"Found them yet?" Qin Ningyi ignored his complaints and focused on one thing.
Zhao Hengyu grunted, "We have a general direction..."
"This Huo Rou might truly be no ordinary person. The surveillance on that street was likely disabled because someone came to pick her up. We tracked her all the way to Taichuan City, and then those departments started watching us."
"Taichuan City?" Qin Ningyi repeated the three words, his expression somewhat strange. He glanced at the plane behind him.
"Yes, Huo Rou is very likely in Taichuan City." Zhao Hengyu seemed to recall something as well. "I tried calling you frantically earlier and couldn't get through. You didn't come back already, did you?"
"Mmm."
"Then you can relax and listen to me for a bit longer. Let your plane refuel, and I'll have it brought back to you." Zhao Hengyu wanted to laugh, but recalling his recent experiences, the laughter wouldn't come.
"We investigated the intelligence department in Taichuan City and they detected us. Initially, they didn't have malicious intent towards us, but after they got the information we were looking for, they suddenly joined forces with several other departments to surround us."
"Minister Zeng is truly something else, he found me." Zhao Hengyu paused here, teasing himself. "Fortunately, I have good connections. It took me a long time to explain everything to him. Only then did 'Langyan' have enough time to clear their tracks and withdraw."
"But they explicitly forbade us from investigating Huo Rou's matters anymore. There must be something going on here. Old Qin, with Master Qin's status, why don't you..."
Before Zhao Hengyu could finish, Qin Ningyi hung up the phone.
"You didn't even finish talking! That's very rude, you know?!" Zhao Hengyu angrily cursed into the phone at the already ended call. "Do you still want to find her or not?"
At this moment, the person Qin Ningyi wanted to find had already called him.
"A Rou, where are you?"
"Ningyi, I'm fine."
Qin Ningyi's urgent inquiry and Huo Rou's sweet voice spoke at the same time.
After a moment of silence, Huo Rou continued, "Don't worry, I was just busy and forgot to charge my phone."
"Where are you?" Qin Ningyi, sensing something amiss in her voice, asked nervously.
Huo Rou glanced at Minister Zeng standing beside her. She thought that the person Minister Zeng mentioned coming to find her must be Qin Ningyi's people, right?
"I'm in Taichuan City." She had intended to coordinate her story with Xiao Yudao, but Qin Ningyi had already called him. So, "Wuyou needed my help with something here, so I came over temporarily and didn't have time to tell you."
She said it very naturally, but Qin Ningyi fell silent for a long time.
He clearly remembered that when he called her earlier, she had said she was going to take a nap. But judging by the time, she had already left the villa then.
If the surveillance on that road was indeed deliberately shut down in advance because someone was coming to pick her up...
All the information was emphasizing one thing to Qin Ningyi: Huo Rou was lying to him.
"I'm coming to find you."
Regardless of anything else, he needed to confirm she was safe. He could hear the abnormality in her voice. Based on Huo Rou's previous personality, she wouldn't expose her distress. The fact that he could hear it over the phone meant she couldn't hide it anymore.
On the other end of the call, Huo Rou looked at Shen Wuyou and wrote a few words on the notepad in front of her.
[He's coming. How long can I stay awake?]
Shen Wuyou looked at her deeply and mouthed a response.
Huo Rou nodded and then said into the phone, "Okay."
He must be worried sick. She wondered how much effort it took to find such a group of people to investigate up to Minister Zeng's level.
Huo Rou gave Qin Ningyi the address, and the call ended. She then smiled and thanked Shen Wuyou, "Thank you, Wuyou."
"I'm sorry, I haven't found a way to completely detoxify you yet..." He looked at Huo Rou's slightly bluish lips, his heart twisting with pain.
"You've already done an amazing job. How else could I have lived so many years if not for your efforts?" Now that only he and she were in the room, Huo Rou no longer held back and said.
"It's not enough." Shen Wuyou sighed. This feeling of helplessness tormented him.
He had been with Huo Rou for so many years. Every morning, accompanying An'an on their runs, his heart ached.
She had once been the most radiant presence on the track at dawn.
But after all these years, he still couldn't help her regain that kind of life.
Huo Rou looked at the curve on the monitor beside her. A perfectly curved smile appeared on her purplish lips. "But Wuyou, I've already lived so many years longer than He Ran..."
"This time, you saved me again." Huo Rou turned her head, her eyes holding a calm smile. "I don't even know how much I owe you anymore..."
Shen Wuyou looked away, unwilling to hear her talk about owing him.
"The toxicity this time is even stronger. All the research I did before has been used up... If there's no new method, once the effects of these medicines wear off, and the toxicity of the drugs injected into you can't fight his, your periods of unconsciousness will only get longer..."
"Don't blame yourself, it's not your fault," Huo Rou teased. "It's not like you poisoned me. We should blame country M."
"I have no way to find the person who developed this poison in country M. They must be heavily guarded," Shen Wuyou said, his worry deepening. If he could meet the developer and get some information, it might be helpful.
Perhaps he could even get an antidote.
"Someone who developed such a drug might have been silenced by country M on the day of its success. Where would you even find them?" Huo Rou seemed unconcerned, lowering her head to sort through the missed messages on her phone.
"Being able to live normally for a month is enough..."
Shen Wuyou interrupted her, "That's the best-case scenario, a month!"
Even the usually gentle person would get angry hearing her repeatedly express such hopelessness about her own survival. "You're not alone anymore. You have An'an, and... Qin Ningyi. You have to live!"
Mentioning these two names, Huo Rou's calm eyes finally flickered. She smiled at him, a hint of nostalgia in her eyes. "You used An'an to persuade me back then..."
Footsteps echoed in the corridor, light and hurried.
She fell silent and looked towards the door. An'an's anxious figure soon appeared.
"Mom!" He cried, pushing the door open. The people outside dared not stop him and simply watched him enter the room.
Huo Rou smiled, leaned over, and hugged the little one who rushed to the bedside. "Where did you go? You're all sweaty."
Her words were casual, as if she had just woken up from a nap and was greeting her son.
An'an, influenced by her stable emotions, also calmed down a bit. "I went to help Grandpa Zeng. Someone came to investigate Mom, and I helped investigate them!"
"An'an didn't cause any trouble, did he?" Huo Rou asked softly, looking at Minister Zeng who was approaching behind An'an.
Her tone was one of inquiry, but Minister Zeng saw no trace of worry in her expression. He likely already assumed An'an wouldn't cause trouble.
"An'an was a great help. He assisted us in finding information on the leader of the other party."