Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Gu Jinzhi was like a brief disturbance in my life.

He came, and then he left.

I returned to my usual routine: doing research, supervising students, and racing to finish projects.

I hired a regular hourly housekeeper, and the small inconveniences Gu Jinzhi’s departure had caused disappeared with her arrival.

I rarely thought of him.

Until the dean asked to speak with me.

“Professor Yu, I know your love life is your private business, and as your superiors, we shouldn’t interfere. But I watched that child of the Gu family grow up. Lately, he’s been wasting away over a broken heart, and as elders, we truly can’t bear to see it. For my sake, please go and talk some sense into him.”

Gu Jinzhi’s reputation preceded him. He had always been cast in the role of a useless second-generation rich kid. No matter how far he let himself fall, he was only returning to his old path.

The dean and Old Chairman Gu were longtime friends. The Gu family must have asked him for help, and he could hardly refuse them that favor.

As for whether I could actually persuade Gu Jinzhi, he had no confidence in that either.

So when I appeared at the Gu Residence, everyone present looked stunned.

“Why are you here…”

“Shut up!”

Old Chairman Gu pulled Madam Gu away, leaving the space to me and Gu Jinzhi.

Gu Jinzhi had drunk a great deal. He was sprawled on the floor like a heap of mud.

When I came in, Old Chairman Gu had been scolding him. He showed no reaction.

Only when the room suddenly fell silent did he lift his eyelids and glance over.

With that one look, he froze.

“Gu Jinzhi…”

“Buxun, my leg hurts.”

He cut me off in a panic, speaking in a rush.

“I had people beat up your father and mother. I was detained for several days and just got released on bail. My dad beat my leg until the bone cracked. He also said that if I keep letting myself go like this, he’ll revoke my inheritance and leave the whole company to my cousin instead. But I can give up everything. I only want you!”

“You aren’t capable enough. If Gu Corporation is handed to someone else, it may go further.”

“…”

Gu Jinzhi stiffened, his face full of embarrassment.

This was the first time I had given such a bluntly negative assessment of him as a person.

I lowered my head and smiled, remembering what Geng Chen had told me: “Dating isn’t grading homework. Rein in that urge to criticize.”

“Even if you went out and committed murder or arson, you wouldn’t need to tell me. I don’t care. You don’t think I’m incapable of taking revenge on people, do you? I simply don’t want to. Bad times are already in the past. Bad relationships don’t need to be dragged out either. That’s how it is between my parents and me. Now, it’s also how it is between you and me. Gu Jinzhi, stop clinging to this.”

The strength went out of Gu Jinzhi again, and he slumped back against the sofa.

His leg knocked into the wine bottles on the floor, sending them clattering.

He lowered his head for a moment, then seemed to remember something. He looked at me again, his eyes filled with hope.

“I don’t believe it. You came here today. That must mean there is still some part of you that can’t let me go!”

“There isn’t.”

My tone was even more certain than his.

“I was just doing the dean a favor while I was at it.”

“After saying those things back then, there is no need for you to act devoted now. Who are you putting on this show for?”

Without looking back, I walked out the Gu family’s front door.

On the day Gu Jinzhi and I broke up, I had a dream.

In the dream, my colleagues and I went to a neighboring city for a conference. On the way back, we ran into a mudslide.

In the middle of the night, a group of us stood helplessly in the wild, stranded in the mountains.

Gu Jinzhi appeared from nowhere, carrying food and warm gear.

“Here. Today’s your first day, so you’re definitely feeling awful. Drink this.”

He pulled a cup of Five-Red Soup from inside his coat and shoved it into my hands.

“It was digging into me the whole way here. Hurry up and finish it so I can get my revenge.”

I held that cup of soup and saw the painkillers he was offering me.

Thinking of Gu Jinzhi’s proposal not long before, I nodded as if possessed.

“I do.”

“Gu Jinzhi, I’m willing to marry you.”

After I woke up, I opened a delivery app and ordered more than thirty cups of health tonic soup. Then I booked a private doctor for a physical examination.

Looking at the table full of soup I couldn’t possibly finish, I thought of that rainy night.

Fortunately, I was no longer a child.

(The End)