Wang Hao had been tailing Lin Wanyi all day.
He watched her enter the most lavish hotel penthouse, dine at the most upscale restaurants, and soak in the most expensive hot springs.
Then he overheard her casually say she wanted to give Liu Renzhi a child.
Pfft.
He secretly spat in Lin Wanyi’s direction.
What a lowlife. When she was still with him, she refused flat out to have another kid.
She said Wang Keke would be her only child, and she’d never ever let Wang Keke feel left out.
She said she would never favor a son over a daughter.
But look at her now?
It was all a joke.
It turned out she wasn’t against a second child at all—she just didn't want a child with him.
At the end of the day, she looked down on him, thought he was too poor to raise another kid.
But she meets Liu Renzhi and suddenly she’s ready to get pregnant right away?
Damn!
He cursed, flung his cigarette butt hard into the ground.
He wouldn’t let Lin Wanyi get away with it.
No way was he letting her carry Liu Renzhi’s child smoothly.
While he was scheming about how to drive a wedge between Lin Wanyi and Liu Renzhi, he got a call from Wang Kai.
Wang Kai sounded frantic:
“Wang Hao, has Mom called you?
Do you know where she is right now?”
Wang Hao snapped back, impatience scraping his voice:
“How would I know? I’m not even in Wangjiacun. Why call me about this?”
“Then where the hell did she go?”
Wang Kai was panicking: “She took my son, Wang Hao. She took my son.”
Wang Hao stiffened up too:
“You’re joking, right? Your son’s ten years old. How could she just lead him off?
And why would she even take your son?
Has she lost her mind?”
Wang Kai roared down the phone:
“How couldn’t she? Security footage caught her plain as day. She did it.”
Wang Hao didn’t believe it. Chen Hao never acknowledged Liu Xiulan as his grandmother, and he definitely wouldn’t go with her.
He was too old to just be carried off. What could Liu Xiulan possibly do to drag him away?
Wang Hao was still fixated on the whole Lin Wanyi drama, so he didn’t care enough to stick with Wang Kai’s crisis. He just hung up.
On the other end, Wang Kai was a wreck, like a panicked ant on a hot oven.
He’d been working when Chen Qingxiu called shouting that their son was gone.
They searched everywhere. Nothing.
Then they checked the security footage, and Wang Kai got dizzy with rage.
Liu Xiulan had used something to knock Chen Hao unconscious, then threw him over her back and took off.
Chen Hao hadn’t even seen it coming.
Su Ling came home after shopping and found the boy was missing.
Wang Kai frantically called Liu Xiulan. She wouldn’t answer.
Chen Qingxiu was sobbing, smacking his chest:
“Wang Kai, if anything happens to my son, I swear I’ll kill you.
I will murder you, I mean it!”
Wang Kai’s hands trembled as he redialed Wang Hao.
But Wang Hao seemed utterly indifferent.
He got in the car and drove the Chen family toward Wangjiacun.
Along the way, his in-laws kept cursing him:
“Wang Kai, how did you end up with a mother like that? How do people like that even raise a child?
He’s her own grandson! What the hell did she even drug him with?
If my grandson suffers even a scratch, I’ll slit Liu Xiulan’s throat, and yours, too.”
His fingers quivered around the steering wheel.
He had no idea what insanity had gripped Liu Xiulan.
Was she that desperate for a grandson?
Chen Qingxiu sobbed nonstop, dialing Liu Xiulan’s number over and over.
Liu Xiulan never picked up.
An hour later, Wang Kai pulled up outside the Wang family courtyard.
The gate was padlocked with a chain. He couldn’t even get inside.
Their neighbor Zhang Cuihua spotted his car and came running over:
“Wang Kai, you’re back? Your Mom isn’t home.”
“Not home?”
His blood ran cold. “Well, where is she? Do you know where she’s gone?”
Zhang Cuihua could tell from Chen Qingxiu and her parents’ faces that something serious had gone down.
She honestly said:
“No idea. She went out early this morning and hasn’t come back yet.
What did she do? Why are you three in such a panic to find her?”
Wang Kai didn’t have time to explain. He kept trying Liu Xiulan.
Chen Qingxiu had already called the cops. After hanging up, she kicked the Wang family gates and screamed,
“Liu Xiulan, get out here! Right now!
If my son has been hurt, I swear I’ll kill you, I will!”
Then Zhang Cuihua understood:
“So you think your Mom took off with your son? Wow. Did she really lose it over wanting a grandkid?”
Wang Kai was also kicking doors, convinced Liu Xiulan was hiding inside. She never went anywhere but here.
The gate was tied with a chain, so he got so furious he just climbed the wall.
He searched the whole Wang house, tossing everything. Nothing. No trace of a soul.
He went outside radiating fury, pacing around the yard, panting.
Chen Qingxiu pummeled him with fists and kicks.
“Wang Kai, I want a divorce the minute we find our son.
Your entire family is trash—no, monsters, every single one of you.”
She screamed, wailed, kicked the dirt—none of it changed anything.
Wang Kai had zero clue where Liu Xiulan could have gone with his boy.
In a rage, he smashed every couple of things in the yard, marched back into the car, and sped off.
Chen Qingxiu asked where headed. Without a word, he stopped the car in front of Liu Dabing’s house.
That place hadn’t been lived in for over a year; Wang Kai was just taking a gamble.
When Liu Xiulan ranted before, she’d always go to Liu Dabing’s.
But today—she wasn’t there.
Wang Kai tossed the whole place and found nothing.
“Seriously?” he swore, losing his mind. “Where is she, then?”
The police arrived and said they would place an expedited request for surveillance footage from surrounding districts.
Every minute dragged like a year.
The Chen family looked like they could gut him any second.
Finally, an hour plus later, Wang Kai’s phone rang.
He jumped to pick up, hitting speakerphone.
Liu Xiulan’s voice came through:
“Son, where are you right now?”
“Liu Xiulan!”
Chen Qingxiu snatched the words before Wang Kai got a chance—
“Where are you?! Where have you taken my son?
Give him back right now else I’ll make your miserable life hell!
Just tell me where you are, right this second, where?”
She sounded like a heart about to burst.
But Liu Xiulan blew her off all coolly.
“What’s with all this noise, Chen Qingxiu? I’m the boy’s grandmother—just happened to take him on a little outing. Isn’t my right to see my own grandson?
Let me tell you: keep acting like this, you’ll never see him again. I promise you.”
Chen Qingxiu dropped like lead knees-first. Pure venom flooded her chest; she prostrated for the first time ever when it came to this woman.
“No, please. Don’t.
Mom, please don’t do this. Haohao is my whole world. Please don’t hurt him.
Go ahead and take all your grief out on me. Just. Don’t. Hurt. Him.”
“Hahahaha.”
Liu Xiulan cackled.
A blaring, disgusting laugh.
“Didn’t act all high-and-mighty before, huh, Chen Qingxiu? Huh?
See now how seriously thrilled you can act in front of me?”
