Chapter 78: You're Like a Father!

Gu Yunci's face was expressionless. Speaking into the phone, he said in a cold voice, "Her life has nothing to do with me."

That single sentence silenced the entire hospital room.

He raised his eyes and looked at Meng Shutang, his voice softening: "I will only watch over you and the child."

Meng Shutang lay there quietly, eyes closed, the corners of her lips curving into the faintest of arcs.

"You don't have to be like this, and you don't need to put on an act of sudden realization. Actually, I was the one who misunderstood you,

thinking you knew, yet willfully chose to believe only her side and take her part. I'm the one who should say sorry."

Gu Yunci's chest tightened. His thin lips parted, but Meng Shutang interrupted him again.

"Hurry up and go. Don't play the part of being torn here. You've never owed me an apology, and I don't want one anyway.

We're already divorced. You should go where you need to go."

Bai Lianyue's heart-wrenching sobs came through the phone. "Yunci, hurry over, Tangtang is really about to breathe her last.

Child, your mother said she liked Tangtang very much.

Meng Shutang couldn't stand Bai Lianyue's put-on voice. The moment she heard it, she couldn't help but picture the scene of her mother finding out she'd been backstabbed by her best friend.

"Now, this instant. I'm asking you to leave right now."

Gu Yunci still didn't move. He took Meng Shutang's hand and kissed it. "Tangtang, don't be like this. Can we start over?

The wedding ring — all these years, I've always carried it with me..."

He took the wedding ring from his person and pressed it into Meng Shutang's hand.

Meng Shutang refused it. "Don't touch me."

"Listen to me explain."

Just then, the door creaked open, and Lu Shenyang strode in from outside.

Seeing the scene inside, he immediately walked over to Gu Yunci's side and barked sternly, "Gu Yunci, let go of her."

Gu Yunci stood up, his entire bearing cold and sharp. "My wife's affairs are none of your concern."

Lu Shenyang gave a scornful laugh. "Wife? Gu Yunci, get this straight —

you two have been divorced for a long time. If anyone gets to be called wife, it's Bai Cixian.

Twenty-eight years ago, Bai Cixian's mother stole Shutang's father.

Four years ago, Bai Cixian pulled the same trick and came to steal you.

That mother and daughter are exactly alike — their whole lives, all they know how to do is take other people's things.

And you — how similar you are to Meng Zhibang!

You two are the same kind of people. She's the one threatening to die, isn't she? You should be by her side instead of wasting time here with Shutang."

With that, he took his place beside Meng Shutang. "Go. She has me here, and that's enough."

Just then, Bai Lianyue's ill-timed voice came through the phone again. "Yunci, even if Tangtang dies, you're the only one in her heart.

Child, just for the fact that she miscarried for your sake and damaged her very foundation..."

Lu Shenyang couldn't listen to any more. He turned to look at Gu Yunci. "Gu Yunci, Shutang doesn't want to see you. Can't you understand that?

Someone out there is threatening to die waiting for you to save her. Instead of staying by your sister's side, you're here pestering — what's the point?"

Gu Yunci's hand tightened slightly. He backed away and left.

He went to the Meng family garden.

The moment he set foot inside, he sensed a familiar aura about the place.

Meng Shutang had mentioned the Meng family garden to him before — she'd said the old alleys here were very quiet, and she'd brought up the moss creeping along the corner of the wall, and she'd even mentioned the old locust tree by the entrance.

He had dropped Bai Cixian off once, but the car had only stopped on the main road and never came close.

He had known about Meng Zhibang for a long time, but never could he have imagined that Meng Shutang was his daughter, and Bai Cixian was too, only three months younger than Meng Shutang.

Hearing the commotion, Meng Zhibang and Bai Lianyue both came out to greet him. "Yunci, you're here."

Both of them had red eyes — it seemed things had been truly dire just now.

He didn't enter Bai Cixian's bedroom. He only stood at the doorway and glanced inside.

Bai Cixian lay there, bandages wrapped around her wrist, visible bruises on her exposed skin, her face mottled with patches of blue and red, like a beauty without breath.

Bai Lianyue explained, "She swallowed a whole bottle of sleeping pills and then slit her wrist. If Old Meng and I hadn't arrived in time, she most likely would have..."

As she spoke, she began crying again.

Gu Yunci's Adam's apple bobbed slightly. He said nothing.

Meng Zhibang stepped closer. "President Gu, Cixian is in this state entirely because of you.

She's young and simple-hearted. You can't let her down."

The last person Gu Yunci wanted to see was this old scoundrel, but his upbringing wouldn't allow him to curse out loud. He turned around composedly and looked at him, enunciating every word:

"I came today not to see Cixian."

Meng Zhibang's brow furrowed slightly. "President Gu, you're here to..."

Gu Yunci: "And certainly not to tear up the contract."

Merely cutting off the partnership and severing their prosperity — that would be letting them off too easily.

Don't be fooled by Meng Zhibang's love of orchids. Everyone in their circle knew he loved money as much as his own life and had dirty hands.

He would investigate slowly...

Meng Zhibang's throat went dry. He swallowed. "What has President Gu come for?"

"After we married, Tangtang once mentioned that when she was little, she wore a star hair clip.

Meng Zhibang paused, startled. "I know where it is. I'll go get it for you right now."

It was from when Zhou Xingfan and the others moved away, and Bai Lianyue had someone come to clean up — after the cleaning, it was tossed in the trash bin. He happened to see it and picked it up on a whim.

He didn't even know why he'd picked up this inconspicuous, worthless thing. Clearly even their mother and daughter didn't want it anymore — so what did he need it for?

But at the time, he was only thinking that this was something Meng Shutang had worn in her hair since childhood, and he didn't want to lose it.

Soon, he came out of the bedroom and, hands trembling, handed the hairpin to Gu Yunci. "It's this one."

Gu Yunci said nothing. His steps were as heavy as lead, yet he left as lightly as if fleeing.

Bai Lianyue came to his side. "What did you just say to President Gu?"

"The cooperation between Gu Clan and our Meng Clan is about to expire. I was just testing him to see his attitude."

Bai Lianyue: "What did he say?"

Meng Zhibang: "He won't make a move on us for now. He'll... take it slowly."

……

After leaving the Meng family garden, Gu Yunci went to Jiangcheng Yiyuan. He wanted to consult Huo Yanchen about some things.

But the moment the car came to a stop, from afar he spotted a small figure at the entrance of the outpatient building.

"Xin Xin."

He called out softly, unable to wait as he got out of the car.

In a single day, in two different places, they had run into each other.

He couldn't help feeling that this was destiny in some unseen way.

As if sensing something, Xin Xin suddenly turned around just as he was striding toward her.

When she saw it was him, she flashed a bright smile, two deep dimples forming on her cheeks.

Her little face was clean and elegant, faintly bearing a trace of his mother's gentle features.

They clearly had no blood relation — why did she look so much like his own mother?

"Handsome Uncle, are you here at the hospital to visit a relative too?"

Gu Yunci froze for a moment, then crouched down in front of her. "Yes."

He noticed the sketchbook she was holding. "Did you draw this?"

Xin Xin nodded and chattered on about what she had drawn. Gu Yunci thought she had real talent. "You draw well. Did your mommy teach you?"

Xin Xin shook her head. "No, I just doodled these.

Oh right, Uncle, what's your surname?"

Gu Yunci returned the sketchbook to her. "My surname is Gu. You can call me Uncle Gu."

"Uncle Gu!" Xin Xin answered in a crisp, clear voice. Her little hand suddenly grasped his finger, and she added in a milky voice, "I feel like I've seen you somewhere before. You look like Daddy!"

Gu Yunci's movements abruptly froze.

This childish remark was like a beam of warm light, catching him off guard as it shone into his long-parched heart.

For the first time since Meng Shutang, he felt a long-unfamiliar flutter — a desire to draw close to someone.

"Xin Xin," an auntie not far away waved to the little girl, gesturing for her to come over.

The little girl toddled over to him cutely. "Handsome Uncle, will we be able to see each other again?"