Chapter 164 – Kidnapped Again (1)
It was a sunny morning, and Lan Jinyao started the day in a very good mood. However, that only lasted for a short while, when her morning sickness. .h.i.t her.
Fu Bainian had just driven the car out of the garage and parked it at the front when he heard a sound coming from the house. Fu Bainian frowned and quickly strode inside to check on Lan Jinyao.
When Lan Jinyao heard footsteps coming closer, she wiped away her tears and hurriedly shouted, "Don"t come in!"
She looked like a mess now, so she didn"t want Fu Bainian to see her like this.
However, when she spoke, it was too late already. She covered her cheeks and refused to look at Fu Bainian. Their morning had now started awfully all thanks to her.
"It"s okay; there"s no need to cover it up!" Fu Bainian seized her hand and extended his finger to gently wipe away the tears from the corners of her eyes. "What"s wrong? Is our baby being disobedient?"
Lan Jinyao pulled him out of the bathroom and said, "It"s like this in the beginning stages of pregnancy. I heard others say: "The smarter the baby, the worse the morning sickness becomes during pregnancy"!"
She hadn"t heard this before, but she knew that Fu Bainian wouldn"t believe her words easily, so she casually said this in order to change the topic. However, her little trick was still seen through by Fu Bainian.
"You"re throwing up severely like this, so why don"t you just rest at home? As for the production and the crew…"
Midway, Fu Bainian was interrupted by Lan Jinyao before he"d finished speaking.
"No, I can still go. The most basic quality actors have to respect their work. Currently, the crew is waiting for us, so how can we tell them midway that we aren"t going?"
She willfully covered Fu Bainian"s mouth and prevented him from saying anything more.
Although Fu Bainian had a worried look on his face, he still let her have her way.
"Let"s hear what the doctor has to say!"
"It"s best we do a check-up at the hospital!"
The two said almost in unison. As soon as their words fell, they looked at each other and laughed.
Lan Jinyao then said, "Our chemistry is quite good!"
Upon hearing this, Fu Bainian nodded.
Was their tacit understanding good or bad? Neither of them could tell yet, and they could only wait for the doctor to decide.
When they arrived at the hospital, Lan Jinyao went to do the examination, and Fu Bainian was waiting outside the room. Here, it seemed that a new baby was born into this world almost every day as loud cries could be heard throughout the corridor.
Fu Bainian followed the cries and stopped in front of the nursery. In there, he saw lively newborns in the little cradles. In the future, their baby would also be like this, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with vitality.
As he stared at those little figures, the corners of Fu Bainian"s lips raised slightly, revealing a gentle smile.
At this moment, a man pa.s.sed behind Fu Bainian in a rush. Only when he heard a nurse screaming did he suddenly turn around.
"Someone took a newborn-"
As soon as Fu Bainian turned around, he saw a man holding a baby and about to come out from the back door of the nursery. And, when the nurse"s voice rang, the man became fl.u.s.tered, his pace suddenly quickening as he ran and stumbled towards the exit.
Without a second thought, Fu Bainian gave chase.
Following this, Fu Bainian caught the man at the hospital"s entrance; seizing the baby and giving the little one back to the nurse. When Fu Bainian twisted the perpetrator"s arm, that man, who seemed to be in his thirties, suddenly began wailing. His tears streamed down his cheeks like a river, and he had a runny nose.
"Big Brother, please spare me. I"m just trying to make ends meet!"
When he said that, the nurse with the child in her arms reprimanded him. "Make ends meet?! Why do you have to kidnap and sell newborns when you"re just trying to make ends meet? If you"d succeeded and the parents of the newborn learnt about this, how are we supposed to explain this to them?!"
At the thought of the possible consequences, the nurse"s eyes instantly reddened.
The man knelt on the ground and begged for mercy. "I really didn"t steal the baby. Someone gave me money and asked me to bring the baby out, and then bring him back later!"
Both Fu Bainian and the nurse were baffled by his words.
The nurse then murmured, "He was asked to take the baby out and then return him later? If it"s not the baby, then what did that person want? This is truly strange!"
Fu Bainian let go of the man and turned around to walk back in. However, at that moment, he suddenly saw a familiar figure at the entrance, and he immediately quickened his pace and ran towards the Gynaecology Department.
That person wore the same clothes and had the same hairstyle.
If he didn"t see wrongly, then that familiar figure must be Jiang Cheng.
If that man earlier didn"t steal the baby and was just asked to bring the baby out, then what was the motive behind this? Fu Bainian stood there and thought hard about this and then, suddenly, a thought dawned on him as he connected the dots. Lan Jinyao was in danger!
No, if that really was Jiang Cheng, then Jinyao shouldn"t be in danger.
But, that man has already lost his mind, so maybe Jinyao was indeed in danger.
Fu Bainian didn"t dare slow down his pace, and while he was running back to check on Jinyao, he almost ran into a patient.
At the Gynaecology Department, someone suddenly knocked on the door. Lan Jinyao, who was in the midst of discussing her recent condition with the doctor, suddenly stopped speaking and headed towards the door to open it.
The rhythmic knocking on the door stopped after two knocks.
When Lan Jinyao opened the door, there was no one. A lot of people were pa.s.sing by, including doctors, nurses and patients, but none of them stopped.
Then, as she lowered her head, she saw a beautiful rose on the floor; it seemed to be a rose that had been freshly picked from a rose garden as it held glistening dewdrops. She quickly picked it up and turned to look at the rigorous-looking aunt in her fifties and smiled. The doctor was seemingly quite romantic despite her age.
"Auntie, someone must"ve left this for you!"
Lan Jinyao didn"t expect the doctor to be such a romantic, and she was quite envious.
The gynaecologist looked puzzled and angrily rebuked, "What are you talking about? I have a husband!"
Suddenly being reprimanded like this startled Lan Jinyao. After a while, she smiled and said, "Don"t tell me it"s for me?"
The Gynecologist shook her head and said, "Youngsters nowadays just like to show off their affection and how foolishly romantic they are. Maybe it"s from your husband?!"
From Fu Bainian? No way. Why would he suddenly send her flowers? Truth be told, Fu Bainian wasn"t a very romantic person. Not to mention, not even intimate words of endearment had been said by him before.
Speak of the devil, Fu Bainian had arrived and was gasping for air.
Lan Jinyao stared at his uneven breathing and laughed inwardly. Continue pretending.
She acted as if she was going to throw the flowers into the trash can, yet Fu Bainian calmly asked, instead of stopping her, "Who sent you the roses?"
Lan Jinyao froze and stared at him. It looked like he wasn"t putting on an act.
"You weren"t the one who sent it?"
At this moment, both of them fell silent.
Chapter 165 – Kidnapped Again (2)
On the way home, Fu Bainian"s mood was unusually heavy. He was in a daze, so even when Lan Jinyao had talked to him several times, he didn"t respond. Lan Jinyao then raised her voice as she displeasingly questioned, "What"s the matter with you? Why have you looked so distracted ever since we left the hospital?"
Fu Bainian frowned and stared at her with a serious expression as he spoke, "Do you know what I saw and came across earlier at the hospital?"
Until now, he still had lingering fears.
"What did you encounter?" Lan Jinyao became nervous alongside him.
Fu Bainian then solemnly replied, "Earlier, someone stole a newborn from the nursery."
Before he"d even finished speaking, Lan Jinyao laughed and interrupted him. "Someone stole a newborn? Did you call the police? I didn"t expect you to be so frightened after encountering this matter."
Her laughter didn"t lessen the heaviness in the air. Fu Bainian"s expression became all the more serious as he said, "That"s not the main point. You"ll understand after you hear me out."
When he"d heard the man say those words earlier, he was scared out of his wits. The back of the familiar figure he"d seen at the hospital had looked precisely like Jiang Cheng"s.
"When I chased the perpetrator all the way to the entrance, he told me the truth. He said that someone had given him money to take the baby out for a while, and then bring him back later. At that time, besides the nurse, I was the only one standing there. So, when I noticed the man"s suspicious movements, I chased after him. Thus, the man"s purpose was to lead me out of the hospital."
Lan Jinyao remained silent for a moment before looking at him suspiciously. "You must be overthinking things, right?"
He just happened to encounter the case of a child being stolen. Besides, even if Fu Bainian was led out of the hospital, so what? There were so many people at the hospital, so under the watchful eyes of the public, who would dare to commit murder and arson?
"If all of these incidents were a coincidence, then what about the rose? How do you explain that?"
At the mention of this, Fu Bainian"s expression instantly darkened and became gloomier.
Lan Jinyao was rendered speechless when he asked this. Who put the rose in front of the room then? Why did that person specifically knock twice on the door before leaving the rose behind?
Her thoughts were in disarray, like an entangled mess roaming in her mind. Fu Bainian"s voice was clearly very calm, but she felt it was all too eerie as she listened. This matter was really too peculiar.
Lan Jinyao tried to comfort Fu Bainian as she said, "Don"t overthink things. After all, we got out of the hospital safe and sound, right? Maybe it was merely a coincidence? What"s more, I wasn"t the only one there at that time; Auntie was also there. So, perhaps the rose was for someone else? Let"s not think too much into this!"
Upon hearing this, Fu Bainian"s lips finally curled up into a faint smile.
"Hopefully, that"s the case!"
Fu Bainian didn"t mention the fact that he"d seen a familiar silhouette that resembled Jiang Cheng at the hospital"s entrance. At this moment, he hadn"t figured out the entire situation yet, so it was best not to mention this to her since random speculations could cause panic.
"So, that is to say, the doctor told you that if you want to act, it was best to be careful and that if you maintained a happy mood every day, then your morning sickness wouldn"t be so serious anymore?"
Lan Jinyao nodded in response to his question.
Soon after, they arrived home while talking and bantering. However, dark clouds slowly shrouded them.
The next day, Li Qi came to pick up Lan Jinyao as usual. Fu Bainian touched her belly before she entered the car and gently said, "You have to be careful. Remember, you"re not alone anymore."
Both Xiaolin, who was sitting in the car, and Li Qi, who was standing outside, widened their eyes when they saw Fu Bainian make such a gentle move with a warm look on his face.
"N-not alone? Could it possibly be two then?" Li Qi stammered.
Fu Bainian lightly hummed. "That"s hard to say!" He was obviously in an exuberant mood.
It took a while for Li Qi to suddenly realise what was going on. "No wonder you said you wanted a break. You were working so hard before, and then you suddenly said that you wanted to take a break. I"d initially thought that your relations.h.i.+p had turned sour…but, surprisingly, it was for this reason."
Xiaolin propped up her cheek and enviously said, "I see, but, Big Sis Meimei, is it really alright for you to go shoot a movie like this?"
As soon as Xiaolin asked this, Li Qi"s eyes also fell on Lan Jinyao. His gaze was clearly indicating, "Does your dear Fu Bainian allow you to go to work like this?"
"It"s alright. It doesn"t take much time to shoot a movie. Besides, it"s a literary film, and there are no fighting scenes, so there won"t be any problems."
Fu Bainian also nodded and said, "You guys must take good care of her and don"t let her get hurt."
Following this, Xiaolin and Li Qi replied in unison, "We"ll ensure that we won"t let her get hurt."
Only then did Fu Bainian reluctantly remove his hand.
After Lan Jinyao got on the car, the atmosphere suddenly got rowdy. Li Qi and Xiaolin kept asking her questions like, "When did you get pregnant? Was it because of the child that your relations.h.i.+p got better again? What happened to the third party involved?" and so on.
Lan Jinyao, on the other hand, couldn"t take it anymore and unhappily stated, "How come I feel that there are two flies buzzing in my ear?"
Li Qi then howled in grief, "Dear, don"t tell me that you found out when you were filming abroad? No wonder you were acting weird back then. I was worried that you saw the news on the Internet, so you were in a bad mood. I didn"t know that this was the real reason."
Lan Jinyao remained silent. At that time, her mind was completely focused on Shen Wei"an, so this child also came as a surprise for her when she learned that she was pregnant. Nevertheless, it didn"t take long before she saw the news, and there was indeed a period of time when she was heartbroken. That was when she saw Fu Bainian and someone else show-off in public in such a high-profile manner every day. At that time, she was so mad that she wanted to kill someone.
"When I got back, I was indeed depressed!" In fact, she also thought about leaving things as is, but then she scolded herself and told herself that she couldn"t be swayed so easily. Even if she was to let go, she had to get to the bottom of everything.
Li Qi then lowered his voice and asked, "All"s well now, right? When I came to pick you up earlier, I saw how gentle President Fu was towards you, so you must be very happy now, right?!"
Lan Jinyao smiled and replied, "Yes, I"m very happy."
She"d never seen Fu Bainian act so gentle and prudent before.
Seeing her like this, Xiaolin sighed and lamented, "Please don"t show-off your love in front of a single lady, or else you"d chance upon adversities."
As soon as her words fell, she was knocked on the head by Li Qi. "What are you saying? Be careful not to be fired with such inauspicious remarks."
Xiaolin then childishly stuck out her tongue and said, "Bis Sis Meimei, don"t mind me; I was just joking."
Lan Jinyao nodded.
But, she didn"t expect that public display of affection was indeed something envied by many, especially by petty people hidden in the darkest corners that one couldn"t see.