The next day—because the couple came back home late, Lu Xinyi woke up past lunch and found herself alone in their bed which wasn’t surprising at all. Her husband must be in his study again doing some work at home.
Lu Xinyi forced herself out of their bed and took a shower before going downstairs to have a late brunch. As usual, when she went down, she found her brunch ready on their dining table. Their two Akita dogs accompanied her as she ate her meal while Xiao Bai was wide awake, his full attention focused at the shed where they’d keep the Zhang siblings.
Did the Fu brothers and Jiao Jiao finally come back from their mission? Lu Xinyi thought. They still have a day to complete the week, and yet they arrived a day earlier than expected.
One of her husband’s bodyguards appeared in the kitchen and called her attention.
“Madam, your presence is needed at the moment. Please follow me to the shed,” he said.
Lu Xinyi shoved half the remaining meat in her mouth while she fed the other half to Mallows. She followed the guard without a question and arrived at the shed, only to see her husband talking to the Fu brothers.
When the three saw her coming, the Fu brothers greeted her with respect.
“Miss Lu, we’ve already fulfilled the mission you’d given us. We’ve escorted Liao Qiu in a safe place where Sun Feiyan’s men couldn’t find her. As for your cousin, Sun Qiushan… we’ve brought her to the villa you mentioned.”
Lu Xinyi had noticed Fu Shuren’s reluctance when he reported about her cousin.
“What’s wrong with my cousin?” she narrowed her eyes at the brothers.
“She’s in a delicate condition right now, Miss Lu. We would’ve arrived earlier if it wasn’t for her condition,” Fu Rui replied.
“What condition? Say something!” Her patience was starting to run out.
“Miss Lu, your cousin wishes to meet you personally. As for her delicate condition, it’s because Sun Qiushan is seven-months pregnant. Taking her back to the city while keeping the Sun family at bay was hard enough. Miss Lu, we’ve rescued Miss Sun from the bas.e.m.e.nt of private property up north. She wasn’t in the best condition when we’ve found her,” Fu Shuren confessed.
Lu Xinyi’s jaws slacked off when she heard that Sun Qiushan was seven-months pregnant. How could this be?!
The last time she’d talked to her younger cousin was also seven months ago, and she wasn’t pregnant back then. Of all her cousins and relatives from the Sun family, Qiushan was the only one she treated as a sister and a blood relative. She was the only one who treated her well when she stayed at the Sun Estate.
The two kept in touch after Lu Xinyi fell out with the Sun family. Sun Qiushan occasionally gave her phone calls and let her borrow money whenever she was in need. In return, Lu Xinyi would bake some desserts for her and send it to her office.
However, Lu Xinyi wasn’t able to reach her cousin for a few months now. She originally thought that Sun Qiushan left the country for work… not until she overheard from someone in the academy that she went missing seven months ago. Just what had happened to her younger cousin?
Lu Xinyi clenched her fists too hard on her sides. Shen Yi turned to his a.s.sistant and told him to send a doctor to his mother-in-law’s villa to check on Sun Qiushan and prepared the car as they’d be heading there.
Two hours later, the Fu brothers and Jiao Jiao found themselves on the road again. The car they were in was just right behind where Shen Yi and Lu Xinyi were. They could sense that whatever happened to Sun Qiushan wouldn’t please their new master.
Lu Xinyi’s face was so cold and serious when she went inside the car with her husband. She was like a ticking bomb, ready to explode at any moment.
The drive towards Sun Meixiu’s villa was long. The villa was located on the outskirts of the city and right above a mountain. It would take two to three hours for someone with a car to reach it from the capital.
Although there was a small village at the foot of the mountain where the Su family could buy their supplies and a primary school the children could attend, hospitals and pharmacies were out of reach. Sun Qiushan would need to travel towards the capital to receive proper medical a.s.sistance.
The location of the villa was hidden in the public eye and was smartly concealed by the tall trees in front of it. If one didn’t pay attention, they wouldn’t notice that the villa was there. Of course, Sun Meixiu’s villa wasn’t the only one in the mountain. Several private villas were also constructed at one side of the mountain, but compared to Sun Meixiu’s place, they let everyone see their grandness to the public.
Throughout their car ride, Lu Xinyi hadn’t uttered a single word, which made her husband worry. In truth, he hadn’t paid attention to this cousin of hers. He was aware that Sun Qiushan was the only one from the Sun family that Lu Xinyi cared about the most. Had he overlooked Sun Qiushan and another problem? Should he let Lu Xinyi deal with it alone?
Shen Yi wasn’t able to come up with a decision when they arrived at Sun Meixiu’s villa. Opposite to what he’d expected to see, Sun Meixiu’s villa didn’t look deserted at all. The front yard was clean and neat. The plants and trees were trimmed properly. Several guards he’d sent roamed the area.
When they saw him and Lu Xinyi stepped out from the car, the guards lined outside to welcome them. They greeted their masters, but Lu Xinyi had no time for formalities and went directly inside her mother’s villa. She went to the living room and found Madam Su helping her cousin drink the medicinal soup she had on her hands.
The two women turned their attention at the doorway when they heard footsteps. Sun Qiushan’s eyes welled up when she saw Lu Xinyi at the doorway.
“Xin Jie!” Sun Qiushan staggered on her feet to stand up, one of her hands supporting the roundness of her stomach.
“Qiushan!”
Lu Xinyi couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her younger cousin was really heavily pregnant and had lost a lot of weight since she last saw her. With her teary eyes, Lu Xinyi suspected that the previous months hadn’t been good to Sun Qiushan.
Just what had happened to her?