The night in the residential villa area was as quiet as a graveyard, exuding an air of sparse human presence and dead silence. Yan Jun was locked in a utility room on the second floor. The window was small and high, making it impossible to escape. His phone had also been confiscated, leaving him with no doors to turn to for help.
He had no choice but to kick the door hard and roar with all his might: “Open the door, let me out! This is illegal detention, don’t you know that’s against the law?!”
“The law? You’d better worry about yourself first!”
“Now it’s great, the young boss has passed out. If something else goes wrong with him, I’m telling you, you’ll just wait to pay for the damages!”
…A white car? Yan Jun was stunned for a moment, and instantly recalled the broken umbrella in the green belt that day. So Qin Yize had been injured by a car accident, which was why he had wandered into the middle of the road… Turns out he had played the role of a sucker.
Giving a bitter smile, he thought of Qin Yize lying unconscious on the grass just moments ago, and couldn’t help sitting down powerlessly against the door: “How is he… doing now?”
“How would I know.” The bodyguard sneered outside the door, “Just honestly wait it out!”
Looking at the starry sky outside the tall window, Yan Jun felt annoyed and panicked, and patted the door hard again: “…Then give me my phone! I want to call my mom, otherwise she’s definitely going to call the police.”
After a moment of silence outside, the door suddenly opened. The two bodyguards stood outside loftily, looking sidelong as they handed the phone over: “Behave yourself. The boss doesn’t want to lock you up either, he’s just afraid you’ll follow him to the hospital again! If you want to return to Pingcheng, we can help flag down a taxi.”
“…No need.” Yan Jun’s expression was gloomy. “I need to see him safe before I leave.”
Taking the phone and making the call, his mom’s voice sounded somewhat flustered: “Xiaojun?! Where on earth did you go, I’m home now, where are you?”
“Mom…” Hearing his mom’s anxious voice, Yan Jun only then belatedly felt remorse: “I, I won’t be able to go back until tomorrow…”
“What on earth is going on? I only just found out that you had a boy living at our house, and even said he was Huimin’s son? Uncle Wu said that in the afternoon, the kid’s dad came to pick him up, and as a result, you chased after them?!… Where did you chase them to?”
“I’m in Shencheng.” Yan Jun clutched his head with a headache. “…Mom, I’ll explain this to you in detail when I get home. He’s in the hospital now, I… I want to wait for him to wake up before going back.”
“Ah, he’s in the hospital? Then what about you?!”
“I’m fine, I’m doing great.” Touching his sprained ankle, Yan Jun felt irritable and panicked, his head aching terribly: “Mom, you don’t need to worry anyway! Tomorrow when he wakes up, I’ll take a look and then head back.”
“Really?” Yan Fenghang was half-believing, half-doubting. “Then do you have a place to stay, did you eat?”
Yan Jun subconsciously glanced at the bodyguards: “Yes, I have everything, don’t worry!”
“…Then, then Mom will wait for you to come back.” Yan Fenghang finally let it go, hanging up the phone helplessly.
Taking back the phone, a bodyguard raised an eyebrow meaningfully: “Didn’t eat?”
Yan Jun pressed his lips together without speaking.
The bodyguard grabbed a boxed meal and shoved it into his hand: “Alright, eat! The boss doesn’t want to cause any loss of human life.”
He didn’t sleep well all night.
After eating, the bodyguards brought him to sleep in that same room belonging to Qin Yize, and very generously left the door open: “Leave if you want, stay if you want. If you want to know about the young boss’s condition, then stay put honestly, tomorrow the boss will naturally come looking for you.”
Lying on the bed, Yan Jun was in a daze, thinking of Qin Yize’s unconscious state. Feeling restless, he spent the entire night half-asleep and half-awake.
Finally dragging it out to early morning, he vaguely heard rustling human voices coming from the first floor, immediately opened his eyes, jumped up, and rushed downstairs.
Just as Qin Yaodong was preparing to go upstairs, the two met face-to-face on the stairs, one with a gloomy expression, the other full of unease: “Qin Yize… how is he?”
“Since you care about him so much, why did you come up with such a rotten idea last night?” Qin Yaodong glared fiercely at this reckless kid. “He hasn’t woken up yet, only opened his eyes for a short while, and threw up three times! I’m telling you, if anything happens to him this time, you wait to go bankrupt!”
When Yan Jun heard this, his face turned pale: When he first picked him up back then, he had only vomited once, how come he threw up three times today…!
Unable to help following closely behind Qin Yaodong, he anxiously pursued with questions: “Did you do a CT scan, is it a cerebral edema from the impact? Is there any intracranial hemorrhage?”
“…At least I do a better job than you, not leaving him to live by himself and ignoring him for a whole month!” Yan Jun glared angrily, his eyebrows raised vertically. Clenching his fists, his lean torso did not back down at all, like a young but fierce little wolf baring its teeth with aggressive momentum:
“Yesterday he said it himself, he wants to live with me in the future! Anyway, since you don’t care about him, what difference does it make where he lives? Instead of blaming me, you’d better reflect on yourself and see how you drove your son to this state!”
Choked into temporary silence, Yan Jun’s face flickered between pale and flushed, left speechless.
Qin Yaodong sneered, dropping a “Naïve!” before walking into the room and preparing to close the door. Unexpectedly, this brat threw out another question: “Even so, you shouldn’t go a whole month without contacting him! …Bias is bias, don’t talk it up so nicely!”
Turning around in disbelief, Qin Yaodong looked at this persistent teenager. A low chuckle just escaped his throat before it was instantly drowned out by the other’s disdainful voice: “You said you were busy with work, then why didn’t you toss that kid named ‘Xiaofeng’ to the side too? He and his mom live with you, right? You’re all in Shencheng these days, right? Shencheng is only a little over a hundred kilometers from Pingcheng, what kind of ‘vastly separated worlds’ is that?!”
Upon hearing this, Qin Yaodong seemed poked in his sore spot, his face alternating between red and white as anger finally surfaced: “I give you a bit of face and you don’t know the height of the heavens and earth! Don’t think that because you took care of Yize for a month, I have to be polite to you! Family matters in my house are not your turn to meddle in!”
He turned and walked to the railing, shouting downward at the top of his lungs to the bodyguards on the first floor: “Call a taxi and send this kid back to Pingcheng! …And don’t even think about seeing Qin Yize anymore, honestly roll back and get ready to pay for medical expenses!”
Receiving the order, several bodyguards rushed upstairs, tacitly subduing the teenager attempting to escape and dragging him toward the door. Struggling within their restraints, Yan Jun roared uncooperatively: “Let go of me! …I want to see him! I’ll leave after he wakes up!…”
The heavy door finally closed, cutting off the teenager’s reluctant roars outside. Qin Yaodong watched expressionlessly, then turned and went back to his room.
Dragged to the entrance of the residential area by those tall, burly bodyguards, Yan Jun was dumped into a taxi. The lead bodyguard directly handed five hundred yuan to the driver, solemnly instructing: “Driver, drop this kid off at Jinghe Road in Pingcheng, don’t let him out halfway. He’s still a minor; if you let him out halfway and any accidents happen later, you’ll be held responsible, you know?”
Rarely getting such a large fare, the driver was very happy and made full promises: “Hey, right, I know!” He immediately locked the car doors.
Yan Jun was so angry he pounded the window frantically: “Let me out, I’m not going back to Pingcheng!”
The bodyguards stood outside the door, waving leisurely. The taxi departed immediately, carrying him toward the highway entrance.
“…Shit!” Unable to help cursing angrily, Yan Jun sat up straight, his phoenix eyes glaring furiously, his mind spinning rapidly to think of an escape plan.
The driver glanced at him through the rearview mirror, counseling him in a knowing tone: “Little handsome, did you get into an argument with your parents? Kids your age love being rebellious, but actually parents always do things for your own good…”
“Driver, pull over,” Yan Jun turned a deaf ear, pretending to look anxious, “They forgot to help me grab my ID card! Drive back, all my stuff is at home, and I didn’t take my phone either!”
“Huh?” Slowing down his speed half-believing, the driver hesitated for a second, then turned the car around to head back.
Returning to the entrance of the villa area, those bodyguards were no longer there. Yan Jun immediately opened the door, got out, and ran inside with a limp. The driver even leaned out his neck to remind him with lingering concern: “Come right back after grabbing your stuff, I’ll wait for you!”
Running back near the villa, Yan Jun smartened up this time, quietly squatting nearby and hiding in the green belt to monitor them.
Qin Yaodong had probably returned to wash up and eat. Twenty minutes later, Yan Jun saw him change into casual clothes, stride out the door, and hop into the Rolls-Royce.
Yan Jun followed immediately.
Limping all the way to rush to the estate entrance, that taxi was still waiting outside the main gates. Yan Jun swiftly climbed into the front passenger seat, pointing at the distant Rolls-Royce: “Master, follow that car! Quick!”
“Aren’t we going to Pingcheng?”
Hearing that, the driver instantly perked up: “Alrighty!” He immediately started the car, made a swift U-turn, and enthusiastically gave chase.
Enduring the pain in his right foot, Yan Jun hurried to keep up.
When they chased to the elevator lobby, Qin Yaodong had already entered the elevator. Yan Jun guarded the doors, keeping track that the elevator stopped on the 6th, 9th, 13th, and 15th floors. He took another elevator upstairs to confirm floor by floor.
When the elevator reached the 13th floor, seeing the words “Department of Neurology Inpatient Ward” on the wall, Yan Jun let out a sigh of relief and walked out cautiously.
Moving suspiciously close and pressing flat against the wall, Yan Jun heard him arguing with a female voice:
“Anyway, that’s just how the situation is right now! The doctor says he has a mild concussion and subcutaneous hematoma, and needs half a month of quiet rest. If you’re willing to take care of him these two weeks, come over; if not, I’ll hire a private nurse!”
“Isn’t he fine?!” Qin Yaodong roared impatiently.
“Fine…?! Qin Yaodong, Yize suffered all these unprovoked disasters precisely because of your negligence! If you had cared about him even a little bit, he wouldn’t have been picked up by someone else! One month… a whole month, do you still recognize this son or not? If you don’t, hand him over to me as soon as possible!”
“He Jiuyue, stop turning facts upside down! Back when we divorced, you were the one who didn’t want him first, which is why custody fell into my hands! Anyone in this world can blame me, but not you!”
…
A wave of relief washed over his heart. Letting out a breath, his spirits surged. He secretly followed behind a nurse, searching for the fake child’s traces room by room.
The wards on this side of the elevator seemed to all be double rooms. After checking a few wards, Yan Jun suddenly realized: given Qin Yaodong’s financial power and character, he probably wouldn’t let his son stay in a double room.
Peering forward, he quickened his pace past the nurse and walked toward the other side of the elevator lobby.
True to expectation, these were all single rooms. A little past 8:00 AM, family members were gradually waking up, heading out to buy breakfast for the patients. Yan Jun peeked in through a half-open door gap, seeing an old man living in this room, and a young auntie living in the next… Having checked five hospital rooms in succession, none of them were him. Growing impatient inside, he walked to the sixth room, only to find the door closed and dead silent inside.
Stretching his neck, Yan Jun peeked secretly through the vision window, only able to see the tail end of the hospital bed and a pair of feet covered beneath the quilt.
Could it be Qin Yize?
Gathering his courage, he twisted the door handle… The door panel opened gently with a harsh “creak.” Yan Jun’s entire body froze in a shock that lasted a few seconds. Inside, it was quiet; after a while, a rustling sound emerged, as if the person on the bed had sat up, asking suspiciously: “…Nurse?”
The fake child furrowed his brows abruptly.
“…Yan Jun? Why is it you, why are you here?” he asked uncomprehendingly.
Hearing those words, Yan Jun froze. At that moment, he felt as though he had plunged into a vacuum; his throat was too stiff to breathe, and the expansion and contraction of his lungs completely spiraled out of control. He stared fixedly at the person in front of him whose expression was full of aversion and confusion. His foot swayed, his lips lost all their color, and he stiffly opened them, uttering two hoarse syllables: “…Xiao Shu?”
Qin Yize narrowed his eyes in suspicion, his face plastered with utter bafflement: “Who is Xiao Shu?”
In that instant, the forgotten pain in his right foot was magnified a hundred- or thousand-fold, grabbing hold of Yan Jun like winding vines. He slumped powerlessly onto the floor, his phoenix eyes staring blankly at Qin Yize’s confused and indifferent face, as his heart dived dizzily and deeply downward.