Miao Shuhui drove Shen Wangshu back to the Si residence.
The moment they entered, Si Yingchu came running over.
She looked at Shen Wangshu’s flat stomach and said joyfully, “Mom, is she really pregnant?”
Miao Shuhui cast a cold glance at Shen Wangshu. “We’ll know soon enough once she takes a pregnancy test.”
Right in front of Shen Wangshu, they openly discussed what they had previously hidden from her.
Miao Shuhui tossed a few pregnancy test sticks at Shen Wangshu. “Go test yourself.”
Shen Wangshu didn’t take them.
The items fell to the floor.
Miao Shuhui immediately shrieked, “What are you standing there for? Do you want me to drag you over there?”
Shen Wangshu calmly pulled out her prenatal checkup report. “No need. I’m pregnant—seven weeks.”
Si Yingchu snatched the report from her, unable to contain the joy on her face.
She said excitedly, “Mom, this is wonderful—it’s twins! Once the babies are born, I can marry Pei Haonan.”
Miao Shuhui also took Si Yingchu’s hand with satisfaction. “Yes, after a whole year, she’s finally pregnant.”
Shen Wangshu watched them with no ripples in her heart. They looked so thrilled and excited, as if they were the ones expecting.
Si Yingchu coquettishly said to Miao Shuhui, “Mom, lock her up quickly. We can’t let her run away again. If she runs off next time and loses the babies, everything we’ve done will be for nothing.”
Miao Shuhui agreed. “My daughter is so clever. Someone, lock her up—chain her hands and feet to the bed.”
For two days, Shen Wangshu had only eaten a single cup of instant noodles, and she’d just been caught in the rain.
Now she was too weak to want to move.
She couldn’t help but cough twice.
Those two coughs drained the last trace of color from her face.
Soaked by the rain, her clothes still damp, she was drenched all over—just like in her previous life, her hands and feet were bound to the bed.
Just as Si Yingchu and Miao Shuhui were envisioning their bright future, Shen Wangshu opened her eyes.
She struggled desperately, rattling the chains with a clatter, and shouted at the top of her lungs in the most pitiful voice imaginable.
She cried out loudly, “Mom, I agree to donate my kidney to Sister! Please don’t lock me up. I didn’t run away—I really didn’t!”
The word “Mom” ignited Miao Shuhui’s fury instantly.
She snapped harshly, “Who told you to call me Mom? Do you even deserve to? Let me tell you, my daughter is perfectly fine—she doesn’t need your filthy kidney. You just behave yourself and carry those babies to term. Consider it repaying the Si family for raising you for sixteen years.”
Shen Wangshu stared at her in disbelief and shouted, “Didn’t I go to the hospital for a kidney transplant? Why do I have a child?”
“Why?” Miao Shuhui sneered. “There’s no ‘why’ about it. Being able to be a surrogate for my daughter is your good fortune.”
Shen Wangshu kept crying and shouting, “Illegal surrogacy is a criminal offense punishable by law!”
Miao Shuhui laughed as if she’d heard a hilarious joke. “Illegal surrogacy? Who would know? I’ll just say you were the one who wasn’t proper and got pregnant from fooling around outside.”
Si Yingchu tugged at Miao Shuhui’s arm and whined, “Oh, Mom, why waste so many words on her? Today is a good day—buy me a handbag.”
“Alright, alright.”
The mother and daughter opened the door cheerfully.
The moment they saw the person standing at the entrance, they froze.
Gu Shaohua was seething with righteous indignation.
Shen Wangshu raised an eyebrow.
See?
What did she say?
Miss Gu, we meet again.
Half an hour earlier.
Gu Shaohua sat in the car, her hands trembling uncontrollably, her mind filled with the image of that red car crashing into pieces.
The background noise outside the car was chaotic—the sound of ambulances, police cars, and people crying mixed in with the rain.
Someone tapped on her window.
Gu Shaohua looked up and saw Liu Ce, wearing a rain poncho and carrying out his duties in the downpour.
When she rolled down the window and he saw that Gu Shaohua was unharmed, Liu Ce let out a sigh of relief.
When he’d seen that red car, he felt like the sky was falling.
Thank goodness, thank goodness.
At that moment, Gu Shaohua didn’t even notice Liu Ce’s concerned gaze. She asked urgently, “That Shen Wangshu—give me her contact information.”
Liu Ce seemed to pause for a moment. “Actually, I happen to have a matter concerning her that I’d like to ask you to help with.”
Gu Shaohua said, “Speak.”
“When I was driving Student Shen home, I got an urgent call for backup. Then Student Shen was taken away by her foster mother. I could tell her foster mother didn’t have good intentions, and I can’t stop worrying about it. How about you go check on her for me?”
As if afraid Gu Shaohua might refuse, Liu Ce quickly added, “For the sake of us being old classmates.”
“You don’t need to use that as leverage—I was going to find her anyway. Give me the address.”
Having successfully obtained the address, Gu Shaohua drove toward the Si residence.
The Si family didn’t live in the city center.
They lived in a villa area on the outskirts.
Gu Shaohua watched the road being lashed by the torrential rain. The windshield wipers cleared away one layer of water, only for the glass to be quickly covered again.
Her beautifully shaped lips were pressed tightly together.
Overpass.
Rain.
As an archaeologist, she was most wary of these things.
The car arrived at the Si residence.
The rain gradually stopped.
It was a three-story villa.
Gu Shaohua was just about to ring the doorbell.
At that very moment, a piercing wail suddenly came from the Si residence.
“Mom, I promise to donate my kidney to my sister, please don’t lock me up. I didn’t run away, I really didn’t run away.”
Just then, the Si family’s servant opened the door.
Gu Shaohua didn’t bother with formalities and barged straight into the Si residence.
And so came the scene of Miao Shuhui opening the bedroom door.
At this moment, Shen Wangshu’s hair was disheveled and damp, her face deathly pale.
Her throat, which hadn’t had much water for a long time, had just been strained from shouting, and she had coughed up a trace of blood from two coughs.
Her hands and feet were bound with iron chains as thick as wrists, and her pitiful state fell upon Gu Shaohua’s eyes.
Gu Shaohua thought of the girl standing at the police station entrance, looking so obedient and well-behaved.
Now she was locked up in such a miserable state.
She couldn’t bear it any longer and directly pulled out her phone to call the police, her tone carrying a hint of anger: “Hello! I’d like to report a crime. There’s someone here suspected of surrogacy and illegal imprisonment.”
Miao Shuhui moved to snatch the phone, but suddenly her foot seemed to be grabbed by something, and she stumbled forward, falling.
Her forehead struck the corner of the table, and she immediately passed out.
Si Yingchu tried to lunge forward to save Miao Shuhui, but in the blink of an eye, she saw a bloody, mangled figure grabbing Miao Shuhui’s foot.
Si Yingchu thought it was an illusion. She blinked, and it was gone.
However, the next second, that bloody, mangled figure shot up from below her, rapidly rising.
Its eyes, as large as copper bells with black-and-white pupils, stared straight into hers.
A voice as rough as if it had burst out of a broken box spoke.
“Were you looking for me?”
Si Yingchu’s breath caught in her throat, her eyes rolled back, and she fainted.
Gu Shaohua stared in shock at the two people sprawled on the ground. She opened her mouth and said, “Classmate Shen, if I told you it wasn’t me who scared them, would you believe me?”
Shen Wangshu blinked but didn’t reply.
Of course, she knew it wasn’t Gu Shaohua who had scared them.