No one would notice the echo in that brief second...
In the VIP ward, Victor was out of danger. After receiving Yu Tang's message, he did not show the joy that should have appeared on his face. Instead, he looked excited.
"I oppose the practice of arresting Yu Tang as bait to lure Yu Chaoxian out. She knows nothing and is innocent!"
KX team member picked up Viktor's phone, stared at the message that had finally arrived, and said, "We won't pose a danger to her, we just hope she can cooperate with our work."
Victor frowned: "I can discuss this with Yu Tang properly, instead of suddenly bringing someone here."
The team member said gravely, "What if we discuss this with her first, and she tells Yu Chaoxian about our plan? Yu Tang is, after all, Yu Chaoxian's aunt, a blood relative. If she betrays us, our losses will only be more severe. Viktor, be rational. We know you had a past with her when you were young, but we can't let emotions cloud our judgment in this mission. Don't forget how many billions of dollars worth of weapons Yu Chaoxian stole from Urumqi. General Govorov probably died at his hands. Everything Yu Chaoxian did completely disregarded Russia."
After learning about the message from Yu Tang, the team leader gave the following instructions: "Viktor, try to get Yu Tang to come out. According to our plan, first place a locator on her phone. This way, we won't alert the enemy and can also ensure Yu Tang's safety to some extent. If Yu Chaoxian is always with her, knowing Yu Tang's location means knowing Yu Chaoxian's location. Otherwise, having a locator will also make it easier for us to rescue the girl from that villain."
Victor had reservations about this. He had received care from Yu Tang's mother when he was in Hong Kong. At that time, his mother was always very busy, and because of her undercover work, she had many social engagements and rarely had time for him. Sometimes, when it rained, Yu Tang, who lived on the same route, would share his umbrella with him. He and Yu Tang lived in the same building, and Yu Tang's mother often invited him to eat together. Knowing what he liked to eat, she would even cook it especially for him next time, saying it was to thank him for tutoring Yu Tang. At that time, Yu Tang also had an older brother, whom he always assumed was Yu Tang's father.
I remember Yu Tang telling him that she wanted to find a gentle man like her brother to be her boyfriend.
Viktor couldn't help but think of Yu Chaoxian again; that man's eyes looked so much like Yu Tang's brother's eyes. Could it be that the person Yu Tang truly loved was...?
On the single sofa on the balcony, Yu Chaoxian lit a cigarette and listened to Chen Diao's report.
"Boss, Fuzhou has contacted us again. They previously bought our Stinger to repel the former Sussian Alliance's Hind helicopters, and now they want to order a large batch of rifles and machine guns."
"Did Ataban contact you?" Yu Chaoxian asked in turn.
Attaban was originally just an armed group in Fuzhou, and it was at odds with the Americans. The Americans wanted to interfere in the Fuzhou government, and Attaban did not want the government to be the Americans' lackey. It wanted to seize the Fuzhou government and also wanted to deal with the Americans.
Ataban is taking advantage of government corruption and the withdrawal of the Amurs to further seize power in the region.
Before Chen Diao could even say who it was, the boss had already guessed that it was Ataban's people who had contacted him, rather than the Fuzhou government. It seems that the boss has been paying close attention to the situation in Fuzhou.
Chen Diao worriedly said, "Since Attaban wants to oppose the Americas, wouldn't selling weapons to Attaban be making an enemy of the Americas? It doesn't seem worthwhile. Can Attaban be a match for the Americas?"
Yu Chaoxian twirled the lighter but didn't touch the cigarette: "Not necessarily. Ataban is familiar with the terrain and mountain warfare. If this battle really goes on, Ataban may not be the one to lose."
Chen Diao was also unsure: "So, shall we sell it or not?"
Yu Chaoxian's phone suddenly received a call from Mickey. Before answering, he gave Chen Diao instructions: "Don't rush, let's observe for a while before making a decision."
Mickey's voice came from the other end of the phone: "Boss, I checked that call, it really is from Curry Crab. I asked the owner in a friendly manner."
When Chen Diao heard the word "friendly," he knew it meant Mickey Mouse was smiling, but not in a very friendly way.
"The boss said that a regular customer borrowed their landline to make a call this morning. I checked the call logs and they had been deleted, but I checked the surveillance footage and the regular customer was Guan Zhongpeng."
Yu Chaoxian paused, his fingertip tapping the table. Then everything made sense. No wonder her expression was off when she answered the phone, and her emotions became even more erratic after she hung up. It was obvious what Guan Zhongpeng and Yu Tang had discussed.
Yu Tang learned the whole truth and realized that he was the one who caused her brother to fall into a coma.
So what? What can the truth change?
The ancestor of the Yu Dynasty smirked, as if watching a farce he had long anticipated: "Lock up Guan Zhongpeng."
If you don't want to live, then you should die.
He glanced at Yu Tang's room. There was definitely a reason why Yu Tang was holding back; as for what that reason was, she would reveal it sooner or later. Perhaps he could even discover something unexpected by going with the flow.
As for now, whether she stays by his side crying or smiling, it doesn't make much difference. As long as she's by his side, that's enough; he has plenty of time to waste on her.
Mickey and his friends arrived at the sanatorium in the evening and saw Yu Tang making dumplings. They sat down around her and learned how to make dumplings from her.
They come in all sorts of shapes, but none of them look like dumplings.
There's still one couplet that hasn't been posted on a high place.
Chen Diao climbed up the ladder, while Ivan watched the position from below.
"here?"
Ivan pointed to the left, "Brother Tiao, we need to move a little to the left."
Chen moved to the left.
Ivan looked at it for a while, then pointed to the right, "No, it still needs to be moved a little bit to the right, just a little bit will do."
Chen Diao thought Ivan was unreliable, but still moved him a little to the right.
Ivan continued, "Brother Diao, could you move it a little bit to the right while also moving it to the left?"
"Move to the left, and then... a little bit to the right?" Chen Diao jumped down to deal with him. Ivan cried out and quickly ran away.
Finally, it was A-Jin who went to put it on, while Yu-Tang directed from below.
When he clearly saw that Yu Tang had ordered curry fish balls, he felt like the sky was falling. No one in the world could make fish balls better than him.
He accused Yu Tang, determined to find out the truth: "Is his fish ball better, or mine?"
Yu Tang said against her will, "You cooked well."
Mingming shook her head in disbelief, as if she had been greatly hurt: "Then why didn't you wait for me to cook? Why did you order takeout!"
Yu Tang quickly threw the takeout packaging into the trash can, afraid of further harming Mingming.
Mickey walked around to Mingming's side, looking inscrutable: "I just learned the secret recipe for curry fish balls. Do you want to know?"
Mingming scoffed dismissively, "No need!"
Five minutes later, Mingming went to Mickey again: "If you really want to tell me the secret recipe for curry fish balls, that's fine, but let me make it clear first, this isn't what I want you to tell me."
Having not seen such a lively environment for a long time, Yu Tang briefly forgot some of her troubles. She put down her juice and went to help A Jin prepare the ingredients for the hot pot.
On the balcony sofa, Yu Chaoxian noticed that Yu Tang's expression was better than during the day. Indeed, everything takes time to process. Yu Tang knew the truth and deserved some time to digest it. She was already prone to overthinking; another night should be enough for her to understand.
"Tangtang," Yu Chaoxian called to her, "come here."
Yu Tang's smile froze for a moment. She put down the ingredients and walked towards him.
The sky burst into dazzling fireworks. The fireworks on New Year's Eve were more romantic and dreamlike than usual. Yu Tang rested her hands on the railing and looked up at them.
Yu Chaoxian was behind her, his arms draped over her sides, trapping her in the small space in front of him.
He looked down at Yu Tang, who was intently watching the fireworks, and asked, "Don't you want to make a wish?" She usually wanted to make a wish when she looked at the crescent moon, but now she was unusually calm.
Under the fireworks, Yu Tang silently closed her eyes and sincerely wished that she could leave Yu Chaoxian forever.
Ivan also made a wish; he used to hope to be as cool as Tiao Ge, but now he hopes to be as cool as the boss.
Ah Jin glanced at Yu Tang out of the corner of her eye, but Chen Diao quickly blocked her view.
Mingming still wishes for her hair to grow back, a wish she makes every year but never fulfills, proving that wishes made about fireworks don't work.
Mickey stood beside Yu Chaoxian and Yu Tang, handing them whiskey and juice. The boss was leaning over to look at Yu Tang, his shadow completely covering her, so he never really saw Yu Tang's expression clearly.
Beneath the enormous fireworks, the dazzling light illuminated Yu Tang's face, and Mickey noticed glistening tear tracks at the corners of her eyes. Thinking of the events of the past few days and the people arrested, Mickey knew that if Miss Yu disobeyed the boss again, this time the matter would not end easily.
It's not hard to see that what the boss wants is very simple, yet very difficult to obtain. The way the boss loves Yu Tang is the way he most wants to be loved: he absolutely possesses Yu Tang and needs Yu Tang to treat him the same way. But this is not a normal way of dating.
The eldest brother's feelings for Miss Yu were so deep that Miss Yu simply couldn't accept them. Or rather, Miss Yu never truly accepted them; she was stopped the moment she sensed the eldest brother's feelings.
Yu Tang is like a valley, and all of Yu Chaoxian's remaining emotions are bounced back from the valley. Those emotions that Yu Tang cannot accept are forced back to the starting point, which is Yu Chaoxian himself. Yu Chaoxian mistakenly believes that this bounce is a response to Yu Tang's feelings, but in reality, all of these emotions are echoes of Yu Chaoxian's own feelings.
He couldn't see that this love came only from himself, and not from Yu Tang.
Mickey had a premonition that if the boss realized this time that Miss Yu didn't have feelings for him, that would be the time for the boss to go crazy.
Mickey just didn't expect things to happen so quickly. Even more unexpectedly, Yu Chaoxian and Yu Tang would lose their first and only child because of this.
As the final, dazzling fireworks faded, the Lunar New Year arrived.
Perhaps because of her period, Yu Tang had been feeling sleepy and weak lately. Not long after midnight, she fell asleep on the sofa while watching TV. Yu Chao carried her back to her room.
She didn't sleep well that night either. Yu Tang dreamt of a blood-soaked scene, with a figure standing in the pool of blood. The figure turned around and called her "Little Aunt." Yu Tang broke out in a cold sweat and suddenly opened her eyes. Yu Chaoxian was right behind her.
She moved a little closer, creating a gap between them, but only her upper body was slightly away. Yu Chaoxian's hand was on her lower abdomen, and as soon as she moved, that hand pulled her into his arms.
She had barely moved away a little when Yu Chaoxian pressed himself against her, burying his head in the crook of her neck.
No matter where they went, Yu Chaoxian would never sleep in a separate room, but with her brother here, Yu Tang's aversion to sleeping with Yu Chaoxian was even stronger than usual. Moreover, she hadn't received a reply to the message she sent to Victor, making Yu Tang even more anxious. What if Victor refused to help her escape…
In a daze, Yu Tang fell asleep with a lot on her mind. When she woke up, Yu Chaoxian was no longer beside her.
Yu Tang rubbed her eyes and went to wash up. When she went downstairs, she found that only Mickey was making sandwiches on the first floor.
"Where are they?" Yu Tang looked around.
“The boss went to Yeguo to discuss business, Chen Diao and Mingming went with him, while Ajin and Ivan returned to the base.” Mickey brought over a glass of warm milk. “Miss Yu, the boss said you drank milk first thing after you got up.”
Mickey also guessed that there was another reason why the boss didn't bring Yu Tang along this time: Yu Tang always got dragged into things. Perhaps, like Yu Yanting before, seemingly ignoring the situation was actually a better way to protect Yu Tang.
"Thank you." Yu Tang took the milk. Hearing that Yu Chaoxian wasn't there, she felt much more relaxed, but Mickey was still there, so her nerves tensed up for a moment.
Mickey will definitely tell Yu Chaoxian everything she does.
Seeing that Yu Tang was preoccupied, Mickey couldn't help but ask, "Back then, Miss Yu really wanted to leave the boss when she went to Yingzhou alone, right?"
Yu Tang didn't expect Mickey to ask this suddenly. She lowered her eyes and said, "Whether it's true or false, does my opinion matter to him? Anyway, whether I want to or not, in the end I can only be by his side."
"Isn't it good to stay by the boss's side? The boss really loves you. Is love a sin?" Mickey didn't quite understand. He had been with Yu Chaoxian for a long time. Many women were willing to take the initiative to get close to the boss, even if it was just for a one-night stand. But the boss was only special to Yu Tang. He even put that life-saving necklace on Yu Tang a long time ago.
“It’s not a sin,” Yu Tang said coldly. “It’s a mistake.”
Mickey had been with Yu Chaoxian for a long time and was already used to his boss's way of handling things. Whether it was his boss forcing his father to abdicate, deliberately watching his father's illness flare up and he die, or various other torturous methods, the ways he used were endless. After seeing so much of it, Mickey didn't even think there was anything wrong with his boss and his aunt being together.
"So, do you still have any thoughts about leaving the boss?"
Yu Tang couldn't answer Mickey's question. She thought about it constantly, especially after learning that Yu Chaoxian was the culprit who had caused her brother to remain in a coma. Her desire to leave reached its peak.
Seeing her silence, Mickey offered a vague suggestion: "Whether Miss Yu likes it or not, I advise her not to disobey the boss, otherwise..."
"Otherwise what?" Yu Tang turned to look at Mickey, feeling that Mickey hadn't finished speaking.
Mickey glanced at Yu Tang, then lowered his head again. "Otherwise, there's absolutely no way things can be turned around."
That was all he could offer. More than a friend of Yu Tang, he was the boss's subordinate; under any circumstances, the boss came first to him.
Yu Tang felt that Mickey's words had a hidden meaning and wanted to ask him about it, but Mickey quickly changed the subject.
"What would you like for breakfast, Miss Yu?"
"Let's eat later." Yu Tang had just finished drinking milk and wasn't hungry yet.
After Yu Tang came out of the restroom, she said she wanted to go to a nearby convenience store to buy something, and Mickey naturally went with her.
Yu Tang felt a little uncomfortable being followed by Mickey, but she knew it was Yu Chaoxian's order, so Mickey simply obeyed.
Her phone screen lit up; she had received a message. Only then did she remember to check her phone.
There are two messages, one before the other.
The message Yu Chaoxian sent her was earlier, at 7:27 PM, and it was very brief: "Reply at 10 PM."
The other message came from a number.
Yu Tang's heart tightened, and her hands trembled as she gripped her phone.
It was a message from Viktor: "What's your current location?"
Yu Tang caught a glimpse of Mickey behind her as she walked to the women's products area and lingered near the sanitary napkins. Mickey turned around a little embarrassed and stepped back.
She took the opportunity to briefly tell Viktor about the current situation: Yu Chaoxian was not there, and she was only accompanied by one person.
Yu Tang calculated in her mind that Yu Chaoxian wouldn't be back until 10 PM, which would be the best time for her to leave! The only problem now was how to avoid Mickey. Mickey was also very skilled, and she needed to prevent Mickey and Victor from clashing head-on.
Although she wanted to escape, she didn't want anyone to get hurt.
Viktor cleverly seized upon a key point: "Yu Chaoxian isn't with you?"
Yu Tang didn't think much of it, but subconsciously withheld specific information about Yu Chaoxian, only giving a general overview: "He's not in the country and won't be back until 10 PM. He's safe in the meantime."
Tangtang, wait for me, I'll come pick you up myself.
Upon seeing Victor's reply, Yu Tang hugged her phone tightly with joy, then quickly deleted all the messages.
Yu Tang grabbed a few sanitary napkins from her usual brands and went to the cashier.
With a weight lifted from her heart, Yu Tang felt better and her appetite improved. After returning home, she ate all the sandwiches and fruit she had eaten, and then went to the ward to see Yu Yanting.
She sat there quietly, but her thoughts drifted back to yesterday morning. There was something Guan Zhongpeng said on the phone that bothered Yu Tang: her brother and her mother really had some unspeakable relationship.
Yu Tang picked up the landline and dialed Curry Fish Balls, hoping to contact Guan Zhongpeng and at least get his contact information for future communication. Guan Zhongpeng's number was saved on her smartwatch, which Yu Chaoxian hadn't returned to her.
She glanced out into the living room; Mickey was on the sofa.
The other end of the line answered the phone quickly. Upon hearing that Yu Tang wanted to speak to the person from yesterday morning, the other end hung up the next second.
Yu Tang frowned. Why did the person on the other end sound like they'd seen a ghost? Just as she was considering whether to call back, Mickey came over and asked her what she wanted for lunch. Yu Tang hung up the phone, deciding not to arouse Mickey's suspicion.
After lunch, Yu Tang glanced at the time; it was only one o'clock. What followed was a long wait. As usual, she watched TV and ate fruit on the sofa, showing no signs of anything amiss.
The television news is rebroadcasting reports of conflict between Iraq and Israel, with the Insay militia publicly expressing support for Iraq...
Yu Tang wasn't listening carefully; she was preoccupied with thinking about which country to go to after escaping. After much deliberation, she finally settled on a destination. Fortunately, she still had some cash; she hadn't spent all the money in her piggy bank, enough to cover at least a month's living expenses. Although she couldn't continue her studies in Chongqing, it didn't matter. In the new place, she could retake the entrance exams and continue her studies.
Anyway, even a bad life is better than staying by the side of that devil Yu Chaoxian.
As time ticked by, Yu Tang's initial relief gradually turned into anxiety. Would Victor really come to pick her up? And how could she escape right under Mickey's nose?
Because they were still on annual leave, the sanatorium only had doctors and nurses on duty in shifts.
The doctor came in to routinely check Yu Yanting's physical condition and various indicators. Mickey glanced at the neatly dressed doctor inside, whose hair was neatly tucked into his cap and who was wearing glasses. His gaze fell on the information plaque on the front of the white coat, and he looked up to match it with the doctor's information in the sanatorium's doctor information column.
Yu Tang stayed by the bedside, and even though she knew it was the doctor coming, she didn't turn around.
All I could hear were the doctor's footsteps coming and going, and the sounds of him fiddling with medical equipment and recording data.
“tantan.”
The familiar voice behind her was very soft, causing Yu Tang's fingers to pause almost imperceptibly.
She slowly raised her eyes and met a face wearing a medical mask.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting dappled shadows on Yu Tang's lowered eyelashes. No one noticed the shock and hope that flashed in her eyes during that brief moment of eye contact.
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