Tracking

Tao Yaoyao left.

Xu Mingyao lay on her side in bed, her gaze falling on the empty doorway.

She didn't do what she had originally planned—getting out of bed the second Tao Yaoyao left, putting on something concealing, and tailing her.

The reason she didn't do this wasn't that Xu Mingyao was too sleepy to get up.

Rather...

...

Xu Mingyao didn't know what was wrong with herself either.

Suddenly, she found she couldn't bring herself to hate her.

The hatred in her heart, once as sharp and hard as a thumbtack, had unknowingly softened a great deal.

For a moment, she didn't even have the drive to move her exhausted body.

However, after a short while.

Xu Mingyao still dragged herself out of bed.

She loved her.

So it was impossible for her not to care about this kind of thing.

It was just that the hatred, fueled by love and once burning so fiercely, no longer felt quite so scorching.

That hate-filled flame no longer crawled madly toward Tao Yaoyao with bared fangs and claws, intending to swallow, burn, and destroy her.

Even though it still refused to let Tao Yaoyao go, following closely behind her every step.

But it had lost the urge to destroy her.

A hint of conflict was revealed in those scarlet, hate-filled eyes.

Looking somewhat bewildered.

Stepping into her slippers and getting out of bed.

Xu Mingyao dug out a pair of silky wide-leg trousers, a T-shirt, and a pair of cooling arm sleeves from the closet.

Along with a large baseball cap, sunglasses, and a face mask.

She thoroughly hid herself beneath her clothes and hat.

Xu Mingyao took out her phone, her slender, fair fingers tapping on a poorly designed app icon.

Last night, after coming up with the tracking plan, Xu Mingyao had already installed a small plugin on Tao Yaoyao's phone.

This plugin could display Tao Yaoyao's real-time location.

She had bought it for a hundred bucks online.

Its accuracy was extremely high, with a margin of error of less than a meter.

Looking at the red dot on the phone screen moving further and further away from the green dot.

Xu Mingyao subconsciously walked to the window and looked downstairs, just in time to see Tao Yaoyao's car.

This car was assigned to Tao Yaoyao by her company for her use as a corporate executive.

Seeing the sedan leave through the main gate of the residential complex and get onto the road.

Xu Mingyao knew there was no time to lose and quickly went downstairs.

Xu Mingyao didn't have a car.

She hailed a taxi right at the complex gate and told the driver to head straight to Tao Yaoyao's company building.

On the way, Xu Mingyao kept her eyes glued to the phone screen to see if Tao Yaoyao stopped anywhere unusual or took a detour to some other place.

The result was neither.

Nothing at all.

Tao Yaoyao's route was very smooth; it was simply the shortest path from home to the company.

The few stops she made were only to wait at traffic lights.

She never got out of the car during the trip.

The taxi driver was fast.

Xu Mingyao had left nearly ten minutes later than Tao Yaoyao.

Yet when she got out of the taxi, she happened to catch sight of Tao Yaoyao walking out of a coffee shop and turning into the company building.

Watching Tao Yaoyao enter the company all by herself, Xu Mingyao's heart settled a bit.

Tao Yaoyao's company had access control, so Xu Mingyao couldn't get in.

Looking left and right.

Xu Mingyao chose another coffee shop across the street, one with windows facing directly toward the main entrance of Tao Yaoyao's company.

She walked in, ordered a cup of coffee and a pastry, and picked a window seat.

She kept a constant watch on the main doors of Tao Yaoyao's company.

Wanting to see if Tao Yaoyao would leave the company during work hours to go somewhere strange.

Or display any overly intimate behavior with a stranger.

After a whole day of surveillance, Xu Mingyao found that Tao Yaoyao hadn't left the building at all since she first entered.

It wasn't until her shift ended after nine o'clock in the evening.

That she drove away, all alone.

Furthermore, her route home at night was exactly the same as her route during the day.

There wasn't the slightest deviation.

On the phone screen, the small red dot representing Tao Yaoyao had stopped, resting at the location of the residential complex's underground parking lot.

Seeing this, Xu Mingyao sent her a text message.

Asking her to go to the supermarket outside the complex to buy some daily necessities.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Xu Mingyao quickly entered the complex through the side gate, returned home, changed into casual pajamas, and lay on the bed, putting up a facade as if she had been staying at home the whole time.

That night.

While Tao Yaoyao was fast asleep, Xu Mingyao secretly got up, picked up her phone, and carefully inspected it, but still found nothing wrong.

And so it went for three consecutive days—tailing her during the day and checking her phone at night.

Xu Mingyao didn't find anything unusual about Tao Yaoyao.

Her life was just like her unguarded phone.

There wasn't a mess of random things.

Simple and clean.

Even a bit boring.

Xu Mingyao sat by the window at the coffee table, absentmindedly stirring her cold coffee with a spoon.

Had she really misunderstood Tao Yaoyao?

Xu Mingyao couldn't help but begin to doubt her previous thoughts.

Over the past few days of tracking, Tao Yaoyao's behavior had been completely normal.

There were no ambiguous or strange text messages on her phone.

Her daily itinerary was a simple straight line between two points, at most taking a stroll through the vegetable market near their complex.

She didn't go anywhere else.

Thinking about it carefully, Xu Mingyao realized that all her previous suspicions were merely suspicions.

Suspicions without any concrete evidence.

Like duckweed in the wind, completely unable to take root.

Perhaps those suspicions were just coincidences?

For example, the very first thing Tao Yaoyao did when she got home every day was to take a shower.

Maybe she just couldn't stand the feeling of sweat sticking to her body?

After all, she had always been very clean.

The day before yesterday and yesterday, before Tao Yaoyao went to shower, Xu Mingyao had used the opportunity of hugging her to smell her scent.

She had even secretly smelled the clothes she took off.

There was only the scent of the perfume from home, laundry detergent, and Tao Yaoyao's own scent on them.

No other smells were present.

The same went for Tao Yaoyao's previous insomnia. Perhaps it was just as she had said—the project pressure was too great, which caused the sleeplessness.

Once the project was over, wasn't it completely normal for her condition to recover?

As for the occasional late returns, maybe she really did just fall asleep at the company?

After all, she suffered from insomnia frequently during that time; falling asleep at her workstation was not incomprehensible.

After tracking her these past few days, those details that once seemed highly suspicious now felt like a laughable misunderstanding, seemingly not worth mentioning.

Perhaps.

It was time to end this farce.

The heavy boulder in Xu Mingyao's heart finally crashed to the ground. She tugged slightly at the corners of her lips, her naturally charming eyes filled with tenderness.

That's right.

Tao Yaoyao loved her so much.

How could she betray her?

If she really wanted to betray her, wouldn't it be easier to just leave and throw away a burden like her?

Why would she work so hard to support her?

Having figured this out, Xu Mingyao let out a long breath. Beneath the tight sunglasses and mask, a smile that looked on the verge of tears appeared on Xu Mingyao's delicate face.

These past few days.

The pressure on her was simply too immense.

It was enough to make anyone want to break down and go crazy.

Fortunately, however...

Fortunately, it had all just been a false alarm.

This was truly wonderful...

...

Sitting in her chair,

Xu Mingyao slowly stood up, supporting herself on the armrests.

Oh, right?

What time was it now?

She wondered if there was still time to go home and prepare dinner.

Thinking about how she had used feeling unwell as an excuse to make Tao Yaoyao eat takeout for the past few nights,

Xu Mingyao felt a bit guilty. She subconsciously picked up her phone, her eyes falling on the time on the screen, wanting to see if she still had time to prepare a lavish dinner.

With a single glance,

Xu Mingyao suddenly frowned.

When did Tao Yaoyao leave?

On the phone screen, the red dot representing Tao Yaoyao had, at some unknown point, moved far away from the company and was still heading further away.

Xu Mingyao's brow furrowed, and the heart she had just put at ease began to grow restless again.

Staring at the red dot moving further away, Xu Mingyao couldn't help but feel conflicted.

She had already decided to trust Tao Yaoyao.

So was there any need to continue following her?

After thinking it over and over, Xu Mingyao decided to let it go.

Tao Yaoyao was probably just running an errand for work.

She shouldn't be so paranoid anymore.

Having completely set her mind at ease, Xu Mingyao left the cafe and hailed a taxi by the roadside, planning to go home.

Sitting in the taxi on her way home, Xu Mingyao scrolled through some short videos.

The diverse and amusing videos were engaging.

But they still couldn't completely distract her.

She was still thinking about Tao Yaoyao's sudden departure from the company.

It was working hours, and there was no way Tao Yaoyao would skip work for no reason.

It was highly likely that she was out doing something for the company.

But even so,

Xu Mingyao still couldn't help her curiosity, wanting to know exactly where Tao Yaoyao had gone.

With a lighthearted attitude of simply wanting to know where the person she cared about was at this moment, Xu Mingyao reopened the tracking software she had bought online.

At this moment,

the red dot representing Tao Yaoyao had stopped moving.

She seemed to have reached her destination and remained stationary.

Because the distance was too great, the map on the screen was zoomed out, making it impossible to see Tao Yaoyao's exact location.

Xu Mingyao lightly swiped her fingers across the phone screen.

Slowly zooming in on the map.

Over the phone screen,

her two slowly sliding fingers suddenly paused.

Reflected in Xu Mingyao's gradually shrinking dark pupils was the name of a hotel.

Even more conspicuous was a red dot situated right inside that hotel.

It stayed right there.

A timer next to it showed

that it hadn't moved for over ten minutes.