Chapter 142: A Touch of Coolness at the Fingertips (Second Update!)

Jiangling Residential Complex.

“What happened?”

Inside the room, Lu Ziqi asked after watching Ling Xue’er hang up the phone with a puzzled look.

“I don’t know either. Brother Smooth-Talker suddenly called and asked where Sister Zijin was.” Ling Xue’er looked utterly confused.

“Wasn’t Sister Zijin with him?” Lu Ziqi asked in bewilderment. Shen Muxi, sitting nearby, turned her gaze toward them as well.

“Could Sister Zijin have gotten lost?”

All at once, a bold idea occurred to Ling Xue’er.

“No way. She’s not a child.”

“You really can imagine anything,” Lu Ziqi and Shen Muxi said, rolling their eyes at Ling Xue’er’s speculation.

“Oh, forget it, forget it. With Brother Smooth-Talker there, nothing will happen to Sister Zijin.” Feeling the two girls’ eyes on her, Ling Xue’er grew annoyed and shouted defensively.

Seeing her sulky expression, Lu Ziqi and Shen Muxi both laughed again.

Still, they quite agreed with what she had said.

With Yang Hao there, nothing could happen to Lin Zijin.

Of that, they were absolutely certain.

Meanwhile.

Inside the supermarket, Yang Hao watched the streams of people passing around him, inexplicably filled with worry.

Where could Lin Zijin have gone?

Ever since he realized that she was missing, that question had occupied his every thought.

There were so many people in the supermarket, and Lin Zijin had not brought her phone. How could he not be worried when she had suddenly disappeared?

He was afraid she had gotten lost.

If anyone knew that this was what Yang Hao was thinking, they would probably laugh themselves sick.

But at that moment, Yang Hao was genuinely frantic.

Since Lin Zijin had no phone with her, he was afraid he would not be able to find her, and that the two of them would become separated.

In a supermarket packed with people, finding a single person was no easy task.

It had taken him so long to finally go shopping with Lin Zijin. Yang Hao did not want to leave with any regrets. If she really had gotten lost, it would be one thing if nothing happened to her—but if an accident occurred, he would blame himself for the rest of his life.

He would go mad.

In that brief moment, Yang Hao thought of countless possibilities.

He wanted to go look for her, but he did not dare leave. What if Lin Zijin returned while he was gone and could not find him?

He wanted to search for her, yet he could not bring himself to leave.

It was a deeply contradictory and complicated state of mind.

Yang Hao was utterly helpless.

Then his gaze shifted, and he suddenly spotted someone in red approaching. He was instantly overjoyed.

It was not Lin Zijin.

The person was a supermarket employee, wearing the store’s uniform red work clothes.

As luck would have it, she was walking in his direction.

“Excuse me. There’s something I’d like to ask for your help with.” Yang Hao hurried over and spoke.

“How may I help you?”

The employee glanced at him, then gave him a polite smile.

Clearly, the staff here had received professional training. Their attitude toward customers was excellent.

But Yang Hao had no mind to worry about that at the moment.

“Here’s what happened. The person who came with me accidentally got separated from me just now. I’d like to ask you to help me look for her and broadcast a missing-person announcement over the supermarket speakers.” Though anxious, Yang Hao kept his voice calm and explained his request clearly.

“No problem. I’ll contact them for you.”

Noticing the urgency on his face, the employee grew serious as well. She picked up the radio clipped to her waist and asked, “Is the child who got lost from your family a boy or a girl? How old is the child? How tall? What was the child wearing when they went missing?”

As the employee fired off a string of questions, Yang Hao was left dumbfounded.

What stunned him even more was her reference to “the child from your family.” It nearly left him speechless.

This isn’t a child who got lost!

It’s an adult!

Yang Hao screamed inwardly.

How depressing.

If Lin Zijin knew that someone had mistaken her for a little child separated from her family, she would probably be both amused and exasperated.

Yang Hao understood that the employee simply did not know the situation. Besides, he could tell that she was genuinely kind. Otherwise, she would not have reacted so quickly.

Clearly, this was not the first time she had encountered such a situation.

Children getting separated from their parents in supermarkets happened all the time.

But Lin Zijin was not a child!

Yang Hao could only force a bitter smile and say, “She isn’t a child from my family.”

“Your friend’s child?”

The employee immediately offered another guess.

Yang Hao was just about to explain Lin Zijin’s circumstances, but when he heard that, the corner of his mouth twitched, and he almost burst into tears.

This misunderstanding was getting rather enormous.

“No, not that either!”

With a pained expression, Yang Hao explained while the employee watched him with growing suspicion, “She’s my girlfriend. We accidentally got separated a moment ago, and she didn’t bring her phone. I can’t find her right now, so I’d like to ask for your help.”

“You two had a quarrel, didn’t you?” The employee standing before him suddenly smiled.

She was a woman in her fifties, and she now scrutinized Yang Hao with the knowing gaze of someone who had been through it all.

“We really didn’t. We simply got separated.”

Under her scrutiny, Yang Hao was speechless.

The woman gave him a meaningful look that clearly said he should understand for himself, then composed her expression and asked directly, “I understand, I understand. No need to explain. Tell me what your girlfriend looks like, what she’s wearing, how tall she is, and…”

From her expression, Yang Hao knew that she had definitely misunderstood. But he could not be bothered to explain any further. He described Lin Zijin’s appearance and clothing in detail.

Finding Lin Zijin was what mattered now.

“Wait here. I can help you, though I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to calm your girlfriend down. Still, as someone who’s been there, I have to offer you one piece of advice: it’s perfectly normal for a girl to act childish now and then. You need to be a little more patient with her.”

With that, the woman picked up her radio again.

“Control center, control center, I have…”

As Yang Hao watched her walk away with the radio in hand, he felt a wave of misery.

He turned his gaze back toward the surrounding crowd and searched among the people, an expression of extreme anxiety on his face.

How he wished—

that in the very next moment—

a certain figure would appear within his line of sight.

His eyes held a tangled mixture of emotions.

Worry, unease, guilt, hope…

At that moment, he was like a woodland bird that had lost its nest, with no idea where to fly.

And just then—

as he stood looking in every direction—

a figure quietly appeared, pushing a shopping cart.

Seeing Yang Hao looking around anxiously, standing foolishly rooted to the spot, the person froze.

After a brief pause—

she suddenly smiled.

Pushing the cart, she drew closer.

In his dazed confusion, just as Yang Hao was trembling with unease, a cool, gentle touch brushed against his fingertips.

Yang Hao’s heart jolted, and then leaped with joy.

It was her…