Rebirth: My Childhood Sweetheart Came into My Arms

Jiang Nanqiao came out of the dressing room and saw Han Zhiruo holding several dresses. She said to Han Zhiruo, "I've taken a liking to these and want to try them on. You go and look at the others first, and wait for me."

Jiang Nanqiao: "Ah, okay..."

Han Zhiruo entered the dressing room, sat on the sofa chair, and tossed her short hair in front of the mirror.

She rarely wears skirts, partly because they are inconvenient for exercise and partly because they are inconvenient for fighting, and she still maintains this habit to this day.

If you look closely, you'll see that all three dresses are in Jiang Nanqiao's style.

After a while, seeing that it was almost time, Han Zhiruo carried the three untouched dresses out of the dressing room, untouched.

"Hey, you're done trying it out?" Jiang Nanqiao was strolling around the store with his hands behind his back like a leader on an inspection tour. When he saw Han Zhiruo come out, he quickly went over to her. "Why didn't you come out and let me see?"

"I'm pretty quick at buying clothes," Han Zhiruo said, placing three dresses on the checkout counter and telling the sales assistant in English, "I'll take all three of them."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Nanqiao subconsciously swallowed.

This store isn't cheap; three dresses would cost several thousand yuan. Rich people really do flaunt their wealth when they go shopping.

The sales assistant wrapped the dress up, and upon receiving Han Zhiruo's signal, smiled and said:

"Madam, we currently have a buy-three-get-one-free promotion. You can also choose another dress of the same price."

Jiang Nanqiao has good hearing and can generally understand what the sales assistant says. Therefore, when she heard "buy three get one free," her first reaction was:

Do luxury stores also hold these kinds of large-scale sales events?

Han Zhiruo: "The dress you just tried on is in the same price range, right? It's perfect for this event."

Jiang Nanqiao paused for a moment, then scratched her head a little embarrassedly: "Isn't this a bad idea? Even if it's buy three get one free, the original price is still very expensive. Why don't you look around some more and see if there's anything you like..."

"No," Han Zhiruo said, "I don't like any of the others except for these three dresses."

"Is that so...?"

Han Zhiruo didn't give Jiang Nanqiao any more chance to hesitate and directly asked the sales assistant to wrap up the dress.

……

Holding her favorite and expensive dress, Jiang Nanqiao felt like she was dreaming.

However, despite her happiness, she still felt that something was not quite right.

For example, Han Zhiruo, who never liked wearing pants, suddenly bought skirts, and even bought three of them at once...

"Ruoruo, you didn't buy three dresses on purpose just to get me into that event, did you?"

"How could that be? I really want to wear it."

Hearing Han Zhiruo say that, Jiang Nanqiao felt much relieved and smiled again: "Then let's wear skirts together when the weather gets warmer. Matching outfits will definitely turn heads!"

Han Zhiruo smiled and did not refuse.

She didn't know, and dared not think, how long it would take to go from matching sisters' outfits to matching couple's outfits.

But as long as it's Jiang Nanqiao, the wait is worthwhile.

……

After buying the dress, the two went to queue up at the popular bubble tea shop next door.

Jiang Nanqiao stood behind Han Zhiruo, looking down at her phone. As the line moved forward a little, she would take a step. Ten minutes passed like this. She felt a little sore in her neck, so she looked up and turned her head. Her gaze happened to fall on a little blonde girl with blue eyes not far away.

The little girl looked to be only four or five years old, wearing an adorable tutu and holding a huge cone of ice cream.

The ice cream was melting a little, and cream was dripping down, but the little girl didn't care. She was frantically turning around in place, as if she was looking for someone.

Jiang Nanqiao was a little worried, so she patted Han Zhiruo on the shoulder and told her she had to leave for a while. Then she walked past the crowd and toward the little girl.

As they got closer, Jiang Nanqiao saw that the little girl's eyes were red and she was sobbing occasionally. Sticky cream dripped down her little hands, staining her pink skirt.

Jiang Nanqiao greeted her in English and asked her why she was crying.

The little girl said she couldn't find her mother and had been waiting here for a long time, but her mother hadn't come back.

"Don't worry, your mother shouldn't have gone too far. I'll take you to find her."

Jiang Nanqiao took the little girl's hand and led her to search around the neighborhood. However, despite the large number of people on the road, there was no sign of her mother.

Just as the little girl pouted and was about to cry again, a woman in a trench coat suddenly rushed over from a distance and hugged her tightly.

"Thank heavens, I found you..."

The girl froze for two seconds, then burst into tears.

After hugging for a while, the woman finally noticed Jiang Nanqiao.

When the woman learned that she had brought her daughter with her, she thanked her repeatedly and even took out her wallet to give her a reward.

Jiang Nanqiao had never seen anything like this before, so he quickly waved his hand and said no, then said goodbye to the little girl and left.

Jiang Nanqiao felt a great sense of accomplishment after leading a lost little girl to her mother, humming a song as she walked back.

As they walked, they realized they were lost too.

The surrounding environment seemed familiar yet somewhat unfamiliar. Jiang Nanqiao followed her memory forward, but the more she walked, the more something felt off.

She doesn't think she's ever seen this shoe store before.

I don't remember this cosmetics store at all!

Realizing she might have gone the wrong way, Jiang Nanqiao took out her phone, intending to use navigation to check, but before she could even open the app, it warned of low battery and shut down automatically.

Misfortunes never come singly!

Jiang Nanqiao pressed the power button several times, but the phone didn't respond; it must be completely dead.

She brought a power bank with her when she went out, but it was in Han Zhiruo's hands. If she had known she had such a bad sense of direction, she should have fully charged her phone beforehand...

Lost in self-pity, Jiang Nanqiao found a bench by the roadside and sat down, intending to wait there for a while to see if anyone would come looking for her.

She doesn't have the habit of memorizing phone numbers, so even if she borrows a stranger's phone, she doesn't know who to call. Fortunately, she remembers the hotel's name, so if she can't wait for anyone to come, she can take a taxi back to the hotel and ask them to pay the fare for her.

After arranging the plans, Jiang Nanqiao relaxed and enjoyed the New York night view.

……

After buying the milk tea, Han Zhiruo waited for a while, but Jiang Nanqiao still hadn't returned, so she called her.

Unexpectedly, the other party indicated that the phone was switched off.

When Jiang Nanqiao left, he didn't tell her where he was going. Now that he's disappeared and she can't contact him, Han Zhiruo's heart jumped.

The incident where He Ziyu was targeted by a womanizer had left her quite frightened. These days, everyone walks together when they go out, and it's impossible not to be nervous if one of them suddenly gets lost.

After searching the vicinity for a while without finding her, Han Zhiruo immediately contacted the others and told them that Jiang Nanqiao was missing.

He Ziyu was trying on shoes with Jiang Chengyu, wanting to buy a pair for couples, but when he saw the message in the group chat, he immediately changed his shoes back and dragged Jiang Chengyu away.

"What happened?"

"Ruoruo said Qiaoqiao is lost..."

"Lost?"

"Okay, let's go take a look first."

The five people met up as quickly as possible.

Han Zhiruo briefly explained the situation and then asked the others to try calling Jiang Nanqiao, but the phone was switched off.

"Don't worry, Qiaoqiao speaks very well, and there are a lot of people here, so there definitely won't be any problems," He Ziyu reassured her.

"She probably just happened to run out of battery and is waiting for us somewhere," Bei Yao chimed in.

Even with the two of them saying that, Han Zhiruo still couldn't remain calm.

"I should ask her what she's going to do..." Han Zhiruo frowned slightly, a rare hint of anxiety appearing on her usually calm and composed face.

Jiang Chengyu: "Don't think too much about it yet. Let's split up. Ayu and I will go to the left, and you guys go to the right."

"I won't be going with you guys," Han Zhiruo said. "I'm familiar with this area, so I can find it faster than you. Remember to report any issues in the group chat immediately."

After making the arrangements concisely, the group split up and went their separate ways.

As He Ziyu said, Times Square is crowded, so theoretically there shouldn't be any danger, but it is precisely because there are so many people that it is even more difficult to find.

Han Zhiruo walked quickly, almost jogging, into the various shops. Her short hair was a little messy in the evening breeze, which occasionally attracted the sidelong glances of some busybodies.

Half an hour later, there was still no activity in the group.

"Could she have already gone back?" He Ziyu glanced at the time, his heart clenching.

"If they go back, they should call us."

"Yeah, where can we go then?"

If he hadn't been targeted by a pervert on his first day in New York, he wouldn't have thought of anything strange. But now that he had learned from that experience, Jiang Nanqiao's disappearance became chilling.

Could it be that she's like me...?

"Ugh, I'm exhausted! I searched everywhere and found nothing!" Jingran ran back, panting, her face flushed. "Qiaoqiao's build couldn't possibly have escaped my search area. Could she be hiding there to scare us?"

He Ziyu: "Impossible, impossible, only you would do something like this..."

Jingran: "So what do we do now? Keep looking?"

Jiang Chengyu thought for a moment and said, "Call Ruoruo back, then call the police."

……

When Han Zhiruo received Jiang Chengyu's call, she was searching the last area within her field of vision.

Because she was running so fast, her bangs were soaked with sweat and became dripping wet.

After trying to calm her breathing, Han Zhiruo said into her phone, "Wait a moment, I'll be right back."

After searching this last area, we went back.

Han Zhiruo clenched her left hand, thinking that once she found Jiang Nanqiao, she would definitely confront her and ask her why she hadn't memorized her phone number beforehand and why she had foolishly not taken the power bank.

Amidst the bustling traffic, Han Zhiruo walked forward with heavy steps.

Just as she was about to give up and go back to call the police, her gaze inadvertently fell on a familiar figure on the bench...

Jiang Nanqiao curled up in a ball, her eyes glued to the street performer's puppet show, clearly mesmerized.