Despite being extremely cautious while retrieving the phone to avoid offending Jiang Lai, Shen Ruxue still found some of the physical contact unavoidable.
Under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t be unusual for two girls to be close, holding hands or hugging. However, the woman Shen Ruxue was touching was her sister’s girlfriend; deep down, Shen Ruxue still felt the need to maintain a certain distance from her.
Though Shen Ruxue wasn’t interested in women—her heart belonging solely to her husband from beginning to end—it wouldn’t be good if her sister misunderstood. She didn’t want such a small thing to cause tension in their relationship.
However, the more cautious Shen Ruxue’s movements were, the more time they consumed. Realizing that time was of the essence and they couldn’t afford to waste a single second, she whispered a soft apology and quickened her search.
Hiding the phone in the bra’s lining was secure; even a body search might not have turned it up. If her hands were free, she could have pulled it out in an instant. But with their hands tied behind their backs, Shen Ruxue could only apologize repeatedly while grasping at Jiang Lai’s undergarments, feeling her way through every corner.
Finally, just as Jiang Lai was reaching her limit of endurance, Shen Ruxue caught the edge of the phone. Reaching in a bit further, she finally pulled it out.
The moment the phone was out, Shen Ruxue breathed a massive sigh of relief and immediately moved away from Jiang Lai’s lap. She wasn’t into women, and she was well aware that sitting in someone’s lap was an act of extreme intimacy. Still, this was an emergency; if the other woman minded, she would apologize in person once they were out and explain everything to her sister.
Jiang Lai didn’t have nearly as many thoughts running through her head as Shen Ruxue did, but she had been struggling to keep it together. A moment longer and she would have cried out from the tickling.
Now, her eyes were slightly teary from the strain of holding it in. To her, Shen Ruxue was just a child; her only worry was that she might have made some strange noises involuntarily. If she had, she truly hoped Shen Ruxue wouldn’t overthink it.
Neither spoke their inner thoughts aloud, as the most important thing now was to contact the outside world.
Once the phone was out, Shen Ruxue gripped it tightly in her palm and held it up in front of Jiang Lai. With both their hands tied behind them, it was impossible for one person to use a phone normally. Even if one could grip it perfectly, they wouldn’t be able to see the screen. In this situation, the most efficient way was for one person to hold the phone while the other operated it with their fingers.
Both Jiang Lai and Shen Ruxue had to twist their bodies slightly to see the screen. However, the moment the phone turned on, Shen Ruxue fell into a stunned silence, unsure of how to process what she was seeing.
When Jiang Lai entered the passcode, it appeared to be her birthday—not her current birthday, but her birthday from before she was reborn. If it were just the passcode, it could have been a coincidence. But when the phone unlocked, the wallpaper was an incredibly familiar family portrait. It was the photo etched deepest into her memory: the only one of the three of them—her, her husband, and their daughter—together.
Whose phone is this?
A massive question mark appeared in Shen Ruxue’s mind. She instinctively wanted to ask the woman in front of her who the phone really belonged to, but she bit back the impulse. Now was not the time for an interrogation; they were still in danger. She would find out after they escaped.
No matter how agitated her heart was, she could distinguish between what was urgent and what wasn’t. Yet, she found the situation utterly baffling. Even though she hadn’t seen her husband in a long time, the passcode and the photo made her certain: this should have been her husband’s phone.
Why was it this woman’s “backup phone”? And why did she operate it so naturally, as if it were her own? Shen Ruxue was lost in confusion, but she could only watch silently as Jiang Lai navigated the device.
Jiang Lai, fully focused on the phone, was completely oblivious to the anomaly. Her only thought was to contact Chi Yingyu immediately. But when she opened the messaging app, she found that although many messages had been received, the app was stuck “refreshing.”
She thought her eyes were playing or she was seeing things, but when she tried to send a message to Chi Yingyu, a large red exclamation mark appeared next to it. The phone had no signal.
Jiang Lai didn’t understand why. Everything had been normal before they got in the car. Confused, she quickly read through the messages Chi Yingyu had sent her.
Despite Jiang Lai’s silence, Chi Yingyu had sent a flurry of updates. The most important news was that her daughter was safe and the police had started an investigation.
However, all messages stopped abruptly an hour ago. An hour ago, she had still been in the car. That meant the signal had only cut out once they arrived at this estate.
Jiang Lai could only conclude that there was a signal jammer in place. Since she couldn’t reach the outside world, she couldn’t actively seek help or know what was happening outside. All they could do was wait.
Refusing to give up, she tried several more times, but each resulted in that same red exclamation mark. Finally, she turned off the screen.
“I’m sorry… I might have given you false hope. I can’t contact the outside world at all right now.”
Jiang Lai expected this news to crush Shen Ruxue, but the girl’s reaction was surprisingly cold. Faced with the collapse of their hope, she only shook her head gently.
Because right now, the only thing she cared about was: Who does this phone belong to?
Shen Ruxue knew she shouldn’t be focused on this given the stakes, but she desperately, urgently needed the answer.
“Can you tell me… whose phone is this?”
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