Thinking of Jiang Mingshu, Lin Yao couldn't help but feel a little surprised.
This morning, when she logged on to the Hang City Forum, she found that each section had posts related to her, but people who she had good relationships with, such as Hot Pot Is Too Hot, Fate Technetium Sky, and Like Spring Breeze... all wrote posts or sent private messages to express comfort and support, but Jiang Mingshu did nothing at all!
Did she stay out partying the entire night last night, and still hadn't gotten up yet, so she didn't know?
But Like Spring Breeze sent a private message to her in the early morning, which meant that Like Spring Breeze saw those posts last night.
If Jiang Mingshu attended an event with Like Spring Breeze last night, then Jiang Mingshu should also know these things as well.
In accordance with her previous modus operandi, even if Jiang Mingshu didn't call her up at night to read her the posts in the middle of the night, or directly get into an argument with them, at least she wouldn't stay silent, right?
What went wrong?
Lin Yao hurriedly pulled out her phone and dialed Jiang Mingshu's mobile phone number. But she ended up making three consecutive calls with no answer!
Lin Yao thought that something must have happened to Jiang Mingshu!
She decided to head out this instant and check Jiang Mingshu's dormitory.
Just as she was about to turn off the computer, Lin Yao found that all the posts on the singles forum related to Peaches Aren't Naughty had disappeared, as if they never appeared in the first place!
In disbelief, Lin Yao clicked open other sections, none of the posts she wrote were missing.
But the posts that popped out last night and consisted of her beautiful photos as well as ugly photos, for example, with headlines such as "Come and see Naughty Peach's true face (not including masses of event photos)""Take a peek at Peaches Aren't Naughty's shady past.""Is Peaches Aren't Naughty the Hang City Star or the Hang City Sinner?""Meet the two new goddesses of Hang City Forum, Peaches Aren't Naughty and Lemons Aren't Cute."... had all disappeared!
What was going on?
Lin Yao tried to open all the posts related to Hang Citynight one by one and quickly skimmed over them.
In the end, she only found one or two photos with her in them. Furthermore, in these photos, she was either far away or very blurry, and her face couldn't be seen clearly.
At the same time, she noticed that the top posts of the top ten forum sections of Hang City Forum were consistently: "Civilized postings, safeguard the Hang City Forum!", "Announcement regarding the clean-up of some non-compliant posts""non-compliant users forbidden to post" ...
If it wasn't for the fact that she was Peaches Aren't Naughty, even she herself would probably start to suspect that Peaches Aren't Naughty had a powerful background.
But she couldn't think about that right now.
She had to go to Yanzhili to find Jiang Mingshu!
Lin Yao quickly prepared and then promptly set off.
******
Yanzhili and the Chaoyang neighborhood community were about 1.5 kilometers apart, not that far away, but not that close either. There were only three bus stops in between. If one walked, one could get there within half an hour.
Lin Yao was extremely anxious and worried. She wanted to take the bus, but the bus didn't come; she wanted to take a taxi, but a taxi was nowhere to be seen!
It was noon now and was lunch/nap time for bus drivers, and there were few cars, as well as taxis.
Lin Yao couldn't wait, so she decided to walk to Yanzhili!
As she walked, she tried to dial Jiang Mingshu's number, but no one answered.
When she arrived at the Yanzhili neighborhood community completely drenched in sweat and knocked on the door of Jiang Mingshu's dormitory, she was told by her roommate that Jiang Mingshu wasn't in the dormitory. She slept outside last night!
No, no, perhaps she didn't sleep outside last night!
Lin Yao remembered how sultry Jiang Mingshu looked in that cat costume last night, and the way the male netizens cast lascivious and admiring glances towards her. She had no idea exactly how many male netizens had their eyes on her last night.
The most important thing was that Jiang Mingshu didn't go home immediately after attending the Hangzhou Citynight Masquerade, but went to attend another event.
Lin Yao felt worried and blamed herself. She knew that she should've dragged Jiang Mingshu home last night!
The thought of calling the cops kept flashing through her mind, but...could she report a missing person within 24 hours of losing contact?
How long would it take for her to be eligible to file a report? 48 hours or 72 hours?
At that moment, a lazy and coquettish female voice came from Lin Yao's phone, "Hello~~~?"
It was Jiang Mingshu's voice!
Lin Yao saw that her call had finally connected to Jiang Mingshu's phone!
Almost two hours had passed since her first call, and she'd made calls almost every five minutes or so. After she made more than twenty successive phone calls, she finally managed to connect the call!
By now, Lin Yao was so anxious it was like she had ants in her pants. She asked, "Mingshu, where have you been? Lao Jiang said you didn't return home last night!"
On the other end of the phone, Jiang Mingshu groaned unhappily. She didn't clearly say so, but by the sound of it, Jiang Mingshu thought that it was none of her business.
Feeling anxious inside, Lin Yao asked again, "Where are you now?"
Jiang Mingshu yawned lazily and replied, "I'm at Qiandao Lake. Didn't I ask you to come with me last night? You yourself chose not to come, but now you're asking me about it, hmph…"
Lin Yao was speechless. Last night, she left early.
To be precise, Lin Yao chased after Through Your Black Hair My Hand all the way out the banquet hall. Later... she felt too embarrassed to show her face, so she didn't participate in the afterparty events and headed straight home to sleep.
Jiang Mingshu did make more than one phone call to her. The first call was shortly after she left Wanghu Mountain Villa. The second call was when Lin Yao was about to sleep. She didn't plan on participating in the event so she didn't ask where she was going in detail.
Jiang Mingshu didn't specifically mention it at that time either.
"How would I know that you went to Qiandao Lake?" Lin Yao was a little relieved, but she still had doubts. "You went there in that outfit you wore last night?"
Jiang Mingshu asked her sulkily, "What do you think?"
What did that mean?
Did Jiang Mingshu really go to Qiandao Lake in that cat costume?
The more Lin Yao thought about it the more incredulous she felt. "Mingshu, don't tell me that you're fooling me. Where did you really go?"
"Why would I want to fool you?" Jiang Mingshu said meaningfully on the other end of the phone. "Why~ now~ you're worried about me?"
Lin Yao's heart lurched, and she thought of a possibility: Jiang Mingshu was being controlled!
Therefore, she asked tentatively, "Is it inconvenient for you to speak now?"
"Me? There's no inconvenience... Ah, you!" The initially lazy and nonchalant Jiang Mingshu suddenly sounded like a cat who had its tail stepped on, and she exploded. "I have to say, perhaps you're paranoid? What are you even thinking about all day?! I told you that I'm at Qiandao Lake. I came here with seven or eight people, and we're going mountain climbing later."
Upon hearing Jiang Mingshu shouting at her energetically, Lin Yao was greatly relieved.
It's just that she still couldn't believe it. "You mean you guys went to Qiandao Lake for mountain climbing?" And wearing a cat costume?
Jiang Mingshu snorted, "It's commonplace so nothing to get excited about. Qiandao Lake is surrounded by mountains. Is it really that weird to come to Qiandao Lake for mountain climbing?"
Lin Yao asked in bewilderment, "Hangzhou also has many mountains, and there are several by the West Lake. Why did you have to go all the way there for mountain climbing?"
"I'm sick of climbing the mountain by the West Lake, so I decided to climb the mountain by Qiandao Lake instead, is~there~anything~wrong~with~that~?" Jiang Mingshu raised her voice and yelled, "Ah~ ah~, when will you stop?"
Lin Yao also thought that what she said made sense. Who said that she could only climb mountains locally?
Despite Jiang Mingshu's dissatisfaction with Lin Yao's interrogation, she nonetheless explained patiently, "I went home last night and changed my clothes. By then, Lao Jiang and the others had fallen asleep already, so of course, they didn't know that I went back.
We set off in the early morning, and when we arrived at Qiandao Lake, it was just before dawn. We watched the sunrise together and then found a hotel to rest.
Just now I was making up for lost sleep, and specifically muted my phone for that purpose!
My goodness, you actually called me dozens of times at once!
Thanks to you, my phone is almost dead, and I'm in a hurry to go out. I forgot to bring the charger, you know?
Besides, there's bad signal in the mountains, so don't call me for these two days, and wait for me to call you back, do you understand?
Alright now, I'm done wasting my breath with you. I'm hanging up the phone now."
After Jiang Mingshu finished her rambling she abruptly hung up the phone.
Lin Yao stared dazedly at the screen of her phone for a while. By now she was certain that it was a false alarm.
Then a new question came. Jiang Mingshu wasn't in Hangzhou, so who else could she go to?