"No, no," Ya Nan said, still holding her chopsticks and waving her hands. "I saw him when I was packing up at the market today, and I was shocked too. He just suddenly appeared in front of our stall. It was so strange."
"Then why didn't you tell me about this just now?"
"I thought he was just here for something, and his appearance at our stall was purely coincidental," Ya Nan sighed. "I didn't tell you because I was afraid you'd be sad and upset again upon hearing his name, and might even fall ill."
Looking at Ya Nan's expression as she spoke, Susu believed that she hadn't contacted Qin Tianyi herself, but how had Qin Tianyi found her?
If Qin Tianyi could find her, what about Yang Sijie?
She had visited a garment processing factory today. Although the equipment wasn't very good, it should be sufficient for small-batch production of fashion items according to her designs. Now that her whereabouts had been exposed, did she have to move again?
Seeing her distressed and conflicted expression, Ya Nan said, "Since Qin Tianyi found you, perhaps this is your destiny. Why don't you tell him about the grievances you've suffered this past year? You've always had him in your heart, and his finding you here proves he still cares about you. You and he are not like me and Su Kangxi; you don't have a father-killing feud between you. Why continue to let him misunderstand..."
Susu said with certainty, "He found me through every possible means because he wants revenge."
Ya Nan was completely baffled by her logic and disagreed, "What could he possibly want revenge for? What deep hatred is there between you that he needs to go to such lengths to get revenge? I think he just can't let go."
Susu's mind was in a turmoil. She suddenly stood up and walked towards her room.
Ya Nan called out to her, "The hot pot is ready, aren't you eating?"
"I'm not eating. You eat by yourself." With that, she closed her room door. The memories of her time with Qin Tianyi, both good and bad, made her heart ache, brought tears to her eyes, and caused sleepless nights.
Qin Tianyi stood under the streetlamp, gazing at the brightly lit house not far away, knowing that this was Gu Susu's current residence.
He had encountered Ya Nan at the garment wholesale market and suspected that Gu Susu and Ya Nan would be together.
He had said he was leaving, but in reality, he had stayed in a corner of the market, waiting for Ya Nan to pack up and leave. Then, he quietly followed Ya Nan, which led him to discover their address.
He watched as Ya Nan walked to the house, and within seconds, he saw Gu Susu returning.
This made him almost disbelieve his own eyes. Looking at her retreating figure, his insides ached dully. He didn't rashly go to knock on the door but forced himself to remain rational and waited outside.
Indeed, he didn't have to wait long before he saw Gu Susu emerge from the house. Even though he was not far from her, she didn't see him as she walked with her head down.
It wasn't until she came out of the supermarket after buying groceries, passing by him again, that he could no longer contain his overwhelming anger and called out her name, word by word.
Every night since they parted, the empty bed and the dark room brought him endless loneliness and darkness whenever he woke up in the middle of the night.
He knew he was like someone possessed. He could easily find other women to fill the void.
Yet, he was inexplicably drawn only to her body; other women held no interest for him.
Not far from her residence, he waited all night, deciding that after seeing Susu one more time, he had to return to Lancheng immediately to avoid arousing Yang Sijie's suspicions.
...
The next morning, Ya Nan had been up for a while, but there was no movement from Susu's room.
She stood at Susu's door for a long time, wanting to knock, but her hand hovered over the door several times before retracting. It seemed Qin Tianyi's appearance would completely disrupt their life here.
Regardless of any changes, she decided to go out and buy some breakfast. Susu hadn't eaten much last night, leaving her to eat until she was stuffed.
Qin Tianyi waited outside the house but did not see Gu Susu appear again. He only saw Wei Ya Nan walk out of the house.
Wei Ya Nan immediately spotted the haggard-looking Qin Tianyi and pointed at him angrily, "You're really good at pretending! It wasn't a coincidence at the market yesterday; you deliberately followed me!"
Qin Tianyi's gaze was as cold as ice, scaring Ya Nan into retracting her finger. She then added, "As the CEO of a major corporation, do you have to be so sneaky?"
"How is she?" Qin Tianyi asked.
"How else? After seeing you, she locked herself in her room crying her eyes out. She must not have slept well all night."
"Crying?" Qin Tianyi said disbelievingly. "She'd still be sad because of me? You must have spent all night planning how to move."
Wei Ya Nan felt that the misunderstanding between them was too deep and decided she had to make things clear with Qin Tianyi this time. After all, she hadn't approached Qin Tianyi; he had sought her out, so it wasn't like she was secretly acting behind Susu's back.
"Susu wants to hide from Yang Sijie, not you. Why would she panic and run for her life upon seeing you?"
"You don't need to exaggerate. I've seen how she was when she was with Yang Sijie. She lived in the best house and enjoyed the most luxurious lifestyle. Why would she need to run for her life?" Qin Tianyi felt she was exaggerating.
Wei Ya Nan said angrily, "I don't know the specifics of what happened between the three of you. But as far as I know, Susu was originally planning to remarry you. Yang Sijie used underhanded tactics to hold her captive and threatened her, forcing her to temporarily compromise. Before going abroad with Yang Sijie, she planned to study abroad for a year and then find an opportunity to escape. However, before going abroad, Ai Shunan's incident happened, causing her to lose her memory unexpectedly. Once abroad, Yang Sijie took advantage of her amnesia, cut off all contact with her old acquaintances, and constantly brainwashed her about how much they loved each other. That's why she saw Yang Sijie as her sole reliance and believed that regardless of her memory loss, Yang Sijie was the one she had always loved. Later, her friends abroad discovered that the medication Yang Sijie was giving her for memory loss was problematic, and only then did she realize something was wrong. She returned wanting to recover her memory..."
Qin Tianyi had heard some of what Ya Nan said later from Chang Qingchuan.
But what she said earlier struck him like lightning from a clear sky. His handsome face instantly lost all color.
If what Ya Nan said was true, then he had been too foolish, deceived by Yang Sijie's tricks and schemes, believing that Susu had never liked him. He wished he could slap himself hard.
Ya Nan chattered on, and he didn't know how much of it Qin Tianyi had absorbed. Seeing that his expression was still like a block of ice, she couldn't be bothered to say more. "Believe it or not, I've said all I can. I'm going to buy breakfast and soy milk."
Qin Tianyi seemed to have regained his senses and said coldly to Ya Nan, "Tell Gu Susu that I will come back to find her. Tell her to stay here with peace of mind. Besides me, Yang Sijie will not know she is here."
With that, he turned and walked away briskly.