The girl slowly raised her hand—  

Her slender fingers were bony from extreme thinness, the knuckles on the back of her hand protruding sharply. Her sleeves were pushed up to her elbows, revealing a delicate, pale wrist.  

Even worse, it was weighed down by a pair of handcuffs as heavy as a thousand pounds…  

Damn it!!  

Shen Zhanwu’s jaw tensed, his eyes stinging at the sight.  

The man’s face was dark, his pitch-black eyes fixed on his young wife as he carefully wiped away her tears, murmuring softly, “Don’t cry…”  

Ruan Qingzhi’s gaze fell on his legs, where blood was seeping through. She sniffled, “Y-you’re hurt…”  

“It’s nothing.”  

Shen Zhanwu seemed oblivious to the pain, not even glancing at the wound. Instead, he kept his thick lashes lowered, gently brushing away her tear stains.  

Lin Ruzhen clutched her stomach, furious. “Ruan Qingzhi, you’re the one crying now?! If anyone should be crying, it’s me!!”  

Her words shattered Shen Zhanwu’s efforts to soothe his wife, sending Ruan Qingzhi into quiet sobs again.  

Clutching the front of Shen Zhanwu’s clothes, Ruan Qingzhi tilted her petite face up, her soft, teary eyes meeting his. “Shen Zhanwu…”  

Her voice was hoarse from crying.  

Between hiccups, she whispered, “I saw that child…”  

Lin Ruzhen, ignoring the pain in her stomach, pointed at the two of them. “See?! What did I tell you! It *was* her! Now she’s admitting it herself!”  

She looked as if she had just won a great battle, finally vindicated.  

Ruan Qingzhi kept her eyes on her husband.  

Shen Zhanwu gazed back at her.  

His dark eyes reflected only his wife’s tearful face.  

At this moment—  

Everything else in the world faded away.  

All he could see was her.  

He waited for her to continue…  

Ruan Qingzhi’s almond-shaped eyes were misty. “When I came to the city hospital alone from the train station, I saw an old woman at the entrance…”  

“She looked shifty, carrying a three- or four-year-old child, hurrying away… When I was little, adults always said child traffickers looked like that… so I stopped her. I told her the child was my brother…”  

Shen Zhanwu’s eyes tightened slightly. “Were you scared?”  

“I wasn’t scared of the trafficker…”  

A tear rolled down Ruan Qingzhi’s cheek, her lips trembling with emotion:  

“I was scared that if I hadn’t been lucky enough to run into that child, I wouldn’t know where he’d end up. He’s so young, his life had barely begun…”  

“You brought him away from home to give him a better life, never imagining he’d be pushed into an even deeper abyss. I was afraid you’d blame yourself for everything…”  

“So, Shen Zhanwu, you don’t understand how I feel right now…”  

“I’m so terrified.”  

“Terrified that I might not have found him. But I’m also happy—I must have done something incredible in my past life to have been lucky enough to meet him. And I’m furious at Dr. Lin for abandoning him there!”  

These words weren’t a lie.  

When she had charged at Lin Ruzhen, these were the very thoughts racing through her mind.  

Lin Ruzhen refused to believe it. “That old woman was your accomplice, wasn’t she?”