Chapter 82

Chapter 82

Nan Mu suddenly recalled a scene from that time.

When he had almost fallen off the building, Wen Miao had caught him. Later, when Wen Miao and Wen Xin had pulled him up together, he hadn’t even had time to steady himself before Nurse Lin pushed Wen Miao, almost causing both him and Wen Miao to fall off at the same time. But… Nurse Lin explained that she had been so panicked and frightened when she saw the unconscious Xiao Ai suddenly wake up that she had accidentally bumped into Wen Miao.

But what if she had lied?

What if she and Xiao Ai had been in cahoots all along?

No, no, no, that’s not right!

When he had regained consciousness after passing out from severe blood loss, he clearly saw Wen Miao lying unconscious on the ground, while Xiao Ai and Nurse Lin were locked in a struggle nearby…

If the two of them were in cahoots, they wouldn’t have needed to put on an act when everyone else was unconscious… Wouldn’t it have been easier to just push him and Wen Miao off the building while they were both unconscious?

Besides, their struggle had been so intense that they even broke the railing and almost fell off themselves… That was definitely not something that could be faked.

The look in their eyes when they glanced at each other and then simultaneously lunged at Wen Miao-that couldn’t have been faked…

They couldn’t have been in cahoots!

He had tried to take Xiao Ai down with him, but Wen Miao still died…

So that means Nurse Lin was actually one of Xu Lei’s people? And Xiao Ai was trying to save Wen Miao…

Wait, something doesn’t add up.

Nan Mu furrowed his brow. If Xiao Ai was trying to save Wen Miao, then what was her reason for trying to kill him?

He felt as if he had fallen into a massive vortex, completely unable to escape.

“President Nan, are you feeling unwell? Would you like me to help you turn over?”

Xu Yang, who was lying on the accompanying bed scrolling through his phone, heard Nan Mu’s rustling sounds and thought he was uncomfortable from lying still for too long.

Because of Nan Mu’s abdominal injury, the doctor had ordered him to remain lying flat. But no one could maintain the same position forever; even lying flat without moving was uncomfortable.

“No need…” Nan Mu made up a random excuse. “I just can’t sleep.”

There wasn’t much Xu Yang could do about that, but he felt he should say something to show his concern for his boss.

“If you can’t sleep, you could browse your phone. You might just fall asleep while looking at it.”

Nan Mu grunted in reply, but Xu Yang could tell his boss was just brushing him off. Even though he had been following his boss for six years, he still had no idea what his boss did for fun when he wasn’t working.

He secretly made a face, then continued scrolling through short videos. But this time, he had only watched two when he heard his boss suddenly pick up his phone and dial a number. Soon, music came from the other end.

Xu Yang didn’t dare to ask, but he was shocked to think that when his boss couldn’t sleep, he actually called people to chat…

But the call rang for a long time and no one picked up.

Just as Xu Yang was marveling at what kind of person would dare not answer his boss’s call, he heard his boss ask, “Is there a telecom service office that’s open at night?”

Xu Yang paused, checked his phone-it was past eleven. “Um… I think there’s a 24-hour one?”

To be honest, he hadn’t been to a telecom service office in ages; he topped up his phone credit online. Why go to a service office?

“Then take my ID card and go get a replacement SIM card for me now. I’ll send you the number for the replacement.”

Xu Yang propped himself up in shock. “Now?”

“Yes, now.”

Xu Yang: “…” Damn capitalist!

Nan Mu sent Xu Yang the phone number he had casually bought when he went back to 2022.

Just now, he recalled how Wen Miao and Wen Xin had come to see him. It hadn’t seemed like an ordinary visit; rather, they seemed certain he was in danger.

He felt that Wen Miao and Wen Xin must have discovered some clues as well, and perhaps they had even tried to contact him. But at that time, he had been locked in a struggle with Xiao Ai…
If no one had used this phone number in the past ten years, then perhaps-just perhaps-he could find the clues Wen Miao had left him in the communication records tied to this number.

===

Before Xu Yang managed to get the number restored, Nan Mu had actually been rather worried. After all, this number had gone unused for more than ten years. It could have been shut down over unpaid bills, canceled, or anything in between. Since mobile numbers required a certain monthly fee, unused numbers usually ended up in arrears. And once a number went unpaid for a set period of time, the telecom company would reclaim it and put it back up for sale.

Nan Mu had always been afraid that this number might very well have been reclaimed by the telecom company already. But Xu Yang told him that there was, unbelievably, still a balance on the account…

Someone had been paying the phone bill for him all along!

The number was charged every month. Although it was only the lowest monthly plan, accumulated over ten years, it was still no small amount. Who would keep paying the bill for this number, month after month?

But right now, he had no way of knowing the answer.

Nan Mu placed the SIM card into the phone. After a short while, the phone began vibrating nonstop as quite a number of unread text messages came in.

Nan Mu opened the messages and scrolled down through them one by one. This number had only been bought for temporary use back then, and not many friends knew about it. So aside from spam messages, the inbox contained nothing but top-up reminders from the telecom company.

Judging from the texts, whoever had been adding credit to his account had not been particularly well-off at first. The phone bill had basically been topped up fifty yuan at a time. After two or three years of that, the top-ups changed to one hundred yuan each. The most recent two times, they had been five hundred yuan each.

His monthly phone plan cost thirty-six yuan. Five hundred yuan was enough to cover it for a year.

He opened the contacts list. There was only one lonely number in it: Wen Miao’s. He tapped on the number and entered the message page, where he could look up his texts with Wen Miao.

But when he opened it, the page showed only the two words Wen Miao at the top. Beneath that, there were no unread messages at all.

Nan Mu carefully recalled the situation back then-at that time, his phone had been turned on. If Wen Miao had sent him a text before finding him, then it had most likely already been received by that phone. It was only normal that he could not receive it now.

Text messages from ten years ago… He had no idea whether the telecom company would still have communication records from that long ago.

Even so, Nan Mu still intended to try. Although in 2032 he did not have a technical expert like Wen Xin at his disposal, he did have connections.

The safest choice, of course, would have been to ask Qiu Ziyu to look into it. But for Qiu Ziyu to retrieve an individual’s communication records, he would definitely have to go through a great many procedures. So after weighing it over, Nan Mu ultimately decided to contact the head of the telecom company directly.

He had met this executive before and attended several dinner gatherings with him. Their relationship could not be considered close. But once the other party learned that he was the chairman of Nan Huan Group and merely wanted to look into his own communication records, the matter did not involve anyone else’s privacy. To him, it was only a matter of giving an instruction and doing Nan Mu a small favor. Naturally, he was happy to oblige and give Nan Mu that bit of face.

“Then which time period would you like the records for, President Nan?”

“From the early hours of October 23, 2022, to… all communication content through the end of October.”

At first, Nan Mu had only wanted to see whether Wen Miao had sent him a text on October 23. But when the words left his mouth, even though he knew full well it was impossible, a faint sliver of hope still lingered in his heart. What if, after October 24, there had been more texts?

“October 23, 2022?” The man on the other end of the phone was first startled, then burst into hearty laughter. “You picked the time well.”

As it turned out, the telecom company’s retention period for stored information was exactly ten years. If Nan Mu had asked him for it a few days later, that information would probably already have been erased.

In the unseen workings of fate, everything seemed almost like destiny.