Shen Wangshu watched Gu Shaohua from a distance.
She walked briskly, her short hair neat and sharp, her attire simple—every inch of her exuding an air of competence.
She was Gu Qingyan’s younger sister.
Shen Wangshu had calculated all night, waiting precisely for this moment.
She could pretend it was a chance encounter, not a deliberate approach.
After all, a deliberate approach would only put someone on guard.
She didn’t want to stumble at the very first step in her pursuit of Gu Qingyan.
Gu Shaohua had come to bail out Gu Lingyun.
After completing all the paperwork and signing her name, she led the slouching, nonchalant Gu Lingyun out while cursing under her breath.
“Quite the achiever now, huh? Learned to mod motorcycles, and at seventeen you’re already riding around with a girl on the back making a scene. Leave you alone for a year and you’ll be bringing home a pregnant girlfriend and a kid next?”
Gu Lingyun listened to the scolding with a look of impatience.
Shen Wangshu stood at the entrance of the police station, waiting for Gu Shaohua to approach.
She called out, “Miss Gu.”
Gu Shaohua paused mid-step, her sharp gaze landing on Shen Wangshu. “Are you calling me?”
Shen Wangshu nodded. “Miss Gu, when you head home today, don’t take the overpass you usually use.”
Gu Shaohua’s eyes flickered with confusion. “How do you know my surname is Gu?”
Shen Wangshu smiled. “You just said ‘our Gu family.'”
Gu Shaohua frowned. “Who are you?”
Shen Wangshu introduced herself cheerfully. “My name is Shen Wangshu.”
Just then, Officer Liu happened to be off duty. He walked over to Shen Wangshu. “Student Shen, didn’t I tell you? Superstition is nothing to rely on. Shaohua, what a coincidence.”
Gu Shaohua exchanged greetings with Officer Liu—they’d been high school classmates.
One had gone on to study public security at university.
The other had studied archaeology.
Shen Wangshu raised a finger and pointed at the sky.
The sky was bright and sunny, not a cloud in sight.
She said, “It’s going to pour in fifteen minutes. Officer Liu, do you believe me?”
Officer Liu glanced at the weather forecast and chuckled. “The forecast didn’t call for rain. Come on, let me drive you back first. Shaohua, let’s catch up another time.”
Shen Wangshu turned back and waved at Gu Shaohua.
“Miss Gu, goodbye.”
We’ll meet again very soon.
Gu Lingyun sat in the back seat, on the phone with his girlfriend.
“I’m fine, what could possibly happen to me? The new bar that just opened? Tonight? Sure, sounds good.”
Gu Shaohua said coldly, “You dare?”
In front of his eldest brother Gu Qingyan—who could soar to the heavens—and his second sister Gu Shaohua—who could dig to the depths of the earth—Gu Lingyun was nothing but a little white flower in a vegetable patch.
He wasn’t afraid of anyone, but he feared his eldest brother Gu Qingyan the most.
During the six months Gu Qingyan had been working in space, he’d been living it up without a care.
Hearing Gu Shaohua’s threat out of nowhere, Gu Lingyun shrugged and said to his girlfriend on the phone, “No worries, I’ll definitely be there. My sister? She can’t do anything to me.”
After hanging up, Gu Shaohua let out a cold laugh. “I can’t do anything to you? What about big brother?”
“Big brother’s on the space station, he can’t control me from there.”
Just as they stopped at a red light, Gu Lingyun opened the car door and walked off.
Gu Shaohua rubbed her temples. Her little brother was grown now—too big to hit anymore.
And this unfilial brat didn’t even know that big brother had already landed successfully.
Gu Shaohua thought of Shen Wangshu’s words. Before reaching the overpass ahead, she turned the steering wheel and veered onto a different road.
Not long after she left the overpass—
A deafening crash echoed from afar.
On the overpass, a truck barreled across the road at breakneck speed, slamming into several cars in motion.
It also sent a red car flying.
The red car plunged off the overpass.
In the end, more than half of the truck’s front end crashed through the guardrail, dangling precariously over the edge.
Gu Shaohua drove back.
Stopping at a distance, she opened the car door and sprinted to the red car that had been smashed to pieces.
After seeing that the car was empty, she let out a sigh of relief.
But then she turned and saw that she, too, had driven a red car today.
In that instant, cold sweat seeped from Gu Shaohua’s forehead.
The clear, cloudless sky suddenly darkened with storm clouds, and a torrential downpour descended.
Officer Liu, waiting at a red light, stared in astonishment at the dark clouds overhead, muttering to himself, “Well, I’ll be damned. It really is raining.”
Shen Wangshu rolled down the car window and met the gaze of the driver waiting beside her.
The moment the other person saw Shen Wangshu, they immediately started cursing at her.
Saying she’d grown wings and could fly away now, and so on and so forth.
But the rain was heavy, drowning out most of the abuse.
Shen Wangshu rolled the window back up. Officer Liu’s phone rang.
“A traffic accident has occurred on Changyang Road Overpass. Return immediately for backup.”
At that moment, Officer Liu looked at Shen Wangshu as if he’d seen a ghost.
Just then, the light turned green.
Shen Wangshu pointed at the bus stop not far ahead. “Officer Liu, you can drop me off up there.”
Before she got out of the car, he handed her an umbrella.
His lips moved as if he wanted to ask something, but the words wouldn’t come out.
Shen Wangshu kindly offered an answer: “Officer Liu, the Shenzhou has returned successfully. The Dragon King was pleased and passed by. Fortune is on your side—when trouble comes, it will surely turn into good luck.”
Officer Liu’s tense expression broke into a smile at Shen Wangshu’s words, and he scolded her with a laugh: “I told you, superstition is not the way to go.”
As if sensing her awkwardness, Officer Liu spoke up: “There’s a two-thousand-yuan reward for information on the recent missing women cases. The funds haven’t been disbursed yet, but I’ll cover it for you first. It’s raining hard—take a cab home.”
Shen Wangshu shook her head. “No need. My adoptive mother is coming to pick me up.”
The moment she finished speaking, someone pounded hard on the car window.
Miao Shuhui, dressed in an expensive-looking outfit, braved the rain under a small umbrella. Her contorted face was reflected in the fogged-up window.
Shen Wangshu opened the door.
The instant the door swung open, rain and Miao Shuhui’s furious scolding poured in together.
“Running away? Got your wings now, huh? Think you can just take off? And hanging around with some strange man? You—”
When Miao Shuhui caught sight of Officer Liu’s uniform, her voice hitched like a duck whose neck had been squeezed.
Shen Wangshu said to Officer Liu, “Thank you, Officer. You go ahead and get back to work.”
“Right, right, right.” Miao Shuhui chimed in, “Officer, you go do your thing. This is my adopted daughter—she snuck out of the house all day without telling anyone. Sorry for the trouble.”
After speaking, Miao Shuhui slammed Officer Liu’s car door shut.
She reached out, grabbed Shen Wangshu by the ear, and dragged her into another car.
Shen Wangshu let Miao Shuhui do as she pleased without resisting.
Because she knew Officer Liu was watching.
And this was also a crucial step in getting close to the Gu family.
Miao Shuhui kept scolding as she dragged her along: “Got bold, huh? Think you can run? Even went to the hospital for a check-up? Do you know the whole family spent all night looking for you? If anything happens to that baby in your belly, you might as well not live anymore.”
The whole way, Miao Shuhui kept grumbling.
Shen Wangshu stared out the window, silent.
She had gotten a little wet from the rain earlier, and now she felt cold.
Her throat was a bit itchy too.
If she wasn’t mistaken, she was probably going to come down with a fever.