Chapter 4: Gu Tingyan, don't you think you are being too cruel to me?

Now that her sister has returned, Gu Tingyan is her brother-in-law.

He can still treat her as well as he did before.

Hospital ward.

Chu Sheng was resuscitated and remained in a coma for two hours before waking up; Gu Tingyan had been guarding her bedside the entire time, watching her without taking a single step away.

Chu Sheng, on the hospital bed, was wearing a patient gown; her snow-white face was haggard, her wrists were wrapped in white bandages, and there was no color left in her face.

Jiang Chenxue was covering her mouth and crying nearby, looking at Gu Tingyan with a plea: "The doctor said she severed her main artery; if she had arrived any later, she wouldn't have been saved."

"Tingyan, Sheng doesn't want to live anymore."

She looked at Gu Tingyan with red eyes and cried: "You must save her."

"My daughter has finally returned; she cannot just be gone like this."

"What kind of sin have I committed for this retribution to fall upon my daughter?"

A sharp pain tugged at the bottom of Gu Tingyan's heart; his expression was solemn, and his thin lips parted slightly: "I will save her."

"Please rest assured."

Chu Sheng's eyelashes trembled; hearing this familiar voice, she opened her eyes and saw Gu Tingyan sitting beside her.

She looked at him, dazed, not daring to look away, fearing that he would disappear the next second.

"Tingyan."

A smile appeared on Chu Sheng's pale face; she raised her eyes to look at him fixedly, not daring to look away, and sobbed softly: "I dreamt of you again."

She gave a bleak smile: "It's so good."

A dull, stinging pain filled Gu Tingyan's heart; he lifted his eyes slightly and looked at Chu Sheng with a gentle voice: "Why are you so silly?"

Chu Sheng was startled, a line of clear tears flowing from the corner of her eye; she raised her hand to stroke his cheek, her voice carrying a hint of pleading and sorrow: "Let me touch you."

Gu Tingyan did not move; something was rampaging inside his chest, his eyes bloodshot, and he remained silent.

"I always feel like I'm dreaming."

She gazed at the familiar, handsome face before her, her eyes turning red: "When the dream wakes, you are still by my side."

"We can still return to the way we were."

Gu Tingyan took a deep breath, his heart feeling heavily oppressed; he rubbed his brow and explained to her in a low voice: "Sheng, I am married."

No one could have predicted things would reach this point today.

The two people who once loved each other so deeply were forced apart; he is already married with children, yet she has returned.

Gu Tingyan said in a low voice: "I am not the only man in this world; look forward."

Chu Sheng's eyes instantly turned red, tears streaming down uncontrollably; she looked at Gu Tingyan with sorrow: "Why?"

"Why couldn't you wait for me?"

"It's only been five years, and your child is already four."

A faint sadness appeared in her eyes, and she mocked herself: "I thought you would at least wait for me."

Guilt continued to spread in the depths of Gu Tingyan's heart; after a moment of silence, he said: "I'm sorry."

Chu Sheng's eyes reddened: "I don't want to hear your apology."

Gu Tingyan looked up at her, trying his best to restrain his emotions, his face showing a hint of weariness and helplessness as he said: "Whatever you want, I will compensate you."

Chu Sheng's eyes were filled with tears; she stared at him unwillingly and said: "I want you."

Gu Tingyan frowned deeply and said: "Impossible."

His handsome face revealed a touch of coldness; he leaned against the wall, tall and long-legged, idly playing with a lighter: "I am married."

"I have no intention of having an extramarital affair."

Gu Tingyan looked at Chu Sheng's pale face and said: "If you need financial help, just ask; if I can help, I will do my best."

Chu Sheng closed her eyes, tears flowing from the corners, her voice hoarse: "You know full well what I want most."

"Yet you still insist on stabbing my heart."

"Gu Tingyan, don't you think you are being too cruel to me?"

She looked at him, her eyelashes wet with tears: "Is your wife better than me?"

"Why don't you dare to look at me?"

Gu Tingyan did not answer her; he tucked one hand into his pocket and looked out the window, his lips pressed together.

Some things can no longer go back; everything has long since changed.

If Chu Sheng had returned sooner, perhaps things would not have reached this point today.

Chu Sheng gazed at Gu Tingyan's cold, indifferent, and heartless appearance, unable to speak further, and could only weep silently.

In the hospital ward, there was only the sound of her incessant sobbing.

Seeing her crying so sorrowfully, which caused the IV tube to be tugged and the blood to begin flowing backward, Gu Tingyan sighed helplessly, raised his hand, and patted her back gently: "Stop crying."

Chu Sheng raised her hands to hold his waist tightly, refusing to let go, and cried: "Tingyan, I really cannot live without you."

"Why? Why did everything change the moment I returned?"

"Why did you marry another woman?"

Gu Tingyan's body stiffened; hearing these words as he prepared to pull her hands away, he did not move, his eyes filled with confusion and pain.

In the hospital ward, they huddled and embraced, like a pair of star-crossed lovers.

Chu Yu looked through the glass window at Gu Tingyan and Chu Sheng embracing inside, picked up her phone, and took a picture of the scene.

She idly played with her phone, looking at the glaring photo before her, her face filled with jealousy and her lips curled in a cold sneer.

One day, this photo will come in handy.

It wouldn't do to let her be the only one suffering from unrequited love, would it?

——

Qin Shu leaned against the bed reading a book, with only a small lamp lit in front of the bed; Gu Tingyan's words kept echoing in her ears, and as she gripped the book in her hands, she felt only panic and unease in her heart.

Qin Shu carefully flipped through the book in her hands, holding a pen to make annotations, when she heard the mobile phone on the table beside her vibrate; she picked it up to look, and it was Gu Tingyan.

Gu Tingyan sent her a message: "Go to sleep early, I won't be back tonight, no need to wait for me."

"I am staying at the hospital with her for a while, Sheng is very emotionally unstable."

Qin Shu felt an inexplicable tightness in her chest, and she replied: "Okay."

Qin Shu asked cautiously: "Is she alright?"

If Chu Sheng really died because of her, Gu Tingyan might hate her for the rest of his life.

Gu Tingyan: "Qin Shu, I have already married you; there is no need for you to provoke Sheng in the future."

Qin Shu's heart suddenly choked: "If I say I didn't mean to provoke her, do you believe me?"

Gu Tingyan said: "I will not divorce you, you can rest assured."

"Even if Sheng has returned, she cannot threaten your position."

Seeing this, Qin Shu was so angry that she didn't want to pay any attention to Gu Tingyan anymore.

How exactly did he want her to explain?

She really had not wanted to provoke Chu Sheng!

She hadn't even been able to tell who the voice on the other end was!

But Gu Tingyan did not believe her.

Qin Shu felt inexplicably aggrieved; she tossed and turned, unable to sleep, then forced herself to read for another half hour, and only when the time reached 11 o'clock did she turn off the light to sleep.

That night, just as Gu Tingyan had said, he did not return.

He had been at the hospital the whole time taking care of Chu Sheng.

The next day.

When Chu Sheng woke up, she saw Gu Tingyan slumped over her hospital bed, having watched over her for the entire night.

Jiang Chenxue sent her a message, feeling very uneasy: "Chenchen and I came back and crashed into Qin Shu's car."

"Sheng, will Gu Tingyan really divorce her for you?"