chapter 141

The Gu Family claimed to the public that Gu Yu Chu was sick and recuperating at home.

His former friends came swarming in to show concern. If they couldn’t see Gu Yu Chu in person, they called. They sent messages.

“Young Master Gu, last time we were drinking, I showed you that new globally limited-edition sports car. You said you’d sponsor me two million. That still on?”

“My birthday’s at the end of the month. You promised you’d come to my villa for the party, and you said you’d bring a big gift. I’m counting on Young Master Gu’s present!”

“I’m tight right now, I really can’t turn things around. My mom still won’t unfreeze my bank card this month, but I’ve got the final payment on a house due. Can you…”

Gu Yu Chu didn’t remember saying those things.

He also didn’t remember which time, or which glass of alcohol, had something mixed into it.

Gu Zhen rudely snatched his phone away.

His voice was cold as he spoke to those drinking buddies. “Yu Chu doesn’t have time for now, and he won’t be going to any appointments. He doesn’t have money on him anymore. I’ve taken it all back.”

When the pain flared, Gu Yu Chu’s ears rang so hard he could barely hear.

The only thing he could catch clearly was Gu Zhen calling him “Yu Chu”-not even using the surname.

That made it feel like they were close.

He couldn’t stretch his body out.

Even his bones felt like they were itching, itching from that kind of addiction.

When he gritted his teeth, he could hear his body protesting with a grinding “ck-ck” sound.

As he fought to endure it, the fist he’d clenched was pried open by someone, and then held.

“You’ve dug it until it’s bleeding.”

To stop Gu Yu Chu from silently scratching open new wounds again, Gu Zhen didn’t let go of his hand.

He showed Gu Yu Chu the phone for a brief moment, then shut it down and confiscated it.

“Until you quit completely, you’re not contacting them. I’ll keep your phone for you for now.”

Gu Yu Chu only felt Gu Zhen’s hand driving the cold out of his body.

He nodded slowly.

Gu Zhen asked, “Have you ever calculated how much you spent this month?”

Gu Yu Chu couldn’t help curling up even tighter. “I haven’t.”

“From now on, you’re not allowed to ask Mom for money. If there’s something you truly need to buy, I’ll buy it for you.”

“Okay.”

Gu Yu Chu finally pressed his icy forehead against the back of Gu Zhen’s hand.

Like a drowning man clutching a lifeline.

And like that childish version of himself who had chosen to drown in the first place-just for the sake of this one piece of straw.

He said, “Take care of me.”

The stuff that had been slipped into the alcohol back then hadn’t been much.

What Gu Yu Chu got hooked on wasn’t severe.

If he held out for three months, he could quit completely.

But those three months-

he only had the will to persist because Gu Zhen came every night to stay with him.

When the family doctor came again to check on him,

and announced that Gu Yu Chu had quit completely, though he still needed to be observed for a while,

Gu Zhen stopped reaching out to hold his hand on his own.

Only when Gu Yu Chu deliberately acted weak-putting on a pitiful show as if he’d relapsed-

would Gu Zhen come to keep him company again.

But tricks like that could only be used once in a while.

Most of the time, when he was alone in his room,

and the itch started crawling up from deep in his bones again,

he would go flip through the finance magazines and interview features Gu Zhen had read.

He would cut out Gu Zhen’s photo.

And he would stare at it, over and over.

Using it to replace one addiction.

With another.

When the cut-out photos had piled up so much they could stuff an entire drawer,

Gu Yu Chu felt like he was done for.

He might have developed a terrifying thought-

a thought that could ruin every bit of the beautiful life he had now.

A secret he could never let anyone know.

Then, all of a sudden, a “ka-cha, ka-cha” sound appeared by his ear.

It sounded like something was slowly being torn out of paper.

At the same time, there were scraps of paper on his Arm.

Gu Yu Chu was confused.

He guessed maybe he hadn’t quit completely after all-

maybe there were still hallucinations left over from whatever had been in the alcohol.

–

Gu Yu Chu hid that thought very well.

And he often relied on his identity as the younger brother to carefully ask Gu Zhen for a bit of physical closeness-always within limits.

He followed Gu Zhen and learned a little about business.

And when Gu Zhen planned to hand part of the Gu Family’s business over for him to manage,

Gu Yu Chu studied those methods and tricks seriously.

He found another way to make Gu Zhen keep looking at him for a long time.

He also tested the waters,

trying to insert a little trace of himself into Gu Zhen’s future plans.

He wanted Gu Zhen to attend banquets without a female companion-

and bring him instead.

He wanted Gu Zhen’s newly bought villa to keep a room for him.

He wanted Gu Zhen to put a neck pillow meant only for him on the passenger seat of the sports car Gu Zhen usually drove.

Everything went smoothly.

Until Gu Zhen died in an unbelievably bizarre car accident.

While driving, the car in front suddenly changed lanes.

It collided with another car that was speeding.

Then it chain-crashed into several cars-Gu Zhen’s among them.

It triggered a fire, and then explosions.

The dead and injured were countless.

It became the worst vicious traffic accident in A City this year.

Gu Yu Chu attended Gu Zhen’s funeral,

and even after it was over, he still couldn’t believe it was real.

He always felt something was off.

He spent a fortune hiring a detective to investigate.

A month went by.

He hadn’t even had time to uncover the truth.

He never expected that he, too, would die in a car accident.

After dying, he actually reincarnated.

–

He returned to that narrow, dark basement.

The wind flipped the pages of the old wall calendar, one after another.

The date told him:

he still had two years before he would meet Gu Zhen.

This year, he was fourteen.

After confirming he truly had been reborn with his memories-

and that it wasn’t a dream-

the first thing he did was spend the money that got deposited into his bank card on schedule each month.

He bought a secondhand phone for five hundred.

He topped it up with a fifty-yuan phone card.

Then he went online and posted a listing to rent out space.

He recruited a roommate for the basement.

Seven hundred a month.

He was going to be a sub-landlord.