"Brother, thank goodness you didn't leave!" Zhao Shi gently patted Lin Ning's back.

Lin Ning sensed something was wrong and pulled Zhao Shi away, "What's going on? I thought you hadn't arrived yet!"

“Brother, it’s a long story,” Zhao Shi looked back at the empty corridor, breathed a sigh of relief, and his frightened face calmed down. He pulled Lin Ning into the house, “Let’s go inside and talk.”

"What's wrong? Is someone chasing you? Why are you so scared?"

Instead of answering his question directly, Zhao Shi closed the door and said bluntly, "Brother, I know everything. Qiu Hu is my own sister."

Lin Ning was indeed somewhat surprised to hear this news, but it seemed he would find out sooner or later anyway, so he casually asked, "Did Qiu Hu tell you?"

"No, they are my biological parents."

Lin Ning initially thought she was hallucinating. "Your biological parents?" They were people who had been missing for over ten years, and suddenly they appeared?

“Yes, I met them that day, and they told me the truth,” Zhao Shi told Lin Ning the whole story with a sincere expression.

Lin Ning sensed that something was amiss, so she pulled him to sit down on the sofa, looked at the sweat on his forehead, poured him a glass of water, handed it to him, and said gently, "Come on, don't rush, tell me slowly."

"Brother, they're really scary. They took me back, but for some reason they won't let me leave. Luckily, I managed to escape tonight while they were all asleep." After saying that, she nervously grabbed his hand. "Brother, please help me. I don't want to go back. I was actually quite happy, but now they're treating me like this. They even tried to feed me some kind of medicine. Brother, are they really my biological parents?"

Seeing that Lin Ning didn't speak and seemed to be thinking, she gripped his hand even tighter. "Brother, say something! What should we do?"

Lin Ning then came to her senses, "Xiao Shi, they are indeed your biological parents, but they have been missing for more than ten years."

"What? More than ten years?"

Clearly, Lin Ning could tell from Zhao Shi's reaction that he was still unaware of the whole story.

"Yes, didn't they tell you?"

“No, they only told me their identities, then took me back to the villa in Qiuhu, and then wouldn’t let me go out, saying it was for my own good and that they couldn’t let me out now,” Zhao Shi said, looking at the floor as he recounted the recent events. Suddenly, he looked up at Lin Ning and said, “I only found out you were here a few days ago from their conversation. That’s when I started thinking about how to escape, and I thought you would definitely have a way to help me!”

Zhao Shi's words were filled with a strong sense of dependence on Lin Ning.

"So how do you want me to help you?"

When Lin Ning asked this question, Zhao Shi's tone became sullen, "I don't know, this is the first time I've encountered something like this, I don't know what to do!"

At this moment, Zhao Shi was terrified. He was usually a very opinionated person and rarely asked others for help or to make decisions. He wondered if Lin Ning would believe him. He thought about whether he should argue for himself a few more times, but then he remembered what Qiu Hu had told him: just tell the whole story and don't say too much, or you'll make a mistake.

He was about to open his mouth, but then he closed it again.

"Wait, let me think about it, what should we do?" Lin Ning sat on the sofa, his hands resting on his knees. Yes, he was thinking, but not about how to help Zhao Shi. Instead, he was wondering if what Zhao Shi said was true, since Zhao Shi had been smart since he was a child.

He had seen Zhao Shi like Qiu Hu before, but Zhao Shi's attitude towards Qiu Hu today was very unusual. He probed, "Xiao Shi, do you really not want to go back? Don't you like Qiu Hu a lot?"

“Yes, I really like Sister Qiu Hu. I was so happy when I found out she was my sister. But later, she also joined them in preventing me from going out. I even argued with her, but she seemed to treat me like a child.” Zhao Shi’s tone carried a rare hint of complaint, which Lin Ning was quite surprised by.

Lin Ning knew how mischievous Zhao Shi was, and there was nothing wrong with what he said, but he underestimated the deep affection Zhao Shi had for his sister Qiu Hu.

"Alright, I'll think of something. It's so late, you should go and get some rest. I'll stay here and watch over you."

"Okay, thanks, bro!"

Lin Ning smiled faintly, "No need to thank me!"

Soon, Zhao Shi fell asleep. In the middle of the night, Lin Ning picked up her phone and went into the bathroom. After closing the door, Zhao Shi, who was "deeply asleep," opened his eyes and looked at the closed bathroom door. His heart sank.

Some things are just like that; you know they're true without needing to verify them.

He was a little sad! He closed his eyes again.

After finishing his phone call, Lin Ning came out with no expression on his face. Looking at Zhao Shi, who was fast asleep, he finally walked towards the sofa, turned off the light, and lay down.

The next day, Lin Ning seemed to make a move. He woke Zhao Shi up in the morning, and after breakfast, he went out. Before leaving, he told Zhao Shi, "Xiao Shi, you stay here first. I'm going out for a bit and will be back soon."

"Okay, brother, you can go now!"

"Remember, if you don't want to go back, just wait for me here and don't go out," Lin Ning instructed again.

Zhao Shi nodded, "I know, don't worry."

Lin Ning then went out, leaving Zhao Shi alone here. He couldn't go out now and didn't know what Lin Ning would do next.

He took out his phone and texted Qiu Hu, explaining that he was safe and that Lin Ning should believe him and had gone out.

Qiu Hu replied to his message immediately, telling him not to worry, to take care of himself, and that she would handle the situation.

How could a young man not be anxious? He didn't want his sister to shoulder so many things alone, and he felt like he couldn't help at all. He wondered if Lin Ning would believe him this time.

But he could only wait silently, not wanting to cause trouble for his sister.

However, what he didn't know was that Qiu Hu was really worried. A Yi had disappeared! At first, she called A Yi, but she didn't answer. She called several more times before she realized something was wrong. A Yi wasn't the type to not answer the phone, especially not hers.

Qiu Hu was about to go out to take a look when Ning Yizhan called out to him, "Ah Hu, where are you going?"

“I went to find Ayi, but she wouldn’t answer my calls. I’m afraid something has happened to her. I have a bad feeling about this,” Qiu Hu said as he changed his shoes and prepared to go out. Ning Yizhan pulled him along, wanting to go with him too.

Qiu Hu thought that he could help, so he didn't refuse. Before leaving, he asked A Qian to take some people to guard the house.

They rushed to Ayi's place, knocked on the door but no one answered. Qiu Hu entered the password and searched the entire house, but still couldn't find Ayi. That ominous premonition surged into their hearts again, and they panicked, "Could something have happened to her?"

She didn't dare delay, so she took out her phone and checked the surveillance footage. Ayi hadn't left the house all morning. What was that? Had she not come back last night?

Ning Yizhan also realized something was wrong, "Let's start looking at where we last saw her yesterday."

Qiu Hu followed his advice and started checking their home's surveillance footage, discovering something big... After A Yi left their home, she encountered a group of people. She seemed to sense them and stopped. The group appeared, and after a fight, A Yi was knocked to the ground and taken away.

"Who are they?" Qiu Hu asked coldly.