However, the weather was becoming increasingly overcast, and it was clear that rain was imminent. Gu Xiaoer shuffled towards a corner near the entrance, hugging her scant clothes tightly around her to ward off the cold.
In her heart, she continually prayed for Han Luoli to come quickly and for the rain to hold off.
Gu Xiaoer's prayers went unheard; Han Luoli did not come, but the pouring rain did.
What had begun as a light drizzle soon intensified into a steady, dense shower.
Now, Gu Xiaoer really was like a drowned rat, with no place to take shelter, and this villa area seldom had any taxis passing through.
Walk or stay, she would be drenched either way.
Gu Xiaoer was caught in a dilemma, but she still waited obediently for Han Luoli to appear.
Just wait a bit longer, she thought, any moment now, he'll suddenly show up.
Gu Xiaoer, groggy and weighed down by the consecutive days spent working overtime on her drawings, eventually dozed off while hugging her knees at the entrance of the mansion.
Time passed, undefined, until a sharp screeching of tires sliced through the torrential downpour.
In a crisp white suit, holding a large black umbrella, Bai Xiaoyu gazed down at the figure by the door that resembled an abandoned puppy.
Her hair, wet from the rain, covered most of her face, only her gentle and delicate silhouette remained discernible.
This girl...he had seen her somewhere before.
Yet, upon glancing at the tightly shut doors of the villa and shaking his head in disappointment, it seemed Han Luoli was indeed not here.
Unable to reach him by phone and having affairs to attend to at the company, that's why Bai Xiaoyu had come here.
However, instead of finding Han Luoli, he stumbled upon a stray cat.
Indifference flickered in his eyes; a woman in front of Han Luoli's mansion was indeed a rare sight.
But he was always averse to dirt, and he had no intention of meddling in the girl's miserable state.
Seating himself in the car, Bai Xiaoyu started the vehicle and turned around, but his heart wouldn't let him leave things be; he tossed the large black umbrella beside Gu Xiaoer's feet and then disappeared into the veil of rain with his car.
However, within five minutes, the car turned back around.
The screech of the brakes this time was even sharper than before.
Bai Xiaoyu frowned, finding it difficult to step over the moral lines in his heart for a girl stranded in such a desolate place.
He got out of the car again and shook the woman curled up in a ball.
She was motionless and unresponsive; she had actually passed out.
What could be so important that she'd wait out in the heavy rain?
Despite his disdain, once he started to intervene, he had no intention of stopping. He moved Gu Xiaoer to the back seat of the car, and her fair face became clear. It wasn't until Bai Xiaoyu got a good look at her face that he remembered where he had seen this girl before—she was that girl from Nanyi.
The one Han Luoli had specifically asked him to look after...
Annoyed, he brushed off the dirt the woman had gotten on his clothes, and even though Bai Xiaoyu was not fond of Gu Xiaoer, he still turned on the heater. Through the rearview mirror, the girl's face looked pale, her lips tinged with blue—it seemed she had caught a chill from the rain. With no way to reach Han Luoli, he had no choice but to take her to the hospital.
At the VIP hospital in the city center, Shen Minghan stared at Gu Xiaoer, whom Bai Xiaoyu had carried in, with his mouth agape.
"Don't you have a thing about cleanliness?"
"I've also got a bellyful of anger."
Bai Xiaoyu dumped Gu Xiaoer onto the hospital bed without mercy, leaving her to the nurses for a check-up.
Shen Minghan looked at him with a puzzled expression, "What happened? She..."
"Couldn't find Han Luoli, just saw her waiting outside the Huaihai Imperial Villa."
Shen Minghan pondered and then murmured softly, "I heard, that woman has come."