Chapter 214

An ZhiXian carried the baby back to the delivery room, where Zhou Nan had been waiting at the door all this while. Seeing him carry the baby back, she hurriedly went up to meet him.

Her eyes were red - clearly from crying earlier - and she finally heaved a sigh of relief now, reaching out to take the baby from An ZhiXian's arms, "Thank heavens, thank heavens, at least we got him back."

But An ZhiXian didn't let her take the baby. Instead, he said dejectedly, "Mom, don't get your hopes up too high. We're still not sure if this is our baby."

Zhou Nan's heart clenched again instantly, "What do you mean 'not sure'? If this isn't the baby who was swapped from our family, why did you bring him back?"

"Mom, I said I'm not certain. It's complicated, I'll explain to you later." An ZhiXian's head was buzzing painfully, like it would explode any moment. Yet he had to force himself to stay lucid, "Right, how's my sister? Has she woken up?"

"Still not awake. Her body is very weak. She hasn't even opened her eyes this whole time, so she doesn't know about the baby yet." Saying so, Zhou Nan's eyes brimmed with tears again.

No one knew what sin they had committed to make the child suffer like this.

"It's good that she's not awake." An ZhiXian thought to himself that having just given birth, his sister was already physically feeble. If she woke up to find out her baby was missing, the consequences would be unthinkable.

He could only hope that Pei Jing and his second brother were successful in finding the baby before his sister woke up.

Zhou Nan was also extremely worried.

Hearing voices outside, the others came out from the room too, leaving only grandmother to watch over the two babies and ZhiXia.

An ZhiXian briefly explained the situation to An JingZhi, then handed the baby in his arms over to them, instructing them to look after him well. Only then did he rush off to find Pei Jing and the others.

At this point, An JingZhi and the rest couldn't offer much help either, other than watching over the babies and ZhiXia.

He placed the new baby beside the other two, intending to compare them.

But grandfather quickly stopped him, "Don't mix up the three babies again. We still don't know if this one is ours."

Old Pei also came over to take a look. Newborns all looked quite alike, so it was truly hard to tell them apart when placed together. They couldn't afford to mess up the other two either.

An JingZhi jumped in fright, but luckily he was clutching the babies tightly and no mishaps occurred. "I'm just comparing them. ZhenYue and WanQing look almost identical. Maybe we can spot something from the triplets too. Also, the wrapping cloths and sizes are different. There's no way I'll mix them up." The two elderly men and old lady gathered around as well. Indeed, some differences could be observed.

The baby An ZhiXian brought back was visibly larger in size, but that didn't prove anything since the other two weren't of equal sizes either.

Additionally, this baby had meconium on his head, and his skin was also slightly darker.

The other two babies had clean foreheads without any stains, with fair and lustrous skin without a single wrinkle. Other than their smaller size, nothing gave away that they were just newborns.

Old Pei quickly asked Zhou Nan, "ZhiQing's mom, did ZhenYue and WanQing have meconium on their heads when they were born?"

Only then did Zhou Nan carefully recall, shaking her head firmly, "No, both of them were clean, with fair, soft skin and double eyelids when they were born. They looked like beautiful babies."

The elders exchanged disappointed looks with one another.

They genuinely hoped the baby could be found, even if he wasn't as good-looking.

But the greatest difficulty now was that they couldn't recognize their own baby.

No one had even seen him before, let alone knew what he looked like. They couldn't simply go by resemblance to confirm identities, otherwise what if they raised the wrong child? How would they handle that?

...

It had only been 10 days since the divorce. An ZhiRen had been living at home recently, while Wang Caixiang lived alone in that house - but only until the school reopened.

Since the house had already been returned to the school, it would be reallocated after the new semester began. She would definitely be driven out by then.

Luckily for An ZhiRen who couldn't be bothered to deal with Wang Caixiang anymore, the school would step in to chase her away. So he could easily find out her address at this time.

He randomly dumped his bicycle on the ground and barged into the house impatiently.

Everything inside looked the same as before. Wang Caixiang still sat at the table, surrounded by stacks of paper boxes glued neatly. Her hands kept brushing glue on them incessantly.

She didn't seem surprised by his arrival at all, only affirming An ZhiRen's guess that she was indeed involved in this matter.

He strode forward to grab her arm. The paper box Wang Caixiang had just glued dropped to the floor.

She laughed mockingly as she turned to face him, her eyes filled with ridicule.

"Did you do something to the baby? Where have you hidden him?" An ZhiRen gripped her arm so tightly that the veins on the back of his hand popped out. He showed no tenderness at all toward her.

"What baby? What are you talking about?" Wang Caixiang struggled unsuccessfully to break free, then scoffed, "Grabbing me so forcefully, don't tell me you regret divorcing me already?"

"Stop spouting nonsense. If you know what's good for you, confess where you've hidden the baby yourself, Wang Caixiang. You should know I ran out of patience and sympathy for you long ago. Don't make me get physical." An ZhiRen twisted her arms behind her back and shoved her body onto the table.

The neatly stacked boxes tumbled to the floor with a clattering noise.

An ZhiRen pressed down hard on her arms. Wang Caixiang shrieked in pain as her arms were twisted behind her back, feeling as if they would fall off. "It hurts..." The disparity in strength between men and women was just too vast. Wang Caixiang couldn't struggle at all. "Let go of me, An ZhiRen, don't go crazy. I don't know what you're talking about. We're already divorced. If you dare lay hands on me again, I'm reporting you to the police."

Seeing that she refused to admit it, An ZhiRen felt even more anxious and resentful.

His gaze swept the surroundings, suddenly catching sight of scissors fallen on the floor.

He picked up the scissors and held the sharp blades to Wang Caixiang's cheek. "Are you going to talk or not? Wang Caixiang, don't force me to drag you to hell with me!"

His hand trembled slightly and the blades drew a bloody gash on her face.

Wang Caixiang thought she could stoically face death, but when the moment truly came, she was still afraid.

An ZhiRen was a madman. Forcing her into such dire straits when she would soon be homeless, and her stolen money was gone too. She really had no other options left.

Hardening her heart, Wang Caixiang's eyes flashed with resolute desperation. "An ZhiRen, I'm warning you now to put down those scissors immediately, otherwise don't think about ever finding out what happened to your nephew."

"So it was you after all. Where have you hidden the baby?" Now An ZhiRen felt not only furious but also regretful.

He shouldn't have left Wang Caixiang to fend for herself. He should have made her share the same fate as the Wang family - either death or penal servitude. That would have eliminated this hidden peril and his sister and her newborn wouldn't have suffered because of it.

"Put down the scissors." Wang Caixiang yelled, "If you want to know the baby's whereabouts, then you'll have to listen to me."

An ZhiRen lowered the scissors and flung them far away.

Even without anything in their hands, there was no way Wang Caixiang could escape from his clutches.

He had overpowered her once, he could do it a second time too.

"Go on then." An ZhiRen gritted his teeth impatiently.

Seeing the man who had always been condescending toward her in the past few years now driven to such desperate straits, Wang Caixiang felt an undeniable thrill.

She laughed unrestrainedly and taunted, "You truly dote on that sister of yours huh. I wonder though, how far you'd go for her sake?"

An ZhiRen had never felt his patience wear so thin. He had no wish to indulge in pointless chatter.

Perhaps sensing that his patience was almost depleted, Wang Caixiang spoke again before it completely ran out, "An ZhiRen, don't you detest me? Didn't you refuse to touch me? But I truly have feelings for you. Everything I did was for your sake. As long as you promise to be with me, I'll do anything you ask...how about it?"

Wang Caixiang had really lost her mind, yet An Zhiren could only humor her. "Alright, I promise you. Now can you please tell me where the child is?"

"Zhiren, I do like you, but I'm still just a high schooler. I'm not an idiot. If I tell you where the child is now, how can you possibly let me live?"

"What exactly do you want?"

"I want you to sleep with me, right here and now." Wang Caixiang moved closer, caressing the face she had been dreaming about day and night. She really did like him a lot. "Zhiren, give me a child, our child. Wouldn't that be nice? As long as I'm pregnant, I'll give the child back to you. Otherwise, you can kill me now, but you'll never find that child again!"