But as soon as Shen Mianyin finished speaking, the other party suddenly fell silent.
Shen Mianyin nervously stopped talking and waited anxiously.
After a while, she heard the other party say, “You know, being too smart isn’t always a good thing. You should just obediently come back with us and wait.”
“Otherwise, you think you can control our kidnapping?” the bald man said.
Shen Mianyin didn’t dare speak anymore.
She was indeed too anxious.
But she didn’t dare gamble on how she would react if she were taken into a dark room; she was afraid of losing control.
The car drove for an unknown amount of time before finally stopping.
Shen Mianyin was pulled out of the car and walked a few steps on a dirt road.
Afterwards, judging by the feel of the ground beneath her feet, Shen Mianyin determined that she had been brought indoors.
Because she couldn't see, her sense of smell seemed to have become more acute.
With the sack over her head, she could smell not only the dirty, musty odor of the sack itself but also the damp, cold smell of the mud walls surrounding her.
Shen Mianyin was pushed a few steps before she heard the rusty sound of an iron gate being opened.
"Get in there!" With a command, Shen Mianyin was forcefully pushed into the room.
Shen Mianyin was thrown to the ground, and because her hands were tied behind her back, she could only cushion her fall slightly with her shoulder to avoid hitting her head on the ground.
As a result, her knees and shoulder ached.
Shen Mianyin endured the pain without crying out.
In this situation, the less noise she made, the better; she should try to minimize her presence as much as possible.
She couldn't let those people remember her.
Shen Mianyin still had the sack over her head, and with her hands tied, she couldn't take it off.
Although she couldn't see, she could already feel that the environment she was in was cramped and dark.
Shen Mianyin tried to stand up, then bent over, trying to press her upper body against her legs.
The sack slid off.
Shen Mianyin could finally see.
There was no light or window in the room; it was a completely enclosed, dark room. It was so dark that she couldn't even see how dirty the walls were.
But Shen Mianyin guessed it was very dirty.
But at this moment, how could she care about such things?
The pitch-black and enclosed environment was eroding her heart. She cried while also desperately trying not to make a sound, crawling on the ground on her hands and knees.
Trembling, she finally found a corner.
No matter how dirty the wall was, she only felt that there were walls on both sides, with only the unknown darkness in front of her. This made her feel slightly better.
Shen Mianyin bent her legs, hugged her head with her arms, buried her lowered head in her knees, closed her eyes, and told herself that everything was alright, really alright.
"Let me out!" A familiar voice came from the next room.
Shen Mianyin was too nervous to listen.
But the shouting from next door continued incessantly, and Shen Mianyin finally recognized the voice.
It was Su Yiqing's voice.
"Stop shouting!" a man's rough voice shouted from outside. "If you shout again, I'll hit you!"
"I told you to give the money earlier, but you didn't. You only know how to cry now that you've been caught!" the man outside complained, then said to Shen Chenggang, "Your own sister is quite smart. She was already planning to give us money on the way, and if she had, we wouldn't have needed to bring her here. It's just a pity she didn't have that much cash on her."
"If we'd known you'd be so willing to pay, why did we even bother making the phone call in the first place?"
Upon hearing this, Shen Mianyin was confused.
What did this mean?
Even though she knew she shouldn't speak, Shen Mianyin couldn't help but ask, "What do you mean? What sister?"
"Mianyin?" Outside, an unfamiliar male voice called out anxiously, "Mianyin, I'm sorry, I've dragged you into this, I'm so sorry..."
"Who are you?" Shen Mianyin asked.
"I... I'm your brother, your real brother," Shen Chenggang said nervously.
"You... are you kidnapping me with them?" Shen Mianyin's heart sank.
"No, it's not like that!" Shen Chenggang, afraid of being misunderstood by Shen Mianyin, immediately explained everything to her in detail. "Our family's circumstances aren't good. We can only manage to have enough food and clothing. As long as no one gets sick, we can get by."
"I work as a delivery driver, and I earn more than ten thousand a month," Shen Chenggang said. "But Su Yiqing's illness requires a lot of money."
"Seeing doctors, buying medicine, getting injections, IV drips—they're all very expensive. Especially her medication; she needs medicine from overseas that works better. To maintain her health, all the money our family earns isn't enough," Shen Chenggang said. "But we can't just watch her suffer so much and die."
"So we tried every possible way to borrow money, borrowing from everyone we could until no one was willing to lend to us anymore. Left with no other choice, I... I had to resort to taking out high-interest loans," Shen Chenggang said. "I thought, nothing could be more important than a human life. Even if it was a high-interest loan, I gritted my teeth and borrowed it. I'd figure out how to pay it back later."
"Not long after we borrowed the money, Su Yiqing was recognized and taken back by the Su family. All the money we borrowed from the high-interest lenders went to pay for her medical treatment; we didn't have a single penny left. Now they're coming after us for the money. My mother is sick and we don't even have money for her to go to the hospital, and I lost my job because of these high-interest loan people. I had no choice but to ask Su Yiqing to repay the money."
"I thought, the money was all spent on treating her illness. If it hadn't been for her treatment, our family wouldn't have ended up in this situation. Now that she's the Su family's young lady, she should definitely be able to repay it. Who knew she'd refuse and even let these high-interest lenders come after you?"
"So, the people who called me today, it really was them..." Shen Mianyin said.
"Did you think it was fake?" Shen Chenggang's originally grief-stricken heart was ignited with a glimmer of hope upon hearing these words. "They said you hung up the phone after hearing what they had to say, and I understand why. After all, our family never raised you, and this matter has nothing to do with you. It's normal for you not to want to get involved."
"On the contrary… it’s actually the money we owe that has dragged you into this. I'm sorry... I'm truly sorry..."
"That's not it," Shen Mianyin said. "It's because Su Yiqing said her adoptive parents were both dead. That's why when the loan sharks called today, I thought it was a scam call."
"What?" Shen Chenggang became even more resentful. "Su Yiqing! How can you be so heartless! Our family is in this situation all because of you, all for you! Because of you, my mother is sick and we don't even have money for her to see a doctor. How could you curse her to be dead!"
"So, Shen..." Shen Mianyin paused. From Shen Chenggang's words, Shen Mianyin could tell that the Shen family were all kind and honest people, and moreover, the child swap wasn't something the Shen family had wanted. Shen Mianyin changed her wording, "Mom and Dad are... still alive?"
Shen Chenggang said, "Dad passed away from cancer a few years ago, but Mom is still alive. It's just... with Mom's illness, if things continue like this, I'm afraid she also..."
"Mian... can I call you Mianyin?" Shen Chenggang asked cautiously.
"You can," Shen Mianyin said. Leaning against the wall, she had been talking to Shen Chenggang for a long time, and her fear had lessened slightly.
She could hear Shen Chenggang's concern for her, and Shen Mianyin felt a lot warmer inside.
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