She’s a Passerby, But Can See the Protagonist’s Halo

Chapter 140

Ji Mingyan was still in a daze as he spoke to Yan over the phone.

He couldn’t comprehend how any of this had happened.

How? How could Jiaojiao just vanish like this?

Neither he, Wen Yu, nor Shen Jingchen could reach her.

Her phone was unreachable, showing as an invalid number.

WeChat displayed that they were no longer connected as friends—messages couldn’t even be sent.

All of them had been blocked.

Just the day before, Jiaojiao had been texting normally. It was as if everything had changed overnight.

Even now, he felt like he was trapped in a dream.

If he could just wake up, Jiaojiao would return, reappearing by his side.

At this moment, every word Ji Mingyan forced out felt like an unbearable struggle.

He didn’t know how to explain it, nor could he articulate it clearly.

Even he, in Ning City, couldn’t make sense of it—how could he possibly convey this to Yan, who was all the way in Bin City? It all sounded so feeble.

"Have you reported it to the police?" Yan asked urgently.

"No, we… we can’t involve the police," Ji Mingyan mumbled incoherently.

"She’s missing, and you’re not calling the police? Have you lost your mind?" Yan snapped over the phone.

"If you won’t do it, I will." Furious, Yan abruptly hung up.

Listening to the sudden dial tone, Ji Mingyan slumped to the ground in panic. His phone rang again.

It was Wen Yu.

Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t bother answering that scheming bastard’s call.

But right now, they were temporary allies.

"Hello? Any news?" Ji Mingyan asked anxiously.

"Nothing. Because of what happened before, the teachers at Ning Normal University refuse to speak to me."

"This is all your damn fault!" Ji Mingyan couldn’t hold back his anger.

If Wen Yu hadn’t tampered with Jiaojiao’s exchange program without permission, she wouldn’t have blocked all of them, cutting off contact entirely.

At first, Ji Mingyan had assumed Jiaojiao was just angry and taking it out on him—that she’d calm down in a few days.

When he’d been removed from her blocklist, he’d been overjoyed. But just as quickly, before he could even enjoy it, he was blocked again, and Jiaojiao seemed to have vanished into thin air.

"My fault?" Wen Yu sneered over the phone.

"Don’t act like the rest of you are innocent."

"Instead of blaming me, why don’t you figure out what resources you can use?"

If they were going to point fingers, no one was blameless.

The call ended on an equally sour note.

---

Elsewhere in Ning City, in the high-rise of a corporate building, Shen Jingchen listened to his assistant’s report.

"As of noon today, there are no records of Ms. Xu’s travel via national railways or airlines."

"According to Mr. Qin’s investigation of Ms. Xu’s residence, there are no signs of forced removal. All her personal belongings remain in place."

"We currently have no way of tracking Ms. Xu’s private assets."

"I see. Keep searching." Shen Jingchen set down his pen, and the assistant took the cue to leave.

"Jiaojiao wouldn’t leave."

Alone in the vast office, Shen Jingchen’s voice was eerily calm.

Just like before, when she was upset, she’d throw a tantrum—but she had never truly left him. She always came back.

A pet cat raised indoors might run away, but it wouldn’t last long on its own.

If she left without taking anything, she’d learn her lesson soon enough and return.

All traces of her online presence had vanished. Shen Jingchen stared at the graduation page of Wenli High School on his computer.

In last year’s graduation photo, Xu Jiaojiao’s image was completely gone.

Her social media accounts, photos across different platforms—now, searching for "Xu Jiaojiao" only yielded results of other people sharing the same name.

How could someone’s entire digital footprint disappear overnight?

Shen Jingchen’s eyes darkened. He sensed deliberate intent behind this.

If Jiaojiao wanted to play hide-and-seek, he was more than willing to oblige. But in this game, once she was found, there would be consequences. She wouldn’t have a say anymore.

"I should’ve stopped waiting," Shen Jingchen murmured.

He disliked forcing people, but if he hadn’t held back, waiting for his little wife to willingly accept him, none of this would have happened.

As for the others—they had never been real competition in his eyes.

When he found her, he wouldn’t give her another chance to see anyone else. There would be no more opportunities for her to slip away.

He would make sure she came back, married him properly, and stayed quietly by his side.

Having lived a second life, his control over the corporation was firmer than ever. He had foresight, plans laid in advance—everything was under his command.

---

By the time Ji Mingyan finally got through to Yan again, he was met with an impatient voice.

"I’ve already reported it to the police. You’re all useless."

Ji Mingyan stayed silent, offering no retort. "What did the police say?"

"Are you stupid? You call 110 and get transferred to the local station for investigation," Yan barked, fury evident in every word.

"Shen Jingchen is already checking the transportation systems, but there's no record of Jiaojiao leaving. Yan, think quickly—where else could she have gone?" he said.

Yan let out a cold laugh. "Then you handle your end, and I’ll handle mine. If someone goes missing and you’re not reporting it to the police, it must mean you’ve got something to hide."

She hung up again and immediately blocked the number.

Report it to the police? Of course she had—just not through conventional channels. Yan reached out directly to Officer Zheng Yi via WeChat, updating her on the latest developments.

Figuring out how to help Xu Jiaojiao cleanly escape this situation had required multiple revisions of their plan.

To minimize the use of public resources and avoid a large-scale missing-person search, Yan and her team had racked their brains.

In an era of big data and surveillance networks, where everyone’s phone had a camera, making Jiaojiao vanish seamlessly from Ning City without supernatural intervention was nearly impossible.

Flights, high-speed trains, regular trains—all were digitally tracked. Flight information, in particular, was notoriously easy to leak, given how often scams involved fake "flight cancellations."

Driving would take too long, and there was always the risk of random ID checks along the way.

In ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????the end, after careful consideration, Yan and Zhu Jue decided to use the "Dimensional Convenience Store" as a transit point.

After all, Xu Jiaojiao herself was a reincarnated protagonist with supernatural elements in her life—so encountering a dimensional shop wouldn’t be too shocking, right?

But the more people involved in the plan, the higher the risk of exposure.

So, in every meticulously arranged step, Yan and Zhu Jue ensured that each contact was kept on a need-to-know basis, with no cross-communication between parties.

Private bodyguards Da Bao and Xiao Bao were tasked with extracting Jiaojiao and erasing all traces of her real-life existence.

Professionals handled the liquidation of her assets—luxury goods, properties—while she carried only essential documents, necessities, and easily convertible high-end jewelry.

Originally, Yan’s plan wasn’t for Jiaojiao to disappear entirely, but to make it seem like "a fleeting dream."

She wanted to erase all traces of Jiaojiao’s existence, making it as if she had never existed—confusing the memories of the four scumbags who’d wronged her, making them believe her rebirth had just been a figment of their imagination.

But Jiaojiao had already spent over half a year at Ning Normal University, and her high school classmates still remembered her. Even the members of the extreme sports team from that desert inn recalled her.

To alter memories or rewrite the past, they’d need everyone to either corroborate a false narrative or forget entirely—an impossibly difficult task. So, the idea was scrapped.

Still, they went ahead with wiping Jiaojiao’s digital footprint from the internet.

With Da Bao and Xiao Bao’s help, it was effortless.

Xu Jiaojiao was transported from Ning City to Bin City, then boarded the Xie family’s private jet to Hong Kong before smoothly transferring abroad.

With the dimensional store’s portal as a transit point, moving from Ning City to Bin City—or even crossing dimensions—was as simple as opening and closing a door. Leaving the country became a breeze.

The only hitch was ensuring proper immigration records, so the flight from Bin City had to follow official procedures.

In truth, this part of the plan was the easiest.

The real challenge was getting Jiaojiao to quietly complete her withdrawal from Ning Normal University without alerting classmates or leaking information.

Dropping out after over half a year of study would inevitably spark gossip and speculation.

In the grand scheme of Jiaojiao’s escape, Tan Dabao and Tan Xiaobao handled information security and encrypted communications. Boss Lu from the dimensional store opened the portal twice on command. Lan Ruo arranged the private jet’s flight path and lent the plane.

Yan and Zhu Jue oversaw everything, remotely coordinating each step.

Officer Zheng Yi handled the final cleanup.

For most people, if someone suddenly vanished without a trace, the first instinct would be to call the police.

So why hadn’t they?

Was it habit—relying on their own means to solve problems?

Three sentences were all it took to get someone’s full travel history and real-time whereabouts.

Yan had a feeling Officer Zheng Yi would uncover quite a few surprises.

And indeed, Zheng Yi, stationed in Ning City, did stumble upon some surprises.

Just as she received intel from her confidential informant, the cold case reactivation task popped up on her screen again.

She had another case on her hands!

By early May, Yan and Jue Jue received confirmation that Xu Jiaojiao had settled in safely.

In a Nordic country bathed in the glow of the auroras, winter had passed, and the days now stretched to 18 hours of sunlight—the best time of the year was just beginning.

Xu Jiaojiao would spend the next three months traveling before awaiting her university offer in the fall.

Everything—from the language and cultural customs to the climate—felt utterly unfamiliar to her here, yet Xu Jiaojiao didn’t feel the slightest discomfort. A new life meant starting over from scratch, didn’t it?

Besides, Jiaojiao knew there was always a door left open for her, ready to welcome her home anytime.

Even now, recalling the moment she witnessed a door suddenly materialize in her room, she still found it unbelievable.

Beyond that wooden door lay a space straight out of a fantasy world, and its owner hadn’t asked a single question. With the simple act of closing and reopening the door—as if traversing dimensions—she had crossed half of Xia Country and arrived in Bin City.

For a moment, she almost believed she’d become the protagonist of a fantasy comic.

Deep down, Jiaojiao carried a secret no one else knew.

In her past life, also at Wenli High School, there had been no classmates named Yan or Zhu Jue in her class.

But whoever they were, whatever secrets they held—

they were her dearest friends, and she would forever keep their mysteries safe.