Chapter 95: Unease Lingers

Qi Xia steadied himself and looked up the stairs.

Amid the massive shaking, the old building began to show countless cracks.

Qingdao was a coastal city where earthquakes were rare, so the houses built there had no way of withstanding earthquakes of various magnitudes.

Qi Xia worried that the building could collapse at any moment and knew he had to find Yu Nian'an quickly.

"An! Can you hear me?! Come down quickly!"

The entire building was shaking, and the tremendous noise soon drowned out Qi Xia's voice.

"An..."

Qi Xia steadied himself and continued running upstairs.

The earthquake disrupted the balance of normal people, let alone trying to run up stairs. Qi Xia felt his legs were bruised from the impacts, but he kept climbing using both hands and feet.

If Yu Nian'an lost her life in this earthquake, Qi Xia saw no reason to go on living.

"Damn it... still shaking..."

Qi Xia fell to the ground again, his entire knee going numb.

He had seen news reports that the strongest earthquakes usually lasted only a short time, no more than three minutes at most.

But Qi Xia felt the ground had been shaking for nearly five minutes and showed no sign of stopping.

How massive must this earthquake be?

Finally, Qi Xia dragged his battered body to the third floor.

The building was still shaking continuously. Qi Xia wanted to knock on the door, but then he remembered that Yu Nian'an might be hiding under a table, and running around would be even more dangerous. So, he pulled out his key from his pocket.

But he couldn't get the key into the lock.

His body was shaking, his hand was shaking, the building was shaking.

Everything in his field of vision was shaking, and in the distance, there were still loud crashes, even the sound of glass shattering.

"Damn it! Damn it!"

Qi Xia gripped the key with both hands and finally inserted it into the lock.

With a "click," the door opened.

"An!! Are you in here?" Qi Xia shouted, but the room was completely silent.

He instantly thought of something.

No one answering in the room meant only one possibility.

Yu Nian'an had already left.

Qi Xia turned to leave without a word, but then he remembered the phone call from Yu Nian'an.

"No, there's another possibility..."

She might be sick!

Qi Xia was suddenly torn. The whole building was shaking more and more violently, and if he didn't escape soon, he would surely die here.

But he absolutely couldn't abandon Yu Nian'an.

"An! Are you in here?"

Qi Xia pushed the door open and entered the room. The empty room was silent, with a few simple pieces of furniture scattered about by the earthquake. Qi Xia glanced under the small dining table, but it was empty.

"Not here, could she be in the bedroom?"

He held onto the single sofa and struggled forward, reaching the bedroom door in a few steps.

If Yu Nian'an was still in the house, she could only be here.

"An!"

As he pushed the door open, Qi Xia showed a hint of relief. The bedroom was empty, with only a desk and a chair in sight.

Qi Xia let out a long sigh of relief. He knew Yu Nian'an had probably escaped to a safe place, and now even if he died, there was nothing to fear.

He was just about to turn and flee when, like a bolt from the blue, he froze in place.

Something didn't feel right.

A chilling sensation gradually rose in Qi Xia's heart, making his hair stand on end and leaving him unable to calm down.

Amid the massive earthquake, Qi Xia turned his head in confusion and looked at this strange "bedroom."

Why was there only a desk and a chair?

Where was the bed?

He completely ignored the small fragments falling from the ceiling and walked step by step to the desk. In his memory, there was a photo on the desk of him and Yu Nian'an together.

But when Qi Xia picked up the photo, he found that only he was in the picture, standing blankly by the sea, staring at the camera, leaving behind this lonely image.

"An...?"

Qi Xia seemed to lose his senses, and the balance he had just found disappeared completely.

He felt the world spinning again, stumbling back to the living room, falling countless times along the way.

There was only a single sofa and a small dining table for one person.

This room didn't even have a seat prepared for a second person.

"What kind of joke is this..." Qi Xia showed a desperate smile. "Are you all playing some kind of joke on me...?!"

He thought of something else and hurriedly crawled to the door, where there was a small shoe cabinet.

Qi Xia gritted his teeth and opened the cabinet door.

Inside, there was only a pair of men's leather shoes.

The entire room, from inside to out, showed no trace that Yu Nian'an had ever lived there.

Qi Xia suddenly felt weak and sat down on the floor.

The scenes of being with Yu Nian'an were all vivid in his mind.

Her scent, the warmth of her hand, the way her eyes curved when she smiled—Qi Xia remembered every detail clearly.

But why wasn't she here at all?!

Qi Xia couldn't understand.

He couldn't understand any of what was happening.

Yu Nian'an had called him less than an hour ago, so how could she not be here...?

Qi Xia tremblingly pulled out his phone from his pocket and dialed the number for "A" again.

He swallowed hard, his whole body shaking uncontrollably, as if he had already sensed something.

"Hello, the number you have dialed is not in service. Please check the number and try again."

As the cold bilingual message played, the phone slipped from Qi Xia's hand and fell to the ground.

This was all too terrifying.

Yu Nian'an... didn't exist?

"Impossible..." Qi Xia's eyes suddenly hardened. He could clearly recall the first time he met Yu Nian'an and every day they spent together.

She couldn't not exist.

"Qi Xia, do you know?" Yu Nian'an's voice echoed in his mind. "There are many paths in this world, and everyone has their own."

Qi Xia suddenly stood up, standing firm in the shaking room. After thinking for a moment, he walked back to the bedroom and pulled open the wardrobe without a word.

Among the many men's clothes, there was an old white shirt.

He picked up the white shirt and flipped it over. On the chest, there was a patch sewn with a cartoon lamb.

This was sewn by Yu Nian'an herself.

Qi Xia never mended clothes; he just threw away anything torn. If Yu Nian'an didn't exist, this lamb shouldn't exist either.

"Damn it... I get it now..." Qi Xia coldly lifted his head and looked out the window. "Zhongyan Zhidi... you want to drive me mad? You want me to think I'm crazy?"

He slowly stood up, his expression filled with an unprecedented hatred.

"Even if you are 'Shen,' I will make you give Yu Nian'an back to me."

No sooner had he spoken than Qi Xia saw massive cracks appear in the sky outside the window, pitch-black like an endless universe.

At that moment, the entire ceiling collapsed with a world-ending crash, and Qi Xia was buried under the rubble.

In his final moments, Lin Geng's voice rang in his ear.

"I'm really curious about you."

"I don't mean to offend, but you're a liar, so what kind of person is your wife?"

"You have a wife... even if you two live together, do you sit up and sleep every night?"