Susu rode her horse day and night without stopping.
It wasn't until the sky began to brighten, and the sun slowly rose, that she still saw no sign of human habitation. A mountain appeared before her.
Su Kangxi was slumped over the horse's back, his hands gripping its neck tightly. He had been swaying in a daze, on the verge of collapse.
Susu pulled the reins, stopping the horse, and encouraged him, "Kangxi, look! There's a mountain ahead. Let's just hold on a bit longer. Once we cross it, we should see a city or town."
Su Kangxi grunted, almost losing his balance and falling off the horse.
Susu steadied him, dismounted first, and said, "We've been fleeing all night. Let's rest for a bit. Take your cold medicine again, and try to sweat it out. That will help you recover faster."
Su Kangxi no longer had the strength to respond. He let Susu help him dismount and sit on the grass to rest.
Susu gave him another dose of cold medicine. She was also exhausted and took out some dry rations and water to replenish her energy.
She had never ridden a horse for so long. The skin on the inner side of her thighs was chafed raw. Although it hurt terribly, she endured the pain without a sound.
Even though they had fled all night and hadn't seen any densely populated towns, she told herself not to lose hope. As long as they crossed the mountain ahead, they would be fine.
After taking the medicine, Su Kangxi, utterly exhausted, lay down on the grass, closing his eyes and just wanting to sleep.
Susu looked back in the direction they had come from but saw no one pursuing them. It seemed they had enough time to rest. The most important thing now was to help Kangxi regain his strength.
She too, tired, lay back on the grass, gazing at the now bright sky, as if a ray of freedom was beckoning her.
Suddenly, she saw what looked like a large, open umbrella in the sky, drifting towards the grassy area where they were resting.
She thought she was seeing things, so she rubbed her eyes and opened them again.
A parachute, it was indeed a parachute!
Susu sat up alertly, patted Su Kangxi, who was still resting with his eyes closed, and said, "Kangxi, wake up! There's a parachute in the sky. We don't know who it is, but we need to find a place to hide."
Su Kangxi opened his eyes, but the cold medicine made him very dizzy. He couldn't get up and said weakly, "Sister Susu, you hide first. I, I really don't have any strength left."
Susu saw that he didn't even have the strength to stand, let alone cross the mountain ahead with her.
Regardless of whether the person descending from the parachute was friend or foe, she would not abandon Kangxi and flee alone.
She forcefully lifted Kangxi's head and gave him some more water, saying, "Okay, it's alright. Maybe your colleagues have come to rescue us."
"Sister Susu..."
"Don't speak. Rest here after drinking some water. I'll go see who it is that's falling from the parachute."
As she spoke, she placed her backpack beside Su Kangxi and walked towards the direction the parachute was drifting. At worst, she would be captured by Yang Sijie again.
No matter how he confined her, as long as she had a breath left, she would not give up on escaping him.
Susu tilted her head back, following the descending parachute, and waved and shouted at the person tied to it, whose identity she couldn't yet discern, "Who are you? I'm here, here!"
She knew that only by exposing her location first could she ensure Kangxi remained undiscovered.
The parachute finally landed on the grass. Susu stood about a meter away and watched as the person tied to the parachute unstrapped the parachute pack and removed their helmet.
Susu looked at the man who had descended from the sky, her eyes seeming to gleam with a light, and time itself seemed to freeze.
Qin Tianyi's gaze also fell upon Susu, and he could hardly believe that the woman before him was Gu Susu, the one he was looking for.
He had come by helicopter and, to avoid alerting Yang Sijie, had chosen to parachute at a location quite far from the house in the manor, intending to trek to find Susu.
But to his surprise, as soon as he landed, Susu was standing right in front of him, making him doubt his own eyes. He looked at her in silence.
Her face was haggard, her eyes sunken, her hair disheveled… He wondered how much suffering she had endured during this time.
Qin Tianyi's heart ached. He opened his arms and spoke first, "Gu Susu, you're a liar."
"Yes," Susu replied, and no longer able to restrain herself, she threw herself into his arms, holding him tightly. She never expected to meet him like this in her life.
Qin Tianyi took a deep breath, suppressing his emotions with great effort, and said, "How long were you planning to lie to me? Didn't I tell you to take good care of the child and wait for me? Why did you do this, returning to Yang Sijie's side?"
Susu was silent for a few seconds, then whispered, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I wanted to wait for you to come back, but… but I couldn't live without you…"
"You traded your life for mine. How can I live happily? Do you want me to live in endless humiliation forever?" Qin Tianyi gritted his teeth in pain.
Ever since he learned the truth, the pain that had been weighing on his heart, the torment he had endured, had brought him to the brink of collapse.
Ignoring his unhealed injuries, he had gone madly abroad and found the foreign police handling Yang Sijie's case, reporting everything he knew.
The foreign police, in their pursuit of Yang Sijie, had searched every possible hiding place but found nothing.
It wasn't until seven days ago, when the tracker on Su Kangxi was activated, that the police were able to pinpoint their exact location.
Qin Tianyi couldn't wait for the police deployment. He rented a helicopter himself, parachuted to this location, intending to save Susu even if it cost him his life.
It turned out that Yang Sijie's hiding place was in a large canyon near the sea.
Anxiously, Susu pulled away from his embrace and said, "Tianyi, now is not the time to talk about this. Kangxi is still lying on the grass over there, burning with a high fever. If Yang Sijie discovers that I've escaped with Kangxi, he'll come after us at any moment."
"Let him come! I'll kill him!" Qin Tianyi said, touching the weapon at his waist, ready for a life-or-death struggle with Yang Sijie.
Susu said frantically, "Please don't. Heaven will punish him. Don't ruin yourself for him. While he hasn't caught up yet, let's find a place to hide, or cross this mountain."
Qin Tianyi couldn't help but look up at the sky. The helicopter that had brought him had already flown away.
He had arranged with the helicopter pilot to meet three days later in the morning. There was no signal in this canyon, and no way to contact the outside world.
He looked at the mountain and said to Susu, "We have to take Kangxi across this mountain. From the helicopter, I saw a port city on the other side. Once we reach that city, we'll be safe."
Susu's heart leaped with joy. It was just as she had predicted. No matter how desolate a place was, there had to be an end to it; it couldn't be endless wilderness.
"Okay," Susu said, and went to lead the horse.