"Zhu Yaya, Dad is at Yale Supermarket. Come over quickly."
Yale Supermarket was a small grocery store very close to Zhu Yaya's home.
Zhu Yaya lazily let out a yawn. What was going on with her dad? Why was he calling her out in the middle of the night?
Forget it, Zhu Jianjun probably had some sort of emergency. However, asking her to go to the supermarket... Could it be that he went grocery shopping and realized he didn't have any money on him?
This...
Was actually highly possible.
After all, Zhu Jianjun was a good man who handed his entire paycheck over to his wife.
To rescue Zhu Jianjun from being held up by the cashier, Zhu Yaya struggled in bed for a long time before finally climbing out. She changed into the new clothes Zhao Jing had bought for her. Without even brushing her hair, she just casually ran one hand through it while using the other to send Zhu Jianjun a WeChat red packet.
Being broke herself, she sent Zhu Jianjun a 100-yuan red packet, hoping it would help him out of his emergency.
She was just about to open the door, her hand already resting on the doorknob, when she suddenly noticed something wasn't quite right.
She pulled up the text message Zhu Jianjun had sent her and looked at it again. Something was off! Why didn't Zhu Jianjun send her a WeChat message instead of a regular text? Wasn't that a waste of phone credit? Since they had WeChat, why wouldn't he use it? The red packet she sent on WeChat hadn't even been opened! Furthermore, Zhu Jianjun usually called her Yabao. Why did he use her full name this time?
At this thought, Zhu Yaya felt a chill run down her spine and was no longer in a hurry to leave.
She pondered for a moment and dialed Zhu Jianjun's number on her phone. The phone emitted a series of ringing beeps.
Zhu Yaya held her breath, listening nervously to the sound coming from her phone, comforting herself in her heart and hoping she was just overthinking things.
The ringing of the unconnected call continued to echo from the phone. A short while later, the call connected.
Zhu Yaya gripped her phone tightly and swallowed hard, not daring to make a sound. The other end of the line was also dead silent, without a single trace of noise. However, the call was quickly disconnected.
Zhu Yaya's heart immediately sank.
Something was wrong.
Zhu Yaya's mind raced.
The person who sent her the message was definitely not Zhu Jianjun. Someone had taken his phone. As for why they didn't send a WeChat message? It was probably because Zhu Jianjun had a passcode on his phone. Unable to unlock it, the person had taken out his SIM card, put it into their own phone, and used Zhu Jianjun's SIM card to text her.
She began to worry about Zhu Jianjun. Zhu Jianjun never let his phone out of his sight, so how could it have fallen into someone else's hands? Was it stolen? Or was it something else?
Zhu Yaya was a little afraid to keep thinking about it. The more she thought about it, the more terrified she became.
What did the person impersonating Zhu Jianjun want to lure her out for? Did her phone call just now alert the enemy?
Cold sweat broke out on Zhu Yaya's back. She shuddered. Just as she was about to call Yan Heng, as if by telepathy, Yan Heng sent her a voice call request on QQ.
Zhu Yaya's eyes grew hot. Like a drowning person catching sight of a piece of driftwood, she answered it immediately.
"Yan Heng, I think something has happened to my dad."
"Yaya, something happened to Uncle Zhu."
The two people on the voice call spoke at the same time. Yan Heng reacted quickly, asking Zhu Yaya in return, "How did you know something happened to Uncle Zhu?"
"What! Something really happened to my dad!" The tears brimming in Zhu Yaya's eyes immediately fell. With a crying tone, she told Yan Heng about the text message she had just received from Zhu Jianjun and her own deductions.
The veins on Yan Heng's hand bulged, and his heart felt as if it had been tightly gripped by someone. "Stay in the house. Lock the doors and windows. I'll be right over."
"Okay. What... what happened to my dad?" Zhu Yaya obediently followed his instructions.
"Uncle Zhu was attacked. He lost a lot of blood and has already been taken to the hospital for treatment. Aunt Zhao is here too." Yan Heng gripped his phone tightly. "Now find a place to hide and don't make a sound. No matter what noises you hear, do not come out."
He suppressed the panic and fear in his own heart and softened his voice. "Be good, hide well. I'll hurry over to find you."
"Okay." Zhu Yaya choked back her sobs and covered her mouth.
After ending the call, Yan Heng looked grim. He turned to Zhao Jing, who was weeping silently beside him, and said, "Aunt Zhao, someone impersonated Uncle Zhu and tried to lure Yaya out of the house."
"What?" Zhao Jing screamed. She understood what this meant.
She grabbed onto Yan Heng's clothes, her tears flowing uncontrollably. Her entire body trembled, shaking like a leaf. "Yabao, is... is she okay?"
Her desperate gaze reminded Yan Heng of the exact same look of despair his mother had when she was tortured seven years ago.
In that instant, it was as if he had returned to the nightmare he had experienced at the age of ten.
The darkness in Yan Heng's eyes deepened, and his breathing grew heavy. He would not let the people he cared about suffer misfortune ever again!
"Aunt Zhao, you stay here and look after Uncle Zhu. I've already told Yaya to lock the doors and windows at home and hide. I'll head over there in a bit. Don't worry, I'll also notify the police to go there."
Zhao Jing nodded tearfully. When she let go of him, she almost collapsed to the floor.
Yan Heng hurried out of the Imperial Capital Third People's Hospital. While calling several police officers he knew, he hailed a taxi and rushed toward Zhu Yaya's home.
On the way, with a tense face, he urged the driver to speed up.
"Young man, I'm already going as fast as I can. Any faster and we'll get into a car crash."
Yan Heng could no longer register anyone else's words. He pursed his thin lips tightly, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead and palms. His heart kept pounding, feeling as if it were going to leap out of his chest.
Yaya, don't be afraid. I'll hurry over to protect you.
He didn't want the nightmare from ten years ago to repeat itself. He had already lost his closest kin; he didn't want to lose his true love too!
After Zhu Yaya ended the call with Yan Heng, she forced herself to calm down. She turned off all the lights in the house, lightened her footsteps, carefully checked all the doors and windows, and drew the curtains.
After a moment's thought, she took off the slippers she was wearing and left them by the door. Although she had socks on, she still felt a chill rise from the soles of her feet when she stepped on the icy floor. Zhu Yaya shivered.
She felt as if the blood vessels in her brain were about to burst. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to stay calm.
If someone broke in, they would usually check the bedroom first.
Zhu Yaya first tiptoed into her own bedroom and stuffed a few throw pillows under the blanket to create the illusion that someone was in bed. Then, she gently laid a stool on its side and moved it close to the door inside the room. She left the door slightly ajar and squeezed out through the gap.
She didn't hide in the wardrobe, nor did she hide in the bedroom. Instead, she quietly slipped into the house's storage room. The storage room was quite messy, piled up with old furniture and various odds and ends.
Zhu Yaya set her sights on a tall, large cabinet in the corner. On top of it sat a giant teddy bear, which was as tall as Zhu Yaya herself. It was a gift Zhu Jianjun had given her previously. She had thought it looked creepy and didn't want it, but she hadn't expected Aunt Zhao to put it here. Wait, Zhao Jing is mentioned, but let me correct that to Zhao Jing as in the original. She hadn't expected Zhao Jing to put it here.
