Chu Luyao pulled up the surveillance footage from the villa.
Just as the sky was beginning to brighten, Zhou Du walked out of the villa. Two hours later, he returned, draped in the chill of the morning dew, clutching a box of Osmanthus Cake.
He placed the Osmanthus Cake in the most conspicuous spot on the table and stared at it for a long time.
Suddenly, his brows knit together tightly. His face drained of color, becoming visibly pale to the naked eye, and his hands clutched his abdomen in a death grip.
Watching this scene, Chu Luyao flew into a rage.
"Sir was in that much pain, and not a single one of you saw it? Are you all blind?"
The servants looked at each other in silence, trembling with terror.
"Madam... Sir has looked unwell for a long time. I asked him about it... but Sir wouldn't say anything."
The servant's words echoed in her mind like a curse. When did Zhou Du become so weak?
In Chu Luyao's memory, Zhou Du had always been that stalwart mountain who could protect her firmly from anything.
Looking now at his shoulders, which seemed as thin as whittled wood, and his pale, gaunt face, she suddenly realized with a shock that she had neglected Zhou Du far too much.
Chu Luyao's mind went blank in waves. Her thoughts were chaotic, her heart hollow. For a moment, she didn't even know where to start looking.
What is wrong with Zhou Du's body?
Where on earth did he go?
In the twelve years they had known each other, she had never heard him mention his parents.
She took out her phone, realizing she could only pin her hopes on Zhou Du's friends.
But as she scrolled to the end of her contacts, she suddenly remembered—Zhou Du didn't seem to have any friends.
After getting together with her, the only world he knew aside from their home was the company.
"Hello? This is Chu Luyao. Is Ah Du at the company?"
Chu Luyao licked her parched lips, her voice hoarse and powerless.
After receiving a negative answer, a wave of extreme despair washed over her again and again. Chu Luyao could barely stand.
She felt as if she had been transported back to the time when Song Yuheng passed away—that heavy, bone-deep sorrow that stretched and deepened with time, suffocating her.
"Ah Du, where exactly did you go?"
Chu Luyao sat dazedly in the seat Zhou Du had occupied that very morning.
With no other options, she could only ask a friend at the police station to help track Zhou Du's movements.
When the phone rang, she shot up from her seat, her hand trembling so much she didn't dare press the answer button.
"Hello? Is this Miss Chu Luyao? There is a courier for you at the gate. Please sign for it."
Seeing Zhou Du's name in the sender field seemed to give Chu Luyao a desperate glimmer of hope.
"Zhou Du wouldn't be so cruel as to abandon me. He loves me so much."
She held the package reverently and carefully, tore open the tape, and opened it.
A divorce agreement signed with Zhou Du's name appeared abruptly before her eyes.
"Impossible. Zhou Du loves me so much; he couldn't possibly divorce me. Besides... I'm pregnant with his child."
Chu Luyao clutched the divorce agreement and collapsed weakly onto the chair, her hand resting on her lower abdomen, trembling violently.
"This must be fake. It's impossible for Zhou Du to divorce me."
Just before she left this morning, Zhou Du had even pulled her gently into his arms and softly played with her hair.
That doting look in his eyes was exactly the same as before. How could a person have a change of heart just like that?
In a fit of anger, Chu Luyao wanted to tear up the divorce agreement, but she didn't dare.
This was the last thing Zhou Du had left her.
She recognized Zhou Du's handwriting. She just didn't dare to admit the fact that Zhou Du didn't want her anymore—that he had truly left her.
But why? Chu Luyao couldn't find a reason.
She could only drag out every detail of her interactions with Zhou Du over the recent period and recall them one by one.
Suddenly, those subtle emotional changes in Zhou Du from before came into piercingly clear focus.