Chapter 144: Chapter 144
ZhengLi waited for the break in the meeting, where the members were given time to sit and discuss and ask YuZhi questions as the lights were put back on, to excuse himself. Sliding out with a brief apology and waving his cell as though he had an important call and headed to the outer hall. He immediately called Linlin’s cell again, pacing back and forth and starting to feel sick in the pit of his stomach. Clenching his fists and cursing under his breath. No guard, no driver, no god damn knowledge of where they went and no way to trace them. He was starting to get beyond livid with her.
“Come on, baby. Answer your god damn phone. You’re making me crazy.” He gritted his teeth, muttering to himself, tried again and got the same result which only pushed his anxiety sky high. The same happened with TangShi’s cell number and he paced in a circle trying to think who else to call when a lightbulb moment hit him. He scrolled to Rhea’s number and hit the call icon wondering if she too had met up with them and maybe they were somewhere with their phones silenced. Like a spa or beauty salon. It would explain the lack of guard if they wanted some personal time to rebuild their relationship with Rhea. He knew the girls had a strained and complicated friendship as they tried to grow something real from the ashes of previous hurts.
“Afternoon, Zhengy, what are you calling me for?” Rhea answered brightly, immediately on the second ring, and raised ZhengLi’s hopes briefly.
“Are you with Linlin and TangShi?” he got straight to the point. Too overwrought for niceties.
“Nope. I have a lunch with them next weekend but right now I am in London again. Busy working, what’s up?” Rhea was in the process of having her hair styled for a fashion shoot, sat with her feet propped up in a studio while being tended to by various assistants.
“Shit. It’s nothing. I just can’t get hold of them and need to. Don’t worry about it.” He looked up at the ceiling and pinched his nose, trying to curb his growing angst. A headache forming right at his temples.
“You sound stressed, what is it? Why do you need them? What’s going on?” Rhea’s own concern peaked, aware that ZhengLi sounded emotional which was weird for him and knowing of the two girls, TangShi would always answer. She had never been one to monitor or ignore calls. Rhea had always found her to be a fast answer or text responder in their days of hanging out.
“It’s nothing. I’m in a meeting and they went out for the day. Probably left their cells in the car or something.” He waved it off, acting like it was unimportant, not wanting her to be worried too and tried to sound upbeat.
“Call me back when you get hold of them. I’ll try too. You have me a little bit worried.” Rhea knew him well enough to sense he was trying to brush it off, but his tone had told her right off that he was genuinely concerned.
“It’s fine, don’t. I have to go. Have fun in London and we’ll catch up when you get back again.” ZhengLi didn’t hang around waiting for her to interrogate him further and disconnected the call before she said goodbye. Pacing again and trying Linlin’s phone even though he knew it was futile. He checked the time, scrolled his calls and messages to the first one he sent and felt stupid and obsessive when he released it had barely been an hour and twenty minutes. He felt weird for being this way and laughed at himself and shook his head. It was hardly to the stage of reporting them missing or having reason to think they had fallen off the planet.
“Love is making me crazy. This girl has me so messed up. What am I doing?” He walked to the nearest wall, backing against it and slumped as he blew out air and stared at his blank screen trying to rationalize. Maybe this was a fallout from their fight and he was being extra emotional because he felt guilty and it really was nothing. Yeah it was stupid to leave their protection behind, but in reality Cai was probably hiding in his art school. He knew he was keeping the whole marriage date thing from Linlin to stop her getting hurt and angry. Not wanting her to feel insecure or sad that his family wouldn’t see her as worthy and yet it was right there like a large black hole, consuming him and making him feel like he was cheating on her.
Her being mad and ignoring him was only adding to the weight that he was keeping a secret and he hated it. He’d always been an honest and straightforward type when it came to women, and this was the first time in his life he wanted to be with only one…. for however long she let him. He shouldn’t be hiding anything from her especially as he knew in his heart, Linlin was the one. He had fallen in love with her the first time she marched into his life with that stroppy, little sassy attitude, and scowling glare, in the parking lot of the family dinner and had only fallen deeper with every meeting. Somewhere along the journey he had become completely hopeless for her, even if sometimes he didn’t know how to express it or show her, and he had fucked things up with the whole Rong Cai thing.
“Any replies?” YuZhi appeared at his side, his tone tight and tense, startling him with his sudden appearance and glanced over YuZhi’s shoulder in wide eyed surprise.
“Ummm, meeting?” he raised his palm in question. Shocked YuZhi would walk out of something so important.
“It’s done. They agreed to the proposal right off. No hesitation. The contract signing is in two days once all parties read them over.” YuZhi was relieved it was so straight forward and pulled out his cell to try TangShi himself. It rang out and he narrowed his eyes at ZhengLi. “The driver, the guard?”
“They ditched them both. Do you know where they were going today?” ZhengLi questioned, watching YuZhi’s face turn grim and then fall in horror at that news. YuZhi immediately picking up his cell to try again, only this time with a furrowed brow and much more urgent manner.
ZhengLi knew there was no way TangShi would ignore his calls. These past few days they had both been glued to their phones, texting each other whenever they were apart. After breaking up they were back in that codependent and needy faze of staying together and in contact way more than necessary. Worse since they found out she was pregnant a couple of days ago and YuZhi was like an overbearing, overprotective prison guard, who fussed over her every movement.
YuZhi shook his head, scrolled his cell and pulled up the tech department manager of Leng group. Mind set on finding her now he knew this and no longer playing around. All his fears and doubts rising in one frenzied sweep.
“Hey, It’s YuZhi. Can you pinpoint a cell for me? I need a location right away, like now. I’ll text you the number.” YuZhi waited for the agreement and assurance they could trace it as long as it was on and sent him the number right away. His pallor pale and his heart rate rising to scary levels.
“Are we overreacting like two crazy stalker type boyfriends? It’s only been an hour and half since they lost contact.” ZhengLi asked in genuine confusion because this wasn’t how either of them ever acted.