I knew the voice. It was Ai-jiejie's, yet at that moment, my instinct to protect leaned heavily towards Junjun, who I knew was right there with her.

I rushed downstairs and barged inside unannounced. Unaware of what had transpired and fearing the sight that could greet me, I wondered if it would be rude to check on my charge first.

I pushed the urge to enter the spare room and sprinted across the hall to Jiejie's bedroom.

It was empty.

Panic danced, just out of reach, and I yelled, "Ai-Jiejie!"

"Ah-Zan!" I heard her call my name.

I swirled around and watched my landlady stumble towards me from the room Junjun was supposed to be occupying. I recalled in that instance that the shriek that I had heard not moments ago had come from none other than the spare room. "Are you alright?" I rushed towards her and held her close. "Are you hurt?"

Her fingers fisted in the lapels of my shirt, "I think there was someone here...someone other than Junjun."

Trembling, the terrified woman buried her face in my chest as
I led her to the dining hall. I guided her to the dining chair and handed her a glass of water, "Where is he? I don't see him?"

"I… I don't know. Did Junjun perhaps rush out behind the other man?" Jiejie spoke more to herself than me and reached for my hand, "You need to go look for Junjun. Now. Go Now!"

I couldn't do that. For starters, I didn't know where to look for the boy. Secondly, I couldn't leave Jiejie alone when she was clearly on the verge of a panic attack. Lastly, I wasn't sure if the intruder was working alone. What if he had an accomplice!?

"I know I am not supposed to ask about your secret guest, but this is an emergency. Do you think-" I heard my phone going off, "I will be back in a sec," I reassured her and rushed upstairs.

It was Haoyu.

What an incredible coincidence!

"Huang Zong" was all I got out before he demanded, 'Go downstairs and check on your landlady.'

I must have heard wrong. Why was my boss asking about-

'Did you  hear me?'

"Yes."

'Go check on her right now and call me back immediately after.'

I heard a click from the other end; Laoban had disconnected the call without as much as mentioning his brother. More importantly, I could sense the tension in his voice when he had asked about Ai-Jiejie.

Why?

The way he had ordered me to check on her this late in the night could mean two things:

1. He knew Ai-Jiejie personally.

2. He knew that we were close.

In all my years working for Haoyu, I had never brought up Jiejie to him. Yet, here we were, with him, specifically asking about her.

As I got off the last stair, an idea began to form in my mind.
I had never seen Jiejie go out anywhere except with the mystery man.

Was it possible that he was none other than boss-man?

"Jiejie," I walked up to her, "How do you know Haoyu?" I asked the woman I had thought of as my sister for the past five years. I felt betrayed as her brows rose to signal that they were acquainted...

"Was it him?" She enquired, clutching the glass of water with both hands. Her knuckles turned pale.

"Yes."

"He is... We are together." She replied elusively and set the glass on the table. "I am fine. You need to go look for Junjun. He might be in trouble."

I had a million questions I wanted to ask her. But they could wait. My landlady was right; the boy needed me more than she did.

"I will ask Haoyu to come over. I will lock all the doors and windows on my way out. Don't step out and avoid going to the windows." I instructed and bounded upstairs.

Not a moment later, boss-man called again. I gave him the good news first, "She is fine."

'Thank heavens.' I heard my boss sigh, 'Where are you now?'

"In my apartment."

'Oh. That's... Are you sure she is fine?'

"Yes, just shook up."

'Why?'

Reaching for the surveillance equipment, I started playing the footage from when we had returned home that night.

Then suppressing the urge to yell and throw a tantrum, accusing him of keeping things from me, I replied casually, "I think there was someone in her apartment."

'What!? That's impossible.'

"And she thinks that your brother ran after him. Seems to me like the hero complex runs in the family." I said sarcastically.

'Come again!' I heard the rustling of clothes. A moment later, a thud followed the jingling of keys.

I was about to elaborate when something odd on the monitor caught my eye. I disconnected the call and paused the video.

It was dark; the camera had only caught a humanoid silhouette, who had managed to pull the window panes out of their hinges before running off into the night. It dawned on me that the sound I had heard was not of glass shattering but of the windowpane hitting the ground.

I waited for Junjun to follow, but he didn't. I continued to do so, hoping that he would show, but for naught.

If he hadn't run after the intruder, where was he?

No sooner did I think it than it hit me that I had inserted a nano-tracker in the bracelet I had gifted Junjun the day after he had arrived at Ysichuan.
Jun had looked enamored by it and had insisted on wearing it twenty-four seven.

The nano-tracker was one-of-a-kind tech. I could track its location anywhere on earth from a simple app on my phone.

Right now, the tracker was constantly moving north. The nearest landmark was the Katakam Reserve.

I was sure that Junjun had the tracker on him when he had left me to go over to Ai-Jiejie's place. That meant that he was moving towards the reserve.

Why was Junjun going there?

The speed at which he was heading there was impossible on foot. He was in a moving vehicle, I concluded.
I tried to recall if he had mentioned anything about wanting to visit the place, but I drew a blank.

'Was he perhaps kidnapped?' I contemplated. Though a terrifying possibility, it was the only one that made any sense.

If I could, I would have gone over the entire footage of that time frame, searching every exit that led to the streets, but I had already lost a lot of time putting other (for-now insignificant) pieces together.

I had to go after him now.

Making haste, I threw my jacket on, grabbed my gear from the hidden compartment under the floorboard of my bed, snagged my car keys from the fruit bowl, and drove towards the reserve: hands trembling hands, heart-pounding heart.

Only a single thought dominated my mind and body: to bring Junjun back where he belonged, next to me, safe and sound.

[Chapter word count: 1198;
Word count so far: 17322]