The man looked at his underling with obvious disgust and said, "That’s only if they actually have poison on them."

He was starting to suspect he’d collected a bunch of underlings with subpar IQs, all ridiculously pure-hearted. Just thinking about it felt exhausting. Xiao Ye being dumb was one thing, but this one was dumb too. He really ought to top up their IQ sometime.

There were quite a few rooms on the second floor; one of them was his bedroom, the rest belonged to his men.

He treated those underlings all like his own brothers, which was why they were willing to follow him wholeheartedly.

In fact, he had thought about letting them live a normal life. But they had too many enemies. Back then he’d had that idea and even tried it, but in the end several of his brothers got killed.

He walked straight into his own room. The furnishings inside were entirely black and white, very much in line with his taste and temperament.

He flipped back the quilt and lay down on the small bed, reached under the pillow and took out a photo. It was a black-and-white shot of a woman and a child who looked only two or three years old.

His hand, with its distinct joints and thin calluses from years of holding a gun, gently rubbed over the people in the photo. Then he placed the photo over his chest and murmured, "Auntie, I’m back in An City, but I still haven’t found my mom yet..."

The woman in the photo was his aunt, but they weren’t related by blood; she was his mother’s very close girlfriend, almost like a sister.

If Song Qiao saw that photo, she would realize the woman in it looked very familiar, as if she had seen her somewhere before.

Song Qiao didn’t know, and had never even imagined, that this kidnapping would bring huge changes to her life and her fate, and that she would come to meet someone she had never imagined existed in this lifetime—someone that, from the moment she was born, everyone, including her parents, had believed did not exist.

...

That Xiao Ye had said he would bring them blankets, and sure enough, very soon someone came in carrying a quilt and just tossed it to them.

They also brought some anti-inflammatory medicine for Xu Qian. Song Qiao genuinely felt that these people weren’t all bad.

If they were truly bad people, they wouldn’t have given them any of this, and wouldn’t care whether they lived or died.

Especially that kid—Song Qiao knew all of this was because of that kid’s kindness.

If they could get out and safely go home, she would definitely promise that kid she wouldn’t call the police to arrest them.

Because the way she and Xu Qian were being treated now wasn’t bad at all; it was more like they were guests—aside from the fact that they weren’t allowed to go out...

The man who had brought in the blanket and medicine was just about to leave when another man ran over. "Wait a sec, I’ve got something else. Don’t close the door yet."

The first man immediately stepped aside.

After Song Qiao pulled the blanket over Xu Qian, her gaze fell on the newcomer. It wasn’t the kid, but this one didn’t look that old either—about twenty or so, with wheat-colored skin.

Song Qiao had actually noticed something else: the guys who had kidnapped them here weren’t bad-looking at all. Not your average faces—one by one they were all pretty handsome.

She suddenly couldn’t figure it out. With looks like that, why were they doing something illegal like this?

The newcomer walked in and looked at Song Qiao. There wasn’t much of a smile on his face; instead his eyes carried a bit of curiosity and scrutiny as he studied her.

Song Qiao scooted back a little, looking wary. "What else do you want?"

The man immediately asked straight out, "Our boss wants to know if you two can cook."

Cook?

Song Qiao stared at him, expression odd, and nodded. "Yeah, why? You guys short on a live-in cook aunty?"

Cooking, that was nothing at all... She could definitely handle that.

The man nodded, but then quickly shook his head again, and finally said, "I’ll go ask our boss if he really wants a cooking aunty. If yes, we’ll probably need you to help make dinner. You can rest for now, so you won’t be too tired to cook for us later."

With that, he turned around and left, and the door was shut again.

Song Qiao, "..." That’s it?

Why did she feel like one or two of these people were genuinely very pure?

Like that Xiao Ye from earlier, and now this guy...

Song Qiao was starting to doubt what exactly this group of people did for a living...

But after last night’s shootout, she still knew very clearly that this group wasn’t simple, definitely not ordinary folk.

"Qiaoqiao, I heard what that person just said too. We must be safe for now. Why don’t you get some sleep as well?" Xu Qian still hadn’t fallen asleep yet; she’d just taken medicine and the effect was kicking in, making her drowsy.

She actually felt bad for Song Qiao. Song Qiao had been taking care of her nonstop—making sure she ate, making sure she took her meds and everything.

Their captors weren’t too bad either; they hadn’t just brought anti-inflammatory pills, but cold medicine as well.

Song Qiao looked at Xu Qian and forced a smile. "Mom, you go ahead and sleep. I’m fine. I already slept for so long before, I’m wide awake now."

She didn’t dare sleep anyway. Even though she knew they were probably safe for the moment, she couldn’t be sure these people wouldn’t take advantage of them being asleep to do something.

She had been unconscious for so long earlier, and now she had no drowsiness at all, so it didn’t really matter whether she slept or not.

Xu Qian was helpless, but she couldn’t win against Song Qiao, and with the medicine taking effect she was getting drowsier by the minute.

Before long, Xu Qian had already fallen asleep. Even though the bed was just a wooden plank bed and nowhere near as comfortable as the one at home, her nerves really couldn’t stay taut any longer.

There was no window in the room, and she hadn’t asked what time it was just now, so she had no idea how long they’d been missing.

Looking at the sleeping Xu Qian, the moment she had first seen her, Song Qiao had honestly let out a huge sigh of relief inside. But right after that came the overwhelming urge to get out and go back to Lu Jingchen and the others—an urge that only grew stronger.

If it were only her being kidnapped, she might still be able to calmly deal with whatever happened next.

But with Xu Qian here, she felt she got distracted way too easily.

Now she finally understood what Lu Jingchen and Chu Munan meant by that sentence.

Turns out when the people you care about most, the ones who matter most to you, are by your side, you really can’t focus on facing danger—you just end up worrying about them instead.