Mu Guiying asked him whether he believed what she said.
Gu Yunche slipped both hands into the pockets of his neatly pressed dark gray trousers and stared at her with an unreadable expression.
Suddenly, he let out a cold laugh.
“Do you think I believe you?”
Well, that conversation died quickly.
Mu Guiying smoothed her braid and asked irritably,
“So Commander Gu means that from the very beginning, you never planned to take me away. Is that right?”
Gu Yunche’s feelings were complicated at the moment.
The little pity he once felt for Mu Guiying had nearly vanished, and he was even beginning to regret ever considering taking her away from here.
“That’s right. Both your character and your thinking have problems. I don’t want someone like you living around my parents.”
Gu Yunche answered in a deep voice. It was true he did not want her returning to the capital with him, but he had never intended to completely abandon her.
Mu Guiying stared blankly at the man before her.
He was tall and broad-shouldered, with bronze skin and sharply defined features that resembled a Greek sculpture. His thin lips were pressed together lightly, his nose high and straight, while those dark peach-blossom eyes held a cold gleam, making him appear wild yet disciplined, noble yet restrained, reserved yet undeniably sensual.
And yet this man—one who could make any woman’s heart race—was saying such heartless words to her.
Biting her lip, she stared at him without blinking.
Gu Yunche coughed lightly, preparing to explain his plans.
But Mu Guiying pulled her shirt closed and looked at him coldly, mockery flashing in her eyes.
She asked sharply,
“But if Commander Gu hadn’t given that drugged wine to the fool, I wouldn’t have ended up in such a miserable state. Don’t you feel even a little guilty toward me?”
Straightening her back, she spoke firmly.
“If you take me away from Liu E’s house, then we’ll forget about the incident where you gave the fool the wine. But if you refuse to take me away, then I’ll call the local police station and say you were an accomplice. You knew there was something wrong with the wine, yet you still gave it to him. By then, I doubt Commander Gu will be able to explain himself clearly.”
She spoke bluntly because she had sensed from Gu Yunche’s words that there was still room for negotiation.
Gu Yunche didn’t want her living near his parents, and coincidentally, she had no interest in getting close to the Gu family either. But that did not stop him from taking her away from this place.
As long as she could escape Liu E, then with her modern knowledge and abilities, she should at least be able to survive in Beijing in 1984.
Gu Yunche froze briefly before nodding.
“Comrade Xiao Mu truly has a clever mind. I admire it.”
Of course she did.
Back in 2024, she had competed against livestream hosts who all had a thousand schemes up their sleeves. If she hadn’t learned to be sharp, she would have been eliminated long ago.
After hesitating for a moment, Mu Guiying finally asked,
“Commander Gu… will you take me with you?”
Gu Yunche looked at her porcelain-white face, now flushed light pink with nervous anticipation.
Raising an eyebrow, he replied,
“You’ve already said this much. Do I even have a choice not to?”
Mu Guiying paused, trying to decipher both his tone and meaning.
Inside, she cursed furiously.
Does this man even know how to speak properly? Why does he always talk in rhetorical questions? Is speaking in circles supposed to be fun?
Seeing that Mu Guiying still made no move to leave, Gu Yunche coughed awkwardly twice.
“Go back and pack your things. Early tomorrow morning, we’ll leave for the county town first.”
Gu Yunche had already made his plans.
After bringing Mu Guiying to the capital, he would temporarily settle her in a hotel. Once she turned eighteen next month and obtained identification and household registration, he would arrange for her to work at a textile factory. In the future, the Gu family would simply treat her like a distant relative. She could live in the factory dormitory and would not need to bother his parents.
This way, the Gu family would have fulfilled their responsibility, while Mu Guiying would also have a stable future.
A perfect solution for everyone.
When Gu Yunche looked up again, he saw Mu Guiying staring at him with tear-filled eyes, looking pitiful and wronged.
His brows furrowed in annoyance.
“What are you making trouble about now?”
Suppressing the curses she wanted to unleash, Mu Guiying muttered quietly under her breath over and over again,
“Inner peace, inner peace. A wise woman doesn’t suffer immediate losses. Escape first, talk later.”
Gu Yunche could not hear what she was muttering. Pressing his tongue against the inside of his cheek, he lowered his gaze toward the tips of his polished leather shoes.
Without much emotion, he said,
“Comrade Xiao Mu, if there’s nothing else, go home and pack. I need to rest.”
Mu Guiying climbed off the kang bed and shuffled out in her shoes.
Even as she walked, she kept repeating the phrase to calm herself down, afraid she would impulsively curse him aloud—
Gu Yunche, you scheming bastard. You want me to go back and pack? Do you think I’ll even make it back out alive? Besides, Liu E’s place isn’t a home at all—it’s a hellhole.
The moment Mu Guiying stepped out, Gu Yunche shut the door behind her.
As the door slammed, he suddenly realized he had said the wrong thing.
How could he tell Mu Guiying to go back and pack?
Would she even be able to leave safely afterward?
With how ignorant and lawless Liu E’s family was, they might very well force the fool to consummate things with Mu Guiying.
If that happened and matters became irreversible, taking her away would become much more troublesome.
Though Mu Guiying’s personality was questionable, she was still a young girl in the prime of her life. If she were truly ruined by that fool, how could he continue wearing his military uniform with a clear conscience?
Pressing a hand against his forehead, Gu Yunche muttered,
“They’ve messed with my head so much that I can’t even think straight.”
He immediately opened the door to stop Mu Guiying.
Instead, he saw her scooping water from the basin outside the village secretary’s house and dabbing it around her eyes. After practicing two sorrowful expressions, she turned and slipped into the brightly lit room.
Before long, sobbing sounds came from inside.
“Village Secretary, Commander Gu finally agreed to take me away, but I still have difficulties right now. I can’t go back to my aunt’s house—I’m afraid that if I do, I’ll never get out again!”
Then she cried even harder.
“Village Secretary, please pity me and let me stay at your house for one night!”
Gu Yunche gave a bitter laugh before turning back into his room and slamming the door hard enough to shake the walls.
With frustration, he muttered,
“Hah. A leopard can’t change its spots. I really underestimated her.”
That night, after settling down, Mu Guiying sat blankly on the earthen kang bed while the village secretary’s wife carried in two buckets of hot water with a shoulder pole.
Speaking gently, she said,
“Guiying, wipe yourself down and change into my clothes.”
Mu Guiying’s eyes reddened instantly.
After the exhausting day, she had already cried so much that she thought no more tears could come out. Yet now, she was deeply moved by the kindness of the village secretary and his wife.
“Auntie, thank you for taking me in.”
The secretary’s wife comforted her for a while before bringing out a new towel, a newly sewn women’s undershirt and shorts, along with a washed shirt and trousers. Then she quietly left the room.
Mu Guiying wiped herself down simply, but many parts of her body had been beaten bloody by Liu E. Her back burned painfully, covered in bruises even if the skin had not split open.
Walking toward the rectangular mirror hanging on the wall, she turned around to inspect the injuries on her back.
But when she saw the face reflected in the mirror, the towel slipped from her hands in shock.
The “Mu Guiying” in the mirror looked exactly like Mu Cheng during her final year of high school.
The Mu Guiying from the original novel actually had the exact same face as her.
Could this also be the reason she had transmigrated into the book?