They were just different people hired and sent by her grandfather to retrieve her. They were just doing their job. She cannot pour her frustrations she felt towards her grandfather over these people.

  "And you are?" She asked the man, but he didn't bother to respond to her question, not that she expected him to answer anyway.

  Thankfully, He Lianchen was still asleep on her bed and wouldn't wake up anytime soon. She would have enough time to leave with this person.

  She resisted not making a scene this early in the morning, but Tang Moyu's words yesterday played in her mind.

  "Yaoyao, for someone like your grandfather, escaping and hiding is just a child's play. You cannot avoid him forever. He might have tolerated you for a long time, but there would come a day when he would get tired of it and just force you to come home."

  Gu Yuyao grimaced but didn't correct Tang Moyu. So the empress indeed knew about her identity but never asked her about it.

  "I know but it isn't as simple as that, Moyu."

  "Even if you leave now, there's no assurance that you would truly be free from your family, Yaoyao. Aren't you getting tired of leaving every time they start poking their noses in your life?" The empress retorted.

  Has that day already come already? Gu Yuyao wondered. She couldn't deny that the empress was right. She'd been running for years from the old man. Perhaps it was time to end the chase and lay everything down once and for all.

  She'd given up a lot of things by running away. Now that she was back here with He Lianchen, Gu Yuyao supposed it was time for her to face her reality and stop escaping from it. Her grandfather should just let her live the way she wanted and stop breathing down her neck.

  "I'll leave with you. Please don't harm my boyfriend. He has nothing to do with this." Gu Yuyao didn't trust these people not to harm He Lianchen after she went with them. He would surely put up a fight if he'd known they were here to take her back to Beijing.

  The man frowned and slightly tilted his head down to look at his companion standing a few meters away from him in the hallway.

  "We were sent here to only accompany you back, Miss Yuyao. I'll give you my word. We won't harm him."

  Gu Yuyao narrowed her eyes and stared at him.

  "Fine. Give me a moment. I'll just change." She said and closed her door, inhaling a few calming breaths as she leaned her back on it. It was now or never.

  She moved quietly towards the bed and looked at her man's nude boy with a mirthless laugh. He Lianchen had a set of wide shoulders, wide enough to carry the burden of his past, the pain of her abandonment, and yet he still loved her.

  If she was born an ordinary woman, would he still fall in love with her? Gu Yuyao wondered.

  This time, she wanted to make it right for the two of them. Since He Lianchen was still willing to stay with her in spite of knowing her painful past and pain-in-the-butt family, then she could only do her share to lessen the burden.

  "Don't run away anymore." He told her, and that was why she was willing to make things straight right now. She would know what her grandfather wanted from her and if he forced her on something she didn't want, then maybe making another deal with the devil wouldn't be a bad idea, but that would be her last resort.

  They spent a wonderful night together, made love three times before deciding to take a shower, and retire for the night. He Lianchen must be sated by now, considering he was deep asleep and had failed to notice that she had slipped out of the bed.

  She silently took a new set of clothes from her wardrobe and wrote a note for him, leaving it on her nightstand.

  'Honey, I'm going home. They found me. Please wait for me.'

  Gu Yuyao hoped that he wouldn't panic and won't take any drastic action just to find her. Perhaps, she should give Tang Moyu a call to make sure that her man wouldn't do stupid things while she was away.

  Tang Moyu picked up her call at the first ring.

  "Yaoyao? What is it?" The empress's voice was cold, but she could sense a bit of concern from her tone.

  Gu Yuyao had already known that the empress would be up by this time.

  "Moyu, they found me. Look after him for me please." She told her and heard the empress's response; for her to take care and be safe.

  Wearing a pair of black denim jeans and a sweatshirt, Gu Yuyao walked back to the living room with her shoes in one hand. She grabbed her purse and mobile phone before quietly slipped her shoes on and opened her front door, seeing the same men waiting for her.

  The three of them went down with her and waited for a moment.

  They didn't need to wait for too long as three black cars arrived, stopping in front of them. The driver of the first car came out and opened the door of the backseat for Gu Yuyao.

  Gu Yuyao glanced above, at her apartment building, seemingly trying to look at her unit, where she had left the sleeping He Lianchen.