Arc 8: Chapter 14
After Jin Ran finished work, he didn’t go home immediately but went to buy a rabbit-shaped cake.
The cake was covered in white frosting, with pink shaded rabbit ears and a cute open mouth, showing two small rabbit teeth.
As Jin Ran drove home with the cake, he imagined Lin Yuan wearing rabbit pajamas eating the cake with bright eyes.
The young man talked to himself with amusement: “You’re still cuter. You’re the cutest rabbit.”
After changing into homewear, Jin Ran opened the door to Lin Yuan’s room as usual. But he didn’t see the person he was thinking about anywhere in the room, and the furry pajamas from the night before were left on the sofa.
Jin Ran’s heart suddenly dropped and he had a bad premonition.
Where’s Lin Yuan?
Why isn’t he in the room?
Every day when he came home, he could see a happy and beautiful Lin Yuan the moment he opened the door. The owner of warm amber-eyes would always welcome him home.
Why is he not here…
Jin Ran put down the cake and looked in every room. Not on the bed, not in the closet, not in the bathroom…
The young man rushed to find the Lin family’s housekeeper. His handsome and mature face was messy and panicked, and he questioned urgently: “Where is Lin Yuan? Why is he not in his room?”
The housekeeper thought that Jin Ran’s state seemed a little wrong and answered honestly: “The young master went out after breakfast.”
“Where did he go? Did he say where he was going?”
The housekeeper said in confusion: “No, the young master didn’t tell me.”
Jin Ran pressed on: “Why didn’t you ask him? Do you really not know where he went?”
The housekeeper had no idea what was going on. He said helplessly: “I really don’t know! Is there something wrong?”
Jin Ran felt like all the strength in his body was sucked away. A heavy and sharp pain jabbed his heart.
He sat down on the sofa and covered his face with his hands, his breath shaking.
What was wrong with him? Lin Yuan just went out, so why was he nervous?
Jin Ran thought that maybe he was overthinking. Lin Yuan might’ve just been bored at home and gone out to play.
Jin Ran went upstairs to get his phone and clicked on Lin Yuan’s number. His call ID was changed to Bunny, something that Lin Yuan changed himself.
Very cute, Jin Ran liked it a lot.
Jin Ran dialed the number and a mechanical voice answered the phone, meaning the other party had turned off their device.
Jin Ran didn’t give up and called Lin Yuan again. But what answered him was still the same cold, mechanical sound.
Jin Ran’s eyes darkened more and more. His lips pursed tightly and his jaw was tense. He called Father Lin’s number and said as calmly as possible: “Uncle Lin, A’yuan went out this morning and hasn’t come back yet, his phone is also turned off. Can you notify the police station? I’m worried something has happened.”
Father Lin thought Jin Ran was exaggerating. It was only seven o’clock: “A’yuan probably went out to play. He used to stay up all night at times.”
Jin Ran didn’t think so. Lin Yuan was well-behaved now and wouldn’t disappear without telling him.
“Uncle Lin, he’s not like that anymore. A’yuan is good and sensible now.”
Father Lin couldn’t help laughing. How come he didn’t see how his son was good and sensible? Maybe Lin Yuan was only good in front of Jin Ran.
“Okay, okay, I’ll ask my secretary to call the police, is that fine? Don’t worry too much.”
After hanging up, Jin Ran’s thoughts were still confused. He told himself repeatedly to calm down, that Lin Yuan was fine.
He splashed cold water onto his face and looked into the mirror. Water ran down his face and neck and wetted his shirt, revealing the traces that Lin Yuan had left before.
He suddenly remembered that Lin Yuan had asked him in a soft voice, Do you like me? Do you love me?.
Jin Ran’s fingers clenched and he thought with confusion, was Lin Yuan punishing him because he didn’t say he liked him?
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The police took out the monitoring of the roads across Jiang City and found that Lin Yuan had driven out of the city in the morning.
But now it was already eleven o’clock in the evening and no traces of Lin Yuan had been found. Father Lin also began to feel that something was wrong.
The next afternoon, the police called to say the surveillance caught Lin Yuan driving up the mountain but didn’t see Lin Yuan coming down.
Jin Ran and Father and Mother Lin followed the police officers up the mountain. Soon, a group of officers found the tire marks of a car falling off the road.
Late at night, Jin Ran stood at the end of the tire marks and stared into the darkness underneath his feet. He felt as if the darkness could swallow everything, and a terrible feeling of suffocation pressed down from all directions.
Impossible… He didn’t believe it…
How could Lin Yuan, with bright eyes and warm skin lying next to him the night before, fall into this darkness?
His bunny must be angry because he didn’t say he liked him. Lin Yuan would come back soon.
Very soon…
With this pitiful imagination, Jin Ran didn’t listen to what anyone else said. Even when they told him to be mentally prepared, he said slowly: “Lin Yuan is fine…”
The young man’s voice attracted everyone’s attention. Jin Ran’s gloomy and empty eyes seemed to refuse to see anything ahead, which shocked Father and Mother Lin.
Jin Ran’s expression was calm, but everyone felt an eerie sense of madness underneath his skin.
“He’s not dead.”
But two days later, the worst kind of despair chilled his bone marrow. A vehicle was found in the valley, distorted by a strong impact and ruined by an explosion.
No body was found in the car, but the windows and doors were broken, meaning there was the possibility that someone in the vehicle fell out in the process.
The police collected the residual blood in the vehicle, and after a DNA test, it was confirmed that the person in the car was undoubtedly Lin Yuan.
The search for Lin Yuan lasted an entire month, but no one was found. There was not even a corpse.
Jin Ran went to the police station every day to wait for news. He sometimes even sat throughout the night until dawn.
He didn’t believe that Lin Yuan was dead. He refused to believe it if there was no body.
At first, Father and Mother Lin were sad and couldn’t accept it, but as time went on, they gradually recovered from the pain of losing their child for the second time.
Only Jin Ran couldn’t accept it.
At noon, Jin Ran returned to Lin’s house. The first thing he did was go to the kitchen and take a look at the rabbit cake.
He had put the cake in the freezer, and the cold temperature seemed to have frozen time. The cake didn’t look like it had changed at all from how he first bought it.
Jin Ran made sure that the cake was fine and was about to close the refrigerator door, when he suddenly smelled a faint fragrance.
It smelled like a kind of flower.
Jin Ran’s eyes suddenly reddened uncontrollably and his face paled in an instant. Why did it smell like flowers?
It should be winter right now. Lin Yuan drove out a winter morning, and he would come back soon.
It should still be winter.
Jin Ran felt his hand shaking, and his nerves were on the verge of a collapse. He stared at the rabbit cake and said pleadingly as if he was begging God: “It’s winter now, right? It’s all my fault, I didn’t have the courage to tell him I like him, I love him, so he got angry and is ignoring me.”
“He’ll be back tomorrow…”
“Lin Yuan will be back…” The young man’s hoarse and broken voice was like a mournful cry. His vision gradually blurred, and he said incoherently: “Come back quickly. Let’s eat cake together.”
“I’ve actually liked you for a long time. Come back quickly, okay? I want to tell you…”
“I’ll tell you every day in the future…”
“Lin Yuan, can you like me too? A little bit is fine.”
“Lin Yuan, I really hate you.”
“I really love you.”