Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The young man looked at her with warmth and pity, but Gu Nianzhi was extremely calm as she ignored it. Gu Nianzhi ate the McDonald’s quietly, then went to sleep again after she finished eating.
At the Hua Xia Empire’s imperial capital postgraduate dormitory, Ma Qiqi had just gotten back to her room after studying. She looked at Gu Nianzhi’s door out of habit. It was still locked tightly. There was no light on, and no one was there. She opened the door to her own room and put her book bag down. She then went to the bathroom and washed her face. She came out and sat at the desk in front of the window.
On the desk was her laptop. She had been playing a game recently because she was bored. When she went to the library to study, she would keep her computer on. She sat down and looked at the game’s progress. She nodded, satisfied, and then logged off the game.
After she logged off, she saw her instant messaging program’s little icon jumping about. Somebody had sent her a message. Ma Qiqi opened it and immediately gasped! The message was from Gu Nianzhi’s account! And it was even a video!
Ma Qiqi was very happy. She clicked on it with her mouse. The video downloaded quickly, then it automatically started playing. The moment she saw the video, her smile froze. She opened the video only to see a girl with half of her face full of purple bruises who was saying anxiously, “Qiqi! Qiqi! I’m in Berlin! Save me!”
Only after Ma Qiqi watched it many times did she finally recognize who the girl was. She immediately gasped! It was Gu Nianzhi! How did she get beat up so badly? Ma Qiqi immediately jumped up from her seat. She grabbed her hair as she walked around in a circle in her dorm room.
Wasn’t Nianzhi with Professor He?! Why was she beat up like that and needing me to help her?! What happened?
Ma Qiqi immediately paced around her dormitory in a state of agitation. Then she thought of how Gu Nianzhi hadn’t come back in a long time. She assumed she was too busy. Did something happen?! But she hadn’t heard a thing about it!
Ma Qiqi remembered that Gu Nianzhi went to Germany with Professor He Zhichu. Without another word, she went on their school department’s website to find how to get in contact with He Zhichu. She wanted to find him so that she could get to the bottom of the situation. She would rather let this be someone stealing Gu Nianzhi’s instant messaging account and asking her for money than for it to be real.
After searching on their school department’s website for a long time, she only found He Zhichu’s school department number and email. It was a no brainer that He Zhichu was traveling all over Germany. He wouldn’t have time to check the department’s voicemail or email. Even though He Zhichu was very famous in Germany, Ma Qiqi was not smitten with him. That’s why she didn’t know much about his whereabouts. How do I find ways to contact him in Germany?
Ma Qiqi’s heart skipped a beat when she remembered she used to follow the “He Zhichu fanclub.” The fanclub’s blogger was He Zhichu’s most smitten fan. Every day, this person would routinely stare at all kinds of pictures of He Zhichu from different angles.
Ma Qiqi immediately got on Weibo, and she immediately found the “He Zhichu fanclub” that she was in before. She found the blogger’s Weibo forum thread in a glance. Surprisingly, it was a German social medial account. Curious, she clicked on it and realized this thread’s social medial account was actually He Zhichu’s German social media account. Then she looked at the profile picture. She immediately recognized that it was Gu Nianzhi’s back! Although the background was obscured, Ma Qiqi could recognize that it was Campus B’s scenery.
Soon, the remark under the social media account caught her eye. “Waiting for you to come back…”
Oh sh*t! Ma Qiqi’s heart immediately tightened. That picture, that remark, doesn’t it all mean that Nianzhi’s missing? Even Professor He can’t find her! Was that why he always kept a low profile in the Hua Xia Empire, but kept a high profile in Germany? In such a developed internet age, Nianzhi could easily contact Professor He and find her way home.
But what if Gu Nianzhi really was taken by someone? She remembered half of Nianzhi’s face being bruised. Because the image was not that clear, she couldn’t recognize who it was, and it made the video even scarier the first time she saw it.
Ma Qiqi looked through the posts one by one. She really had to thank that smitten blogger. She gathered all the news regarding He Zhichu in Germany, then translated it into Chinese and posted it. Followers clicked “like” and shared it. It made it easier for Ma Qiqi to glance through what He Zhichu had done recently. However, the more she saw He Zhichu’s recent activities, the more scared Ma Qiqi became.
She didn’t know if she was biased toward the video, but she believed the video was real. The account was not hacked, nor was it a scam. If it was a scam, the scammer would already have given an account number to send money to. Was there a scam where they just told you where they were and did not give you a bank account number?
Ma Qiqi’s fingers were shaking. She downloaded the English version of the German social medial software with shaky hands. She registered, then subscribed to He Zhichu’s official account and immediately sent him a private message.
Lovely Qiqi: Professor He, I’m Ma Qiqi, Nianzhi’s dorm mate. I want to ask you if something happened to Nianzhi?
Ma Qiqi never imagined that she would receive a call from He Zhichu immediately after sending him the message. After all, there were millions of followers on that account. Having millions of fans on one account in Germany was already shocking. There were probably even more people who sent him private messages. Also, it was hard to say if he was the one personally managing the account. That was why the moment she finished sending the private message, she went to the bathroom to take a shower to get ready for bed.
The moment she came out of the bathroom after showering, she heard the dormitory’s private phone ringing like crazy. Every time it went to voicemail, the person on the other end would hang up and patiently call again.
Ma Qiqi was annoyed. She went over to take a look and saw 20 missed calls on it. The phone number was from Germany. Ma Qiqi’s heart jumped, and she wondered if it was Professor He calling her. Is this Professor He’s phone number? It was different from the department’s number. Ma Qiqi heart tightened as she immediately picked up the phone and said, “Professor He? Is it you?”
He Zhichu’s somewhat tired and cold voice came over the phone. “Yes, I’m Professor He, student Ma Qiqi. What’s the meaning behind the private message you sent to my German social media account?”
Ma Qiqi asked in a hurried voice, “Tell me, did something happen to Nianzhi? Where is she right now?”
He Zhichu went quiet for a few seconds and then said, “Why do you ask?”
“The profile picture you used is of Nianzhi’s back, and the profile comment was, ‘waiting for you to come back.’ Is that not obvious enough? Also, you kept a low profile here and kept an even lower profile when you were in America. It didn’t make sense for you to suddenly have such a high profile in Germany. Something must have happened, right?” Ma Qiqi calmly analyzed it, but she felt so bad inside that she wanted to cry. However, she still managed to control herself. She thought about Nianzhi suffering somewhere. She had to keep herself together to help her! To save her!
He Zhichu closed his eyes and rubbed the space between his eyebrows, thinking that all of Nianzhi’s schoolmates were pure and elegant, warmhearted and compassionate. It was clear that birds of a feather flocked together…
“Professor He, tell me, did something happen to Nianzhi?” Ma Qiqi inquired persistently while she held onto her phone tightly. She was so nervous that her face became red.
He Zhichu finally said, “Yes… I’m currently looking for her, but no matter what I do, I can’t find her.” It was like she had disappeared into thin air. He Zhichu had almost turned over all of Munich, but there was still no trace of Gu Nianzhi.
Five days ago, he finally couldn’t take it anymore. He sent four groups of people to the east, south, west, and north of the Alps. Even if he had to plow the entire Alps and Bavaria, he would not give up! That was why when he saw Ma Qiqi’s private message, he automatically grabbed his phone and found Gu Nianzhi’s dormitory phone number and called. Luckily, Ma Qiqi was in the dormitory, or else He Zhichu didn’t know if he would have flown back to Hua Xia to find Ma Qiqi.
Ma Qiqi exhaled and said, “It’s like this, I just got a video from Nianzhi today. She… she…” Remembering Nianzhi’s badly battered face made her want to cry. Her voice choked up. “She was beaten badly by somebody, saying she was in Berlin, and asked me to save her!”
He Zhichu’s mind was ringing. He felt as if everything was spinning. It was as if he’d lost all consciousness for a split second and was floating in the vacuum of space. It was as if the scariest nightmare had become reality in a heartbeat. He Zhichu’s heart jumped to the sky. He didn’t want this anymore. He wanted to destroy the whole world. Something really had happened to Nianzhi… In the end, something had happened to the one he was holding in his palm.
Was meeting Huo Saoheng the luckiest thing that had happened to her? He Zhichu’s tears fell silently. He was alone in the room. He let his tears surge violently, but he did not make a sound. His hands squeezed tightly into fists. His nails were not long, but they cut deep into the center of his palm. However, he couldn’t feel the pain. He only wanted to squeeze tighter because the piercing pain allowed him to be more clear-headed. He Zhichu couldn’t be muddled or let hatred blind him. Now he had to go save someone. Only after telling himself this over and over again for a full 15 minutes was he able to continue to listen to what else Ma Qiqi had to say.
“Professor He? Professor He? Are you still there? Why aren’t you saying anything? Do you want me to send the video to you? It’s best if you have that instant messaging program and then add me. Then I can forward it to you.”
Because He Zhichu didn’t say a word, Ma Qiqi thought it was because he felt he was in an awkward situation. After all, He Zhichu was only a professor. He was not her family. Even if he didn’t do his utmost to save her, Ma Qiqi could understand. No matter how good he was to her, it was probably no more than a professor being kind to his student.
