At this time, the Lu Family, all gathered around the living room sofa, looked more anxious and solemn than one another.
Or rather, the older ones could still maintain their calm composure, while the youngest could hardly sit still anymore.
In the living room, Lu Youye put down his phone for the Nth time, and for the (N+1)th time lifted his eyes to look at his eldest brother Lu Jingyan.
Those puppy-dog eyes were so frantic they were becoming red.
"Big brother, Shengsheng’s phone is still unreachable. It’s so late, and she hasn’t come home yet. Where could she have gone?"
Lu Jingyan, with equally furrowed brows, sighed, "I’ve already called a few of her friends. They all say they don’t know where Shengsheng went."
"Shengsheng rarely goes out at night, and even if she does, she’s back home before ten, or else she would call to let us know."
Lu Youye couldn’t help but check the time again, "But now it’s 11 o’clock, Shengsheng is still not back, and we can’t reach her on the phone. Could something have happened to her?"
Hearing the possibility of something happening, Lu Youming, who was sitting on the other side, took a deep breath and stood up abruptly: "I’m going out to find her."
Lu Youming had barely taken two steps when he was called to a halt by Lu Jingyan, "Youming! It’s late, and without any direction, where will you go to find Shengsheng?"
Lu Youming clenched his fists out of sight, and with his eyes cast down, the long lashes cast a shadow at the edge of his eyelids.
Although his face still appeared calm as usual, the slight trembling in his gaze already betrayed the unease in his heart.
"...It’s better than just sitting at home."
"I agree!" Lu Youye, rarely finding common ground with his temperamentally different twin brother, also stood up and clamored, "I’m also going to find Shengsheng!"
"You two sit down first."
Lu Siyan slightly frowned, raised his eyes, and spoke calmly, "Forget Youming, but Youye, running around aimlessly this late - we don’t want to end up having to search for you after failing to find Shengsheng."
"I won’t! I..." Lu Youye couldn’t help but open his mouth, then recalling his past experiences of being a habitual lost cause, found himself unable to refute his second brother’s words.
Even the often flippant Lu Ziye was somber now, and turned to Lu Jingyan, "Big brother, have you gotten in touch with Li Muchen?"
Lu Jingyan frowned, "Still no, it’s the same as Shengsheng’s mobile, unreachable."
"The same prompt on the mobile phone, they might be together now, just not sure why both of their phones are without a signal."
"It’s not too late yet, let’s wait a bit more," Lu Ziye pondered for a few seconds, "If Shengsheng doesn’t come home soon or call, we’ll contact the police and check the city’s surveillance to search for her."
"If that Li kid is with Shengsheng, and they haven’t returned home this late, it’s unbecoming, not even reachable by phone. If that’s the case, from now on Shengsheng is not allowed to meet with him at night!"
Jiang Ting, sitting on the couch, spoke up indignantly, very much in the mode of a concerned mother. However, just as she finished speaking, Lu Jingyan’s mobile phone began to ring.
The sudden phone ring caught everyone’s attention, as they all turned to look at Lu Jingyan.
And upon seeing the caller ID on the phone screen, Lu Jingyan could not help but feel a surge of relief.
Upon hearing that it was Li Muchen calling, everyone’s hearts immediately tensed up.
Lu Jingyan signaled for silence from the others with a shushing gesture, then switched the call to speakerphone and immediately asked, "Hello, Muchen, do you know where Sh...?"
"Big brother," before Lu Jingyan could finish, Li Muchen had already jumped in with the conclusion, "Shengsheng is with me, don’t worry for now."
Upon hearing that Lu Sheng was with Li Muchen, almost everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Had this call not come through, they were on the verge of panic.
Lu Jingyan’s anxiety eased slightly, then he furrowed his brow again and couldn’t help asking, "Shengsheng is with you? How come..."
As soon as Lu Jingyan spoke, Li Muchen guessed what he was about to say and began explaining directly: "Big brother, Shengsheng had arranged a meeting with someone tonight, but there was a bit of an accident."
"I also just got back from Beijing a little over an hour ago and found her."
"Accident??" Lu Jingyan jolted to his feet, and everyone else held their breath, "What happened? What accident did Shengsheng have?"
"I’m not sure about the details right now, but when I found Shengsheng, she was asleep in that restaurant and running a high fever."
"So I directly took Shengsheng back to the Li Family home and found a doctor to check on her. The doctor said that aside from the fever, Shengsheng is fine."
"But, both my and Shengsheng’s mobile signals were being interfered with, so we weren’t able to receive any of your calls."
Li Muchen said over the phone, "I just lifted the signal block and then called you, big brother."
The Lu Family hadn’t expected that Lu Sheng had actually gotten into trouble.
An arranged meeting? Restaurant? Asleep? Running a fever?
What was all this about, it seemed completely disjointed. But the Lu Family couldn’t worry about that now, and Lu Jingyan immediately asked anxiously over the phone: "Then how is Shengsheng doing now?"
"She’s sleeping deeply, but... her fever is quite severe," Li Muchen paused, with an unavoidably somber tone, "her temperature is nearly forty degrees at the moment, and besides physical cooling, the doctor is giving her an IV."
"What did you say? Forty degrees??!!"
Li Muchen’s mention of nearly forty degrees directly scared the Lu Family senseless.
"I understand!" Always calm and composed Lu Jingyan also became immediately anxious and said over the phone, "Muchen, you take good care of Shengsheng first, I’m heading to the Li family right now, send me your address."
Li Muchen replied through the phone: "Okay, big brother, be careful on the road."
As soon as Lu Jingyan hung up the phone, he discovered that his mother and his four younger brothers had already all stood up, after all, they had just heard everything that Li Muchen had said.
"Big brother, I’ll go with you, I want to see Shengsheng!" Lu Youye was the first to speak anxiously.
"I’ll go too." Lu Youming said the same thing, quite rarely agreeing with Lu Youye.
Lu Ziye immediately turned around: "I’ll go get the car keys, we’ll take my car."
Lu Siyan didn’t speak, but he was already ready to leave.
Seeing this, Jiang Ting also hurriedly said to her sons: "Wait for me a moment, I’ll go upstairs to change clothes, and grab some things to bring along."
Their mother was also going to the Li family’s?
Lu Jingyan couldn’t help but glance at Jiang Ting.
He knew his younger brothers too well. Knowing that Shengsheng was running a fever, it was impossible for them to stay home and feel at ease. But for his mother, there was no need to go through the trouble of accompanying them in the middle of the night.
So, Lu Jingyan said: "Mom, it’s so late now, the five of us will go to see Shengsheng at the Li family, you should stay home..."
Before Lu Jingyan could finish saying "wait for our news at home," he was directly interrupted by a stern glare from Jiang Ting.
Jiang Ting looked at her oldest son with dissatisfaction: "What are you talking about here! Shengsheng is over there with a fever of forty degrees, do you think I can stay home calmly or sleep soundly? And you tell me to stay home?"
"What, only you few real brothers truly care and worry for Shengsheng. As the stepmother, I don’t care for her, and I can remain indifferent knowing she’s sick, is that it?"
"Mom, I didn’t mean that..."
Lu Jingyan said with a helpless look on his face.
Ever since his mother started surfing the net, she’s been increasingly sarcastic, and her combativeness has been fierce. Recently, she’s been inventively scolding Lu Chengye at home every day, and her use of words and phrases even he had to admire.
"If you didn’t mean that, then stop talking, wait for me, I’m going to get some things!" With a huff at her eldest son, Jiang Ting turned her head and walked away.
A few minutes later, Jiang Ting came downstairs having changed her clothes. However, seeing the cumbersome things she struggled to bring down from upstairs, Lu Jingyan and the others couldn’t help but be dumbfounded.