Chapter 1: It’s Snowing
It had started snowing lightly again.
Outside the luxury villa, a black stretch Lincoln was parked at the gate. The servants and driver stood silently by the car door, waiting for the little girl who was about to come out from inside.
Mibao, only five and a half years old, was clutching her teddy bear pitifully, a pink schoolbag on her back, taking a step out of the villa and turning back every few steps.
“Daddy…” Just as she stepped out the front door, Mibao couldn’t help but turn her head toward the man sitting on the living room sofa. Her grape-like eyes shimmered with tiny tears.
‘Can’t you let Mibao stay?’ She whispered it timidly in her heart.
“Young Miss, it’s getting late. Hurry and get in the car.” The housekeeper aunt quickly bent down and patted Mibao’s arm lightly, speaking in a low voice.
‘Sigh… To be honest, I can’t bear to see Young Miss leave either. But Mr. Ji…’
The housekeeper gave a small shake of her head. Those thoughts could only be kept to herself.
“What are you standing there for? Do you want to keep everyone waiting?”
The man in the suit sitting on the sofa looked sharply toward the doorway, his tone cold.
Mibao’s small body trembled slightly. In the end, she reluctantly turned her head back and slowly walked toward the waiting stretch Lincoln.
Thud!
The car door closed.
The vehicle started up and slowly drove away from the villa.
Only then did Ji Ruwen lift his eyes toward the doorway, but he quickly looked away again.
“She’s so young and already getting into fights. Sending her to the old family estate to learn some discipline is for her own good,” Ji Ruwen muttered under his breath.
He didn’t feel there was anything wrong with what he had done.
Just then, the TV in the living room suddenly broke into the program with urgent news.
“…Hello to all our viewers in front of the TV. This is an urgent announcement: a newly emerged virus may cause casualties. If you see individuals showing symptoms, please keep your distance! All citizens are urged to return home immediately and not go outside!
Viewers in front of the TV…”
The announcement was repeated three times.
Beside it played a video of an infected person—blurry, but it was not hard to tell something was terribly wrong. The person looked disturbingly like a zombie from a TV drama.
Ji Ruwen froze for a moment as he watched the news.
The housekeeper by the door was also stunned.
Two seconds later, she cried out in alarm, “Mr. Ji, Young Miss, she…”
Ji Ruwen’s heart pounded, but he forced himself to sound calm. “It’s probably nothing.”
Zombies, or whatever… it sounded far too fake.
Maybe it was just rabies or something similar?
The housekeeper, seeing Ji Ruwen talk like this, grew anxious. “Mr. Ji, Young Miss and the others just left a short while ago. If we send someone after them now, we can still catch up!”
It was so chaotic outside!
Ji Ruwen still hesitated.
He kept feeling it couldn’t possibly be that serious.
—
Meanwhile, inside the stretch Lincoln, Mibao was dozing off when suddenly the car jolted sharply.
She woke with a start, lifting her head in confusion. “Uncle Driver, are we there yet?”
The driver replied gently, “Not yet, Young Miss. The car may have hit something—please wait here for a moment.”
As he spoke, the driver and the servant got out to check what the vehicle had struck.
The snow was still falling, and it was bitterly cold outside.
The driver and the servant thought at first that they had hit a large rock, but when they saw what was pinned beneath the car, their faces instantly turned pale.
The servant’s hands trembled. “D-Did we… did we just kill someone?”
Under the front wheel lay a corpse, soaked in blood.
The driver panicked as well—he was sure he hadn’t seen anyone in front of the car!
“How about… we run for it?” The servant swallowed hard, looking at the driver with a shaky voice. “Didn’t Mr. Ji prepare money for Young Miss? We can take it and go abroad!”
The servant and the driver had been secretly together for quite some time.
The driver hesitated for a moment.
But in the end, he gritted his teeth and nodded—he didn’t want to go to prison!
They quickly returned to the car, and the driver patted Mibao’s arm with a smile. “Young Miss, the car has some problems. We’re going to switch to another one, and it’ll be here soon. Can you get out for a moment?”
Mibao didn’t sense anything wrong, so she nodded obediently. “Okay.”
The driver led her out of the car and over to the front of a nearby convenience store.
“Young Miss, I need to go deal with the car. Please wait here for me,” the driver said, hesitating briefly before finally letting go of her hand. Then, with one last glance, he turned and got back into the car.
The stretch Lincoln quickly drove away.
Standing in front of the convenience store, Mibao blinked and continued to wait patiently.
The snow was falling harder now. She hunched her shoulders and hugged her teddy bear even tighter.
—
Ding-a-ling—
Inside the villa, Ji Ruwen’s phone suddenly rang.
It was his secretary calling.
For some reason, an uneasy feeling welled up in Ji Ruwen’s chest. He answered the call. “What is it?”
On the other end of the line, the sound was full of static, with faint hints of chaotic noise in the background.
His secretary’s panicked, deliberately lowered voice came through to Ji Ruwen’s ears:
“President Ji… President Ji, help me… help me… ahhh—!”
The plea for help had barely left her mouth before a bloodcurdling scream burst from the phone, making Ji Ruwen’s hand jolt in shock. The phone slipped from his grasp and fell onto the soft rug.
But the screaming didn’t stop—it continued from the fallen phone until it suddenly cut off, replaced by a strange sound.
The housekeeper was already frozen in place from the scream, unable to move.
Ji Ruwen’s heart was pounding, but he still reached out, picked up the phone, and slowly brought it back to his ear…
The sound of chewing grew clearer and clearer, making his heartbeat race even faster.
Bang!
He flung the phone away again.
Ji Ruwen’s face was pale with terror as he stared at the phone lying on the floor, his breathing heavy.
A wave of dread crashed over him—if something happened to Mibao, what would he do?
When Mibao was born, his wife had suffered complications in labor. Not only had the other twin been stillborn, but his wife had never made it off the operating table.
Though he knew deep down it wasn’t Mibao’s fault, Ji Ruwen couldn’t stop himself from thinking—if Mibao had died along with the other baby back then, would his wife have survived?
Because of that, he had always been cold toward her.
But now, in this moment, Ji Ruwen was afraid.
And he regretted it.
Mibao… she was the only flesh and blood he had left from his wife. If something happened to her, what would he do?
“There’s… still time. There’s still time.”
Ji Ruwen swallowed hard, then quickly picked up the phone again and dialed the driver’s number.
As long as the driver brought Mibao back, everything would be fine.