Chapter 111: Premeditation
Gu City, South Gate First Street.
Returning to the small courtyard, the Little Round Circle who had been waiting so impatiently that it was about to jump over the wall grabbed her foot and refused to let go.
Looking at its wet eyes, Su Ning felt a bit guilty and squatted down, patiently explaining while rubbing its fluffy little head.
Only until it calmed its emotions and released its paws did she smile and stand up, “Sister-in-law must have fed you quite a few good things, huh? Look at that round belly of yours.”
“Woof~”
Having a reliable person nearby who was so close made her feel much less worried when she went out.
Looking at the flowers, plants, and fruit trees in the yard that had been well taken care of, and even the obvious signs of cleaning inside and outside the house, the smile in Su Ning’s eyes deepened involuntarily.
Thinking back to when she went to pick up the key, Sister-in-law Tian said that Brother Zhang and Brother Mao had both returned safely, but at this time they had each gone back to their work posts.
Although protected by the black jade pendant, getting accurate news truly put her completely at ease.
……
In the blink of an eye, a week had passed.
The rain that had been falling continuously for who knows how many days finally stopped, welcoming the long-missed sun.
The follow-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival incident, the reconstruction of Gaoyun Bridge, and the resettlement of disaster victims on Back Street were all proceeding in an orderly manner under the deployment and arrangements of the city’s major leaders.
After running short trips for about a month, Zhang Ze received his first long-distance task.
Su Ning, who was now temporarily alone for commuting, had to coax and persuade Zhang Ze, who was endlessly worried and anxious.
She, who felt there was no problem at all, didn’t know that after waiting patiently for so long, more than one person had finally gotten the opportunity they had been eagerly anticipating when she was alone.
Tang Tian, who stared at her leaving the office directly after work, had a smile on her lips, with long-suppressed excitement in the depths of her eyes, even a hint of faint madness.
“Tiantian, aren’t you leaving yet?”
Hearing the familiar voice beside her, Tang Tian put away her smile and instantly switched to disgust, “I have something to do today and won’t go over there, you go ahead first!”
Thinking of all the things that happened with this disgusting person, she couldn’t help but want to vomit.
If it weren’t for tasting the forbidden fruit for the first time and knowing that soul-melting pleasure, Hu Yong was ugly but truly skilled in that area, letting her experience joy and pleasure every time.
She would have long made that toad who ate the swan meat and still wasn’t satisfied, even delusionally using it as an excuse to force her to marry him, pay for it!
Slowly clenching her fist, Hu Yong wasn’t blind to the disgust and revulsion clearly showing in her eyes and even on her face, but thinking of something, he had to suppress the faintly rising anger.
The smile on his face naturally turned into one of dejection and pain, the affection in his eyes even deeper and impeccable, “Tiantian…”
“Are you annoying or what? I said not to call me that in the office, if someone hears, hmph!”
The upward inflection ended with a heavy cold snort, her gaze carrying a threatening warning as Tang Tian grabbed her handbag and twisted her waist out of the office.
“Bang~”
“Clang~”
Hu Yong, no longer able to control himself, slammed his tightly clenched fist on the desk, making the lid of the enamel cup on it jump.
‘That damn slutty bitch, just wait until the day you enter my Hu family door… hmph!’
……
With a know-it-all by her side who could find out anything for a bit of money and ration coupons, it was easy.
Upon getting the accurate news that Su Ning’s obstructive dark-faced older brother had finally gone on a long trip, Qiao Yuan, distracted for most of the day, finally endured until ten minutes before the end-of-work bell.
Covering his stomach and making a pained face, he smoothly got off work early. After leaving the workshop, Qiao Yuan’s spirits changed from listless and pained, and he quickly hurried to the dormitory.
Changing into a clean set of clothes at the fastest speed, then taking the Mid-Autumn Festival gift he had prepared for so long but never found the chance to give, he walked with brisk steps and arrived right on time at the necessary route for Su Ning to go home.
Meanwhile, the completely unaware Su Ning was pushing her bicycle along with the crowd going out.
She was used to Zhang Ze’s company, and also to that lively Fu Jiaming who didn’t know where he would suddenly pop out from a corner to scare her.
With neither of them by her side, everything suddenly felt a bit strange.
Shaking her head and walking to the main street where the crowd had thinned, Su Ning stopped thinking about this sudden emotion and prepared to ride her bicycle.
Then she saw a few people dressed in gaudy clothes like street thugs swaggering toward her, waving with sly grins on their faces.
Not wanting to pay them any attention, she immediately got on her bike and sped away from the spot.
“Ding ding ding~”
“Ding ding~”
Right behind her, a series of bell-like sounds rang out, like urging or teasing.
A trace of cold intent rose in her eyes as Su Ning pursed her lips, knowing that this group was indeed coming for her.
Was it He Yue, who had been holding back without showing up and wanted to make a big move? Or… Tang Tian’s delayed revenge?
For now, only these two had ill intentions toward her, full of malice.
Brother Zhang had inquired about He Yue before; she hadn’t left Gu City for Star City, but instead rented a house somewhere and just hadn’t rashly come looking again.
He Yue, who had been able to play weak to gain sympathy and quietly reap benefits for herself since childhood and prided herself on being clever, would absolutely not easily give up what she had gotten.
No need to think to know she was plotting something.
As for Tang Tian, thinking back to their brief conflict that had been completely one-sided.
Although Director Liang didn’t favor anyone afterward and punished both equally, he hadn’t revoked her qualification for selection and still kept her application for the factory headquarters’ reward.
This action made Tang Tian, who knew about it at the time, so furious she nearly exploded, even flipping over everything on her desk to vent.
But since that outburst of losing control, so much time had passed without any other extreme actions, only occasionally glaring at her sinisterly.
From the conflict happening to immediately going on a business trip, then coming back and Zhang Ze joining the job.
And linking to his “one battle” after first joining the transport team that indeed intimidated quite a few people.
So, seeing no one around, she finally thought she had caught the opportunity? Brother Zhang’s worry had indeed come true?
With so many thoughts surging in her mind, in reality it was just a blink of an eye. Su Ning, riding her bike without daring to stop, ignored the annoying bell sounds and laughter behind her, just pedaling desperately.
Rebuilding Gaoyun Bridge would take quite a bit more time, so to return to the south gate across the river, she could only detour via the other two relatively closer large bridges.
However, no matter which one she chose, it would take half an hour longer than going home before.
Just as she was about to turn from the main street into Riverside Street, Su Ning’s heart startled with a bad premonition and decisively gave up the direct route home.
But they didn’t give her a chance to change lanes; the people behind suddenly sped up and reached out to grab and yank the rear seat of her bicycle.
The force was so great that the entire rear wheel lifted off the ground, and Su Ning fell off the bike completely unprepared.
Standing up, ignoring the swelling pain in her ankle and the scrapes on her body, she was forced step by step into the mouth of an unmanned alley by the people surrounding her.
Seeing her with a few scratches on her face, retreating while on tiptoes, even at this point she neither cried nor shouted, not even any fear in her eyes, so calm that it surprised even this big man.
“Su Ning, right?”
“Sent by Tang Tian? Under Master Bin?”
Guessing their identity from just a name, the leader couldn’t help but smile.
“Tsk~ So pretty and so smart, I almost don’t want to do it!”
One hand behind his back successively took out from the space a glass bottle filled with unknown liquid that gleamed with a greenish oily luster, and a packet of powder made entirely of chili pepper and Sichuan peppercorns.
Last time in Shanghai City, she had suffered such a big loss at the hands of those two enemies, and recently she’d been busy researching drug manufacturing. When she discovered that the ancient formulas recorded in the Medical Canon not only had various life-saving and healing ones, but several pages had quite a few with strange uses.
To avoid repeating the same mistake and to have self-protection ability, Su Ning picked the simplest and easiest one to practice.
After wasting a lot of purchased Chinese medicinal materials, last night she finally… succeeded? Because it directly turned into an alternative version, she didn’t know if it counted as a successful sleeping potion.
She was just worrying about not being able to test it on the meats from the aquaculture farm, and here came free test subjects delivered to her door?
“Hey! What are you doing!”
Blocking ahead not far away, he had finally waited but hadn’t even had time to greet when he saw the person he longed for speed past him.
Before Comrade Su could shout out, he then saw one two three four five six drifting along in the bike flow right behind.
His heart immediately tensed, and he ran over at the fastest speed waving his arms desperately, finally seeing her again.
Seeing those few scummy bastards forcing Su Ning toward the alley, Qiao Yuan’s blood rushed straight to his head, his eyes turned bloodshot, and he charged forward without hesitation.
“You bastards dare to touch her, you all don’t want to live!”
