Chapter 14: Scum’s Counterattack – 4

Gu Xizhou rode in a pitch-black sedan, traveling from the remote experimental building in the outskirts towards the prison where Su Nanfeng was held.

The car sped past emerald fields, flew over a clear river sparkling with ripples of light, and plunged swiftly into a stretch of Yellow Bell trees.

Thumb-sized, wind-chime-like flowers clustered together, forming bunch after bunch of flower heads hanging from the branches, blotting out the sky.

The unmaintained asphalt road in the countryside was covered with fallen orange bell flowers, like autumn ginkgo leaves carpeting the highway, a blanket of gold.

The sky full of yellow flowers seemed like the setting sun’s afterglow, reflected upon the car’s windshield. Noticing the change of color inside the car, Gu Xizhou looked up. Seeing the Yellow Bell trees lining both sides of the road, she suddenly called out to her driver-bodyguard: “Stop the car.”

Bodyguard Fang Ning pulled the car over to the roadside. Gu Xizhou pushed open the door and walked silently to the nearest Yellow Bell tree, tilting her head to look up.

The spring sun was bright and beautiful, landing on the orange-yellow flowers, making them even more brilliant. Gu Xizhou observed for a while, then silently walked into the nearby grove of bell trees.

Fang Ning had followed her for several years, already accustomed to this boss’s reticent personality. Without much talk, she quickly followed Gu Xizhou’s steps.

In the woods carpeted with fallen petals, a thick, almost nauseating floral fragrance permeated the air. Gu Xizhou, who usually disliked pungent smells, trudged forward step by step in such an environment, sometimes steady, sometimes stumbling.

Fang Ning followed behind her, watching their boss, frailer than an average person and more petite than a typical alpha, stagger through the grove, feeling somewhat alarmed.

What if our boss took a fall…

Fang Ning’s thoughts were a mess, when Gu Xizhou ahead suddenly stopped in her tracks.

The female bodyguard looked up to see Gu Xizhou standing before a sturdy Tabebuia chrysantha tree, gazing up with intense focus at a branch laden with blossoms.

Fang Ning immediately understood. She walked to Gu Xizhou’s side and reached out to grab that flowering branch: “Boss, do you want this branch picked?”

But before her hand could touch the branch, Gu Xizhou raised her hand and smacked it away with a “Slap!”

Fang Ning withdrew her hand, looking at the petite Gu Xizhou beside her with confusion, blinking as she asked: “Was it not this one?”

Gu Xizhou didn’t look at her, stating simply: “Don’t touch it. I’ll pick it myself.”

Fang Ning glanced at Gu Xizhou’s height, then tilted her head to check the height of the flowering branch above. She thought to herself, with my nearly two-meter tall stature, I can barely reach it, and you’re not even 1.7 meters…

Before Fang Ning could finish her internal grumbling, Gu Xizhou ordered: “Lift me up.”

“Alright.”

Fang Ning agreed readily, grasping Gu Xizhou by the waist with both hands and easily hoisting her up, settling her on her shoulder like a child: “Can Boss reach it now?”

Gu Xizhou: …

With her line of sight suddenly raised high, Gu Xizhou looked at the cluster of flowers now within arm’s reach. Without any reservation, she said softly: “Thank you.”

With Fang Ning’s help, Gu Xizhou picked a large armful of flowers and emerged from the grove.

The two got back into the car. As Fang Ning started the engine, Gu Xizhou’s cool and clear voice spoke up: “Turn around. We’re not going to the prison anymore. Go home.”

Such lovely spring scenery, why look at filthy things?

Anyway, after all these years, she’d seen enough of that filthy thing called Su Nanfeng.

Loyal to her duty, Fang Ning didn’t ask further. Saying “Okay,” she turned the car around and headed back to the experimental building.

Not long after, Gu Xizhou returned to the lab, hugging an armful of Yellow Bell flowers.

Lin Ling, just coming out of the lab, saw her walking from the elevator with a bosom full of blooms and was a little surprised: “The Yellow Bells are blooming?”

Gu Xizhou was clearly in a good mood: “Yes, they have.”

Holding the flowers, she walked straight down the long corridor of the lab. As she brushed past Lin Ling, she said: “The spring light is lovely. If you have someone you like, take them on a spring outing today.”

“I won’t need you for the next two days.”

Lin Ling watched Gu Xizhou’s retreating back, utterly baffled. Before she could think to say anything else, Gu Xizhou directly entered the lab, closing the door behind her with a thud, shutting out everything and everyone.

Lin Ling stood rooted to the spot, gazing at the brightly lit lab not far away. Recalling the way Gu Xizhou spoke just now, she couldn’t help but shiver.

Love, huh…

If love makes you end up like Gu Xizhou, better not to fall in love at all.

————

On the other side of Su Zhiyi’s hibernation pod sat an exquisite blue-and-white porcelain vase, which received fresh flowers, changed daily.

Today’s flowers were the white lilies Gu Xizhou had arranged that morning. Now, Gu Xizhou added the freshly picked Yellow Bells to the vase.

Su Zhiyi loved flowers. Back when she was pursuing her, Gu Xizhou had put great effort into learning her preferences.

In the early stages of their budding relationship, Gu Xizhou relied on delivering a small bouquet every day for two consecutive years to finally gain her acceptance.

And after their marriage, she maintained this habit, continuing it to this day.

As Gu Xizhou arranged the flowers, the orange-yellow bells reflected on the glass of the hibernation pod, as if floating in the pale green nutrient fluid, overlaying Su Zhiyi’s face.

It seemed as though, if she just opened her eyes, she would see this bouquet of brilliant Yellow Bells.

While arranging the flowers, Gu Xizhou spoke softly to Su Zhiyi inside the pod: “This morning, I originally intended to go humiliate Su Nanfeng. But on the way, when Old Fang was driving me, I suddenly saw the hillsides covered in Yellow Bells, so I decided not to go.”

Having finished arranging the flowers, Gu Xizhou sat down beside the pod, looking at her wife within, her eyes full of tenderness: “Remember what I told you the year before last? It’s a huge, vast expanse of Yellow Bells, even bigger and more beautiful than the one at our school…”

“If you woke up within a week, you might still be able to see it.”

Her slumbering wife didn’t answer. Gu Xizhou didn’t mind, continuing to talk to herself: “It’s a little funny. I wasn’t tall enough, Old Fang had to lift me up to pick the flowers.”

“Old Fang… she’s the retired veteran who was bullied when she worked security at the group headquarters, the one you helped out. I have her as my bodyguard now.”

“Her mother recovered from her illness. She just got married a couple of years ago and had a daughter.”

“I guess her daughter likes horsey rides, because she let me sit sideways on her shoulder. What a simple, honest person…”

Gu Xizhou lowered her gaze and chuckled, her crow-feather-like lashes trembling slightly. After a long pause, she said in a quivering voice: “A few months ago, I went to the prison and provoked Su Nanfeng quite a bit.”

“I told her you’d been forcibly marked by me and had a child… Today, I originally wanted to tell her about your postpartum depression and trigger her madness, but I realized there isn’t much point to it.”

“I’m a little… tired of it.”

Gu Xizhou reached out, her slender fingers tracing Su Zhiyi’s face through the glass. Her tone was heavy: “Zhiyi, wake up, won’t you wake up?”

“Even if it’s like before, stabbing me with a knife, loathing me, resenting me… it doesn’t matter…”

“Not hearing your voice… I’m so scared…”

Gu Xizhou sighed, leaning down to press her cheek against the glass wall of the hibernation pod, right next to her wife’s face. In a choked voice, she said: “Except for what I did to you… I’ve never done a bad thing in this life.”

“You love me so much… why must you treat me like this?”

If this is the punishment for her exploitation and deceit of the one she loved, then why was it Su Zhiyi who died, and not her?

Unable to live, unable to die, grasping only a sliver of ethereal hope—she had endured such torment long enough.