Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Across from him, Bai Xue gave him a subtle glare when she heard that, but he ignored it.

Pei Yuming held the phone, at a rare loss. “What should I send? Who should I send it to?”

Pei Yucheng accidentally bumped the wound on his head and hissed in pain. A flicker of malice and mischief crossed his eyes. “Why don’t you just mass-send an emoji? As long as you don’t say anything, the people on the other end won’t know whether it’s him or not.”

It was a decent idea. Even Bai Xue nodded.

“Fine,” Su Jin decided in the end. “Yuming, you send it.”

Pei Yuming paused, an awkward look appearing on his face. “…I don’t know how to mass-send messages.”

“…”

In the end, Pei Yucheng was the one who sent it.

The group huddled together. For several seconds, the phone did not react at all.

“I’m telling you, this is just his work phone…”

Just as Su Jin raised her hand to take the phone back from Pei Yuming, the previously silent, unresponsive phone suddenly seemed to lag, then messages began exploding across the screen. But there was no sound at all.

It was on silent.

They stared at the screen in astonishment for nearly two minutes before the messages slowly stopped.

There were more than a hundred messages. Most were text, with only a few dozen voice messages.

Pei Yuming skimmed through them. Some were question marks, some were emojis, and others had teasing tones, asking why he suddenly had time to send messages.

From the words alone, it was impossible to tell much. Pei Yuming tapped through the voice messages one by one, and finally realized something was wrong.

Every single person who had sent a voice message was a woman.

Text might not reveal much, but the tone of the voice messages was unbearably suggestive. Even from a single short sentence, it was obvious these people had a very close relationship with him.

Bai Xue looked the most shocked. Su Jin was usually calm by nature, but even Pei Yuming could tell she had taken a considerable blow.

“This is a hookup phone!” Pei Yucheng’s expression was complicated. It was hard to say there was no envy mixed in.

Pei Yuming shot him a look, successfully making his younger brother shut up. Only then did he try to console her. “Su Jin, don’t be too upset. Worst case, you divorce him…”

Before he could even process how things had taken this turn, a new message popped up on the phone screen. Since it was text, he saw it immediately.

The person had sent: [Did you use the stuff I gave you?]

Pei Yuming was startled and immediately realized something.

He opened the message. Beside him, Pei Yucheng asked, “Bro, you’re not going to reply, are you?”

Pei Yuming clenched his teeth, unsure for a moment what to say.

“Ask her what she gave him,” his brother urged.

“No.” Pei Yuming refused decisively. “Then she’ll realize the person messaging her isn’t Lu Dong.”

After thinking it over, he replied: [Not yet.]

The other side responded instantly: [Then do you want to come find me?]

Pei Yuming frowned and had just been about to type when Bai Xue, across from him, saw it too. She said, “Ask her where she is.”

“You want to go find her?” Pei Yuming felt something clog in his chest and looked at her mockingly. “There are so many of them. Can you find them all?”

Bai Xue knew she was in the wrong. She gritted her teeth and fell silent.

Pei Yuming typed: [Give me some more.]

[That whole big bag wasn’t enough for you?]

[Not enough.]

[Liar.]

Pei Yuming glanced at his watch. There were less than ten minutes left. He looked up and saw everyone staring at him. Bai Xue was the first to react. “You suspect that poison or whatever was brought here by Lu Dong?”

“If it wasn’t him, was it you?”

“Of course it wasn’t me,” Bai Xue denied at once. “Didn’t you already search me just now?”

Pei Yuming hesitated over whether to ask the person on the other end directly. Seeing time slip away, he began choosing his words as he typed.

Just then, urgent pounding suddenly came from outside the door. Immediately after, someone shouted, “Open up! Police station!”

“Bro!” Pei Yucheng frantically grabbed his brother’s arm. “Lu Dong must have called the police. What do we do?”

Pei Yuming stuffed the phone into his pocket and carefully walked to the door. He looked out through the peephole. After confirming they were police officers, he did not open the door. Instead, he backed away again.

“You’re not opening it?” Pei Yucheng felt like his brother might have lost his mind today. First, he had threatened someone with a knife to search them, then he had actually injured Lu Dong, and now he even dared not open the door for the police?

“Wait a moment.” Pei Yuming walked toward Bai Xue and Su Jin.

“You two go stay in the bedroom for a bit. Three more minutes and it’ll be fine.”

None of the three understood what he meant.

Pei Yucheng looked utterly confused. “If you don’t open the door, they’re not going to leave!”

“I know!” Pei Yuming pushed Bai Xue twice. “Take Su Jin inside first.”

Bai Xue glanced at the two brothers across from her. Knowing there was no use resisting, she finally took Su Jin by the arm and went into the master bedroom.

The pounding outside grew louder and louder. It felt as if the police might break the door down at any moment.

“Then what about us…” Pei Yucheng was truly frightened now. He could not help inching toward the door.

“Almost there. Don’t worry.”

Pei Yuming did not notice his brother’s movements. Instead, he took out the phone again. He had just sent another message.

[Where are you right now? I’ll come find you and pick it up.]

There was no reply from the other side.

He opened the chat box again, wanting to send another message to hurry her along.

But in the next second, the police burst through the door and pinned him to the floor. “Down! Don’t move!”

In the chaos, Pei Yuming only had time to glance at the phone screen after it had been knocked away. There was a small line of text on it: [Seventh floor, Lijing Garden. I’ll wait for you.]