novelraw Chapter 213 Aren't you the same?
Chapter 213 Aren't you the same?
The car drove into the underground parking garage of the postpartum care center.
Everything seemed normal. The bodyguards got out of the car first, cleared the area, and then Lu Xiran got out, standing protectively in the middle. Today she was wearing a light blue maternity dress, her hair tied in a low ponytail, and she was wearing a hat and a mask, so her face couldn't be seen. The bodyguards helped her walk towards the elevator. Her steps were slow and steady, exactly like at every prenatal checkup.
Gu Yanxu stood in the corner of the garage, hidden behind a pillar. He was dressed in dark clothes, wearing a hat and a mask, revealing only his eyes. Those eyes were bloodshot, weary, and held a kind of desperate resolve on the verge of collapse, as if he no longer cared about anything else.
He watched the figure protected in the center, watched her slow steps, watched her hands clutching her stomach. His fingers tightened around the small knife in his pocket. The blade was thin, and he could feel its coldness even through her clothes. He wasn't going to kill her. He just wanted to take her away. To take her somewhere Gu Yanshen couldn't find her. And then he would use her to buy his mother's freedom.
He waited until they passed the blind spot in the surveillance cameras. Lu Hao was right; the cameras couldn't see behind that wall. The bodyguard's view was blocked by the pillar for a fleeting moment, just a moment.
He moved.
He emerged from behind the pillar, his steps light and swift as the wind. He drew his hand from his pocket, the knife flashing in the light—a cold, blinding light, like lightning cleaving the air. The next second, the tip of the knife pressed against her back. Through the thin maternity dress, he could feel her body stiffen abruptly.
"Don't move." His voice was low, like bits of smoke squeezed from the depths of his throat. "You'd better get the bodyguards out of the way. You should know that you're carrying Gu Yanshen's most cherished child. If anything goes wrong, do you think Gu Yanshen will go crazy this time?"
He felt her freeze, like a statue suddenly encased in ice. His arm encircled her shoulders, the tip of the knife pressed firmly against her spine. He had to stay steady. His hands trembled, but his voice remained still. He had practiced countless times, in front of the mirror, in front of the air, in front of those sleepless nights. He couldn't fail. This was his only chance.
"Keep moving forward," he said.
She moved. Step by step, very slowly, as if she were stalling for time. The bodyguards surrounded her, forming a semicircle, their gazes like knives cutting into her. But no one dared to move. Because of the knife, because of the child in her womb.
Gu Yanxu led her out of the pillar's shadow and towards the garage exit. The lights grew brighter, causing him to squint. In that instant, a hand gripped his wrist from behind.
The force was so great that his bones creaked. The knife slipped from his hand, fell to the ground, bounced twice, rolled under the car, and made a crisp metallic echo.
Gu Yanxu suddenly turned around.
Lin Chen stood behind him, expressionless, his gaze as cold as ice. Two bodyguards stood beside him, one on each side, blocking all his escape routes. When did they arrive? He had clearly checked the blind spots of the surveillance cameras, clearly calculated the bodyguards' positions, clearly rehearsed countless times. But he hadn't anticipated Lin Chen. He hadn't expected Lin Chen to come in person.
Gu Yanxu lowered his head, looking at his hands. Those hands, which had just been gripping a knife, were now empty. He suddenly found it all quite laughable. He had prepared for so long, waited for so long, thinking he was the hunter. It turned out that from the very beginning, he had been the prey.
"Lin Chen—" He opened his mouth, wanting to say something. Beg for mercy? Explain? Threaten? He didn't know. He only knew that he was finished.
"Take him away." Lin Chen interrupted him, his voice not loud, but it felt like a dull thud to his chest.
The bodyguards stepped forward and grabbed his arms, one on each side. He didn't struggle or resist. He just stood there, like a tree struck by lightning, charred inside and out.
The woman in his arms took off her mask.
It's not Lu Xiran.
It's Jin Qiqi.
He had seen that face for three years. He had kissed it, he had held it in his hands, and it was the first face he saw when he woke up on countless mornings. At this moment, there was no anger, no sadness on that face, only a utter despair that chilled him to the bone.
Jin Qiqi looked at him, the last glimmer of light in her eyes extinguished. "I originally thought you were just biased towards your mother." Her voice trembled, but she spoke each word clearly and deliberately, each syllable like a nail. "I never imagined you would go to this lengths for her."
Gu Yanxu looked at her, at the sea in her eyes that he could never swim back to. His lips moved, as if he wanted to say something, but his throat felt blocked. After a long time, he finally managed to squeeze out a sentence, his voice hoarse like sandpaper.
"Aren't you the same?" His eyes reddened. "You went to such lengths for her. In your heart, am I not even worth a hair on Lu Xiran's head? When it came to making a choice, even if it were a promise, you would have chosen her without hesitation."
Jin Qiqi's tears fell. She looked at him, at the man she once thought she could entrust her life to, at the darkness in his eyes that she could no longer understand.
"Gu Yanxu, don't you realize what you did wrong even now?"
"And now?" His voice suddenly softened, as if he were asking about something he dreaded to know the answer to. "Are you going to send me to prison too?"
Jin Qiqi fell silent. That silence was like a knife, hanging between the two of them.
The expectation in Gu Yanxu's eyes gradually faded, like a candle flame in the wind, struggling for a few moments before finally going out. He smiled, a smile more painful than tears.
"As expected, I am nothing in your eyes."
Just then, a piercing engine roar came from the garage entrance. A black SUV sped in, its tires screeching across the pavement like the howl of a wild beast. It didn't slow down, heading straight for the crowd.
The bodyguards scattered. Gu Yanxu suddenly broke free from the two men holding him, the stun gun already concealed in his sleeve, blue arcs of electricity crackling in the air. He struck down the nearest bodyguard, whose body twitched and collapsed to the ground.
"Get in the car!" someone shouted from inside.
Gu Yanxu didn't hesitate. He opened the car door and climbed in. Before the door was even fully closed, the SUV roared off. The tires screeched as they rolled over the ground, leaving a charred trail. He leaned on the seat and looked out the rear window. Jin Qiqi stood there, growing smaller and smaller, farther and farther away. She stood there, motionless, like a statue abandoned in the wilderness.
He watched her, watched the person he once thought he would spend his life with, disappear into the garage exit. Light flooded in, blinding him. He didn't close his eyes, but stared at the light until his eyes ached, until his vision blurred.
His fist clenched tightly. His nails dug into his palm, drawing blood.
"Yan Xu, are you alright?" The person in the front row turned to look at him. It was one of Lu Hao's men.
He didn't answer. He just stared in the rearview mirror, at the tunnel receding into the distance, at the light growing smaller and smaller. Jin Qiqi was long gone. But her eyes remained. That disappointment, that despair, that "How can I forgive you?" look in her eyes, were etched into his mind like nails.
He closed his eyes. All he could hear was the roar of the engine and the sound of his heart shattering.