Qiuyun glanced left and right, then dragged the trash can beside her over and wedged it across the elevator entrance.
That completely jammed the elevator on the first floor.
Upstairs, Assistant Yang saw that no matter how many times they pressed the button, the elevator remained stuck downstairs and refused to come up. He let out a despairing sigh.
It wasn’t that they couldn’t make another attempt. They simply weren’t being given the chance.
Once Jiang Yijie and Qian Yuqiong learned what had happened, they couldn’t help cursing that Qiu assistant for being utterly devious.
“How can that little assistant look so clean-cut and still have such a rotten heart? Now that Big Brother knows, what are we going to do?” Qian Yuqiong panicked.
Secretary Yang returned to the old master’s bedside. “Let’s get the old chairman back first.”
“And then?”
“Obviously, we run. We’ll figure out the rest later.”
The group hurriedly pushed the old man back into the intensive care unit, splashed cold water on one of the doctors who had been knocked unconscious, and then hurried down the stairs. They exited on a lower floor and left using another public elevator.
Downstairs, Qiuyun borrowed a nurse’s phone. She couldn’t remember her employer’s number, but fortunately, she remembered the young miss’s.
It wasn’t ideal to wake a child in the middle of the night—children needed their sleep to grow—but then again, if it was the young miss, she would probably be delighted to join in on the fun. Qiuyun entered the number, made the call, and then requested a transfer.
Children slept soundly, but the phone watch on Jiang Chuling’s wrist began to vibrate. She woke up soon afterward and answered groggily, “Hello?”
“Hello, Miss. It’s me.”
“Sister Xiaoqiu?”
“I’ll keep this brief. The second branch tried to move the old master’s hospital bed somewhere else, but I stopped them in time. Tell your father to send more people. I’m afraid they’ll go mad and pull out the old master’s oxygen tube, then carry him away down the stairwell.”
After all, once they reached the sixteenth floor, there wasn’t just one elevator or one exit. She couldn’t guard every entrance and exit by herself.
Jiang Chuling’s sleepiness vanished instantly. She rolled out of bed. “Got it. I’ll go find Dad right now!”
She opened the door and ran out, only to crash into the sight of her father in the living room below, dressed in pajamas and slippers and preparing to leave.
“Dad!” Jiang Chuling hurried over. “Sister Xiaoqiu said you should send more people. She can’t handle them by herself.”
“You got through to her?”
After the previous call had ended, Jiang Yihua had tried calling back several times without success. He had quickly contacted the driver on night duty and told him to pick him up at Mingyue Tower.
“Yes, it was an unfamiliar number.”
Jiang Yihua took his daughter’s phone watch. As he headed outside, he called the number back. The call was answered moments later.
“Sir!” Qiuyun briefly explained the current situation.
Jiang Yihua immediately said, “I’ll have Secretary Zhu contact the hospital security department and have them assist you!”
In any case, they absolutely could not let his second brother’s family steal the old master away!
“Damn it!”
After calling Secretary Zhu, Jiang Yihua waited for the car by the roadside, irritably raking his fingers through his hair.
What a vicious scheme. Who would have thought that couple could come up with something so underhanded?
Before long, the car arrived.
Under the streetlights, the headlights cast long shadows. Jiang Yihua suddenly realized there was another short figure standing beside him.
What?
He lowered his head and saw his daughter standing in the cold night air, still wearing her pajamas.
“What are you doing here? Go back inside!”
Jiang Chuling refused. “No. I won’t be able to sleep if I go back now. I want to see Grandpa!”
Before he could argue, she tugged open the car door. As soon as the driver unlocked it, she slipped inside.
“…”
At a time like this, Jiang Yihua had no time to waste arguing with her. He ordered the driver to hurry to the hospital.
Fortunately, there were very few cars and pedestrians at that hour, and the driver ran several red lights along the way.
Meanwhile…
The trash can had been crushed out of shape by the elevator doors. After the security guards moved it aside, Qiuyun took a group of people up in the elevator.
The doctor who had just been roused with cold water endured his dizziness and reconnected all the tubes around the old master’s body. He had to pause every so often whenever the room spun, and only after everything was in place did he have time to press the call button at the nurses’ station.
He waited woozily for several minutes, but no nurse came. Instead, a large crowd came rushing in!
The nurse on duty who had followed them upstairs first checked the patient’s vital signs. After confirming that the old man’s breathing was merely weak, she let out a long breath of relief.
Qiuyun went to the adjoining lounge and saw several bodyguards sprawled all over the floor. A late-night snack still sat on the table in the middle of the room.
She went next door and finally found Butler Lin sleeping soundly inside.
Not long afterward, Jiang Yihua and Jiang Chuling also arrived by elevator.
“Miss, sir.” Qiuyun went up to greet them.
Jiang Yihua strode forward. “How is everything? How’s the old man?”
“He’s still alive, and his vital signs are stable.”
Whew…
Jiang Yihua reached the outside of the intensive care unit and watched the nurses rushing around. “These nurses…”
Qiuyun said, “I’ve already arranged compensation for them—five thousand yuan each for working overtime—and instructed them not to disclose the old master’s condition.”
Before he had even caught his breath, the hospital’s administrator on duty arrived, still struggling into his white coat. Clearly, he had just crawled out of bed in the duty room.
“President Jiang! President Jiang, this really was our hospital’s responsibility! I’ll have someone pull the surveillance footage immediately and catch them as soon as possible!”
Jiang Yihua raised a hand to stop him. “I’ll handle this matter myself. You don’t need to get involved.”
After all, they were family.
If word got out that they had snuck into the hospital in the middle of the night to steal their own father away, it would become nothing more than a laughingstock.
For the sake of the family’s reputation, it was better to keep the matter firmly under wraps.
By the time everything had been settled and the old master was safely returned to the ICU, it was nearly four in the morning.
Secretary Wu brought over a change of clothes for his employer. After changing, Jiang Yihua went to the lounge, where Jiang Chuling was hugging Xiaoqiu’s phone and watching the recording.
When Jiang Yihua saw it, he said, “Send me a copy of that footage.”
“All right.”
Qiuyun sent it over. Jiang Yihua rubbed his temples. “Good thing you were staying here in the hospital. Otherwise, if they’d really managed to move the old master away and discovered that his illness was only an act…”
Exactly.
If they had been ruthless enough, they could have gone along with the ruse after discovering the truth—forced the old master to change his will while he was conscious, made his impending death seem genuine, and then had him cremated immediately.
At that point, even the gods would have been powerless to save him.
Fortunately, judging from the fact that they abandoned the old master but still woke a doctor before leaving, they had acted recklessly, but they had at least retained a shred of conscience.
“What do you think?” Jiang Yihua was already too exhausted to think clearly. “The second branch has always been impatient. What do you think the third branch and the fourth brother will do now?”
Qiuyun put herself in their shoes and thought for a long while, her brows drawing tightly together. “I estimate that Mr. Jiang will do everything he can to win over the directors. As for the couple from the third branch, it’s hard to say.”
People who liked to hide in the shadows and play dirty tricks were usually the most ruthless.
They believed in not making a move unless necessary—but once they did, it would be something big.
Qiuyun reminded him, “I suggest that everyone stay home as much as possible for the next few days, especially you, sir. Take several bodyguards with you whenever you go out.”
Jiang Yihua also thought of how decisively the third branch had acted before. Anger surged through him. “He wouldn’t dare!”
He was, after all, the eldest brother. When they were young, he had carried and played with the third brother. If the third brother truly dared to be so heartless…
Jiang Yihua closed his eyes.
In truth, he had no idea what to do either.
Around six o’clock, the effects of the sleeping pills wore off, and Steward Lin woke up.
