Ye Qingcheng gently clutched her father Ye Tiancheng's衣角. Seeing his daughter like this, Ye Tiancheng slightly bent down, meeting Ye Qingcheng's gaze. Then, he asked Ye Qingcheng, "Hmm? Qingcheng, what is it? Do you have something else to tell Dad?"
Hou Mingzhu, standing nearby, also said, "Qingcheng, Dad has to go to work. After saying goodbye, we'll be going back to school. You can't disturb Dad with his important matters, understand?"
Ye Tiancheng shook his head and said, "Qingcheng is very obedient, not an unreasonable child. And this is no big deal, it won't affect anything. No need to talk about her."
Seeing Ye Tiancheng say this, Hou Mingzhu said no more.
Ye Tiancheng then focused his attention back on his daughter.
Only then did Ye Qingcheng reluctantly speak, slowly releasing her grip on Ye Tiancheng's衣角, "Dad, after you finish work, come home early, okay? I'll miss you."
Hearing his daughter say this, Ye Tiancheng was deeply moved.
He immediately reached out and hugged his daughter, patting her back before replying, "Dad will miss you too. After Dad finishes work, I'll definitely come back early to be with you, alright?"
Ye Qingcheng nodded slightly, responding with a soft, "Mm."
Ye Tiancheng finally waved goodbye to his wife and daughter.
"Xiao Huli and I are going to the company together. We'll be dropped off here."
After saying goodbye, Ye Tiancheng, with Xiao Huli, finally left.
A driver was already waiting in front of the gate. Ye Tiancheng naturally led Xiao Huli into the back seat of the car. Once they were both seated, the driver started the car and drove Ye Tiancheng and Xiao Huli away.
The destination was likely not very close, so the journey was quite long.
Feeling a bit bored, Xiao Huli lowered the partition in the car and spoke to Ye Tiancheng in the back.
He said to Ye Tiancheng, "Big Brother, I don't know what's going on. When I woke up this morning, everything felt a bit off. I don't know what's wrong with me. It's really strange."
Hearing Xiao Huli say this, Ye Tiancheng didn't immediately dismiss his thoughts and words. Instead, he pondered for a moment before asking Xiao Huli, "Is it because of that dream you mentioned you had?"
However, when Ye Tiancheng said this, Xiao Huli seemed hesitant.
He replied with uncertainty, "Maybe, I can't be too sure..."
To be honest, he sometimes doubted himself, wondering if he was making a fuss over nothing. Especially after hearing Hou Mingzhu's words, Xiao Huli was more inclined to think that way. It was perfectly normal to have a dream and then not remember its content upon waking up; it was very common. Why should he care about it?
Therefore, when answering Ye Tiancheng at this moment, Xiao Huli's tone was full of uncertainty.
After answering Ye Tiancheng's question, Xiao Huli asked Ye Tiancheng, "By the way, when we were having breakfast, I heard Sister-in-law say that you also had some kind of dream?"
Ye Tiancheng nodded upon hearing this and replied to Xiao Huli, "That's true. However, I can't quite remember what I dreamt about either. It seems forgetting the content of dreams is indeed very common. We brothers are the same."
Xiao Huli unconsciously frowned, but he only said verbally, "It's indeed like that, and quite a coincidence."
This topic temporarily concluded, and they chatted about other things casually. However, Xiao Huli couldn't shake off his inexplicable and unexplainable unease.
Xiao Huli said to Ye Tiancheng, "Big Brother, it's strange. Most of the time when we go out, we act together. But I always feel like there should be two other people accompanying us."
"Why would I think that? I can never recall such presences around us. Is it a lingering effect from my dream?"
Upon hearing Xiao Huli's words, Ye Tiancheng paused slightly. Something flashed in his mind, but he couldn't quite grasp that fleeting thought, letting it slip away, followed by a moment of disorientation.
He frowned, and after a long while, he finally spoke, "I... I didn't think that way originally. But after you mentioned it, I feel like there really should be two other people around us... It's so strange..."
Xiao Huli had initially thought he might have suddenly gone mad. However, he didn't expect Ye Tiancheng to have a similar feeling after being prompted by him.
He paused for a moment, then suddenly said, "I don't think we'd have such thoughts for no reason. Perhaps this thought has a source?"
"Big Brother, what do you think? If we ask the driver, will he know anything?"
Ye Tiancheng fell into hesitation upon hearing Xiao Huli's suggestion.
He felt a sense of inexplicable self-doubt, yet instinctively didn't want to pry into anything, which made him hesitant.
To ask, or not to ask?
They hadn't figured out what the problem was, and if there truly was a problem, how could they be sure the driver wasn't part of it?
What if asking the driver led to them being misled?
Ye Tiancheng also had a vague sense of his own abnormality, but he kept falling into a daze and would soon forget about it, as if something was preventing him from voicing these anomalies.
After thinking for a moment, he said, "Let's ask him then."
As for whether the driver would tell the truth, Ye Tiancheng couldn't guarantee it. However, without any information, Ye Tiancheng would have no direction for his thoughts. Therefore, whether it was the truth or a lie, it was better to listen.
Upon hearing Ye Tiancheng's words, Xiao Huli opened the partition again.
He asked the driver in front, "Where are the two people who usually accompany me and Big Brother? Why aren't they here today? When will they come?"
Xiao Huli was clever. He didn't ask any overly strange questions directly.
If he had immediately asked the driver, "Do other people usually accompany us to the company?" such a question would immediately sound problematic. After all, if he himself didn't know about his own affairs, it would be too strange.
But with the way Xiao Huli asked, he could handle any response from the driver.
If the driver thought those two people didn't exist and found it strange, Xiao Huli could claim the driver misunderstood and use other excuses to gloss over it.
After Xiao Huli asked, the driver in front indeed listened to Xiao Huli's words and asked with a hint of strangeness, "Where are the other two people? Don't Mr. Ye and Young Master Ye usually go to the company together?"
"It's just the two of you."
Hearing the driver's reply, Xiao Huli almost thought he was having a delusion and was indeed overthinking. If it weren't for the fact that Ye Tiancheng had a similar feeling, he wouldn't have believed so many coincidences. He almost would have let it go.
After thinking for a moment, Xiao Huli changed his approach, "I'm not talking about those who go to work with us, but the two gentlemen from last time who were with Big Brother and me. Don't you remember?"
He tried to use a more vague statement to fool the driver.
Moreover, this might even elicit some unexpected information.
Hearing Xiao Huli say this, the driver actually fell into deep thought, trying to understand Xiao Huli's words. He pondered whether he had misunderstood his employer's question and tried to match the combination of two people he remembered seeing acting with and traveling with his employers to Xiao Huli's words.
He muttered, "Last time? Last time..."
After a long while, the driver hesitantly said, "Recently, if I have to say, Young Master Xiao Ye, are you referring to the two gentlemen who hitched a ride last time? Do Mr. Ye and Young Master Ye have any arrangements with them?"
"I apologize, I haven't received any notification and am not aware of the situation."
"Perhaps you could try contacting those two gentlemen directly?"
Ye Tiancheng and Xiao Huli immediately exchanged glances.
Could their somewhat confused memories be related to those two who hitched a ride?
Moreover, they didn't seem to remember such an event clearly. However, after hearing the driver's words, they vaguely felt like it might have happened. But even if it had, they couldn't recall how to contact those two.
If those two were indeed hitchhikers, why would they have hitched a ride with them?
What was their relationship with these two people?
What if they were just two passersby who needed help, and after hitching a ride, it would be difficult to contact them again?
However, it seemed inappropriate to inquire further with the driver.
Ye Tiancheng and Xiao Huli lowered the car's partition once more.
Ye Tiancheng pondered for a while, took out his phone, and scrolled through his contacts. He suddenly noticed that two new contacts had appeared on his phone, but he seemed to have no recollection of them.
Moreover, looking at the remarks, one was "Captain Nie" and the other was "Assistant Liang."
This seemed a bit strange. People referred to as "Captain" were not too common. In ordinary companies, such titles were rare. The term "Captain" easily brought to mind a team.
This feeling evoked organizations that were usually either security guards, bodyguards, or perhaps police officers, firefighters, and the like.
In any case, it didn't feel like an ordinary title.
Furthermore, Ye Tiancheng had an inexplicable intuition that the titles noted in his phone's contact list leaned more towards the latter types.
Ye Tiancheng showed his phone to Xiao Huli and then asked him, "Do you have any impression of these two people? Do you have their contact information saved on your phone?"
Xiao Huli leaned over and took a look.
His expression showed a hint of confusion. He hesitated for a moment and gave an answer similar to Ye Tiancheng's feeling. Moreover, Xiao Huli checked his own phone and discovered that he also had these two contacts.
The two brothers looked at each other for a moment. Xiao Huli asked, "Big Brother, what do you think? Should we contact these two people?"
Ye Tiancheng looked at his phone screen, lowered his head, and pondered.
Since waking up this morning, Ye Tiancheng had felt that something was off everywhere, yet he instinctively didn't want to delve deeper. However, his entire being felt split in two, with the other half desperately wanting him to figure out what was going on.