Not long after that, the sound of a police siren came from outside the building. The trio who walked side by side hastened their steps to the ground floor.
When they finally arrived at the ground floor, the first person they saw was a panicked and sweaty Meng Renshu, who had just run into the building.
His face broke out in surprise and relief when he saw Li Chunhua. "Xiaohua!"
Li Caiyi witnessed how Meng Renshu suddenly grew a pair of wings on his legs because he moved at lightning speed and gave her sister a tight embrace. His exhaustion and worry were apparent in his expression.
"Thank goodness you are okay. I'm so worried when you give me a strange call."
Li Chunhua patted his back in a rhythmic motion to calm him down. "I'm sorry for worrying you, but I'm fine, Brother Renshu."
Meng Renshu let go of his hold and asked in puzzlement. "But how can you get out on your own?"
Li Chunhua said nothing and only glanced at Li Caiyi and Dai Zhiqiang, who had been watching their touching reunion with expressionless faces. It wasn't a new scenery to Li Caiyi, who had eaten lots of dog food in her previous life, and as for Dai Zhiqiang, he simply didn't care.
Meng Renshu's face stiffened when he saw Li Caiyi. His face color turned dark before he stomped his way over. "What are you doing here?"
Li Caiyi, who was still light-headed, couldn't comprehend his question right away. "Come again?"
"I said, what are you doing here when I clearly tell you to stay out of this?" Meng Renshu's eyes narrowed down, demanding an explanation.
Li Caiyi's mind cleared a bit when she sensed a hint of reprimand in his tone. She retorted, "I never said yes to that, and isn't it thanks to my information you can find this place? If not, you would still wander around by now."
Meng Renshu sighed in frustration. "I know that, but you can just drop the information without coming here yourself. What if something happened?"
"Every second is precious, and the one who got kidnapped is my sister. How can I just stay put?"
"You are so stubborn. What can you do alone? You will only make things worse by adding yourself to their hostage list. Stop doing whatever you want!"
Li Caiyi was astonished. Did she just hear that right? Out of all people, she didn't want to hear that from him the most. Her fuzzy mind immediately cleared up when he crossed the limit of her patience.
"Since when did I have the right to, anyway? You, my parents, and everyone kept forcing me to do things I didn't want to. So it's okay for you to do what you want, but you call me stubborn when I act on my own for once? That's funny coming from you because you are the one who had never listened to me since the beginning."
Li Caiyi sneered before she continued, "So what if you are the Young Master of the prestigious family? Does that give you the right to dictate and scold me whenever you want? You can give me advice, but it's up to me whether or not to take it. Meng Renshu, don't overestimate yourself! I don't care about someone like you, and I hate you to the bone!"
Meng Renshu was so shocked by Li Caiyi's outburst that he subconsciously stepped backward. She would occasionally give him a dirty or hostile look or sharp and hurtful words from time to time, but never a pure hatred like this.
Her last sentence especially took the life force out of him; it felt like someone punched him in the gut because his mind suddenly went blank with only her words echoing in his mind.
He was a mild person with a good temper on regular days, but he seemed to lose control of his emotions whenever it came to this girl. Listening to her declaring her hatred for him made him irritated to no end.
'How could she, when I was just trying to protect her? I was on edge every day thinking about her well-being!' Meng Renshu thought.
"Say that again if you dare!" Meng Renshu hollered at her while squeezing both of her shoulders with his hands, eyes burning in a fury.
Li Caiyi yelped when she felt his violent touch. "Ouch! Let go of me!"
Her resistance only fueled his anger. Meng Renshu felt this girl had completely tarnished his pride, and he couldn't accept it. How many times did she have to torture him until she was satisfied?
"Please let go of her, Senior Meng. You are hurting her."
Dai Zhiqiang grabbed Meng Renshu's hand in a vice grip as he sharply looked at him. He wanted to break the hands that had hurt Li Caiyi, but he restrained himself for her.
Spark was flying between the two male teenagers as they glared at each other. Meng Renshu, who hadn't registered Dai Zhiqiang's existence until a moment ago, said in a low voice, "Huh? Who the hell are you?"
The drop in Meng Renshu's tone alarmed Li Caiyi. It was his tone when he was going to trample those who opposed him. Even if she had angered Meng Renshu, she could still live, but not Dai Zhiqiang!
"Stop it, both of you!" She quickly intervened before a fight broke out. "Zhiqiang, I'm fine. This is just a sibling quarrel. It's not a big deal."
Dai Zhiqiang gave her a dissatisfied look, but he dropped his hand in the end. In the meantime, Meng Renshu seemed to realize his mistake and hurriedly took his hand off of her too.
"Xiaoyi, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you." He said in a fluster.
Li Caiyi said nothing because she couldn't stand to hear or see Meng Renshu anymore. She just looked away and left in anger, leaving Meng Renshu petrified in his place. Silence fell, and the atmosphere became awkward after Li Caiyi went away, followed by Li Chunhua behind her.
Li Junjie, who had stood beside Li Chunhua and watched the whole chains of the event, shook his head helplessly. He walked over to Meng Renshu and gave his friend a pat on his shoulder. "Seriously, what is wrong with you?"
Meng Renshu wasn't in the mood to talk, so he didn't answer. Li Junjie paid it no heed and continued, "You have been behaving strangely as of late. Why are you so attached to Xiaoyi? You acted like a possessive parent."
His words stirred Meng Renshu a bit. "Do I look like that?"
"You look like a crazy person," Li Junjie said mercilessly. "I understand you are worried, but talking like that is just uncalled for. Anyone would get offended."
Meng Renshu suddenly felt lethargic, and he wished for nothing more than to go home and lay down on his bed. His lack of quality sleep started to get on him, making him unstable. However, there was nothing he could do to prevent that. It only served to increase his frustration.
"I have to apologize to Xiaoyi later." Meng Renshu said with a gloomy look. As if yelling and scolding her wasn't bad enough, his violent behavior must have scared her off too. "I'm so stupid."
Li Junjie saw his friend's dejected look and sighed. "There is nothing you can do about spilled milk. Save that for later. We have more important things at hand, don't you think?"
"....Yeah."
"But before that, I want to clarify things first. Who are you? Why are you here with my sisters?" Li Junjie asked with his gaze nailed on Dai Zhiqiang.
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