Gu Xia struggled to breathe as her neck was squeezed; her face flushed, her neck turned red, and she began to pant heavily.
She grabbed Lu Shaoting’s hands—which were clamped around her neck—and pounded at them frantically.
When Lu Shaoting saw the tear streaks on her cheeks, his grip instinctively loosened.
Gu Xia instinctively took a few steps back, coughed violently a few times, and gasped for air, as if she were a fish out of water.
After catching her breath, she finally replied to Lu Shaoting in a low voice.
“Because you’re a high-ranking official.”
“I know. You’re definitely able to help my parents and my sister.”
Lu Shaoting really didn’t know how to look at Gu Xia; he, too, seemed to have run out of good ideas.
“Gu Xia, you can just tell me straight out. This could be so simple—why are you making a simple matter so complicated?”
Gu Xia raised her eyes to look at Lu Shaoting.
“If I told you straight out, would you help?”
“No, because you’re the kind of person who hates trouble. You’d just try to talk me out of it, or convince my parents to settle down and reform in the Northwest.”
“If I told you our family was framed, would you believe me?”
Lu Shaoting instinctively retorted, “A lot of evidence was seized from the Gu family’s home. There’s no way you were framed.”
See, this is the evidence everyone is talking about.
It was precisely because of those items that the Gu family was raided and sent into exile in a rural village in the Northwest.
The Gu family was just her family, and her family members were just her family.
She was the only one who cared.
Aside from her, not to mention the Lu family—who were on good terms with the Gus—even her own relatives might not come to their aid.
It wasn’t just that they lacked the ability; it was also that they didn’t dare.
Who would dare get involved with someone whose family background was questionable? Everyone wanted to stay as far away as possible.
Not to mention, to Lu Shaoting, the Gu family was merely a friend of his older brother’s; the older generations of the two families had some connection.
But to Lu Shaoting, who was cold-hearted by nature, none of this mattered.
In fact, if it weren’t for Gu Xia deliberately provoking him by drugging him after her rebirth, she would have had absolutely no connection to Lu Shaoting whatsoever.
But Gu Xia had no other choice.
Furthermore, in Gu Xia’s mind, the sole reason the Lu family’s eldest branch acted so arrogantly and tyrannically at work, bullying others,
it was entirely because the Lu family had Lu Shaoting, a military officer, backing them up.
Whenever Gu Xia thought of the Lu family’s eldest branch using their power to bully others—how they’d sought to steal her father’s research findings, forced her family into exile in a rural village in the Northwest, and ultimately led to the tragic deaths of her entire family—hatred welled up within her.
She knew her methods and actions were despicable, but she had no other choice.
Rest assured, she wouldn’t give birth to this child. Even if she wanted to, Lu Shaoting wouldn’t allow it—which was just as well, since the child was merely a bargaining chip she could use to threaten Lu Shaoting.
Gu Xia knew Lu Shaoting was difficult to deal with, but she never imagined he’d be this difficult.
“Lu Shaoting, I’ll terminate the pregnancy. I promise I won’t bother you anymore, but you must help my parents—and my sister—find jobs in the city.”
“It doesn’t have to be in Beicheng. Anywhere else will do.”
Gu Xia took another step back.
Seeing Lu Shaoting’s firm refusal, she felt a pang of fear.
She was truly afraid that Lu Shaoting would give up entirely and wash his hands of her and the Gu family.
Lu Shaoting’s expression held a hint of coldness as he looked down on Gu Xia with a condescending gaze.
“You can’t threaten me in the slightest. You may be pregnant, but as long as I don’t acknowledge it, Gu Xia, you can’t threaten me. On the contrary, the authorities will come looking for you on their own, and this matter will blow over very soon.”
Gu Xia was, after all, young; she had died in her previous life at an age when she was still naive about the ways of the world.
The boldest thing she had ever done, in both her past and present lives, was to track down Lu Shaoting, drug him, and sleep with him.
Gu Xia felt she was lucky—with just that one time, she had managed to conceive Lu Shaoting’s child.
Otherwise, she really wouldn’t have had any evidence to hold Lu Shaoting accountable.
But now that she’d come to him with a pregnant belly, Lu Shaoting was by no means someone she could easily manipulate.
What if Lu Shaoting simply turned a blind eye to the whole thing? What was she supposed to do then?
All that effort with the drugging would have been for nothing.
Hearing Lu Shaoting’s words, Gu Xia’s heart began to race.
Her petite face unconsciously shed its previous facade, and she could barely keep her balance.
Lifting her head to look at Lu Shaoting, her eyes burned with a fierce resolve, as if she were ready to die.
“Then I’ll die right here in your home. Since a human life is at stake, I don’t believe that so-called organization of yours will still be able to help you.”
“Lu Shaoting, since I’ve gone this far, I’m prepared to die. You can refuse my terms, but I won’t let the Lu family off the hook.”
What Lu Shaoting despised about Gu Xia was that her family had been raided and exiled to a rural village in the Northwest.
This was all because the Gu family had secretly hoarded forbidden cultural relics and gold bars.
What did any of this have to do with him?
Just because he, Lu Shaoting, was an officer, did that mean he had to be hounded like this?
Forced to clean up this mess.
To Lu Shaoting, Gu Xia was utterly detestable.
She appeared innocent on the surface, but was full of scheming.
But Lu Shaoting also knew that since Gu Xia had managed to find her way here, even if he used underhanded means to send her off to the Northwest, she would likely return anyway.
It would be better to take advantage of the fact that she was still in Beicheng, right under his nose, and make her have an abortion to eliminate any future worries.
That night—to be precise—it wasn’t entirely Gu Xia’s fault; he had been too trusting of others.
Taking a tumble today and suffering a major setback served as a wake-up call for him.
A woman’s heart is as inscrutable as the depths of the sea, especially a beautiful woman’s.
As for the matter involving the Gu family…
Lu Shaoting asked, “So your condition is that if I secure jobs for your parents and sister, you’ll have the abortion and stop pestering me?”
Gu Xia nodded immediately, her tone betraying the impatience and urgency of youth.
“I can do it. As long as you help my parents and sister, I’ll do exactly as you say.”
Lu Shaoting’s expression grew icy.
“If I told you to have an abortion right now, you definitely wouldn’t listen to me, because you haven’t achieved your goal yet.”
“But you need to understand one thing: your family has stumbled right into a sticky situation. It’s not like I can just say ‘done’ and have it taken care of immediately, but I’ll do my best to make the necessary arrangements.”
“Once your parents and sister’s jobs are settled, you’ll have the baby aborted immediately and get the hell out of here.”
Gu Xia only heard Lu Shaoting’s offer to help arrange jobs for her family; as for his harsh words, she automatically tuned them out.
As long as she achieved her goal, she didn’t care if Lu Shaoting cursed at her.
In her eyes, Lu Shaoting was simply an elder, just as old as her own father.
She nodded and said, “Okay, I will. Don’t worry—I’ll definitely do what I promised.”
As Lu Shaoting led Gu Xia downstairs,
two people arrived at the house—Lu Shaoting’s eldest and second older sisters.
The Lu family’s elderly parents had four children.
The eldest son was Lu Jianming; the second child was the Lu family’s eldest daughter, Lu Xiaojing; the third was the Lu family’s second daughter, Lu Xiaoyan; and Lu Shaoting was the youngest.
Lu Xiaoyan was two years older than Lu Shaoting; the two of them had grown up together in the countryside at their grandparents’ home.
Naturally, their relationship was quite close.
Lu Xiaojing and Lu Jianming, on the other hand, had grown up in the city under the care of Mrs. Lu.
Mrs. Lu was very partial to and doted on these two children.
Lu Xiaojing and Lu Xiaoyan married relatively close to home, and both made good matches.
Lu Xiaojing is a high school teacher; her husband is a college professor who teaches at the same university as Lu Jianming.
Lu Xiaoyan is a doctor; her husband works for a government agency. He was a former subordinate of the Lu family patriarch, so they know him inside and out.
Of the four Lu children, only Lu Shaoting remains unmarried.
Over the past few years, his family has arranged quite a few matches for him.
There have been young, pretty women, as well as intelligent, elegant mature women.
He’s always been busy with work and hasn’t even bothered to meet them, let alone get married, so he’s been dragging his feet until now.