I Give Half of My Life to You

Lin Miao’s attention soon shifted away from the shriveled grass outside. She laid the remaining sweet potatoes on the dried grass and then took her coat off.

It was a bit chilly when they went out in the morning, so both of them wore coats. The Young Master’s mother gifted the coat to Lin Miao. Her pink coat had little flowers printed on them and was very ladylike.

Lin Miao spread her favourite coat on the dried grass and said to her bitter-faced brother, “Gege, let’s sleep here. We’ll be back home tomorrow.”

Yu Jingxuan was obviously still worried about their safety.

Turning his head around, he saw Lin Miao talking to him while flattening her coat on the ground.

Unlike the Young Master, Lin Miao had an inflexible mindset towards kidnapping. That is, that the kidnappers would let them go once they got their money.

She didn’t think nearly as much as her brother.

Thus Lin Miao was only worried about her brother catching a cold.

Yu Jingxuan felt that she was both cute and naive. He quickly took her coat and put it back on her. “Just sleep like this in a bit.”

The sky wasn’t yet dark outside, so the two had no intention of sleeping right now. The dog had stopped barking, causing Lin Miao to snuck towards the door against the walls of the hut.

The door had many seams in it, so they might aggravate the dog if they were to walk directly to the door.

The Young Master followed her along the wall.

However, the dog started barking again when they got too close, and the Young Master immediately pulled Lin Miao back.

Lin Miao noticed that the dog barked away from the door this time instead of lunging towards them like the last time they got close.

The wooden door was pieced together with many smaller planks. Lin Miao peeked through the gap, trying to see where the lock was.

“Woof! Woof! Woof!” The dog barked loudly.

Seeing that the dog wasn’t dashing towards her, Lin Miao continued to look through the door and said, “You’re called Dahuang, right? I know another dog called Weifeng, he’s yellow like you...”

“Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!”

“You’re so skinny, are you sick? But your belly is so big.”

“Woof! Woof! Woof!”

The Young Master laughed at Lin Miao trying to hold a conversation with the dog.

The two sides had no clue what the other was saying, but they continued on anyway.

At this time, Lin Miao was also able to get a good look at the lock. It was similar to the one they had back at her village.

She turned her head around. “Gege, Gege, I can pick this lock!”

Once, because her brother lost the house keys, their mom picked open the lock with a stick.

But it also broke the lock in the process.

So her mother bought a new lock the next day.

However, her brother picked the lock like how her mother did the day before.

Then, Lin Miao recalled her mother yelling at her brother for it.

Poor brother.

The Young Master thought it was a good idea. The kidnappers might not kill them, but instead, leave them to starve in the hut after receiving the ransom.

But not right now. The sky was darkening, and it was inconvenient for them to go out at night even without the dog.

Lin Miao stopped talking. The dog whimpered and also stopped barking.

The sky had darkened, so the two went back to their grass beds.

The October night was still a bit cold for the two who snuggled in those grass beds.

But despite this, they soon fell asleep due to tiredness from the day.

During the middle of the night, Yu Jingxuan hazily felt that… it was a bit hot.

Opening his eyes, he saw dead grass.

His entire body has been covered with it, and on the very top was Lin Miao’s pink coat.

Yu Jingxuan struggled out of the grass and found Lin Miao gone from her bed.

Yu Jingxuan was worried. “Shuishui!”

He then heard a response, “Gege! I’m here!”

Following the voice, he saw a new hole in the corner. A head with a dirt and dust-covered face peeked out from it, pupils shining in the dark.

Yu Jingxuan rushed to the hole. Meanwhile, Lin Miao had lifted herself out of the pit.

She was only wearing her undergarments, which have turned into a dirt-brown color from the white it originally was. Her forehead was sweaty, and her arms were full of grass. “Gege, look. I dug this hole with this wooden board.” Lin Miao said proudly.

She couldn’t sleep without worrying about her older brother’s health. He couldn’t even tolerate the cold wind at home, and now he was lying on the ground out in the cold. It would be over if he fell sick right now.

Even though she couldn’t understand much of the discussion in the mansion, she knew that her brother couldn’t afford to be sick again. He wouldn’t make it through, which means he would be buried, never to be seen by Lin Miao again.

Lin Miao felt more scared the more she thought about it. She couldn’t help but tunnel outside to collect grass.

She then saw the small hole, sneaked over, and started digging with a piece of wood she chipped away from the door. Persevering through, she soon dug a hole big enough for her to crawl out and collect more grass.

Lin Miao also took her coat off and covered her brother with it. Not only would she be able to keep her brother warm, but it would also keep it clean. She loved her jacket and wore it specifically for today’s trip to the park.

The hole wasn’t big so she would have to go dirty-crawling outside.

She looked like a dirty kitten from Yu Jingxuan’s view, but she had a proud smile on her face. “Gege, are you still cold?”

All the anxiety from being kidnapped and other miscellaneous things seemed to have left him, leaving only the sweating and smiling person in front of him. This was someone who was born on the same day, in the same month, and the same year as him.

Yu Jingxuan cleaned her face with his hand. “No, I don’t feel cold.” It felt like he was never cold since the day she came.

He also checked her hand, letting out a breath of relief after seeing that she hadn't hurt herself digging the hole.

“Gege, this feels really comfortable!” Lin Miao commented.

She pulled the Young Master into the dried grass as she spoke. There is so much grass, it feels so good!

This type of grass has an aroma of sweetness when it’s green. After it turns yellow, it becomes easy to rip, like the type that you could gather in patches. It wasn’t spikey either.

Yu Jingxuan dusted off the dirt on Lin Miao and then embraced her. “Yeah, it’s really comfortable. Good job, Shuishui should rest now.”

He was the older brother; he cannot panic. He could definitely bring Shuishui back safely.

Lin Miao slept against the Young Master’s shoulders. She could smell something pleasant from him, and as she inhaled it, she soon fell asleep...

The next day, they were woken up by the dog barking outside.

Lin Miao lifted herself off of the ground and saw her brother stuffing all the grass outside.

“Eat some sweet potatoes first, they should be here soon.”

The first thing Lin Miao did was to check her brother’s forehead again; it was still at regular temperature.

It felt as if a boulder had been lifted off of her heart.

Yu Jingxuan was touched by this, and he couldn’t resist smiling. He brought her coat and put it on her. Lin Miao cooperatively put on her coat, her hair still messy.

Her hair was originally cut up to her ear, but it grew a bit longer. The Young Master brushed her hair; she was the cute little girl with the pink jacket again.

“Shuishui is so pretty!” The Young Master complimented her.

Lin Miao was very pleased.

She was always a pretty calm and positive person. After her initial panic, she thought that they could return home safely since her brother was still healthy.

This was too easy for her.

Lin Miao hurried to the Young Master and began to help him clean up the grass.

Then, the Young Master covered the hole up.

The kidnappers wouldn’t notice it unless they carefully searched for it.

Not long later, the dog started barking again.

Lin Miao thought it was hungry, so she took a sweet potato and stepped towards it.

The Young Master had never had contact with a dog. He thought that this one was evil too. So, he was very cautious and followed Lin Miao every time, ready to pull her back in case the dog bites and leaps for her.

Lin Miao tossed the sweet potato outside. She condoled with the dog who swallowed the entire sweet potato immediately, “Does your owner not feed you?”

Suddenly, she heard two people briskly walking towards them.

Lin Miao looked out through the gaps in the door. Their faces were still painted black, and it looked like things hadn't turned for the worse.

As expected, it was the two younger adults. The two brought some more food for them.

This time, there was rice and some cured meat.

The woman had a good temper. It was probably because she was about to become a millionaire.

“You guys can eat.” The woman took out her phone and said to the Young Master.

He started to eat slowly with Lin Miao. The woman took a few pictures and said to the other person, “Brother, we’re really rich! Third Uncle said they had already brought the money so we can probably get it by this afternoon!”

The young woman got more excited the more she thought about it. It was sixty million, she could get ten million from it!

She wouldn’t even dare to think of these numbers before.

Suddenly, a news notification popped up on her phone.

[The appearance of frantically enthusiastic fans caused superstar Jing Ning’s son to be kidnapped. On the morning of the sixteenth…]

The woman’s hands were shaking. Tapping the feed open, she saw the negotiation location.

Reporters and media personnel filled the place already.

The young woman hurriedly called Third Uncle, who was going to retrieve the money.

“Uncle, there’s a problem! Look at your phone! All the news outlets are reporting about this!” She didn’t know the difference between these phone app feeds and news channels.

The Young Master’s hand paused.

Lin Miao stopped too.

The Young Master turned his head back, emotionless, and picked up a piece of meat with his chopsticks for Lin Miao.

There wasn’t any use being worried. He thought that Lin Miao’s attitude towards her current life was fine. He didn’t need to worry about the future, instead, he should just play along.

At the same time, the people at the mansion nervously waited for the kidnappers to take the money they marked and left at the garbage dump like how they were told to.

The only thing they could do was to wait for them to let the kids go after getting the money. They prayed for them to keep to their promises, which was why they complied obediently and prepared the money in advance.

However, the Young Master’s mother’s phone started ringing.

“Sister Jing, those idiots are out of their mind, they bought a push notification, now the entire web knows that the Young Master has been kidnapped, that the ransom is sixty million, and that the place of negotiation was the southern garbage dump.”

“It came from some sort of hater group that was against you.” The Young Master’s mother had many fans, so it was inevitable that she had many haters.

The mother’s mind flashed black, dropping her phone on the ground.

The father caught her from falling, “What’s wrong?”

“The entire web knows that little Yu has been kidnapped… and the exchange place…” The mother felt a twisting pain in her heart.

On the other hand, the father received a call from the kidnappers, “Do you not want your son?”

“I already put the money in the place you told me to.” The father responded.

The mother turned on her phone, and as expected, she saw her son’s name on Weibo’s hot search.

It came from her top hater’s Weibo: [Such great delight. Being ignorant to virtues, now you’ve got your retribution, eh? Your son got kidnapped, why don’t you keep making your social media posts? Sixty million to get your son back is a great material to show your love for your son to everyone. Oh, also, a friendly notif, someone’s son got kidnapped because of one of their fans, what a great show. The first free giveaway: There will be a sixty million exchange in some garbage dump in the southern part of the city. (This giveaway is big enough, right?)]

The netizens soon found this post. It was obviously referring to the aesthetic queen Jing Ning, so the contents of the post have spread very quickly.

Someone commented that people have spotted Jing Ning outside of an amusement park. She got pushed down and hurt by one of her enthusiastic fans. People searched for the kids then, but it was said that they soon found them.

Which meant that they didn’t actually find the kids and only received a phone call from the kidnappers.

This was explosive news material.

Small media soon started reporting it.

Especially the sixty million...

Even though many criticized the blogger for being morally twisted, taking advantage to increase their popularity and spreading false rumors, many still went to the garbage dump they mentioned.

The father walked back and said that the money was gone.

They could only wait for another call from the kidnappers.

Who could have known so much?

They didn’t know.

The mother logged on to Weibo: [Can you guys please stop following this post. I’ll tell you the whole story when little Yu comes back. I apologize if I offended you in the past, but little Yu is innocent, please stop exposing this topic.]

However, not only did the popularity of the topic not drop, but it grew even more.

There were people comforting their idol, others rebuking the one leaking the information, and people criticising them for not calling the police.

She tried to take the topic off of hot search several times, but none of it worked.

The police have also arrived to investigate.