Chapter 16

The old lady kept Linghua at the hospital, and I returned to the villa.

Gu Haochen was sitting on the living room sofa drinking. By the time I walked in, there was already a mess of empty bottles piled haphazardly at his feet.

He drank so much, I suspected he was trying to avoid my demand for the Forty Million.

So I walked over and sat down beside him.

“Pay up.”

Before I finished speaking, Gu Haochen grabbed his phone and tapped away furiously, then tossed the phone onto me.

I picked up the phone and looked.

Insufficient balance.

Hm?

I let out a laugh of disbelief.

“Trying to renege?”

I grabbed Gu Haochen’s ankle.

Gu Haochen’s body was slack, one leg draped askew over the sofa. He lifted his eyes, lashes trembling lightly, his gaze hazy as he looked at me.

The restlessness in my chest became unbearably real.

While waiting for his reaction, I suddenly wanted to use my tongue to kiss his eyelashes.

Gu Haochen met my gaze, then soon closed his eyes again, drowsily collapsing onto the sofa.

“Are you drunk?” I asked him.

He let out a snort of laughter. “What a joke.”

Oh, not drunk.

I leaned back into the sofa cushion, the leather creaking beneath me. Gu Haochen covered his face with his arm, but didn’t shoo me away, and started rambling.

“Our ridiculous marriage was just to fulfill the old lady’s ridiculous wish.”

“But I actually married you, not Tangtang.”

“Tangtang and I lived together abroad for four years. The days I spent with him were the happiest time of my life. He’s a very kind and considerate person, born in the poorest neighborhood, but his heart is pure, and his character is resilient. He didn’t know my real identity, just thought I was an ordinary exchange student.”

“I didn’t deliberately lie to him. I just gave some money to the beggars in the plaza, borrowed his guitar to play for fun. Tangtang passed by, thought I was a penniless bum, gave me a hundred yuan, and even gave me a bouquet of flowers.”

“We lived in a very small place, no living room, just one bed. No air conditioning, so in winter we hugged each other to keep warm. When we didn’t have enough for living expenses, we’d buy cheap ingredients and cook for ourselves. He’d work several jobs to buy me birthday gifts, and would happily accept the paper roses I folded for him. When Linghua came to find me, he did his best, treating Linghua like his own little brother…”

“I should have married him, I should have…”

Gu Haochen’s voice gradually faded, his hand slipping off the sofa. Moonlight shone on the part of his wrist exposed beyond his sleeve, the bones clear, so pale they seemed bloodless. Looking further down, his fingers were long, the shadows between them inviting a closer look.

I took Gu Haochen’s hand and brought it to my nose.

The smell of alcohol. The scent of cold spring. Pheromone.

The suppressed heat inside me suddenly flared, burning me up. My eyes reddened, and the glands at my neck began to throb.

I asked Gu Haochen softly, “Do you still remember Tangtang’s name?”

I don’t know how long passed, long enough that it felt like time had stopped, before a sleep-talking voice finally sounded in the air.

“…Du Chutang.”