Hearing the child boldly twisting her words, Tang Li pinched her brow in pain and stood up from the auditorium: "Aren’t you afraid that I might sell you?"
"Not afraid." Song Jingtian answered, "My elder brother will definitely find me, and then I’ll have him put you in jail."
Afterward, she continued: "You should have your family accompany you to Shangbu, not a stranger."
"My mother is not coming back until the afternoon the day after tomorrow, and my elder sister is even busier. My elder brother’s birthday is just a few days away from mine, his birthday is the day after tomorrow, and I originally wanted to celebrate it with him."
"Your elder brother’s birthday is coming up too?" asked Tang Li.
"Yes, although I have never seen my elder brother celebrating his birthday, this year I specially prepared a gift for him. I wanted to surprise him, but he went to Shangbu for a meeting." Saying this, Song Jingtian sighed, "I couldn’t find anyone else to go with me to Shangbu, if you go, I can celebrate the birthday with you and my elder brother."
Tang Li heard longing in the child’s immature voice.
Just like when she was a child—
She looked forward to her birthday every year.
Because on that day, her mother would always join her in blowing out the candles and eating cake.
"Why aren’t you saying anything?" Song Jingtian called out twice, thinking there was a problem with the phone.
After a while, Tang Li asked him, "Do you really want to go to Shangbu?"
Early the next morning, the door to the dormitory was knocked on.
Wu Xuehan found Tang Li in the bathroom, so she got up in a daze by herself. Just as she opened the door, a small figure with a backpack squeezed in.
At 9:13 A.M., Tang Li arrived at the high-speed train station with Song Jingtian.
It took nearly 6 hours by high-speed train from the Capital to Shangbu. Song Jingtian initially disagreed with her and stubbornly wanted to take a plane, but when he learned that it would take an hour and a half to get to the airport by bus, and that Shangbu’s airport was also in the suburbs, far from the meeting location, the little boy decisively embraced the idea of travelling by train.
After going through security, Song Jingtian made a phone call to Song Ru.
He didn’t mention going to Shangbu, just told his elder sister that he was with Tang Li.
Hearing Song Jingtian’s precocious tone and Song Ru’s displayed reassurance, Tang Li couldn’t help but wonder if Song Baiyan and her sister had discussed something the night he stayed at her school.
If it were her, she would never entrust a child to someone unfamiliar.
Thinking of taking Song Jingtian away from the Capital, Tang Li felt that she was being impulsive; this might be the most unreliable thing she had done since her rebirth.
On the high-speed train, Song Jingtian finished drinking his milk and leaned on Tang Li to take a nap.
Around 4 P.M., the high-speed train arrived at Shangbu.
Stepping out of the station, Song Jingtian tightly clung to Tang Li’s sleeve, looking somewhat timid at the unfamiliar city, and looked up at Tang Li: "Or... let’s have my brother come pick us up?"
In her past life, Tang Li had been to Shangbu a few years later to accompany Qin Yueru to see a doctor.
She only knew how to get to the big hospital in Shangbu.
Now with a child by her side, Tang Li was also afraid of getting lost. She opened her bag to get her cellphone, but discovered that both her wallet and cellphone were missing.
She had been so focused on taking care of the child that she didn’t guard against pickpockets at the train station.
She then opened Song Jingtian’s backpack and indeed, the pouch where she hid the money was also missing.
Upon discovering an incoming call from the police station on his cellphone during a conference intermission, Song Baiyan dialed back and was informed that Song Jingtian and Tang Li had arrived in Shangbu. They had encountered thieves at the train station and since they were penniless, they were still detained at the police station.