She asked in shame and anger, "What do you take me for?"
"You said yourself that you didn't owe me anything after sleeping with me, so what do you think I should take you for?" Qin Tianyi asked her back with amusement.
He had lost his patience. He walked directly in front of her, raised her chin, and said, "You're not stupid. Since you came to see me, you should know that escape is useless. I'll give you two days. Either you come back with the child and me, or I'll have people bring you back. Choose for yourself!"
Gu Susu didn't want to choose. She liked her current peaceful life and didn't want to return to that big city. "Why won't you let me go? It's much easier for you to find someone to sleep with..."
"There's no 'why,' I just like it." Qin Tianyi threw her chin away and turned to leave the coffee shop first. This time, even if Gu Susu had grown wings, she wouldn't be able to escape from under his nose!
Gu Susu tilted her head, feeling no pain in her chin, only thinking if there were any other options within two days. That despair and fear swept over her again.
The next afternoon, Gu Susu went to pick up her child from kindergarten. As the deadline approached, she still didn't know what to do.
When she reached the kindergarten entrance, she saw the teacher from Little Star's class standing at the door, handing children over to their parents one by one.
"Star's mom, why are you here? Didn't Star's dad pick him up?" the kindergarten teacher asked Gu Susu curiously.
Upon hearing this, Gu Susu was stunned. "Star's dad? But my child doesn't have a dad!"
The teacher quickly said, "But Star recognized that very handsome man. I asked him, and he said it was his dad. The child often tells his kindergarten friends that he has a dad, but his dad works out of town for a long time. I thought he was... Star's dad who works out of town. What's going on? Star's mom, perhaps you should quickly contact someone you know to see if anyone picked up Star?"
Gu Susu couldn't help but tremble all over, anxious and angry. The handsome man the teacher mentioned, who easily gained Little Star's trust, could only be Qin Tianyi!
"How could you hand my child over to someone other than me? Has anyone else picked up Star in the past year? How can you be a teacher!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. He looks a bit like Star, so I thought he was Star's dad. What do we do now?" The teacher also became flustered.
Gu Susu was going mad. She turned and said, "What can we do? I'm going to find my child now!"
She ran all the way back to her rented apartment, but Qin Tianyi and Little Star were not there. He had taken her child away directly?
Gu Susu's fingers trembled as she took out her phone, searched for Qin Tianyi's number that used to be in her contacts, and dialed it immediately. It rang many times, but no one answered.
She called three more times unwillingly. When it finally connected and Qin Tianyi's voice came through, she felt like she was about to fall apart. Her voice trembling, she asked, "Qin Tianyi, did you pick up Star?"
Qin Tianyi was already in the car with Little Star, and Xiao Anjing was driving. They were on their way back to Lancheng.
"Today is the final deadline. Since you were going to come back with me anyway, why not bring Star back first? You pack up and follow me to Lancheng later."
"You... Qin Tianyi... are you even human? You can't just snatch my child away!" Gu Susu was already crying with rage.
But then Little Star's voice came through the phone, "Mom, this uncle said he's taking me to a very beautiful place. You'll come find me soon, right?"
Gu Susu immediately suppressed her anger and tears. She had wanted to scold Little Star for going with a stranger, but the words caught in her throat, fearing she would scare the child. So, she just hummed and said, "Mom will come to be with Star soon. Listen to Uncle and don't be scared."
Little Star said happily, "I'm not scared. Mom, come find us quickly. I really wish this uncle was my dad. Why can't I call him Dad?"
As Gu Susu didn't know how to answer, Qin Tianyi said to Little Star, "If you want to call him Dad, then call him. Who says you can't? Your mom and I are husband and wife, so of course, you can call him Dad."
Qin Tianyi! Gu Susu grit her teeth in hatred, but with the child in his hands, she couldn't lash out. She could only endure and say, "I'll take the train to Lancheng to find you immediately."
"No need to go to the Qin family mansion, go directly to the seaside villa," Qin Tianyi hung up.
Xiao Anjing, driving in the front, felt that Qin Tianyi had lost his mind, even willing to be a father for free.
As early as two years ago, after Gu Susu fled Lancheng, they had investigated her entire past. Let alone Qin Tianyi, even he was shocked.
Accidental homicide, unmarried pregnancy, imprisonment, fraudulent marriage... Her real experiences could only be described as terrifying. That such a woman had been the young madam of the Qin family for a year was simply unbelievable.
Qin Tianyi, however, seemed possessed. He said he wanted to find her and get revenge, but in his heart, he couldn't let her go.
As an outsider, he saw clearly. This time, by chance, Qin Tianyi came to Yongning City with him to inspect an agent. He finally met Gu Susu, and Qin Tianyi's behavior became very abnormal.
Xiao Anjing sighed in his heart. This Gu Susu was Tianyi's eternal doom!
Gu Susu tightly gripped her phone, feeling like she was about to collapse. She slumped onto the chair, only thinking of packing her bags and heading to Lancheng quickly.
She didn't want to experience the pain she and Little Star had gone through two years ago again. This time, no matter what, she would stay by Little Star's side and never be separated from him again.
She even took the overnight train back to Lancheng City. As she dragged her luggage out of the train station, the sky was just beginning to lighten. She tried to recall the seaside villa she had visited with Qin Tianyi before.
She hailed a taxi by the roadside and described the place to the driver for a long time. The driver finally got a general direction.
"Miss, I know how to get to the place you mentioned. However, it's too far from the city. Even if I go, I might not find anyone to pick me up on the way back, so it's not worth it. You should find another car."
This was not the first taxi she had hailed; it was the fourth. Every driver said the same thing, making it impossible for her to get to the seaside villa.
Anxiously, she said, "Driver, I'll pay you double the fare as shown on the meter. Please help me, I have something urgent. If you refuse, I won't be able to find a car."
The taxi driver looked her over again and said, "Alright."
Gu Susu thanked him repeatedly and put her luggage in the trunk, then got into the taxi.
The taxi driver started the car, and Gu Susu then noticed that the meter was broken. She quickly asked, "The meter is broken, how should we calculate the fare?"
"I've been driving for over ten years. I can estimate the fare even without the meter. Double the fare, one hundred yuan."
Gu Susu heard this and thought the taxi driver's price wasn't high and was acceptable. She had been afraid of encountering a black car and being ripped off.
She relaxed and looked out the window at the passing city high-rises. The streets and alleys were still quiet in the early morning, with few people or cars. Some landmark buildings had not changed at all.
But this city was still like a misty forest to her, making her feel a lack of belonging, lost, and at a loss for what to do...