Marrying My Bestie's Ferocious Brother - He Calls Me His Baby!-Chapter 180: Baby’s First Words
"Click."
A very faint crisp sound.
Like the flapping of a mosquito’s wings.
In the room filled with shouts and footsteps, it was completely drowned out.
"Director! Got it!"
The subordinate standing on the stool shouted excitedly, his voice trembling.
He carefully climbed down from the stool, holding the expensive-looking brown briefcase.
Then, like a devout believer presenting a sacrifice, he held the case up high with both hands and handed it to Sun Youde.
"Director! Look!"
On Sun Youde’s face, a greedy and smug expression reappeared.
He snatched the briefcase and weighed it in his hand.
It was not light.
Good.
He turned around, raising the briefcase high, facing the dense crowd outside the door.
"Everyone, take a look!"
His voice was full of incitement.
"This is the property hidden by the capitalists!"
"They claim innocence, but who knows how much they have secretly exploited from the people!"
Outside the door, Liu Meiqin paused her action of cracking seeds and immediately jumped up to cooperate.
"That’s right! I knew she wasn’t a good person!"
"Director Sun! Quick! Open it in front of everyone! Let us see how many gold bars are inside!"
"Yes! Open it!"
"Open it!"
The crowd was roused, with noisy shouts erupting one after another.
Sun Youde was very satisfied with this effect.
He lowered his head, fingers exploring the brass clasp, ready to enjoy the fruits of victory.
Gu Lan’s heart was in her throat.
She bit her lip hard, unsure what was in the case that made her sister-in-law so calm.
Wang Guihua also held her breath nervously, her hands tightly guarding Gu Ning’s cradle.
Amidst the chaos.
Lin Wan Yi did not look at the briefcase.
Her gaze, like two sharp searchlights, swiftly scanned the room.
Something was wrong.
The room was too chaotic.
Yet, too quiet.
An instinct only a mother could have made her instantly notice the anomaly.
Gu An’s cradle was empty.
In that moment, it felt like an invisible hand had gripped her heart, making it stop suddenly.
The color drained from her face.
Almost immediately, she locked onto the direction of the sofa.
The corner, blocked by the tall, thick backrest of the sofa, formed a natural shadow.
Her son was there.
Small, not even as high as the sofa’s legs.
Lying on the cold floor tiles.
A chubby little hand had already reached into the black briefcase casually thrown aside by Sun Youde.
Trying to pull something out.
Lin Wan Yi’s heart almost stopped.
A feeling of suffocation rushed to her throat.
She opened her mouth, her son’s name was on the tip of her tongue, about to burst out.
Right then.
The small figure, as if it had eyes on its back, turned around.
Gu An looked back at his mother from a few meters away.
In those black, obsidian-like eyes, there was no infantile confusion nor fear of being in danger.
Only a deep, bottomless calm.
Even with a touch of undeniable reassurance.
That gaze said: Mom, don’t be afraid, trust me.
Lin Wan Yi’s scream, about to escape her lips, was forcibly swallowed back by this gaze.
She clenched her fists.
Sharp nails dug deeply into her palms, sending bursts of piercing pain.
Only this pain could keep her clear-headed and prevent her from collapsing due to worry.
She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again to clarity.
She chose to trust her son.
But she had to buy him time.
"Director Sun."
Lin Wan Yi suddenly spoke, her voice not loud but as cold as ice crashing into a porcelain cup.
Everyone’s attention was instantly drawn to her.
Sun Youde, engrossed in examining the clasp, turned around impatiently to look at her.
"What tricks are you trying now!"
Lin Wan Yi ignored his roar.
Her fingers slowly raised, pointing at the brown briefcase in his hand.
"Before you open it, I need to remind you of something."
"Inside are my husband’s military medals."
Her voice was calm but carried undeniable power.
"First Class, Second Class, Third Class, all of them are inside."
"As well as every commendation certificate he received from his first year of service onwards."
"Every medal has been stained with enemy blood and his own."
"Every certificate is a testament of his life traded on the battlefield."
She looked at Sun Youde’s face changing color, enunciating each word clearly.
"Are you sure you want to display the honors earned by a combat hero as ’stolen goods’ in front of so many military families and neighbors?"
As her words fell.
The yard instantly fell silent.
The neighbors outside, who were jeering moments ago, all shut their mouths.
They could doubt Lin Wan Yi’s background, but they would never doubt the authenticity of Gu Yanshen’s military honors.
Those were earned through real-life combat on the battlefield!
Sun Youde’s actions completely froze.
He held the briefcase, feeling as if what he held was not treasure but a burning iron.
Open it?
If he dared to open the military medals and publicly shame them, the saliva of the military families outside could drown him!
If this matter gets out to the unit, he can forget about his position as the head of the investigation team!
But can he not open it?
He had already spoken out loud just now, and now he couldn’t back down!
His face turned from blue to white, finally swelling to the color of liver.
He felt as if he were being roasted repeatedly over a blazing fire.
Just at that moment.
"Rustle... rustle..."
A barely audible sound of paper being rustled came from behind him.
The sound was very light.
But in this moment of suffocating silence, it seemed particularly jarring.
Sun Youde felt something was wrong.
He quickly turned around.
And he saw it.
A scene he would never forget in his life.
That little brat named Gu An, somehow, had crawled next to his briefcase.
In his small hand, he was holding a black notebook that Sun Youde knew all too well.
That was...
That was his lifeline!
The secret ledger he used to record all the ’transactions’ over the years!
Sun Youde’s pupils dilated to the extreme in that instant.
The blood in his body, like gasoline igniting, whooshed to his head.
"You little bastard!!!"
He let out a beast-like roar that didn’t sound human.
The briefcase in his hand was thrown to the ground like trash, making a dull thud.
"How dare you touch my things!"
His eyes were bloodshot, his facial muscles twisted, like a mad bull.
He lunged violently at Gu An!
"Brother!" Gu Lan screamed in despair, rushing forward without a second thought.
"Don’t move!"
A tall figure blocked her way; it was one of Sun Youde’s men.
The man held Gu Lan’s arm firmly, and no matter how she struggled, she couldn’t break free.
Wang Guihua’s legs went weak with fear, and she could only tightly protect Gu Ning’s cradle.
Lin Wan Yi’s body also tightened to the extreme at that moment, her heart almost jumping out of her chest.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
Sun Youde’s large fan-like hand was raised high in the air, carrying a malicious force that seemed strong enough to tear someone apart.
He had lost all reason.
He wasn’t trying to snatch the notebook.
He was about to slap that child’s face hard!
However.
Gu An didn’t dodge.
Nor did he cry.
He simply lifted his head and calmly looked at the ferocious face rushing towards him.
Within his small body, a gentle yet formidable power erupted instantly.
It was the ingenious strength and might far surpassing the ordinary granted to him by the spiritual spring water.
His chubby little hands tightly gripped the thick black notebook, his small fingers precisely catching the binding line in the middle.
At the very moment before Sun Youde’s hand could descend.
He used all the strength in his little body.
And tore it fiercely!
"Rip!"
A crisp, loud, ear-piercing tearing sound.
Like a bombshell!
It echoed throughout the courtyard, and tore through the eardrums of everyone present.
Time seemed to hit the pause button at that moment.
Sun Youde’s raised hand froze, stiffly stuck in mid-air.
He watched helplessly.
His secret ledger, which he cherished as his life’s treasure, was neatly torn in half from the middle.
By a newborn baby.
The next second.
Snow fluttered all around.
No.
Not snow.
Paper.
Money.
Evidence.
A thick wad of unity currency bills, sandwiched in the ledger, was scattered into the air by the immense tearing force.
And countless sheets filled with names, dates, and amounts.
Like a swarm of startled black butterflies exploding in the murky air, spiraling, and then drifted down in scattered confusion.
Everyone was stunned, rooted to the spot by this sudden and powerful scene.
Outside the door, Liu Meiqin’s mouth was gaping wide enough to fit an egg, unaware she had spilled sunflower seeds all over the ground.
The men Sun Youde brought were all frozen, as if they had been petrified at the spot.
Gu Lan and Wang Guihua also forgot to cry and just stared blankly at the magical scene before them.
Sheets of paper drifted down slowly.
One floated lightly, just covering Liu Meiqin’s face, causing her to let out a short, sharp scream.
One fell on the shoulder of the man restraining Gu Lan, and he stiffened, not daring to move.
Countless red bills, like rain, fell all over the place.
And a small piece of paper, torn from the notebook.
Spun in the air, floating slowly, leisurely.
Landing right in front of Sun Youde’s eyes.
It hovered for half a second.
Then gently landed beside his expensive leather shoes.
On it was Wang Jian Country’s flamboyant handwriting, which he knew so well.
Black and white, clearly written.
"Wang Jian Country, Color TV project, One Thousand Yuan."
Sun Youde felt a chill throughout his body, as if he had been plunged into an icy cave.
Rigidly, like a rusty robot, he lowered his head inch by inch, looking at that thin slip of paper at his feet, yet heavy as a grave marker.
Then he slowly lifted his head.
Facing the instigator sitting on the ground.
Gu An released his grip.
