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The cry of the little baby in the nursery behind her was shrill. Ji An’s expression changed and she quickly became more desperate.
“Is there a child?” Liu Jiayi slightly turned her head. Her ability to listen to sound and identify the position had always been very strong. She soon made a judgment. “It is the last room in the house. It should be Su Yang’s child.”
Ji An’s mind was blank. She couldn’t think as she turned around and ran madly to the baby’s room?
She locked the room with trembling hands and picked up the baby. She walked to the left and right with short breaths, tears of fear overflowing from the corners of her eyes.
She pushed open the window and yelled, “Anyone! Help! Somebody! Please!”
No one responded to Ji An.
She buried her face hysterically in the baby’s swaddling clothes and cried bitterly. Even so, she covered the baby’s ears with her hands and constantly kissed and comforted the frightened baby. “It’s okay. Baby, sleep. Mama is here. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
The lock behind her made a click. There was the sound of a key being inserted into the lock and slowly turning.
Ji An’s breathing stopped. She fumbled with a shaking hand in her pajama pocket where she had placed the key of the nursery.
Now, it had disappeared like the phone. It had been stolen by those two people.
Ji An gave a long sob. Her face was full of tears as she closed her eyes with despair.
The door of the baby’s room opened slowly.
It was empty and only the sound of the bells above the crib were ringing.
Mu Sicheng made a strange expression. He looked around the room and bent down to look below the bed. “Where is this person? I clearly saw her running into the room.”
Liu Jiayi raised a hand to stop Mu Sicheng’s steps. “The sound of breathing is still here.”
She half closed her eyes and listened. Then she raised her head and looked out the window. “The person is outside the window.”
“Outside the window?!” Mu Sicheng was shocked.
He opened the window and looked outside. Once he turned his head, he saw Ji An holding the baby and kneeling on the external air conditioner.
The night wind was cold and strong, blowing Ji An’s white pajamas. She looked like a dandelion that would be blown down at any time. She grabbed her child for dear life while tears rolled down from the corners of her eyes.
Ji An’s eyes were red as she looked at Mu Sicheng. She gritted her teeth and threatened Mu Sicheng like a mother beast who was going to be robbed of her cubs. “Even if I have to jump down with the child in my arms, I wouldn’t be caught by you and used to threaten Su Yang!”
Mu Sicheng had a headache. “Big sister, we don’t have this intention for the time being. Of course, we can’t deny that there might be such arrangements in the future but we mainly want to find Su...”
As he was speaking, Ji An shook her head and took two steps back alertly. The screws of the old air conditioner/heater were rusted and it suddenly tilted to one side as she stepped back. She was panicked as she fell down.
Ji An said she would jump down with her child but on the verge of life or death, her instinctive reaction was to hold the baby in her arms out toward Mu Sicheng.
Her eyes were desperate and full of begging, her voice choked up. “Please! save my child!”
Mu Sicheng’s pupils shrank and his motor nerves were quick enough to hook one foot on the window while his other foot steadily hooked against the collapsing air conditioner frame to avoid it hitting the mother and child.
The heavy weight on his ankles caused the veins on his forehead to bulge. He stuck to the outer wall, clutching the window with one hand and holding the waist of the falling Ji An with the other hand.
“Shit!” Mu Sicheng’s face was red and his neck veins beat fast due to excessive force. “You are heavy, Sister!”
The baby swaddling in Ji An’s arms became loosened by Mu Sicheng’s pulling.
The baby was ignorant and babbled happily a few times. She moved his hands and feet and slid slowly out of the packaging.
“Fuck!” Mu Sicheng stared at the baby slowly slipping down with wide hands. However, he had no more hands to spare. “Hold onto your child!”
The baby slipped completely out of the package.
The baby slipped through the air with wide eyes. Her hand seemed to want to grab at her mother’s fingers. She didn’t understand what was going on and fell down with innocent eyes wide open.
“Baby!” Ji An turned to try and reach for the baby. Her face looked crazy and was covered with tears. “My child!!!”
Liu Jiayi crossed by Mu Sicheng. She held the window with one hand and flipped out without hesitation.
Mu Sicheng exclaimed with surprise, “Liu Jiayi! Hey! You can’t see!”
Liu Jiayi didn’t look back. As if she could see, she hung lightly from the air condition box supported by Mu Sicheng and jumped a few times. Finally, she held an air conditioner with one hand and grabbed the falling child’s foot.
The child hung upside in mid-air, unable to react for a moment. Then she babbled and shook her limbs toward Liu Jiayi as if asking for a hug.
Liu Jiayi held the child with one hand and made several jumps to firmly land on the ground. She stopped at the bottom of the building and casually waved to Mu Sicheng. Then she held the child and walked up the stairs.
Mu Sicheng sighed with relief and helped to pull Ji An up.
Ji An grasped for breath in shock before turning around and stumbling toward the door.
The moment she opened the door, she found Liu Jiayi already standing outside. The child was being carried by her diaper far away from Liu Jiayi but the baby seemed to find it fun. She was giggling and reaching out to grab Liu Jiayi’s face.
Liu Jiayi had a numb and disgusted expression as she pushed away the child trying to get close to her. “Here. She peed all over me.”
Ji An took the child. She hugged the child and sat down on the ground, taking a few deep breaths to calm her emotions. Then she couldn’t help covering her face and bursting out in tears.
Mu Sicheng rubbed his shoulders and came out of the baby’s room, looking at Liu Jiayi with amazement. “You are in good shape. Aren’t you blind? How did you jump on those air conditioners so accurately?”
“I listened to the sound,” Liu Jiayi said naturally. “The night is quiet so the sound is very loud. I can judge the location of obstacles through the sound echo., The air conditioner is a box type and the echo is very large and strange. It is very strange. Can’t you even do this?”
At the end, Liu Jiayi’s expression couldn’t help taking on a bit of contempt.
Mu Sicheng, “......”
Don’t talk about this strange skill like it was natural!
Wasn’t this what bats did? It was normal for humans to be unable to do it! It was strange for her to jump down six floors easily, this monster child!
By the time Ji An came out after settling down the baby, her pajamas were still covered with rust from the air conditioner.
Mu Sicheng and Liu Jiayi were sitting very comfortably on the sofa. These two people probably didn’t know the word ‘embarrassed’ while Ji An who came out of the baby room was awkward.
In particular, Ji An lowered her head when she saw the wound scratched by her on Mu Sicheng’s face and Liu Jiayi’s palm that was swollen in order to catch the baby. She opened her mouth but the sharp questions couldn’t be answered.
After a long silence, she headed to her room and took out a small medicine box. She came out and crouched down in front of the tea table. She placed disinfectant, bandaids and bandages on the tea table.
Looking at these things on the tea table, Mu Sicheng looked up at Ji An with a strange expression.
Ji An lowered her head and didn’t say anything. She slightly turned her head with pursed lips in order to not meet Mu Sicheng’s measured gaze.
Ji An’s hair was messy and her eyes were red and swollen. It was obvious that she had been crying in her room just now.
Finally, Mu Sicheng picked up the disinfectant equipment on the tea table and handed the disinfectant to Liu Jiayi.
Once Ji An’s mood settled down, she took a deep breath and calmly turned to look at the two uninvited guests. “What brings you here to see Su Yang?”
“His colleagues caught our...” Mu Sicheng tried to find an exact word in ihs mind to describe Bai Liu’s relationship with them. Before he found it, Liu Jiayi took over. “His colleagues took my father without warning.”
Ji An looked a bit surprised. “Your... father?”
Liu Jiayi admitted it without changing her expression. “Yes.”
Mu Sicheng covered his mouth and let out a startled cough. He just wanted to speak when Liu Jiayi reached under the tea table and pinched his waist. Mu Sicheng couldn’t help taking a breath and covering his waist.
Liu Jiayi blinked and tears instantly flowed from her big and empty eyes. She bit her lower lip and sniffed twice. “Big Sister, we really don’t want to do anything to you but my most important father was taken away. I only know that one of them is called Su Yang.”
“I’m really looking forward to my father and it took me a long time to find your home.” Liu Jiayi reached out to grab Ji An’s sleeve in a pitiful manner. “We don’t want to hurt you or your child. I just want my father to come home. You are waiting for your child’s father to come home, right? You also have a child. You must know how it feels when a child doesn’t have her only father that she is relying on.”
“I know he seems to be doing dangerous work but I swear that everything he does is legal. It is to give me a better life. For me, he won’t do bad things.” Liu Jiayi wrinkled her nose and tears rolled down her cheeks. She choked out, “I am just thinking of him. I don’t understand why he was arrested when he didn’t do anything.”
As a new mother who was afraid for Su Yang day and night but never knew what Su Yang was doing, Ji An couldn’t help feeling empathy for what Liu Jiayi said. The expression on her face became hesitant.
Once Liu Jiayi covered her face and sobbed bitterly, Ji An was finally moved by the little girl who just fought to save her child. She saw the shadow of her child in this fragile child.
Ji An reached out and gently hugged Liu Jiayi. She sighed and touched Liu Jiayi’s hair.
“...Don’t cry.” Ji An patted Liu Jiayi on the shoulder and sighed. “Your father... should be fine.”
Liu Jiayi looked up from Ji An’s shoulder. She still had tears on her face but she was expressionless as she mouthed to Mu Sicheng: Learn from me.
A stunned Mu Sicheng, “......”