Chapter 132: Warning
Su Yu stood in the cold night wind for a while. Soon, the tip of his nose turned red from the cold. The phone in his palm vibrated. He breathed out a white mist of hot air and watched it dissipate in the cold, damp air.
“Is there something you need?” He answered the phone, his voice as cold as the white frost on the leaves at night.
“Su Yu, come back for the New Year. Dad will be back too. Um…”
The voice on the other end of the phone was a middle-aged man’s. His voice was a little hesitant, without a trace of the authority a father should have. He was either intimidated by Su Yu’s harsh tone or was feeling guilty.
“I have something to tell you.”
“I’ll be fine at Mu Qing’s for the New Year. You don’t have to come back specially.”
“You… why do you always have to be so sarcastic? Hasn’t anyone taught you how to respect your elders? Are you like this with everyone?”
“No one has really taught me. Is there anything else you need?”
“Sigh, forget it, forget it.”
The man was at a loss for words. Just as Su Yu had said, he hadn’t taught this son well. He was already very satisfied with this son. He hadn’t caused him any trouble and had even gotten into such a good university. But their relationship was as stiff as a block of ice. He couldn’t be a good father, so he was helpless.
“Anyway, I’ll be back. This year… our family will have a reunion.”
“You’ve had enough fun? You’re finally daring to bring that family back? I thought you were planning on never coming home.”
Su Yu had known this day would come, but he was still getting more and more annoyed. He looked at the dark night sky and had the urge to throw his phone off a tall building. His cold tone faded, and he almost gritted his teeth as he said those few words, “And that’s your home… not mine.”
The man was also a little annoyed. His voice rose a lot, his tone rushed.
“How is that not your home? I know you hate me… but at least you have my blood in your veins. We’ll be a family from now on.”
“Your blood? What about my mom’s? It was my mom who gave birth to me, not you!” The roar that had been suppressed in Su Yu’s throat could no longer be held back. The blue veins on his fair neck bulged, and he shouted, “Aren’t you good at fooling around? Why don’t you just have another one with that woman?”
“…”
The man was silent for a long time, then he sighed. He knew this would happen. “Alright then. Anyway, I’ll be back before the New Year. At least you guys can meet first. We’ll talk about the rest later.”
Su Yu listened to the busy tone on the other end of the phone. He held his forehead and squatted down, leaning against the cold white ceramic wall in the night. He suddenly felt a little regretful. Maybe he shouldn’t have used that tone. He had been reborn. Why hadn’t he made any progress? It was as if he couldn’t help but get angry when he heard that man’s light and airy tone, as if it would burn his flesh and blood to ashes.
He knew that the man would bring a family back to him this winter break. He had already experienced it once in his previous life. He knew everything, but… he still couldn’t do it.
Su Yu silently stood up and went back to his room. He had just opened the balcony door when he saw Gu Chuan, who hadn’t been back to the dorm for a few days, chatting with Chu Feng and Lu Siyuan. They must have heard his shouting just now.
“What just happened…”
“I had a fight with my family. I… lost control a little.”
Su Yu smiled and indicated that he was fine. He instead noticed the bandage on Gu Chuan’s neck. “How did you get hurt?”
“Oh, it was just an accident.” Gu Chuan waved his hand, a cheeky smile on his face. “The bandage looks scary, but I just twisted it a little. My sister, who was abroad, came back. I gave her my bed, and I wasn’t used to the new bed, so I fell on the floor. I guess it’s a stiff neck.”
“You have a sister?” Lu Siyuan raised his eyebrows, feeling curious. “I can’t believe you’re a brother.”
“Yeah, as long as you’re fine. I’m tired. I’m going to sleep.”
Su Yu nodded, not in the mood to talk much. He climbed into bed and pulled the curtain.
Gu Chuan glanced at the drawn curtain. He opened his mouth, his palms unconsciously sweating, the sweat turning cold in the lines of his palm. “Um… my cousin said it’s almost the New Year, and you’re going back for the New Year. She wants to have a meal with you. I don’t know if she’s sent you a message.”
“Yeah, I know.” Su Yu’s voice came through the deep blue curtain.
“Alright then.” Gu Chuan held his wet palm, his fingertips pricking his skin, turning it pale. “As long as you know.”
“Is your sister pretty… do you have a picture?” Lu Siyuan was still curious and asked Gu Chuan to show him a picture.
“Of course my sister is devastatingly beautiful. She inherited my mom’s genes. You can tell just by looking at me, right? As for a picture… no. You’re a bad boy. Chu Feng can see.”
“Hmph, I have Xinxin. Who cares.”
They bickered for a while. Su Yu lay in the darkness, unable to sleep. The dim fluorescent light of the screen flickered, reflecting in his light pupils. He silently looked at the message Gu Zhi had sent him and suddenly felt the temperature in his heart warm up a little, as if his restless heart had been calmed. He slowly closed his eyes.
…
“Brother… I’m back. Did you miss me?”
The girl was tall and graceful. Her delicate features were seven or eight parts similar to Gu Chuan’s, but she had inherited more of their mother’s genes. She had typical Western features, with azure blue eyes, a high nose bridge, and soft, naturally golden hair that fell down, like a naive and arrogant noble princess from the Middle Ages.
She was smiling sweetly at this moment. She ran up and hugged her much taller brother, her eyes a little watery. She had been living abroad all these years and was closer to her late mother’s family. But she still preferred this land. After all, her mother was buried here, and her closer relatives were also here.
“Xiyue… you’re back.” Gu Chuan was still a little dazed. He had come back early from tonight’s banquet. He had just opened the door and saw his sister, who had been living abroad for many years, standing in front of him. His father had not told him about this. He was full of doubts and wanted to ask, “Why are you back…”
Gu Chuan’s words were stuck in his throat. He looked up and saw Gu Zhi wearing the same plain black evening gown she had worn to the banquet tonight. The color was not bright, but it made her look luxurious and elegant. She walked down the spiral staircase, step by step, looking at Gu Chuan, a gentle smile on her lips.
“Gu Chuan is back? I don’t understand you young people’s minds, so I can’t give you a very good gift. I suddenly remembered that you have a sister who has been living abroad for a long time. After all, she is a descendant of our Gu family. It’s not right for her to always stay at someone else’s house. So I asked Xiyue for her opinion. She was very willing. So I spent some effort to bring her back.”
Gu Zhi walked up to Gu Chuan. She smiled and asked, “Just consider it a Christmas gift from me. Are you surprised?”
“Thank you, cousin. I also like this Christmas gift very much! I’ve wanted to come back for a long time. I’ve become so rusty with my words after I came back. But my brother and dad just wouldn’t let me come back.” Gu Xiyue smiled and held Gu Zhi’s wrist, resting her head on Gu Zhi’s shoulder. The two of them looked very close at this moment. “I love you, cousin. You’re so nice…”
Gu Chuan stared at the smile in Gu Zhi’s eyes. Those warm and comfortable words were like a poisonous thorn that had pierced his flesh. The fatal poison had entered his blood, and the poison had reached his heart, so much so that his hands and feet were cold, and he couldn’t speak for a moment.
“Brother, why do you look so unhappy? Did Dad scold you at the banquet?”
“It’s nothing. I’m probably just tired from the banquet.”
Gu Chuan endured his pale face. He turned his gaze to Gu Zhi. “It’s a good thing that you brought Xiyue back, cousin. But Xiyue hasn’t finished her studies over there. Will it be a bit… if she comes back now?”
“Don’t worry about that. I’ll find someone to take care of her studies. She can just work in the Gu family’s company in the future. Xiyue is naturally not a fan of the path you guys have arranged for her. It’s not a bad thing to live a happy life. She can just stay in Qingchuan in the future.”
Gu Zhi brushed aside the messy hair on Gu Xiyue’s forehead, her fingertips brushing over the girl’s pretty eyes, gentle and soothing. But she deliberately emphasized the last part of her sentence. “Christmas Eve is a holiday for your mother’s family to reunite, right? But not just today. From now on, you can all… have a family reunion.”
“Xiyue, your brother and I have some family matters to discuss. It will be quick. You can go upstairs and wait for a while.”
“Oh, okay then. You promised to take me out to play tomorrow, cousin.”
“Okay, when have I ever lied to you?”
Gu Xiyue didn’t understand family matters. It was the same over there. Perhaps it was because of the love she had received since she was a child, and she was not competitive. She still had a soft and naive heart. She agreed and went up to the second floor with a clatter of her shoes on the spiral staircase.
“Let’s go. I have something to ask you.”
Gu Xiyue’s figure disappeared from sight. Gu Zhi lowered her eyes and looked at Gu Chuan, at the prominent blue and white veins on his sickly pale neck. Her cold eyes showed no mercy. The gentle cousin in Gu Xiyue’s eyes had instantly become the cold and aloof madwoman in the eyes of the Gu family.
Gu Chuan didn’t speak and silently followed Gu Zhi to the closed study.
…
“If I remember correctly, Xiao Yu should have been standing by my side in the gown I had carefully prepared for him at tonight’s banquet. Did you not do what I asked you to do?”
“He had a date.”
“But why didn’t you tell me? And you even booked a room for them. Do you really think I’m blind?” Gu Zhi narrowed her long, narrow eyes. She was so angry that she laughed. She tucked her loose hair behind her ear. “Gu Chuan, do you think you can get away with this kind of duplicity?”
Gu Chuan lowered his eyes, his long, slender eyelashes hiding the emotions in his eyes. He replied in a low voice, “I wouldn’t dare.”
“Did that girl named Xia Qian Ge go?” Gu Zhi’s ample chest heaved, as if she were suppressing something.
“Su Yu and Xia Qian Ge have nothing to do with each other. They’re just classmates… cough cough.”
Before Gu Chuan could finish speaking, he was choked by a huge force, his words stuck in his throat. He couldn’t help but let out a few coughs from the pain of his back hitting the wall.
“Gu Chuan! Do you want to die?”
A long, powerful hand gripped Gu Chuan’s neck tightly, pressing him against the wall. The force gradually tightened, bringing a suffocating pain, like a poisonous spider wrapping its prey in silk.
Gu Chuan let out a few meaningless whimpers. He could feel the oxygen in his lungs slowly depleting. His eyes rolled back, and his pale face was flushed red. The blue veins on his neck bulged. The muscles on the other party’s slender arm were beautifully curved, and the force was astonishingly strong, as if he were about to hear the crisp sound of his neck bone breaking in the next second.
Death seemed to be close at hand, but Gu Zhi just watched indifferently. Her nails, which were painted with a dark black polish, were terrifyingly sharp. Her fingertips touched the weak pulse on the side of his neck, and then pierced in, like a poisonous spider injecting its venomous fangs into its prey’s body.
The nails cut through the fragile skin, and blood oozed out, forming small beads that rolled down and fell on the collar of his white shirt, like a thick red ink stain on a white sheet of paper.
Gu Zhi knew very well where the prey’s limit was. Her long, narrow eyebrows were raised. She stared at the last black line in Gu Chuan’s pale eyes, which was about to disappear, and suddenly let go. The sudden release only made Gu Chuan feel dazed, and he couldn’t regain his consciousness for a moment. He leaned against the wall and slid down, falling heavily to the ground.
Gu Zhi looked down at Gu Chuan, who was panting and whimpering like a dead dog at her feet. Her dark eyes were cold and ruthless. She looked at the blood on her nails with disgust and wiped the blood from her fingertips with a tissue. She let go, and the blood-stained tissue slowly floated down from the air, landing right in front of Gu Chuan.
He lay on the cold floor, panting rapidly. But every breath brought a sharp pain in his throat. His mouth was filled with a nauseating, sweet and metallic taste. He coughed up a thick, bloody saliva, unable to speak.
“A dog is a dog. I ask… you answer. Do you understand?”
The cold voice from above fell on Gu Chuan’s ear. He struggled on the floor, but his body seemed to have fallen apart. He could only lie on the ground and look at Gu Zhi’s fair feet in her high heels, as pathetic as a stray dog.
“Your father is much more obedient than you. He knows how to judge the situation. Do you think I could have brought Gu Xiyue back so easily if he hadn’t agreed?” Gu Zhi smiled coldly, her tone laced with a playful, cold and frivolous tone.
“Your mother is a dead person. Maybe you don’t care that much anymore. But Xiyue is a living person, and a pretty and well-behaved girl. I like her very much. But… I’m a bit of a psychological clean freak. When I hate someone, I hate everything related to them. Haha… you know, there are always a lot of accidents in this world.”
Gu Chuan whimpered a few times, and a few words were squeezed out from his hoarse and painful throat. “Don’t… don’t touch, Xi…yue, please… you…”
“Don’t worry. I still like a little girl like Xiyue very much” Gu Zhi slowly squatted down, her pure black skirt spreading out on the floor. She leaned in close to Gu Chuan’s ear, her breath brushing against his earlobe, her voice gentle. “But you’ve been naughty several times now. Tell me… how can I know that you’ll be obedient?”
Gu Chuan didn’t speak. He unhesitatingly grabbed the paper on the floor and stuffed it into his mouth. The paper was still wet with undried blood. He endured the swollen, painful, and dry throat and swallowed the paper ball with all his might. Then, a series of violent coughs echoed in the quiet study.
“Hehe, so good.”
Gu Zhi covered her bright red lips and couldn’t help but laugh. Her long, narrow eyes were filled with a cold and aloof smile. She slowly stood up and opened the study door, preparing to leave. The slender high heels of her shoes made a crisp sound on the floor. Her cold warning once again fell on Gu Chuan’s ear.
“I hope… there won’t be a next time.”
