Qiao Qiao stared in horror as Yu He’s hand reached out, thinking she was about to be strangled. She quickly moved back, "What are you doing?!"
Yu He flicked the bank card from Qiao Qiao's hand with her fingertips. "Get lost!"
Qiao Qiao watched the bank card being taken away with wide eyes, as if her life was being snatched away. She was furious, but there was nothing she could do.
Having gone through the incident with the medicinal herbs, she deeply understood that she couldn't win a direct confrontation with Yu He. She couldn't before, and with her current injuries, she definitely couldn't. Thus, she couldn't clash head-on.
She could only scramble up in embarrassment and roll out of the clinic.
Old Mrs. Yu stepped forward and tugged at Yu He's hem. "Nainai, I'm sorry. It's all my fault for being too soft-hearted. I saw her crying so sadly, and she looked genuinely remorseful, so I believed her..."
Yu He looked at her self-reproaching expression and clicked her tongue impatiently, handing the bank card back to her. "If she truly knew she was wrong, she wouldn't have come to you for money."
Old Mrs. Yu's lips moved, but she couldn't find a reason to retort. Carefully recalling the entire process of Qiao Qiao returning to her, if Yu He hadn't seen through it, she wouldn't have realized Qiao Qiao's deception.
She could only say that her acting was too good, better than Ye Zisu's, making it hard for her to distinguish truth from falsehood.
"I'm sorry for causing you more trouble..."
"Alright, just be careful in the future." Yu He saw her guilty and self-reproaching face and couldn't bear to scold her further. "Have you eaten lunch?"
Before Old Mrs. Yu could answer, her stomach rumbled, providing the answer for her.
Yu He smiled helplessly and softened her tone, "There's a decent Cantonese restaurant nearby. Shall we go eat together?"
"Okay." Old Mrs. Yu nodded.
Yu He stepped forward to help her dispose of the medical waste, and washed and sterilized the tools in the disinfection cabinet.
As they finished and were just stepping out, they ran into Aunt Yao who had come looking for them.
"Miss Yu, has the Third Young Master come looking for you? He suddenly disappeared this morning. I've searched everywhere he might have gone, but I couldn't find him," Aunt Yao said worriedly.
With Lord Qin's case being overturned, both the Qin Corporation and the Qin family were in chaos. Taking advantage of this confusion was a good opportunity for Qin Xinyao to slip away from the Qin family.
But seeing Aunt Yao's anxious look, Yu He felt a pang of sympathy, yet she held back. "No."
"Okay, thank you." The hope that had just sparked in Aunt Yao's eyes was dashed again. She muttered, "Where else could the Third Young Master have gone?"
Before leaving, she didn't forget to implore Yu He, "Miss Yu, if the Third Young Master comes to find you, please let me know. He hasn't even had breakfast and has no money on him, he'll definitely starve."
Yu He: "...Okay."
Aunt Yao went to a few more places she thought Qin Xinyao might have gone. By evening, she still hadn't found him. Desperate, she reported it to the police.
The police responded quickly, but after searching the entire capital for three days and three nights, they couldn't find Qin Xinyao.
He had vanished into thin air.
The police, unable to find Qin Xinyao, instead found the previously missing Qin Xinhui in the suburbs.
He was brought back to the Qin family, appearing dazed and disheveled. He was terrified of people, especially women, as if he had seen a ghost, and would try to hide.
By nightfall, he dared not go anywhere, curling up in his room with the lights on, afraid to go out and meet anyone, and not wanting anyone to see him.
The Qin family hired a doctor for him, who said he had mental problems and suggested he go to a psychiatric hospital.
From then on, the Qin family had another mad young master, but that's a story for another time.
—
After leaving the clinic, Qiao Qiao wanted to try her luck at the residential compound, to see if Qiao Wei had returned. However, on the road, she saw a car from the Qi family, parked right at the entrance of the compound. Terrified, she immediately hid in the nearby greenery and then quietly slipped away, not daring to go any further.
As dusk fell, Qiao Qiao had nowhere to go. She ended up aimlessly walking to the underpass of a large bridge, where many homeless people had gathered.
She found a corner, curled up, preparing to spend the night there.
"Tomorrow is the deadline." At this moment, a homeless man walked past her and reminded her.
Qiao Qiao jumped in fright, hugged herself tightly, and stared fearfully at the homeless man.
The homeless man turned back, his face grim, and made a throat-slitting gesture at her. Terrified, she immediately got up and fled.
The night deepened.
Qiao Qiao had nowhere to go. She was starving, her back against her stomach. Sitting by the river, she could only eat grass for sustenance.
Even when she was in the mountains before, she had never been as desperate as this. She hated it!
She was supposed to have twenty thousand from Old Mrs. Yu, and it was all Yu He's fault!
If Yu He hadn't appeared, she would have money to stay in a hotel now!
How could she be in such a state of fear and hunger here?
Yu He was trying to drive her to her death!
Recalling how she had lost her virginity, her reputation, and was covered in injuries during this time, Qiao Qiao's anger and resentment grew stronger!
Like a raging inferno, it burned away all her reason.
Yu He! It was all Yu He! It was all because of her that she had fallen so miserably.
Since Yu He insisted on forcing her, on making her die, then she couldn't blame her for resorting to any means necessary for survival!
"Need any help?" At this moment, a dark figure suddenly appeared behind her, startling Qiao Qiao.
She turned her head and, upon seeing who it was, became momentarily excited and nodded immediately, "Yes!"
On the other side, Courtyard House · West Wing.
The night was deep, but Yu He couldn't sleep.
Wearing her pajamas, she stood in front of a full-length mirror. On the table beside her lay her acupuncture kit. She held a gold needle in her right hand and, with her left hand, administered acupuncture to her own back.
Even without seeing, she accurately targeted every acupoint.
This was the nth time she had treated herself with acupuncture, for her left hand.
Tonight, she was using a brand-new acupuncture technique, inspired by a prosthetic mechanical hand she had seen at a technology competition. It was a self-created technique.
After inserting sixteen gold needles, she suddenly felt a numbness in her left hand.
It was effective!
Next, Yu He, like solving a calculus problem, repeated the process again and again, treating her own body as an experiment, and began to research with excitement.
It wasn't until the sky outside began to lighten that she realized it was dawn.
Her left hand finally had sensation. Although it wasn't as agile and free as before, she could at least make simple movements like lifting and bending her fingers.
She would continue tonight.
She glanced at the time. It was just past five o'clock. There were over 99 unread messages on WeChat. Clicking on it, Qin Beiting alone accounted for eighty messages.
"..."
She had a class at ten-thirty, so Yu He had to hurry and get some sleep.
She lay down on the bed, feeling like she hadn't slept long before her phone rang, waking her.
Annoyed, she fumbled for her phone and saw it was Qiao Wei. She answered, her voice full of morning grogginess, and spat out a single word: "Speak!"
"Yu He, something's happened, Grandma Yu has been kidnapped!" Qiao Wei's anxious voice came through the receiver.