Hearing You Say Love chapter 37

 His Name

Before long, the women returned from their photo session, and everyone had soaked long enough, preparing to head outside to find a barbecue place for drinks.

Su Ming said he was a bit tired and didn’t want to go. But Zou Beiyuan was the star of the day, so he at least needed to go for a few drinks.

“Is there anything you want to eat?” Zou Beiyuan asked him. “I’ll bring it back for you.”

Su Ming didn’t want to eat anything, but he made a drinking gesture to Zou Beiyuan.

Zou Beiyuan: “Want to drink?”

Su Ming nodded.

Zou Beiyuan: “Beer?”

Su Ming nodded again.

Any drink would do; the important thing was to give Zou Beiyuan an excuse to come to his room later.

Zou Beiyuan said, “Okay.”

After Su Ming finished showering back in his room, he remembered that he had left his phone in the hot spring’s locker, so he had to go back to get it.

The hotel was huge, and the design was very inconvenient. To get from his room to the hot spring service center, he had to go down to the first floor and walk through a winding corridor for nearly ten minutes.

When he went earlier with Chen Muchao and Ling Shanshan, it didn’t seem far, but now, alone, he felt lazy and didn’t want to move.

He had been here two years ago, also with Chen Muchao and another friend. At that time, that friend who was with them had led them through a shortcut that saved a lot of time by exiting through the back door on the first floor and crossing a landscaped area that resembled a park.

Su Ming took the elevator to the first floor and, following his memory, found the entrance to the landscaped area.

He remembered that there used to be bright street lights inside, but for some reason, none were lit that day. There was just enough light at the entrance to see the path, but looking inside felt like staring into complete darkness.

The sky was also shrouded in thick clouds, with not a single star visible, let alone the moon.

Su Ming hesitated for a moment, but he thought about how well the hotel had always handled security; there couldn’t be any bad people inside. It was only a bit dark, and he wouldn’t encounter any danger. Besides, going back would be an even longer journey, so he stepped into the wooded path.

After his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Su Ming felt it wasn’t too bad. Having been here once before, he knew that if he followed this path, he would eventually find a way out.

The trees on both sides were very dense, blocking most of the light from the distant street lamps. He felt a bit uneasy and unconsciously quickened his pace.

A few minutes later, he missed his step and fell into a strange pit.

When he first fell, Su Ming was still optimistic. Aside from some minor scrapes on his palms, elbows, and knees, it seemed he had only twisted his ankle; there didn’t appear to be any serious issues.

With the faint light, he noticed that the pit had a very smooth curved surface, and the slope became increasingly steep near the top, resembling a giant bowl.

Su Ming was stunned; he realized he must have fallen into a deep U-shaped bowl.

He never expected that the closest he would get to extreme sports in his life would be in this way.

To get out now, he could only take a run-up from the bottom of the pit and use inertia to propel himself upwards. He tried running once, but a sharp pain shot through his right ankle, preventing him from exerting any more strength.

He couldn’t make it halfway; he ended up lying on the edge, sliding back down like a slide.

Trying again, he still slid down halfway.

Su Ming: …

At that moment, he heard footsteps in the distance, accompanied by the strong beam of a flashlight shining against the wall, likely belonging to a patrolling security guard.

Su Ming’s spirit lifted; finally, someone was coming.

When the flashlight beam swept back over, Su Ming waved his hands desperately, but the strong white light quickly moved away again.

Call for help!

Shout it out!

Su Ming commanded himself in his mind.

He frantically searched for the pronunciation of “help,” but the strokes seemed to occupy most of his thoughts, and he couldn’t find a way to say that word.

A burning sensation filled his throat, making his eye sockets ache.

Perhaps he could just let out a sound like all the mute people do, but that burning sensation was blocking his throat, and no matter how hard he tried, he felt like he was trapped in a nightmare and couldn’t utter a single syllable.

The more anxious he became, the less he could shout.

The footsteps faded, and the flashlight beam gradually disappeared.

Su Ming slumped down onto the ground, realizing his back was wet.

The clouds parted, revealing a sliver of the crescent moon, and the silvery light coldly illuminated the bowl-shaped pit, allowing him to see the full extent of the trap he was in.

It wasn’t very big, but it was high; from the bottom of the pit to the top, it looked to be over four meters. Thankfully, it was a bowl shape, with slopes all around, so he had only suffered minor injuries when he rolled down.

If his foot hadn’t been hurt, he might have been able to jump up.

Su Ming pinched his right ankle and found it swollen quite badly. After trying to run just now, it hurt even more.

He remembered that when he had come here last time, he hadn’t seen this bowl pit; it must have been newly constructed. The designer was really careless, placing such a large pit right next to the bend in the path.

Not to mention it being dark at night, even during the day, anyone walking and using their phone could easily fall in.

The bowl pit was quite clean; there was hardly any dust when he touched it, indicating that people often came to play here during the day.

But did he really have to wait until dawn?

Zou Beiyuan had promised to bring him drinks. If Zou Beiyuan came to knock on his door later and got no response, he would probably assume he was asleep and wouldn’t bother looking for him.

His phone wasn’t with him, and now he truly understood the phrase “calling for help to no avail.”

No, it was worse than that; he couldn’t even call out.

He tried to climb up using both hands and feet, but he couldn’t get very high before sliding back down to the bottom of the pit again.

The curved surface was too smooth, and the friction was minimal, making it impossible to climb out.

So tired, his foot hurt, and he felt very sleepy. After sweating so much, Su Ming decided to give up trying.

He didn’t know how much time had passed when the patrolling security guard returned. He saw the white beam of light again, but he didn’t hear any footsteps.

Something wasn’t right; it wasn’t just the footsteps; he couldn’t hear the chirping of insects or even his own breathing.

Su Ming took off his cochlear implant and put it back on, but still couldn’t hear anything.

The cochlear implant had run out of battery.

And it had to happen at this moment.

He had brought spare batteries in his luggage back in the hotel room.

Su Ming felt as if he had returned to the state he was in before he turned sixteen—deaf and mute.

The flashlight was still moving; he could imagine a security guard just a short distance above him on the path. If he could just catch the guard’s attention, he would be saved.

He began to slap the wall with his hands, but since he couldn’t hear, he couldn’t judge the sound’s volume. Perhaps it was too quiet, and that beam of light left him again.

Despairing, he lay on the slope, staring at the crescent moon, feeling as if even the moon was mocking him.

He might be the only person in the world trapped in a bowl pit with no way out, forced to stay there all night.

After lying there for a while, he tried to make an “ah” sound from his throat.

His teachers at the deaf school had taught him how to use his vocal cords, and he had felt the vibrations in his throat when the teacher spoke; he had once learned to say quite a few words.

And then what?

Then he remembered his grandmother’s disgusted gaze, his mother’s fear, and his father’s indifference.

He recalled the way his father’s lips moved, forming the words: “That sounds terrible.”

After that, he never spoke again.

Remembering his father’s expression when he said those words, Su Ming suddenly closed his mouth; his father looked at him as if he were looking at a rat or a fly.

The burning sensation in his throat resurfaced, the pain unbearable, as if there were blades scraping inside.

Su Ming lay there, staring at the moon, and suddenly remembered that that day was the autumn equinox.

Zou Beiyuan’s birthday fell on such a special day; he probably would never forget it for the rest of his life.

If he told others about tonight’s experience, they would definitely laugh at him; he himself found it quite amusing.

But he knew that Zou Beiyuan would never mock him; when Zou Beiyuan discovered he was missing tomorrow morning, he would be very worried.

He whispered Zou Beiyuan’s name to the moon, unsure if he was pronouncing it correctly and uncertain whether he was actually making any sound, but saying that name made his throat hurt a little less.

….

Two hours ago, Zou Beiyuan had knocked on Su Ming’s door, but when no one answered, he sent messages and made phone calls, yet still received no response.

He felt that Su Ming couldn’t have made plans to drink with him and then just gone to sleep, especially so deeply. He suspected that Su Ming might be sick or something unexpected had happened in his room.

Since Su Ming couldn’t speak, any situation he encountered could be very dangerous, and Zou Beiyuan didn’t dare to take it lightly.

He went to find the room service and asked the housekeeping department to help him open the door. After entering, he found the room completely empty.

Zou Beiyuan immediately called Chen Muchao to ask where Su Ming might have gone.

Chen Muchao was also confused. Earlier, he saw Su Ming ask Little Wolf to bring back drinks; there was no way Su Ming would leave Little Wolf behind and run off by himself at this hour.

The group of people who were still drinking and eating barbecue got the news and rushed back to the hotel.

Meanwhile, Zou Beiyuan had retraced his steps back to the hot springs and, at the service center, used another room card from Su Ming’s room to retrieve Su Ming’s phone.

At 1 AM, the group searched the inside and outside of the hot springs, opening every sauna and massage room, yet still found no sign of him.

Zou Beiyuan was nearly driven crazy, his thick brows furrowed tightly as if he were about to go on a rampage.

Chen Muchao, who was already worried, felt even more sympathy when he saw Zou Beiyuan like this. He suggested in a comforting tone, “Why don’t we go look around outside? He might have gone out for a smoke.”

“Okay,” Zou Beiyuan handed Su Ming’s room card to Ling Shanshan. “Jie, go back to Su Ming’s room to wait. If he returns, just call us.”

“Sure.”

Ling Shanshan took the room card and left, while the others split up to search again.

The hotel was too large; the landscaping alone covered thirty to forty acres, so searching the entire area would take considerable time.

Jiang Mengyu and Jiang Zufan walked together through a landscaped area near the back door of the main building.

Hidden in the shade of the trees was a sign with an arrow pointing toward “Skate Park.” Unless the flashlight beam hit it, it would be hard to notice this sign.

Jiang Zufan was about to walk in when Jiang Mengyu pulled him back. “It’s pitch black inside; he wouldn’t go in there, right?”

“I’ll take a look,” Jiang Zufan said. “If you’re scared, just wait here for me.”

Jiang Mengyu turned on her phone flashlight and hooked her arm through her brother’s. “I’ll go in with you.”

As they shone their phones around, they walked further inside. Jiang Zufan asked Jiang Mengyu, “Is there any chance between you and Zou Beiyuan? If not, you should let him go and stop wasting time on him; I think there’s something going on between him and Su Ming.”

“I’m not willing to give up!” Jiang Mengyu replied, feeling aggrieved. “How many years have I known him? He has only known Su Ming for a short time, and besides, Su Ming is a guy.”

“Isn’t that how feelings are? Who can say for sure? If you don’t like someone, you can’t force it. It’s best not to pin all your hopes on him.”

After a brief silence, Jiang Mengyu’s voice dropped. “But I really like him.”

Jiang Zufan glanced at her. “Does he like you, too?”

Jiang Mengyu fell silent, sulking.

Not long after, a security guard with a flashlight approached them. Seeing them, the guard asked what they were doing.

“One of our friends is missing,” Jiang Zufan explained. “We want to check if he’s inside.”

“Inside? This area is closed; there’s no one in there.” The guard swept his flashlight around, the strong light cutting through the dark woods and quiet paths, faintly revealing the edge of a curved pit at the end of the path.

Jiang Zufan confirmed, “There’s really no one inside?”

“Nobody,” the guard waved them off. “You need to leave; you can’t go in there.”

Jiang Zufan hesitated. “Shouldn’t we at least take a look?”

The guard grew impatient. “No, no! We’ve patrolled several times tonight. If anyone were in there, we would have noticed. I think your friend is probably drunk; you should check near the restaurant.”

The night breeze rustled the leaves, and the flashlight’s beam made the woods appear ominously dark.

Jiang Mengyu tightened her grip on her brother’s arm. “Let’s go back then.”

At 3 AM, the group reconvened at the entrance of the hot springs after searching extensively, all without any results.

“You all should go back and rest,” Zou Beiyuan said, unable to hide his exhaustion and anxiety as he pressed his temples. “I’ll look for a little longer.”

Jiang Mengyu tried to persuade him. “If so many of us can’t find him, where can you look? You should go back and rest too; we can talk again when it gets light. He’s a grown man; he won’t get into any serious trouble.”

Zou Beiyuan repeated, “You all go rest first.”

The more he insisted, the more anxious Jiang Mengyu felt. “He’s an adult, not a child. Are you really worried he might be kidnapped?”

“He can’t speak, and he needs to wear a cochlear implant to hear anything,” Zou Beiyuan said, his mood darkening, his tone not very pleasant. “In extreme situations, he might not be able to hear or speak. Don’t you understand?”

Jiang Zufan interjected, “Zou Beiyuan, calm down. It’s not my sister’s fault that he’s missing. Why are you taking it out on her?”

Zou Beiyuan irritably ran a hand through his hair and apologized to Jiang Mengyu, “I’m sorry.”

Jiang Mengyu murmured, “It’s fine.”

Jiang Zufan placed a hand on Jiang Mengyu’s back. “I’ll take my sister to sleep.”

“Mm,” Zou Beiyuan turned to Xu Jiadi and Yu Dian. “You two go sleep as well.”

Xu Jiadi said, “How can I sleep with you like this? Where can we look now? I’ll go with you.”

Yu Dian suggested, “How about checking the hotel’s surveillance footage?”

Chen Muchao said, “That won’t work; I asked already, and they require a police investigation letter.”

Zou Beiyuan thought for a moment and said, “Let’s check the surveillance footage.”

Chen Muchao asked, “How do we get an investigation letter?”

Zou Beiyuan replied, “I’ll make a phone call.”

As they walked toward the main building, Chen Muchao looked through the glass of the corridor and saw a dark area of greenery that felt oddly familiar. He pointed outside and asked, “Have we checked over there?”

Zou Beiyuan was holding his phone, waiting for the line to connect, and glanced in the direction Chen Muchao was pointing.

Xu Jiadi said, “Jiang Zufan went to check there, but he ran into a security guard who wouldn’t let them in. The guard said there was no one inside.”

Chen Muchao didn’t know who Zou Beiyuan had called at this late hour, but half an hour later, they were invited into the surveillance room, with the hotel manager accompanying them personally.

It had been nearly five hours since they discovered Su Ming was missing. Chen Muchao was feeling extremely sleepy, forcing himself to stay awake in front of the surveillance video, while Zou Beiyuan seemed to be immune to fatigue, intensely focused on the footage.

Based on the time Su Ming returned to his room, they quickly found him on the elevator surveillance footage.

He had changed out of the outfit he wore earlier that afternoon, riding the elevator down to the first floor and exiting.

The sight of him on the video made something twist in Zou Beiyuan’s heart, a fear he hadn’t felt in many years. Despite having faced severe injuries and even the threat of death in the ring multiple times, he had never been this scared.

The manager instructed the staff to search all the areas Su Ming might have passed after exiting the elevator on the first floor. After reviewing footage from more than a dozen cameras, they finally found Su Ming again at the back door on the first floor, as he walked out through that door.

Chen Muchao suddenly woke up from his drowsiness. “Oh, I remember now! The last time I came with Su Ming, we passed through there. There’s a shortcut to the hot spring service center!”

He slapped his thigh and pointed at the screen, exclaiming, “How could I have not realized it sooner? He must have gone back to his room, realized he left his phone at the hot spring, and went downstairs to get it! He took that shortcut!”

The hotel manager replied, “Even if he passed through there, he wouldn’t still be there. That area has seen accidents; our staff patrol every forty minutes. If he were there, we would have found him long ago.”

Zou Beiyuan’s expression turned icy. “What kind of accidents?”

“That’s a newly built skate park with a very deep bowl. A child fell and broke his leg there a while ago at night, so our boss ordered it to be closed after 9 PM every day.”

The sound of metal chair legs scraping against the floor pierced the air, and as soon as Chen Muchao turned his head, he saw Zou Beiyuan rush out the door.