Ten minutes later, not a single one of those eighteen people had appeared. Not only had they not appeared, but none of them had even made a call or anything. With no other choice, the bus departed.

  “What? You’re on the bus? You managed to get on the bus to the capital?” Ding Jiayi blinked her eyes in shock, wanting to dig her ears clean so that she could hear more clearly. “Old Qiao, say it again. Where are you now?”

  “On the bus.”

  “You don’t even have a ticket. How did you get on the bus?” She had stolen Old Qiao’s ticket and burned it, and Zijin said that she had purchased all of the excess tickets for this ride! When Zijin had done so, Old Qiao was still on the way to the bus station!

  Zijin had thought that nothing would go wrong once she purchased the remaining eighteen tickets. Who would have expected Old Qiao to get on the bus all the same? Were they not overloading the bus?

  Taking out a mineral water bottle from his luggage, Qiao Dongliang took a sip. Anyway, it was free for him to pick up a call. The one paying for the call would be Ding Jiayi, so he was in no hurry. “How would you know that I don’t have a ticket? If I didn’t have a ticket, would they have allowed me to board? Of course, I have both my ticket and my identity card!”

  Ding Jiayi was confused. “You…” She was a hundred percent sure that she had taken out the ticket from Old Qiao’s wallet and had even burned it! She had done that for sure! That had not been a dream!

  \r \r \r

  It was because of that that Ding Jiayi was even more confused. How had Qiao Dongliang managed to board the bus without any identification documents? That made absolutely no sense.

  “Do you have anything else?” Qiao Dongliang was clear of why Ding Jiayi refused to believe that he had managed to get on the bus to the capital. It was just that Ding Jiayi had spent so much effort and would rather have wasted three tickets than let him go to the capital. But he was still confused about the reason as to why she would do so.

  If possible, he wanted to ask Ding Jiayi in person why she did not want him to visit Nan Nan in the capital. Nan Nan had gotten pregnant with triplets at the age of forty. That meant that the situation was not particularly ideal. He hoped that nothing would happen to Nan Nan, but no one could guarantee that.

  If Nan Nan survived, he would have three grandchildren at once. That would undoubtedly be a joyous occasion. Otherwise… He would finally be able to be a father to Nan Nan by staying by her side until the very end.

  It was not that Qiao Dongliang wished to think about it so negatively. But as he aged, it became more natural for his thoughts to run and for him to scare himself in this way. It was because of these thoughts that he was even more determined to make it to the capital to stay by Qiao Nan’s side. Perhaps, with him by her side, Nan Nan would be more assured and her condition would change for the better!

  Whether he was being narcissistic or not, he felt that it would be better for Nan Nan to have a family member cheering her on by her side given her condition.

  “I…” What else did she have to say? What else could she say? If she asked Old Qiao to return and not go to the capital to visit Qiao Nan, would he listen to her? Of course not! What Ding Jiayi wanted to know was how Qiao Dongliang had managed to board the bus even though she had burned his ticket and Qiao Zijin had bought all of the remaining tickets!

  Ding Jiayi wanted to ask Qiao Dongliang if he had put his guard up against her because of the previous two incidents. Was the ticket that she burned last night a fake? Was that how Qiao Dongliang had managed to board the bus today?

  Of course, Ding Jiayi did not have the guts to ask those questions. Their spousal relationship was already bad enough to begin with, and there seemed to be no sign of improving. Once Qiao Dongliang found out about the truth and addressed the elephant in the room, Ding Jiayi worried that she would completely lose her husband. Ding Jiayi could not bear to face such a consequence.

  After remaining silent for almost half a minute, Ding Jiayi replied in a low voice, “No, there’s nothing else. Be careful and remember to call me once you reach the capital. You can send a text message too to let me know that you’re safe.”

  “Alright.” He was already on the way to the capital. Ding Jiayi would not be able to do anything to him even if he told Ding Jiayi that he was on the way there.

  This small victory did not make Qiao Dongliang overly happy. In fact, Qiao Dongliang felt rather exhausted. All he wanted to do was visit his daughter and grandchildren. It was no big deal at all. Why was his family treating it as though he was going to visit his enemy? It was ridiculous that they were making such a huge fuss over such a trivial matter.

  Only the Qiao family would do such a thing.

  “Then, I’ll hang up.” Ding Jiayi felt guilty and flustered in the face of such silence, ending the call before Qiao Dongliang could. She dared not even think about whether Qiao Dongliang had found out about the truth because she had another problem ahead of her: how to let Zijin know about this. After all their efforts, Old Qiao had still boarded the bus in the end!

  As much as she did not want to deal with it, Ding Jiayi could only text Qiao Zijin to break the news.

  When Qiao Zijin looked at the message, she nearly jumped up, as though someone had stepped on her tail. The obvious anger and rage made strangers detour around her.

  Qiao Zijin gritted her teeth. Her dad was already on his way to the capital. That meant that she had wasted that three thousand six hundred yuan this morning!

  Even if her plan were to succeed in the end, Qiao Zijin would still feel a pinch because of that three thousand six hundred yuan. Just thinking about that bus ride that Qiao Dongliang was on, Qiao Zijin felt like vomiting blood.

  Qiao Dongliang had managed to get on the bus. On the other hand, Qiao Zijin had not even managed to meet the Zhai family, much less acknowledge her younger sister, Qiao Nan.

  As she was deep in thought, a car drove out of the military district. Because it was at the main gate, the car was driving very slowly. That meant that Qiao Zijin could see clearly that it was Qiao Nan’s mother-in-law, Miao Jing, who was in the car!

  The Zhai family had no intention of meeting with the Qiao family at all, much less Qiao Zijin or Ding Jiayi. But someone as ambitious and internet-savvy as Qiao Zijin was able to find out all about others with a simple search on Baidu. Besides, the Zhai family was a well-known family in the country!