When the servant summoned the private doctor, An Ruo had already fallen unconscious.
The female doctor performed a full-body examination on An Ruo, while the others stood far from the bed.
Shen Xiaoxing sat in his wheelchair, his gaze unfocused, his hands and body covered in blood. He had seen plenty of blood before—scenes far more gruesome and perilous—but none had ever made him feel this terrified, this fearful, this utterly panicked and lost.
Seeing the girl bleed so profusely, his heart leaped into his throat, and he stood dazed, unsure of what to do next.
He nearly got caught by the servant who burst in, but fortunately, Han Chong snapped him back to reality in time, sparing him from an even more troublesome situation.
"Young master..." The female doctor hesitated after the examination, then spoke: "The young mistress..."
Shen Xiaoxing had a violent temper. He gripped the armrest tightly, forcing himself to stay composed so he wouldn't rush over, grab her by the collar, and demand answers in a rage. He couldn't reveal this flaw in front of An Ruo.
His voice was stiff, as if the words coming out weren't his own: "How... is she?"
"The young mistress is fine, but the child in her womb... is gone."
Hearing the first part, the man sighed in relief and loosened his grip, but the second part and those final two words struck him like a club, sending him straight to hell.
His voice turned icy: "What do you mean, gone?!"
"G-gone means... the child is no longer here. The young mistress took an abortifacient, and it's beyond saving. The child cannot be kept..."
Shen Xiaoxing's ears went deaf, a constant ringing drowning out the doctor's next words. He raised his hand and slapped his ear hard, but he still couldn't hear.
"Young master..." Han Chong sensed something was wrong and stepped forward to call out twice.
The man clenched his jaw fiercely. The brief deafness in his ears jolted him back to clarity. His heart felt as if a piece had been gouged out, leaving a gaping wound through which a cold wind howled, causing him to spasm in pain.
Han Chong was stunned. He had never seen the young master like this before. No matter what happened, he was always so composed.
He knew he had a violent temper and deliberately suppressed it to appear normal.
The female doctor said softly, "The young mistress is still young. As long as she takes good care of her health, she can have another child..."
Shen Xiaoxing squeezed his stinging eyes shut, his handsome brows furrowed tightly. For some reason, the moment he heard the child was gone, his heart felt like it had been thrown into a meat grinder, bleeding and aching...
He saw every day how much An Ruo had looked forward to the child's birth.
Since neither of them had a good childhood, they wanted to pour all the love they had longed for but never received into this child. They clung to each other, clumsily learning parenting tips, and welcomed the new life together.
But in just over two months, the child was gone...
"Han Chong!" The man's eyes were bloodshot, his cold, sinister gaze like that of a demon from hell: "Investigate this!"
He wanted to see how this child could suddenly disappear without a trace!
Shen Xiaoxing clenched his fists. He had long suspected the child wouldn't survive, but now that it had actually happened, he still couldn't accept the truth.
...
The morning breeze gently lifted the thin window curtains. On the cream-colored bed lay a girl with a calm, pale face, her beauty tinged with illness, like a fallen angel descending to earth, evoking pity.
She was dreaming again, but this time it wasn't the strange visions—it was...
Her long lashes fluttered as she slowly opened her eyes. She saw the man stand up from his wheelchair, his legs unharmed, walking upright like a normal person.
A sinister smile curled on his lips. Behind him appeared the Shen family: the old man with his cane, the sharp-tongued Fang Yingxue, the cold and angry Lin Zhao, the smug Shen Yu and Shen Tingfeng, and An Qing, watching with amusement...
Their smiles were full of malice, their ugly, indifferent faces gradually looming larger before her. They scolded her, mocked her, insulted her. Even Shen Xiaoxing, who had always been gentle and protective, now showed nothing but coldness, watching her being berated by the crowd as if it had nothing to do with him. Their harsh words turned into invisible knives stabbing into her.
But she had endured this for years; these insults couldn't hurt her. Only the man's indifference slowly chilled her heart...
He had promised to protect her, not to look down on her background, to trust and respect her unconditionally. But now?
A baby's cry startled her, and she looked up.
In the cold, stern man's arms was a tiny infant—a newborn, still covered in blood.
She reached out to hold it, but he mercilessly pulled away. Several bodyguards suddenly rushed over and pinned her to the ground.
Beside her, An Qing kept whispering in the man's ear, saying she had been having an affair with some other man and given birth to this filthy, illegitimate brat!
"A bastard born from someone else—how dare it exist in this world!" The man's eyes turned icy as he viciously gripped the infant's tiny neck. She struggled desperately, but he sneered, "You're so dirty!"
Those words struck her heart like a cold arrow, the pain suffocating.
But she had no time to dwell on his cruelty. He held the baby aloft on a ten-thousand-meter-high city wall, laughed coldly, and without hesitation, threw the child down—
"No!"
An Ruo's voice was hoarse!
Her terrified eyes brimmed with tears. She had never shed a single tear in front of him, but now she was a sobbing mess.
With a surge of strength she didn't know she had, she shook off the bodyguards and ran to the edge of the wall to look down. All she saw was darkness and a small patch of blood...
The child was gone.
A chill swept through her. Trembling, she turned her face and saw the man's lips curled in a cruel smile, uttering words that cut her to the core, while his arm wrapped around the radiant An Qing.
He wasn't the gentle, coaxing Shen Xiaoxing. No, he wasn't...
An Ruo closed her eyes in agony, her heart spasming with pain. Tears welled up and slowly slid down her cheeks, soaking the pillow beneath her face.
A warm, large hand brushed her tears away, and a deep, tender voice said, "Little one, wake up. Wake up..."
An Ruo felt like she couldn't breathe. She had never felt such heartache before—as if she were being uprooted, the pain so raw.
"Having a nightmare, aren't you?" Shen Xiaoxing gently smoothed her tear-dampened hair, leaned down to kiss her brow, and whispered soothingly, "Don't be afraid. I'm right here with you."
The girl's tear-laden lashes trembled slightly as her blurry vision gradually cleared. Before her was the man's strikingly handsome face, and her heart suddenly clenched in pain!
"Don't be afraid." Shen Xiaoxing lifted her into his arms, pressing her against his chest, and pulled the blanket around her. He patted her back gently, like comforting a child, and said softly, "Sleep a little more. I'll stay with you. I won't leave."
The room was so quiet that only the sound of his hand patting the brocade blanket wrapped around her could be heard...
An Ruo slowly gathered her thoughts. She realized this wasn't a dream. The man before her was as gentle as ever, without a trace of cold indifference. It felt unreal.
Shen Xiaoxing hadn't slept all night. The loss of the child had hit him hard. He had smoked for hours on the balcony, afraid the girl would wake up and not see him, so he took a shower and returned to sit by her bedside.
In just one night, he had grown haggard and anxious, with stubble sprouting on his chin. His deep, dark eyes were bloodshot, with faint shadows underneath.