Chapter 38 Gu Zhen Is Chasing After Us

Chapter 38: Gu Zhen Has Caught Up

Watching a spectacle is almost human nature, and everyone’s gaze immediately fell on the young man the woman was pointing at.

As if thinking his wife was being a bit too shrewish, the young man looked embarrassed and lowered his head awkwardly.

He kept his head down, muttering “excuse me” and “coming through” to the crowd, hoping to get out of the station quickly and resolve this farce. The onlookers, eager for the drama, parted to let him through.

Whether it was because he seemed too meek and pathetic to be a wanted fugitive, or because they were too absorbed in the gossip, the ticket inspector just barely glanced at his ticket and ID before waving him through.

He hurried over to the woman and child. The woman gave him a hard shove and muttered a few curses under her breath, probably scolding him for being useless and not stepping up sooner to defend them.

“I’m sorry, sir,” the young man explained to the troublemaker, “my wife and daughter really did come to pick me up today. But I’ve been away studying for years, and my wife had to support me. It’s been tough on them. Maybe there was some misunderstanding before…”

From this brief exchange, the onlookers pieced together the story. Some who had been watching from the start explained to latecomers that this man was a kept man, relying on his wife to put him through school in the capital while she and their child stayed behind in their hometown.

The guy came from a poor family, and sometimes the kid had to sneak onto the train to sell things for money. She’d been caught before. This time, she wasn’t selling anything—she was there to pick up her dad—but the person who had caught her before recognized her.

Rumors swirled that the man might even be having an affair, acting like he didn’t know his own wife and child when things got tough. It was a perfect storm of gossip that the crowd loved.

“No, no, I’m not cheating…” The young man’s face turned bright red as the crowd started murmuring loudly. He awkwardly tried to explain, “Just now, I just didn’t recognize them…”

The crowd booed. They’d seen plenty of men like this before. If his wife hadn’t been so sharp-tongued and capable and forced him into a corner in public, he would have kept acting like he didn’t know them.

“…Please be understanding,” the young man said, his face even redder. He pretended not to hear the crowd’s chatter, picked up the child’s coin purse, and handed it to the man. “Please, take this money.”

“That was pocket money for your daughter!” The woman was immediately displeased and reached out to grab the purse back, but the man had already pocketed the coins.

“How can you be such a pushover…” The woman glared hatefully at the young man beside her.

The troublemaker, satisfied, took the child’s purse, dumped out the loose coins into his own pocket, and tossed the worn but clean purse back to the child.

“Alright, alright,” the young man coaxed his wife, “I’ll give the baby some new pocket money later. Don’t be mad. This is a public place; we’re blocking the way and bothering everyone else.”

At his words, the crowd booed again, then grumbled and dispersed. The child had been crying the whole time, her face streaked with tears.

The young man picked up the child, took out ten gold coins, and put them into her little purse. The woman carefully wiped the child’s face clean, and together with the young man, they headed toward the station exit.

People in District 26 married young, and young couples were usually their age. Walking together with a child, no one would guess they weren’t a real family.

The woman cast a hateful glance back at the man who had bullied them, still resentful over the money the young man had given away.

As they stepped out of the station gate, several alphas who had been lurking among the crowd, seemingly waiting to pick someone up, silently slipped out of the station without a sound.

“Where do you live? I’ll take you home,” Lin Zhiyu asked the child quietly once she was sure no one was following.

She pulled a car key from her pocket and handed it to Zhu Shinian, signaling him to drive himself. Zhu Shinian took the key and noticed a sticker on the back with the license plate number and parking spot—Lin Zhiyu must have prepared it in advance.

Lin Zhiyu was always on top of details.

“Thank you, big brother and sister. I live right nearby. No need to see me home.”

Zhu Shinian was still a bit worried, but Lin Zhiyu gave him a pat, meaning they should let the child go home on her own.

Zhu Shinian then realized that two strangers suddenly dragging a five- or six-year-old girl into this act—the kid was probably worried they were human traffickers.

The child thanked them again and quickly disappeared into the alley beside the train station.

Zhu Shinian and Lin Zhiyu got into the car. It wasn’t new; it looked like something they had bought from the black market. No one else would know how to buy things on the black market in District 26. Li Qianxu must have come as well.

There were a few other members of A2 Group in the car. Apart from Lin Zhiyu, who had been with Zhu Shinian since he joined the military, the others didn’t have deep ties with him.

Lin Zhiyu started the engine immediately. For a moment, Zhu Shinian even suspected they were trying to lure him in.

“How did all of you…”

“Bro, we got assigned to your unit,” a young man who had just joined A2 Group last year interrupted before he could finish. “Do you think we had any future in the Empire after you left?”

Zhu Shinian froze, a little embarrassed.

He had killed the Governor of District 2. While that couldn’t be blamed on his subordinates, it had indeed screwed up their future.

“Sorry… I’ve dragged you all down with me.”

“…Colonel, Xiao Luo didn’t mean it that way,” Lin Zhiyu explained. “Without you from the start, we would have been oppressed elsewhere. Isn’t that what happened to Xiao Li?”

“What about your families?”

“My two dads already fled to the Resistance Zone,” Luo Minghan jumped in. “I reported them dead from gas poisoning last week. They don’t care about two worthless commoners from District 20 anyway. Sister Lin’s little sister was studying at Imperial Capital University; she came back to District 26 a few days ago…”

Zhu Shinian listened as they recounted. Most of his subordinates were from commoner families, and their families had already moved to the Resistance Zone or District 26.

“Colonel, don’t worry,” Lin Zhiyu said. “If their families weren’t taken care of, Xiao Li wouldn’t have brought them on this boat.”

“Zhiyu, don’t call me Colonel anymore,” Zhu Shinian corrected. “I’m not a colonel now.”

“Bro,” Luo Minghan, sitting in the back, changed his tune. “Even though we don’t know why you killed that Ning Ye, we know what kind of person you are. You must have had your reasons.”

“Wherever you go, we go.”

Wherever you go, we go.

Of the four people in this car, Lin Zhiyu had been with him the longest—a year and a half. The shortest had only been six months.

The Empire he’d served faithfully for six years had pushed him to the brink, but these subordinates, who had only crossed paths with him by chance, said to him, “Wherever you go, I go.”

Lin Zhiyu continued to brief Zhu Shinian on the situation: “That black car ahead is driven by Li Qianxu. He knows these roads. We flew here by helicopter this morning. The rest of A2 Group has already arrived at the Resistance Zone. We have about forty minutes to reach the border with the Resistance Zone.”

“You guys took the military helicopter pretending it was a mission to capture me?” Zhu Shinian was stunned by their audacity.

“Yeah,” Luo Minghan said openly, even a little proud. “Otherwise, how could we catch you in time? That senile old Gu Liancheng had to give us a plane, didn’t he?”

“Brother Li used to be a pilot, so he could fly. What luck—now we’ve got a military helicopter as our ticket in. Governor Tao’s gonna be thrilled, I bet.”

Even back in the military, Luo Minghan had always been one to make jokes even with the sky falling. Hearing him talk trash about Gu Liancheng made even Lin Zhiyu, who had been serious the whole way, smile.

“Brother Li initially suspected… suspected that Commander Gu was setting us up,” Lin Zhiyu couldn’t help adding. “But we still can’t let our guard down. When I came over, I noticed that the station exit security had suddenly tightened about half an hour ago. They must have found out you’re in District 26.”

“A normal person’s reaction would be to get as far from the capital as possible. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve pinpointed the Colonel in District 26,” an alpha in the backseat chimed in. “But they’ve definitely confirmed he left the capital. I snuck a look at someone else’s screen just now—there’s already a news flash saying several inspectors at the Capital Station were punished for negligence. Commander Gu was furious, I heard, and he even used a military baton.”

“Serves them right!” Luo Minghan cursed along. “Those inspectors at the Capital Station were clearly spoiled brats from noble families who couldn’t get into university and refused to work hard. They looked down on anyone who dressed plainly and mocked them openly. That old bastard Gu Liancheng actually did something good.”

Zhu Shinian didn’t join their banter. He stared blankly at the rearview mirror. Lin Zhiyu noticed his tension and took a quick look at the mirror too.

“Are you looking at the black car behind us? It shouldn’t be a problem. The license plates are local civilian ones, and it doesn’t seem to be following us. The driver doesn’t look military either.”

γ-26-JV47.

As if to confirm her words, the car quickly signaled a left turn, then merged smoothly into the left lane, soon disappearing at the fork in the road ahead.

"Zhiyu, tell Xiao Li, Fu Cheng, and the others that we’re not going to the rebel border anymore."

"Colonel?"

Zhu Shinian remembered why this license plate had felt strange to him.

He had seen this car during his time with the Gu Family Guard, even though he had only glanced at it in the garage. But his memory was so sharp he almost never forgot a thing—he couldn't be mistaken—this was the Gu family car.

Gu Zhen had caught up.

"Colonel?" Lin Zhiyu called him again, realizing there might not be time for a lengthy explanation, and settled for asking another question.

"Yes, sir, we’re not going to the rebel border. Where are we going now?"

Zhu Shinian named a place.

"Head north of the city, to Kunlora Mountain."

Author's note: