Later, Kuang Ye realized that sending messages through WeChat was indeed a bit inconvenient. With the hectic schedule of the New Year, Mu Wan often got so busy that she didn’t check her phone, just like before. So, this clever little fox bought a pair of bracelets often ridiculed by couples. When one person tapped their bracelet, the other would feel a vibration on their wrist. This way, even without checking the phone, they could sense the other person was thinking of them.

Thus, Mu Wan’s routine shifted from her phone pinging every hour to her bracelet vibrating on her wrist. Not just once, though—Kuang Ye had apparently become the kind of CEO who casually tapped his fingers on the table, constantly tapping his bracelet. This resulted in the bracelet’s battery depleting very quickly. Every night when he got home, the first thing he did was charge both bracelets.

“Wan wan, the team has to work overtime today, so I’m heading out first,” Kuang Ye said, placing his plate in the dishwasher after dinner and addressing Mu Wan, who was lounging on the sofa.

Mu Wan’s first instinct was to hide her phone, but realizing that would be too obvious, she simply turned off the screen and nodded toward Kuang Ye at the entrance. “Alright.”

Kuang Ye’s gaze deepened.

After leaving the apartment, he sat in his car, took out his laptop from the trunk, and began hacking into the surveillance footage from the nail salon. Ever since that night when Mu Wan had her nightmare, although she acted as if nothing had changed, he had noticed subtle differences. For instance, she now avoided going out on weekends, confining herself to home and work. At night, she would double-check the locks on the doors before bed. Even when walking with him, especially in quiet areas, she seemed unusually tense. She no longer agreed to occasionally sleep with the lights off.

A psychologist from his team had told him these behaviors were signs of extreme insecurity.

Soon, he located the surveillance footage and pinpointed the time Mu Wan and Kuang Xingran had visited the nail salon. Initially, the two appeared to be chatting and laughing, but suddenly, Mu Wan’s expression changed drastically. She looked as if she had seen something terrifying in the mirror, abruptly turned around, and even stepped outside the shop to check. Afterward, the two left the salon.

Kuang Ye carefully adjusted the resolution of the surveillance footage, zooming in on the mirror in the video. However, a corner of the mirror wasn’t captured by the camera.

What exactly had Wan wan seen in the mirror that scared her so much?

—

Meanwhile, upstairs in the apartment, Mu Wan was also reviewing surveillance footage, but not from the nail salon—she was looking at footage from nearby shops and the mall. She needed to confirm whether what she had seen in the mirror that day was an illusion.

[Wan wan, I swear I didn’t voluntarily tell Kuang Ye about your situation with Kuang Shuyu. That guy tricked me. You know I have professional integrity.]

While examining the footage, a message from Tang Ce popped up on WeChat. Mu Wan was about to reply that it was fine, but then reconsidered. [I’ll trust you one more time. Don’t tell Kuang Ye about this surveillance investigation.]

[Got it!]

[I’ve transferred 10,000 as your fee.]

[No need to be so formal. Thanks for your business, Ms. Tycoon.]

Reviewing the footage from seven or eight stores near the nail salon, as well as the mall’s surveillance, was worth every penny of the 10,000 yuan she paid Tang Ce. After checking every video, Mu Wan finally confirmed that, at the time she thought she saw the kidnapper in the mirror, there wasn’t anyone suspicious in any of the footage.

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Looks like I was just seeing things.”

Even now, she didn’t fully understand why the kidnapper had targeted her in the first place. After her kidnapping, the person initially demanded three hundred million yuan in cash from her parents. Then, they insisted that her father donate one million yuan to a charity every day, making sure the transfer was done daily, for over a month. After her death, when her soul was adrift, she learned that the Mu and Wang families had gone bankrupt trying to gather the daily funds. Her parents even sold their villa and all their valuable possessions.

Yet, in the end, the kidnappers had still killed her in an extremely cruel manner.

“Those kidnappers didn’t seem like they acted on impulse, nor did it feel like a random crime. It felt more like a deliberate revenge against the Mu family.”

“Even if I avoid the time frame in two years when I was kidnapped in my previous life, will I really be able to escape this?”

“If not…”

A sudden chill ran down Mu Wan’s spine, her body stiffening with uncontrollable fear. She quickly took out a bottle of pills from her bag, poured some into her palm, and swallowed them with bottled water. Gradually, her limbs regained their warmth.

No, she couldn’t just sit and wait for doom. She had to find those kidnappers in advance. She couldn’t let herself suffer the same torment as before.

—

When Kuang Ye returned from his “overtime,” Mu Wan was practicing violin in the music room. She had already registered for this year’s Paganini Violin Competition. Many of Jian Jia’s violinists, including O Rou and Li Yue, had also signed up. Aside from wanting to win the world championship for herself, as the company’s boss, Mu Wan felt a sense of pride at stake—she absolutely didn’t want to lose. How embarrassing would that be?

Kuang Ye noticed her handbag casually placed on the sofa. Walking over, he picked it up. “You usually leave your bag in the entryway cabinet. Why is it on the sofa this time…”

Seeing the zipper open, he instinctively moved to close it. But out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a pill bottle inside. His movements froze. Glancing up at the second floor, he eventually took the bottle out.

The English words on the label stung his eyes: Sertraline Hydrochloride.

An antidepressant commonly used to treat depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

His eyes turned red. Holding the bottle tightly, the plastic began to cave under his grip.

What on earth had Wan wan gone through to carry such medication in her bag?