“Her phone has a tracker installed.”
After Zhuang Jie hung up the phone and synced the location data, she was already on her way to Xiaoshan International Airport.
“Qihua, I’ll have to trouble you to make the trip personally. We still can’t let too many people know about this.” Zhuang Jie immediately called again. Even through the intangible, ethereal digital signal, one could feel her suppressed, crumbling emotions. She held back, then held back some more, but finally couldn’t help grinding her teeth and cursing: “I’ve really fcking hired myself an ancestor…”
Lu Zhi hung up the phone. Little Ma was nearly scared to death, sitting limp and pale in the living room chair, cold sweat beading on her forehead.
“Sister Chen, th-then I’ll go with you…”
“It’s fine if I drive myself. You wait at the hotel. If Rong Yin comes back in the meantime, call me immediately.” Lu Zhi said.
Little Ma thought for a moment, then nodded, tears welling in her eyes.
Lu Zhi went downstairs, took a jacket from the wardrobe, and put it on.
Zhou Mingming, who had been sleeping, was also woken up. She sat up, groggy with sleep. “Sister Chen, are you going out?”
“Mm.” Lu Zhi replied, simultaneously pressing a number on her phone to dial. She said to her, “Go back to sleep. Our flight is at nine tomorrow, we still need to leave early.”
Zhou Mingming gave an ‘oh’ and obediently burrowed back under the covers.
Downstairs, Lu Zhi got the car keys from her assistant. She didn’t say what she needed them for, and naturally, the assistant didn’t ask.
Outside, thunder and rain still mingled fiercely. There weren’t many cars on the road. Lu Zhi drove all the way to the airport. The sixty-odd kilometers took almost an hour.
Rong Yin’s location had finally stopped in the departure hall and hadn’t moved since.
The airport wasn’t crowded at night; most flights had been cancelled due to the rain today.
Lu Zhi passed through security and followed the navigation. She didn’t have to search long before she spotted a somewhat lonely figure in a corner on the second floor, near the floor-to-ceiling windows. The figure wore a black baseball cap, a slender back leaning against the seat, seemingly staring out at the rainy night.
“Rong Yin.” Lu Zhi walked over, calling out in advance as she patted her shoulder.
But Rong Yin still jumped, startled. Then she looked up. A pale, small face, dark brows and eyes, lips a light shade of color, no makeup whatsoever. Her features were plain and clean, like a student straight out of an ivory tower.
After recognizing her, she wasn’t particularly surprised. She just tugged at the corner of her mouth, looked at Lu Zhi with an ‘ah’, and said, “Found me so fast.”
Lu Zhi frowned. She touched the girl’s face with her fingers. It was ice-cold.
Rong Yin flinched uncomfortably and dodged backward. When she looked up again, Lu Zhi had already taken off her own camel-colored trench coat and offered it to her. Underneath, Lu Zhi wore a form-fitting white T-shirt and loose jeans. Her voice held no emotion: “Put this on. We’re going back to the hotel now.”
“I don’t want to go back.” Rong Yin tilted her head up, her pointed chin looking somewhat sharp.
Perhaps because Lu Zhi’s attitude was gentle, she currently showed none of the intense emotion expected from someone who had run away. She even smiled at Lu Zhi, a little self-deprecatingly. “But I have nowhere else to go. Isn’t that hilarious?”
Lu Zhi didn’t answer. She reached out and pulled her up, draping the still-warm coat over her shoulders. This body was 1.7 meters tall, slender and perfectly proportioned. Standing face to face, Rong Yin seemed even more petite.
The forced smile on Rong Yin’s face was about to crumble. She pursed her lips, letting the woman with the calm expression in front of her arrange her clothes. Then a warm palm grasped her wrist.
Lu Zhi led Rong Yin outside. The coffee shop in the main hall was still open. As they passed, her fingers unconsciously rubbed against the overly thin wrist bone in her hand. After a moment’s thought, she went in and ordered a cup of cocoa steamed milk.
“And a slice of Black Forest cake.” Lu Zhi pointed at a small cake decorated with a brandied cherry in the display case.
“Is this okay? Both are sweet.” Lu Zhi slightly turned her head to look at Rong Yin, who had put her sunglasses back on.
Rong Yin licked her lips with the tip of her tongue, her eyes starting to brighten. She nodded, making two “Mm-mm” sounds.
The shop was nearly empty. The food and hot drink were quickly brought over by the server.
Lu Zhi didn’t order anything for herself. She sat down at the small round table, first sent a message to Little Ma on her phone, then called Zhuang Jie.
“The person has been found.”
“We’re heading back now.”
“Nothing’s wrong.”
Rong Yin nibbled at the cake bite by bite with a small fork, the rich, mellow sweetness slowly dissolving her rigid nerves. She glanced sideways at Lu Zhi, whose dark, bright eyes surveyed her openly before responding to the inquiries on the other end of the line with a cool, concise voice: “Her mood isn’t off.”
“Did you buy a plane ticket?”
This question was directed at Rong Yin.
Rong Yin pursed her lips and shook her head.
“She didn’t buy one. Just sat in the hall for a while.” Lu Zhi said to Zhuang Jie.
They talked for another two minutes. Lu Zhi hung up the phone and looked at Rong Yin. “Zhuang Jie is taking the earliest flight here tomorrow.”
Rong Yin gave an indifferent ‘oh’, then fiercely stabbed at her small plate, angrily saying, “Why didn’t I think of having a big feast just now?! I’ve really been tamed by you all! Brain’s broken!”
Lu Zhi didn’t comment, lowering her head to continue replying to the flurry of messages Little Ma was sending.
Rong Yin, instead, became a bit restless. She asked her, “Aren’t you curious why I didn’t buy a ticket?”
Lu Zhi looked up at Rong Yin, and, humoring her, said, “Why?”
Rong Yin shot her a thoroughly unimpressed look, then said, “I originally wanted to buy a ticket to go home, but then I thought, my apartment was bought with the company’s help, and the housekeeper was found by Zhuang Jie. So going back there… how is it any different from being here? I’d still be watched, wouldn’t I? Don’t you think?”
Lu Zhi nodded.
Rong Yin pursed her lips, then asked, “Why don’t you ask me why I ran away?”
Lu Zhi didn’t look up. “Hm?”
“Just don’t want to act anymore.” Rong Yin licked the mousse off her small fork, her tone taking it for granted.
“You should understand, right? Look at the crap they film. It’s all garbage, shit! Shitty production crew, shitty director! I’ve got the worst luck in eight lifetimes! Signed with this shitty company! Feeding me shit every day! Scumbags!”
Lu Zhi put down her phone, her gaze complex as she watched the beautiful girl in front of her talk foul-mouthedly about crap and shit while eating a pitch-black cake.
“I didn’t know…” Rong Yin noticed her gaze, and her rapid-fire rant suddenly paused. She met Lu Zhi’s eyes and asked uncertainly, “That doesn’t count as swearing, right? You won’t slap my mouth, will you?”
Lu Zhi pinched the bridge of her nose and uttered two words: “Shut up.”
Rong Yin gave a cold ‘heh’ and curled her lip disdainfully.
After they finished eating, the rain still hadn’t stopped outside.
Full and warmed, Rong Yin was relatively well-behaved. Sitting in the passenger seat, she took out her phone and started playing a Match-3 game.
Only after a long while did she suddenly remember to ask, “Hey, how did you know I was at the airport so fast?”
“Zhuang Jie told me.”
Rong Yin was stunned. “How did she know?”
Lu Zhi didn’t speak, just glanced at her phone.
Rong Yin didn’t understand at first. After thinking for several seconds, she suddenly realized. Her expression changed instantly.
It was as if the emotions suppressed all evening had finally found a breakthrough and were ignited only now.
The next second, her phone flew straight at the car’s front windshield.
Rong Yin didn’t have nearly enough strength to even scratch the glass, but Lu Zhi still swerved sharply. The wheels twisted on the slick ground.
“Rong Yin!” Lu Zhi called her name in warning.
“Stop the car! Stop the car!” Rong Yin’s fury had overwhelmed her mind. She roared crazily, not caring what she said. “Again! Fcking installed a tracker on me again!”
“Fck, Zhuang Jie! I won’t listen to her anymore this time, even if it kills me! Stop the car! I want to get out!” Rong Yin reached to unbuckle her seatbelt, her arm slapping furiously at the car door.
Lu Zhi cursed under her breath, slowly starting to ease off the accelerator while reaching out to restrain Rong Yin in the passenger seat.
“Stop the car!” Rong Yin’s whole body trembled, her voice even shriller in the confined space. “Even if I die today, I won’t go back!”
Lu Zhi’s face darkened. She changed direction with her right hand, directly and forcefully seizing Rong Yin’s neck and pinning her suddenly thrashing form to the seat. Her left hand steered the car slowly to a stop at a temporary pull-off point on the roadside.
“Are you courting death?!”
The moment the car stopped, Lu Zhi turned her head. Her left hand restrained Rong Yin’s two struggling hands, while her right hand remained on her neck. Her voice was icy and piercing, her gaze stabbing at Rong Yin’s face like a sharp arrow.
Rong Yin was choked to the point of barely being able to breathe, but her expression remained fierce. She glared at Lu Zhi. “J-just fcking kill me then!”
“You’re all Zhuang Jie’s dogs! I’m her dog too! Fck, I’m just a dog that makes money for her!”
Lu Zhi’s brows furrowed tightly. She watched her go crazy coldly. After a moment, amidst Rong Yin’s roars, she suddenly clicked the car door open and directly pushed the person out into the rainy night.
Then the car door slammed shut. Lu Zhi sat back in the driver’s seat, hit the accelerator without hesitation, and the car instantly roared away.
Thrown into complete confusion by her emotional turbulence, Rong Yin sat dumbfounded on the ground. Her palms pressed against the rough asphalt, but she didn’t even notice the pain from the abrasions. She could only watch helplessly as the black car sped off into the curtain of rain.
Soon, the heavy raindrops were pelting her so hard she couldn’t open her eyes. When distant thunder boomed, she realized she couldn’t even see the car’s taillights anymore.
It wasn’t even June yet. The temperature difference between day and night here was already huge, let alone on a night with such torrential rain.
“…”
Lu Zhi drove forward for five minutes with a grim face. The windshield wipers swung frantically. On this rainy night past two in the morning, there wasn’t a single car on the road.
Finally, when she reached an intersection, she still made a U-turn. It took her another ten minutes to return to the previous spot.
Rong Yin was still sitting on the ground.
Lu Zhi braked, unbuckled her seatbelt, and leaned over to open the passenger door.
All the car’s lights were on, but in the dense downpour, Rong Yin’s expression was still unreadable.
“Get in.” Lu Zhi spoke icily.
It took Rong Yin a good while to react. Then, shivering, she stood up and climbed into the passenger seat like a drowned rat.
![Is Self-Redemption That Hard? [Quick Transmigration]](https://i0.wp.com/dobytranslations.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/au.png?resize=151,215 "Is Self-Redemption That Hard? [Quick Transmigration]")
