chengzhou today, appearing in Jinli... this was absolutely no coincidence.

Xu Yunzhou's heart abruptly clenched—she was re-walking the roads they "together" walked back then, desperately searching for any clues that might have been missed proving "he" existed, wanting to see in exactly which corner she had lost "him"...

...

At 10:00 PM, the lights in Jinli gradually went out. Song Jiaru squatted on the ground, mechanically packing up the banknotes in the guitar case.

One thousand three hundred and seventy-two yuan and fifty cents.

Far exceeding the level of an ordinary street performer, but this unexpected harvest couldn't make her feel the slightest bit happy at this moment.

Carrying the guitar on her back, walking on the way home, she hesitated for a moment, but still asked softly to the empty air:

"Big Brother, just now... was that really the legendary Lin Ruoxuan?"

Xu Yunzhou's illusory figure walked silently beside her. Hearing this, he gently nodded.

Song Jiaru pursed her lips and continued to press cautiously, carrying a young girl's unique keenness of peeling silk and pulling cocoons:

(TL: "Peeling silk and pulling cocoons" is an idiom for making a painstaking investigation.)

"The 'second personality' she mentioned... refers to you, right? And those songs, she said only 'he' had sung them... that 'he' is also you, right?"

Xu Yunzhou's figure swayed slightly in the moonlight, nodding heavily again.

Song Jiaru nodded thoughtfully, carrying a realization unsuited to her age and a trace of heartache:

"Then I seem to understand a bit... no wonder she could achieve such great success at such a young age. It turns out... it's because Big Brother, you were helping her from behind."

Her voice gradually lowered, taking on a trace of unconcealable fear and choking.

Suddenly raising her head, teardrops rolled down without warning, glimmering in the moonlight,

"Big Brother! Will... will there be a day, when I've completed all your quests and become good enough, that you will also, just like leaving her... completely leave me?"