DA chapter 49

Yan Xu froze for a moment. He had rarely seen a trace of sincerity on Lin Jia’s face before. However, he suspected that he was mistaken. When he tried to look again, Lin Jia had already returned to his usual expression, without any trace of that earlier sincerity.

Sure enough, he was mistaken.

Behavior like giving the doctor’s orders to others—exhausting oneself and receiving no thanks—was not something Lin Jia would do with Yan Xu.

That was within Yan Xu’s expectations. Of course, Yan Xu did not need Lin Jia to follow him. There was no reason for others to share the risk of something he wanted to do himself.

Yan Xu opened the door and walked out.

The ward quickly became quiet again. Lin Jia did not wait in the room for Yan Xu to return. He pulled open the door and went out, too.

Outside was fairly quiet. The nurses were pushing the small cart to other wards to feed medicine.

Lin Jia walked straight to the nurse’s station on the third floor and pulled the cat out from under the counter.

The cat looked at Lin Jia with tearful eyes. Although Lin Jia himself had made the cat hide under the nurse station and not move, seeing Lin Jia at this moment it still felt like seeing a savior.

“Lin…”

The cat had only just begun to speak when Lin Jia pressed its mouth shut.

It wouldn’t be a big deal if someone found out the cat could talk, but Lin Jia didn’t want the nurses to hear movement and turn around, only to find that he had left the ward without permission and had disregarded the doctor’s orders.

Grabbing the cat by the back of its neck, Lin Jia carried it all the way back to Room 302. Once inside, he tossed the cat in and closed the door.

He stood behind the door and asked the cat, “After staying outside so long, what did you hear?”

The reason he stood by the door was that he did not know when Yan Xu would return. Allowing Yan Xu to slowly accept the cat’s “abnormality” was one thing, but Lin Jia still did not plan to let Yan Xu directly discover that the cat could speak before there was concrete proof that Yan Xu was the cat.

He never did things to the very end. He was used to leaving himself room to maneuver.

Lin Jia knew the cat’s nature, so he didn’t expect much from it. He had only asked casually.

Who knew the cat would say, “I heard the Miss Nightingales say that the due date is coming.”

Lin Jia looked at the cat.

The cat quickly added, “The patient in the third-floor VIP ward.”

Lin Jia asked, “When?”

The cat said: “The first.”

The first.

Lin Jia thought of something. He left the door and walked to the bedside. He grabbed the patient information card hanging at the foot of the bed. The card had the patient’s admission date:

Admitted on the 1st.

This meant that they were the first to enter Yile Maternal and Child Health Hospital during the daytime, so today was the 1st. The due date of the patient in the VIP ward was today.

“Sure?”

The cat nodded wildly. “Trust me!”

Lin Jia kept paying attention to the movement outside the door. He waited until the sky was nearly dark. Not only was there still no movement outside, but Yan Xu had not returned either.

Lin Jia grabbed the cat in one hand and tied the flashlight he carried with him onto the cat.

This was the first night in the Fish Belly. What would happen was still uncertain, especially since the cat had said that today was the due date of that thing in the third-floor VIP ward.

This was a double ward, not a room occupied by Lin Jia alone. Yan Xu stayed here too. Lin Jia did not know when Yan Xu would return, or whether he would return at all, but he had to prepare early.

He still did not know what the first night would be like. If it got completely dark, Lin Jia would instantly have a stress response, and the cat would need to turn on the flashlight.

The cat was already accustomed to turning on lights for Lin Jia. It struggled with its paws and tightened the rope around its neck that fastened the flashlight a little more.

Then, it tested the flashlight button to confirm that it still worked.

Holding the light on, the cat waved the beam of light over Lin Jia. As it illuminated Lin Jia, the cat said, “If Yan Xu not returning is one thing, but if he comes back and sees that I can operate a flashlight, won’t he notice something?”

Lin Jia gave the cat a faint glance.

The cat immediately understood the meaning behind it: “…okay, I understand.”

Lin Jia’s weakness was more important than the cat being discovered by Yan Xu. Even if Yan Xu was not the cat himself, if the cat was exposed, Lin Jia still would not allow his own weakness to be exposed.

The sky gradually darkened until it was completely dark.

The cat jumped onto the windowsill and looked outside into the darkness. Fortunately, the ward light was still on, though it was unclear whether it would last the whole night.

The cat glanced at Lin Jia, watching his tall figure move around the ward. Clearly, Lin Jia was preparing to rest.

Today was the due date in the VIP ward—there was no mistake. If there was no production during the day, then it would happen at night. However, Lin Jia did not plan to explore at night, partly because of his fear of the dark.

If they missed the due date, who knew how many clues would be lost? The cat said regretfully, “Such a fine person. How did you end up with this illness?”

Lin Jia took off his coat and set it aside, replying lightly, “Because I was kidnapped.”

The cat froze. “Ah?”

It scrambled onto the bed. “You were kidnapped?”

Lin Jia looked at the cat. He wasn’t lying—he had indeed been kidnapped.

When he was seven, a well-trained team had abducted him.

The leader had made him call his parents. Lin Jia was willing to cooperate but told the kidnappers that his parents’ phones might not work because they were busy. After all, his parents had flown abroad just two days earlier, and they might still be adjusting to jet lag.

His parents clearly separated their personal lives from their professional ones. Unless it was a work call, nine out of ten phone calls would receive a busy signal. The remaining call would begin with, “Jiajia, I’m busy right now. If there’s something important, talk later, okay?” followed by an immediate end to the call.

The kidnappers did not believe this, so Lin Jia called his parents.

The first three calls went unanswered. The next one was picked up by his mother.

Mother: “Jiajia, I’m busy right now. If there’s something important, talk to me later, okay?”

Beep, beep, beep—

Lin Jia didn’t have time to say anything before the call was cut off.

No matter how well-trained the kidnappers were, they had never encountered a situation in which the family of the hostage did not answer the phone or hung up without giving the hostage a chance to speak.

The kidnappers forced Lin Jia to call his parents’ work number, and Lin Jia cooperated.

The work line was picked up quickly, but it was his father’s assistant who answered.

“Jiajia, President Lin is in a meeting right now. Do you need something? I’ll pass it on to President Lin later.”

Lin Jia: “Yes, there is something.”

He said, “I’ve been kidnapped.”

An astronomical ransom meant little to the Lin family. They did not want it to become news, so the matter was handled privately.

It was after dark when the kidnappers released and sent him home.

The huge house was pitch black. Suddenly, he developed a fear of the dark. He did not want to step into the darkness and face the empty house.

As long as he did not walk into the darkness and see it with his own eyes, he could convince himself that his parents were waiting anxiously at home for his safe return.

But unfortunately, aside from darkness, there was nothing in the house. His parents were not waiting for him.

A son’s life is certainly important, but once it was confirmed that their son would return home safely, his parents went back to focusing on business.

The kidnapping was the fuse that triggered Lin Jia’s fear of darkness, and very likely also one reason he became cold.

This was not a pleasant memory. Lin Jia never mentioned it to others. Mentioning it to the cat now also had selfish motives.

Because he leaned toward believing the cat itself was Yan Xu. Judging by Yan Xu’s saintly character, if Lin Jia revealed a weaker side of himself, then the probability of Yan Xu helping him leave the Underwater Wold would increase when the cat and Yan Xu merged.

The cat didn’t think about why Lin Jia had suddenly brought up his past. Shocked by Lin Jia’s kidnapping experience, it hurriedly asked, “How could your parents be like that? No wonder your personality is like this. Do you hate your parents a lot?”

Lin Jia pressed his lips together and replied, “When I was young, I was troubled by how busy they were with their careers and how they ignored the family. After they died, I took up their business. I discovered that nothing in this world is more interesting than making money.”

Lin Jia tilted his head slightly and looked at the cat. “There’s a saying: ‘Questioning parents, understanding parents, surpassing parents.’”

The cat: “…”

Lin Jia continued, “But my parents only had me. If I can’t return to reality, there’s a good chance their graves will be overgrown with weeds.”

At that, the cat felt too guilty to make a sound. After all, the cat was the reason Lin Jia had been dragged into the Underwater Wold. It could only promise Lin Jia one thing: “When I find my real self and merge with it, I’ll definitely help you return to the real world.”

The cat did not know that Lin Jia’s parents were buried in a cemetery of the highest standard, where there were dedicated people to tend graves.

And Lin Jia actually rarely went to visit his parents.

It wasn’t because of hatred.

Lin Jia was simply very busy.

Busy making money.

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