"What do you mean?" Huang Xueli was the first to erupt, striding up to her. "Who took him away?"
Li Lanxiang's gaze drifted around the living room, from the chandelier to the huge wedding portrait on the wall, before finally returning to the three of them. She shook her head.
"I can't say."
Those words were as light as feathers, yet they landed on Wang Xiaoliang's heart with crushing weight. Can't say? What could she not even tell them?
"Was he kidnapped?" Wang Xiaoliang's voice was noticeably trembling.
He instinctively looked at Huang Xueli. With Dahuang there, he still felt some reassurance.
But Huang Xueli raised a hand and gently waved him off.
That single gesture made Wang Xiaoliang's heart tighten again.
Huang Xueli stopped asking questions and instead began pacing around the living room. His gaze swept back and forth across the room, first over the corners of the ceiling, then the TV stand, then the lower shelf of the coffee table.
Wang Xiaoliang and Wei Zijin watched in bewilderment, with absolutely no idea what he was up to.
Suddenly, Huang Xueli stopped and raised an index finger to his lips, making a shushing gesture.
Everyone instantly stopped even breathing.
The living room was so quiet that they could hear their hearts pounding in their chests.
Huang Xueli bent down, his movements as light as a cat's, and reached beneath the coffee table to feel around.
He found a notepad and a pen.
He returned to the sofa, quickly wrote a few strokes, and held the note out to Li Lanxiang.
With her eyes lowered, Li Lanxiang merely glanced at it before nodding weakly.
Expressionless, Huang Xueli then handed the note to Wang Xiaoliang.
Wang Xiaoliang's hands were trembling. He took it and looked down, feeling as though a