While thinking about the punishment, Bai Ning turned her attention back to the surveillance footage.
She was going to investigate every recording, which would take some time, but thanks to her super speed, she played them back at 100x speed to finish faster.
The process was as quick as searching the entire hospital.
She then leaned back into the armchair. The tablet rested on her lap, its screen still displaying the frozen image of Ryuu—his oversized white lab coat hanging loosely over his small frame, his messy golden hair, and his blue eyes shining with a determination she had never seen before.
Her fingers glided across the cold surface, tracing the pixelated outline of his face with a tenderness that stood in violent contrast to the darkness dancing within her eyes.
She had watched everything.
Every hallway. Every corner. Every hesitant step of her lost little boy, wearing that white lab coat as though it were a costume of freedom.
The old man.
That insignificant old man had dared to guide Ryuu to the storage room. As if he were some good Samaritan. As if he were helping a poor lost boy.
"How clever," she whispered, a proud smile curling her lips. "Using the old man to find clothes. Mommy never taught you that. You figured it out all by yourself."
But before that, the recording had shown something that made her smile falter.
Ryuu standing with his back pressed against a door. Hesitating for a long moment before leaving.
Bai Ning's fingers pressed harder against the screen.
The camera inside that room had been disabled—it had been turned off to protect the occupant's identity—but the hallway camera did not lie. The timestamp on the recording was merciless: seven minutes and thirty-two seconds.
From the moment he climbed through the window and landed in that room, he had stayed seven minutes longer than necessary to cross an empty room.
Bai Ning's lips curved downward.
She knew who was in that room. Not her name—names were irrelevant for insects—but her face.
Ah, that face she knew very well.
Like a porcelain doll with snow-white hair and violet eyes, lying in a hospital bed like a sleeping princess.
A beauty so ethereal it seemed to belong to another world.
Beautiful.
Very beautiful.
Beautiful enough to make her Ryuu stop.
"You stopped to talk to her, didn't you, my love?" Bai Ning murmured to the frozen image, her voice a low, dangerous purr. "You were running away from Mommy, yet you still found time to pay attention to a stranger."
The smile that formed on her lips held no warmth.
She brushed her thumb over Ryuu's cheek on the screen, a cold, possessive caress.
"It's alright. Mommy understands. You're young and curious. But Mommy will take care of this."
The tablet screen let out a faint crack beneath the pressure of her fingers.
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to relax. Anger was a luxury she could not afford right now. Anger blinded her, made her commit mistakes, and she had already made far too many over the past few hours.
With a soft sigh, she set the tablet aside and leaned back into the armchair. Her eyes—now once again as blue as a spring sky—fixed themselves upon the ceiling, and for the first time since entering the room, her mind was perfectly calm.
The shock had passed.
The despair had passed.
Now, only clarity remained. Cold, crystalline, absolute clarity.
"Let's review," she murmured to the empty room, her voice devoid of emotion.
Mistake number one: She had concentrated all surveillance on the VIP floor. Every guard, every camera, every ounce of attention—everything had been focused on the perimeter surrounding Ryuu's room.
But she had been so focused on keeping the world away from him that she had never considered he might want to leave.
Mistake number two: The soldiers. Those brainless things she had created in her laboratories. They were obedient, yes. They were strong, yes. But they were stupid. Incapable of independent thought, incapable of initiative.
She had programmed them to guard the elevator and protect the hospital from intruders.
They were tools. Tools do not think. Tools do not question. And tools do not fail—their owners simply misuse them.
"I want them eliminated." Bai Ning's voice was cold and casual. "The guards who let Ryuu escape. Every last one of them."
Yes, Bai Ning knew the mistake was hers, and she almost hated herself for it. But a mistake was still a mistake.
Mistake number three—and this was the gravest of all: She had ordered that no one but her could access the cameras in Ryuu's room. No one else. No guards, no security personnel, no subordinates.
She could not bear the thought of other eyes watching her son sleep, watching him bathe, watching him... belong to her.
"If I had allowed the security team to monitor the cameras... if I had stationed intelligent soldiers on the lower floors..."
She slowly shook her head.
"No. That wouldn't have worked. No one else could see what happened inside that room. No one else could see you like that. You belong to me. Only me."
A sigh escaped her lips.
"It was my fault," she admitted, and this time there was no anger in her voice. Only acceptance. "I underestimated him. I treated him like a fragile doll when he's so, so much more than that."
She looked once more at Ryuu's frozen image on the screen. Her lips curled into a gentle smile.
"But that's what makes you so special, isn't it, my love? You're not fragile. You're resourceful. You're brave. You're... perfect."
The panic that had driven her to race across the entire city without a plan was fading away. She was Bai Ning. She didn't need to chase anyone.
She only needed to wait.
But there were more important matters to deal with now.
"Li Hoyou." She tapped the communicator in her ear.
The reply came in less than a second. "Yes, ma'am."
"Begin a covert search for Bai Xue. No alarms. No task forces. I want her found quietly."
There was a pause on the other end. "Ma'am... her cell was found empty less than an hour ago. We're still trying to figure out how—"
"I know she escaped," Bai Ning cut him off, her voice as cold as ice. "I was there. I saw it."
Another pause, this one heavy with tension.
"And when we find her... what are your orders?"
Bai Ning considered the question for a moment, her fingers gently drumming against the armrest.
"Do whatever you want," she finally said, her tone as casual as if she were discussing the disposal of an old piece of furniture. "Hang her. Drown her. Slit her throat and throw her body into the river. I don't care. Just make her disappear."
"Understood, ma'am."
The call ended.
Bai Ning touched the communicator again.
"Doctor Wei."
This time, the voice that answered was female, calm, and professional. "Madam Bai. What an honor."
"I need you to activate our contacts in the media. Newspapers, social media, gossip forums. I want headlines about my son."
"What kind of headlines, ma'am?"
"Nothing big enough to become an international scandal," Bai Ning explained, her eyes gleaming with cold intelligence. "But nothing so small that it'll be forgotten in a few days either. Elite gossip. Persistent rumors. Accusations vague enough that they can't be prosecuted, yet specific enough to tarnish his reputation. That he's an irresponsible playboy. That he abandoned his family. That he's involved with drugs. That he fled the hospital because of mental illness. Use whatever is most effective."
"I understand. How long should I keep the campaign going?"
"Indefinitely. I want every door he tries to open to be closed. I want every person he meets to look at him with suspicion. I want him to understand that the outside world doesn't accept him."
That the outside world doesn't want him.
That only Mommy truly loves him.
"It will be done, ma'am."
The call ended.
Bai Ning let her hand fall onto her lap, her eyes still fixed on the ceiling. The smile returned to her lips—small, satisfied, maternal.
"You have no one, Ryuu. Nowhere to go."
Ever since he had been sent abroad as a young child, he had lost all contact with China. He knew no one here. He had no friends. No allies. No family—except her.
He had only recently returned, a stranger in his own homeland.
And now, she was turning him into a pariah.
"This isn't cruelty, my love," she murmured to the frozen image on the tablet. "It's education. When you realize you can't trust anyone... when every outstretched hand turns out to be a hidden knife... you'll understand. You'll understand that only Mommy truly protects you. And then..."
She touched the screen with the tip of her finger, right over Ryuu's lips.
"...you'll come back to me of your own free will."
But there was an obstacle.
One single, persistent obstacle.
Bai Xue.
"You were smarter than I expected," she murmured, the name leaving her lips like poison. "Escaping right before my eyes... I have to admit, I'm impressed."
But her admiration did nothing to lessen the danger. Xue was free. Xue, who loved Ryuu with an obsession that rivaled her own. Xue, who would do anything to "protect" him—including taking him away from Bai Ning.
And as long as Xue remained free, Ryuu might find her. He might believe he still had someone besides her.
"That's unacceptable," Bai Ning hissed, her eyes darkening for a moment. "Absolutely unacceptable."
Xue had to be eliminated before she could get close to Ryuu again. And just as importantly, Ryuu could never know that Xue was free. If he knew, he would have hope. He would have a reason to keep running. He would have someone to turn to.
"You can't know, my love. You can't. If you do, you'll go looking for her. You'll think she can save you. But she can't. She's weak. Pathetic. A cheap imitation of me. Only I can protect you. Only me."
Her thoughts then drifted to another daughter.
Bai Yue.
The memory surfaced vividly and venomously: the scene at the mansion a few days earlier, when Yue had hugged Ryuu and pressed his face into her breasts. An "innocent" gesture, disguised as sisterly affection.
But Bai Ning had seen the truth.
She had seen the gleam in Yue's eyes. She had seen the way her fingers lingered on Ryuu's shoulders. She had seen the barely concealed excitement in her daughter's breathing.
That day, Bai Ning had wanted to claw Yue's eyes out with her own fingernails.
But she restrained herself. She always restrained herself. That's what a good mother did.
However...
After the attack in the alley. After learning it had been Yue's thugs who had nearly killed Ryuu—who had plunged a knife into his lung, made him bleed, and almost taken him away from her forever...
After that, restraint was no longer an option.
"How do you punish a masochist?" Bai Ning murmured to herself, a cruel smile curling her lips. "You take away what she loves."
Yue didn't care about physical pain. In fact, she enjoyed it. But the empire she had built in the underworld? The contacts, the resources, the years of meticulous work to become Shanghai's Underworld Queen?
That she loved. That was her identity. Her pride. Her life.
"Destroying it all was so easy," Bai Ning reflected, almost bored. "A few orders here, a few executions there. Her most loyal lieutenants disappeared. Her hideouts were exposed. Her shipments were intercepted. In a single week, the empire that had taken her years to build was reduced to ashes."
A small warning.
Just a gentle reminder of who truly ruled the underworld—and everything else.
"If Ryuu runs to you, Yue... you'll know what to do."
She slowly rose from the armchair, smoothing the folds of her dress stained with black tears. Her posture was straight, her movements graceful, her smile perfectly serene.
Like a goddess returning to her throne.
"Now," she announced to the empty room, her voice a soft purr, "Mommy has a few visits to make."
First, the mysterious woman in the room without cameras. The white-haired doll who had dared to catch Ryuu's attention. That ethereal beauty who had cost him several precious minutes of escape.
"This won't go unpunished."
Then, the old man.
The "good Samaritan" who had guided Ryuu to the storage room. Who had given him clothes. Who had helped him disguise himself.
"You touched what belongs to me," Bai Ning murmured, her eyes shining with a hungry darkness. "You helped him run away from me."
She wondered how long he would last before begging for death.
Probably not very long. Humans were so fragile.
Finally, the guards.
She had left behind those who had failed in their only duty.
Her footsteps carried her to the room's door. Before leaving, she cast one final glance at the empty bed, at the makeshift rope still swaying in the wind.
"I'm coming, my love," she whispered, as though Ryuu could hear her. "Mommy will fix everything. And when there's no one left in this world you can trust... you'll come back to me."
She opened the door.
"After all, I'm the only one who truly loves you."