Time rewinded to the moment Wu Ma fell.
Nuannuan felt her body being supported by a pair of hands, but there were too many people to tell whose face it was. She only knew that a man's body was firmly shielding her.
Then, someone covered her mouth and nose, and Nuannuan immediately plunged into darkness.
The same group of people were at the spot where Wu Ma fell. The moment Wu Ma stumbled, they directly caught the child. After catching the child, they bent down and retreated a few steps into the crowd, using the packed bodies to knock Nuannuan unconscious.
After Nuannuan lost consciousness, she was quickly wrapped in clothes. A large bag carried by the person was opened, revealing a smooth metal inner core. Then, a pair of mechanical arms extended from within, quickly pulling the bundled child inside.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye. This group of people cooperated with remarkable taciturnity.
If there had been surveillance cameras, one would have seen a well-trained group slowly retreating from the crowd and disappearing into the woods behind them.
The scene was too chaotic at the time, with everyone around only paying attention to their own footing. The people behind were also panicked and disoriented. No one noticed that a group of people had secretly spirited a child away.
And the only one who noticed would never speak up.
Upon learning that the Ye family's granddaughter was missing, the police took the matter very seriously and arrived swiftly.
Since there were too many people at the scene, checking everyone individually would require a large number of personnel. Subsequently, half of the capital's police force rushed to the park.
The Ye family members soon arrived.
Ye Jinghuai stood before Wu Ma, listening to her account, feeling as if he were dreaming.
Ye Jinghuai desperately hoped he had misheard. Nuannuan had spoken to him softly that morning, and he had told her he would wait for his father to return when he left. How could she be lost?
"My precious child! Where is my precious child?"
Liu Ruhua stumbled over from a distance, her usual elegance gone. Ye Jianming also appeared less composed than usual, though his steps were steadier than Liu Ruhua's.
"How could this happen? Huh? Ye Jinghuai! How could such a big child get lost? Say something! How did you look after the child?"
Liu Ruhua lunged forward and angrily hit Ye Jinghuai. Not knowing who else to turn to, she could only vent her fury on her son.
"Madam, curse at me! It's my fault. I was right beside Miss Nuannuan, and I lost her. If anything happens to her, I won't live."
Wu Ma clung to her waist from behind, her eyes already swollen from crying.
"Alas, Madam, it is we, your servants, who have failed you."
Uncle Li looked at his old wife with tear-filled eyes. He had been angry at her negligence, but seeing her so remorseful, he couldn't bring himself to scold her.
"Ruhua, calm down first. We are all very anxious. Jinghuai is probably even more upset than you right now," Ye Jianming said, hugging Liu Ruhua to comfort her, his own eyes filled with grief.
"Wuwu~ I'm sorry, son. Mom is just worried. Jinghuai, you must find my precious child!"
Liu Ruhua had lost her composure upon hearing the news, but she had calmed down slightly.
"Sister Wu, Brother Li, it's not your fault. Sister Wu has thought of all the dangers. Those people must have planned for a long time to be so meticulous," Liu Ruhua gritted her teeth in hatred.
Then, other members of the Ye family arrived. Ye Jingshen was in the middle of an internal meeting. Upon receiving the call, he disregarded everything and rushed over.
Ye Jingxing had a special interview today. His styling was half-done, with only half his makeup applied and a few clips still in his hair.
Ye Jingming was on a plane, preparing for takeoff. The gangway had already retracted, and the cabin door was closed.
Upon receiving the news, he demanded to deplane immediately. Impatient for the gangway to return, he instructed his accompanying subordinates to handle the aftermath, then opened the aircraft's safety door and slid down the inflatable slide.
Ye Jingzhi was the last to arrive. Due to the special nature of his school, he couldn't carry his phone at all times. By the time he learned Nuannuan was missing, a considerable amount of time had passed. He didn't even have time to request leave and rushed out of the school gates.
Looking at the scene now, everyone's hearts sank to the bottom. This was undoubtedly a meticulously planned kidnapping.
The police were investigating one by one. There were no surveillance cameras on the lawn, only on the roadsides and at the entrance. What needed to be done now was to check the ingress and egress surveillance footage to identify which people were missing from the scene, in order to narrow down the targets.
The woods and bushes, all places where people could hide, were subjected to a thorough search in hopes of finding any clues.
"How could Nuannuan be lost? I should have accompanied her today. What was I doing with a special interview?"
Ye Jingxing sat on the ground, distraught, running his hands through his hair. Usually meticulous about his image, he had now tousled his hair into a bird's nest.
"Investigate. They must have a motive. We'll investigate while we wait. With such a big fuss, they wouldn't not come looking for us. Whether it's for money or something else, as long as they have a motive, Nuannuan won't be in danger for now," Ye Jingshen exuded a terrifying aura.
"I've also contacted my father. He said he'll notify me if he gets any news. We mustn't panic now."
Lin Anran tightly clutched her phone, rubbing it incessantly. She was also very anxious, and anxiety easily led to overthinking, but she had to comfort everyone.
"Nuannuan! My Nuannuan!" Ye Jingzhi charged forward, his eyes scanning everywhere, still trying to find something at the scene.
"Second Brother! How could this happen? I've brought Nuannuan here so many times without incident, how could something happen today?" Ye Jingzhi desperately wanted to do something, but he could do nothing at all.
"Is the reason there are so many people here today because of her?" Ye Jingming, who had been understanding the situation, directly locked onto Feng Qingyue.
Feng Qingyue had initially thought she wouldn't be involved and could easily distance herself. However, she truly underestimated modern laws.
Gathering a crowd leading to a child's disappearance, and even causing a small stampede. As the initiator, even if Nuannuan's disappearance had nothing to do with her, she couldn't escape responsibility for the other consequences.
"Director Liu, this is the prime suspect. Let's control her first!" Ye Jingming suggested, pointing at Feng Qingyue.
"No, no, no, it has nothing to do with me. Why do you want to arrest me?" Feng Qingyue retreated backward repeatedly.
"Nothing to do with you? It's just a coincidence that they chose today to act? How would they know Nuannuan would come at this exact time? And how would they know there would be so many people today?" Ye Jingming looked at her as if she were already dead.
Ye Jinghuai could no longer maintain his composure. He grabbed her collar and truly wanted to strangle her.
"I'm telling you, you'd better pray you have absolutely nothing to do with this."
Ye Jinghuai's tone was calm, but Feng Qingyue looked into his eyes and felt a chill from the bottom of her heart. Only now did she realize what a foolish decision she had made.
She remembered the day she was banished to the cold palace, the Emperor had looked at her in the same way, cold and disgusted, without a ripple of emotion. She absolutely could not let these people know that she had also participated.
Qiuqiu and Ermao also anxiously paced the ground, but no one had the time to notice the two dogs.
The two dogs sniffed here and there, but there were too many people at the scene, and the scents were too mixed. They couldn't distinguish anything for a while.
"Check her live stream replays. Find anything you can." Ye Jinghuai threw Feng Qingyue to the ground, and a police officer immediately stepped forward to handcuff her.
With such a major incident, regardless of how many people were present, everyone fell silent. Apart from the Ye family, no one dared to make a sound.
Everyone inwardly hated Feng Qingyue. They had thought it was just an offline fan meeting, but now they had all become suspects in the eyes of the police.
Even with their mindless fanatical following, they wouldn't go so far as to implicate themselves. Moreover, Feng Qingyue was merely a streamer, not even a celebrity.
When Nuannuan woke up, she found herself in a small room. There was no one around, except for a bed and a broken chair, and nothing else.
Knowing she had been kidnapped, she was scared but did not cry or make a fuss. Until her father found her, she had to protect herself as much as possible.
Meanwhile, in the house in front, a group of people were gathered. The various high-tech equipment inside clashed starkly with the dilapidated house.
From a distance, the small hut where Nuannuan was held and the "kidnappers'" location were both situated in the mountains behind the Jingshan Villa area. Two solitary small houses were nestled in a recess in the mountainside, one in front of the other.