Clearly, this wasn’t the right path.
“Could Auntie Zhou have taken a different route?” Yueyue didn’t immediately suspect Auntie Zhou. Instead, she wondered if they might have taken another road.
That was possible. After all, there was more than one way to the county town.
Xingxing fell silent for a moment before his little face darkened with certainty. “No!”
He remembered his father saying that the county hospital was located at the center of the island. Even if a severe typhoon made landfall, the impact on the county hospital wouldn’t be as severe. No matter which side the typhoon hit, the edges of the island would undoubtedly experience stronger winds and rain than the center.
But now!
If they were heading toward the county hospital—the island’s center—the wind and rain should have been gradually easing.
Yet Xingxing noticed the storm was growing fiercer!
So, it was very likely they weren’t moving toward the island’s center.
Instead, they might be heading toward the edge.
Of course, that was just one possibility.
Another possibility was that the typhoon itself was intensifying.
But…
Xingxing stared at Auntie Zhou’s back ahead of them, feeling that things might not be so simple.
At that moment, Yueyue also began to think. When a realization struck her, she grabbed her brother’s hand.
“Brother, we might have been tricked by Auntie Zhou!” Her voice was firm.
Xingxing looked at her.
Yueyue explained, “I remember Great-Grandma once told us that when Mom gave birth to us, it went very smoothly! Later, Mom also said her constitution is special—there’s absolutely no way childbirth would ever be dangerous for her.”
“Besides!”
“Besides, think about it—if Mom were in danger while giving birth, would she really have someone come tell us?”
Xingxing pressed his lips together.
In his heart, he silently answered: No!
Fearing Auntie Zhou might overhear and with the storm raging around them, Xingxing and Yueyue switched to communicating telepathically.
Xingxing believed that, given their mother’s personality, she would never want them to worry. Even if she were in labor distress, she’d likely do everything to hide it from them.
So why would she send Auntie Zhou to fetch them in such terrible weather and take them to the county hospital?
“But what if Mom didn’t know, and Auntie Zhou acted on her own?” Yueyue asked.
“That’s also impossible! And if Mom were really in such danger, shouldn’t Auntie Zhou stay by her side instead of leaving?”
“Right!”
By this point, Xingxing and Yueyue had realized—they’d been deceived by Auntie Zhou!
Realizing this brought both good news and bad news.
The good news: Mom was probably fine!
The bad news: This Auntie Zhou might be a bad person trying to harm them.
“Brother, what should we do now?” Yueyue asked.
In this situation, they definitely couldn’t keep following Auntie Zhou.
Who knew where she might take them?
So!
“Brother, let’s take Brother Goudan and run!” Yueyue suggested.
That was their only option.
Xingxing nodded. They had no choice.
So Xingxing held Goudan’s hand, deliberately lagging a few steps behind, and explained their analysis to him.
Goudan froze in shock!
What? This Auntie Zhou was actually a bad person?!
Then… then what should they do?
His mother had told him to take good care of Xingxing and Yueyue.
But now…
A bad person had appeared and was leading them away.
No one knew what she planned to do with them.
Goudan’s expression changed. When Xingxing and Yueyue concluded that Auntie Zhou was a bad person, he didn’t doubt them at all.
After spending the past two days with them, he knew just how clever Xingxing and Yueyue were.
So, if they said Auntie Zhou was a villain, then she definitely was.
“What should we do now?” Goudan asked cautiously, keeping his eyes on Auntie Zhou ahead to avoid alerting her.
“Run,” Yueyue said.
“Let’s run back.”
After a quick discussion, the three children made their decision.
Running back to the military base was the safest option.
Continuing to follow this suspicious Auntie Zhou would only lead them deeper into danger—who knew where she might take them?
So, the three little ones gradually widened the distance between themselves and Auntie Zhou.
Exchanging a glance, they suddenly turned and bolted in the opposite direction.
At first, Auntie Zhou didn’t notice.
But just as the children were making their escape, two tall men suddenly appeared in front of them.
At first, they thought the men were just passersby.
Unexpectedly, the two men blocked their path.
One of them grabbed Goudan, while the other seized both Xingxing and Yueyue with his large hands.
“Zhou Juan, what’s going on? These brats figured it out and tried to run!” the man shouted.
Hearing this, Auntie Zhou—now at a distance—turned and finally realized she’d been exposed.
She walked over, narrowing her eyes as she studied the three children.
“So clever. I acted so well—how did you figure it out?”
The kindness in her expression was completely gone now, replaced by cunning and coldness.
“Good thing you two showed up in time.”
“Let us go! Let us go!” Xingxing and Yueyue struggled, quickly realizing that these two men were working with the treacherous Auntie Zhou.
They were really unlucky.
Of all times, why did they run into Auntie Zhou’s accomplices just as they were trying to escape?
Now they were truly done for.
Just as Xingxing and Yueyue were racking their brains for another way out, one of the men pulled out a piece of cloth from his pocket.
The cloth reeked of a pungent odor.
He pressed it over Xingxing’s mouth and nose. Realizing what it was, Xingxing pretended to “pass out.”
“Yueyue, play dead!” he mentally instructed his sister before going limp.
Though Yueyue didn’t fully understand why, she immediately followed her brother’s lead.
When the same cloth was pressed to her face, she also pretended to faint.
The cloth was then used on Goudan, who truly lost consciousness.
“Tch, should’ve knocked them out earlier. Would’ve saved us the trouble of them running,” the man grumbled.
“Hurry, take them away,” Auntie Zhou ordered.
The two men seemed to take orders from her.
So, after her command, each of them picked up a child and continued forward with Auntie Zhou.
What they didn’t know was that Xingxing and Yueyue—who appeared “unconscious” to them—were actually wide awake.
Back when they were born, Gu Jianing had already fed them an “Anti-Poison Pill.”
A mere drug was useless against them.
But Gu Jianing had also warned them:
Even though they had this ability, they must never let others discover it.
This was their trump card—to be used only in life-or-death situations.
Xingxing and Yueyue had remembered this lesson.
That was why they chose to “faint” at the right moment.
“Brother, what do we do now?” Yueyue asked telepathically.
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