Qin Guan followed the security guard, with Auntie Feng clutching Little Pear close. They rushed into the elevator.
Exiting the building and rounding two corners, they found a crowd murmuring by the flower bed. Neighbors fell silent as Qin Guan approached, their anxious eyes fixed on him.
"Move aside! Let him through!" the guard shouted. "Did you call an ambulance? The police?"
Another guard nodded.
The crowd parted. Qin Guan froze.
"Miss—" Auntie Feng trembled violently, tears streaming. She spun around, shielding Little Pear's eyes. "Don't look, sweetheart… don't look…"
Xu Ruyi lay motionless on the ground.
Her black hair fanned out in disarray. Her pale face was smeared with blood—forehead, nose, chin, neck. Her white dress, stained crimson from chest to hem, glowed rust-brown under the streetlights.
"What… what happened?" Qin Guan's throat tightened. Staring at her lifeless form, his mind blanked. The stares of strangers yanked him back to reality. Her husband. Act.
"Ruyi—" He dropped to his knees, voice breaking. He wanted to cry but couldn't. Only numbness and panic remained.
"Her car swerved in like she was drunk," the guard explained, pointing at the white Cadillac crashed into a bench. The door hung open, the front bumper dented. "She stumbled out covered in blood, collapsed here. Didn't say a word."
A neighbor—a doctor Qin Guan recognized—knelt beside Xu Ruyi. "Forehead laceration, possible nasal fracture. This arm…" She lifted Xu Ruyi's limp wrist, revealing a gash. "Ten-centimeter wound. Ambulance is here!"
The night unraveled in chaos.
At the hospital, Xu Ruyi's injuries laid bare: fractured nose, stitched forehead, a jagged scar on her elbow. Bruises bloomed on her cheek, neck, and chest.
"She was beaten," Auntie Feng whispered, trembling. "Look at her wrist—purple from being grabbed. Her skin bruises easily…"
Qin Guan checked Xu Ruyi's phone. A call from an unknown number at noon—the trigger. Dialing it from a payphone, he got nothing. Qi Min.
Back at the hospital, Auntie Feng burst from the room: "She's awake!"