Chapter 43: Within Arm's Reach

Late at night, DS Racing Club.

"You asked me to look into Lin Yiwei. I found some things, not sure if they will be of any use to you."

Li Du pulled a log-colored file bag from the cabinet and handed it to Xie Bo's side.

Xie Bo untied the file bag and saw an adoption report, which contained Lin Yiwei's information.

Pressed beneath the adoption report were a few photographs of paintings, along with a group photo of a young boy and girl.

The girl was shyly hiding behind the boy, gazing timidly at the camera.

The Guanyin mole between the girl's eyebrows was very distinct.

Xie Bo flipped through these contents expressionlessly. "Cut to the important parts."

"She grew up in an orphanage and was later adopted. You should know all this already."

Li Du spread out the few photographs of the paintings from the materials horizontally in front of Xie Bo. "The owner of these paintings is named Lin Xie, the boy in the photo. He and Lin Yiwei met at the welfare institute, and their relationship was said to be very good, addressing each other as brother and sister. Even after being adopted, they kept in frequent contact. Later on, Lin Xie moved away and never appeared again. According to the neighborhood residents, she has been searching for him all this time."

Looking at the paintings in the photos, Xie Bo only felt the style was extremely familiar.

"Lin Xie used to set up a stall to sell paintings on Wenchuang Road. I went to a great deal of effort to buy these paintings back from the buyer's home. For some reason, his works are basically unfindable on the internet."

"The paintings can't be found, and the person can't be found either?"

"Not a shred of news. They say he went out to work odd jobs, but no one knows where specifically he went."

Xie Bo lifted those paintings and picked up the group photo pressed at the bottom of the materials.

The children in the photo were barely in their early teens. The girl was holding the boy's hand, hiding behind him, staring timidly at the camera. The boy had delicate and scholarly features, looking a bit dorky wearing wire-rimmed glasses, yet his facial features were upright and handsome.

Xie Bo flicked the photo aside and continued to scrutinize the paintings.

The more he looked, the more... something felt off.

Although he knew nothing about painting and had never paid attention to Chi Xiyu's artwork, connecting Lin Yiwei's desperate and obsequious attempts to get close to Chi Xiyu with the paintings of her "missing" friend, the styles bore more than a passing resemblance to Chi Xiyu's award-winning works.

Things... were getting subtle.

"Bo-ye..."

Seeing Xie Bo's expression sink, Li Du asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

Xie Bo discarded the paintings in his hand, closed his eyes, and massaged his temples with slender fingers—

"It's getting troublesome."

.........

Chi Xiyu wanted to host a unique masquerade party. In the group chat, the girls of her inner circle offered all sorts of ideas, but Chi Xiyu found none of them interesting and rejected them one by one.

Seeing that Lin Yiwei hadn't spoken, Chi Xiyu prompted her.

Sisi: "@Breeze, do you have any ideas?"

Breeze: "Sorry Xixi, I was busy at the store just now. I recently saw a park community activity on an app that's quite popular, called Cat and Mouse."

Lin Yiwei sent a voice message, briefly introducing the game rules to Chi Xiyu: "If we want to balance fun and entertainment, perhaps we can combine the masquerade ball with a game of hide-and-seek."

"Everyone will be in costume and disguised, so no one will recognize anyone else. It feels like it would be very exciting and interesting."

"Maybe you'll bump right into a handsome guy's arms, hahaha, I'm looking forward to it."

"What if it's an ugly guy?"

"No way, Xixi wouldn't invite ugly freaks to her house, right?"

The girls discussed eagerly. Chi Xiyu felt this idea was totally fine and decided to adopt it: playing hide-and-seek inside the villa.

Lin Yiwei stood on a bustling, traffic-heavy street, holding her phone. The surrounding clamor of honking horns and pedestrians talking faded away, and her head buzzed with a dull roar...

Visiting the Chi family once more, she was determined to find Lin Xie!

.........

Winter had arrived without any snow. Instead, there was a persistent drizzle of silver threads. Even after nightfall, the sky refused to darken completely, maintaining a pale, dark cyan hue.

The Chi family's Chinese-style courtyard villa was exceptionally lively, bustling with all sorts of dazzling cosplay outfits.

There were cute Japanese anime characters, Disney princesses, and even girls who chose daring, sexy outfits, alongside humorous ones like dressing up as a pumpkin or a tree...

Lin Yiwei was quite an easy one to recognize: a standard Little Red Riding Hood, accompanied closely by a fierce, strongly built Big Bad Wolf who never left her side.

The height and build difference between the two, coupled with the Big Bad Wolf guarding Little Red Riding Hood every step of the way... maximized the couple vibe.

Chi Xiyu, dressed up in an ultra-cute anthropomorphic pink LinaBell outfit, came over to Lin Yiwei and asked with a smile, "Can you guess who Xie Bo is?"

Lin Yiwei scanned her surroundings, looking at the different characters and disguises.

Many people were wearing hoods and masks, making it impossible to tell who was who, but she was certain Xie Bo wasn't among them.

He possessed a unique kind of charm; the moment he entered a room, he altered the atmosphere within it. If he were here, she would definitely sense it.

"I can't tell. Which one is he? Xixi, tell me."

"I don't know either, that's what makes it fun. I hope he picks a cat later and comes to find me. He definitely will, how thrilling!"

"You really know how to play." Lin Yiwei accompanied her with a giggle behind her hand.

Finally, the sky grew dim.

Chi Xiyu impatiently announced the rules of the hide-and-seek game, which received unanimous approval from her friends, and everyone eagerly joined in.

The friends who chose to be mice put on green wristbands and hid in various corners of the courtyard villa.

Lin Yiwei also chose the mouse wristband because the cats needed to stay in place for twenty minutes and could only set out after the mice had hidden.

And this window of time was Lin Yiwei's best opportunity to investigate the basement.

She carefully edged toward the stairs, wary of the "mice" darting around everywhere.

Just as she was about to go downstairs, Lin Yiwei saw a man wearing a Phantom of the Opera mask and a black tailcoat suit, standing elegantly and eerily in the room.

The corners of his lips, left unmasked by the disguise, bloomed with a wicked smile.

She looked at him, and he looked at her.

Suddenly, the "Phantom" gave her a distant Western greeting gesture and gracefully departed.

She wandered around the corridor for a bit, making sure there was no one else nearby, before moving like a shadow and darting down the spiral staircase.

The familiar coded door lock was right before her eyes.

Behind that door was Chi Xiyu's "secret" art studio. Chi Xicheng had brought Lin Yiwei in there last time.

She hadn't found Lin Xie, but she had seen paintings belonging to Lin Xie.

Moreover, she had memorized the code Chi Xicheng used to open the door.

Following the code she had memorized earlier, Lin Yiwei tried entering the sequence. Beep, beep—the door lock emitted an incorrect password sound, leaving two chances remaining. If she entered it wrong again, the alarm would sound.

A thin layer of sweat broke out across Lin Yiwei's forehead. She closed her eyes in deep thought, recalling Chi Xicheng's key-pressing movements from back then, and adjusted her password input.

With a "click," accompanied by the roaring sound of Lin Yiwei's heartbeat, the door opened.

With trembling hands, she pushed the door open and stepped into the art studio.

Easels were scattered haphazardly around the room, holding many unfinished paintings—some hastily sketched with a few strokes, others semi-finished.

But these... were not Lin Xie's brushstrokes. She could recognize them; these were just random doodles Chi Xiyu practiced with.

This truly was her art studio.

The room was the size of an entire classroom, complete with easels and cabinets filled with paint tools and palettes, looking like a closed space.

No, that couldn't be right.

Last time, Lin Yiwei had watched with her own eyes as a servant carried meals inside, and when they came out, the tray was empty.

There had to be another room, or a hidden door.

"Are you there?" She couldn't even help calling out, pounding on the solid surrounding walls. "Lin Xie, are you in here!"

Suddenly, Lin Yiwei struck a hollow wall that produced an echo.

At that exact moment, the tapping sound of entering a password echoed out.

Someone was about to come in!

In a rush, Lin Yiwei hid behind the white canvas of a large painting board.

The canvas was the size of a home theater screen, plenty large enough to conceal a person.

Once hidden, Lin Yiwei covered her mouth with her hand and held her breath.

"I agreed to let you host a party at home, not for you to invite a bunch of monsters and demons to run wild everywhere! There are even people going into my study! Are you trying to drive me to death or what?"

Lin Yiwei recognized this voice—Chi Youhuai.

He had once come to the hospital to visit Lin Yiwei.

He spoke with a very particular cadence; even when he was angry, his manner felt unhurried and slow.

That was why Chi Youhuai was also known as the "Smiling Tiger."

"What monsters and demons? It's a masquerade ball, everyone does this." The person speaking was Chi Xiyu.

"I had you host a party and invite Xie Bo over so that everyone could see it, to dispel some of our families' recent conflicts and misunderstandings. Look at you, throwing some masquerade ball—where is Xie Bo anyway?"

"I'm looking for him too, haven't recognized him yet."

Chi Xiyu seemed extremely impatient with her father's nagging. "Dad, nobody's going to come into the art studio. There's a password! Who would hide in here? You're still worried enough to come check yourself."

"Nobody." Chi Youhuai grew irritated just thinking about it. "How did your brother manage to bring someone in here last time?"

"Then you'll have to go ask your precious son, who told him to be such a pervert and bully my friend."

"Enough." Chi Youhuai swept his gaze across the room, confirming no one was there, before speaking. "Tell your friends to immediately stop running around the house."

"Dad, stop killing the mood."

"You're still talking back. I'm telling you, this concerns your own reputation. You don't want to ruin your good name, do you?"

"I won't! With all these password doors and layers of security, it's impossible for anyone to get in!"

Before heading out, Chi Youhuai still felt uneasy. He walked over to the cabinet and slightly shifted a sculptural bust resting on top of it.

With a rumble, a painting directly facing the coded door slowly slid aside.

Peering through a gap in the canvas, Lin Yiwei saw that another door had appeared behind the painting!

He entered the password, the door opened, and Chi Youhuai said, "Haven't you finished painting yet."

Silence—deathly silence, matching the frantic pounding of Lin Yiwei's heart at that moment.

"You'd better speed up your progress and not delay Xixi's Christmas exhibition. The feeling of an empty stomach isn't pleasant, is it? You can only eat once you finish painting."

Lin Yiwei covered her mouth, feeling as though a massive earthquake had struck her internal organs.

She couldn't help wanting to rush over, wanting to catch a glimpse of what was inside that door, wanting to shout his name!

She restrained herself...

Stay calm! Lin Yiwei, stay calm!

Chi Youhuai closed the door and turned back to say to Chi Xiyu, "I'll give you half an hour longer to end this ridiculous party."

"Dad... ending it this early makes me look so bad!" Chi Xiyu tugged at Chi Youhuai's sleeve, acting spoiled. "Nobody's going to come here anyway, isn't he still safe and sound?"

Chi Youhuai snorted coldly and walked out of the art studio.

Lin Yiwei's eyes grew moist, and tears streamed down her cheeks. She pressed her hand tightly over her mouth, unable to stop her body from trembling...

Chi Xiyu prepared to leave the underground art studio. As she headed out, she noticed the white backdrop shielding the paintings nearby seemed to be trembling... She frowned in puzzlement and walked toward the canvas.

Hearing the footsteps drawing closer, Lin Yiwei tensed every muscle in her body as blood rushed to her head.

She saw Chi Xiyu's hand grab the canvas, about to pull it back. Lin Yiwei's hand instinctively groped for a toppled sketching model vase nearby...

At the critical moment, someone caught Chi Xiyu's hand.

With a familiar voice and a gentle tone—

"Found you, my princess."

Chi Xiyu turned around in surprise and saw the man wearing the Phantom of the Opera mask pick up the back of her hand, press it lightly to his lips, and hook the corner of his smile.

Recognizing him as Xie Bo, she said pleasantly, "Goodness, you're dressed like this!"

"You recognized me."

He had just called her "my princess" and kissed her hand!

Chi Xiyu's brain instantly underwent a chemical reaction, filling with countless rainbow bubbles, feeling so dizzy she could barely stand steady.

"Your Phantom costume is so handsome!"

"Wasn't I handsome before?" His tone rose at the end, flirtatious and teasing.

"You're exceptionally elegant today." Chi Xiyu's face flushed completely red. "You look good either way!"

"I looked for you for a long time, saw you and Uncle Chi come downstairs."

"Ah, then did you hear what we were saying?"

"Of course not, I was outside waiting the whole time until Uncle Chi left before coming in to find you."

As he spoke, he took Chi Xiyu's hand, slowly slid off the fluorescent green wristband from her wrist, put it onto his own slender, fair, and clearly-veined wrist, and shook it slightly. "I've caught you."

Chi Xiyu looked at him with doting helplessness. "I didn't expect you to like playing games like this either. Hmph, childish."

"A man pursuing a woman is usually viewed as hooliganism, but in a game like this, the primitive urge to chase embedded deep in a man's bones isn't considered inappropriate."

"Hearing you say that, I don't even dare look at this game straight! It's not dirty at all!" Chi Xiyu said coquettishly.

"I'd say that particular girlfriend of yours who suggested playing this game doesn't have anything good in her head either," he remarked with a double entendre.

"Don't talk about Weiwei like that."

Chi Xiyu linked arms with Xie Bo and walked out of the art studio together.

With a "click," the door closed, and Lin Yiwei grabbed the wall with weak legs to steady herself.

.........

The hide-and-seek game entered its final stage, with almost all the mice turning into cats, searching for the last surviving fish that slipped through the net across various rooms and courtyards.

Lin Yiwei hid behind a rockery, the silver-threaded drizzle dampening her hair.

The cold wind felt as though it pierced right through her chest cavity, carrying a piercing, bone-deep pain that threatened to shatter her mind and body.

Separated by only a single door, she was almost one hundred percent certain that Lin Xie was in there.

However, she didn't know the password and couldn't open that door, leaving her with no choice but to escape.

Lin Yiwei took a deep breath, soothing her panicked and anxious emotions, and tremblingly pressed three digits on her screen—

110.

"I want to report a crime, someone is illegally im... imprisoning someone else. It's... it's my brother... I've recorded audio evidence..."

She stammered and stuttered, barely able to string together a complete sentence.

The next instant, her phone was snatched away and the call was hung up.

Lin Yiwei jerked her head around to see the "Phantom" standing behind her at some point, staring at her expressionlessly.

Deleting the audio, shutting down the phone, popping out the battery...

Every action was completed within five seconds, smooth and agile, flowing in a single breath without giving her any time to react.

"Reporting to the police is useless. Chi Youhuai has already transferred him away; not a shred of evidence will be left behind."

As he spoke, a black sedan drove out of the Chi family garage, tearing wildly toward the mirror-like end of the street until it vanished into the vast, murky night.

Lin Yiwei widened her eyes, staring in disbelief at the direction the sedan had disappeared.

The dark night pressed down like a massive boulder, making her want to scream out loud.

Xie Bo covered her mouth and pulled her behind the rockery, wrapping his arms tightly around her from behind like vines.

The freezing heavy rain poured down, and the only warmth came from the hot breath the man exhaled right against her ear—

"Lin Yiwei, go back and get ready. I'll send you abroad."