"Guess what?" Travis drawled the moment the call connected, "You'll love me!" a grin tugging his lips, "Chen Yiran just sent something for a test!"
A brief pause. Then Wang Zichen's usual clipped response, "Okay."
Travis rolled his eyes, "Do you know what it's about?"
Silence.
Figured. Wang Zichen was never one for unnecessary words or conversation that didn't concern him. Expressionless and even ignoring him.
"You don't know!" Travis huffed a quiet laugh, "You should ask her about it. Maybe its a DNA test!"
"Stop wasting my time!" Wang Zichen warned, with a no-nonsense tone.
Travis smirked, "Aren't you the least bit curious?"
"No."
'This cold guy!' That was expected, but that didn't stop Travis from fishing, "I can send you the results when they're out." he suggested.
"Okay," Wang Zichen said after a pause.
Travis let out a quiet chuckle, "But, once I do that, I'd be breaking my doctor confidentiality code and..."
Click.
"Zichen?" he called out, but the line was already dead.
Wang Zichen had hung up.
Travis shook his head, a wry smile making way in his face as he slipped his phone back into his pocket. 'Classic. Master Wang'
Butler Lu made the call, fully expecting resistance. No one in their sane mind would say they have something that would get them in trouble. As predicted, the videographer insisted the footage was gone, deleted, wiped from existence. Impossible to retrieve
Ten embers. Everything changed.
Silence. Then a shift.
Excuses crumbled, hesitation faded, replaced by hurried typing, whispered exchanges and within minutes, they were digging through their phones and clouds. And just like that the said deleted video resurfaced.
"We found it."
Butler Lu didn't need to hear more. He relayed the update to Chen Yiran. Without missing a beat, She gave a simple instruction.
"Have someone fetch it."
An hour after Butler Lu sent someone to retrieve the video, finally Chen Yiran received the video. By then, she had already fed Azalea and put her to sleep.
Settling onto the couch, she powered on her laptop, inserted the USB and opened the file. She just couldn't wait. She had to find out anything, even if it was a single clue. Anything that could shed light to the puzzle.
The footage started from the beginning, the labor process. But as she watched, her brow furrowed, she quickly noticed something off. The scenes didn't add up. The video was incomplete, fragmented. The sequence had gaps, likely deleted before it could be fully pieced together.
Then came the part where her blood pressure spiked. Chen Yiran leaned in her eyes narrowing. That was it? The moment she was waiting for? Just before the crucial moment, the part where the previous Chen Yiran is said to have fainted, the footage became unclear. The angle was super wrong, the details hazy.
"What is this!" She exclaimed with disbelief and frustration.
She grabbed her phone, dialing the videographer's number, she had got from the butler. She pressed the phone to her ear, her patience already wearing thin.
"The footage is incomplete," She stated, her voice firm and icy.
There was a pause on the other end before the videographer finally spoke, "Yes Miss Chen, You asked us to delete the video before we could piece them together."
"I know that," she sighed, her eyes darkening with frustration, "The part before I fainted, it's unclear. What happened to it?"
Then the videographer hesitantly responded, "There was... an issue."
"Explain." She demanded her tone laced with quiet authority.
A nervous swallow came from the other end, "When your blood pressure spiked, and you fainted, the nurses were in a hurry. One of them tripped over the camera and it fell."
Chen Yiran frowned, "And?"
"We set up another one as fast as we could and moved it to a different angle to prevent the accident from happening again."
"Why on earth did you move the camera?!" Chen Yiran became worked up, her mind racing with implications, "So, let me get this straight, The only part I need, the crucial moment, is missing?"
"Miss Chen..." He tried explaining nervously.
"Who was the nurse who tripped on the camera?" She asked her patience hanging by a thread.
"I don't know Miss Chen, But we might have captured her from the phone video." He stated with confidence. It was as if he wanted to get praised for the revelation.
A long silence followed.
"There is another video?"
"Yes."
Chen Yiran let out a soft, humorless chuckle before lashing out, "What the hell are you doing with it? I thought the 10 Embers were enough to have every video of that day in my possession!"
The videographer hesitated before responding in a small voice, "I can send it, Right now."
"How convenient!" Her voice quiet with an unmistakable chill.
Without another word, she ended the call.
Chen Yiran got up, called the nanny to look after Azalea. She strode to the lift before going down to find the butler.
She didn't find him in the kitchen, she had to ask someone before she got lost in that mansion wandering aimlessly trying to find the butler. How embarrassing would that be?
"Where is Butler Lu?" She asked the cook.
"Butler Lu is in the storage room." The cook answered before going back with his work.
'Where the hell is the storage at?' She muttered under her breath as she walked through the halls trying to find a maid to direct her.
Alas! After 5 minutes, She found a maid washing the glass window. Relief! which was quickly overshadowed by her growing impatience.
"Take me to the storage." She commanded.
The maid wanted to argue but seeing the dark look on Chen Yiran's face she chose peace. They went together then when they arrived at the storage, Chen Yiran dismissed her.
Chen Yiran got in the storage. On seeing the butler,
"Butler Lu, let's go through with the punishment!"