Good news: You listened Bad news: You only listened halfway...

Daybreak.

Lin Tianxiong hurried back from outside with the materials he had compiled and quietly sat in the hospital room, keeping his daughter company.

While waiting, Lin Tianxiong was still trying different ways to contact Ye Cheng. If none of them worked, he would have to make a personal trip to the orphanage.

He had a feeling that Ye Cheng had left a backup plan. There should be someone at the orphanage who could get in touch with him...

After a long wait, a turning point finally appeared. The heart monitor recording Lin Baizhi’s heartbeat began to show irregular fluctuations, a sign that she was about to wake up.

Her long eyelashes trembled slightly before Lin Baizhi suddenly opened her eyes. Terror filled them—she had been startled awake.

She looked around in confusion. The room was pitch-black, but the faint light from outside still allowed her to make out that she was in the hospital.

“Dad?” Lin Baizhi covered her head, her voice hazy.

The aftereffects of the medication, combined with the intense stimulation she had experienced in such a short time, had caused some confusion in Lin Baizhi’s memories.

To put it simply, she had not fully reconnected to the network yet. Her data was still being transferred. After calling out “Dad,” Lin Baizhi sat upright in bed.

She seemed to be recalling something...

The expression on her face grew worse and worse. Her eyes filled with despair, and her body began to tremble uncontrollably.

She... she remembered. She remembered what had happened earlier!

“Sweetheart, calm down. Things haven’t reached the worst-case scenario yet.”

A warm hand gently patted her back, giving her something to lean on. At the same time, a prepared file was handed to her.

As though she had thought of something, Lin Baizhi’s expression shifted repeatedly. She opened the file and read through it greedily and urgently. Rustle, rustle... The only sound in the hospital room was the turning of pages.

“How could this be? How could it be some terminal illness? Nonsense! This is complete nonsense! There’s no way Big Brother could have a terminal illness... right?”

By the end, her voice had taken on a sobbing tone, and tears began to flow uncontrollably.

“Dad, I’m so scared. If Big Brother isn’t around anymore, what am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do...?”

Lin Tianxiong: “...”

As a kind and loving father, he wanted to say, “It’s all right, sweetheart. You still have Dad.”

But when he thought about his daughter’s obsessive personality...

Um... maybe not.

There was a high probability that he would hear something heartbreaking, something like: “You old geezer, how could you possibly compare to Big Brother?”

Words that would wound a father deeply...

Yeah...

“Dad already confirmed it for you. That person was spreading lies, and the post has already been deleted. If nothing unexpected happens, the other two girls should have confirmed it as well.”

The other two girls Lin Tianxiong referred to were naturally Dongfang Zhixia and Shen Qinghan.

At a time like this, his own influence alone was not enough. If he wanted to stabilize his daughter, he had to rely on the “influence” of the other two families and make her believe what he was saying.

It was also a form of negotiation and psychological maneuvering, constantly implying one thing:

Ye Cheng was fine.

Some of those posts might have contained a grain of truth, but most of them were simply sensationalized rumors.

Normally, all it took for such unscrupulous posts to disappear was a brief response from the person involved. Otherwise, the attention would naturally fade after some time, and the matter would be forgotten.

The problem was that the post had appeared at an exceptionally suspicious time. Even more suspiciously, Ye Cheng had disappeared as well.

It made him look as though he had a guilty conscience.

With all these signs piling up, the contents of the post had practically been proven true, which was why the panic had spread so rapidly.

Sure enough.

The moment Lin Baizhi heard the names Dongfang Zhixia and Shen Qinghan, her state of mind began to change.

That was right. Her father was telling the truth. She had received the news, so there was no reason those two despicable women hadn’t received it too!

They must have already taken action.

She had to go see her brother. She had to ask him herself what was going on!

Lin Baizhi struggled to climb out of bed. “Dad, where is Big Brother right now? I want to go see him!”

It was as though she had come back to life, her confidence restored. Rather than lie here, she might as well go to the hospital and look for her brother. Crying... crying was the most useless and pathetic thing she could do!

Lin Tianxiong: “...”

That one question left Lin Tianxiong sweating profusely. Beads of sweat the size of beans appeared continuously on his forehead.

Where was he...?

Well, that was a good question.

What a coincidence, sweetheart. Dad would also like to know where Little Cheng is right now...

Lin Tianxiong had already confirmed that Ye Cheng really had disappeared. It was not only their family searching for him. The Dongfang, Du, and Shen families were all looking for him as well, and the commotion they had caused was considerable.

He alone had heard the sound of helicopters more than ten times. In Sea City, only the members of the Three Great Families could fly around so openly.

Two of them had already mobilized...

That showed just how skillful and fast Ye Cheng had been in making his escape. If even two families could not find him, they probably had no chance either. Of course, they could not simply do nothing, so they had still sent people out to search.

But their hopes were slim. Lin Tianxiong was more inclined to take a gamble at the orphanage and trust the backup plan Ye Cheng had prepared.

“Dad, why aren’t you saying anything? Why do you look so pale?”

Lin Tianxiong: “...”

“Uh... well, sweetheart, Little Cheng’s phone seems to be out of service, so we can’t reach him right now. But...”

“Ahhhhh—!”

Seeing the guilty look on her father’s face, Lin Baizhi’s mind buzzed. She understood everything in an instant!

There was no one. There had never been anyone at all. Her brother still could not be reached, and he might have already fled to some unknown place.

The things mentioned in the post... might very well be true. Her brother really did have a terminal illness!

Lin Baizhi let out a piercing shriek. Her heart rate instantly shot past two hundred. She closed her eyes, kicked out both legs, and collapsed stiffly onto the bed!

There was no need for a sedative anymore.

Lin Tianxiong: “...”

A look of deep anguish appeared on Lin Tianxiong’s face.

You little brat, where did you run off to? Come back already! I’m about to collapse!

...

Sea City, the Dongfang family estate.

“Zhixia, go get some rest for a while. Mom will keep watch here. I’ll tell you immediately if there’s any news.”

Su Su stood to the side, her face filled with worry as she tried to persuade Dongfang Zhixia to sleep.

She was deeply concerned about her daughter’s mental state. Dongfang Zhixia had been awake for nearly a full day and night. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her overall condition was far from good.

She was visibly exhausted, her nerves stretched taut. Even her reactions to the things around her had become noticeably sluggish.

See?

Just like now. Su Su had already called her for quite a while—she had lost count of how many times—but Dongfang Zhixia showed no response at all. Her bloodshot eyes remained fixed on the screen in front of her.

Messages from the Dongfang family’s logistical personnel kept popping up on it, reporting their search efforts and confirming the locations they had already checked...

In a single day, nearly every place in Great Sea City had been searched, even the most remote corners. They had even brought in thermal imaging and infrared scanners, sweeping the area nonstop.

All to keep Ye Cheng from hiding somewhere difficult to find...

And yet, they still came up empty-handed.

The golden six-hour window for finding a missing person had already passed. Dongfang Zhixia knew all too well that the bastard probably wasn’t in Great Sea City anymore. He had most likely already gotten out.

The world was so vast, and that bastard was so clever. If he really went into hiding, where was she supposed to look for him?

A deep sense of helplessness and despair washed over her, and her chest began to ache faintly...

Why did he have to hide? Why did he have to run? Did hiding really solve anything? Why...

Dongfang Zhixia fell into the same vicious cycle again, consumed by even greater regret and self-blame. At the hospital, she should have forced Ye Cheng to stay, made sure he underwent a thorough examination, and only let him leave after confirming that he was fine.

The image of Shen Qinghan standing coldly in front of Ye Cheng flashed through Dongfang Zhixia’s mind.

Dongfang Zhixia gritted her teeth, nearly biting through her red lips.

You just had to play the good person, didn’t you, Shen Qinghan...

“Zhixia? Zhixia, what’s wrong? Don’t scare your mother.” Su Su’s voice came from beside her, filled with alarm. She had noticed that something seemed off about her daughter’s eyes.

Coming back to herself, Dongfang Zhixia shook her head and casually replied, “Nothing. I was just thinking about something. You should go to bed first. I’ll rest in a little while.”

After saying that, she continued staring motionlessly at the computer in front of her, showing no intention of going to sleep whatsoever.

Su Su: “...”

Upstairs, footsteps sounded.

War God Dongfang had woken up from a nap feeling completely refreshed. He stretched lazily and stopped on the second floor.

“Sweetheart, you’re still awake?”

Su Su’s heart skipped a beat, and her expression changed. She had just been about to stop him, but it was already too late.

Dongfang Zhan said, “Oh, so he ran away. So what? It’s not a big deal... If someone wants to leave, you can’t make them stay.”

His tone was fairly calm, but there was still a faint note of schadenfreude in it. He was absolutely delighted.

He had been worried that his daughter would get swindled. But now, it seemed that the young man wasn’t exactly in good shape, and he had even run away on his own. It was practically heaven-sent.

Even the heavens were on his side. He couldn’t see how he could possibly lose!

Of course, he couldn’t look too happy, or his daughter would explode.

“Ahem, dear...” Su Su felt a headache coming on. She coughed twice, trying to cut off the conversation between father and daughter.

“If someone wants to leave, you can’t make them stay?” Dongfang Zhixia murmured to herself from the sofa, lost in thought as she repeated the sentence.

She didn’t blow up as Su Su had expected. Su Su’s expression turned strange. This was developing in a way she hadn’t anticipated.

Dongfang Zhan was even more pleased by the sight. Taking advantage of the moment, he pressed on.

“Sweetheart, think about it. Doesn’t that make sense? What’s meant to be yours will remain yours, regardless of who gets there first or how long it takes. And if something isn’t yours, fighting and snatching won’t do any good. Just look at your mother and me. Back then...”

“Yes. He was mine to begin with!” Dongfang Zhixia’s eyes hardened with renewed determination as she closed the laptop in front of her.

“I’m going out. I won’t be going to school for a while. Help me request a leave of absence!”

With that, Dongfang Zhixia picked up the closed laptop and walked away.

Dongfang Zhan: “...”

Su Su: “...”

The good news: She had listened.

The bad news: She had only listened to part of it...