After Ming Yan left, Minghan Law Firm seemed to be enveloped in an eerie, oppressive atmosphere.
Huo Hanshan tried to numb himself with work, but his efficiency had never been lower.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, attempting to refocus on the computer screen, yet found himself inexplicably rising and walking out to the open office area.
Ming Yan’s workstation was already empty.
So clean, as if no one had ever occupied it for five years.
A cleaning lady was pushing a cart over, starting to empty the small trash bins beside each desk.
When she reached Ming Yan’s spot, the lady habitually dumped the contents of the small bin into a large garbage bag.
Huo Hanshan’s gaze inadvertently swept over it, and his entire body froze—
Amidst the pile of scrap paper and snack wrappers, a few items stood out painfully.
A faded movie ticket stub…
A custom bookmark engraved with the characters ‘Minghan’…
A fruit candy, melted and misshapen, stuck to its wrapper…
And…
Many similar little trinkets.
Scattered and fragmented, yet each had been Ming Yan’s ‘treasures.’
And these things…
Huo Hanshan had vague memories of some, while others he had no recollection of at all.
But now, without exception, Ming Yan had thrown them all away like trash!
Shouldn’t she have cherished and carefully kept them?
Just like before…
Hadn’t she kept that candy for years?!
A tightness gripped Huo Hanshan’s chest, more overwhelming than ever before, as if something had completely slipped from his control.
“Stop!” he suddenly growled, startling the cleaning lady.
Huo Hanshan rushed over in a few strides, disregarding dirt or decorum, and began rummaging through the garbage bag with his bare hands!
“Law… Lawyer Huo?” The cleaning lady was stunned.
Han Jin hurried over at the commotion and was also taken aback by the scene. “Old Huo, what are you doing?!”
Huo Hanshan seemed not to hear. He just stubbornly kept searching, picking out those soiled little items one by one, clutching them in his palm.
The sticky feel of the candy, the cool edge of the bookmark, the rough texture of the ticket stub…
Each one seemed to mock his previous certainty.
She wasn’t just throwing a tantrum.
She really… didn’t want them anymore.
Along with these ‘trash’ that held the memories of the past five years, she had discarded them all.
“My phone…” Huo Hanshan suddenly looked up, his face pale and panicked like never before. He turned to Han Jin. “Where’s my phone?”
Han Jin quickly handed him his phone.
Huo Hanshan dialed Ming Yan’s number.
“Sorry, the number you have dialed is currently unavailable. Please try again later…”
The cold automated message repeated again and again.
He hung up and called again.
Still no connection.
He could no longer care about anything else. Grabbing his car keys, he rushed out.
“Old Huo! Where are you going?! We have a client this afternoon…” Han Jin shouted after him, but Huo Hanshan’s figure had already disappeared into the elevator.
…
Speeding all the way, Huo Hanshan couldn’t even remember how many red lights he had run.
Only one thought filled his mind—find her!
He had to find her immediately!
The car screeched to a halt at the foot of Ming Yan’s apartment building. He practically threw open the car door, dashed into the elevator, and pounded forcefully on the door of Ming Yan’s apartment.
“Ming Yan! Open the door! Ming Yan!” His voice carried an urgency he himself hadn’t noticed.
He knocked for a long time, but there was no response from inside.
Just as Huo Hanshan’s heart was sinking bit by bit, the lock clicked and opened from the inside.
Huo Hanshan’s heart nearly leaped into his throat, only to freeze instantly upon seeing the person who answered the door—
It was a stranger, wearing an apron and holding a spatula.
The man looked to be around thirty, with a kind and honest face, and was staring at him in confusion.
“Who are you looking for?” the man asked.
Huo Hanshan’s mind went blank, and all the blood in his body seemed to rush to his head!
In Ming Yan’s apartment…
Why was there a man?! And wearing an apron?! Looking as if he lived here?!
An absurd and infuriating thought suddenly surged in his mind—had she found someone else so quickly?!
So her resolute departure was because she already had someone else lined up?!
Overwhelming rage and a sense of betrayal instantly consumed all of Huo Hanshan’s reason!
His prideful composure and self-control vanished completely in that moment!
“Where is Ming Yan?!” Huo Hanshan grabbed the man by the collar, his question practically squeezed through gritted teeth.
The man was startled and tried to break free, “Hey, who are you? What are you doing?! Let go!”
“I asked you, where is Ming Yan?!” Huo Hanshan completely lost control and swung a punch!
He had trained in taekwondo and sanda, and the force behind his anger was something no ordinary man could withstand.
Caught off guard, the man staggered from the punch and crashed into the doorframe, blood instantly appearing at the corner of his mouth, and the spatula clattered to the floor.
“Are you insane?! How dare you hit someone?!” The man was furious too, wiping the blood from his mouth and raising his fist to fight back.
Just then, a woman wearing a matching apron ran out of the kitchen with a scream. Seeing the scene before her, she shrieked in fright and rushed over to shield her husband, glaring angrily at Huo Hanshan. “Who are you? Why did you hit my husband?! I… I’ve already called the police!”
Huo Hanshan’s fist, halfway through another swing, froze in mid-air.
Husband?
His bloodshot eyes fixed on the unfamiliar couple wearing matching aprons, then swept around the room—the living room decor had changed, the sofa covers were a different color, and unfamiliar children’s shoes were placed by the entrance…
There… was no trace of Ming Yan’s life here at all.
A terrible thought slowly surfaced.
“Where… where is the previous resident?” Huo Hanshan’s voice was dry and hoarse, carrying a barely noticeable tremor.
The female homeowner, both frightened and angry, spoke rapidly, “The previous owner? She sold the apartment to us! We just completed the transfer procedures yesterday! Who exactly are you? If you don’t leave now, I really will call the police!”
Sold…
She sold the apartment…
Not only had she thrown away everything related to him, resigned from her job, but she had also sold the apartment that held five years of memories!
She intended to erase every trace!
To disappear completely from his world!
Huo Hanshan seemed to have all his strength drained from him, staggering back a step and colliding with the cold wall.
A sharp, unfamiliar pain shot through his heart, almost suffocating him.
For the first time, his usually expressionless face showed unmistakable devastation and… panic.
The police arrived quickly.
Han Jin followed closely behind, mediating, taking notes, apologizing—he was the one bustling around handling all the formalities.
Meanwhile, Huo Hanshan, the great lawyer who had always dominated the courtroom in Jingdu and never tasted defeat, stood silent as a soulless puppet.
It wasn’t until both parties had reached a settlement and were preparing to leave that the couple reluctantly stepped forward.
Han Jin thought they were still unwilling to let it go and quickly approached them. “You…”
But before he could speak, the woman shoved a bag into his hands, her expression clearly annoyed. “Well… I found this while cleaning the room. It should belong to your friend. I can’t reach her now, so could you pass it to her?”
The unremarkable plastic bag was thrust into Huo Hanshan’s hands—light and almost weightless.
Almost instinctively, he lowered his gaze to look inside. The moment he saw its contents, his eyes darkened with a terrifying intensity…