Gu Xia was being choked so hard she could barely breathe, her face flushed crimson and her neck thick with strain as she gasped for air.
Her hands clawed at Lu Shaoting’s wrists where they gripped her throat, beating against them frantically.
Lu Shaoting’s grip instinctively loosened when he saw the tear tracks streaking her cheeks.
Gu Xia stumbled backward a few steps, coughing violently before taking deep, ragged breaths like a fish gasping in a dried-up rut.
Once she had caught her breath, she answered Lu Shaoting’s question in a low voice.
“Because you hold high office.”
“I know you can definitely help my parents and my sister.”
Lu Shaoting truly didn’t know what kind of look to give Gu Xia. It seemed he, too, was at a loss for what to do.
“Gu Xia, you could have just told me directly. Things could have been so simple—why did you have to complicate them like this?”
Gu Xia lifted her eyes to look at Lu Shaoting.
“If I had told you directly, would you have helped?”
“No. Because you’re someone who hates being troubled. You would have just advised me, or advised my parents, to accept their fate and reform properly in the Northwest.”
“If I said my family was framed, would you have believed me?”
Lu Shaoting instinctively retorted, “Plenty of evidence was seized from the Gu residence. There’s no way they were framed.”
See? That was the evidence everyone saw.
It was precisely because of those items that the Gu family had been raided and sent down to the countryside in the Northwest.
The Gu family was only her family, and its members were only her family.
Only she cared.
Apart from her, not even the Lu family—who had been close to theirs—let alone their own relatives, would necessarily lend a hand.
Besides lacking the ability, there was also the fact that they didn’t dare.
Who would dare associate themselves with someone whose family background was problematic? Everyone wanted to stay as far away as possible.
Moreover, to Lu Shaoting, the Gu family was merely a friend of his elder brother’s, with only some old-generation ties between the two families.
But to someone as inherently detached as Lu Shaoting, these things were insignificant.
In fact, if Gu Xia hadn’t deliberately provoked him with drugs after her rebirth, she would never have been entangled with Lu Shaoting in any way.
But Gu Xia had no other path to take.
Furthermore, there was another point: in Gu Xia’s mind, the reason the eldest branch of the Lu family acted so arrogantly and bullied others at their workplace 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 influence to bully others—how they had tried to seize her father’s research achievements, causing her family to be sent down to the Northwest countryside and ultimately leading to their tragic deaths—she was filled with hatred.
She knew her methods and actions were despicable, but she had no other choice.
Don’t worry—she wouldn’t give birth to this child. Even if she wanted to, Lu Shaoting wouldn’t allow it. That suited her just fine, since the child was merely a bargaining chip to threaten Lu Shaoting.
Gu Xia knew Lu Shaoting was difficult to deal with, but she hadn’t expected him to be this difficult.
“Lu Shaoting, I can get rid of the child in my belly. I won’t cling to you at all. But you have to help my parents find jobs in the city, and my sister too.”
“It doesn’t have to be in Beicheng. Any other place will do.”
Gu Xia had taken a step back after all.
Seeing Lu Shaoting reject her so firmly, she was afraid deep down.
She truly feared that Lu Shaoting might decide to wash his hands of the whole mess and abandon her and the Gu family entirely.
Lu Shaoting’s eyes held a trace of coldness as he looked down at Gu Xia with a disdainful gaze.
“You can’t threaten me in any way. You can get pregnant, but as long as I don’t acknowledge it, Gu Xia, you can’t threaten me. On the contrary, the organization will take the initiative to find you, and this matter will soon be settled.”
Gu Xia was, after all, young. Even at the time of her death in her previous life, she was still naive and inexperienced.
The boldest thing she had ever done in both her past and present lives was to inquire about Lu Shaoting, drug him, and sleep with him.
Gu Xia felt she was also lucky—just that one time, she had conceived Lu Shaoting’s child.
Otherwise, she truly wouldn’t have had any evidence to hold Lu Shaoting accountable.
But now, with her pregnant belly, she had come to him, only to find that Lu Shaoting was not someone she could easily manipulate.
What if Lu Shaoting really ignored her completely? What would she do then?
All her efforts in drugging him would have been in vain.
Hearing Lu Shaoting’s words, Gu Xia panicked.
Her palm-sized face involuntarily lost its earlier pretense, and her steps even became unsteady.
When she looked up at Lu Shaoting again, her eyes held a fierce, desperate resolve.
“Then I’ll die right here in your home. Once a life is involved, I don’t believe the organization you mentioned will still help you.”
“Lu Shaoting, since I’ve done this, I came prepared to die. You can refuse my conditions, but I won’t let the Lu family off either.”
What Lu Shaoting despised about Gu Xia was that the Gu family had been raided and sent down to the rural northwest.
This was because the Gu family had privately hoarded remnants of the “Four Olds” and hidden gold bars.
What did any of that have to do with him?
Just because he was an officer, was he supposed to be entangled like this?
Forced to clean up this mess.
To Lu Shaoting, Gu Xia was utterly detestable.
Outwardly pure, but inwardly full of schemes.
But Lu Shaoting also knew that since Gu Xia had managed to find her way here, even if he used means to send her to the northwest, she would likely return.
It would be better to take advantage of her still being in Beicheng, right in front of him, and have her abort the child to avoid future troubles.
That night, to be precise, it wasn’t entirely Gu Xia’s fault—he had trusted others too easily.
Today’s setback and heavy loss served as a warning to him.
A woman’s heart is as deep as the ocean, especially a beautiful woman’s.
As for the Gu family’s affairs…
Lu Shaoting asked, “Your condition is that if I arrange jobs for your parents and sister, you’ll have an abortion and stop bothering me?”
Gu Xia nodded immediately, her tone filled with the impatience and urgency of youth.
“I can do it. As long as you help my parents and sister, I’ll do whatever you say.”
Lu Shaoting’s expression turned icy cold.
“If I told you to have an abortion right now, you definitely wouldn’t listen to me because your goal hasn’t been achieved.”
“But you need to understand one thing: your family happened to be caught in the crossfire. It’s not something I can resolve immediately just by saying so. I’ll do my best to make arrangements.”
“Once your parents’ and sister’s jobs are settled, you will immediately abort the child and disappear far away.”
Gu Xia only heard the part where Lu Shaoting said he would help arrange jobs for her family. As for his harsh words, she automatically ignored them.
As long as her goal was achieved, she didn’t care how much Lu Shaoting cursed her.
After all, in her eyes, Lu Shaoting was just an elder, as old as her father.
She nodded and said, “Okay, I will. Don’t worry, I’ll keep my promise to you.”
As Lu Shaoting led Gu Xia downstairs to the second floor, two people arrived at the house—Lu Shaoting’s eldest sister and Second Sister.
The Lu Family Old Master and Matriarch had four children.
The eldest was naturally Lu Jianming, the second was the Lu family’s eldest daughter Lu Xiaojing, the third was the Lu family’s Second Sister Lu Xiaoyan, and Lu Shaoting was the Lu family’s youngest.
Lu Xiaoyan was two years older than Lu Shaoting, and the two of them grew up in the countryside with their grandparents.
Their relationship was naturally a bit closer.
Lu Xiaojing and Lu Jianming, on the other hand, grew up in the city by the side of the Lu Family Matriarch.
The Lu Family Matriarch doted on these two children with great partiality and affection.
Both Lu Xiaojing and Lu Xiaoyan married relatively nearby, and both married quite well.
Lu Xiaojing was a high school teacher, and her husband was a university professor, teaching at the same university as Lu Jianming.
Lu Xiaoyan was a doctor, and her husband worked in a government agency. He was a former subordinate of the Lu Family Old Master, someone whose background was well-known and understood.
Of the Lu family’s four children, only Lu Shaoting remained unmarried.
In recent years, the Lu family had arranged quite a few introductions for him.
There were young and beautiful female comrades, as well as intellectual and elegant mature women.
He was always busy with work at his unit, never even meeting them, let alone getting married, dragging things out until now.