Chapter 21: A Dangerous Man (3)
Just today, she had run into this man at the airport, and now he appeared here again.
Could this scoundrel be following me?
The thought sobered Meng Yier almost instantly, clearing her mind.
“Are you stalking me? You perverted lunatic, you stalker.”
“Perverted lunatic stalker?”
Yan Yichen’s deep eyes burned with fury, and his grip tightened.
Meng Yier winced in pain, her chin pinched so tightly she could barely speak. She could only widen her eyes in terror as she looked at the man before her, instinctively nodding.
The man’s expression grew even darker.
A wise woman avoids unnecessary trouble!
Meng Yier hurriedly shook her head.
“You truly don’t remember me?” After a long moment, Yan Yichen released her, gazing at the face he had longed for day and night, the face that incited both love and hatred, and spoke in a low, somber voice.
“Of course I do. You’re the guy I ran into at the airport—the, uh, handsome guy.”
Afraid one wrong word would provoke him and put herself at a disadvantage, Meng Yier forced herself to swap “scoundrel” for “handsome guy.”
“Yes, handsome guy.”
Though her face was lit with a cheerful smile, inside Meng Yier felt as if she had swallowed a fly.
Hearing her say this, Yan Yichen was finally certain she truly did not recognize him.
He kept his face grim, watching her feigned composure, bitterness welling up in his heart.
Yan Yichen, you’re nothing but a joke in her eyes.
Meng Yier studied his expression, puzzled.
Even being complimented, he still acted like this.
What a strange man!
But she had no time to analyze this lunatic stalker now—escaping was far more important.
Seeing that he had loosened his grip, lost in thought, she edged quietly toward the door, grasped the handle, and, seizing the moment, slipped inside and locked it behind her.
Yan Yichen watched her flee in panic, his brows furrowed, making no move to stop her.
“Meng Yier, what am I supposed to do with you?” he murmured to himself, frustrated. Faced with Meng Yier’s rejection, he had no idea how to approach her.
He became cautious only because he cared, afraid that one misstep might cause her to vanish from his world once again,
leaving him with endless longing and waiting.
...
The vibration of the phone in his pocket interrupted Yan Yichen’s thoughts. He pulled out his phone and glanced at the screen—Mo Bei was calling. Quickly, he opened the door to the east apartment and went inside.
Meng Yier leaned against her own door, still shaken, letting out a long sigh.
“No, this man is too frightening—molestation and stalking, what if he follows me again? Or what if he waits outside and won’t leave? I have to call the police.”
Meng Yier took out her phone, preparing to dial the police, then peered through the peephole.
Strange—
The man had vanished without a trace.
——
For the next two days, Meng Yier hid at home, too afraid to go out for fear of running into that perverted stalker again.
Gu Yunchen and her uncle and aunt called nearly every day to ask how she was doing, whether she was adjusting.
Every time Aunt Gu called, she would say, “Yier, if you can’t adjust there, just come back to America anytime. Don’t make things hard for yourself. I miss you so much.”
Whenever Meng Yier heard these words, her nose would sting with emotion. She missed them too, but she simply couldn’t go back.
The Gu family had raised her, and she was grateful. But she was grown now, and couldn’t rely on them for everything. She could have found a job she liked in America, settled down, and spent time with the Gu elders who were like her own parents.
But all these years, she could never shake her attachment to Haishi, the city of her childhood memories. Even though her father had passed away, and her mother had been missing for so many years.
Still, she refused to give up!
Meng Yier had to admit, she always held onto a sliver of hope—that maybe, in Haishi, she could find her birth mother, lost for years.
Here, at least, there was a chance—while in America, she feared that opportunity would never come in her lifetime.