"I’ll ask my mom first to see what’s really going on," Ye Wanwan said before exiting WeChat and dialing Su Xiangyi’s number on her phone.
On the other end, Su Xiangyi picked up quickly. "Wanwan, why are you calling at this hour?"
It was after nine at night. The time wasn’t considered late, but Ye Wanwan rarely contacted them around this hour.
Moreover, with Shen Yi not around, Ye Wanwan was at home alone, and Su Xiangyi was somewhat worried.
She had once suggested that Ye Wanwan stay at her parents’ home during this period, but Ye Wanwan had refused.
"I’m fine, I just wanted to ask about my cousin’s situation," Ye Wanwan said.
Su Xiangyi was silent for a moment before telling Ye Wanwan, "The Qin Family indeed can’t get in touch with their second young master, but whether he has run away from a marriage or has been kidnapped, there isn’t a consensus yet."
"However, you don’t need to worry about this. After all, it’s still your uncle’s family matter, and it’s not appropriate for us to intervene."
Not meddling in other people’s family affairs was one thing, on the other hand, Su Xiangyi didn’t want to get involved either.
If Ye Zhenlin and his wife had some dissatisfaction with her, or had made things difficult for her in the past, perhaps she could let that go.
But the problem lay in the fact that Ye Zhenlin and his wife had bullied her daughter. That grievance, she couldn’t forget, and would never be able to forget.
So now, she just wanted to maintain a basic level of civility with Ye Zhenlin’s family on the surface, while keeping to themselves in private, ideally like water not interfering with river water.
"Okay, I got it." Ye Wanwan, fully aware of her mother’s aversion to that family, didn’t ask any more questions.
"Mm, get some rest early. If you are free tomorrow, come home for dinner; your father misses you," Su Xiangyi’s tone softened again.
Ye Wanwan agreed repeatedly and then wished Su Xiangyi a "good night."
After hanging up, Ye Wanwan truly stopped thinking about Ye Shiying and Qin Yansen’s affairs, and in the chat group, Song Ziyi and Lu Ning had already moved on to gossiping about other topics.
Seeing it wasn’t too late, Ye Wanwan yawned, then went to the walk-in closet to grab a nightgown for her bath.
After she finished bathing and returned to bed, she played on her phone for a while and then unknowingly fell asleep.
The vibrating sound kept coming. In the darkness, Ye Wanwan didn’t open her eyes, reaching out instinctively to fumble on the bedside table.
Ye Wanwan felt around several times before she successfully grabbed the vibrating phone.
Groggy, Ye Wanwan opened her eyes, but the sudden flash from the phone’s screen made her close them again.
Unable to clearly see the caller ID, she answered the call directly.
After connecting, Ye Wanwan weakly murmured a "hello" into the phone at her ear.
The phone was silent at first, the kind of silence without any sound, which made Ye Wanwan involuntarily feel sleepy again.
Just as Ye Wanwan was about to fall asleep, a sharp "snap" suddenly came from the phone, followed immediately by a blood-curdling scream.
The scream burst in Ye Wanwan’s ear, jolting her awake in a shock, her eyes flying open and her heart quivering intensely.
Then, a succession of sounds came through the phone, like the lash of a whip hitting human flesh, accompanied by the heart-wrenching cries and wails of the person being beaten.