Chapter 36 Missing Fu Jingchuan slept soundly...
Fu Jingchuan slept very restlessly.
Even in his sleep, he felt something pressing against his chest, making breathing difficult. A regular ticking sound, like a clock ticking, filled his ears with inexplicable palpitations.
He turned over uneasily, and immediately felt a distinct sinking sensation in his abdomen, accompanied by a familiar tightness, pulling him back to reality from the edge of his chaotic dream.
He slowly opened his eyes. The bedroom was dimly lit, with only a few slanting beams of light leaking in through the gaps in the curtains.
Fu Jingchuan carefully turned sideways and habitually reached out to touch the place beside him——
Empty.
The sheets were cold.
Shen Shutong is not here.
The cool touch cleared his foggy mind a bit. He remembered she had said she was going to visit his father at the nursing home today and would be back before lunch.
What time is it now?
He fumbled for his phone on the bedside table and flicked on the screen. The glare made him squint, and when he saw the time, his heart skipped a beat.
3:17 pm.
It was far longer than what Shen Shutong said, "before lunch."
A wave of panic suddenly gripped him, and the baby in his belly seemed to sense his emotions and moved uneasily, causing his ribs to swell slightly.
"Shutong?" he called out.
No one responded.
Fu Jingchuan suppressed his panic and comforted himself, thinking that maybe there was just a traffic jam, or she was delayed by something and forgot to tell him.
He opened WeChat and found the chat with Shen Shutong. The last message she had sent before he went to bed was to let him know she had arrived.
He typed: [Wake up. Where have you been? When will you be back?]
The message is sent successfully and a green bar is displayed on the screen.
He waited for a moment, the screen went dark, and there was no response.
Maybe he was driving and not looking at his phone, Fu Jingchuan thought. He waited for a few more minutes, the feeling of panic growing stronger as time passed.
He didn't wait any longer and called Shen Shutong directly.
A clear "beep-beep" sound came from the receiver, one after another, ringing regularly until it automatically hung up and no one answered.
Why don’t you answer the phone?
Fu Jingchuan's brows furrowed. The child started to stir again because of his mood swings, and he had to use one hand to soothe the restless baby in his belly. He forced himself to calm down and not think the worst. Maybe her phone was muted or out of battery.
He thought about it, and dialed the landline number of the nursing home ward where Shen's father was. The phone rang a few times before it was picked up. It was Shen's father's voice, which was still full of energy.
"Hello?"
"Dad, it's me, Jingchuan." Fu Jingchuan tried to make his words sound natural. "Is Shutong still with you? I couldn't get through to her on the phone."
"Shutong? She left a long time ago." Father Shen's tone was a little puzzled. "She left without even having lunch, saying she was worried you'd wake up alone at home and not be able to find anyone. She's been gone for over an hour, right? Why, haven't you arrived home yet?"
Left more than an hour ago?
Driving back from the nursing home, even with a little traffic, should only take forty or fifty minutes at most. How could it take over an hour to get home?
Fu Jingchuan's heart sank suddenly.
He tried his best to suppress the trembling in his voice, not wanting the old man to hear anything unusual: "Oh... maybe she was delayed on the way, or went to the company. I'll try calling her again. Don't worry, Dad, it's okay."
After hurriedly comforting Father Shen, Fu Jingchuan hung up the phone.
Putting down his phone, he sat on the edge of the bed, his heart beating fast and rough, and his stomach felt increasingly stuffy and uncomfortable.
For more than an hour, no calls were answered and no messages were replied.
This is absolutely not normal.
Even if Shen Shutong had something urgent, she would never not contact him for so long, especially when she knew that his pregnancy was unstable and prone to worry.
He immediately called Shen Shutong's assistant. This time the call was answered quickly.
"Mr. Fu?" The assistant's voice came through the microphone.
"Is Shutong next to you? Did she go to the company this afternoon?" Fu Jingchuan went straight to the point, the anxiety in his voice was hard to conceal.
The assistant on the other end of the phone was stunned for a moment: "Boss Shen? She didn't come to the company. There is no schedule that requires her to handle in person this afternoon. Didn't she go to the nursing home to visit Mr. Shen? Hasn't she returned yet?"
The assistant's words were like a heavy hammer, hitting Fu Jingchuan's heart hard.
The last glimmer of hope was completely shattered.
She was neither at home nor in a nursing home, nor at the company.
She has lost contact.
On an ordinary afternoon, on her way back from visiting her father, she disappeared out of thin air.
The overwhelming fear made it almost impossible for him to breathe. His stomach suddenly twitched, bringing a sharp, stabbing pain. He groaned, and a fine layer of cold sweat instantly seeped out of his forehead.
He pressed his stiff abdomen tightly with one hand and supported himself on the edge of the bed with the other hand, barely able to steady himself from falling.
"Mr. Fu? What's wrong with you? Are you okay?" The assistant heard his groan on the other end of the phone and asked anxiously.
Fu Jingchuan gritted his teeth, enduring the discomfort in his body and heart: "I'm fine... Listen, Shu Tong might have been in trouble. She left the sanatorium more than an hour ago, and now her phone is unreachable, and she hasn't come back yet. Find a way immediately, check! Check the GPS location of her car! Check all the traffic surveillance on the route she took from the sanatorium! Immediately! Right away!"
The assistant clearly realized the seriousness of the situation, and his tone immediately became extremely serious: "Understood! I'll do it right away! Mr. Fu, please don't worry, take care of yourself, and I'll report to you as soon as I have any news!"
The phone was hung up.
Fu Jingchuan sat alone on the edge of the bed, unable to help but hug his swollen belly. The little life inside seemed to sense his father's extreme fear and anxiety, and was more restless than ever before. Each fetal movement pulled at his tense nerves and aching muscles.
Tong tree...
Where are you?
what happened?
Countless horrible thoughts flooded into his mind uncontrollably. Car accident? Accident? Or... human error?
When he thought of the latter possibility, a bone-chilling chill instantly ran through his body.
…
Shen Shutong regained consciousness with a severe headache and shaking.
A dull pain pierced the back of my neck, like a sharp knife strike. My eyelids felt so heavy I could barely open them. My vision blurred and dimmed, and I could only vaguely sense that I was in a narrow, swaying space, a solid metal plate beneath me. The hum of the engine and the noise of tires rolling on the road carried through the wall.
It's the trunk of the car.
She was kidnapped!
Her heart suddenly shrank, bringing with it a suffocating fear. She bit her lower lip tightly, using the pain to stay awake.
You must absolutely remain calm at times like this.
She slowly adjusted her posture to avoid making any noise, while at the same time pricked up her ears, trying her best to catch any sounds outside.
Apart from the noise of traffic, no voices could be heard. The kidnappers didn't seem amateur.
Her mind raced, trying to piece together the fragmented memories.
The last scene in her memory was her car driving on the quiet road back to the city from the sanatorium in the suburbs. The sun was shining brightly on the road, and she slightly increased her speed because she was worried about Fu Jingchuan, thinking of going home early.
Then what?
She frowned and tried to recall.
Oh, and there was a section of road under construction, so vehicles needed to merge. She remembered turning on her turn signal, slowing down, and preparing to merge into the left lane.
At that moment, a black van that was driving normally behind her suddenly accelerated without warning and slammed into the right rear side of her car!
"Bang--"
The impact was not particularly great, but it was enough to cause her car to lose control. The front of the car tilted and hit the guardrail on the side of the road!
The airbag deployed instantly, the immense force and pungent smell making her dizzy. She subconsciously slammed on the brakes, and the car finally stopped with a harsh grinding sound.
She was still in shock, her forehead dazed by the airbag, and her first reaction was to get out of the car to check the situation and prepare to call the police.
She unbuckled her seatbelt and pushed open the car door, her steps still a little unsteady. The black van that had caused the accident had also stopped not far behind her.
She rubbed her forehead and was about to walk towards the car to argue, even though she was still annoyed that the sudden accident had delayed her from returning home.
However, something unexpected happened in the next second.
The van's sliding door opened! Two men wearing black hoods, with only their eyes exposed, jumped out. They moved so fast that she had no time to react!
She didn't even see the other person's appearance clearly, she only felt a huge force covering her mouth and nose from behind, and a pungent smell of chemicals instantly rushed into her nasal cavity!
It’s □□!
She struggled desperately, elbows ramming back, feet kicking wildly, but the opponent's strength was astonishing, holding her firmly in place. Her consciousness was quickly ripped away, her vision blurring, and the last thing she saw was her car, its rear bumper twisted, and the empty, deserted highway in the distance...
Then, there was darkness.
Until now, waking up in this bumpy and cramped trunk.
It wasn't a traffic accident.
It was a carefully planned kidnapping!
The other party took advantage of the sparsely populated section of road where construction work was diverting attention, and created a seemingly reasonable rear-end collision. When she got out of the car to check, he acted quickly and cleanly, leaving her no room for maneuver.
Who is it?
Business rival? Kidnapping for ransom? Or...
Fu Yannian's crazy face suddenly appeared in her mind!
It's him!
It must be him!
The Fu family was completely finished, he had nowhere to go, and Fu Jingchuan looked at him coldly. So he turned his target on himself.
Most likely he wants to extort a huge sum of money and hide away abroad to live a carefree life.
A huge anger overwhelmed her. Fu Jingchuan was about to give birth, and her body was already suffering. If he knew that she was missing... Shen Shutong couldn't imagine how anxious he would be! His body wouldn't be able to bear it!
No! She had to calm down! She had to find a solution!
She forced herself to ignore the pain in the back of her neck and her still dizzy brain, and began to gather information with her extremely limited perception.
The car was still moving, and it seemed to have turned a few corners, but the overall feeling was that it was heading from the suburbs to a more remote place. The road conditions seemed to have deteriorated, and the bumps were even more severe.
She carefully felt the space beneath her. Nothing but cold metal. No tools, no landmarks to identify her location.
She tried to hear any conversation in the cab. Still, there was only silence, save for the driver's quiet cough or the subtle rustle of clothing as he adjusted his seat. These men were well-trained, no ordinary kidnappers.
I don’t know how long it took, but the car finally slowed down and stopped completely.
The engine is turned off.
Shen Shutong's heart beat in his throat, and all the muscles in his body tensed up.
There were sounds of car doors opening and closing, as well as low voices of conversation outside. I couldn't hear the content clearly, but I could feel someone approaching the trunk.
“Click—”
The lock is opened.
The trunk lid was lifted up!
The sudden strong light made Shen Shutong close her eyes instantly. She quickly adapted for a while and squinted to look outside.
In the backlight, a tall figure stood there, looking at her indifferently. The surrounding environment looked like an abandoned factory or warehouse, and the air was filled with dust and a musty smell.
"Come out." The voice was filled with impatience.
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