Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Seeing Su Hua defend Ah Yao so fiercely made Gu Beixian feel incredibly uneasy.

His expression remained unchanged, but his eyes betrayed a sense of restrained, suppressed emotion.

“I’m going out for a smoke,” he said coldly before turning to leave.

He closed the door with more force than usual.

Su Hua didn’t notice, however.

Her mind was consumed by that night thirteen years ago-that nightmare of a midnight where the wind howled and the flames roared, filled with endless pain and desperate screams.

Ah Yao was the key that unlocked that nightmare.

Just the mention of his name felt like a needle to her heart, stirring up a storm of emotions that refused to settle.

A single tear slid silently from the corner of her eye, dripping onto the blurry photograph.

It took a long time for Su Hua to calm down.

She wiped her damp eyes with the back of her hand and looked back at the photo.

She wondered who was helping her from the shadows.

She hadn’t even told her own mother about her hand injury to avoid worrying her. Only a few people, like Gu Beixian, knew.

She ruled out Gu Beixian; he wouldn’t hurt the woman he loved.

Could it be Shen Huai?

Su Hua picked up her phone and called him. “Young Master Shen, do you know Chu Suosuo?”

Shen Huai paused for a moment. “I think I’ve heard the name somewhere. Why?”

“Her hand was smashed with a hammer last night.”

Shen Huai gave an indifferent “Oh.” “Do you want me to help find a doctor for her?”

“No, it’s nothing.” Su Hua hung up.

Clearly, it wasn’t Shen Huai either.

Su Hua picked up the photo again, examining it closely.

Since marrying Gu Beixian, she had lived a quiet, secluded life. Given her reserved and taciturn nature, she didn’t have many friends, and male friends were even rarer.

She racked her brain but couldn’t recognize who the figure in the photo was.

Gu Beixian smoked half a pack of cigarettes outside before he managed to regulate his emotions.

He pushed the door open and entered the room.

He saw Su Hua sitting on the hospital bed, clutching the photo with her brow furrowed in deep worry.

He hesitated for a moment, then walked over to the bedside and sat down. He reached out, gently smoothing the frown lines between her eyebrows with his fingers.

He stared deeply into her eyes for a long while before pulling her into his arms and holding her.

He held her for a long time, far longer than a normal hug.

Smelling the heavy scent of tobacco on him, Su Hua asked softly, “Did you smoke a lot?”

“Yes.”

“You worked so hard to quit. Don’t smoke anymore; it’s bad for your health.”

“Okay.”

After a moment, he added, “I’m sorry. I upset you earlier.”

Su Hua wanted to say something, but she didn’t know where to start. She simply said, “I’m hungry. Let’s eat.”

Gu Beixian released her and called for the bodyguards to bring in the food.

After dinner, Gu Beixian left for the office.

In the evening, Gu Nanyin arrived to visit Su Hua with a large bouquet of fresh flowers.

As soon as she sat down, she began to complain, “Sister-in-law, why didn’t you tell me you were hurt? If Mo Chen hadn’t mentioned it in passing, I wouldn’t have even known you were hospitalized.”

Su Hua smiled. “You have school. Coming to see me would interfere with your studies.”

“I’m graduating soon. I don’t need to find a job, and I don’t want to go to grad school, so I’m bored out of my mind every day. You should have said something sooner so I could come chat with you. It would keep you from getting bored, as long as you don’t find me annoying.”

Su Hua said softly, “I wouldn’t.”

Gu Nanyin looked at Su Hua’s red, swollen hand in its splint and said angrily, “Which bastard did this? Do they have a death wish? How could they be so cruel to you?”

“I ran into a group of tomb raiders a while back. A man called the Bald Man went to prison, and his sister came for revenge.”

Su Hua briefly explained the situation to her.

Gu Nanyin was furious after hearing the story.

The two chatted for a while longer until night fell.

Gu Nanyin checked her watch, then picked up her phone to call Gu Beixian. “Brother, I’m at the hospital visiting Sister-in-law. I want some milk tea. Pick some up for me on your way back. You remember what I like, right? And don’t forget to bring one for Sister-in-law too.”

Gu Beixian’s indifferent voice came through the phone. “I’m already at the hospital. If you want some, have a bodyguard go buy it.”

“I’m right here in Sister-in-law’s room, but I don’t see you.”

“I’m visiting Suosuo. I’ll be back in half an hour.”

Gu Nanyin couldn’t sit still. She shot up from her chair and walked to the window. “Brother, you’re really disappointing me. My sister-in-law is hurt and already in a bad mood, yet you’re still upsetting her like this. Don’t you know that the thing women hate most is their man staying too close to an ex-girlfriend?”
Gu Beixian remained silent for a moment before saying, “I’ll be back in a while.”

“Come back right now. Hurry up.”

Gu Beixian hung up the phone.

Gu Nanyin walked over to Su Hua’s bed and sat down, looking huffy. She hesitated for a moment, but finally couldn’t help herself. “Sister-in-law, has my brother been seeing a lot of Chu Suosuo lately?”

Su Hua gave a soft hum of affirmation.

Gu Nanyin sighed. “Sister-in-law, you’re too honest. You’re no match for her. She’s been full of schemes since she was a kid-a total ‘green tea’ bitch. Even I can’t beat her at her games.”

Su Hua listened half-heartedly, replying casually, “Is that so?”

“Yeah! Since we were kids, she’s loved competing with me for my brother’s attention. Our families have business dealings, so we often gathered for meals during holidays. She would always cling to my brother, whining ‘Beixian’ this and ‘Beixian’ that. One minute she’d want him to serve her food, the next she’d want him to peel her shrimp. She was so clingy and dainty; it was nauseatingly fake. But my brother was like he’d been bewitched-he was so good to her and indulged her every whim.”

Su Hua felt a series of sharp stabs of pain in her heart, but her face remained expressionless.

Gu Nanyin continued, “Later, I got so fed up that I started trying to steal her brother. I called him ‘Mo Chen’ this and ‘Mo Chen’ that, ordering him around just to spite her.”

Su Hua had a fairly good impression of Chu Mochen, so she remarked, “They don’t seem like they belong to the same family. Their personalities are quite different.”

“They’re half-siblings. Chu Suosuo’s mother was Mo Chen’s aunt-the mistress who clawed her way up. She’s a real piece of work.” Gu Nanyin rolled her eyes dramatically.

Su Hua listened quietly.

“Actually, Mo Chen is quite pitiful too.” Gu Nanyin’s mood suddenly took a dip as she sighed. “His biological younger sister died in an accident shortly after she was born. His mother was so traumatized she went insane. That sister was originally supposed to have an arranged marriage with my brother. If she were alive, she’d be around your age.”

Su Hua didn’t know what to say, so she simply offered a small, faint smile.

Not long after, Gu Beixian returned.

He was carrying two cups of milk tea and some desserts. One was a Mango Pomelo Sago, Su Hua’s favorite, and the other was a Strawberry Cloud Smoothie for Gu Nanyin.

Gu Beixian poked the straw into the milk tea and handed it to Su Hua. “I got this from that shop you like the most.”

As Su Hua reached out to take it, she caught a faint, sweet scent lingering on the sleeve of his suit jacket.

It was the perfume Chu Suosuo always wore.

Her gaze drifted casually toward his shirt collar, where she spotted a red mark about the size of a fingernail-a watery, cherry-red smudge.

When she had seen Chu Suosuo last, the girl had been wearing that exact shade of lipstick.

Su Hua felt as if she’d been bitten by a cat; the pain was so sharp her heart skipped several beats.

This wasn’t the first time she had experienced something like this, yet it felt just as agonizing every time-a hellish torment.

Su Hua squeezed the cup tightly and gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Thanks for the trouble. You’re so busy, yet you still found time to buy us milk tea.”

Gu Beixian replied nonchalantly, “I had the driver go get it.”

Gu Nanyin took her milk tea from him and shot him a glare. “Brother, keep acting like this and you’re going to lose your wife. A woman as good as my sister-in-law is one in a million. Once she’s gone, you’ll have a hard time finding anyone like her again.”

Gu Beixian’s gaze shifted toward Su Hua. He saw her biting the straw and sipping her tea slowly, her long eyelashes cast downward, hiding any trace of emotion.

He said dismissively, “This is adult business. Kids shouldn’t meddle.”

Gu Nanyin looked at him with a mix of frustration and pity. “I’m doing this for your own good. If you don’t listen to me, you’ll regret it later! Hmph!”

***

Ten days later, at noon.

Gu Beixian finished inspecting a subsidiary company and rushed back to the hospital.

The two bodyguards he had stationed at the door were gone, causing a flicker of displeasure to cross his face.

He pushed open the door to the ward, only to see a stranger lying in the hospital bed.

Gu Beixian’s heart jolted. He quickly asked a passing nurse, “Where is the patient who was staying here? Su Hua?”

The nurse thought for a moment. “She’s been discharged. She left early this morning.”

Gu Beixian’s expression darkened. They had agreed that he would come to pick her up when she was discharged.

Instead, she had left without saying a word.

He pulled out his phone and dialed Su Hua’s number.

A mechanical female voice responded: “The user you have dialed is currently powered off.”

He opened WeChat and tried to send her a message, but it wouldn’t go through.

She had blocked him.