In the recent days, her interactions with Jin Zijin had gradually made her feel that his kindness towards her wasn’t solely because she was his antidote. The hint of anger in his eyes indicated that he was genuinely concerned for her.
He was truly afraid that she would jump and kill herself.
The person inside the carriage did not respond for a long time, creating a stark contrast between the silence inside the carriage and the heavy rain pouring down outside. The carriage driver, Yue Rujing, curled his lips into a sneer and said coldly, "Gu Youyou has never trusted us, Brother, you know this isn’t the first time."
"Yue Rujing, shut up!" Jin Zijin almost roared, startling Abao, who was sitting at the carriage door, into standing up.
It wasn’t clear if the shout had scared Yue Rujing, but the sudden outburst certainly startled Gu Youyou.
He was always a warm man who never raised his voice so loudly, almost lifting the carriage roof and drowning out the fierce wind and rain of the night.
The only one who could shout like that was old Mr. Huang.
Thinking of old Mr. Huang, Gu Youyou suddenly felt alarmed and rose to look outside the carriage.
Jin Zijin thought he had been too harsh on her, and that she was about to run off in a fit of anger, so her action infuriated him even more, and he pulled her back in a swift motion.
"With rain this heavy, where do you think you’re going?"
One can neither hit, scold, nor argue with her, and she still gets angry even when she is the one at fault—it’s truly headache-inducing.
"I’m not trying to go out; I just wanted to take a look," Gu Youyou said.
She just wanted to check where they were; her grandfather would be worried.
Her grandfather couldn’t take another blow with his health; if he learned something had happened to her, he wouldn’t be able to bear it.
"It’s dark outside; you won’t be able to see anything," Jin Zijin said.
"Then where are we now?"
Jin Zijin gauged and said, "We should reach Tongguan before dawn."
Tongguan? What kind of place was Tongguan?
She wasn’t unfamiliar with the name, having seen it in history textbooks and on TV shows, but she had no idea what kind of place it was, certainly not Qingshui Town or Lotus Village.
Gu Youyou felt both shock and fear and asked, "Where are you taking me?"
She seemed somewhat restless and uneasy. Really, the destination wasn’t that important, but not now. She needed to see her grandfather; he would be worried. And there were her dreadful uncle and aunt; how could she rest without dealing with them?
"You know how to be afraid?" Jin Zijin seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, slowly calming down, and said, "Where has your courage to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff gone? You’re not afraid of death, yet you fear I might sell you?"
Sell her my ass! Gu Youyou was furious and didn’t want to bring up the cliff-jumping incident again, but he would harp on it relentlessly.
This just proved that he did care a lot about her jumping off the cliff.
"I told you it wasn’t intentional. It rained last night, and the ground was loose; I fell by accident," she felt compelled to explain.
"Fell by accident?" Jin Zijin repeated, scoffing.
For someone with a history of attempting suicide by jumping off a cliff and having more than once contemplated death, her words were hard to believe.
Gu Youyou was at a loss for words, too, thinking that this is the consequence of crying wolf—the result being that now he wouldn’t believe her. It wasn’t worth explaining anymore.
"Before you sell me, could you let me return to Lotus Village to see my grandfather one last time?" Gu Youyou continued along his line of thought.
Jin Zijin’s expression darkened, seeming to be in a dilemma.
She pressed on, "At least to let him know I’m safe. I was drugged by Huang Xiangwen and sold to a human trafficker. If my grandfather finds out, he won’t be able to handle it. He can’t take much more stress."