Susu stood frozen, trembling with fear, grateful she hadn't rushed forward to protect Su Kangxi, or all her efforts would have been in vain.
Yang Sijie's move was brilliant, not only to intimidate Su Kangxi but also to test if she was truly suffering from amnesia.
If she had rushed to protect Kangxi with her life, Yang Sijie would have seen through her act of feigned amnesia.
Su Kangxi breathed a sigh of relief. He had thought he no longer feared death, but in that moment, he realized he still did, for there were people in this world he cherished deeply.
He hadn't lied to Sister Susu; they would soon be rescued. As soon as Yang Sijie fired a shot, the tracking locator hidden within him would activate.
When he first arrived abroad, the local police had implanted a locator in him to prevent him from disappearing again like Deng Rui.
To ensure his normal life while preventing any accidental disappearances, they had programmed the locator to activate upon the sound of a gunshot.
Even if Yang Sijie had killed him then, the locator would have activated within his corpse.
This way, even in death, at least Sister Susu would be saved.
Mark, who had been in the guest room, heard the muffled sound like a firecracker and knew something had happened. He quickly ran out of the guest room.
When he saw Yang Sijie pointing his weapon at Su Kangxi, he finally relaxed.
Yang Sijie was about to call out to him when he appeared just in time.
Yang Sijie put away his weapon and instructed Mark, "Lock him up in the stable. I won't let him die so easily!"
"Yes." Mark immediately took Su Kangxi from Yang Sijie and led him away.
Susu watched Su Kangxi being taken away by Mark. It had been a heart-stopping moment, but as long as Su Kangxi was alive, that was all that mattered.
As long as he was alive, she would find a way to escape with him!
Now, she and Yang Sijie were alone in the house again.
Yang Sijie walked over to her, attempting to comfort her, "Don't be scared. I was just trying to scare him."
Susu, however, took a step back, maintaining a distance, and asked, "Who between the two of you is the bad guy? I heard you talking about an undercover agent. Is he a police officer?"
Yang Sijie nodded, "Yes, he is indeed a police officer."
Susu immediately seemed afraid of him, saying, "If he's a police officer, then you're the bad guy."
"Are all police officers supposed to be good people?" Yang Sijie retorted.
Susu asserted, "The TV says police officers are good people. They catch bad guys. He said he wanted to bring you to justice, so have you committed a crime?"
Yang Sijie was speechless. He regretted testing her using Su Kangxi again. The trust they had finally built was about to be destroyed.
"Even if I'm bad to everyone in the world, I'm definitely a good person to you."
Susu found it amusing; he was quite the sophist.
She asked, "Will you kill that person, the one named Su Kangxi? Have you ever killed anyone?"
"No, of course, I've never actually killed anyone," Yang Sijie answered decisively this time.
"Really? Then why did you hide your weapon under the table?"
Yang Sijie quickly replied, "For self-defense. This area is deserted for miles. If any ruffians were to approach us, we'd need something to defend ourselves with."
"Okay, I understand. I think I'll go back to my room to think about it." With that, she darted upstairs like a little rabbit encountering a wolf and fled back to her room.
Yang Sijie watched her retreating figure and sighed inwardly. Their relationship had been improving, but now he had to find a way to make her trust him again.
In the following days, Susu continued to ride horses, take walks, and cook with Yang Sijie. However, she maintained a certain distance, neither too close nor too far.
She didn't witness Yang Sijie tormenting Su Kangxi firsthand, but she knew Mark delivered leftovers to the stable every day, which meant Su Kangxi was still alive.
She felt she needed to speed up her plans. If Su Kangxi continued to be confined in the stable like livestock, he would suffer a fate worse than death, even if he wasn't starved.
Yang Sijie had already explained the situation regarding Su Kangxi, so she had no reason to demand that he treat Su Kangxi better. Doing so would only risk exposing her own plan.
The only recourse was to continue to endure and be patient.
Today, as she and Yang Sijie were leisurely riding horses on the grassland, Yang Sijie suddenly became enthusiastic. "Don't you want to learn to ride a horse perfectly soon? How about we have a race? If you can beat me, or ride alongside me, then you'll have learned. Do you dare to compete?"
"What do I have to be afraid of? Come on, how do we compete?"
"We'll ride from here to the trees ahead. No detours, and you have to jump over those fences. Is that okay?"
Susu glanced at the distance and pretended to regret her agreement, but she forced herself to say, "No problem, who's afraid of whom? Let's race."
As soon as she finished speaking, Susu seized the initiative, whipped her horse, and galloped ahead.
Yang Sijie didn't rush to catch up. He let her get a head start before beginning his pursuit.
Susu, displaying her competitive spirit, squeezed her horse's flanks and sped up. For the first time, she cleared all the fences consecutively, cheering inwardly, "Success! I can do it! I've learned to ride and jump obstacles!"
Just as she neared the edge of the woods, Yang Sijie had caught up to her.
She playfully reined in her horse and exclaimed happily, "I won! I got here first, you lost!"
Yang Sijie looked at her helplessly, unconcerned with winning or losing. "Alright, you win. Your riding has improved a lot."
"Really?" Susu feigned ignorance. "It's all because you were chasing me. I was really giving it my all to win." Yang Sijie gave her a thumbs-up. Susu smiled and turned to look at the woods behind them, wondering if she could ride through the dense forest.
"What are you looking at?" Yang Sijie asked.
Susu looked at him and asked with a shiver, "Are there any wild beasts in this forest? Is it very scary inside?"
Yang Sijie smiled and rode up beside her, tapping her forehead. "What are you thinking? This is hardly a forest; it's just a tree-lined path. The trees on both sides were planted by the estate's owner a hundred years ago. They've grown into towering trees, which is why it's so dense."
Susu let out an "Oh," feeling incredibly fortunate, as if heaven were assisting her.
"Would you like to ride through this tree-lined path together?" Yang Sijie asked.
Susu couldn't have wished for anything more. "Okay..." But before she could finish the word, she suddenly felt an inexplicable discomfort, as if ants were crawling all over her.
Seeing her expression change drastically, Yang Sijie quickly asked, "What's wrong?"
Susu endured the sudden, intense itching and said, "It feels like something crawled onto me. It's so itchy. I need to go back."
"No way, we haven't even entered the woods yet, how could there be bugs..." Yang Sijie said, then remembered the injection he had given Susu when they escaped the penthouse. A month had passed without him realizing it.