Very Pure and Ambiguous: The Prequel

“Yes. It’s like this, I hired a driver in the local area and I am going to give him a photo so he can help me pay attention and see if he can get any information!” I explained.

“It turns out to be this. It is a good idea. Wait, I will immediately find it and then sed it to your mailbox!” Liu Yue said. {TL: Mailbox refers to E-MAIL}

In 1999, even if there weren’t many hotels in China that had internet access, the place I was at had already had internet access. So long as the cable was plugged into the notebook, the internet could be accessed. {TL: Notebooks refer to a Laptop.}

I immediately checked my mailbox. Although there were several unread messages, there wasn’t any from Liu Yue. It might not have been received yet.

At this time, the telephone inside my room rang. I picked it up, the call was from the reception of the hotel who informed me that a man was looking for me, asking if the reception could tell me to meet him. I knew that it was Luke, so I told the receptionist to let Luke to my room.

Before long, Luke pushed open the door and entered the room, “Hadn’t you two gone out?”

“Yeah, but it’s like this...” Mark told Luke about the issue.

“Girlfriend? Is your girlfriend also a Chinese?” Luke asked after listening.

“Yes, of course,” I nodded.

“I had a few guests a few days ago, they were also Chinese. But, it seems to be a family that was traveling, so your girlfriend shouldn’t be with them,” Luke said to himself.

“What!” I was shocked by Luke’s words, “A family? Is it a family of three people?”

“Yeah, is there something wrong? What’s the problem?” Luke didn’t understand why I was so excited.

“My girlfriend should be with her parents! So there will be three people!” I quickly said, “Did they take your car? Where did you pick them from?”

“I picked them from the Rialto Bridge, they were headed to the St. Mark’s Church,” Luke said after thinking for a moment.

“Rialto Bridge? Is that also an attraction? Is there any hotel nearby?” I immediately saw a ray of hope.

“Yeah, Rialto Bridge is also a scenic spot, it’s a bridge. There seems to be no hotel nearby......” Luke shook his head.

Ah, so that’s the case! I sighed in disappointment. Suddenly, I remembered Yang Mei’s photo. So long as Luke could confirm if Yang Mei was really in Venice, I would have a greater chance and assurance of finding her!

I refreshed the “Inbox” and found a message sent by Liu Yue! I opened the message, downloaded the attachment, and then opened the image.

It was a picture of Yang Mei at the company when she was working. Yang Mei was sitting before the computer table, reorganizing documents. There was a calm smile on her face.

“Her! That’s her! I remember her!” Right after the picture loaded on the screen, Luke immediately pointed at Yang Mei and said loudly.

“You are sure it was her!” I turned my head towards Luke and felt that it was incredible. How could the world have such a coincidence!

“I remember because this girl was also speaking Italian, so my mind has a profound impression of her!” Luke said, “Moreover, this girl was very cheerful and talked to me about various local customs and scenic spots!”

Italian? Cheerful? If it wasn’t for Luke’s affirmation, I would definitely doubt he saw Yang Mei! I can’t relate someone like that to Yang Mei!

Yang Mei could speak Italian? Why had I never heard of something like that? And Yang Mei was very cheerful? Well, yes, she was a cheerful girl, but now... shouldn’t she be in a melancholic mood?

“Did she tell you her name?” I wanted to determine if the person Luke was talking about really was Yang Mei.

“It seems that she told me but I don’t remember. You know, the names of the people in your country are very weird, there are no rules at naming, so I don’t have much impression of her name!” Luke shrugged and then said, “Pardon me! I am very sorry!”

“That’s not an issue, different customs use different names. Just like your full name, if you tell me, I might not be able to remember!” I didn’t care much and laughed, “Since you are sure that it was her, I at least have some clues! At least, I know that my girlfriend is still in Venice!”

“If that’s the case then why don’t you publish it in the newspaper and make everyone help you look for her?” Mark suggested after thinking.

“Publish in a newspaper?” I smiled bitterly, it’s not like I had never thought of that! However, I was afraid that as the matter stood, the momentum will be too big and if Yang Mei found out, who knows if she will leave Venice ahead of time. The loss will outweigh the gains! “I am afraid that once she saw the news, she will leave the city immediately!”

“Ah, so that’s how it is! I actually have an idea, but......” Luke hesitated when trying to say something.

“What is it? We can listen and see if it’s feasible!” I asked hastily. Now wasn’t the time for just one person to find a solution, the more opinions the better the chances to quickly find Yang Mei’s whereabouts.

“It’s like this, the drivers in the same Taxi Corporation have a relationship of mutual benefit, our company is no different! Also, there is an internal trade union. I can get the picture printed and distribute it to my coworkers. We can seek their strength to look for her!” Luke saw that I was listening very dedicatedly, so he said, “As the matter stands if one of them picked up your girlfriend, they can immediately inform us!”

“This is actually feasible!” I nodded, “We will do according to the method you just suggested!”

“But there is one thing that I have to say first!” Luke looked at me with some embarrassment and said, “Since we are going to have people do the work for us, they will need to be rewarded as well!”

I laughed after listening to his words. It was a normal phenomenon for the people of the capitalist countries to make a profit from everything, “Say it, how much do you need me to pay?”

“Sir, you are misunderstanding me. My brother and I have already taken money from you, so we will not ask for any more of it!” Luke quickly shook his head, “What I meant is a reward for the coworkers. Since we are looking for the person and they are going to help us, if they found the person, we should definitely reward them corresponding remuneration for their service!”

“So that’s what you meant!” I nodded and said with a smile, “It doesn’t matter, you can go ahead and arrange everything according to what you think will be viable. You can decide the remuneration for their work as well!”

“Sir, you are really generous. With your words, I won’t have problems working either! Otherwise, if one finds a stingy employer, not only people don’t want to handle their matters, it’s possible that no one will do a thankless task!” Luke said happily.

I transferred the responsibility for this matter over to Luke. Although Luke said that he didn’t need any other rewards, I still gave him a large sum of money as activity funds. Luke was pleasantly surprised at the time and went all out in the arrangements.

Sure enough, right after Luke issued the photos, there was an immediate effect. Two drivers recalled that they had driven for Yang Mei, but that wasn’t important since that was a thing in the past. Now, what we had to see was how the search went now.

When Luke was doing this, I wasn’t idle either as I was thinking of other ways to find Yang Mei.