Unexpected Second Chance at Love

A weight settled in Yue Ling’s chest whenever her thoughts drifted to her brother. She will get him back, but she can only pray that he stays strong until then.

*Ding

Just as the thought came to her, the phone on the coffee table chimes with a notification. Everyone stops what they are doing and looks at it.

Lu Tian was the first to move. He was getting food for Inu when he heard the notification and walked over to pick up the phone.

He knows that Ji Jingxu’s kidnapping was taking a toll on his wife, as it was on the others.

Unlocking the screen, he reads the message and his eyes dimmed dangerously.

”Is it him?”

Yue Ling asked as she approached him. She reached over to take the phone, but arched a brow when Lu Tian moved it away from her hand.

He looks at her with hesitation in his eyes before handing it to her.

She takes the phone and looks down at it.

”Tomorrow @8pm. Quaint Alley.”

She read the message aloud with a frown. Her words getting everyone’s attention even more.

”Quaint Alley?”

Grandfather Ji spoke puzzledly as Inu walked over to sit by his feet. He pats the little guy before looking back at his granddaughter.

”Isn’t that on the east side of Imperial?”

Sitting next to him, Liu Shan leans back on the couch and folds his arms over his chest.

”Isn’t that place abandoned?”

Yue Ling nods to her assistant and places the phone on the coffee table.

Liu Shan was right about the place being abandoned. It has been for a few years, and no one ever goes there. If anyone does, it’s most likely people up to no good.

”What did you find on Ji Chu Hua?”

The assistant smirks at her question and turns his laptop to her.

”I actually found a lot.”

He taps on a key, and the screen opens.

”And I mean a lot.”

Yue Ling takes a seat in a chair set up near the coffee table. She presses the play button on one of the videos as her team joins her to watch it.

The footage was of her meeting with Ji Chu Hua. The angle was captured from a surveillance camera right outside the restaurant.

She watched as they interacted, knowing what was said despite not hearing any voices. Then she walks away from the table after giving the woman a warning.

From there, the footage captures Ji Chu Hua alone at the table before she takes her phone out to make a call. It was a quick call, but her expression revealed her ill intentions.

”Man, she never learns.”

Tang Zhonghui’s face scrunched in disgust as he watched the video. He never understood why some people think they are entitled to everything when all they do is nothing.

Ignoring her technical designer, Yue Ling clicks on another video. From there, the timestamp was the day before Ji Chu Hua asked to meet up.

She watched as Liu Shan combined all the footage of the woman from that day into one video.

It showed her driving up to a hotel in a rural area. She didn’t stop at the front desk but went straight to the elevator as if she had been there plenty of times and knew where to go.

The camera angles change as she stops in front of a room. She takes out a keycard and uses it to open the door.

The footage cuts off before switching to a surveillance camera outside the hotel. Although the footage is obscure, everyone can see Ji Chu Hua from the window before a man approaches her.

”Wait...”

Ju Suo sits up when she sees the man. She leaned closer to the screen to get a clearer view despite knowing it wasn’t possible.

Yue Ling’s eyes darkened as she stared at the man. No matter how blurry the footage was, she knew exactly who the man was.

And knowing what everyone is thinking, Liu Shan reaches over and presses a key.

The footage zooms in on the man before the image focuses and becomes clearer.

He sits back and looks at the others. His expression is composed and focused. The muscles in his jaw might be subtly clenched, hinting at tension before he says the name on everyone’s mind.

”Hung Woo.”

Xu Long hears the name and tilts his head, looking at the image on the screen.

”Hung Woo, as in the leader of Red Militant?”

Liu Shan nods in confirmation, while Lin Hui stares at the laptop before looking at one on his lap. He then places it on the coffee table and types a few keys.

”And look at this.”

He finished typing, and the screen on his laptop shows multiple transaction reports from Ji Chu Hua’s bank account.

”Before meeting with boss, Ji Chu Hua made a large transfer of 100,000 yuan to a private account, then another earlier this morning.”

Yue Ling looks over at the other laptop. Her eyes scanned Ji Chu Hua’s transaction and quickly connected the dots.

”Ji Chu Hua and Hung Woo.”

Her thoughts ponder at her cousin crossing the line. She still hasn’t confronted the woman for daring to take her engagement dress. Now that she (Ji Chu Hua) paid someone to kidnap her brother, it’s another thing added to her list of making the woman know her place.

Gui Tian Lan pursed his lips as he thought about something.

”Hung Woo is a cunning man. Quaint Alley is only a decoy location. There’s no way he would ask to meet where he’s keeping Ji Jingxu hostage, nor would he meet at Red Militant.”

Lu Tian remained expressionless at the side. From where he stood, he could see the footage and took in everyone’s words.

”Go back to the video call. There has to be a clue there.”

Yue Ling turned to look at him when she heard his deep voice. She thought about his words, then diverted her gaze to her assistant and the others.

”Tian is right. If we can find any clue in the video call, we can find where my brother is being held.”

Her bluish-green eyes dimmed a darker shade.

”Ji Chu Hua won’t go there. It’s too risky for her. As for Hung Woo, he may be able to get away with many things, but that doesn’t mean there’s no crack in his steps. Find it.”

Lin Hui smiles evilly and starts getting to work. Now that he knows Hung Woo is the one Ji Chu Hua hired, he cannot wait to settle a score.

After all, when he followed Liu Peng to Red Militant, he had already warned Hung Woo of the consequences of crossing paths with Fate.

As everyone got to work, Grandfather Ji received a call from Doctor Dong that Zhong Yang had woken up. He wanted to stay and continue working with the others, but Yue Ling told him to see the man.

Maybe Zhong Yang saw something before the crash that could help them.

Soon, minutes turned to hours, and the sky outside darkened. Everyone worked nonstop to find anything that would give away Hung Woo’s location.

Liu Shan replayed the video call over and over, his attention focused, afraid he might miss something. Sitting next to him were Lin Hui and Xu Long. They were just as focused as he was on the screen.

The recording comes to a point when the masked man steps aside so Ji Jingxu can come into view. Each person stared attentively, their eyes finding any clue in the background.

”Stop.”

Lin Hui suddenly raised his voice, and Liu Shan quickly stopped the video. Both assistants turn to look at the man.

”What is it? What did you see?”

Xu Long asks impatiently before Lin Hui rewinds the recording. He plays back the video and points to Ji Jingxu.

”Look at his eyes.”

The recording played again, and the three men watched intently. Ji Jingxu appeared unconscious from a distance, but a closer look revealed the subtle flicker of his eyes.

Liu Shan rewinds the recording and presses play, but this time, he zooms in on Ji Jingxu’s face.

He had taken a beating and could barely keep his eyes open, yet they caught him glancing toward the camera before flicking his gaze downward. His eyes shifted several times, as if he were desperately trying to send them a message.

Lin Hui squints, trying to read what the boy is trying to say.

”Under... the camera? Under... Hung Woo?”

Liu Shan rolled his eyes at the man’s outrageous assumptions.

”Idiot, he’s trying to say under his feet. Why else would he look down?”

All three men focus on the area around Ji Jingxu’s feet. However, there was nothing.

Xu Long furrows his brows in confusion, and his tongue pokes inside his cheek as he thinks.

”No... I don’t think he meant his feet.”

He stares at Ji Jingxu’s face for a long second before he mutters.

”Under... down... below... Maybe he’s saying underwear?”

Just as the last word left his mouth, all three men felt a sharp smack to the back of their heads. They turned, ready to see who dared, and found Qi Li standing there.

He had been behind them the entire time, silently watching. At first, when they tried to decipher Ji Jingxu’s signals, he thought they had it.

But the more each one spoke, the heavier his eyelids grew at their sheer idiocy.

Meeting the drilling glares aimed his way, Qi Li let out a long sigh and shook his head.

”He’s telling us that he’s in the underworld.”

Lin Hui: ”...”

Liu Shan: ”...”

Xu Long: ”...”

Qi Li looks away at the men now dumbfounded by his words, and his attention goes back to the screen.

”Somewhere in Retro.”