It's past midnight and I'm pacing back and forth. Shan Cai is lying in our bed already, exhausted from the day's horrible events. I look over at her in her little animal-print pajamas and silk eye mask, and I can't help but smile at her cuteness. But even that can't help me go to sleep right now.
I know it's too late to call up the rest of F4, since we're not in our college days anymore. Xi Men is probably already in bed with his fiancée Xiaoyou right now, and Lei is resting for his big violin performance in two days. Mei Zuo has left for the United States to play in this year's World Bridge Championships, and Xiaozi is on tour somewhere in Europe with her new musician boyfriend Thomas.
The only person who I can count on to regularly confide in is the one person I don't want to worry right now, and so all there is left to do is to pace.
Shan Cai might not have noticed it at the police station today, but I did. When the young rookie officer presented a piece of evidence to us that shook me to my core. It could mean nothing, of course. But it could also be the missing piece that suggested that even deeper foul play was involved: a half-torn logo from our rival hotel management group.
I look over at my gorgeous wife in bed right now. Her mouth is half-open and the blanket on her chest is rising and falling with a regular rhythm, so I know that she is fast asleep.
I walk over to her and lightly kiss her on the forehead.
"I promise you I will protect you," I whisper, gazing at her one last time. "And that's why, I have to figure out what is going on."
Putting on some sneakers and a hoodie, I go over to my window. In such a serious moment, I shake my head at the slight bit of humor in it all. Little did I know I would still be climbing out of windows at almost 30 years old. But I gird myself, because I'm about to undertake a serious and almost certainly dangerous mission.
"For her," I say to myself, just like I did on all of those nights before in my youth. "Everything I do is for her."
And then, I jump.