Chapter 3

The boy was the only heir to the Gu Group.

The police were already searching urgently.

The two incidents were immediately connected.

And just like that…

My call about a lost child became a kidnapping threat in the dispatch report.

I went rigid as I listened.

After a long while, I asked weakly:

“So… did you send all these people to arrest me?”

The officer nodded.

“And the people on the roof across the street?”

He fell silent.

My head began to spin.

“Don’t tell me there’s a sniper team too?”

No one answered.

Their silence told me everything.

I slowly crouched down.

I held my head in my hands.

Despair.

It was over.

Song Ruoxi.

Twenty-three years old.

First day at a new job.

Before I’d even earned a paycheck, I’d made the whole city think I was a child kidnapper.

I wanted to dig a hole and crawl into it.

But just then, Baozi spoke up.

“Dad, Sis isn’t a bad person.”

The boy stepped in front of me.

“She bought me food. She even lent me her jacket because I was cold.”

The man looked at the cream-colored suit jacket draped over his son’s shoulders.

His expression gradually changed.

He crouched down.

“Xiaoyu, tell Dad. Who took you outside this morning?”

The boy lowered his head.

“Auntie Wan.”

The man stiffened immediately.

“Auntie Wan?”

“Mm-hm.”

“Where did she take you?”

“She said she was taking me to the hospital to visit Mom.”

At that, his expression suddenly turned extremely grim.

His wife was in the intensive care unit.

She had not woken up once in the past three months.

And that hospital did not allow young children to visit.

He clenched his fists.

“What happened after that?”

Baozi looked up, his voice childish and soft.

“Auntie told me to wait. She said if I disappeared for a while and was a good boy, Mom would wake up.”

“…”

“She also said Dad would have another baby. If I stayed at home, the baby wouldn’t be born.”

The man’s face went white.

I was stunned too.

What was going on?

I thought I was involved in a lost-child case.

Why had I suddenly stumbled into an inheritance fight?

But what sent a chill down my spine was Baozi’s next reaction.

The boy suddenly looked over the crowd behind him.

Then he retreated in fear.

His little hands clutched my jacket tightly.

“Big Sis…”

“What is it?”

“Auntie’s here.”

I looked up.

Not far away, a woman in a white dress stood beside a luxury car.

She looked about twenty-seven, with softly curled long hair and a gentle, beautiful face.

When she saw us looking at her, she immediately came over.

“Xiaoyu!”

Her voice trembled.

“Oh, thank goodness! We finally found you!”

As she spoke, she reached out to hug the boy.

But Baozi suddenly screamed:

“Don’t touch me!”

The woman stopped.

The boy hid behind me, sobbing.

“Dad! She’s the one who left me behind!”

“She said that if I didn’t listen to her, Mom would never wake up!”

The smile on the woman’s face vanished.

Mr. Gu slowly turned around.

“Lu Wanning.”

His voice was so cold it made my skin crawl.

“Explain yourself.”

Chapter 3: The Woman Who Cried Innocent and the Camera That Couldn’t Lie

Lu Wanning stood frozen for two seconds.

Then tears immediately spilled down her face.

“Zhe, are you suspecting me?”

Gu Mingzhe did not answer.

She continued through her sobs:

“I’ve been taking care of Xiaoyu for the past three months. Your sister has been in the hospital, and I even gave up my job to come help at your house. I treated that boy like my own!”

“And now, just because of a few words from a child, you think I deliberately abandoned him?”

As she spoke, she turned to look at me.

Her expression changed at once.

“Or…”

She slowly pointed at me.

“Did this young woman teach Xiaoyu to say that?”

Me: “?”

Huh?

What does this have to do with me?

Lu Wanning wiped her tears.

“Zhe, think about it. Xiaoyu had been missing for less than an hour, and this woman had already found him.”

“She even called the police in a threatening tone.”

“Isn’t that all a little too convenient?”

My mouth fell open.

Ma’am.

I haven’t even made it to work yet!

Are you really going to send me to prison already?

Gu Mingzhe looked at me.

The suspicion that had just faded from his eyes returned.

I hurriedly waved my hands.

“No! I really was just passing by!”

Lu Wanning immediately pressed me:

“Then why didn’t you take the child to the police station?”

“Because I was about to be late for work!”

“You had no time to go to the station, but you had time to buy a sausage?”

I was at a loss for words.

Wait a minute.

When she put it that way, it did sound a little unreasonable.

But I bought the sausage because the boy was hungry!

Lu Wanning continued interrogating me:

“You say you don’t know Xiaoyu. Then why is he so attached to you?”

“Because I bought him a sausage!”

“One sausage was enough to make a lost child trust a stranger completely?”

I was so angry my face turned red.

“Then try buying him two!”

Silence.

A police officer standing nearby couldn’t help turning away to cough.

Lu Wanning’s eyes immediately reddened.

“Zhe, did you hear that? She’s still joking at a time like this!”

I was desperate.

No, really.

I was seriously trying to explain!

Just then, a steady voice cut in.

“That’s enough.”

The older officer stepped forward.

He looked at Lu Wanning.

“Ms. Lu, the police will investigate whether Ms. Song is connected to the disappearance. But for now, we need to verify the child’s account.”

Lu Wanning nodded at once.

“Of course. I’ll cooperate fully.”

She sounded very confident.

So confident that I started to wonder whether I really had misunderstood her.

But then the officer asked one question.

“Ms. Lu, did you take the child out of the house this morning?”

“Yes.”

“Where did you take him?”

“I was going to take him to the park. But when I turned around after buying a drink, he was gone.”

“Did you report it to the police?”

“I was so frightened that I called Zhe immediately.”

“Did you go past Wanhe Mall?”

Lu Wanning shook her head.

“No.”

The officer nodded.

Then he turned to a colleague.

“Pull the security footage.”

Lu Wanning’s expression changed slightly.

Only slightly.

But I was standing right beside her, so I saw it clearly.

Ten minutes later.

A video played on a tablet.

In the footage, Lu Wanning led Baozi into Wanhe Mall.

She crouched and said something to the boy.

Then she turned and walked away.

Baozi stood alone by the road.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

Fifteen minutes.

The boy began to cry.

Pedestrians hurried past, but no one stopped.

Until a young woman in a cream-colored suit appeared.