The snow was falling harder and harder.
For people from the north, ten centimeters of snow was nothing more than a typical winter scene—but this storm was on a completely different level.
Beyond a meter’s distance, the world had turned into a blinding white haze. Even human figures were reduced to blurred smudges of light. All sound seemed to have been swallowed by the snow.
Shen Jianchen paced restlessly in the heavy snowfall. He wiped his face, the coldness in his palm mixed with a vicious rage, deepening the gloom in his eyes.
The bodyguards of the Shen Group, the ship’s crew, and uniformed coast guards—hundreds of people had turned the entire port upside down. Even plastic bottles buried on the seabed and broken fishing nets had been dragged up.
But there was no sign of Wu Xiaomei’s corpse. Not even a shadow.
“Nothing found?” His voice was like ice, each word slamming into the snow-covered ground, carrying barely restrained fury.
How could things go so wrong? It was absurdly unlucky!
Reborn into this life, he had thought he could seize every advantage and make up for all the regrets of his past life. But reality kept going against him.
When Wu Xiaomei awakened her spatial ability, he had almost laughed out loud—that was the most valuable ability in the apocalypse. With it, food, fuel, and medicine would all be secured.
But now she was gone—and with her, all the supplies in her space had sunk into the sea?
“Where’s the body?” Shen Jianchen grabbed a consultant from the Shen Group by the collar. His knuckles turned white with force.
“She jumped into the sea—where could the body go?”
The consultant’s face flushed red from being choked, brows tightly furrowed.
“Mr. Shen, currents near the dock can easily form rip tides… If she was swept away, then… then it might be impossible to recover her.”
Those words—“impossible to recover”—hit him like a hammer.
He suddenly released his grip, the light in his eyes dimming instantly.
A rip current… it was like a bottomless abyss of the ocean. Wu Xiaomei’s body could have drifted anywhere—anywhere except back to this port.
So his advantage in this reborn life… was gone the moment it arrived?
Standing nearby, Lin Tianrou tightly clutched her scarf, her fingertips digging in until they turned red.
Her face showed just the right amount of concern, but beneath her eyes was unmistakable heartache.
Everything she relied on in the apocalypse—the supplies in Wu Xiaomei’s space—were gone just like that?
“Is there surveillance here?” Lin Tianrou’s voice trembled slightly.
“How did Xiaomei suddenly jump into the sea?”
A crew member shook his head helplessly.
“Miss Li, the surveillance system is broken and under maintenance.”
Lin Tianrou frowned even deeper. She turned to look at Shen Jianchen, lowering her voice as if trying to plant a suggestion.
“Jianchen… I have a bad feeling. Call Su Su. What is she doing right now?”
“Li Su?” Shen Jianchen turned to her with obvious impatience.
“It can’t be her! We just called her before boarding—she was at home. The GPS tracking hasn’t moved at all!”
How could he suspect Li Su?
That woman—discarded by him in his previous life, the one who died right in front of him—had long been excluded from his plans after his rebirth. How could she possibly know their plan? How could she possibly touch Wu Xiaomei?
“Jianchen, Xiaomei was our friend after all.” Lin Tianrou gently tugged his sleeve, tears glimmering in her eyes.
“Just call to check. At least let her know. Otherwise people will say we’re heartless.”
Shen Jianchen felt disgusted, but something in her words struck a lingering doubt in his heart—one he didn’t want to admit.
Grinding his teeth, he still took out his phone and called Li Su.
At that moment, Li Su was driving along a snow-covered highway, still sixty kilometers from home. The thin layer of snow made the road slippery, forcing her full concentration.
Suddenly, her phone rang.
On the screen, the name “Shen Jianchen” lit up.
Her expression instantly darkened. Her grip on the steering wheel tightened.
Unrelenting ghost.
Hadn’t he just called her earlier? What now?
A cold glint flashed in her eyes, and she decisively rejected the call.
Without hesitation, she picked up another phone and called her sister-in-law, Ning Zhenzhen.
“Sister-in-law, I need a favor. As fast as possible.”
“What’s wrong, Su Su? What happened?” Ning Zhenzhen’s voice was full of concern.
“Quick—put on one of my outfits, a hat, and a mask. Take the car I usually drive.” Li Su spoke quickly but steadily.
“Outside the main gate, under the rockery, there’s a GPS tracker. Take it with you.”
“Go to the city center mall. Have Mom take a photo of you leaving from behind while driving—make sure the license plate is visible. Send it to me.”
Although confused, Ning Zhenzhen immediately agreed.
“Okay, I’ll do it right away.”
She was only two months pregnant, her belly not yet visible. Her figure was somewhat similar to Li Su’s. Dressed the same and seen from behind, it would be impossible to tell them apart.
Back at the port, Shen Jianchen listened to the busy tone on the phone, his face turning increasingly ugly.
“Li Su… why aren’t you answering?”
He clenched his phone tightly, knuckles white.
“Damn it…”
Suspicion in his eyes grew like wildfire.
Could it really be her?
Had she taken Wu Xiaomei?
But how could she possibly know their movements? How could she make an awakened ability user disappear without a trace?
She had clearly already been excluded from their circle!
“Jianchen.” Lin Tianrou carefully observed his expression, then spoke cautiously.
“Could she… have been reborn too?”
Shen Jianchen froze.
“If she was also reborn, then she’d know everything.” Lin Tianrou lowered her voice.
“Wu Xiaomei’s spatial ability was shown in the meeting room before. If Li Su has been watching us, she must have known long ago. The stolen supplies from the company… and even Li Yang suddenly being able to jump two meters… maybe all of it was her doing.”
Shen Jianchen’s heart sank heavily.
He suddenly remembered the police mentioning surveillance footage: Li Su had been seen entering the company around 8 p.m., but there was no footage of her entering the sixth floor.
It looked like she went straight to the rooftop, stayed briefly, then left.
At the time, he only found it strange.
Now it seemed suspicious beyond measure.
“I’ll call her again!”
Shen Jianchen gritted his teeth and redialed.
He was extremely conflicted—part of him hoped Li Su had not been reborn and everything was coincidence, while another part secretly hoped she had been reborn, so he could shift all blame onto her instead of admitting his own incompetence.
But the call rang for a long time… until it automatically hung up.
Li Su still did not answer.
Shen Jianchen’s face turned completely dark.
Lin Tianrou watched his tense profile, a flash of malice passing through her eyes.
“Jianchen… even though I don’t want this either, we have no choice.”
“Maybe… we should just kill Su Su?”