Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
No one answered.
Ling Ciye exited the room and said sluggishly, “Did she sneak out again?”
Jin Qingyue opened the door. Just as she was about to go down to search for Jin Bao’er, she was greeted with the sight of the latter squatting by the door, giving her a huge sense of relief.
Jin Bao’er had already dozed off while squatting.
Jin Qingyue carried her into the room and opened all the windows to let the air in.
“Why didn’t you turn off the stove after preparing dinner last evening?”
“I remember having turned it off properly. Or did I forget to?”
Ling Ciye set his laptop down on the coffee table in the living room and opened it to watch the surveillance camera footage.
The two of them instantly got the chills after watching.
The footage showed that Jin Bao’er came out of her bedroom at two o’clock in the morning while Jin Qingyue and Ling Ciye were both asleep and entered the kitchen. She then left the house and never came back since then.
Clearly, Jin Bao’er was the one who turned on the gas stove.
Ling Ciye had never felt so exasperated before, not even when he found out that she was the culprit behind the bird carcass in the tomato soup. It had never occurred to him that Jin Bao’er would be brazen enough to try and kill them both.
Grabbing his hand with both her hands, Jin Qingyue looked at him nervously and said, “Brother Ciye, don’t get angry. Let me handle this matter. I promise this won’t happen again. Trust me, alright?”
She was extremely worried, fearing that he would break up with her because of the incident.
Ling Ciye rubbed his throbbing temples and asked earnestly, “Is Bao’er really only six years old?”
“She’ll turn six on the 20th of January next year.”
He stood up and said with a sigh, “She’s not just a mischievous and detestable child. I actually fear living with her. I think you should think through it carefully and weigh the pros and cons on your own. I’ll be going to your brother’s place for a while.”
Jin Qingyue was overwhelmed with dejection, and her heart sank as she watched the door close.
She folded her arms and a sullen expression formed on her face. She recalled gaining a tremendous amount of weight when she was pregnant with Jin Bao’er and insisting on keeping the fetus despite the countless number of times Shi Shaochuan had been unfaithful toward her. She even raised Jin Bao’er single-handedly and showered her with all the love she could offer.
Would Jin Bao’er have turned on the gas stove if she hadn’t known that it could kill?
She was so young, yet already so relentless…
Jin Qingyue was overwhelmed with misery, and tears began streaming down her face uncontrollably, like a broken string of beads.
She remained seated on the couch all the way until daybreak.
Jin Bao’er woke up to find that she was already lying on the bed. She then sat up straight and caught sight of her mother packing her luggage. “Mommy, I’m hungry,” she said, completely forgetting about what had happened the night before.
After sorting the luggage, Jin Qingyue dumped a set of clothing onto the bed and said, “Change into this and freshen up. I’ll send you to your father’s place afterward.”
“Really?” Jin Bao’er jumped for joy and hurriedly proceeded to put on her clothes.
“Are you aware of the consequences of leaving the gas stove on?” Jin Qingyue asked calmly.
“I… I just wanted to stay with Daddy but you refused to let me,” said Jin Bao’er.
“So you decided to kill me and Uncle Ciye by causing a gas leak.”
“You won’t die from gas poisoning. Daddy said it’ll at most teach you a lesson, how is it possible that you would die?” Jin Bao’er asked in puzzlement, staring at her mother with her eyes wide open.
Jin Qingyue took a deep breath. Shi Shaochuan was indeed the instigator! she cursed in her head.
“Your Daddy lied to you. Inhaling an excessive amount of gas will lead to poisoning, which would ultimately be fatal. We’ll all die.”
Shi Shaochuan must have been thinking of using his daughter to poison Jin Qingyue and Ling Ciye to death, just so he could be granted the rights to Jin Bao’er’s custody.
“Hmph, I don’t believe you. Daddy wouldn’t lie to me.”
Jin Qingyue took another deep breath and said, “Since you trust your father so much and desperately want to stay with him, I’ll fulfill your wishes. You may go live with him from today onwards.”
Jin Bao’er skipped to the bathroom merrily to wash up.
Little did she know, Jin Qingyue felt as if her heart had been stabbed a million times.
She was anguished and miserable.
Half an hour later, Jin Qingyue and Jin Bao’er showed up at the Shi family mansion.
Shi Shaochuan was pleased to be greeted with the sight of a sulky Jin Qingyue. “Wow, what’s going on this morning? You were just granted full custody yesterday and yet you’re now here to drop her off,” Shi Shaochuan sneered with a smirk.
“Shi Shaochuan, didn’t you want Bao’er to be under your care? She wants to stay with you too. Hence, I shall fulfill both of your wishes.” Jin Qingyue walked toward her car and took the luggage out of the trunk. “This is Bao’er’s luggage.”
“Bao’er, be good and listen to Daddy. Go inside the house first, I’ll go back in to look for you after I’m done talking to Mommy,” Shi Shaochuan instructed coaxingly.
Jin Bao’er nodded and zoomed toward the mansion without looking back at all.
Shi Shaochuan leaned closer toward Jin Qingyue and purposely lowered his voice. “Didn’t you say we would wait and see who gets the last laugh? It’s only been a night and you already can’t stand it?” he taunted.
“Despicable! You tried to make use of Bao’er to kill me. Dream on! Since she’s so supportive of you and wants nothing more than to live with you, you’d better raise her well. I’m sure she’ll grow to understand who really has her best interests at heart when she’s older. I shall see for how much longer a hypocrite like you can keep up with the pretense,” Jin Qingyue snapped scornfully.
“I’m true to Bao’er, she’s my flesh and blood. Forget about letting her acknowledge someone else as her father. I will never agree to it. But you’d better watch out. Who knows? You might just die in your daughter’s hands one day. That’d be really pathetic.”
“I’ll give you the custody since you want it so badly. You’re right, I’m still young and I shouldn’t be letting you and the child affect my happiness for the rest of my life,” said Jin Qingyue, who had already thought it through carefully.
Shi Shaochuan did not expect her to have come round to the idea of letting him have the custody so soon, given how adamant she was the day before.
“It’s best if you think that way. I’ll change Bao’er’s surname. Since she’s my child, she obviously has to take my family name.”
“Suit yourself.”
——
“Ah!” Xu Youran shrieked as she was jolted awake from her nightmare. She clutched her chest and began panting heavily.
Gu Dongcheng struggled to open his eyes and asked with a frown, “What’s wrong?”
“I had a nightmare.” Xu Youran got out of bed and picked up the kettle on the table to pour herself a glass of warm water, which she then downed in one go.
Pursing her lips, she continued, “I dreamed of Yuan Mingzhu.”
Gu Dongcheng picked up the remote control and switched on the heater.
“What happened to her in the dream?”
“I dreamed that she was trying to strangle me to death. She said that I caused her to die. Dongcheng, I think it was either Gu Beicheng or Jin Qingyan who killed her. What are we supposed to do now?” exclaimed a flustered and panicky Xu Youran.
“Come here, let’s have a good talk,” said Gu Dongcheng, patting the spot beside him.
Xu Youran snuggled up into his embrace and said worriedly, “I feel really unsafe now.”
“Are you afraid that one of them would try and kill you too? I’ll send more bodyguards to escort you around. No one would dare to be so brazen as to take your life,” he reassured her, placing an arm around her shoulder.
Recalling Yuan Mingzhu’s appearance in her dream, Xu Youran closed her eyes and said, “Dongcheng, getting rid of Jin Qingyan and Gu Beicheng would greatly put my mind at ease.”
“You want to get rid of both of them at the same time?” Gu Dongcheng questioned apprehensively, thinking that it was a far-fetched idea and a near-impossible task.
