Transmigration; Married to My Ex-Fiancé's Uncle-Chapter 243; Kidnapping 16

"Mrs. Lu," Ah Ling addressed Shuyin directly, her tone perfectly professional with just enough warmth to sound genuinely concerned rather than coldly efficient. "Perhaps you’d prefer to step into the hallway while the team completes their work? Dr. Lin will need the examination room to be clear when she arrives, and waiting outside might be more comfortable given the circumstances."

Translation: get out so we can stage this scene properly without witnesses who might later be questioned about what they observed during the cleanup process.

"Of course," Shuyin agreed smoothly, grateful for the excuse to not watch them manipulate a corpse she’d created, to not see her violence being transformed into something that looked natural and unavoidable rather than premeditated murder. "I should watch for Chen Xiao anyway. He was supposed to arrive soon and I don’t want him walking in on the middle of cleanup operations."

As if summoned by her words, the examination room door swung open with enough force to suggest someone small had pushed it with their entire body weight, and Chen Xiao stumbled inside with the kind of uncoordinated urgency that came from a five-year-old running at full speed through hospital corridors despite probably being told multiple times to walk carefully.

His round face was flushed from exertion and his eyes were wide with barely suppressed panic, clearly having worked himself into an anxious state during however long it had taken to get here from wherever he’d been when the call came through about Yuyan’s situation. His small hands were clenched into fists at his sides and his breathing was coming in short, sharp gasps that suggested he’d been running for longer than was probably healthy for someone his age.

His eyes immediately found Yuyan on the examination table, his entire small body visibly relaxing when he confirmed she was still breathing, still safe, still whole despite whatever terrible things his imagination had conjured during the journey here.

The tension drained from his shoulders and his hands unclenched, though his face remained pinched with residual worry and confusion about why his sister was unconscious in a hospital.

"Is Yuyan okay?" he asked, the question directed at everyone and no one simultaneously, his young voice carrying the kind of desperate concern that suggested he’d been imagining worst-case scenarios involving death and permanent injury for however long it had taken to arrive. "What happened to her? The person who brought me said she was at the hospital, but they didn’t explain anything else, and I thought maybe she got hurt really bad or was sick or something terrible..."

His words tumbled out in a rush, the way young children spoke when emotions overwhelmed their ability to organize thoughts coherently, and he was already moving toward the examination table with single-minded focus that ignored everything else in the room.

He cut himself off mid-sentence when he finally registered the room’s other occupants beyond his unconscious sister. Lu Yuze was standing near the door with his arms crossed and his expression carefully neutral in a way that probably looked reassuring to a five-year-old but wouldn’t have fooled anyone older. Shuyin positioned herself beside the examination table with her hands folded and her face carefully composed into something approximating maternal concern. Ah Ling was coordinating with three maintenance workers who were moving around the room with a purpose that didn’t quite match their supposed job description; their movements were too efficient and focused for people who were supposedly just here to fix broken equipment or clean floors.

And absolutely no sign of whatever doctor was supposed to be treating Yuyan, no white coat or stethoscope or medical equipment beyond the monitors that were already attached to her.

Chen Xiao’s young mind, sharp from being raised in an environment where he’d learned early to read social situations and identify when adults were lying to him, processed the scene with uncomfortable awareness. Something was wrong here, something beyond his sister being unconscious and requiring medical care, though he probably couldn’t articulate exactly what felt off about the situation.

They might not have been related, but after spending the entire day together, he was now fond of Yuyan.

"Where’s the doctor?" he asked slowly, his small voice carrying suspicion that seemed far too mature for someone who should still be watching cartoons and playing with toys. "And why are there cleaning people here when Yuyan needs medicine?"

Shuyin moved smoothly to intercept him before he could get close enough to the maintenance team’s work to see the corpse they were preparing to transport, before his young eyes could register details that would require explanations she absolutely couldn’t provide to a five-year-old child.

She crouched down to his eye level, putting herself physically between him and the cleanup operation, her body blocking his view of anything problematic while her hands rested gently on his small shoulders.

"Yuyan is fine," she said with gentle firmness, keeping her voice calm and reassuring despite the chaos happening behind her. "She got very sleepy because someone gave her the medicine that made her tired, but she’s safe now, and she’s going to wake up soon and be completely okay. The first doctor had to leave to help someone else who was sicker, so we’re waiting for a new doctor to come check on her, and then we can take her home." 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Chen Xiao’s eyes, dark and worried and far too aware for his age, searched her face for signs of deception. "She’s really okay? She’s not going to die or stay asleep forever?"

"She’s really okay," Shuyin promised with absolute sincerity, because that at least was completely true regardless of what other lies were being constructed around them. "Look at the machines beside her bed. See those numbers? They show that her heart is beating perfectly, and she’s breathing normally, and everything inside her body is working exactly the way it should. She’s just sleeping off the medicine that made her tired."

She guided his attention to the monitors with their steady beeping and reassuring vital signs, giving him something concrete and visual to focus on rather than the suspicious activities happening in his peripheral vision.