No one could understand that when she had barely escaped with her life from the Alps, when she had been electrocuted by Als from the German Federal Intelligence Service, when her life had been hanging by a thread, and she was prepared to face death for Huo Shaoheng’s sake what psychological impact the serene scene had left on her…
It was only a gentlemanly gesture that had collapsed her entire emotional world. At that moment, she had truly fallen into boundless despair and was unable to continue on with Huo Shaoheng anymore.
Logically speaking, she understood that Huo Shaoheng was only being polite, and it was an unintentional mistake. So when she made the decision to break up with Huo Shaoheng later on, neither Yin Shixiong nor Zhao Liangze could understand it. She never explained to them, either.
The people who could understand naturally would. The people who didn’t understand would still assume she was “making a mountain out of a molehill” by not “forgiving” Huo Shaoheng, even if her tongue became parched from explaining. So why bother wasting her breath?
Gu Nianzhi only knew that aside from the cause and effect of the incident, forcibly making herself “logically understand” Huo Shaoheng was unfortunately something she couldn’t do.
The pain gnawed at her. Only by breaking up with Huo Shaoheng and completely cutting ties with him would she be able to have the possibility of survival. Otherwise, she knew she wouldn’t be able to go on in life. She would be in such despair, she would’ve ended her own life with her own hands.
The truth was, the decision to break up had certainly saved her. When she no longer treated Huo Shaoheng as her only support and religion, she was finally able to re-examine this relationship and rethink her future path. Not only that, but she was also able to sit calmly in front of Tan Guiren like this and discreetly lead her into her own trap instead of wanting nothing more but to strangle her to death as soon as she saw her.
Leaning back in the soft chair in the café, Gu Nianzhi shook her head. “Miss Tan, you think it’s Mr. Cao’s personal problem that he was able to hit me?”
“Could it not be so?” Tan Guiren asked quizzically. “My daddy and mommy were at the Office of the Prime Minister at the time, not the Senate building. You’re saying my daddy and mommy have something to do with this?”
“Let’s put it this way,” Gu Nianzhi coolly regarded Tan Guiren with the demeanor she would use to patiently explain something to a kindergartner, “Do you know why Mr. Cao had come to the Senate building at the time and with what identity?”
Tan Guiren thought about it before saying, “I do know. He is a spokesperson from the PR Department of the Office of the Prime Minister. He came at the time to discuss something with the Senate in regards to the resolution to dissolve the cabinet and restart the elections.”
“That’s right.” Gu Nianzhi nodded. “Then who asked them to come there?”
“It was my daddy and mommy,” Tan Guiren blurted out, then her expression immediately changed. She instantly continued, “But my daddy and mommy never asked him to hit anyone!”
Gu Nianzhi thought to herself, right, they didn’t ask the spokespeople to hit anyone and had only asked them to “cause trouble.” They would cause trouble until the Senate personnel couldn’t take it anymore, and it would be good if they entered into a “physical altercation” with them.
Of course, she couldn’t possibly say that to Tan Guiren. There was no question that Tan Guiren didn’t know about Tan Dongbang and Cai Songyin’s motive. She was only one pawn in her parents’ hands.
“Mr. Cao came to carry out official duties. So everything that occurred during his official duties would be related to the Office of the Prime Minister, which is also related to the Prime Minister and his wife,” Gu Nianzhi declared firmly. “Just like if he had been the one to be injured at the Senate this time, he would return to the Office of the Prime Minister and treat it as a work injury. Do you understand?”
Tan Guiren bit her lip. She understood the latter part about “work injury,” but she still couldn’t understand the former explanation about how Mr. Cao assaulting someone was related to Prime Minister Tan or Cai Songyin. Or perhaps she refused to understand.
“Since it’s all related to the Office of the Prime Minister, then of course I need to sue the people in charge of the Office of the Prime Minister, which is also Prime Minister Tan and his wife.” Gu Nianzhi’s slender and pale fingers flicked the fine porcelain edge of the coffee cup. Her eyes curved into crescents and then her tone eased somewhat. “However, Miss Tan is certainly a filial daughter to share her parents’ worries. I can understand that as well.”
Tan Guiren heard the first part of what Gu Nianzhi said and assumed there was no other solution, but her hope rekindled when she heard the latter part of what Gu Nianzhi said. Inclining her body, she said with excitement, “Right, right, my daddy and mommy treat me too well. I truly hope that I can help them! Miss Gu, I’m begging you to not sue my daddy and mommy! What kind of compensation do you want? I’ll give you any amount of money you ask!”
As Tan Guiren spoke, she took out items from her bright red Celine luggage tote. There were several bank cards, as well as a real estate certificate that she set before Gu Nianzhi. “As long as you don’t sue my daddy and mommy, I’ll give all of this to you!”
Gu Nianzhi’s eyes glanced over the “bait” set out by Tan Guiren, then returned to her beautiful and innocent face. After a while, she used her hand to push Tan Guiren’s items back towards her and chided, “Miss Tan, what are you doing? I am suing Mr. Cao, and your parents are only included in the process. You don’t need to be like this.”
“But… But… They are in so much trouble right now!” Tan Guiren was about to burst into tears when she saw that Gu Nianzhi didn’t want her things. “I don’t want the situation to worsen for them. Miss Gu, I’m begging you, I’m really begging you!” Tan Guiren was suddenly anxious and stood up from the seat. She nearly knelt down before Gu Nianzhi.
Gu Nianzhi hurriedly got up from her seat to pull her up and scolded, “Miss Tan, do you want the entire café to think I did something to you? My face hasn’t even healed from being beaten by your Office of the Prime Minister!”
Tan Guiren squeezed Gu Nianzhi’s hand tightly as she wept bitterly. “Miss Gu, you don’t have parents, so you don’t know what extent parents will go to for their children. When I was kidnapped in the United States, they used all their efforts to rescue me. They were able to pay any price for my sake, so I will also do anything for them. I am only kneeling, I don’t care about that.”
What did she mean, she didn’t have parents, so she didn’t know what extent parents would go to for their children?! The corners of Gu Nianzhi’s mouth twitched, and she actually felt despair. Suddenly, she lost any feeling of remorse she had towards Tan Guiren.
Gu Nianzhi settled Tan Guiren back into her seat, then smoothly retracted her own hand. Sitting across from Tan Guiren, she said quietly, “What Miss Tan is saying does make sense. I had heard about Miss Tan’s disappearance in the United States. So it was your parents who worked very hard to get you back? Aside from parents, no one else would be able to do such a thing!”
This was also the truth. Gu Nianzhi’s mood calmed down when she felt that Tan Guiren wasn’t wrong, either. She thought about it indifferently. She didn’t have parents, so she deserved to only depend on herself when she fell into danger in the German Alps. No one fell from the sky to her rescue.
Gu Nianzhi picked up the silver spoon and stirred the already chilled cappuccino. She began to interrogate Tan Guiren about the details of her disappearance. That was actually her true motive. To capture a king, she must capture the thief. To kill a snake, she must beat seven inches of it. Tan Guiren and Cai Songyin’s seven inches would be Tan Guiren.
Gu Nianzhi read in the news that Tan Guiren had been kidnapped. Since she was kidnapped, there were details that could be amplified into major headlines. Didn’t Cai Songyin love reading little erotica stories? Gu Nianzhi planned to offer her a piece of erotica featuring the imprisonment of her own daughter in order to satisfy Cai Songyin’s perverted voyeurism. Not only did she have the words, but also the personal statement issued by the daughter of the Prime Minister.
Gu Nianzhi discreetly turned on her recording pen and pointed it in Tan Guiren’s direction. Tan Guiren wiped her face with a napkin to wipe away her tears and whispered, “Right, my parents were really the ones who asked someone to rescue me when that happened to me in the United States.” When she mentioned that incident, she instantly recalled Huo Shaoheng and her mood improved slightly.
“Can you explain the situation in detail?” Gu Nianzhi wanted to hear the details about how she had been kidnapped and imprisoned.
Tan Guiren’s expression was a bit unnatural as she bowed her head. “Should I talk about it?”
“I don’t have parents, so I don’t know what extent parents would go to for their children. You have to use your own personal experience to convince me.” Gu Nianzhi’s finger tapped the coffee table gently as she remarked coldly, “Otherwise, I will continue to sue your parents as well!”
Tan Guiren was frightened by Gu Nianzhi, so she quickly replied, “I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you!”
Composing herself, her voice was quiet and a bit erratic. “That day, I had a bit of a headache, so I slept after taking a painkiller. But when I woke up, I somehow discovered I wasn’t in the dorm anymore. I was in… a very dirty room. There were many cages in that room, and there was a person in each cage. Most of them were children, and there were only three adults.”
Gu Nianzhi raised her brow. She had never heard about that situation before, so she couldn’t help but feel more interested. “Cages? You said that there were many cages in the room? What kind of cages?”
“Dog kennels, large dog kennels.” Tan Guiren’s facial expression became even more uneasy.
“What kind of people were in that building?” Gu Nianzhi asked.
What kind of people? Of course they were all bad people. Tan Guiren couldn’t help but shiver when she recalled the lewd eyes and the days without seeing daylight in the Bronx neighborhood of New York.
“They were all very bad people and wanted to bully me several times, but one person was very kind. He kept protecting me and didn’t allow others to touch me. Until…”
“Until what?” Gu Nianzhi became a bit excited. Details, the details were coming…
“Until that day, a bad person came over and used a metal ruler to beat a small child. I really couldn’t stand it anymore, so I begged him to stop beating the child. But the bad person ended up not hitting the child, instead lunging towards me…”
Tan Guiren gripped the folds of her blouse with trembling hands. It was almost like she could still sense the disgusting feeling of that person’s large, hairy, sticky hand slide across her cheek. “…I struggled desperately, but that person still managed to rip my shirt open.” Tan Guiren’s head hung even lower.
Gu Nianzhi’s mood wasn’t great, either. There were several times when she wanted nothing more but to shut off the recording pen and tell herself that Tan Guiren shouldn’t shoulder Cai Songyin’s mistakes. She was a pitiful person as well. However, her logic told her that Cai Songyin’s only weakness was her daughter, Tan Guiren.
If she didn’t want Huo Shaoheng’s and her reputation to be destroyed by Cai Songyin, then these were things she must do. Gu Nianzhi strengthened her resolve and continued to ask, “And then what happened?”
“I thought that my virginity would be taken right there, but suddenly the person who had been kind to me appeared. He killed the bad person with one shot.”
Gu Nianzhi nodded. “Your luck is pretty good.”
“It was pretty good.” Tan Guiren looked up, a smile appearing amid her tears. “But I knew that he was also a bad person and was in cahoots with the rest of them. He wanted me, too! He wasn’t a good person! The truly good person was Major General Huo! The next day, Major General Huo appeared, and he saved me amid all the bullets raining down! He suffered injuries himself and even fell into someone else’s trap, so he had no choice but to run for his life in the United States!”
