The world around her blurred.
Music drifted up faintly from the ballroom—warm, cheerful, oblivious.
It felt like another universe.
One she no longer belonged to.
All Xiamen could feel was the cold.
Cold in her fingers.
Cold in her chest.
Cold in her bones.
Hong Yi's hands held her shoulders—steady, grounding—yet even that felt distant.
Her lips trembled.
"Haoyu… he's just a child…"
Her voice cracked, barely a whisper.
"Why would he take him? Why…?"
Anna bowed her head, guilt consuming her.
"I tried to protect him… I didn't leave him, not for a second—"
But Xiamen couldn't hear anymore.
Her mind replayed a single image:
Haoyu reaching for her that morning, sleepy-eyed, warm, murmuring, Mama…
Her breath fractured.
A thin, strangled sob tore through her.
Hong Yi pulled her closer—not an embrace, not yet, but a shield, a wall, something solid against the storm tearing her apart.
"Xiamen," he murmured, voice rough with a pain he barely let show, "I swear to you—we'll get him back."
She shook her head violently.
"You don't know him—my father—he's not someone you can bargain with."
Her nails dug into her palms.
"He hates me. He always has. Haoyu is his leverage—his weapon—"
Her voice collapsed into silence.
A single tear slid down her cheek.
"I should have never… I should have protected him better…"
"Stop."
Hong Yi's voice cut through her self-blame, firm, unwavering.
"This is not on you. Lin Chengwei did this."
She lifted her eyes again.
This time, through the grief, fear, and shaking breath—
there was something else.
Desperation.
A mother's desperation.
"What if he hurts him…? What if he already—"
"Xiamen."
Hong Yi cupped her cheek, forcing her eyes to lock onto his.
He had never touched her like this before—gentle, controlled, holding back a storm.
"I won't let that happen. You have my word."
She swallowed hard, her heart breaking open.
"I can't lose him… he's all I have…"
Hong Yi's expression flickered—just for a second—
something soft, raw, almost vulnerable.
"You have more than you think," he whispered.
When people know about this incident.
Whispers began spreading through the party like wildfire.
Someone muttered,
"Xiamen has been raising a child alone… whose child is it? She doesn't even know the father."
Another voice joined in, sharper, crueler,
"Is the child illegitimate? No one knows anything…"
Murmurs multiplied—
Ugly. Curious. Accusing.
As soon as people saw Xiamen crying, they all gathered, surrounding her like vultures drawn to pain.
Questions flew from every direction.
"Whose child is it?"
"Why did she hide him?"
"Is it scandalous?"
"Was it an affair?"
More.
More.
More.
Accusations.
Judgment.
Poison whispered behind pretty smiles.
Xiamen trembled, unable to speak.
Her tears only fueled their speculation.
Other side,
Emma She was smiling inside, see what it means to mess with me. You want to snatch Hong yi from me , but not anymore you can't do it anymore.
A voice cut through the noise.
Deep. Cold. Absolute.
"I'll tell you," the man said.
"I'll tell you whose son he is.