Trapped
Gu Nan didn't have time to examine the picture closely. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a figure running past quickly, followed by a large group of bodyguards dressed in black chasing after them.
She didn't look closely at the people in front of her, but she couldn't mistake the men in black behind her—the Wan family's bodyguards.
I wonder who they're bullying this time.
She typed a reply to Jin Yan, not wanting to meddle in other people's business.
Keep a close eye on him.
Putting away her phone, she looked up to see Xue Li catching up from behind, panting.
Both of them were stunned. Xue Li, holding her waist, was panting heavily: "It's you."
"What happened?"
“I don’t know who Xiao Wu has offended. Those people are really ruthless, I’m worried about them. Aren’t they just after money? I’ll go over and tell them that they can have as much as they want, just don’t scare the child.”
Gu Nan racked her brains and finally remembered the hoodlum, He Xiao's younger brother.
"I'll go take a look."
Seeing that Xue Li was still worried and wanted to run forward, Gu Nan frowned, grabbed her arm, and pulled her back: "Go back and wait."
Xue Li opened her mouth, and if the timing weren't wrong, she would have loved to ask the young woman in front of her why she had never seen her before, yet this woman had helped her time and time again.
"Thank you." Before the last word had even finished, Gu Nan had already dashed off.
He Wu, relying on his young age and light physique, left the men in black two streets behind. However, he had not received professional training, and as time went on, his stamina could not keep up. The distance between them gradually narrowed. When he was exhausted, he frantically took out his phone to send a message to He Xiao, but tears fell down his face before he could even open his mouth.
The two brothers finally managed to sit down and have a heart-to-heart talk, and agreed to meet on the last weekend of each month. But before they could even start, the brother was separated from his brother forever.
The message was sent out, and all that came was a tearful "Brother."
The burly man was already close by. He gripped his phone tightly and closed his eyes, but the expected pain did not come.
The people surrounding him were in chaos. The air was filled with the sounds of fists colliding and sticks hitting flesh, along with muffled groans and cries of pain.
After dealing with the people in front of him, Gu Nan turned around and saw He Wu hugging his knees with his eyes closed.
Enraged, she kicked away the man wielding the stick with her knee, then slapped He Wu on the head, yelling, "You think you can escape by hiding? Is this a time for sleeping?"
He Wu opened his eyes in pain. A few men in black were clutching their legs and groaning on the ground, while most remained in a circle, staring intently at the two people in the center.
"Are you coming to save me?"
Gu Nan laughed angrily: "Otherwise what? Am I supposed to be filming an action scene here?"
He Wu stared blankly at Gu Nan. The last time they met, she slapped him several times without saying a word, and his brother forbade him to offend her. Now she had come to save him. He couldn't understand it.
Gu Nan wasn't in the mood to wait for him to figure things out; her gaze lingered briefly on the faces of all the men in black.
They all fight with reckless abandon. She herself might still have a chance to escape, but with He Wu by her side, it will be very difficult.
Turning her head slightly to the side and leaning down a little, she whispered in his ear, "See the man with the scar on his face over there? I'll make a breakthrough from his side in a bit, and you can take the opportunity to run away. Don't look back. Go to Platinum Mansion and find a man named Wan Yi. He can protect you."
After she finished speaking, she didn't receive a reply for a long time, and a group of bodyguards surrounded her, glaring at her menacingly.
The person she most wanted to beat up right now wasn't the bodyguard in black, but He Wu, who was surrounded and still had time to space out.
He grabbed He Wu by the collar and lifted him up, then turned to the scarred man and kicked He Wu out through the opening, shouting, "Run!"
Fortunately, He Wu performed admirably this time, running very fast without hesitation.
Gu Nan engaged the group in a fight, buying He Wu more time to escape.
The scarred man at the head of the group waved his hand and called out, "Come at us all!"
Gu Nan suddenly realized that these people wanted to kill more than just He Wu.
Even a god wouldn't stand a chance against a war of attrition; she could only fight and retreat.
Scarface casually tossed aside the broken stick, picked up a steel pipe, weighed it in his hand, and ordered the man next to him, "Take a few men and go after He Wu."
Gu Nan wanted to stop him, so she lifted her foot to hook over the broken pillar and used her waist and legs to sweep at the person.
The steel pipe slammed down, and the spinning pillar was trampled under the scarred man's foot as he laughed loudly, "Still in the mood to meddle in other people's business?"
The pillar slipped from her grasp, sending a shiver down her spine. Gu Nan shook her arm, mentally calculating the time. The child's strength had recovered quickly; he should have already run far away.
However, things didn't go as planned. He Wu ran wildly after leaving the scrap metal yard, his adrenaline surging. Just as he was about to reach the main road, black-clad bodyguards suddenly appeared out of nowhere, forcing him to turn back.
The phone in his pocket vibrated until it automatically hung up, then started vibrating again a few seconds later. His legs felt like lead, every movement excruciatingly painful. Before he could give up, he answered the phone, panicked to the extreme. He couldn't even remember to cry; his vocal cords and throat muscles contracted uncontrollably, and the words that came out were a jumbled, teeth-grinding whisper: "Brother, I can't run away, I can't run away—"
As she spoke, she turned around and looked at the distance between herself and the black-clad bodyguards that was gradually closing. She said incoherently, "They're catching up with us. What should we do? Sister Gu Nan was trapped by them while trying to save me. I'm being caught. Brother, brother, the abandoned factory, we're in the abandoned factory."
Knowing that his brother was far away in the north of the city and could not come to his rescue immediately, the only phone call he had was like a lifeline. He trembled as he watched the black-clad bodyguards approach step by step, and curled up and retreated.
"ah--"
The pain hadn't come yet, but it felt like my wrist was being squeezed into my bones. Before I could even open my eyes, my body was being forcibly pulled forward.
When I opened my eyes, it was Gu Nan, with bloodstains clearly visible on her arm.
His pupils dilated: "You, you, you."
"Shut up, save your energy."
An anxious voice came from the other end of the phone: "Miss Gu, is that you?"
Gu Nan glanced at the call duration, spoke rapidly, and recited a string of numbers: "Wan Yi's phone number at Platinum Club. Tell him we're at the abandoned factory in the west of the city."
No matter what He Xiao said, she remained silent.
The black-clad bodyguards were hot on her heels. Wan Yi knew that she had left a message for someone else and would definitely bring people here as soon as possible. She needed to conserve her strength and hold out until Wan Yi arrived.
"Boom!" A rock flew from behind and smashed into the dilapidated brick wall in front of them. The sudden force caused the already fragile wall to collapse instantly, blocking their way.
Gu Nan reacted quickly, grabbing He Wu who was rushing forward due to inertia, and pointing her chin towards the cold storage: "Let's go this way."
With only a few seconds' delay, the bodyguards in black had already caught up. Gu Nan pushed He Wu forward, but the bodyguards grabbed He Wu and pulled him backward, fighting all the way to the front of the cold storage.
The two sides fought to the death. Gu Nan had to be careful of He Wu and could not act as quickly as the black-clad bodyguards. He smashed the iron bar that was in front of him. With a "clang", the iron bar hit the wall and slid down, activating the switch.
The cold storage door suddenly swung open, and a rush of cold air rushed out, instantly soaking the sweat that had been shed during the fight.
Gu Nan's eyebrows twitched suddenly. Just as she was about to tell He Wu to stay away from the cold storage and avoid the bodyguard's full-force attack, she turned around and saw He Wu being kicked into the cold storage. Fortunately, He Wu wasn't too stupid and desperately grabbed the wall to control his body.
However, the disparity in strength was too great.
Just as she was about to lose her footing, Gu Nan lunged forward and pulled the person out. Before she could even catch her breath, the handrail she was gripping suddenly loosened, and she instantly lost her footing and was kicked into the cold storage.
In the blink of an eye, the cold storage door slammed shut with a loud bang.
Ignoring He Wu's condition, Gu Nan rubbed the internal emergency door opening device and pressed the mechanical handle with all her might, her hopes dashed as she pressed the handle down.
Looking at the unmoving door, she belatedly realized that she hadn't fled here with He Wu in a panic; rather, those people's goal was to force the two of them here and trap them to death in the cold storage.
Fortunately, just as the cold storage door closed, she caught a glimpse of Wan Yi rushing over.
Gu Nan then turned to look at He Wu. The child was squatting on the ground, his arms wrapped around his legs, his chin resting on his knees, trembling slightly. His right hand was unconsciously rubbing his calf. Gu Nan looked closely and saw that there was blood seeping out.
She silently knelt down, rolled up his trouser legs, and wrapped them with a strip of cloth.
He stood up, staring intently at her, and said, "Your arm is bleeding."
"It's nothing." He said, casually pulling off the hem of his shirt and tying it into a knot.
He Wu's jaw clenched, and he said, "It's so cold."
"They'll be out soon." Gu Nan pulled her coat tighter, ignoring He Wu, and walked to the door to try to hear what was happening outside the cold storage. However, the door was heavy, and apart from the roar of the machines, she couldn't hear any human voices or sounds of fighting.
Gu Nan's composed gaze gradually tightened as time passed. She looked down, her watch face covered with a thick layer of frost, and her hands lost their original luster, turning pale and frightening. What was even more alarming was that she could perform even the simplest action of bending her fingers with extreme stiffness.
His gaze suddenly shifted, and he called out, "He Wu?"
There was no reply for a long time.
"He Wu." The suddenly raised voice woke up the person who had not fallen into a deep coma.
"I'm sleepy, I want to sleep for a while." The voice was hoarse, as if swallowing cotton, and every tone fell in an unexpected place.
"Sleep? No sleeping allowed!" Gu Nan's attitude was extremely bad.
But this didn't intimidate him. He Wu hugged his knees and rubbed them incessantly. After his despair subsided, he forced a smile and said, "Thank you."
After waiting for a long time without the door opening, Gu Nan kicked off the mechanical handle, wrapped it in her sleeve, and struggled to pry it through the door seal.
Afraid that He Wu would fall asleep, she tried to coax him into talking.
"Is it enough to just say thank you? Tell me, how do you plan to thank me?"
He Wu remained silent for a while, and although he did not answer her question, he eventually started talking.
“Is Aunt Xue your friend? Actually, it was Liu Zi that day,” he explained. “Liu Zi often plays with me. That day, Liu Zi told me that Aunt Xue is very rich and asked me to mess with her. If I succeeded, he would introduce me to the young master of the Wan family. My brother is always in Beicheng and doesn’t come back. I thought that if I got to know the young master of the Wan family, maybe I could get my brother to work for him, so he wouldn’t have to go to Beicheng anymore.”
"She's so old, yet she still can't be without her brother."
He Wu, however, seemed to be immersed in his own world, rambling on about things he couldn't let go of in a somewhat unclear tone.
“My brother always lies. At first, he said he was just going to Beicheng on a business trip for a few months and told me to stay home and listen to Grandma. Not long after, he said he was working in Beicheng and would definitely come back to see me once a week. I looked forward to Fridays when school was out every week. Later, it gradually became once a month, and then it was only a few times a year. I always wondered if I was too obedient, so he thought it didn’t matter if he didn’t come back.”
"So you started following those bad influences and going astray?"
He Wu looked up and smiled sheepishly, but found that just pulling at the corners of his mouth had taken up most of his strength.
He lowered his voice: "It worked very well. After that, my brother came back often."
“Have you ever thought about your brother’s situation? Your grandmother is old, and you are still in school. All the pressure has to be borne by your brother alone. If you don’t understand, your brother will only be more stressed.”
He Wu pursed his lips, knowing he was in the wrong, and his rebuttal lacked conviction: "I just want him to spend more time with me."
She paused, then apologized softly: "Sister, I'm sorry. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have been locked up here and frozen to death with me."
Gu Nan's tone became more serious: "Don't talk nonsense."
After finishing his rant and hearing no response, he turned around and saw He Wu pulling at his long sleeves, preparing to take them off.
She cursed under her breath, then quickly went over and grabbed his hand: "Don't take it off."
"I'm hot." The low, hoarse voice was full of grievance.
Gu Nan's eyes softened. She took off her coat, pressed down on his hand, and wrapped him up inside, tying the sleeves together in a tight knot. She raised her hand and threatened, "If you move again, I'll beat you up."
He Wu was tied up and unable to move: "Aunt Xue has already forgiven me, so please don't be angry with me anymore."
"Then sit still and don't move."
He Wu gradually felt short of breath and pleaded softly, "I'm really hot, please stop torturing me."
Gu Nan's movements as she pried open the door became increasingly hurried. "If you want me to calm down, just talk to me more now, anything you want to say."
"Sister, you should give up. This is the largest cold storage in Xuncheng. It's sealed very well and can't be opened."
"..." Gu Nan suppressed the urge to curse, "Let's change the subject."
“Aren’t you scared? We’re all going to die. If you have any unhappiness, you can tell me. Grandma said that before a person dies, they should say all their regrets so that Meng Po will give them soup. If they can’t say them, they will be trapped in the underworld and unable to be reincarnated.”
Gu Nan's gaze faltered slightly. If such a saying were true, her whole family could be reunited in the underworld.
"Nonsense, tell me more about your brother."
Falling asleep is easy, but waking up again is difficult.
He Wu pouted and said, "My brother doesn't have a girlfriend yet. If you can get out, can you be my sister-in-law?"
Gu Nan glanced at the bloodstains that had been easily worn into her palm, but the tight door jambs hadn't budgeed an inch. She dared not show a trace of despair on her face; if she couldn't hold on first, the child huddled behind her would only face certain death.
He feigned a lighthearted tone: "Have you forgotten that I hit you?"
He Wu hesitated and muttered, "But Aunt Xue is too old."
Gu Nan looked away speechlessly, realizing that he only knew two women.
Shaking his head, he exclaimed in surprise, using the light reflected from the ice: "We've pried open the hole! We'll be able to get out soon!"
Sure enough, I heard He Wu excitedly shout from behind me: "Really!"
"Don't sleep, do you hear me?"
He Wu nodded obediently, his face pale. Gu Nan's heart tightened. If she couldn't open the door, not only He Wu, but she wouldn't be able to hold on either.
The faint worry in her heart was almost impossible to suppress; with no movement for so long, she was even more afraid of Wan Yi's safety.
Wan Yi saw her being locked up and would never linger in the fight.
Staring at the lifeless door, Gu Nan's eyelashes trembled. He Wu was right; she really couldn't open this door.
Even if her physical condition were at its best, she might not be able to pry open the heavy door with a broken handle, let alone with her bruises and red wounds all over her body, her cracked skin already numb.
He was barely holding on, relying solely on his desperate will to survive.
That's far from enough.
Her deeply closed eyes held back the swirling tears; she still had so many things to resolve.
After enduring 18 years of hardship, she diligently studied chess, gained fame, and got close to Lin Jianye, but after searching the Lin family mansion, she couldn't find the videotape.
Having finally managed to sow discord between the Wan and Shen families using Yunting's works, she was about to find out all the real culprits who had caused her entire family's death in the fire.
For 18 years, through thousands of nights of sudden awakening, the fire that haunted my dreams in the dead of night was like an impenetrable net; the more I struggled, the more suffocated I became.
It was so close.
I can't count how many times I've escaped death, how many times I've pushed myself to the brink, and how many years I've endured hardship, only to end up as a joke.
The truth that they had painstakingly searched for, just when things suddenly became clear, never had the chance to see the light of day again.
She's dead, what will happen to my aunt?
My aunt left a note and went to retrieve the videotape alone, and her whereabouts are still unknown. She hasn't found my aunt's most beloved little sister yet.
Exhausted, she collapsed uncontrollably towards the door, a tear falling and landing on the frozen bracelet.
She sobbed silently, realizing she had wronged Lu Yu so many times without ever having the chance to make amends.
If given the chance, after everything is over, she will give the Star Pavilion to Lu Yushi and give him everything she can.
The imbalanced sense of temperature seemed to react, and a stagnant despair filled his pupils.
The sweltering heat at this moment is no less than a death sentence.
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