My Dearest General: It Has Always Been You

At four in the morning, all of the apartment's staff were summoned without any warning. It was okay for those who worked on morning shift because they had slept a few hours earlier, but for those in night shifts…they were already sleepy and haggard to begin with and with this incident, they were startled awake, hearts thumping furiously, cold sweat dripping down their backs.

What happened? Why did the big boss suddenly gather us at this time? Did something go wrong? Would we be fired?

That was the main discussion among the staff after they gathered in the meeting room.

The room itself couldn't actually be called a meeting room. It's an empty room the staff used when they took a break during their shifts. There was a long table, chairs, sofas, very suitable for lounging and relaxing. 

But now, the manager was ordered to set up the projector for the first time ever. The solemn and grim face he showed made everyone nervous.

"That…Manager, what exactly happened?"

"Yes, why are we here?"

"Is there something urgent happening?"

"Hush, what kind of thing could happen?"

"You can't guess it…recently there's even a murder around here—"

"Pei, pei, pei, knock wood! Don't talk rubbish!"

The manager ignored the chaos around him as he put up the screen and connected the cable. He wiped the sweat on his forehead and hastily went out to welcome the big boss.

The door swung open and Xu Binchen was the first one to come in, his face extremely dark with brows knitted deeply. The staff instantly rose from their seats and bowed simultaneously. "Boss!"

If this wasn't an apartment and the people weren't staff from all ages, the scene would undoubtedly look like one that came out from a gangster or mafia action movie.

Xu Binchen nodded curtly and went to the head of the table, following behind him were two people who were familiar to all of the staff. It was Madam Shi's daughter who was Boss' neighbor and Mr. Jiang Jinyan—the former renowned athlete—from Room 1902!

Yes, of course they recognized Jiang Jinyan's identity. After all, he used to be a widely discussed topic on Weib8. At the time of his accident, almost everyone talked about him. Even more so, it coincided with the approaching date of the Olympics. The controversy about him was still unresolved up to now.

The receptionist ladies were women who liked to surf through Weib8 to follow the latest gossip and some of them were even Jiang Jinyan's mama fans!

Fortunately, they were all sensible and didn't cause a ruckus. Seeing that Jiang Jinyan didn't really wish for fame and attention, they protected his information securely.

"What is happening here?" someone whispered.

Feng Changjia bit her lips and shook her head, worried. She was one of Jiang Jinyan's mama fans. Of course, she was worried about him. If not, she wouldn't have braced herself to call Boss' number when a complaint came in for him.

She looked at the three people back and forth, anxious to know what was going on.

Xu Binchen pulled two seats and gestured for them to sit down while he operated the laptop to view the surveillance camera. He lifted his eyes, cold gaze sweeping through each person and instantly, all noises died down.

"Everyone is here?" He scanned around and counted. "Good, let us begin."

"Just now, an urgent report came in from Mr. Jiang. He claimed that he had seen a suspicious person on the twentieth floor at approximately 2 to 2.30 am. You should know that Shi Nian is my guest and her safety is my responsibility."

The staff nodded, still confused.

Some of them were relieved. So, it's not murder. Well, a suspicious person wasn't any better either. They focused and turned their gazes toward the large projector on the wall which played the record from 2 am onward.

The hallway on the video was empty and the lights could only be turned on when someone stepped on the floor. Thus, for a few minutes, they only saw greenish scenery as the CCTV's night vision was working. A few female staff held their breath. Looking at this kind of scene was particularly creepy and scary ah!

Xu Binchen fast-forwarded the video until at one point of a time, the hallway suddenly turned bright!

"Someone's there!"

Xu Binchen stopped fastforwarding and the video's speed returned to normal. In the next moment, everyone saw a person come into the screen; male, black hair, black long sleeves sweater, black pants, black shoes. He was especially conspicuous among the bright and clean walls.

Then, the man slowly walked down the hallway, his gait casual and slow and stopped…in front of Room 2002—Shi Nian's house!

Everyone looked on with bated breath as they waited for the man's next movement.

Yet, there was no further development. He was motionless, one minute, two minutes…until five minutes later, as the automatic lights didn't sense any kind of movement, it turned off abruptly and the whole scene plunged into darkness. The CCTV's night vision was working again, illuminating the man's figure in green lights. Yet, he still didn't move.

"Holy shiiit!"

"Ah! What the hell was he doing there?!"

One by one, they couldn't resist cursing.

Standing and staring at someone's door motionlessly in the early hour in the morning was kind of perverted and maniac. They got goosebumps just by watching, okay?!

Shi Nian's face was ghastly pale as she stared at the video. The man's slender figure reflected in her eyes. 

Fear eroded her heart but she found herself unable to look away. The sounds around her gradually went further and she couldn't help but wonder, if…if she were to look out of the peephole, would she meet his eyes directly?

Those eyes that didn't contain any emotions, crazed and ruthless…

A warm touch enveloped her trembling hands and Shi Nian snapped out of her reverie. She turned her head to find Jiang Jinyan's concerned eyes. 

Shi Nian mustered a smile and shook her head by reflex but when the man was ready to pull his hand away, she scrambled to hold on tight to his pinky finger, knuckles turning white from the force she exerted in anxiousness.

Jiang Jinyan didn't say anything but forcefully pulled away. 

Panic and distress filled Shi Nian's heart but not even one second later, his hand snuck closer and slid down her wrist, fingers slipping in between the empty gaps before holding it tight. Their ten fingers gradually intertwined together like two pieces of puzzles.

Shi Nian stared up at him, surprised. But Jiang Jinyan's attention was elsewhere as if the man whose thumb was caressing the soft flesh on the back of her hand wasn't his. Softly, gently comforting. He was so gentle that it made Shi Nian's heart race for a completely different reason.

Heat crept up Shi Nian's cheeks. Finally, the healthy color returned to her pale face.

Their small exchange occurred under the table, thus it was unlikely that anyone would find out about it.

Xu Binchen gave them a cursory glance before looking away. "At 2.10 am, a man came up to the twentieth floor and stood in front of Shi Nian's room until 2.30 am, exactly twenty minutes." He paused. "Mr. Jiang, care to elaborate how did you see him and what did you see?"

Jiang Jinyan squeezed Shi Nian's hand and started in a slow, steady manner. "I went to the rooftop at around eleven and stayed until a few minutes past two—judging from the surveillance record, then it's half past two. At that time, when I opened the door, I saw a man walking down the stairs. He wasn't on the rooftop so I surmised that he was coming down from the twentieth floors. I only saw the back of his head."

Xu Binchen ignored the fact that the rooftop should have been locked, asking, "According to your memory, is it the same man as the one in the hospital?"

The staff looked at each other, confused. What hospital?

Only three people understood that question.

Jiang Jinyan pondered for a while. "…It's not quite the same."

"How sure are you?"

"80%. The height and body build aren't the same." Jiang Jinyan took a deep breath. "May I know who he is? In the hospital, and now…were those people targeting Shi Nian?"

Xu Binchen gave him a meaningful glance. "We will talk about it later. Now, let me ask all of you some questions. Miss Cha, have you seen this person?"

The receptionist lady in charge of today's shift—Miss Cha—stood up shakily. Under Xu Binchen's sharp gaze, the woman was on the verge of breaking down. "N—No, I didn't see anyone coming in or out! I swear!"

Xu Binchen nodded and turned to the security guard uncle.

The latter answered helplessly. "I haven't seen him either."

"So," Xu Binchen concluded. "He's still in this apartment building now."