Chapter 230: Chapter 223: Rescued

None of them had thought that even in their deepest sleep, they would possess a semblance of a police instinct, especially when their door was being pummeled with such violence. Even if inebriated like a dead pig, they should not just lay idle and let a dozen of these faint, feeble and timid girls walk away unfettered right under their noses, some of them even half-dead.

Tang Yuxin was indeed correct, Mr. Gu was indeed Gu Ning. He had some matters to attend to and had chosen to take a shortcut, which led to his walking this path. The people following him were all young men, naturally exuding a masculine vigor that left no place for fear of ghosts or goblins.

What they hadn’t anticipated was running into these girls who had just escaped from the wolf’s den.

“Some of you, go find the human traffickers and tie them up. The rest of you, help escort these girls home.”

As Gu Ning lowered his head, his excellent vision spotted a girl with bare feet. Even though she was wearing socks, she was without shoes.

Quickly, several police officers approached. They took over carrying the girl in their arms, stripped off their own clothes, and dressed her.

“Let me carry you,” an officer offered, bending down in front of Xu Miaomiao.

Sucking in a noisy breath, Xu Miaomiao thanked him in a low voice.

She was just too tired, too hungry, and too scared. All she wanted to do right now was cry, she had no desire to walk any further.

“Brother, I want to go home,” she sobbed, bursting into tears, which set the other girls off crying as well.

The police officers’ eyes also reddened.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take you home. Once you’re there, everything will be okay. You’ll be able to see your parents.”

At this moment, Gu Ning was standing in front of Tang Yuxin. Tang Yuxin had been keeping her head down all the time, her long eyelashes casting shadows over her downcast eyes. Then she saw a pair of feet stop in front of her.

She heard the man sigh lightly.

“Little girl, don’t be afraid.”

You’ll be home soon.

“Let’s go. Big brother will take you home,” he said, extending his hand to rest atop Tang Yuxin’s head.

The term ‘little girl’ almost moved Tang Yuxin to tears.

She still remembered the year when she was driven out of the house by Sang Zhilan in desperation. There was a ‘big brother’ who took care of her, bought her food, gave her water, and took her home. But that ‘home’ turned out to be her personal hell.

In this life, she never wanted to step into that hell again, but she had not expected to hear his ‘big brother’ voice again, and in such circumstances.

She thought that by the time they met again, he would not recognize her and would call her Dr. Tang instead.

Then she felt a warm, big hand on her shoulder.

“Let’s go. I’ll carry you. Your foot is injured.” With that, the man lifted her into his arms.

He was quite tall while she was still a little girl who had not yet matured. Curling up in his arms, she really felt like a small girl. She was still very little, still fragile, and still needed protection. She shouldn’t have to force herself to grow up and bear burdens that were too heavy for her, but were nonetheless hers to shoulder.

Tang Yuxin clung to his sleeve with her fingers, and with each step he took, combined with his slightly warm body heat, she began to mend bits of her shattered heart.

It felt like she was back in her childhood.

“Xiaoyu, see what daddy brought for you?”

This is milk powder. Dad bought this for our Xiaoyu.”

The man clumsily cooed at the daughter who was bawling her heart out.

His little daughter was only this tiny, but her mother had gone to work outside, leaving just him, a big man, to tend to an infant who had just been born. He had no experience, only his goofy attempts at playing with the baby girl, but the uglier he made himself, the louder the child cried, until she was almost hoarse.

In the end, he had to put the baby girl down and awkwardly make baby formula. Once he made it too thick and the child was too full, next it was too thin and the child was hungry again, crying within moments.

Sometimes, the man would embrace his crying girl. As a grown man, he fed his daughter milk while crying himself. Thankfully as she grew a little older, she became easier to handle.

But the girl he had painstakingly raised till she was three was taken away by the child’s mother.

He missed his daughter terribly, but he couldn’t let her grow up without a mother.

Thus, he steeled his heart. His absence would mean his daughter could have a mother. He didn’t marry anyone else, so his daughter would still have a father.

He worked hard every day tending to the crops, no matter the weather, hoping to earn more from the yield. He sent everything he earned to his daughter’s mother, hoping his daughter could eat and dress better.

However, through all these years, he was not allowed a single meeting with his daughter.

He touched his own face, then shook off the dust from his clothes. A father like him wasn’t exactly an image his daughter would want, was it?

He wasn’t fit to see his daughter.

Throughout these years, he had met his daughter only once. He bought her a cake, but that was the only time, the child’s mother never let him see his daughter again.

Later, when he heard that his daughter was not going to attend university, he was aghast. If she didn’t go to university, what would her future be? So he rushed to his daughter. At the residence, he waited for a long time, an entire night. That day, it was pouring outside. He took shelter under the building’s entrance without daring to knock, till dawn the next day. When someone finally came out, he recognized, despite the changes, that it was his daughter, his little Xiaoyu. His little Xiaoyu with beautiful and expressive eyes.

The girl before him had the same pair of big eyes that looked like they could talk. But she was thin, dark, with a plain and common face.

“Xinxin?” The man tentatively asked, confirming if she was his Xiaoyu.

The girl’s eyes instantly turned into crimson as she burst into tears, hugging the old man tightly.

“Dad, dad, why did you come to see me only now?”

Only at this moment, did he finally learn what sort of life his daughter had been living over the years.

No matter what, he was determined to send his daughter to university. But when the tuition fees were due, not a cent came from the Wei family because they have another daughter, Wei Jiani, a daughter that made them proud.

He had seen that girl. Tall, intelligent, beautiful. At that moment, he wondered if his Yuxin would grow up the same? As a small child, Yuxin was as adorable as a dumpling.