“Have you become mute? Is your mouth sealed with superglue? Have you lost the ability to speak?”
Finally, Jin Yiheng said, “Daddy, I was wrong.”
“Why so?”
“I shouldn’t have lied or started playing video games before finishing my homework.”
He glared at Jin Yiheng and said, “You just didn’t take my words seriously. Finish your homework before coming downstairs for lunch.”
He then left as soon as he finished speaking.
Pursing his lips, Jin Yiheng put his video game console away and took out his homework quietly while Jin Rongyan continued reading his medical book. Jin Yiheng urged, “Hurry up and take out your workbook.”
“Brother, my teacher didn’t leave any homework for us.”
“…”
After finishing his homework, Jin Yiheng headed downstairs to see that Jin Qingyan was sitting on the couch and watching a movie.
“Daddy, I’m done with homework.”
He had brought his workbook downstairs this time, thinking that Jin Qingyan would check it again. However, Jin Qingyan simply glanced at him and said, “Go have your meal.”
Jin Yiheng proceeded to the dining table with his workbook.
Auntie Chen served the dishes and caressed Jin Yiheng’s head. “Your daddy is not in a good mood today. Be obedient and try not to provoke him.”
He murmured, “Granny Chen, he provoked me too. By the way, where is my mommy?”
“She’s at your god… your mother-in-law’s house,” said Auntie Chen.
Jin Yiheng hurriedly wolfed down his food and headed upstairs again to put his workbook away before running to Long Tianze’s house.
The ground was covered in snow after an afternoon of snowfall.
Jin Rongyan and Long Xiaoxi were in the midst of building a snowman. Upon the sight of him, Long Xiaoxi exclaimed gleefully, “Yiheng, let’s build a snowman.”
He walked forward and asked, “Is Mommy here?”
“Yeah, she’s talking to my mommy.”
Jin Yiheng expressed assent and decided to join in the fun.
Long Wenlun also joined in. The snowman-building session quickly became a snowball fight. Jin Yiheng rolled a snowball that he planned to throw at Long Wenlun. However, it ended up on Jin Qingyan’s face instead.
Everyone fell silent immediately.
“Yiheng, you’ve hit Godpa…” said Long Xiaoxi.
Jin Yiheng immediately took flight and fell down due to the slippery roads. However, he quickly got up and ran away again, vanishing out of sight in no time.
Jin Qingyan stared at the direction that Jin Yiheng had run to and thought to himself, He can’t escape forever. That rascal, I’m going to teach him a lesson later.
He wiped the snow off of his face as a frown creased his forehead. It was rather painful for him when the snowball hit his face.
After Jin Qingyan left, Jin Rongyan said to Long Xiaoxi, “Uh-oh, Brother’s going to face the music.”
“Again? Has Godpa punished him already?”
Jin Rongyan nodded and said, “Yes… Brother lied to Daddy about having completed his homework. Daddy then found out that he was playing video games instead of completing his homework.”
“Will Godpa punish him for the snowball?”
“I don’t know…”
Long Xiaoxi immediately zoomed toward the living room. Upon seeing Jin Qingyan, she hurriedly hugged his leg and exclaimed, “Daddy!”
Long Tianze waved at Long Xiaoxi frantically and exclaimed in terror, “Baby, your father is here!”
Long Xiaoxi ignored him and said to Jin Qingyan, “Don’t hit Yiheng. If you must hit him, hit me first!”
Everyone was dumbfounded.
Jin Qingyan said, “I didn’t hit him.”
“I mean, don’t hit him later.”
“I won’t. I’m not the kind to hit my son,” said Jin Qingyan, who had forgotten about the times where he hit Jin Yiheng.
After hearing his promise, Long Xiaoxi nodded in satisfaction. “I believe you.”
She ignored her father’s misery and scurried out of the door again.
Long Tianze said with a sigh, “That’s it. My daughter has become yours when she hasn’t even grown up yet.”
Jin Qingyan sat down and said, “You should be happy that she has found a good set of in-laws.”
“When Xiaoxi called you ‘Daddy’ just now, she completely forgot about me.”
Jin Qingyan chuckled and said, “Your daughter is so protective over my son. They’re definitely childhood sweethearts.”
“I really envy you for not having a daughter. I’ll have to lose my daughter to someone else one day.”
“…”
After a long while, Fan Shixin arrived and informed An Xiaoning that Jing Chu had been assaulted in the hospital and was abducted by a group of anonymous people.
Greatly taken aback, An Xiaoning asked, “Did that woman find her?”
“I don’t know. I watched the surveillance camera footages and those people were clearly after Jing Chu. The two bodyguards who were in charge of protecting Jing Chu got injured. They said that they were no match for those people who were extremely skilled.”
“Just who are those people? Seems like Jing Chu’s predicament and background are not as simple as we think. She was dumped in the Widows’ Village and treated poorly ever since she was young. She had no idea how she ended up there either and had never been to school before. Her name derived from the tattoo on her arm. She’s really pitiful. We must find out where she is, no matter what it takes.”
Fan Shixin nodded and said, “Of course. However, we don’t even know who those people are.”
“It definitely has something to do with her real identity. We must do everything we can to find her,” she instructed.
Fan Shixin did as he was instructed.
At the same time, Jing Chu was forcefully shoved into a car. She had no idea who her abductors were because they had blindfolded her and pasted some duct tape over her mouth. Her arms and legs were tied together too. After receiving treatment at the hospital, she was supposed to be able to start walking soon. However, there might be further complications now that she was abducted before she even got to recuperate.
She knew that she was in a disadvantageous position and wanted to escape.
After giving it some thought, she realized that there was only one solution she could adopt.
It was to relieve nature’s call on the spot.
She peed her pants immediately, causing the men to stop the car the moment they smelled the unbearable stench of urine.
One of them removed the tape on her mouth and gave her a tight slap immediately. He hollered, “Bitch! How brazen of you!
Before Jing Chu could even cover her face, she immediately said, “I need to do a number two. I can’t hold it in anymore.”
The man had no choice but to pull her out of the car. It was seven o’clock in the evening, and the sky had already turned pitch black because the days were shorter in winter. However, the streets were still rather crowded.
Hence, they had to untie the ropes around her limbs in order to avoid arousing suspicion. They removed her blindfold too. Two of the men then followed her to a shopping district to look for a washroom.
