Chapter 26: Yuanbao Is Not Afraid

Song Yiren was there to promote her new drama. Although her resources were not as abundant as they once were, she had spent the previous two years filming incessantly, leaving her with a large backlog of projects, most of which were major productions.

The project she was promoting this time was a xianxia drama, co-starring Fan Qi, a young actor with immense popularity in the domestic entertainment industry. Yet, Song Yiren still held top billing, significantly overshadowing the male lead.

The program had many permanent guests, so there were not many segments requiring Pei Baoyuan to host, and her script was lighter than those of previous recordings.

The dressing room was two floors away from the studio. After finishing her makeup, Pei Baoyuan prepared to head downstairs to the studio to record the show.

At the entrance on the first floor, fans of the two leads had occupied the entire street. Pei Baoyuan glanced at them as she passed by before entering the studio.

During the two years she had spent abroad, Song Yiren had certainly fared well under the protection of Huo Yanzhi. Looking from afar, she had both male and female fans, and her support base was even more formidable than Fan Qi's.

The program was not recorded from start to finish without interruption; there was a break after every one or two segments. This was partly because guests and hosts might need to change costumes for the next segment, and partly because the directing team needed time to change the props on set.

Pei Baoyuan had been hosting the previous two segments, but the next game, "Look This Way," required her to step off the podium and compete against the guest team. Each team consisted of two people: one to make hand gestures, and the other responsible for splashing water and blocking it for their teammate.

Coincidentally, there were two rounds in total, and Pei Baoyuan and Song Yiren were placed in the same round but on different teams, both tasked with splashing and blocking water.

During the recording, the two teams were evenly matched. The water splashed from the opposing side inevitably hit Pei Baoyuan, so although her team narrowly won, the hem of her outfit and her trousers were soaked to varying degrees.

However, there was still one more round left in the game, so Pei Baoyuan had to sit in her place and wait for it to end before she could return to the dressing room to change into dry clothes.

This was when the benefit of having an assistant became apparent. With the camera focused on the four people still competing on stage, Song Yiren took the opportunity to call over her assistant, who was standing by below the stage. Song Yiren whispered something into the assistant's ear. The assistant shook her head, but quickly ran off, returning shortly after with a blanket in hand.

A round of the game was neither fast nor slow, but Pei Baoyuan was truly freezing. The air conditioning in the studio was set extremely low and strong, and her water-soaked trousers clung to her skin. Although they were nearly dry, the cold was unbearable.

As soon as the segment ended, Pei Baoyuan hurried out of the studio, intending to take the elevator back to the dressing room, completely failing to notice that no one else had left the studio besides her.

The elevator was still on the fifth floor. Impatient to get upstairs, Pei Baoyuan noticed that the "Under Maintenance" sign that had been standing in front of the other elevator was gone. Without a second thought, she pressed the button.

The elevator was on the first floor and opened as usual. After stepping inside, Pei Baoyuan pressed her floor and waited quietly for the doors to close and the lift to ascend.

The elevator rose slowly when suddenly, with a loud "bang," Pei Baoyuan felt a jolt beneath her feet. The lights inside the elevator flickered incessantly before finally going out completely.

The elevator had stalled during its ascent, trapped between the second and third floors.

The interior was airtight and cramped. In the pitch-black darkness, the sounds of sobbing and ragged, irregular breathing emanated from the corner.

Pei Baoyuan buried her head between her knees, her body trembling uncontrollably. She felt as though she had been transported back to her childhood.

That day, she had been on cleaning duty, but with her older brother's help, Pei Baoyuan had quickly finished all her chores. Young Pei Youning held his sister’s hand—she was a head shorter than him—as they walked out of the school gate.

Their family had not yet arrived, so Pei Youning took his sister to wait under the large banyan tree at the school entrance. They never imagined that before their family arrived, they would encounter kidnappers.

The kidnappers pulled up in a six-seater vehicle and stopped rapidly in front of the two children. Two masked men jumped out and, while the children were still stunned, covered their mouths, dragged one child each into the car, and sped away from the scene.

Pei Baoyuan and Pei Youning’s hands and feet were bound with hemp rope, and later, finding the children too noisy, the kidnappers simply taped their mouths shut. Pei Baoyuan was weeping, her eyes brimming with tears, while Pei Youning, who was only five minutes older than her, appeared much calmer.

Pei Baoyuan remembered the car driving for a very long time—so long that she eventually cried herself to exhaustion. There were three kidnappers; they dragged Pei Baoyuan and Pei Youning rudely out of the car and threw them into a small room.

The concrete floor made Pei Baoyuan’s whole body ache. The room was pitch black, and the sound of creaking echoed in her ears. Pei Baoyuan cried out for her brother. Pei Youning, unable to speak, could only whimper to comfort his frightened sister, though it had little effect.

*Why isn't the female lead pressing the emergency call button in the elevator? What is she doing crouching there? She's grown up now; does she have no survival instincts at all?*

*The female lead’s state isn’t right. That frequency of hyperventilation could trigger respiratory alkalosis. And she’s shivering so violently even while sitting on the floor.*

*Help, female lead, please don't die here.*

Pei Baoyuan’s mind was filled with images of her and Pei Youning being locked in that dark room by kidnappers all those years ago. The current situation was exactly the same.

Pei Baoyuan saw herself, with Pei Youning’s help, climbing out of that dilapidated wooden window. The window faced away from the main entrance, and she remembered her brother’s words clearly: "Yuanbao, once you get out, don't make a sound. Run in the direction of your left hand—that’s where the sun rises in the east. Just keep running, don’t look back."

She remembered that her brother had smiled at her before he stood on his tiptoes to hoist her out. Even when she fell to the ground, she remembered his instructions. Even though her palms were scraped raw and stinging, she didn't cry out.

She kept running and running... from the remote path until she reached the wide main road, where she gradually began to see silhouettes of people.

Pei Baoyuan heard various sounds, and then, the sky became bright. She looked up and saw a man walking through a crowd of people in orange uniforms. He stepped into the elevator without fear, picking up her collapsed form.

A warm and familiar scent enveloped her entire body. She gradually stopped crying, though her body continued to tremble slightly.

He said, "Yuanbao, don't be afraid. Everything is alright now."

On the way to the hospital, he continued to hold Pei Baoyuan in his arms, his large hand gently patting her back to soothe her. By the time Ke Xianbai’s car reached the hospital, the Pei family had arrived as well.

Seeing Pei Baoyuan still shivering uncontrollably in his arms, Ms. Song Xuanling’s eyes turned red with heartache. "Yuanbao..."

Pei Baoyuan was placed on the hospital bed, yet she still gripped Ke Xianbai’s sleeve tightly, refusing to let go. The doctors and nurses were at a loss.

Ke Xianbai held Pei Baoyuan’s hand, brushed the hair from her face, and said softly, "Yuanbao, be good. I’m right here; I won’t leave. I’ll stay with you the whole time, okay?"

Pei Baoyuan nodded obediently. She had been crouching in the elevator for too long; her face was streaked with tear stains, the tip of her nose was red, and she looked incredibly fragile. Only when it came to not letting go of Ke Xianbai was she exceptionally stubborn.

The doctor sighed helplessly, "Why don’t you stay with her? The family can wait outside."

Ms. Song Xuanling looked at Pei Baoyuan on the bed with concern, while Pei Baoyuan looked at Ke Xianbai with a pitiful expression. Ms. Song’s gaze toward Ke Xianbai was complex.