You're dumping me, huh? Fine, then I'll just pick up the school beauty and make her my wif

Meanwhile, at the resort.

Forty minutes had passed since Su Qinghe left home.

Jiang Che's unease grew stronger.

It's just a dessert shop, even if there's a queue, it shouldn't take this long, right?

He opened WeChat, and the chat box with Su Qinghe still contained three messages that had been sent long ago.

There was still not a single reply.

Jiang Che made another voice call.

beep - beep - beep -

The number you dialed is currently switched off.

Shut down.

Upon hearing the cold prompt in his ear, Jiang Che was slightly stunned for a few seconds, then his brows furrowed involuntarily.

Su Qinghe never turns off her phone on her own initiative.

She knew he would worry, so she kept her phone on 24/7, no matter where she went.

This was something she had promised him herself, and she wouldn't break her word.

Then there's only one possibility—she didn't lock it herself.

Jiang Che paced anxiously in the room. When he reached the French windows, he glanced up at the view outside.

The sea outside the window was still so blue, the sunshine was still so bright, and everything looked so calm that it seemed like nothing bad was going to happen.

But the feeling that something was wrong with him grew stronger and stronger.

After his brain raced for two seconds, Jiang Che picked up his phone again and found an app he hadn't opened in a long time.

"Heart Chain".

It was when I bought a phone for Su Qinghe at a mobile phone store more than half a year ago that the salesperson recommended installing the couple's app.

When he heard that it had real-time location tracking and one-click SOS functions, he asked the store clerk to install them on both of his phones.

He didn't actually use the software much after that, because he followed Su Qinghe almost everywhere, so he didn't need it.

But he never uninstalled it.

Jiang Che clicked on "Heart Chain," and after a few seconds of loading, a pink location marker popped up on the map.

The coordinates are displayed in the resort's commercial pedestrian area.

But next to the marker is a line of small gray text: "Last updated: 8 minutes ago".

Eight minutes ago.

The signal stopped updating eight minutes ago.

In other words, Su Qinghe's phone had been switched off or disconnected from the internet for the past eight minutes.

Jiang Che's pupils suddenly contracted, and all the chaotic thoughts in his mind were cleared away at that moment, leaving only one voice repeatedly and clearly telling him—

Su Qinghe is in trouble.

Without any further hesitation, Jiang Che picked up the room key and walked out, making his first phone call as he went.

Bai Yuning quickly replied, "What's wrong?"

"Sister, Qinghe might be in trouble," Jiang Che said calmly.

It didn't sound like they were talking about something urgent.

But Bai Yuning knew him too well, and she could tell at a glance that the calmer his tone, the more serious the matter was.

"She went to a dessert shop on the commercial street by herself and hasn't come back for forty minutes. She's not replying to WeChat messages, her phone is off, and her location signal was lost eight minutes ago."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.

"I'm coming right now, where are you?"

"I'll go to the hotel front desk to check the surveillance footage first. You can come to the lobby and find me."

After hanging up with Bai Yuning, Jiang Che made a second call.

110.

"Hello, I need to call the police."

"My girlfriend was allegedly forcibly taken away from the East Bay Resort in Atlanta. The last known location was the commercial pedestrian street inside the resort, about forty minutes ago."

"Her phone is currently switched off, and she hasn't replied to WeChat messages."

Although he was very anxious at the moment, which made him speak very quickly, Jiang Che was still able to pronounce every word clearly without uttering a single unnecessary word.

The operator told him to keep the phone line open and informed him that police had been dispatched.

Jiang Che rushed to the hotel front desk.

The girl at the front desk was organizing the check-in forms when she looked up and saw him walking over. She was about to ask him what help he needed.

Jiang Che, however, spoke first with composure: "Hello, I need to retrieve all the surveillance footage from your resort's commercial pedestrian street area for the most recent hour."

"Sir, this...we need to follow the procedures—"

My girlfriend has gone missing.

"I have already called the police, and they are on their way."

Jiang Che knew that the receptionist wasn't very capable of handling this kind of situation, so he said, "Could you please contact your security supervisor? I'll just talk to him directly."

The receptionist swallowed hard and quickly picked up the walkie-talkie.

Knowing Jiang Che's distinguished status, the security supervisor rushed over after receiving the message and personally led him into the monitoring room.

The surveillance footage was retrieved within five minutes.

Several screens simultaneously displayed video footage from different angles of the commercial street area.

Jiang Che's gaze swept quickly across the screen, and when he passed one of the images, he signaled to the security supervisor to pause.

In the footage, a white van appears on the service driveway on the west side of the resort.

The image shows a figure wearing a floral cover-up, which is Su Qinghe.

She struggled briefly beside the car before being shoved inside.

From the struggle to disappearing, it took no more than ten seconds.

Jiang Che stared at the scene, completely motionless.

His fingertips were trembling slightly, but other than that, he showed no signs of losing control.

The security supervisor said something to him, but he didn't hear it or pay attention to it.

He took out his phone and took two screenshots of the surveillance footage, then zoomed in on the license plate.

The license plate was partially obscured by the green belt next to it, but the first few digits and the last letter were still recognizable.

He sent the screenshot to Bai Yuning.

Then he made a third call to Wang Kai.

"Brother Kai, are you free right now? Can you help me look something up?"

"What's wrong, Che-ge? Tell me."

"A white van with the license plate starting with '粤B·7K' and the rest obscured. The last character should be the letter 'D', indicating it's a local Atlanta license plate."

"I need you to help me check the registration information and owner details of this car."

Upon hearing this request, Wang Kai paused for a moment, then his tone immediately changed: "Has something happened to your sister-in-law?"

As Jiang Che's brother of many years, Wang Kai knew very well that Jiang Che would never be so idle as to investigate a car.

The only person Jiang Che would care about so much is Su Qinghe.

Moreover, the car was a local vehicle from Atlanta, and with a little thought, Wang Kai guessed that something had happened to Su Qinghe.

"Um."

Upon receiving Jiang Che's affirmative answer, Wang Kai couldn't help but swear, "Damn it, I'll check right away, wait for my news."

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Che stood in the monitoring room, his brain working at an unprecedented speed.

He didn't know who did it, or how many people were involved.

I don't know what their purpose is. I don't know if Su Qinghe is safe now.

But he knew he couldn't panic.

He is Su Qinghe's only hope now. If even he loses his composure, then there really is no one who can save her.

Just then, his phone rang.

It was a text message from an unknown number.