Forced To Take Care Of The Protagonist, She Can't Leave [Transmigration Novel] - Chapter 15

“We won’t be back at noon, so you don’t need to prepare lunch,” Gu Qingshi instructed the nanny before taking Huo Chen and heading out.

Huo Chen was in a very good mood. He held Gu Qingshi’s hand and followed him, looking quite well-behaved. It was just the two of them; that annoying man surnamed Fu was nowhere to be seen.

However, as soon as he opened the car door, Huo Chen’s expression changed immediately upon locking eyes with Little Li in the driver’s seat. Why is it him again?

“Go to the back seat,” Gu Qingshi said from behind him, seemingly oblivious to why the boy had run over so quickly.

Huo Chen’s face went pale. He had thought Gu Qingshi would be the one driving. Reluctantly, he sat in the back seat, his eyes fixed on the driver as if he could burn a hole right through him.

“Can’t we just go by ourselves?” Huo Chen couldn’t help but ask in a low voice, his eyes filled with anticipation.

Gu Qingshi replied, “I don’t know how to drive.” His tone was flat, revealing no particular emotion.

Huo Chen felt like a punctured balloon, feeling dejected. He didn’t like having outsiders around. Is a driver’s license that hard to get? How can Gu Qingshi not know how to do this either? I will have to get one myself. Isn’t eighteen the age when one can start taking the test? Young Huo Chen thought carefully and set another goal for himself.

“Brother, we are still heading to the northern suburbs, right?” Little Li confirmed.

“Yes.”

The car began to move smoothly. Huo Chen secretly gestured for the partition to be raised. Gu Qingshi glanced at him but didn’t say anything. Instead, he handed over a box with the lid already open.

Huo Chen took the box. He was a bit stunned, but he gripped it tightly in his palm. It was peppermint candies.

Gu Qingshi lowered his eyes slightly. After waiting for a while and seeing no movement from the boy, he asked helplessly, “Aren’t you going to give me one?”

Huo Chen felt so awkward he didn’t know what to do. Clumsily, he shook out two candies and reached out toward Gu Qingshi’s mouth.

Gu Qingshi was silent for a moment before taking them from him, maintaining his composure.

996 chattered in his mind: “Host, why didn’t the protagonist give you the whole box? Is he trying to hoard them all for himself?”

“Where did you learn those words?”

“Don’t change the subject! Is he trying to hoard them!” 996 ranted.

Gu Qingshi ignored it.

Seeing that Gu Qingshi hadn’t taken the box from his hand, Huo Chen felt a small pang of disappointment, but he looked down at the tin and clutched it tightly again.

Gu Qingshi caught a glimpse of this from the corner of his eye and, for reasons unknown, chuckled softly.

Huo Chen looked over immediately. “What are you laughing at?” He leaned his head over.

“Nothing.”

The peppermint candies had all been taken by the little dog. Huo Chen couldn’t get an answer, so he felt inexplicably stifled and pouted.

There was a village near the northern suburbs called “Tian Village,” which was not far from the “Sunshine Orphanage.” The car even passed by the orphanage.

Gu Qingshi glanced outside. The place looked even more dilapidated than before, though it hadn’t been completely demolished yet. There was even caution tape on the building.

He turned to look at Huo Chen and was surprised to see that the boy didn’t even attempt to look out the window.

“We are almost there, about five more minutes,” Little Li said from the front.

Gu Qingshi didn’t have a deep understanding of the backstory, as most authors tended to gloss over the protagonist’s youthful hardships. Consequently, in the information provided by 996, the grandmother was only referred to as “Old Mrs. Zhang,” without even a first name.

Gu Qingshi actually disliked this; people without names seemed to be defined as unimportant.

However, the trees outside the window receded row by row, and the sound of car horns pierced through his eardrums directly into his heart. Everything around him felt so real. Why does it matter if it is real or fake? Besides, even if it were fake, isn’t that exactly what an actor is supposed to do—immerse himself in the role?

Gu Qingshi’s expression remained calm as he looked down at his fingers. He felt that Huo Chen was luckier than him, as he at least had a loved one to miss. His lips pressed together slightly.

Little Li skillfully parked the car on a patch of open ground on the outskirts of the village, closed the partition, and said to Gu Qingshi, “Brother, we are here. This is Tian Village. Should I follow you or…” He sounded hesitant.

Gu Qingshi looked up at the village, then shifted his gaze to Little Li and said politely, “There is a muddy path that is hard to walk on, so you can just wait here.”

After saying this, he checked his watch and added, “It is still early, so you can go for a drive if you would like. Just be back here by five in the afternoon. How does that sound?”

His tone was gentle and natural, completely like a person asking for a favor. Little Li naturally had no objections and nodded quickly.

Gu Qingshi opened the door and stepped out cleanly, then turned to look into the car. Seeing Huo Chen still sitting there, looking lost, he tapped his knuckles against the door. “Get out.”

Huo Chen broke out of his daze, hurriedly unbuckled his seatbelt, and climbed out. He stuck to Gu Qingshi’s leg like a little pendant.

There were quite a few things in the trunk: some paper money, incense, and basic offerings. It was a complete set.

Huo Chen watched as Gu Qingshi bent over to pick up the bags, staring at the man’s profile in a daze. “Let me carry them for you!”

Gu Qingshi looked back at him, thought for a moment, and handed him one of the smaller bags. His movements were natural, and his expression was calm.

996 was stunned by how well its host had “trained” the protagonist. He was so obedient that it wondered if they had entered the wrong world. Everything seemed quite harmonious.

Huo Chen followed closely behind him, his eyes constantly darting upward. The clothes this person wore were always simple; this time, it was a black overcoat that made him look as refined as jade.

Huo Chen was so busy looking at him that he inevitably walked slower and had to trot to catch up whenever he realized he had fallen behind.

Gu Qingshi stopped helplessly. When he reached out to signal for the bag, Huo Chen tried hard to shift his own bag to one hand so he could use the other to hold Gu Qingshi’s hand.

996: “Hahahaha!! The protagonist is such a fool!”

Gu Qingshi looked at the boy’s innocent face and, for some reason, couldn’t bring himself to push his hand away. He just bent down, took the small bag from him, and continued walking with a sigh.

Huo Chen explained eagerly, “It is not that heavy, I can carry it!”

Gu Qingshi replied, “I know.”

This man really spoke very little. Huo Chen remembered how he had been in the car: gentle, elegant, and articulate. He was flawless, with the air of a true gentleman. But as soon as he stopped talking, he would look tired, his lips drooping quickly as his expressionless face returned.

Huo Chen held his hand, thinking that this was fine too; at least he could see the man’s true self. A strange sense of superiority rose in his heart.

Tian Village was a true village, with broken-down streets. Coupled with the wind today, falling leaves were swirling everywhere.

“Do you need to go to your grandmother’s house?” A familiar voice came from the front.

Gu Qingshi leaned down, asking the boy peacefully. The story provided stated that Huo Chen had been lost since birth; if it weren’t for that old woman, he might have died. Of course, one could maliciously assume that this was all just a plot device. Irrelevant.

The wind was too strong.

Gu Qingshi waited, but the child seemed blown silly, just staring at him with wide eyes.

“What did you say?” Gu Qingshi leaned in closer but couldn’t hear the few syllables Huo Chen mumbled, suspecting the boy had not made a sound at all. He frowned slightly.

The boy leaned forward a little, turning his ear toward him.

The scene in front of Huo Chen seemed to move in slow motion, every micro-expression of the man captured by his eyes. He watched as the person leaned in, inch by inch.

The wind was too strong. The man looked a bit impatient, so he opened his coat and held it out to act as a shield. The wind around Huo Chen subsided immediately.

“Speak.” Gu Qingshi turned his head again, looking at him with confusion.

“No…” The word was finally clear.

Gu Qingshi was not surprised by the answer. After all, that house had likely been occupied by Old Mrs. Zhang’s son, and there was no point in visiting when the person was no longer there.

“Do you recognize the grave? We will…” he began to ask.

Before he could finish, Huo Chen dove into his arms. The movement was sudden, his head burying into the man’s neck.

Gu Qingshi was caught off guard and lost his balance for a moment. He frowned, wanting to pull the little thing off for a split second, but he pressed his lips together. Forget it.

He actually didn’t like intimate contact, nor did he like others being too clingy, because it always felt strange.

“Are you done?”

When Huo Chen heard this question, his instinct was to pretend to be deaf, but he knew he couldn’t hold on for too long, as this man’s temper was not exactly great.

“Yeah…” He finally let go, hanging his head and acting dejected.

Huo Chen waited expectantly for the man to pat his head, but his performance did not catch the man’s attention. Gu Qingshi simply said, “Let’s go, lead the way.”

It was concise, as if his hug had had no positive effect at all.

Huo Chen was sometimes curious: was this person truly just low-spirited, or had the acting profession exhausted all his emotions? He always looked so tired.

Twenty minutes later, because of the rain a few days prior, the muddy road was indeed difficult to walk on, and Gu Qingshi’s shoes were stained.

This part of the northern suburbs still had land that adhered to the custom of burial, so one could see earthen mounds of varying heights. Of course, it might also be because they could not afford a gravestone in the city.

Huo Chen ran very quickly, winding his way until he reached a very new grave. He shouted to Gu Qingshi behind him, “Here!”

He felt inexplicably excited, a feeling he had never experienced before—it was as if he were introducing someone to his grandmother.

Gu Qingshi walked over, bent down slightly, and reached out to brush the weeds off the stone.

His gaze swept over the three characters. So your name was Zhang Suping…

The world was so thorough and complete that Gu Qingshi found it hard not to care. People not mentioned in the plot, whether dead or alive, had names. They were not NPCs.

“Do you know how to burn paper money?” Gu Qingshi set down the bag he was holding and asked while organizing the items.

“I do.” Huo Chen helped with the items, glancing at him from the side. Is he not going to ask anything? Is he going to ask absolutely nothing?

Gu Qingshi just organized the things, laid out the offerings and a fire basin, and stepped aside.

“Talk to your grandmother.” After saying this, he prepared to leave.

Huo Chen was surprised for a moment. He instinctively grabbed Gu Qingshi’s hand and asked stammeringly, “Where are you going?”

The man frowned, appearing confused. “I am going to wait for you nearby.”

Huo Chen thought, You don’t need to leave, but he didn’t know how to say it, so he just stood there blankly as Gu Qingshi added, “Wouldn’t I be disturbing you if I stayed here? Ten minutes, is that alright?”

Huo Chen could not say a word. Yes, the man had said he would not replace his family.

But he…

Gu Qingshi walked away.

Huo Chen looked at the photo on the tombstone, his wrist throbbing with a dull pain again. He could not help but look back at that person.

The man truly did exactly as he said.

He looked back at the photo on the tombstone, his heart heavy with confusion, and simply said, “I am sorry, Grandma… I am a bit hurt, so I could not come back to see you earlier. I hope you can forgive me.”

He kowtowed deeply.