“But Xiaoman,” Huo Jiayuan asked her through tears, “why can’t you speak?”
She couldn't imagine what Xiaoman had gone through over the years. She saw the vicissitudes in her eyes, and she was no longer the innocent girl she used to be.
Xiaoman shook her head at her, gently stroked her face, and wiped away her tears.
“You’ll be alright,” Xiaoman wrote on the paper. “With me here, I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Huo Jiayuan felt a sharp pain in her heart. Just then, someone knocked on the door, and she became alert.
However, the person who entered was the one she had been longing for day and night...
Huo Jiayuan was stunned. The smile that usually appeared in her dreams was now truly right in front of her.
“Meng Yan…”
Meng Yan didn't say anything, he just rushed over and hugged her tightly.
"Are you relieved now?" Meng Yan smiled and held her hand. "I will make sure you get home safely, and... this time, I'll go home with you."
...
When Huo Jiayuan returned to the apartment, it was already completely dark.
Xiao Rong sat in the living room waiting for her. The living room was filled with smoke, and the first thing you smelled upon entering was the pungent nicotine. Huo Jiayuan frowned, a look of disgust flashing across her face.
The other two bodyguards were treated like grandsons by Xiao Rong, standing against the wall, not daring to speak or move.
"You're finally back." Xiao Rong said coldly, "Did you go grocery shopping with Granny Cai and end up in the neighboring city?!"
"Why are you treating me like this..." Huo Jiayuan pouted, her voice very soft, "Don't you like bamboo shoots? You can't buy fresh ones at the market here, so I went to a supermarket several kilometers away... But I don't know the way around here, and I just kept going around in circles and couldn't find my way back..."
"Oh, Miss, you still remember what I like to eat?"
“How could I not remember?” Huo Jiayuan looked up at him. “You’ve been good to me since we were little. You remember everything about me clearly. Of course I’ll remember yours too.”
Xiao Rong's eyes widened, as if he had something to say.
But after a long pause, he only asked in a muffled voice, "Where is Granny Cai?"
“She’s too old to walk that far,” Huo Jiayuan said calmly. “When you kicked her out before, she stayed in a cheap motel on the street. So I told her to find a motel for one night and not to come with me anymore.”
Xiao Rong bit his lip.
He felt she was lying!
Strangely, Huo Jiayuan's account was remarkably consistent with that of the two bodyguards.
As soon as the two returned, they said that they had lost Huo Jiayuan at first. She and Grandma Cai went to a supermarket a few kilometers away to buy groceries. Then they said that they followed her and went into the supermarket. After Huo Jiayuan and Grandma Cai finished buying groceries, they followed the small road and turned into some alley. So the two of them lost her again.
After that, they came back and have been standing in the corner ever since.
Xiao Rong took a deep breath, a barely suppressed rage burning in his eyes. But Huo Jiayuan remained calm; he hadn't found any concrete evidence.
“Alright,” he said softly, “it’s so late, I don’t feel like eating anything. Save the bamboo shoots for tomorrow, I’ll make them for you.”
"Miss, please get some rest."
"Xiao Rong," Huo Jiayuan called softly.
He paused, but didn't turn around. His silhouette appeared somewhat eerie in the shadows.
Huo Jiayuan looked at him and asked as if talking to herself, "Don't you have anything to say to me about the past?"
Xiao Rong was silent for a moment, then said, "I don't understand what you mean, Miss."
“You once said you would do anything for me.”
"Miss, it's the same now."
"Do the things you're willing to do for me include hurting me?"
The silence was terrifying. Huo Jiayuan clearly saw his shoulders relax slightly and his back tremble.
Her heart trembled slightly.
Even after learning about what Xiao Rong had done, she still harbored fantasies about him... He was someone she had grown up with, and that kind of feeling was strange. Once severed, it was like severing a blood vessel in the palm of her hand, and the pain would spread uncontrollably.
Although the bleeding will eventually stop, the scars will stay with you for life.
“Xiao Rong,” Huo Jiayuan said in a deep voice, “I believe you won’t hurt me, right?”
"Of course," Xiao Rong said. "Miss, don't overthink it, get some rest."
When do we leave here?
"The day after tomorrow," he answered decisively.
"Are we really going to take the bus?" she thought for a moment and said, "I heard... taking the bus isn't safe."
"Don't worry." Xiao Rong turned around and smiled slightly at her. "With me here, I won't let anything happen to you."
Huo Jiayuan felt as if she had been struck hard, and it took a lot of effort to suppress the urge to cry.
Back in her room, she leaned weakly against the door and gently sat down on the floor.
I wanted to cry just now, but now I want to laugh, a mocking laugh.
Xiao Rong actually said the same thing to Xiao Man—that nothing would happen to you—it's utterly ridiculous.
Huo Jiayuan recalled what A Cai had told her, in fits and starts, about Xiao Man's experiences over the years. It turned out that the mastermind behind Xiao Man's disappearance at sixteen was none other than Xiao Rong!
Xiao Man's inability to speak was also due to Xiao Rong poisoning her—Huo Jiayuan believed this. After all, Xiao Rong had studied medicine with her in Southeast Asia and knew how to prepare medicine; poisoning someone to make them mute was a piece of cake for him.
But she never expected that Xiao Rong would use all the skills he had learned on Xiao Man.
“Miss, actually, that Xiao Rong has always been colluding with some forces in Biandu,” A Cai told her. “As for Sister Bailing, she was sold to Biandu by him. At that time, Sister Bailing was already mute, so you can imagine what her situation would be like here! But fortunately, Sister Bailing is smart and courageous enough. She used some tricks to get with Sixth Brother, and that's how she started to have a better life…”
Hearing this, Huo Jiayuan was so heartbroken that she couldn't speak.
They grew up together, and she knew Xiaoman all too well. Xiaoman was not good with words, but was kind-hearted by nature, and even when she was wronged, she would only smile foolishly.
But A-Cai said she was smart, bold, and resourceful...
What kind of environment could have turned the innocent Xiaoman into Na Bailing?
Huo Jiayuan dared not think about it.
At this moment, all she could do was cry.
Her first half of life had been too smooth, filled with the beauty of the world. But in just a few months in Biandu, she seemed to have already witnessed the evil of this world.
But in reality, the devil was always by her side, and he was the person she trusted most.
"Miss, the person secretly protecting you and Meng Yan has always been Sister Bailing." A Cai's words echoed in Huo Jiayuan's ears. "Also, do you really know what Xiao Rong thinks of you?"
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