BXBX NOVEL Chapter 525 - Duel (Part 6)
Chapter 525: Duel (Part 6)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Nian... Nianzhi... You’re really my sister, Nianzhi?! But you don’t look like how you did when you were young...” Gu Yanran took a step forward to be closer to Gu Nianzhi and slowly held out her arm, wanting to caress Gu Nianzhi’s face.
Gu Nianzhi instinctively tilted her head and took a step back; she did not want to be touched by Gu Yanran.
Gu Yanran’s hand froze in midair for a moment before she put it down. Her eyes were already brimming with tears.
“Nianzhi? Are you really Nianzhi?” Gu Yanran asked again, shock written all over her face. Only after a while did she close her eyes, as if she were trying to recompose herself and bring herself back to reality.
The look of shock slowly disappeared, and a look of disbelief took over. She opened her eyes and looked at Gu Nianzhi closely, as if she had never met her before and wanted to remember every detail of her by heart. She looked agitated again—like she had just been reunited with long-lost kin but did not dare to believe it to be so. In just a couple of minutes, Gu Yanran felt like she had just gone through an emotional roller coaster ride.
Sensing Gu Yanran’s emotions, Gu Nianzhi’s expression softened along with her tone. “The evidence already proved that I am Gu Nianzhi from the Gus. As for my looks, no one would be able to guarantee that they’d look the same or similar to when they were younger, would they? So if Madam Gu was to use this as an excuse to deny the fact that I am the Gu Nianzhi from the Gus, it’d be unreasonable, wouldn’t it?”
“No, no, no. I did not mean to deny. I’m just shocked. Too happy...” Gu Yanran’s tears fell from her face. She looked at Gu Nianzhi with a mixture of emotions. “Nianzhi, where have you been all these years? What happened during the time when you disappeared? How did you...?”
Gu Yanran looked at Huo Shaoheng, who was standing beside her. According to what she knew, Nianzhi had grown up under Huo Shaoheng’s care. But how had Huo Shaoheng, a soldier from Hua Xia Empire, found Gu Nianzhi?
Huo Shaoheng said calmly, “We will arrange another time for that. For now, if Miss Gu allows, we are going to take off.”
Depression flashed in Gu Yanran’s eyes for a second. She allowed her gaze to move between Huo Shaoheng and Gu Nianzhi for a moment before letting out a long sigh. “Mr. Huo, even if Nianzhi is really my sister, it’s not nice of you to do this. Nianzhi is my sister, but the person whom you took away is my father. Did you even think of how I’d feel as a daughter?”
The corners of Huo Shaoheng’s lips curled. He put a hand into his trouser pocket casually, held Gu Yanran’s arm with the other hand, and smiled serenely, “We wouldn’t have had to resort to this if Miss Gu had agreed to the date sooner. All right. Since Miss Gu has acknowledged Nianzhi’s identity, then we’ve cleared the air for now. Can we leave already?”
Gu Yanran held on to her handbag, which was always by her side, until her knuckles turned white. Would it even work if she were to say “no” now?
Even if she was all-powerful in Barbados, she was nothing to the people from the Hua Xia Empire. Heck, even the governor was a nobody in their eyes, much less Gu Yanran. They shouldn’t have hidden themselves in this lousy country...
Gu Yanran suppressed her regret and distress. She nodded. “Sure. Since Mr. Huo insists and we already had an agreement beforehand, you can bring my father away first. However, whether or not Nianzhi is really my little sister, please allow me to get it checked on my end. No matter what, our family business is rather big; we can’t allow people to simply proclaim themselves as members of our family without proof.”
However, Gu Nianzhi had never thought that she would really return to the Gus to be their little daughter. When she got her identity verified, all she wanted was to be able to bring Gu Xiangwen back to Hua Xia Empire as legally as possible.
Raising her eyebrows, she smiled at Gu Yanran. “Take all the time you want, Madame Gu. No matter what, in your eyes, the Gus’ family business is rather big and is more important than your father. Therefore, you allow us to bring your father away. But to enter the Gus, it wouldn’t be that easy for me—are you trying to imply this?”
Gu Yanran was startled but quickly smiled. “Don’t be nervous, Nianzhi. I just want to verify again and will be in the Hua Xia Empire to look for you in no time. There’s only the two of us in the Gu family now. We should be taking care of each other. Please take care of Father—I’ll go over to the Hua Xia Empire the moment I’m done with things here.”
Gu Yanran had taken a step back and actually allowed Gu Nianzhi and Huo Shaoheng to take Gu Xiangwen away.
Huo Shaoheng hadn’t expected that this would be resolved so easily. He looked deeply at Gu Yanran and bowed. “We thank you for your understanding, Miss Gu. We’ll see you in the Hua Xia Empire.”
“Yes, you’ve taken my father away. I’ll definitely look for you guys.” Gu Yanran had calmed down already, and she took out a small handkerchief to wipe her tears. Smiling with tears in her eyes, she said, “Please leave a form of contact, Mr. Huo. I wouldn’t want to have to go online to look for ways to contact you when I’m there!”
Gu Yanran was Gu Xiangwen’s daughter. They had to leave their contact details with her. Huo Shaoheng did not protest. He called Yin Shixiong over.
“Give Miss Gu our point of contact,” he said. “We’ll make a move first.”
Holding Gu Nianzhi by the waist with one arm, Huo Shaoheng nodded to Gu Yanran and guided Gu Nianzhi up the temporary stairs that were fixed from the cabin door of the airplane.
Gu Yanran looked at Yin Shixiong and smiled. “How long did you guys plan this?”
“...They were all coincidences, coincidences. What plan are you talking about?”
Of course, Yin Shixiong denied it. He knew how to talk very well.
He gave Gu Yanran the number of the Special Forces administrative department. “Just call this number and look for me.”
Gu Yanran accepted the business card that Yin Shixiong handed her and flashed him a smile. “I definitely will. My father is with you guys. Please take good care of him and don’t be lazy on that! I’ll check, ok?”
“Oh, really?” Yin Shixiong returned the smile and remembered Chen Lie saying that Gu Xiangwen was “barely hanging in there.” He couldn’t help himself. “Then I think you should quickly check with the hospital here. They’ve made your father so weak that he’s barely hanging in there.”
“What?! How could that be?!” Gu Yanran was so taken aback that her expression changed drastically. “That hospital could operate only because I have been supporting them all these years! How would they dare to—?”
“That, I wouldn’t know,” Yin Shixiong replied as he handed a set of health checkup documents to Gu Yanran. “This is the report from our doctor after he was done with a check on your father. It was done just now. Look at the vital signs, and you’ll know how that hospital ‘takes care’ of your father.”
Gu Yanran took the document suspiciously and skimmed through it. Her expression darkened as she read through the document, and she was so angry that she almost tore up the papers.
“How dare they?!” she said. Bowing to Yin Shixiong, she added, “Please take good care of my father. Please.”
Yin Shixiong was taken aback. He had not expected Gu Yanran, who carried such power and anger, to back off so easily.
“I need to get Miss Gu’s identity verified now, and I’ll also have to check with the hospital regarding my father. If that was really how they treated him, I’ll kill them!”
Gu Yanran’s face was red with anger, her hands still trembling. It was clear that she was still shocked by the news. Her little sister, who had disappeared for seven years, had reappeared all of a sudden and had already grown into a young lady. She must’ve been overwhelmed with emotions, wasn’t she?
Gu Yanran turned and led her people to leave the place.
Yin Shixiong looked at Gu Yanran, who was protected in the middle by her subordinates as she left, and changed his opinion about her.
...
Gu Nianzhi and Huo Shaoheng returned to the airplane and hadn’t yet recovered from what had just happened either.
“...She really just let us off like that?” Gu Nianzhi mumbled and rested her head on her seat. Looking at the scenery outside, she allowed herself to get lost in it.
Huo Shaoheng sat beside her and turned to look at her. “Stop harping on it. It would have ended the same way even if she hadn’t agreed to it. To be honest, I felt that she was just being realistic.”
People who were realistic would be the ones who stood to gain, eventually. She had realized that it wouldn’t work if she were to go head-on with them. Would she, alone, be able to stand against the entire Hua Xia Empire?
“I think that your older sister is just a realist,” he said. “She doesn’t beat about the bush. The moment she learned that she was fighting a losing battle, she changed her plans. She really is a good businesswoman.”
Huo Shaoheng took a magazine from the first class cabin and began flipping through it. He had other opinions about Gu Yanran.
Gu Nianzhi leaned onto the handle of her seat ruefully. “...Calling her my ‘older sister’ already? I haven’t even managed to bring myself to...”
Huo Shaoheng flipped a page mindlessly and said steadily, “Whether you admit it or not, legally, she is your older sister, so I guess you’d better get your mindset adjusted soon.”
It was logical, but she felt uncomfortable when the words came from Huo Shaoheng himself.
She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, pouted, and said, “Which side are you on, exactly? He’s my father as well, you know...”
Huo Shaoheng turned to glance at her and wrung her little nose with his finger. “Do you still not know whose side I’m on? Big Xiong was right. You’re a Little Miss Heartless.”
Yin Shixiong, who had been eavesdropping on their conversation, really wanted to slide himself under the chair at this moment.
Do I really still have to be involved even when I’m just eavesdropping?
He felt a sense a grievance wash over him.
This made Gu Nianzhi smile. She moved closer to Huo Shaoheng and whispered, “...Then how would you like to punish me, Huo Shao?”
Spoken in her clear, sweet voice, it gave the sentence a tinge of seductiveness.
Huo Shaoheng’s heart skipped a beat. However, he looked as calm as ever and continue to flip through the magazine. “Punish you? I’ll decide when we get back. We shall put that on record for now.”
Gu Nianzhi was about to retort when the announcement for takeoff came from the pilot of the flight, requesting that the passengers put on their seatbelts. She immediately put on her seatbelt and prepared for takeoff, not bickering with Huo Shaoheng anymore.
After taking off, the airplane flew into the clouds in seconds. It took the shortest route toward the Hua Xia Empire.
The flight took more than 10 hours, flying over half the globe before finally arriving in the airport of the Hua Xia Empire’s capital. The moment the flight landed, an ambulance and an SUV from the Special Forces, which Huo Shaoheng had arranged, were already on standby at the door of the flight.
They did not have to go through customs upon arrival. Instead, they boarded the SUVs from the Special Forces and left the airport, heading toward the Special Forces’ headquarters directly.
General Ji, Senior Speaker Long, and Minister Bai, who had since taken over Prime Minister Dou’s duties, were already waiting for them at the headquarters.
“This is Gu Xiangwen?” General Ji stepped forward excitedly and looked at the malnourished man in a vegetative state on the stretcher.