Everything was pitch-black. Gu Ruochu felt as if her entire body was shrouded in darkness. She tried to move but realized that her hands were tied behind her back. They were numb and in pain.
'Where is Cheng Xi?'
A strange fear lingered in Gu Ruochu's heart. She did not know where she was, and the thought of someone harming Cheng Xi frightened her.
Gu Ruochu lay still on the cold ground and listened keenly to the sounds around her.
All she could hear was the slow dripping of water from what she assumed to be a pipe.
Even though she had been kidnapped, Gu Ruochu was not afraid. She immediately tried to think back to the events leading up to her kidnapping.
It would take a bold and powerful person to attempt to kidnap a woman of Gu Ruochu's status in broad daylight.
As she tried to figure out the identity of her abductors, she heard a rustling sound, and a rough voice rang out behind her ears. "She's not awake yet?"
"No, this woman can really sleep."
An irritated voice belonging to a young man replied. The man paused and then asked impatiently, "What should we do if she doesn't wake up? That child has already woken up. Fortunately, he's not crying. However, he doesn't want anyone to touch him."
"What else can we do? We should continue to wait!"
Gu Ruochu listened to the voices carefully, but they were all unfamiliar.
However, when he heard them talking about the child, she felt relieved.
Cheng Xi was fine.
Gu Ruochu wanted to get more information, but the two men did not speak again.
After waiting for a while, the young man grew impatient and spoke up. "Why did the boss take on such a task? Aren't you afraid of the Huo family's revenge? One of the hostages is Madam Huo, and the other is Master Huo's illegitimate child."
"What do you know? Don't you know that Master Huo is in a coma? Or do you think that the boss is taking on the risk blindly? When the woman wakes up, we'll threaten to sell her to the mountains and strangle her if she doesn't tell us where Ning's daughter is. When we find out where Ning's daughter is, we'll..."
The young man made a throat-cutting gesture. "After we get the information, we'll hand her and the boy over to the men at the docks, and they'll ship them off to some remote place. No one will ever find out about us."
The other man quickly interrupted him and said in a low voice, "Are you sure you're not mistaken? The boss only asked us to pretend to kill the child and threaten this woman so that she can tell us about Ning Tangxi's whereabouts. He didn't ask us to sell them off."
"The plan has changed. The employer gave our boss another seven million to make this matter go away. This woman should never return to Nan Cheng for the rest of her life," the young man reminded him. "When the time comes, we'll sell them off for a significant amount."
The other man's eyes widened when he heard the figure. The employer had turned out to be very jealous.
'Who is the employer?'
Gu Ruochu tried to think about who she might have offended. Aside from the Ning family, she couldn't think of anyone else who would have such a deep hatred for her. From the conversation between the two men, it was clear that she and Cheng Xi had been captured and driven far away from the city.
When she heard them mention Ning Tangxi's name, Gu Ruochu's heart had turned cold.
Aside from Zhang Yuan and Ning Zongxuan, she could not think of anybody else who was interested in finding Ning Tangxi.
Based on what the two men had said, they would use Cheng Xi to force her to reveal Ning Tangxi's whereabouts and then sell her and Cheng Xi to a remote place.
By then, the sky would be high, and the emperor would be far away. Regardless of her status, she would have to live in that remote mountain for the rest of her life. The more she thought about it, the colder her heart became. Gu Ruochu had not expected the Ning family to be so cruel.
When she thought that Zhang Yuan would be involved in such a plot, Gu Ruochu felt disgusted.