The cry of the baby in the nursery behind her was shrill. Ji An's expression changed, and she quickly became more desperate.
"Is there a child?" Liu Jiayi slightly turned her head. Her ability to listen and identify positions by sound had always been very strong. She soon made a judgment. "It's the last room in the house. It should be Su Yang's child."
Ji An's mind went blank. She couldn't think as she turned around and ran madly to the baby's room.
She locked the room with trembling hands and picked up the baby. She paced back and forth in short breaths, tears of fear overflowing from the corners of her eyes.
She pushed open the window and yelled, "Anyone! Help! Somebody! Please!"
No one responded to Ji An.
She buried her face hysterically in the baby's swaddling clothes and cried bitterly. Even so, she covered the baby's ears with her hands and constantly kissed and comforted the frightened child. "It's okay. Baby, sleep. Mama is here. I won't let anything happen to you."
There was a click from the lock behind her. The sound of a key being inserted and slowly turning followed.
Ji An's breathing stopped. She fumbled with a shaking hand in her pajama pocket, where she had placed the nursery key.
Now it had disappeared, just like the phone. It had been stolen by those two people.
Ji An let out a long sob. Her face was full of tears as she closed her eyes in despair.
The baby's room door slowly opened.
The room was empty, and only the bells above the crib were ringing.
Mu Sicheng made a strange expression. He looked around the room and bent down to check under the bed. "Where did she go? I clearly saw her run into this room."
Liu Jiayi raised a hand to stop him. "The sound of breathing is still here."
She half-closed her eyes and listened. Then she raised her head and looked toward the window. "She's outside the window."
"Outside the window?!" Mu Sicheng was shocked.
He opened the window and looked outside. When he turned his head, he saw Ji An holding the baby and kneeling on the external air conditioner unit.
The night wind was cold and strong, blowing against Ji An's white pajamas. She looked like a dandelion that could be blown away at any moment. She clutched her child desperately while tears streamed from the corners of her eyes.
Ji An's eyes were red as she looked at Mu Sicheng. She gritted her teeth and threatened him like a mother beast protecting her cub. "Even if I have to jump down with my child in my arms, I won't be caught by you and used to threaten Su Yang!"
Mu Sicheng had a headache. "Big sister, we don't have that intention for the time being. Of course, we can't deny there might be such arrangements in the future, but right now we mainly want to find Su—"
Before he could finish speaking, Ji An shook her head and took two alert steps backward. The screws of the old air conditioner were rusted, and it suddenly tilted to one side as she stepped back. She panicked and began to fall.
Ji An had said she would jump down with her child, but at the brink of life and death, her instinctive reaction was to hold the baby out toward Mu Sicheng.
Her eyes were desperate and pleading, her voice choked. "Please! Save my child!"
Mu Sicheng's pupils shrank. His reflexes were quick enough to hook one foot onto the window frame while bracing the collapsing air conditioner unit with his other foot to prevent it from crashing into the mother and child.
The heavy weight on his ankles caused the veins on his forehead to bulge. He clung to the outer wall, gripping the window with one hand and grabbing Ji An around the waist with the other.
"Shit!" Mu Sicheng's face turned red, the veins in his neck throbbing from the strain. "You're heavy, sister!"
The baby's swaddling loosened as Mu Sicheng pulled.
The baby, unaware of the danger, babbled happily. She waved her hands and feet and slowly slipped out of the blanket.
"Fuck!" Mu Sicheng stared at the baby slipping downward, eyes wide. He had no free hand to catch her. "Hold onto your child!"
The baby slipped completely out.
She fell through the air with wide, innocent eyes. Her tiny hand seemed to reach for her mother's fingers. Not understanding what was happening, she continued falling.
"Baby!" Ji An twisted around to reach for her, her tear-streaked face twisted in madness. "My child!!!"
Liu Jiayi brushed past Mu Sicheng. She gripped the window frame with one hand and flipped out without hesitation.
Mu Sicheng shouted in shock, "Liu Jiayi! Hey! You can't see!"
Liu Jiayi didn't look back. As if she could see, she lightly landed on the air conditioner unit Mu Sicheng was supporting, jumped a few times, then grabbed another unit with one hand and caught the falling baby by the foot with the other.
The child hung upside down in midair, stunned for a moment. Then she babbled happily and waved her limbs toward Liu Jiayi as if asking for a hug.
Liu Jiayi held the baby with one hand, made several quick jumps, and landed steadily on the ground. She stopped at the bottom of the building and casually waved at Mu Sicheng. Then she carried the baby and walked upstairs.
Mu Sicheng sighed in relief and helped pull Ji An back inside.
Ji An gasped for breath in shock before turning and stumbling toward the door.
The moment she opened it, she found Liu Jiayi already standing outside. The baby was being held by her diaper at arm's length, far from Liu Jiayi's body. The baby seemed to find it amusing and giggled, reaching out to grab Liu Jiayi's face.
Liu Jiayi wore a numb, disgusted expression as she pushed the baby's hand away. "Here. She peed all over me."
Ji An took the baby and hugged her tightly before sitting on the ground. She took several deep breaths to calm herself, then covered her face and burst into tears.
Mu Sicheng rubbed his shoulders and walked out of the nursery, looking at Liu Jiayi in amazement. "You're in good shape. Aren't you blind? How did you jump across those air conditioners so accurately?"
"I listened to the sound," Liu Jiayi replied naturally. "The night is quiet, so sounds carry clearly. I can judge the location of obstacles through echoes. Air conditioner units are box-shaped, so their echoes are large and distinct. Can't you do that?"
By the end, a trace of contempt appeared on her face.
Mu Sicheng, "..."
Don't describe that strange skill as if it's normal!
Wasn't that something bats did? It was normal for humans not to be able to do it! What was abnormal was her jumping down six floors so easily, this monster child!
By the time Ji An came out after settling the baby, her pajamas were still stained with rust from the air conditioner.
Mu Sicheng and Liu Jiayi were sitting very comfortably on the sofa. These two probably didn't know the meaning of the word "embarrassed," while Ji An, coming out of the nursery, felt awkward.
Especially when she saw the scratch she had left on Mu Sicheng's face and Liu Jiayi's swollen palm from catching the baby, she lowered her head. She opened her mouth, but the sharp questions she had wanted to ask could no longer be spoken.
After a long silence, she went to her room and took out a small medicine box. She came back and crouched in front of the tea table, placing disinfectant, bandages, and adhesive bandages on it.
Looking at the items on the table, Mu Sicheng raised his head and glanced at Ji An with a strange expression.
Ji An lowered her head and didn't say anything. She slightly turned her face away, lips pressed together, avoiding Mu Sicheng's scrutinizing gaze.
Her hair was messy, and her eyes were red and swollen. It was obvious that she had been crying in her room just now.
Finally, Mu Sicheng picked up the disinfectant from the table and handed it to Liu Jiayi.
Once Ji An calmed down, she took a deep breath and turned to the two uninvited guests. "What brings you here to see Su Yang?"
"His colleagues caught our…" Mu Sicheng tried to find an exact word in his mind to describe Bai Liu's relationship with them. Before he could, Liu Jiayi took over. "His colleagues took my father without warning."
Ji An looked surprised. "Your… father?"
Liu Jiayi admitted it without changing her expression. "Yes."
Mu Sicheng covered his mouth and let out a startled cough. He was just about to speak when Liu Jiayi reached under the tea table and pinched his waist. Mu Sicheng sucked in a breath and covered his side.
Liu Jiayi blinked, and tears instantly filled her big, empty eyes. She bit her lower lip and sniffed twice. "Big Sister, we really don't want to do anything to you, but my most important person—my father—was taken away. I only know that one of them is called Su Yang."
"I've been looking forward to seeing my father again, and it took me a long time to find your home." Liu Jiayi reached out and grabbed Ji An's sleeve pitifully. "We don't want to hurt you or your child. I just want my father to come home. You're waiting for your child's father to come home, too, right? You also have a child. You must know how it feels when a child loses the only father she depends on."
"I know he seems to be doing dangerous work, but I swear that everything he does is legal. It's to give me a better life. For me, he wouldn't do bad things." Liu Jiayi wrinkled her nose as tears rolled down her cheeks. She choked out, "I just miss him. I don't understand why he was arrested when he didn't do anything."
As a new mother who worried about Su Yang day and night but never knew what he was actually doing, Ji An couldn't help empathizing with Liu Jiayi's words. Her expression gradually softened into hesitation.
When Liu Jiayi covered her face and sobbed bitterly, Ji An was finally moved by the little girl who had just risked herself to save her child. She saw a shadow of her own baby in this fragile child.
Ji An reached out and gently hugged Liu Jiayi. She sighed and stroked her hair.
"…Don't cry." Ji An patted Liu Jiayi on the shoulder and sighed. "Your father… should be fine."
Liu Jiayi lifted her head from Ji An's shoulder. Tears still streaked her face, but her expression had already gone blank. She silently mouthed to Mu Sicheng: Learn from me.
A stunned Mu Sicheng: "..."