Chapter 443: The Wrong Month
Xia Yu glared at her as she said, "You're really shameless... using a kid to tie Brother Ziheng to your side. No one is more shameless than you in the whole entertainment circle. To use such despicable means to marry into a rich family. How disgusting!"
"Then go tell your Brother Ziheng not to marry me. I'll be ever so thankful!" Xia Ling said sincerely. Did she think everyone wanted to marry Pei Ziheng? If someone could convince Pei Ziheng not to marry her, she would be ever so grateful to that person, and would even prostrate in gratefulness three times daily.
Xia Yu took it as she was showing off. "You're just being so arrogant because of that piece of meat in your stomach!"
"Which you fail to conceive." Xia Ling was not one to back down, and she retorted Xia Yu calmly. Xia Yu's expression darkened, which made Xia Ling have a small sense of achievement. Even after getting the upper hand, Xia Ling felt like she was wasting her time. Why was she wasting her words on such a person? She turned to her assistant and said, "Let's go."
The assistant respectfully greeted Xia Yu. "Miss Xia Yu, could you please allow us to pass?"
Xia Yu continued to glare at Xia Ling, but she stepped aside to let them pass.
The assistant carefully guided Xia Ling forward.
Xia Ling was concentrating hard on her feet as she descended the stairs. Suddenly, she felt a hard push from behind and fell forward. In her panic, she subconsciously placed her hands protectively on her abdomen, before she lost consciousness.
"Miss Ye!" The assistant's shout was the last thing she heard.
Darkness... Endless darkness...
Pei Ziheng was having a meeting in the VIP meeting room.
Suddenly, someone crashed into the room. "Chairman! Bad news! Something's happened!"
Pei Ziheng's expression darkened and was about to reprimand the person for stepping out of line. That person continued before he managed to say anything. "Miss Ye... Miss Ye had an accident!"
Pei Ziheng pushed the table away and stood up. "What did you say?!"
...
Xia Ling was sent to Compassionate Peace Hospital, the nearest hospital to Imperial Entertainment, in an ambulance for emergency care.
Outside the emergency treatment room, Pei Ziheng waited anxiously, his expression like ice.
Many people stood around waiting as well — Chu Chen, his secretary, Xia Ling's assistant, and so on. Yet, nobody dared breathe too loudly, let alone make a sound.
"What happened?!" Pei Ziheng glared angrily at Xia Ling's assistant, his gaze seemingly shredding her into ten thousand pieces. "Didn't I tell you to take good care of Xiao Ling?! How were you doing your job?! How did she have a fall?!"
"Miss Ye... Ye... she... " The assistant stuttered in fear before she explained with difficulty. "I... I was helping... Miss Ye down the stairs... then she... she just suddenly fell..."
"She's always been careful when walking and was wearing anti-slip shoes. How could she just fall?!" Pei Ziheng knew that Xia Ling usually waked with care, and ever since she was found to be pregnant, she would be ultra careful while taking the stairs, fearing that anything would happen.
Pei Ziheng did not believe that she would be so careless.
"I... I don't know..." The assistant was close to tears. She had held onto Miss Ye and was walking slowly. She had no idea why Xia Ling fell. If anything untoward were to happen to the child, would Chairman Pei kill her?!
"Surveillance camera recordings? Show me the surveillance camera recordings!" Pei Ziheng shouted in anger.
Chu Chen had been on the phone for some time now. As a loyal servant, he had already thought of all the ways to get to the bottom of the situation once he heard of the incident. He had already checked on the surveillance cameras.
"The place that Miss Ye fell happens to be a blind spot for the cameras." Chu Chen reported.
Pei Ziheng's expression became even darker.
"However," Chu Chen paused, choosing his words carefully. "Before Miss Ye fell, someone saw her having an argument with Miss Xia Yu." Unfortunately, that staff member was too far away and did not witness the entire incident pan out.
Pei Ziheng jerked his head around to look at the assistant. "Xia Yu was there too?" He had never used such a sinister tone when he spoke of Xia Yu, completely disregarding the relationship that he had with her for so many years since he adopted her.
The assistant's fear intensified, and she stuttered. "Y... Yes... "
"What were Xia Yu and Xiao Ling arguing about?"
"Xia Yu insulted Miss Ye and said that she... was getting your favor only because of the child. Then, Miss Ye retorted her and told me that we were going to leave. I was helping Miss Ye down the stairs when she fell. I... I don't know if... if it was Miss Xia Yu..." She really could not be sure since she did not have eyes at the back of her head. She did not want to met out false accusations since it was such a serious allegation.
Pei Ziheng reacted like a ferocious beast as he instructed Chu Chen. "Lock Xia Yu up!"
Chu Chen lowered his head and responded, "Yes." He sighed internally, thinking that Xia Yu was done for this time. If she had pushed Ye Xingling from the back, Pei Ziheng would definitely tear her apart. Even if she did not push Ye Xingling, knowing Pei Ziheng as Chu Chen did, Pei Ziheng would still blame Xia Ling losing her footing on Xia Yu distracting her.
If she did not have an argument with Xia Yu, how could Xiao Ling be in a bad state of mind?
If she wasn't in a bad state of mind, how could Xiao Ling have fallen down?
Regardless, Xia Yu was going to take the blame for the incident.
Pei Ziheng was still seething with anger. He turned to Chu Chen and said, "So she likes to harm Xiao Ling from the back? Let her have a taste of what it is like to fall down the stairs! Find a tall flight of stairs."
Chu Chen shuddered but nodded.
Pei Ziheng was as dominant as he was today not because he always played by the rules. To met out such bodily harm to another might result in prosecution when it was done by someone else, but Pei Ziheng had many ways and means to punish a person without being caught.
Now, he just wanted to let Xia Yu have a taste of her own medicine, and this was likely just the first step. Xia Ling was still in the emergency room, and if anything were to happen to her or the child, Pei Ziheng would not hesitate to skin Xia Yu alive.
Chu Chen was already thinking of what torture to put Xia Yu through such that it would satisfy Boss.
The emergency room light went off, and Xia Ling was pushed out of the room.
"Xiao Ling!" Pei Ziheng stepped forward, and his heart clenched from the sight of her lying unconscious and completely pale.
"Doctor, how is Miss Ye's condition?" Chu Chen asked.
The doctor said, "We were able to administer treatment to her in time. It was just a scare, but both mother and child are fine."
Pei Ziheng felt his heart relax a little.
"But," The doctor continued. "She's very weak and will have to stay in the hospital for a while for observation. The child is also unstable. She's more than three months into her pregnancy, but the child is still not sitting well. There is a risk that she will miscarriage at any moment."
More than three months?
Pei Ziheng lifted his head to look at the doctor. "Did you get it wrong? The child in Xiao Ling's stomach is only about two months, isn't it?"
The doctor looked at him in surprise. "What? You don't know? There are many signs to suggest that the child is more than three months old already. There are many developments every week during pregnancy, and the child she's carrying can already suck its own fingers. It can't be only two months."
Pei Ziheng's stared at the doctor in contemplation, his expression unreadable.
A flash of lightning seemed to cross Chu Chen's heart. He was aware that three months ago, Ye Xingling was still with Li Lei. If what the doctor said was true, then the biggest possibility was that the child was not Pei Ziheng's at all!