Book 4 Chapter 20 – Sundering Nature

　　"I'm going to check inside." Li Yiming decided. It was perhaps not that big of a deal for Ji Xiaoqin to be absent for a few days, since she could have gone back to see her relatives, or even have gone on a trip with Guo Xiang, but things were different for Fu Bo. Fu Bo had no relatives, no friends, therefore no reason for being absent for such a prolonged period. This unsettled Li Yiming especially nervous after knowing that Fu Bo also happened to be Qing He.

　　'What are you going to do? Break the lock or go through the windows?' Bai Ze was also concerned, but less so because of Fu Bo's friends.h.i.+p with Li Yiming, and more due to his importance in Mr. Kong's request.

　　'Nothing of the sort.' Li Yiming closed his eyes. An instant later, he appeared with a flash of purple light in Fu Bo's living room.

　　Li Yiming looked around; the room looked the same as when he visited. Li Yiming eventually opened the door to the study. 'So this is the place Bai Ze and I were so… scared of.' The room was nothing out of the ordinary, the furniture comprising of nothing more than a desk and two bookshelves. An aged celadon flower vase sat in a corner, and a laptop rested on the top of the work desk. The screen was folded down, but the power indicator was flas.h.i.+ng on and off.

　　'He's been gone for a long time.' Li Yiming swiped on the desk with two fingers, leaving traces in the layer of dust.

　　'How would you know? I remember your desk back in Li City being a lot dirtier than this one, and that's when you were living in the apartment.' Bai Ze questioned the statement.

　　'The dust layer is uniform. Just look at that corner compared to right in front of the computer. It must have settled in after Fu Bo left. Also, look at the garbage can there. I looked around in the living room and the bedroom, and the cans were all empty. Fu Bo seems to be a tidy person, so why would this one be full of trash?'

　　'You're right. The fruits are the exact same as those inside the bag Fu Bo gave you.'

　　'Yes. This means that Fu Bo hasn't returned here since that day. ' Li Yiming pointed at the laptop. 'For him to forget about taking out the trash and turning off his computer… he must have left in a hurry.'

　　Li Yiming looked around once again. Aside from the refrigerator, the power cable had been taken out of their sockets for every single electric appliance."I'm afraid that something might've happened to him." Li Yiming had a bad feeling, and he was starting to blame himself for have become so enthralled by Fu Bo's novel that he had not noticed the author himself gone missing.

　　'Do you think Ji Xiaoqin's disappearance has anything to do with this?' Bai Ze extended her senses and went to confirm Li Yiming's conjectures.

　　'Let's go have a look.' Another flash of purple light, and Li Yiming appeared in Ji Xiaoqin's living room.

　　Li Yiming entered the kitchen. He turned around after noticing the molding food packages and the putrid scent that emanated from it. In the laundry basket in the bathroom, Li Yiming was surprised to find two rather daring underwear, but not the s.h.i.+rt that Ji Xiaoqin wore on the day they met back at the furniture store.

　　'They both disappeared on the same day.' Owing to his knowledge of Ji Xiaoqin's habits, Li Yiming produced a definitive conclusion.

　　'There's trash in every single can here. How do you know?' Bai Ze answered, undistracted by the stash of sensual underwears.