Plunder-Chapter 215: A Son Suddenly Appears

"Young Master, Young Mistress, you have finally returned."

Sister Rong approached the gate with a worried look on her face.

"Sister Rong, what’s wrong with you?"

Qiao En asked suspiciously.

Sister Rong hesitated, her gaze shifting from Qiao En to Zhou Jin’an.

"Young Master, something terrible has happened."

"What happened?"

Zhou Jin’an’s face grew slightly somber.

On the way, he had been pestering Qiao En to know what the present was, and his mood still hadn’t settled.

Sister Rong kept sighing, unsure of where to begin.

"You should go inside and see for yourself," she said, hanging her head.

Zhou Jin’an strode in, with Qiao En following closely behind him.

"Sister Rong, what exactly happened?"

Qiao En asked again.

Sister Rong didn’t make a sound, simply walking inside with her head down.

In the living room, a chubby little boy was squatting on the carpet playing with building blocks. Seeing Zhou Jin’an come in, he looked up, blinking his large eyes at him.

Then, Qiao En also came in.

The atmosphere in the living room turned very strange, everyone’s gaze directed at the child.

He was quite adorable, with a tigerish air about him.

"Who is he?"

Zhou Jin’an asked, frowning.

The child seemed frightened, clutching the building blocks tightly and beginning to sob with a pouting mouth.

From the kitchen, Auntie Jiang peeked out halfway.

"Zhou Jin’an, keep your voice down, don’t scare him," she said, coming out with a freshly made bowl of pumpkin porridge. "Qiqi, you must be starving, right? The porridge is ready, let’s eat."

Qiao En’s eyes widened, she stood there stunned.

"Mom, who is this child?"

Auntie Jiang didn’t lift her head, focusing on feeding the child.

The child looked well-behaved and seemed to listen to Auntie Jiang.

"Sister Rong, what’s going on?"

Zhou Jin’an’s suspicious gaze swept towards Sister Rong.

Sister Rong lowered her voice and said, "This morning I heard someone pressing the doorbell, so I went out to see, and this child was standing at the gate, crying and calling for his father. I opened the door and asked him where his father was. He insisted that his father was in here and ran inside, and I couldn’t get him to leave."

"Sister Rong, how could you just let a child in like that? He must be lost. We should call the police right away. His parents will be worried sick if they can’t find him."

As she spoke, Qiao En was about to dial the police.

"There’s no need to call the police," Auntie Jiang suddenly intervened.

"Mom, what are you doing? His parents must be looking for him everywhere. It’s not appropriate for us to keep him here."

"I said no calling the police means no calling the police," Auntie Jiang replied firmly.

Qiao En looked at Zhou Jin’an, who shook his head at her.

"What’s up with my mom?"

Qiao En was very puzzled.

Zhou Jin’an breathed a sigh of relief, "She probably just loves children too much."

Qiao En looked at Auntie Jiang, who was patiently feeding the child with a smile in her eyes, a kind expression on her face.

"Are you full? If you’re still hungry, I can make you more," Auntie Jiang said.

The child shook his head, and Auntie Jiang patted his head.

The child clutched his building blocks and continued to play as Auntie Jiang stood up and walked toward the kitchen.

Qiao En followed her quickly, "Mom, what exactly is going on?"

Auntie Jiang busied herself washing dishes, "What is going on? Starting today, this child follows me. If you find him a nuisance, I’ll take him back to Gu Yuan."

In the living room, Zhou Jin’an crouched down.

"Are you called Qiqi?" he asked, picking up a building block, attempting to engage the child in conversation.

He acted as though he hadn’t heard, absorbed in his own world.

Zhou Jin’an moved closer, "Where do you live? Do you remember?"

The child slowly lifted his head, glanced at him, then looked away again.

"Who is your father? Do you remember?"

As long as the child named someone, Zhou Jin’an could have Cheng Lu find that person immediately.

But he never expected the child to look up again, gazing at him seriously.

After a long while, he finally spoke.

"My father’s name is Zhou Jin’an."

In an instant, Qiao En felt as if a bomb had gone off next to her ear.

"What did you say?"

She rushed out of the kitchen and up to the child, asking.

The child seemed frightened, scrambling up from the ground, darting past Qiao En, and racing into the kitchen, before throwing himself into Auntie Jiang’s arms.

Qiao En was utterly confused, and so was Jin’an.

She turned her gaze to Jin’an, "What’s going on?"

"How would I know?"

Auntie Jiang picked up the child and headed to her own bedroom, leaving everyone behind.

Qiao En followed her, "Mom, you can’t just take him away."

The child was crying out of fear, and Auntie Jiang held him tight.

"Don’t be afraid, our Qiqi is the bravest."

She soothed the child with a gentle voice.

"You scared him."

Before Qiao En could react, Auntie Jiang opened the bedroom door and went in with the child.

By the time Qiao En wanted to enter, the door was already locked from the inside.

Jin’an irritably tore off his tie and paced back and forth in the room, hands on his hips.

"Did this child have anything with him when he arrived?"

He asked Sister Rong.

Sister Rong thought carefully, "Yes, he was carrying a small bear backpack."

"Where’s the backpack?"

Sister Rong slapped her forehead, "The backpack is in Auntie Jiang’s room."

Auntie Jiang was protecting the child; she must have known something.

Out of nowhere, a child appeared claiming to be Jin’an’s son, a revelation that Qiao En couldn’t just accept offhand.

She didn’t understand why Auntie Jiang was doing this, but at that moment, her mind was in complete disarray.

She left Jin’an and hurriedly returned to the bedroom.

Actually, she had been planning to share the good news that she was pregnant with Jin’an.

However, before she could speak, he suddenly acquired a son.

This news came so unexpectedly that Jin’an himself was unable to accept it.

He ordered Cheng Lu to investigate, but there was no immediate information to be found.

When he returned to the bedroom, Qiao En was already lying down with her back to him. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

He was agitated, and even more so, despondent.

"Please believe me, there’s definitely something fishy going on. How could I suddenly have a son?"

Jin’an tried to explain to Qiao En.

But he didn’t even know where to begin.

"Let’s go to sleep, I’m tired,"

Qiao En said flatly.

Jin’an lay down beside Qiao En. Though she didn’t interrogate or explode with anger, he could clearly sense her unhappiness.

"Wife, didn’t you say you had a gift for me tonight? What is it?"

By now, Jin’an had actually lost any real curiosity about the gift, but he wanted to try and distract Qiao En.

If it had not been for this incident, the gift from Qiao En could have made his night.

But now...

"It’s nothing,"

Qiao En replied coldly.

"I’m sorry, it’s all my fault today. Please be assured, I will get to the bottom of this," Jin’an said.

Without a response from Qiao En, Jin’an didn’t press further.

Lights out, both lay there without falling asleep.

Jin’an’s mind was a bubbling cauldron of thoughts.

The situation had arisen so abruptly, he hadn’t had time to process it.

But the night afforded him a chance to calm down.

The child calling him father must have been taught to say so by someone, but who?

Also, why had the child suddenly appeared at his residence?

Most peculiar of all was that Auntie Jiang should be angry, yet why did she treat the child like a treasure?

Qiao En’s head was also in turmoil.

The child looked to be no older than five.

She couldn’t help but think of a certain person.