Who moved her body?

Xu Haiyang pushed open the door to room 202 a crack, his mouth forming an "O".

Guan Jie's clothes were scattered all over the carpet at the foot of the bed. His underwear, which was hanging on the inside doorknob, was startled by the sudden disturbance and fell right in front of Xu Haiyang.

"Damn, this is getting intense!"

Xu Haiyang closed the door, went downstairs, and waited for Guan Jie in the lobby.

The papaya had already been picked and looked listless, giving Xu Haiyang a wry smile.

"Is Zhao Ren still up there?"

Xu Haiyang said sourly, "World War II, the two camps are fighting so hard that it's hard to say when they'll drop an atomic bomb to end the war."

Half an hour later, Guan Jie was buttoning his shirt as he walked down the stairs when he saw Xu Haiyang's face full of envy, jealousy, and hatred. He immediately understood what was going on.

"Sorry, boss, I didn't hear your message, um..."

Guan Jie pointed upstairs, wanting to explain, but Xu Haiyang waved his hand magnanimously.

"Alright, alright, it's not your fault. If I wasn't worried that Shanshan would complain to my cousin, I wouldn't have wanted to leave this paradise. It's really annoying to have to rush back after coming here for fun."

Guan Jie had already buttoned up his shirt, took out his car keys, and strode to the door to open it for Xu Haiyang.

After Xu Haiyang left, Mugua grabbed Guan Jie.

"You're healed? You weren't splattered with blood, were you?"

Guan Jie lightly punched Mu Gua in the chest with his fist and said, "What? Want to check?"

Papaya jumped away, saying disdainfully, "Get lost, get lost, trying to take advantage of me? I'm straight."

Upon arriving at the Situ family's villa driveway, Guan Jie turned off the car lights early and, following Xu Haiyang's instructions, parked the car in a parking space outside the villa. Then, the three of them quietly slipped into the villa through the back door.

All the curtains on the first floor were drawn tightly by Chou Haiyang's orders, making it feel like entering a dark, sealed iron barrel where you couldn't see anything.

When Mugua tried to turn on the light, Xu Haiyang slapped her across the face.

"You want to wake them up, kid? Sneaking into the house in the dark, don't cause me any trouble. Do you even know how to be a thief?"

Papaya nodded sadly, then opened Xu Haiyang's door in the dark.

After Xu Haiyang went inside, Mu Gua groped his way to his own door in the dark. By then, his eyes had adjusted to the darkness.

Guan Jie didn't go inside; he sat down on the sofa in the living room, and Mu Gua walked over and sat down next to him.

"Aren't you asleep yet, Zhao Ren?"

"Can't sleep, sit for a while." Guan Jie handed the cigarette pack to Mu Gua. "Want one?"

Only then did Papaya notice that Guan Jie had a cigarette dangling from his lips, though it wasn't lit.

Papaya waved her hand, "I need to rest after plowing the land. I should go to sleep. I don't have your body."

Papaya stood up, patted Guan Jie on the shoulder, and then quietly walked towards her room.

As Mugua's door closed, everything fell into a deathly silence again. Even the air seemed to yawn lazily. Guan Jie felt a heaviness in his chest and threw the cigarette from his lips into the ashtray.

Guan Jie looked at the staircase leading upstairs; it was empty.

The staircase on the second floor was illuminated by the lights from outside the window, making it seem as if countless sleepless people were sitting on the steps chatting.

The sudden emptiness plunged Guan Jie into endless anguish. The unfillable void in his heart tore at every nerve, crying out to him the torment he had endured over the past five years.

"In the end, it's something I can't forget, something I can never replace." Guan Jie sighed deeply.

No other woman, whether it was Zeng Meiqian from a privileged background or Ali who struggled to make a living amidst public scorn, could warm Guan Jie's heart.

Guan Jie's heart has already gone, gone with Song Xiaoxian from five years ago. What remains is just a shell full of memories, a spirit that cannot feel warmth.

If other women could elicit a reaction from Guan Jie, she only reminded him of Song Xiaoxian.

Just like tonight, when Guan Jie came out of Ali's room, he felt not relaxation but pain.

woman.

They are all substitutes for Song Xiaoxian, yet they cannot replace Song Xiaoxian.

"Xiao Xian, I miss you so much."

Guan Jie screamed inwardly, clenching his fists, unwilling to escape from the endless pain.

Suddenly, the sound of soft-soled cloth shoes rubbing against the stairs came from the third floor. Guan Jie was like a sleeping ghost awakened by a witch, and he was brought back to reality in a flash.

Is it her? Guan Jie's heart pounded.

No, not her.

Those were heavy footsteps.

It wasn't the sound of light, nimble footsteps, but rather the sound of two footsteps.

Guan Jie raised his hands behind him to grip the back of the sofa, lifted his legs, and performed a light backflip, landing behind the sofa.

The two men stopped at the landing between the second and third floors. One of them, wearing glasses, peered down before speaking to the other man.

"It's under control for now, but if we can't find the cause of the fluctuations, the result will be..."

The man's voice grew softer and softer, almost a whisper.

The two exchanged a few words, then returned to their respective rooms and closed the doors.

The house fell silent again.

Why did they come down from the third floor?

Guan Jie remembered that only Shan Shan lived on the third floor; she seemed to dislike crowds.

What were the two men doing on the third floor in the early morning?

Guan Jie's legs were no longer under his brain's control; before he could even figure things out, he had already climbed the stairs, pressed against the wall.

The second floor was completely quiet.

The third floor was equally silent; there was no sound of a woman crying after being bullied, as Guan Jie had expected.

Guan Jie didn't have to search hard, because only one room on the third floor had a sliver of light shining through the crack in the door.

The lights are on.

This is a suite, and if I'm not mistaken, it should be the most luxurious one in this house.

The curtains in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows were not closed, and a bright moon hung obliquely on the treetops, illuminating the white carpet in front of the windows in a warm and picturesque way.

On the low table beside the carpet sat an open book, half-read, with a half-finished glass of red wine beside it.

Guan Jie slipped into the room through the half-open door. A ticking sound came from the bedroom, like someone sending a telegram. The bedroom door was open, and two nurses in uniforms were busy inside.

Guan Jie rolled 360 degrees and landed on the carpet by the French windows, successfully avoiding the open bedroom door.

The red wine wasn't finished; there were faint lip prints left on the rim of the glass.

Guan Jie picked up the wine glass, smelled it, and then put it down without success.

The ticking sound in the bedroom disappeared.

The nurses seemed to be packing up their things. The clanging of metal and plastic was low and suppressed, like two unprofessional thieves stealing something, trying to avoid making a sound but always making strange noises that startled even themselves.

The trolley wrapped in soft cloth made a hissing sound as it rolled over the bedroom carpet. Guan Jie hid behind the curtains in front of the French windows.

As the trolley drove away, the nurse behind it turned off the lights and closed the door.

The moonlight was still so languid, yet it illuminated the path to Guan Jie's bedroom.

Guan Jie pushed open the bedroom door, and Shan Shan lay quietly on the bed.

The bedroom window was only covered by a white curtain. The moonlight, curious, wanted to come in but was blocked. The little light that came in made the whole bedroom feel warm and ambiguous.

Guan Jie walked to the bedside and reached out to touch the woman's forehead. But he froze, a jolt of electricity making him abruptly pull his hand back.

"Xiao Xian, is that you?"

no answer.

Guan Jie gave a wry smile.

It felt like an eternity before Guan Jie finally calmed down.

Aside from their faces, this woman's height and build are exactly the same as Song Xiaoxian's. Is there really such a coincidence in the world?

Guan Jie reached out, trembling, and brushed the hair behind Shan Shan's ear.

He was filled with anticipation, yet also with fear. He didn't know what he was afraid of; the conflicting emotions of wanting Song Xiaoxian to be alive yet not daring to believe she was still alive filled him with contradiction.

In the dim light, her small yet round earlobe was hidden in the shadows, like a rosebud about to bloom.

Guan Jie was already trembling.

His index finger and thumb traced the pads of his rounded earlobe. No pierced ears!

"Impossible." Guan Jie stepped back until he touched the back of the chair before stopping.

His face was even whiter than the white gauze in front of the window, as if someone had suddenly drawn the blood from his skin and replaced it with a layer of bleached white paper.

The doorknob of the suite made a scraping sound.

Someone is coming.

It was too late to go out; the footsteps indicated that the person had already reached the center of the living room.

……