The door of Endless Night was re-opened from the inside because of a single phone call. 

The police officers who had been ready for action rushed in and found that the people inside did not resist at all. The gang leader raised his hands, and the first sentence he said when confronted was, “I’m sorry, I made you work overtime during the holidays. I’m really sorry!”

Gangsters these days were quite polite.

The passers-by who had been locked inside couldn’t believe this development. They originally thought they were done for and were crying and hugging each other in fear. But then they saw the door open through their teary eyes, and the kindest, handsomest people in the world rushed in. Then the gangster leader himself apologized and was pinned to the ground…

Their sense of security was instantly restored.

The broken glasses made crisp crackling sounds as they got crushed even more under the police officers’ boots. In the chaos, people saw a tall and strong figure pushing the door open from the outside.

The man walked towards the group of people who were all clamoring to leave.

The person walking in front of the crowd was eager to go, but instinctively stopped at seeing the man. The young woman wearing high heels looked up with a dazed expression on her face and met calm, black eyes.

“Excuse me, have you seen a young miss wearing a short, black dress… with a cut-out on the back and a bow tied on her nape?” The man lifted his hand chest high, “About this height.”

His voice was warm and polite.

But who knew why it gave people an indescribable sense of oppression.

The young woman initially had a soft blush on her face from looking at his face but it gradually faded away. She turned her head to look at the people behind her. They all looked at each other and slowly realized that they were probably saved tonight because of the young miss in short, black dress that this man was looking for.

Everyone began to look around them, earnestly trying to help find someone who fit the description.

After a long time, a waitress stood up. She easily recognized the identity of the person who asked the question and said in a trembling voice, “Mr. He, I, I think I have seen the person you described… At the time, the door was not yet closed, she pulled me out from under the table and told me to run to the exit, but then the door closed before we got there— We were locked in— And then, she must have taken advantage of the chaos to return to the third floor.”

The man was silent for a moment.

Then his eyes curved in a smile and gently said ‘thank you’ to the waitress.

Before the waitress could savor the smile on that handsome and mature face, he had already turned around and went up to the third floor.

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

At this time, nearly two and a half hours had passed since the accident.

There were no signs of vandalism on the third floor. He Jinxing’s footsteps made a ‘tapping’ sound as he walked down the corridor. The sudden silhouette made him lower his head almost reflexively, and he saw a pair of black boots that someone had taken off and left lying in the corridor…

Three hours ago, the little miss wearing this was standing on the stairs of Endless Night carrying a huge box as a birthday present. She had her head lowered timidly and was looking at him as he stood at the bottom of the stairs.

“…. heh.”

He chuckled with an ambiguous meaning, approving some of her cleverness.

He Jinxing’s dark eyes calmly swept across every private box.

In the middle one, he saw a smashed cake. Someone was probably pushed against the cake as a prank at some point…

His eyes moved away from the cake emotionlessly.

Gou An was not here.

He Jinxing pushed open the second-to-last private box, and there was finally a ripple in his originally calm eyes. He smelled a strong smell of blood.

He immediately raised his hand to turn on the light and saw the entire scene in the box at a glance.

At first, the blood on the cracked coffee table made the man’s hand stiffen when he turned on the light.

But soon he discovered that there was a person lying between the sofa and the coffee table with his face covered in blood. His head was still bleeding, and there was a faint slap mark on his face. The broken glasses on his wound looked like they would perfectly fit the crack on the coffee table.

The man was probably in a coma due to a concussion and was unconscious.

The sudden, suffocating feeling in his throat disappeared without a trace. He Jinxing walked forward, squatted beside the unconscious man, raised his hand, grabbed the man’s hair, lifted his face up and took a look. There were scratch marks on his chin.

Like he was clawed by a cat.

He Jinxing’s eyes flickered and his fingers loosened, causing the man to fall back to where he had been lying originally. He Jinxing stood up expressionlessly and walked to the window. The window was open, and it made a slight creaking sound as it swayed in the night wind.

When he stretched his head to take a look, he saw a water pipe extending downwards just outside the window. The rusty water pipe showed signs of being heavily stepped on by shoes (or rather, bare feet) as someone climbed down.

Judging from the messy trampling marks, this wall-climbing technique was not very good.

… Perhaps a large cat had scratched a person and thought it could naturally climb down walls and roofs, but in fact it could only clumsily climb down the water pipe from the third floor.

“…”

He Jinxing was silent for a few seconds, thinking that film ratings were indeed necessary.

Those improbable science fiction stories erroneously advertised as action films—where the spy protagonist had nine lives like a cat and could slide down dozens of floors bare-handed and still survive—were simply not well directed and were not at all suitable for children.

He Jinxing reached out and considerately closed the window.

Then he went out to the corridor, picked up the discarded boots and took them to his SVIP room on the fourth floor.

In the bathroom, he slowly washed off the blood that had gotten on his hands when he was lifting some person’s face off the floor.

He Jinxing returned to the first floor at a leisurely pace. When he came down, two gangsters that were handcuffed to a dancing pole were chatting.

“Did Long ge and the others find that person?”

“No, we let that bastard get away.”

“Damn, then what’s the point of working overtime during the holidays?”

“I don’t know. This is stupid… so annoying.”

He Jinxing walked past them expressionlessly and randomly found the police officer closest to him. He kindly reported that a wounded person was found on the third floor and his injuries seemed to be quite serious, so he might need priority treatment.

While he was explaining the situation upstairs to the police officer, He Ran came rushing in like a gust of wind, pushing and shoving his way through the crowd, jumping and yelling at him, “Young Uncle! Young Uncle! I just called Gou An’s family, and her mother said Gou An called home just now! She said she’s fine, just a little scared, but she escaped with the crowd a long time ago, and her phone was lost in the process. She’s too drunk to go home now and is staying at a friend’s house—“

He Ran’s words came one right after the other; he couldn’t hide his excitement as he finished it all in one breath.

He looked like he was greatly relieved.

It was as if he was truly glad that he didn’t cause any real trouble because of his negligence.

This nephew of his said a lot. He Jinxing first politely gestured to the police officer to end their discussion, then he turned around and asked He Ran a strange question without any context, “You said, she’s drunk?”

“Ah, she drank a little. It was my birthday party! But it’s okay. It didn’t delay her from coming out of here smoothly—”

“En,” He Jinxing nodded without comment. “You should go back too.”

“?”

The man’s calm face made He Ran’s mood—which had already relaxed in excitement and relief—tense up again, as if he was a creature that could always accurately sense the slightest sign of danger in the air.

The words of relief that were about to come out of his mouth suddenly stopped, and the boy stared at this elder in front of him, who was actually not much older than him, but was, in fact, slightly higher in generation.

“What’s wrong?” He Ran asked.

“It’s okay,” He Jinxing said, “You go home first. It’s so chaotic tonight, the old man must be worried about you—“

He Ran nodded slowly and was about to turn around and leave when he heard his young uncle finish the second half of the sentence, saying each word slowly…

“Once everything is settled, I will personally go to the Gou family to discuss the cancellation of your engagement with Miss Gou.”

The low, slow voice was calm.

It was as calm as the weatherman reporting on the weather after the daily news broadcast, reminding people that it would rain tomorrow and that everyone should bring an umbrella when going out.

From the Day the Engagement was Broken translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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Chapter 20.2 — Why Did You Only Come Just Now?
Chapter 21.1— Ye Lang: the Already Captivated Man
Chapter 21.2 — Ye Lang: the Already Captivated Man
Chapter 21.3 — Ye Lang: the Already Captivated Man