Chapter 102: The Tombstone (Part 1)

  She walked through the campus and slowly came to the roadside where the driver was waiting. Usually, when the bodyguards saw her coming out, they would open the car door in advance, but today even Hong Yu sister seemed to be against her.

  Gu Xiang didn't even think about it and turned around to leave. At worst, she could just walk back home anyway.

  In the darkness, the sound of the car door opening came. Gu Tianxi looked at Gu Huanli in confusion as she walked alone in a completely wrong direction, "Little Li, where are you going?"

  Unexpectedly, her brother was here, and Huan Lian jumped in fright. She quickly turned around, put on a smile, and said timidly, "I... I want to take a walk."

  "Where is your coat?"

  "Huh?" Gu Huanli opened her confused big eyes and stared at him, blinking. Suddenly, she seemed to think of something, covered her mouth with both hands, and exclaimed in a panic, "Forgot... left it at the meeting hall."

  Gu Tianxi took off the Kashmir woolen coat, walked a few steps forward, wrapped her in the coat and carefully hugged her in his arms, "Is it warmer now?"

  A handmade coat with a familiar scent, and the warmth left by her brother. Gu Huanli hid in the familiar arm, feeling that her brother had hugged her a bit tightly.

  "How old are you, still so careless?" Gu Tianxi slightly narrowed his eyes, leaned in a bit closer to Gu Huanli, locked onto her gaze and softly asked, "Was the dance fun?"

  Gu Huanli's expression froze for a moment, and he silently stared at him. In the end, he still chose to smile, "It's more boring than I imagined, it's better to go home early."

  "What's going on?" Gu Tianxi asked calmly and lightly, as if he had seen through her composure at a glance.

  "It's nothing."

  "Really nothing?" Gu Tianxi whispered, embracing Gu Huanli in his arms, looking at her face as if searching. "Didn't have fun at the dance party?"

  "No." No happiness, only unhappiness.

  "Want to dance a few more?"

  "Not even one." Not even a few more jumps, but actually not even one jump.

  Gu Huanli shook her head in denial.

  "If you haven't had dinner, accompany your brother for a bit. Recently, a restaurant I really like has reopened, and I'll take you there to have a Valentine's Day meal." Gu Tianxi gently stroked her hair, softly speaking comforting words into Gu Huanli's ear.

  "The parties at home are so boring, noisy and nothing new. So I didn't want you to experience this nightmare. Who made you stubbornly insist on attending? Now it's good, self-inflicted - self-suffering." Gu Tianxi rarely joked around, hugging her as they got into the car.

  It seemed that her brother was just teasing her, but his tone was unusually gentle, and with this unique intention, Gu Huanlin's eyes were filled with tears.

  "Yeah, I'm so bored to death." She buried her head in her brother's chest and couldn't help but burst into tears. "Brother, can you tell me what really happened with that car accident on Valentine's Day two years ago?"

  Gu Tianxi's heart sank, like a sugar cube thrown into coffee, slowly becoming the bitterness of the coffee. "Didn't Cassidy tell you?"

  Gu Huanli shook her head.

  "Didn't you say so at night?"

  Gu Huanli still shook her head.

  In Gu Tianxi's amber-like eyes, there was a nostalgic memory of past events, as well as a hint of subtle concern. "Xiao Li, some things don't need to be dug up from the bottom of the pot."

  "I just wish someone would tell me where Brother Lan went? Or else..." Gu Huanli's eyes were filled with tears, but she couldn't say another word, fearing that one sentence would lead to disaster.

  He gently wiped away the tears on his sister's face, and Gu Tianxi let out a silent sigh. He could make his sister focus on her studies, but he couldn't cut off her connections with others, nor could he erase her memories. "The report from Dr. Su said... you have suicidal tendencies. Xiao Li, tell your brother, what happened to you during those days when I neglected you?"

  Gu Huanli's back stiffened, and she didn't respond. In her memory, those so-called answer sheets had all avoided the true options, with conclusions that were absolutely inclined towards normalcy.

  The question is where Su Jinghua got the conclusion that she has suicidal tendencies? Although... she really did such a stupid thing, but it doesn't mean she will be silly and fragile again.

  "Brother, those things exist but are not important." In Gu Huan Lian's eyes, there was a deep and profound tranquility. It was because the person in front of her had lit up her once desolate pupils when she had lost everything. "Please tell me the truth, brother, although I don't have the qualifications to say such things."

  Gu Tian Xi's eyes gradually deepened into a profound tea color, he released his hand and coldly stared at Gu Huan Lian, slowly saying, "If I tell you the truth, will you stop investigating this matter?"

  "Brother, I just want an answer, whether it's sad or happy, but ultimately it's a reality that can't be avoided." Gu Huan Lian was trembling with fear, but she knew clearly in her heart that her brother was the only one who might know the truth. The car accident had not been reported by the media, there was no news on the internet, and even... Brother, Cassidy, and Ye, they seemed to be in cahoots, hiding it from her.

  If she hadn't received an email from Ye Qinglan for a long time, and if she hadn't secretly called the Luo's house, she wouldn't have known that Ye Qinglan and Luo Yichen had a car accident on Valentine's Day. But what she knew was just that, and no more, as the old butler of the Luo family was unwilling to reveal any further information. However, from his tone, Gu Huanli knew that the situation must be extremely dangerous.

  Whether as "Mei" or "Liu Yue", she had her own sources of information, but this time, Gu Huanli was like being thrown into the primitive jungle, no phone, no internet, no news, all she could do was wait.

  Gu Huanli had thought of the worst possible outcome.

  Because she remembered that after her rebirth, she had such a question: as Luo Yi's loyal party member, Ye Qinglan, why had he never appeared in her life?

  Then she didn't dare think about it anymore.

  After returning home, she met Luo Yichen again. He seemed to have never seen her before, and he himself was as unfamiliar as if Gu Huan had never known him.

  People who seem to be but are not, a reality that seems to be but is not, increasingly sprouting and expanding the deepest fear in Gu Huan's heart.

  On such a night, on the same Valentine's Day, she couldn't help but think, and also couldn't help but not think.

  Gu Tianxi looked at the tears streaming down her face like crystals, slowly leaning back in his chair, the moonlight quietly pouring through the car window onto her beautiful face, so serene and calm.

  "Go to..." Gu Tianxi said in a low voice, giving an address.

  He Muyang, who was temporarily replacing the driver, responded with a "yes" and immediately started the car.

  However, when the car stopped again, Gu Huanli sat stiffly there, and for a moment, she seemed to have lost consciousness. Although her body was tightly held in a pair of strong arms, tears still fell uncontrollably, wetting Gu Tianxi's sleeve.

  She sat there blankly, letting the cold wind pour in from the car door that He Muyang had opened for them. Reality was indeed cruel. Gu Huanli covered her face and burst into tears.

  Why didn't she ever ask Ruo Yu Chen if he had any close friends during his student days.

  Why after rebirth she never seriously thought about where people who existed and disappeared without a trace went.

  Why...

  Gu Tianxi felt something thicker than tears **falling on his sleeve, and he was shocked. He pulled open Gu Huanli's hands, but saw her biting her mouth corner with force, and in her dark eyes, there were deep regret and sorrow. The words Su Jinghua had said to him seemed to echo again in his ears.

  "Xiao Yatou's mind is very heavy, she refuses to confide in others and doesn't even want to show it, the result will inevitably be counterproductive. Staying in the country will only make her situation more severe."

  "Give her a new life, a new circle of friends, maybe she'll slowly get better."

  "The wound in her heart was sealed too tightly, and I had no power to explore it. We could only hope that time would slowly heal her, but between the joys and sorrows of life, who can guarantee that nothing will happen to touch her most vulnerable nerves."

  Could it be that this moment, this scene, is what caused her unbearable pain?

  "Xiao Li, this is the reality you've been crying and throwing a tantrum about, you have to accept it."

  Gu Tianxi's low, muffled voice was like a summons from hell, while the desolate and obscure atmosphere in the air spread the musty smell of death to every corner. Gu Huanli slowly turned her head, looking at the cold marble tombstone, looking at the three words on it that were illuminated by the moonlight, she couldn't accept no matter what, such a gentle and kind person was quietly sleeping underground.

  She still remembered his bravery when he saved her, the gentleness with which he comforted her, the songs they sang together, and his faint but radiant smile. Ye Qinglan was always very tolerant of her, even though she often teased him and argued with him, but she never lost to him.

  It's not that her eloquence is so good, but Ye Qinglan always lets her...

  After rebirth, he was infatuated with his brother, distant from Luo Yuanchen, respectful but reserved towards Antonio, reverent towards Ye, and trusting towards Cassidy. Only towards Ye Qinglan did Gu Huanli say that the feeling in his heart couldn't be put into words, adding a bit might make it fondness, subtracting a bit might make it sibling affection, yet amidst the hundred mixed emotions, in the unchanged state, during their youthful years, it abruptly came to a halt.

  Memories once had, seemed happy, yet vague; seemed within reach, yet unreachable; seemed to be smiling, yet felt too fragile so must be treasured carefully...

  Gu Huan's face was numb and cold from excessive tears. She could face her own death, even her own tombstone, but at this moment, she didn't know how to face it. Self-blame, grief, nostalgia, tightly grasped her heart, as if the end of the world was about to arrive.

  Gu Tian Xi gazed indifferently at his sister's fragile expression, but a glimmer of something else flashed in his deep brown eyes. He got out of the car from the other side and walked around to Gu Huan Lian's front, extending his hand towards her. "At times like these, whether it's fear or sorrow, one should show the deceased the most basic respect."

  "Yes." Gu Huanli placed her hand in Gu Tianxi's palm and slowly stepped down from the carriage.

  He Muyang handed over the white chrysanthemum temporarily sent by his subordinate to Gu Tianxi, and then quietly retreated.

  Gu Huanli bent down, using a handkerchief to gently wipe away the floating dust on the monument. Her fingertips brushed over the soft, cool silk of the characters, tracing the horizontal and vertical strokes. "Lan Gege, I'm back."