Chapter 228: Chapter 228

The airport staff found a jade stone in the VIP lounge, reported it according to regulations, announced a lost-and-found, and waited for the owner to claim it.

There weren’t many passengers in the VIP lounge, so in theory, checking the surveillance should find the owner. However, before they could fetch the surveillance footage, President Zhou Zhizhen came to inspect the work. Hearing about this incident, he gave a casual glance at the item, took it immediately, and said it belonged to a friend of his.

No one would, of course, question President Zhou’s words.

Zhou Zhizhen didn’t dawdle and immediately called Fu Jichen. Hearing the message that his phone was off, he guessed he might be busy and turned to call his assistant instead.

Song Fang answered the call, heard the whole story, and relayed it to Fu Jichen.

The two of them hadn’t left the airport yet. When Fu Jichen heard that Zhou Zhizhen had found that lion-shaped handle piece, he couldn’t care about anything else, and with a gust of wind under his feet, rushed straight over.

His heartbeat was unprecedentedly rapid and uncontrollable.

If that handle piece really was his, the one he personally handed over to Jianian back then, does it mean...

Fu Jichen unbuttoned his suit with one hand and started running.

In the office, Zhou Zhizhen stood facing the wide floor-to-ceiling windows, outside of which was a broad tarmac. He wore a dark blue striped suit, with one hand in his pocket, looking elegant.

A loud "bang" came from behind as if the door was slammed open. Zhou Zhizhen turned around, saw who it was, took the item out of his pocket, and hooked the handle piece’s cord with his index finger: "This is your item, right?"

Fu Jichen stopped a few steps away, gazing at the jade stone dangling from the black cord, appearing particularly translucent under the outside light, as if glowing, the rise and fall of his chest growing more intense.

On the way there, Fu Jichen forced himself to stay calm; perhaps Zhou Zhizhen had mistaken it, as lion-shaped jade carvings were not few, maybe it wasn’t his.

Now, the item was right in front of him.

Fu Jichen took it from his hand, gripping it tightly in his palm, the vividly carved lion in a crouched and sleeping posture, the black braided cord, and the jade beads strung at the knot, all details proving this was his original handle piece.

Fu Jichen took a deep breath, his voice still suppressed.

Zhou Zhizhen retracted his hand, putting it back into his pocket: "The airport staff cleaned the VIP lounge and found it in a seat gap. The item seemed valuable, and they dared not delay, reporting it immediately—a coincidence, isn’t it?"

"Which passenger?" Fu Jichen enunciated clearly, "I want to know her name, appearance."

Zhou Zhizhen "hissed," pondering over his words, puzzled: "Isn’t this your item? Why are you looking for a passenger?"

Fu Jichen didn’t want to waste words or time, speaking directly: "Where’s the staff who found the item? Have them explain at which seat it was found and retrieve the surveillance. I need to see everyone who sat in that seat."

Zhou Zhizhen didn’t understand what he wanted to do, but seeing his urgency, he didn’t ask further, made a call, and summoned the people to the surveillance room as requested.

Subsequently, a group of three headed to the surveillance room.

The staff arrived quickly, not daring to conceal anything, pointed to a position in the surveillance video: "It was found in this seat." He provided useful information, "My colleague cleaned the VIP lounge at noon and didn’t find any items left behind by passengers, so it might have been dropped by a passenger sitting here after one in the afternoon."

The surveillance footage was fast-forwarded to one in the afternoon; shortly after, a young couple appeared on the screen. The man held a woman’s shoulder bag in one hand and had his other arm around the woman’s waist. The man wore a shirt and jeans, with a baseball cap pulled low, obscuring his face. The woman wore a mint green silk long dress, a white thin cardigan draped over her arm, with long hair down her shoulders, a pretty face, and a faint smile on her lips as she spoke.

The two walked towards two adjacent seats and sat down.

Fu Jichen intensely watched the woman in the surveillance video, her every move exuding an indescribable, familiar feeling that only he could comprehend.

At a certain moment, the man wearing the baseball cap lifted his head, and his face was captured by the camera.

Zhou Zhizhen and Song Fang simultaneously exclaimed, "Isn’t this..."

"Pei Che," the name lingered in their throats, words couldn’t form, as in their memory, this person had long been dead, how could he appear in the footage?

The surveillance room fell into a dead silence.

If Fu Jichen had retained two parts suspicion about his previous conjecture, then, after seeing Pei Che’s face, only one part of suspicion remained, needing one final layer of confirmation.

Fu Jichen clenched his fist and said deeply: "Check which flight they took."

By this point, Song Fang already knew what the boss intended to do, finding it unbelievable. The fact that Pei Che was still alive was indeed surprising, but it wasn’t enough to prove that the woman beside him was Shen Jianian.

It was clearly the face of a stranger.

Ten minutes later, Fu Jichen got hold of a passenger list—all the passengers on the 3:10 PM flight from Beicheng to Jiang City were listed.

Immediately following the name "Pei Che" was "Shen Jianian."

Song Fang saw that name and couldn’t help but gasp, "How is that possible?!"

Could it be someone with the same name?

But a person with the same name, who just happens to be connected to the Pei Family’s young master, would be too much of a coincidence.

If that woman really is Shen Jianian, why does her appearance look different? Since she’s still alive, why hasn’t she contacted Mr. Chen? Does she know that Mr. Chen has been looking for her for three years?!

Song Fang was perplexed, feeling as if his head was going to explode. Looking at Fu Jichen, his expression was indescribable—his features were tense, covered with a layer of icy mask, holding the A4 printed passenger list so tightly that his fingertips turned white.

Zhou Zhizhen, even with the dullest mind, finally realized that regarding Shen Jianian’s disappearance, Fu Jichen never mentioned it to their close friends, but they were not completely oblivious, knowing more or less about the situation.

"Do we need to pull up Shen Jianian’s ID information? Just to confirm," Zhou Zhizhen suggested.

Just a name doesn’t explain much. If there’s a mistake, it would only raise false hopes and lead to disappointment. Since she traveled by plane, finding her document information isn’t difficult.

After a long while, Fu Jichen’s voice was finally heard, "No need."

As long as he knows she’s in Jiang City, even if it means digging three feet deep, he’ll find her.

At 5:10 PM, Shen Jianian and Pei Che returned to Jiang City. As soon as they stepped off the plane, they felt the heat different from Beicheng, as if they had dropped into a furnace. Follow current novᴇls on N0veI.Fiɾe.net

Heading to the parking lot to fetch the car, Pei Che received a call from his assistant; there was an issue with a project that required his personal attention at the company.

Shen Jianian told him to go ahead, she could take a cab home.

Pei Che, currently as jittery as a startled bird, didn’t dare overlook anything, insisted on driving Shen Jianian home first before rushing to the company.

Zhou Ruo was still in the hospital, so Shen Jianian planned to pack up and head there to accompany her.

She stuffed her dirty clothes into the washing machine, and suddenly realized something was missing. She reached for her wrist—her jade stone wristpiece was gone.

Shen Jianian was flustered. She was sure it was wrapped around her wrist, hadn’t taken it off, so how did it disappear?

Standing by the washing machine, she tried to remember. It seemed like when she left the airport, there was nothing on her wrist, but she hadn’t noticed. Recollecting further, she had fallen asleep as soon as she boarded the plane, too tired from lack of rest the night before, so she didn’t know if it was there then.

Her last memory stopped at Beicheng Airport, where she clearly recalled still holding the wristpiece.

Could it have been lost at Beicheng Airport?

Shen Jianian wasn’t quite sure, but she couldn’t bother with the laundry, took out her phone to search for the airline’s customer service hotline and eventually got in touch with the relevant staff.

"Hello, I lost an item at the airport this afternoon. Could you help me find it?"

The staff politely asked, "Hello Madam, may I know what item you lost? We have a system for logged lost-and-found information. If your item is here, you can come to collect it, or we can help mail it to you."

Shen Jianian gave a detailed description: "A piece of jade jewelry, carved like a lion—a sleeping lion, hung on a black braided cord, very valuable."

The staff entered the relevant information to check and then told her, "There was indeed such an item found this afternoon, but it’s already been collected by the owner. Could it be that a relative of yours picked it up and you weren’t informed?"

Shen Jianian said, "Impossible! What’s the person’s name?"

The staff fell silent. According to the standard procedure, the owner collecting a lost item must sign and provide identification information to prevent disputes. For some reason, the record was blank; there was no information, only a checkmark indicating the item had been retrieved.

"I’m very sorry, I can’t see the owner’s identification information here. It might be an oversight in our work." The staff, unaware of the situation, maintained a friendly demeanor. "I will verify and get back to you. Would that be alright?"

The item was lost due to her carelessness, so Shen Jianian couldn’t blame others; apart from waiting for an update, she had no other choice. "Alright. I hope you can find out who claimed it soon."