Chapter 447: Leaving the Gu Family, Only Then Can the Root Be Treated

Song Shiwei was sitting in the room daydreaming when a knock sounded at the door; after getting permission, Wu Ma went in and said, "Madam, the husband has returned."

Song Shiwei's previously dull eyes suddenly flashed with a glimmer; she sprang up, turned to Wu Ma and asked, "Gu Sen has returned?!"

"I saw the husband's car pull into the courtyard; by now it should be in the living room."

"Where's Zhi Yan?" Song Shiwei instantly smoothed her hair, asked with a bright smile, "My son? He's back too, right? That's wonderful; later I'll contact Mrs. Qu and invite Qu Mei over to the house tomorrow."

As she spoke and walked toward the exit, she spotted Gu Sen on the spiral staircase and couldn't help hurrying down.

"You're back?"

Gu Sen looked up at his wife, still bearing the gentle demeanor of many years, but his eyes held a faint dark‑blue tint, and his spirit seemed far from fine.

"I'm back." He shed his coat onto the sofa; as he sat down, a servant arrived carrying tea.

Song Shiwei immediately instructed Wu Ma to go to the kitchen and cut fruit, then after giving the order she glanced toward the doorway and asked, "Where's Zhi Yan?"

She sat beside Gu Sen.

Song Shiwei suddenly noticed that Gu Sen already had white hair, and she lifted her head to touch her own hair.

After taking a sip of water, Gu Sen said, "Our son is in A City."

A chill rose in Song Shiwei's heart, she suppressed a spark of anger and gently asked, "Why is he still in A City? He should have come back with you; you and your son have been away from home, you have no idea how much I've missed you both."

She didn't mention at all the incident yesterday when her own son questioned her, as if nothing had happened.

She remained Mrs. Gu, beloved by her husband, dutiful to her children, dignified and gentle, the picture of a harmonious household.

Gu Sen, looking at her condition, truly wondered whether she hadn't taken her medicine or had taken too much.

"Zhi Yan won't be returning for the time being; he's in A City handling the Gu clan's market expansion. He might come back once the project is finalized and the contract signed."

As soon as Gu Sen finished speaking, the smile on Song Shiwei's face froze, fading bit by bit, and the hand resting on her knee began to tremble.

She clenched her fingers, her thumb repeatedly pinching her curled index finger, and finally could not restrain herself from standing up to face Gu Sen and launch a question.

"How could you let your son go into business!"

Seeing the husband and wife about to clash, the servants tactfully stepped out.

Gu Sen looked up at his angry and indignant wife, his gaze steady.

Song Shiwei, however, felt her heart race under that stare.

"This is Zhi Yan's own choice."

"How can he choose like that?" Song Shiwei grew increasingly angry, "What does that mean? Does he intend never to return to this home? Does he refuse to acknowledge me as his mother?"

"Gu Sen, how could you agree to let him go into business with you! How could you permit him to do that?"

"Why can't he do that?" Gu Sen, weary from travel, tilted his head uncomfortably and stood, looking at his wife who was a head shorter than him, "We've controlled him for thirty years—was that not enough? He still has several more decades; he can do what he likes."

"That's not what he likes at all!" Song Shiwei, her breath making her teeth tremble, "He should be applying to join the official system; he should come back to marry Qu Mei. The Zhao family has arranged the connections, and with the Qu family's ties, Zhi Yan will have a good future. With the Gu family operating well, we will rise steadily!"

"Enough, Song Shiwei." Gu Sen could no longer bear listening, feeling how alien the woman before him seemed, "This is just your one‑sided wish."

"One‑sided wish?" Song Shiwei laughed bitterly, a hand patting her chest, "You say it's my one‑sided wish—who am I doing this for, Gu Sen? Isn't it for this family, for our son's future, for our standing within the clan, for our family's position throughout B City?"

Gu Sen: "You still don't understand. Back then I quit my job under pressure to go into business, disregarding so‑called family and political status, because I believed my own family was more important."

Song Shiwei was stunned; she hadn't expected Gu Sen to bring up the events from twenty‑eight years ago, showing no regard for her feelings.

It hadn't always been like this before.

Back then, Gu Sen, to protect the secret from twenty‑eight years ago and prevent anyone from spilling it in front of Song Shiwei, replaced the household servants after returning from G Province, and after Song Shiwei's mental state recovered, he replaced the servants again.

The events of twenty‑eight years ago became an unspoken secret between Gu Sen and Song Shiwei.

Even though Gu Sen no longer sat at the head of the table in the clan and no matter how hard his business work was, he never showed any complaint, nor did he ever bring up the past.

For more than twenty years the household had been peaceful.

Song Shiwei's tears instantly rolled down as she stared blankly at Gu Sen.

Gu Sen sighed, but instead of approaching to comfort her as before, he said, "I didn't realize that your control and arrangement of Zhi Yan since childhood stemmed from your guilt over my abandoning politics for business, that you wanted your son to fulfill the purpose of making amends for me. I thought you were merely being relatively strict in guiding him."

"You don't need to feel guilty toward me. I told you it's fine; I'm your husband. I chose to marry you, bring you into the Gu family, and I should have taken good care of you, but I guess I didn't do enough, which caused you such a great impact, leading you to abandon your own daughter."

Gu Sen, seeing she was speechless, earnestly repeated, "You don't need to feel guilty toward me. When a great marital crisis looms, we shouldn't each run away. What we should feel guilty about is the abandoned biological daughter, and I should have, back then, spared no effort to search for her myself."

"Song Shiwei, open your eyes; pretending to sleep all the time is pointless," Gu Sen bent down, pulled out a tissue and handed it to her. Song Shiwei stubbornly turned her head, refusing to take the tissue to wipe her tears.

Gu Sen placed the tissue back on the table and continued, "I have two matters to handle this time I'm back. First, to tell you that I've decided to sever the company from the Gu clan; the company's name will also be changed..."

"Gu Sen, you're insane!" Song Shiwei widened her eyes, looking at her husband in disbelief, "How could you do this? Once the company leaves the Gu family, it'll be purely a business, and you and your son are doing this to get revenge on me!"

Gu Sen shook his head: "No, it's atonement."

"The second matter: Yin Xue will no longer be our child, nor our adopted daughter."

Song Shiwei seized Gu Sen's arm, her fingernails nearly tearing through his gray shirt; her face turned pale, her lips trembled, and she kept shouting, "Gu Sen, are you crazy!"

"I'm very calm; my mind is clearer now than when I was young." When I was younger, I hesitated, which let the situation develop to this point.

The Gu family is a quagmire, staining everyone who lives within it.

Rather than blame a person for accidentally getting dirty, one should ask oneself why they continue to stay here, dragging family along.

Leaving the Gu family is the only way to cure the root cause.

So that his descendants will no longer repeat the same mistakes.

"Gu Sen, you're truly insane. You actually let your son go into business, and you even want to drive away the daughter we've raised for twenty‑eight years," Song Shiwei said with a painful sigh, "Twenty‑eight years! Even a dog has feelings, Gu Sen."

"Dogs are loyal creatures; comparing Yin Xue to a dog shows you hold her in too high regard," Gu Sen's gaze was deep, thinking, yes, twenty‑eight years, even a wolf could be tamed, yet the one he and Shiwei raised turned out to be a dark, venomous snake.