The richest man's parents were kidnapped, and his adorable son captivated the entire family.

"Ruolan?"

Gu Yinshen was taken aback when he saw Ruolan suddenly stop him.

"doctor,"

Ruolan stepped forward in her high heels, her fingertips lightly tapping on the medical record. "Your hospital wouldn't exaggerate the illness to charge more medical fees, would it? I've heard that some private hospitals..."

Before she could finish speaking, Gu Yinshen suddenly pulled her wrist away.

The expensive pearl bracelet snapped, and the beads clattered and rolled to the ground.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

His roar echoed down the corridor, startling several passing nurses who stopped in their tracks.

Gu Yinshen's Adam's apple bobbed violently. Seeing the doctor's furrowed brow, he forced himself to soften his tone: "I'm sorry, her emotions are quite unstable. Please make sure you arrange the best possible ward and nursing team, and the cost..."

"Uncle Gu!"

Suddenly, Mengmeng pointed to the operating room door, her voice trembling, "Auntie is out!"

Everyone turned around and saw Xie Yumin being wheeled out of the operating room.

Gu Yinshen felt his heart skip a beat and rushed forward to check on him despite the doctor's attempts to stop him, but was blocked by the nurse.

"Family members, please make way! The patient needs to be transferred to the ICU for observation immediately!"

Ruolan suddenly chuckled, her fingers, painted with burgundy nail polish, hooking onto Gu Yinshen's suit sleeve.

"See? I told you not to waste your energy. Someone like her..."

Before he could finish speaking, he was suddenly slapped hard across the face.

Mengmeng stood on tiptoe, her little red hand still hovering in mid-air: "Don't talk bad about Auntie! You're a bad person!"

The corridor fell into a deathly silence. Gu Yinshen looked at Mengmeng's trembling shoulders and recalled Ruolan's malicious implication earlier; his temples throbbed.

He shook off Ruolan's hand, took out a handkerchief from his pocket, and carefully wiped Mengmeng's reddened palms: "Go wash your hands. I'll have my assistant take you home later."

"I don't want to! I want to stay with Auntie!"

Mengmeng suddenly burst into tears, her tears and snot smearing onto his expensive custom-made suit.

Gu Yinshen stood frozen in place; this was the first time he had ever faced his child's out-of-control emotions.

In my memory, Xie Yumin always took good care of Mengmeng, but now she lies in the ICU, her life hanging in the balance.

"Gu Yinshen, you'd better think it through. Is it worth offending your marriage partner for the sake of an outsider?"

Ruolan turned around, her high heels screeching against the ground as she stepped on the shattered pearls. "I said I would help you, but that doesn't mean I can tolerate you like this forever!"

When the corridor finally returned to silence.

Gu Yinshen looked down at the sobbing child in his arms and suddenly realized that the second button on his shirt had popped off at some point.

He carried Mengmeng toward the ICU visiting window, and his own reflection in the glass made him look particularly disheveled.

Amid the regular beeping of the monitor, he heard his own heart pounding like a drum—

"Do I still care about her?"

"Mengmeng, you go down first. I have something to say to Aunt Ruolan."

Gu Yinshen gave a blank instruction, then abandoned Mengmeng and quickly followed Ruolan.

Just as Ruolan turned around in her high heels, Gu Yinshen suddenly spoke.

"stop."

His voice was as cold as ice.

Ruolan stopped in her tracks, a mocking smile curving her brightly colored lips.

"Is there anything else you need, Mr. Gu?"

"You'd better understand that Mengmeng's matter must remain a secret."

Gu Yinshen's gaze was like a sharp blade, piercing straight at Ruolan, "If Xie Yumin notices anything amiss in her current state..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but it was enough for Ruolan to understand the threat.

Ruolan suddenly turned around, her high heels slamming heavily on the ground.

"Gu Yinshen! Don't forget, you were the one who begged me to cooperate with you in this charade!"

"Now, for some insignificant woman, they're treating me like this..."

"Irrelevant?"

Gu Yinshen sneered and glanced back at Mengmeng, who was still standing there.

The child's bloodshot eyes were still fixed on the direction of the ICU.

“You know better than I what will happen to Mengmeng if something happens to her.”

Ruolan's face turned deathly pale instantly.

Of course she remembered Gu Yinshen's original plan—to mold Mengmeng into a member of the Gu family bloodline and completely sever her connection with Xie Yumin.

But now, seeing the unprecedented panic in Gu Yinshen's eyes, she suddenly realized that things had already spiraled out of control.

“I’m warning you,”

Gu Yinshen stepped forward, still carrying the salty smell of Mengmeng's tears, "From now on, put away those little thoughts of yours."

"I understand that you want Xie Yumin to get out of here as soon as possible, but at least act like a normal person!"

Gu Yinshen's tone was chilling, "If your stupidity ruins everything, don't think that I, Gu Yinshen, can't live without you!"

"And when the time comes, I won't let you off the hook either."

Ruolan gritted her teeth, her nails digging deep into her palms.

"Gu Yinshen, you will regret this."

After saying that, she turned and left without looking back.

The sound of high heels gradually faded away, leaving only the monotonous beeping of the monitor in the corridor.

The lights in the corridor looked particularly pale in the dead of night. Gu Yinshen looked down at Mengmeng, who was fast asleep in his arms.

The child's eyelashes were still wet with tears, and his little hands unconsciously clutched the corner of his shirt.

He sighed softly, gently draped his suit jacket over the child, and turned to walk out of the hospital.

"Mr. Gu, would you like me to give you a ride?"

The assistant had been waiting in the parking lot for a long time, his gaze sweeping over his disheveled clothes and the popped buttons.

"No need, just arrange for someone to guard the ICU entrance 24 hours a day."

Gu Yinshen carefully placed Mengmeng in the back seat. "Book another hotel suite near the hospital and send the child there to rest first."

"I...I'm not going back to the villa tonight."

When I returned to the hospital, the corridor was so quiet that I could only hear my own footsteps.

Gu Yinshen stood outside the ICU, looking at Xie Yumin lying on the hospital bed through the glass window.

She wore a breathing mask, her face was as pale as paper, and there were still bruises on her wrists from the IV drip. She was completely different from the woman in my memory who always had a stubborn look in her eyes.

"It's really troublesome."

He loosened his tie, sat down on the bench, and took out his phone from his pocket to check work emails, trying to distract himself.

But the text on the screen seemed to transform into Xie Yumin's face, sometimes sneering, sometimes frowning in pain.

When Gu Yinshen realized that he had refreshed the same email three times, he irritably threw his phone aside.

At three in the morning, nurses pushed medical equipment in and out. Gu Yinshen got up with a tense nerve to ask what was wrong, but was told that "the situation is temporarily stable."

He slid down to the floor, leaning against the wall, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the phone in his pocket...

The once smooth surface now hurt his palm.

As dawn approached, Gu Yinshen dozed off, dreaming of Mengmeng's heart-wrenching cries.

"Uncle, Auntie won't wake up, right?"

He suddenly woke up with a start, cold sweat beading on his forehead, and looked around the ward in a panic.

Just then, he saw Xie Yumin's fingers twitch.

"Doctor! Doctor!"

He practically slammed open the nurses' station door, his voice trembling without him even realizing it, "She's awake!"