Chapter 1: Chu Li, the child is gone

Yuncheng.

Eight o'clock in the evening.

Lightning tore through the pitch-black night sky, and the rain poured down in torrents.

Qin Xingwan curled up on the cold ground, pools of fresh blood beneath her being washed away by the rain.

Her fingers, turned white from soaking in the rain, fumbled with her phone; she opened the contacts list and dialed the numbers one by one.

A mechanical female voice rang out in the rain over and over again.

"I'm sorry, the number you have dialed is not answering at the moment."

In the end, the light of the phone screen flickered out in the heavy rain, and no matter how she pressed it, it would not turn on again.

Nine o'clock.

Yuncheng Renmin Yiyuan.

The anxious footsteps of a doctor shattered the silence of the night.

"The patient has miscarried; have the family members been notified?"

"They have, but..." the nurse hesitated.

"But what?" The doctor's voice was full of agitation.

"The patient's family said they are celebrating a birthday and have no time..."

Eleven-thirty.

Qin Xingwan stared at the pale lights overhead and the IV drip bag dripping transparent liquid.

She heard the sound of the ward door opening, followed by a slightly weary voice.

"Xingwan."

An hour ago, she had come out of the operating room, borrowed a phone under the nurse's pitying gaze, and sent a message to Chu Li, asking him to come and pay her medical bills when he was free.

And now, her husband had arrived fashionably late.

Chu Li wore a white shirt, his handsome features sharp and rigid, his brows and eyes tinged with a few traces of fatigue.

She turned her head away, the corners of her eyes damp.

"Is something bothering you?" Chu Li sat by the bed, his expression as cold and detached as ever.

He had seen the message and rushed over, not yet knowing what cruel things had happened to Qin Xingwan.

Qin Xingwan's heart suddenly ached to the extreme; if she hadn't seen with her own eyes how gentle he could be with others, if she hadn't nearly died in that rainy night, perhaps she would still think he was just naturally cold by nature.

Qin Xingwan smelled the scent of alcohol on him, and nausea rose in her chest.

"My phone is broken; please help me pay the medical bills." Qin Xingwan's voice was extremely hoarse and exhausted.

As for other matters, she would talk to him once she recovered from this pain.

Chu Li heard a hint of restrained disgust in his wife's tone.

He raised his brows slightly and explained to her: "Today is Yun Shu's birthday, you know that."

Qin Xingwan stared at the ceiling; of course she knew today was Qin Yunshu's birthday, and she knew even better that they had held an exceptionally grand birthday banquet for her.

Her family and her husband had spent almost the entire night celebrating there.

So much so that when she was in agonizing pain, she couldn't reach any of them.

"Yes, I know." Qin Xingwan said softly, her voice calm and undisturbed.

Chu Li, however, was not very happy, his tone somewhat irritable: "Yun Shu's birthday party invited you; you didn't go, so what are you making a scene about now?"

A scene?

The accusatory words pierced Qin Xingwan like a knife, leaving her bleeding.

He knew nothing.

He didn't know she had been kidnapped, and he didn't know their child was gone.

The resentment in her chest reached its peak.

"Chu Li, do you mean to say that I am hospitalized on purpose?"

The long silence was suffocating; Chu Li's eyes were dark and unfathomable.

Qin Xingwan easily saw the tacit admission in his eyes.

Her heart felt hollow, and she curled her lips in self-mockery.

Three years of marriage, and it turned out that in his eyes, she was this kind of person.

Chu Li likely knew that if they kept talking, they would end up arguing, so he stood up and said: "I'll go pay the bill; you get some rest. Tang Yisheng is already on the way."

Tang Yisheng was an obstetrician, and ever since Qin Xingwan became pregnant, Tang Yisheng had been in charge of her care.

"Chu Li, do you know..." Qin Xingwan suddenly wanted to tell him about the child.

"Sister." A delicate voice came with the sound of the door opening, interrupting Qin Xingwan's words.

Qin Yunshu was dressed in a long pink gown, her long black hair swept up, a brilliant diamond crown atop her head; she was beautiful, gentle, and charming.

"Sister, are you alright?" She walked forward.

Qin Xingwan swallowed the words that had reached her lips; seeing Qin Yunshu now, she was reminded of the countless calls she had made that went unanswered, and the feeling of dying in the cold, rainy night.

A surge of uncontrollable hatred welled up from the depths of her soul.

"Not dead yet." Her voice was full of cold indifference.

Qin Yunshu's eyes turned red, her gaze filled with guilt: "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked A Li to come to the birthday party."

Qin Xingwan closed her eyes; her body ached, and her heart was weary.

"Yun Shu, this has nothing to do with you." Chu Li frowned, feeling dissatisfied with Qin Xingwan's tone.

He concluded that Qin Xingwan was being unreasonable.

After all, Qin Xingwan had never liked the Qin Family, and she was even more resistant toward Qin Yunshu, who had just returned to the country.

In the month since Qin Yunshu returned to the country, they had quarreled several times.

Qin Yunshu continued timidly, "Sister, the child is important. Please don't be unhappy; I will keep my distance from A Li in the future."

"So you knew I was pregnant." Qin Xingwan's face was full of faint mockery.

In the month since Qin Yunshu returned to the country, she had always been calling away her husband every few days.

Qin Yunshu's eyes reddened, her eyes wide open and brimming with tears, her pursed lips full of grievance.

"Yun Shu, go out for a moment, I will talk to her." Chu Li soothed her and coaxed Qin Yunshu out.

Qin Yunshu bit her lip and whispered, "Then don't quarrel with Sister, she is still pregnant."

She walked out, looking back every few steps.

Qin Xingwan looked up at her husband, her gaze cold and desolate.

She was lying in a hospital bed, and her husband was glaring at her with cold hostility, maliciously speculating that she had used sordid intentions to ruin Qin Yunshu's birthday banquet, and in the end, he even needed another woman to persuade him not to quarrel.

The gentle expression in Chu Li's eyes toward Qin Yunshu turned cold inch by inch: "Qin Xingwan, don't drag Yun Shu into our affairs; she hasn't done anything to wrong you."

That tone of defense made the pain in Qin Xingwan's heart churn like a stormy sea.

She and Chu Li had been husband and wife for three years; from the initial agreement of a marriage to finally truly coming together, she had poured her feelings into this marriage.

She once thought Chu Li felt the same.

It wasn't until Qin Yunshu returned to the country that she realized Chu Li had not felt a shred of affection during their three years of married life.

He had reserved all his tenderness for Qin Yunshu.

In those three years, she had naively thought she could wait until the clouds parted to see the moon, but the facts proved that she had never been able to warm that heart.

"Chu Li, let's get a divorce." Qin Xingwan stared at the IV drip, her words light and weightless, yet they revealed her incomparably firm resolve.

In fact, from the moment Qin Yunshu returned, she had harbored the idea of divorce, but deep down she was reluctant to let go of this relationship and held onto delusions.

Not knowing what he was thinking of, Chu Li's cold expression softened slightly, "I know that pregnant women have unstable emotions and are prone to overthinking, but Xingwan, Yun Shu is your sister, and there is nothing between her and me."

Qin Xingwan turned her head, tears sliding from the corners of her eyes, her palm gently resting on her lower abdomen.

"It's gone," she whispered.

Chu Li, the child is gone.