The nanny had just picked up Xiao Ningyu when Xiaoxiao, unexpectedly, came to hit her. In her panic to dodge, she lost her grip on the child.
Lan Yu cried out in alarm and tried to catch the baby, but it was too late. The child slipped from the nanny's arms and fell to the ground.
Xiao Ningyu, who had been crying, stopped her wails upon hitting the ground with a thud. Lan Yu was stunned.
She ignored Xiaoxiao and quickly picked up Ningyu, touching the child's head.
Xiao Ningyu burst into tears again. The nanny, more experienced, said, "It's good that she's crying. We need to go to the hospital immediately!"
"Okay," Lan Yu said, rushing out the door with the child.
The nanny grabbed her phone and pointed at Xiaoxiao, saying, "You wicked child, even if Mr. Xiao comes back, he won't protect you. You wait for your punishment!"
After that, she followed Lan Yu to take the child to the hospital.
The house fell silent, leaving only Xiaoxiao.
Xiaoxiao hadn't expected to hurt the annoying infant. Looking at the open door, she wiped away her tears, returned to her room, grabbed her cartoon storybook, and left.
Today, An Jing returned from work early, having specially bought desserts that Lan Yu and Xiaoxiao loved.
But as he drove up to the entrance, he found the front door ajar and heard no one.
He immediately felt something was wrong. Had there been a burglary?
He hastily parked his car, took a tire iron from the trunk, and cautiously entered the house.
After looking around, he found no one.
Lan Yu was gone, Xiaoxiao was gone, and even Xiao Ningyu and the nanny were not at home.
However, the house was tidy, except for a dirty diaper on the floor in the nursery with a shoe print on it.
The size of the shoe print was clearly Xiaoxiao's. He couldn't understand what had happened.
He immediately picked up his phone and called Lan Yu. After several rings, Lan Yu answered.
"Where are you? Where are the two children?"
Lan Yu was at the hospital, waiting for the doctor to examine Ningyu's head. She said hurriedly, "I'm at the hospital. Ningyu fell and hit her head. The doctor is examining her."
"Ah, how did that happen?"
Lan Yu didn't know how to explain and could only say, "It was my carelessness."
An Jing asked, "Is Ningyu okay? Is it serious?"
"We don't know yet if she's injured. We have to wait for the doctor's examination results."
An Jing understood what had happened and, with less urgency, asked, "Did you bring Xiaoxiao to the hospital too?"
"No, Xiaoxiao didn't come. She's at home," Lan Yu said.
An Jing panicked again. "I'm at home, and no one is here! Did the nanny take Xiaoxiao out?"
"The nanny is with me at the hospital," Lan Yu said, her heart sinking. She didn't know where Xiaoxiao had gone.
"What!" An Jing's voice rose in anger. "How could you two adults not leave one person at home to look after Xiaoxiao? What if Xiaoxiao gets lost again..."
"Xiao An Jing, who is your biological daughter?" Lan Yu said tearfully on the phone. "Our own daughter has hit her head, and we don't know if she'll become foolish or have after-effects! And you're questioning me about what if Xiaoxiao gets lost? Haven't you thought about coming to the hospital to see your own daughter!"
"I was planning to go to the hospital," An Jing said, knowing Lan Yu was angry, but he was more worried that Xiaoxiao might have wandered off alone. "But Xiaoxiao isn't home now. I need to find her first before going to the hospital..."
"From now on, my daughter and I don't need you. You just take care of Xiaoxiao!" Lan Yu hung up directly, turned off her phone, and her pent-up resentment finally erupted.
Seeing that Lan Yu had probably been arguing with Xiao An Jing on the phone, the nanny proactively said, "I'll wait in the examination room. You can rest for a while."
Lan Yu hummed and sat on the bench outside the examination room, tears streaming down her face.
She asked herself if she was a wicked woman. She had done her best for Xiaoxiao, and since An Jing said he treated Xiaoxiao as his own, she had tried her best to do the same.
But Xiaoxiao didn't appreciate it at all. What could she do?
At home, she always yielded and doted on the child.
If Xiaoxiao wanted to play at Xiao Xingxing's house, it wasn't that she didn't let her.
She had contacted Susu, who said Xiao Xingxing had started attending school normally and wasn't home during the day.
She had explained it to Xiaoxiao many times, but Xiaoxiao simply didn't believe her.
At home, Xiaoxiao either ignored her or threw tantrums.
Even with the nanny's help, she had to take care of her own child. Xiaoxiao's tantrums made her head spin every day.
She felt like she was on the verge of a breakdown, yet An Jing always thought of and worried about Xiaoxiao first, completely ignoring their mother and daughter.
This life was unbearable!
...
An Jing was caught in a dilemma again. He irritably threw the packed desserts onto the table.
He thought he had resolved the issue of Xiaoxiao's biological father and that life would return to normal.
But he hadn't expected that whenever Ningyu had an emergency, Lan Yu would disregard Xiaoxiao and only care about her biological daughter.
This made him uncomfortable. Finding Xiaoxiao was the priority now. What if Xiaoxiao was taken by bad people again?
After finding Xiaoxiao, he would go to the hospital to appease Lan Yu.
Having made up his mind, he immediately called the police, reported the child missing, and requested access to the street surveillance outside the gate.
...
After leaving home, Xiaoxiao held a small notebook given to her by Xiao Xingxing. It had the school emblem of Xiao Xingxing's school.
She walked and asked people where the school was.
A passerby told her it was very far away and she needed to take a bus.
Following the passerby's directions, she got on a bus, sat by the window with her backpack, and counted the stops.
However, it felt like a long time, and she hadn't reached the stop the person mentioned. Feeling drowsy, she fell asleep on the bus.
When she woke up, she found she was the only one left on the bus. The driver came over and asked, "Little girl, are you alone? Where are your parents?"
Xiaoxiao hugged her backpack tightly and remained silent, staring at the bus driver, wanting to get off.
The bus driver immediately realized she was a runaway child, and an foreign child at that.
"Don't go. Come with me to the rest room at the terminal. I need to have someone contact your parents." This bus driver had been driving for many years and had encountered many such children. If he let this child leave on her own, her family would be frantic.
Xiaoxiao shook her head and said, "No, I don't have parents."
The bus driver smiled, "You child, you speak Chinese quite fluently. Are your parents teaching English here?"
"None of your business," Xiaoxiao said, wanting to get off the bus and continue looking for Xiao Xingxing.
The bus driver grabbed her arm and called the logistics office at the terminal, asking them to send a female colleague to take the child to the office.
Xiaoxiao thought she had encountered a bad person and opened her mouth to bite the driver's hand.
The driver dodged in time and said, "You little girl, you're quite feisty. No wonder you ran away. Don't you know your parents must be worried sick about you?"