When Will My Childhood Sweetheart Marry Me?-Chapter 223: Disappearance
Given Pei Yan’s nature, he would always tell her before leaving. Today, he silently went out, almost as if he was intentionally avoiding her.
Jiang Shuyao concentrated, and Lin Yan appeared out of nowhere, looking around before letting out an "Eh": "Is Pei Yan still pondering?"
"Pondering what?"
"The code."
Realizing that she had spoken too loudly, Lin Yan suddenly covered her mouth.
After scanning around and not spotting any suspicious figures, she lowered her voice and quietly informed them, "Last night, your team leader asked for my help to get Lu Chen’s team’s source code."
?!
Such a startling thing to say, and only Lin Yan would dare to.
Jiang Shuyao looked at her skeptically, "Did you agree?"
To be precise, not only did she agree, but she also actually managed to get her hands on the thing.
Being a double agent wasn’t her style, yet upon second thought, considering Lu Chen’s team wasn’t participating in the competition anymore, and the patent was bound to have something exceptional to it, she rationalized that sharing it for everybody to study seemed like a fair idea for learning.
It had to be said, Lin Yan’s thought process was sometimes truly unlike others.
Jiang Xubai was filled with mixed feelings. He had intended to keep the fact that Pei Yan and Lin Yan had shut themselves up alone until late into the night the evening before, secret from the boss’s wife, but now that the truth was out, he didn’t have to go to great lengths to hide it anymore.
But why would Boss Pei need someone else’s source code out of the blue?
After the nucleic acid test, Jiang Shuyao followed Jiang Xubai upstairs. Upon entering, she was slightly surprised to see the room in perfect order. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
"Did you fold the bed for him?"
Young Master Pei never cleaned up after getting up—it was rare to see his dog nest look so meticulous.
Jiang Xubai shook his head, "No, after Lin Yan left last night, he didn’t sleep at all and sat in front of the computer fussing over something."
In the late hours, Jiang Xubai got up to use the restroom, and when he passed by and tried to talk to him, he didn’t respond, looking grim and somewhat frightening.
Jiang Shuyao, however, caught the essential information.
"Lin Yan went to your room?"
Uh.
Jiang Xubai’s mind momentarily halted.
After two seconds of hesitation, he decided to tell the truth, "Yes, she stayed for a long time. I didn’t dare go in, worried about seeing something I shouldn’t."
"..."
Jiang Shuyao fell silent, unsure how to react.
For the next two days, Pei Yan seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth, not answering calls, not replying to WeChat, not even returning to the hotel once.
Jiang Xubai was even more worried than she was, wondering that with the person missing for over 48 hours—enough time to file a police report—he ventured to ask her, "Should we call 110 for help?"
At times like these, Jiang Shuyao could always see a sliver of humor in Jiang Xu, which he inadvertently revealed.
That guy’s actions in recent days clearly aimed to keep the two of them out of it.
Since Lin Yan told them that Pei Yan had asked her for Lu Chen’s team’s source code, Jiang Shuyao had a vague premonition.
She wasn’t worried about other things, just afraid he wouldn’t eat on time for the sake of a quick resolution.
The night before the competition, Old Man Jiang learned of Pei Yan’s disappearance and panicked on the spot.
Both the old man and Jiang Xubai agreed they should contact the event organizers to help find him, but it was late at night and the competition was tomorrow. Reporting someone missing would inevitably affect the entire schedule.
However, just when everyone was anxiously spinning in circles, Pei Yan casually sent a WeChat message.
It roughly meant that he wouldn’t be back tonight but would attend the competition on time the next day.
Old Man Jiang took Jiang Shuyao’s phone, stared at the message on the screen for a long while, and his sharply risen blood pressure slowly started to go down.
Turning around, he instructed the two of them, "Just in case, you should also prepare and be ready to respond to the defense at any time."
Jiang Shuyao and Jiang Xubai were as familiar with the work as the team leader, so it wouldn’t be a problem for either of them to step in.
Before he left, the old man drank a few sips of tea and couldn’t help but snort with his nose, "You little brat, truly a constant worry."
Jiang Shuyao silently lowered her head, feigning ignorance and confusion.
After everyone left, Jiang Shuyao slowly exhaled and said to Jiang Xubai, "Let’s flip a coin to decide who goes up tomorrow."
"Fine."
Jiang Xubai had the habit of carrying coins with him; he fumbled in his pockets for a while, "Actually, it’s not that complicated. Since Boss Pei said he’d be there on time, there shouldn’t be any problems."
"He didn’t say that."
"What?"
Jiang Shuyao slightly turned her face away, "The WeChat message was fake."
There hadn’t been any messages sent at all.
Jiang Xubai was stunned for two seconds, looking at her incredulously, "You..."
It was another sleepless night, and Jiang Shuyao set her alarm for six o’clock the next day.
Of course, so as not to disturb Lin Yan’s rest, she set the alarm to vibrate. The volume of the vibration wouldn’t affect someone with good sleep quality.
After a quick wash, she arrived early at the competition venue.
It was still early; the doors of the administrative building had not yet been opened. The local audit firm, which was the sponsor, had many banners and posters pulled up below, with advertisements that nearly occupied half of the avenue.
Before the contest, none of the participating teams’ works had been revealed.
Considering that Lu Chen’s team was able to sell a patent, and given the nature of the sponsor’s business, it was very likely to lean toward financial information security.
Information security was an everlasting topic in the current internet era.
Countless industry professionals were striving hard just to provide millions of users with a clean and private storage environment.
Setting aside outside rumors, if Ligong University’s instructors could really lead their students to achievements in this field and gain business recognition, it would indeed be an admirable thing.
On that summer morning, the sunlight filtering through the tree shade was rarely gentle.
At eight o’clock sharp, the teams from various places started to arrive at the venue one after another.
Jiang Shuyao waited at the entrance for her school’s members to come, and followed everyone inside. She took her seat in the designated area based on her school’s zone number.
With only five minutes left before the start of the competition, she turned her head to look toward the end of the aisle, still seeing no sign of Pei Yan.
She knew that Young Master Pei always acted unpredictably, but once he made a promise, for whatever reason, he would never break his word midway.
If he couldn’t make it today, it might be that he truly encountered an issue.
As time ticked away bit by bit, Jiang Shuyao could no longer remain calm as before. Her agitation affected Jiang Xu, who was beside her, who also began to frown in concentration.
Not far away, Lu Chen and Xie Anyu from Ligong University sat side by side.
Time and again, Xie Anyu noticed that Lu Chen’s gaze would momentarily drift in a particular direction.
Following his line of sight, indeed, it was towards Jiang Shuyao’s seat.
A wave of bitterness surfaced in her heart.
In her youth, her love for Pei Yan was intense and staggering; later, for various reasons, she ended up with another man.
Ironically, whether in the past or present, the two men she wanted to take seriously only had eyes for that girl who had dazzled the entire high school era.
Jiang Shuyao.
That name tormented her for countless nights during her senior year in high school, and to think, even after leaving Rong City, even as a stranger in a foreign land, she couldn’t escape the shadow of that person’s aura.
At that moment, Xie Anyu felt as if there was a stone blocking her chest, heavy and suffocating, making it hard for her to breathe.
