Chapter Ch2.12 - Arc 2 Extra: At the Beginning

editor: airy

Note: you better have a box of tissues handy while reading this chapter, because this one is a tearjerker.

He watched Fan Yuan shut his eyes as his breathing slowly stilled and then stopped, nestled in his arms. Although he knew it was only a temporary separation, the pain in his chest did not lessen even a little bit.

He knew that this scar had been left by that world.

The world where they first met.

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Everyone knew that the famous and influential Gao family of A City had given birth to a young master who was not only cute and beautiful but also a genius from an early age.

Gao Yu grew up surrounded by fresh flowers and in the midst of applause. He had the most handsome of living conditions, outstanding appearance, superior intellect, and extraordinarily good luck.

There were many outstanding people in the world, but very few who were actually like him: someone who could always avoid disaster and always succeed no matter what he put his hand to. He had the faint feeling that he was not like others around him.

Up until he met that boy and finally realized that his good luck had been exhausted in the previous few years, because from then on, his life swung between heaven and hell.

The first time he met Fan Yuan was at the banquet to celebrate his tenth birthday. That boy had been wearing a spotless white suit. He obediently sat at the piano as his fingers nimbly danced on the black and white keys. The song ‘Für Elise’ issued from the tips of his fingers as skill mixed with carelessness. It did not mesh with his earnest, lovable expression. Gao Yu had been unable to keep himself from laughing.

Fan Yuan’s father had stood to the side holding a glass of champagne as he talked business with others. It was as if his clever, sensible son was just an idle topic of conversation. Regretfully, he hadn’t even seemed to care about which song it was that Fan Yuan was playing.

Perhaps it was that little guy’s little face was just too delicate and made people want to pamper him. An indescribable desire to aid Fan Yuan in the face of this injustice had arisen in him, so he had gone over and rescued him from the embarrassing performance. After, the smile that boy had given him in return was even more dazzling that the sun.

In that moment, he had glimpsed into a vast sea of stars in his eyes, beautiful and without imitation.

Later on, Fan Yuan’s parents helped him transfer into his school. He understood. The power and influence of the Gao family made all of the powerful businessmen of A City rush and scramble madly; the Fans naturally would not let go of this opportunity to social climb. Fan Yuan again became a tool to be manipulated by them, but this time, he was not repulsed by their actions. He felt very good that he could see him at any time, and see those beautiful eyes.

Unconsciously, he gained another little attendant following him. Before he realized, this little servant had already become his little master. Gao Yu held him in the bottom of his heart to be loved and spoiled.

Fan Yuan only needed to blink those bright eyes and use a soft, wheedling lazy tone to act cute towards him and he was completely disarmed and left wanting only to satisfy his every desire. Gao Yu gradually felt this was dangerous, but was left unable to escape no matter how he tried. He was entangled like this for several years.

When attending elementary school, young Fan Yuan drooled, pointing to the lunch Gao Yu’s housekeeper had brought him. He gulped down his saliva. “Gao Yu, your lunch looks soooo good (﹃)”

The corners of Gao Yu’s mouth tightened. He pushed his lunchbox over. “As it so happens, I’m not hungry. You can have it all.”

Fan Yuan’s eyes suddenly brightened and gleamed. “Gao Yu, you’re so great!”

And so Gao Yu, whose lunch had been devoured, felt perfectly contented and wished that he could send his dinner along to the Fan family residence as well.

By junior high, Gao Yu had already become accustomed to having his housekeeper prepare two lunches to bring to school, but Fan Yuan wasn’t willing to eat it. He grabbed Gao Yu’s hand and brought it to the little roll on his stomach. In a small voice, he complained, “I blame it all on you. If you hadn’t prepared lunch for me every day, I wouldn’t have gotten so fat. Starting today, I’m going on a diet. If not, I’ll……”

He couldn’t clearly make out the following words. He just felt that a chubby Fan Yuan was also very cute, but since he wanted to lose weight, Gao Yu was willing to support himk2014;even when he was dragged to go hiking in the middle of winter. In that moment, he felt his heart fiercely aching. Gao Yu carried Fan Yuan down the mountain on his back. Although his body was strong and vigorous, he still felt that it was a little difficult. Yet when he saw Fan Yuan’s reddened eyes, he immediately felt it was completely worth it.

By high school, Fan Yuan began to stare at him intently, looking like he was guarding something from thieves. A girl had only to draw close to Gao Yu and Fan Yuan would drive her away like a little hen protecting its food. Even though rumors and gossip about them were flying about the whole school, he did not curb his actions at all. It was as if this was something completely natural and right.

That boy opened wide his bright eyes and in a deadly earnest fashion, said, “Gao Yu, you can’t like any other girls.”

Gao Yu wanted to say, okay, I won’t like other girls, but you also have to seriously look at me, okay? Why have I never seen the emotion that I want in your eyes?

But in the end, he didn’t say it. A certain force in his heart told him that once he said it, he would lose that boy of his forever and would never be able to find him again.

Later, when he arrived at college, he took care of Fan Yuan and was making use of his family’s capital to start a business at the same time. Recently, that young master often had stomach aches due to his irregular sleep schedule, but Gao Yu’s alternately coaxing and threatening words had all been exhausted. Fan Yuan stubbornly clung to his ways and was reluctant to eat well, which gave Gao Yu such a headache. All he could do was to try to find some time every day to drop off a nutritious lunch for him at school.

When he found Fan Yuan, he was asleep in his dorm room. Gao Yu lifted the covers and urged him to get up and eat, but that little fellow turned the lunchbox upside down. His eyes were red and he looked like a little bunny as he said accusingly, “Do you like Li Yunxi?! Someone said they saw you eating lunch together near the school!”

Gao Yu was shocked by this unexpected accusation. Li Yunxi was a third-year in their college and was interning at his company. That day they had bumped into each other and gone for lunch together. How had it been promoted to liking her?

He looked at the lunchbox on the floor and had just exhaled as he was about to begin explaining, but he saw Fan Yuan start broken-heartedly crying. He was really crying; it wasn’t like those times in the past where he had fake-cried to get his way. Large tears fell like raindrops, directly falling and scorching his heart.

This was the first time he read in Fan Yuan’s eyes that he cared about Gao Yu. Although he had acted like he really cared about him and really liked him, no emotion had been mixed in his eyes. They had been pure and clear without a trace of cloudiness. Yet, this was the first time he was able to sense that Fan Yuan was genuinely hurt. Even though it was only for a split second, this was enough to make him feel a kind of happy surprise.

As if gods and demons were at work, he replied, “Yeah, I like her. Aren’t we just like brothers? What are you so sad about?”

Fan Yuan choked. He furiously said, “Because I don’t like her! So you can’t like her either!”

Gao Yu took a handkerchief out of his pocket and carefully wiped away the tear tracks on Fan Yuan’s face, but his voice was firm when he said, “And so what if I keep on liking her? Xiao Yuan, have you really thought clearly? Just what is my place in your heart?”

Fan Yuan seemed to be surprised. He hesitated for a long time, but did not have anything to say in reply.

Gao Yu also didn’t force him again. It was fine as long as he was thinking about it. He was afraid that Fan Yuan had been confused from the start and would use the most naive eyes to look at him and spit out the sweetest nothings. He didn’t want that kind of “like.”

“You need to calm down. I won’t come to find you in the next few days. You’ll have to make sure to eat on time on your own.”

Having said that, he turned and walked toward the door. From behind him Fan Yuan called in a small, disbelieving voice, “Gao Yu, are you angry at me? You’re angry at me because of Li Yunxi?”

Gao Yu almost couldn’t stop himself from turning his head when he heard his aggrieved voice. He exhausted all of his strength to keep from turning back and comforting him. He resolutely departed from the dorm, leaving Fan Yuan with a single word: “Yes.”

Afterward, Fan Yuan never contacted him, but in the end Gao Yu just couldn’t ignore him.

When he stepped onto campus again after a month had passed, the entire school was abuzz with the news that he and Li Yunxi were together and Fan Yuan’s crazy actions during that time. It was being said that he was using the most despicable of means to mess with Li Yunxi with the aim of driving her out of A University. It had created a huge ruckus. Gao Yu didn’t believe it. The horrible, crazed Fan Yuan they spoke of wasn’t the little master he had been holding in his hands for more than ten years.

But he was ruthlessly slapped in the face by reality. Fan Yuan had actually done things like bribe some hooligans to destroy a girl’s innocence. If it weren’t for him walking by that alley by chance, what would have happened to Li Yunxi? He interrogated Fan Yuan, asking whether or not it was him who had done it, but Fan Yuan indifferently said, “That woman dared to seduce you. I was just teaching her a lesson.”

Was he disappointed? Of course! That wasn’t the Fan Yuan he knew, not at all! Never before had he felt such anger and confusion.

“I don’t want to see you at the moment. Don’t come looking for me again.”

This time he didn’t turn back, didn’t give in. His steps did not stop as he left that boy who had become a stranger to him.

Later on, Fan Yuan had told him that he had fallen very ill and wished for Gao Yu to stay by his side.

He returned only a single sentence: “Don’t come looking for me again.”

That boy was already no longer the Fan Yuan who needed his care in everything. He not only had schemed to hurt another person, but he had also learned how to lie and prey on people’s feelings. Even without him, he would surely live well, Gao Yu thought.

He had never dreamed that that would be the last time they would ever meet.

A few years later, a certain business friend of his told him that the young master of the Fan family had died a few years earlier in Germany.

The wine glass in his hand slipped to the floor without warning. The bright red wine and the transparent shards of glass spread all over the floor, dirtying his expensive leather shoes. He dropped his head to stare at his shoes. Without batting an eyelid, he asked, “Which Fan family?”

That person laughed and said, “Young Master Gao is really funny. Are there any other Fan families in A City? Of course it’s Fan Zhiyuan and Jin Yao’s little darling……”

Before the man had finished speaking, Gao Yu had already smashed into his face with his fist. The man’s nose and mouth bled as he was terrified into silence. Gao Yu’s eyes were wide open as he said, “Don’t let me catch you speaking such nonsense again.”

Saying that, he took the napkin proffered by his assistant. He wiped his knuckles and turned to walk outside. “We’re going to the Fan family’s place now.”

The assistant who had accompanied him for quite a few years said from behind, “Boss, Master Fan is really already……”

He didn’t even spare a glance back, coldly saying, “What are you trying to say? If something like this were to happen, how could I not know of it?”

“A few years ago, Fan Yuan’s mother and father took him to Germany for treatment. It blew up hugely in A City. After that, Master Fan died of his illness, had a funeral, and was buried in Germany. Newspapers back here reported on it in a frenzy for a good few days. We all thought you already knew.” The assistant trembled in fear as he looked at Gao Yu’s back and said this.

Gao Yu’s figure shook slightly. He gritted his teeth and ground out, “Help me buy a plane ticket to Germany. Don’t think you can fool me with this cheap trick.”

That night he boarded a plane and the next afternoon arrived in Germany.

There was a light sprinkling of rain that day. He stood under a linden tree that was gracefully losing its leaves, looking at Fan Yuan’s gravestone. The boy in the picture wore a slight smile. His cheeks had wasted away so much that you could clearly see the outline of his protruding bones. He looked wan and sallow.

Up to that moment, he still remembered the setting sun in the twilight that day. Fan Yuan had drawn back the corners of his mouth in a smile and had thoughtlessly spoken to him.

“Gao Yu, I’ve gotten sick. The doctor said it’s possible it can’t be cured. I’m really scared. Are you willing to come to Germany with me?”

His fingertips slid lightly across the boy’s eyes in the picture and flitted across his clear, shallow smile. In a low voice, he said, “Okay, I’ll keep you company.”

The rain fell harder and harder. His face was completely wet. He didn’t know whether it was rain or something else.

“I’m sorry, I arrived late.”

“Where are you now? Have you already gone on and reincarnated into another world, or are you waiting for me on the bridge?”

“You just wait a little longer for me, okay? Once I’m done with some tasks here, I’ll come to find you. Relax. Going forward, I will never be late again. It doesn’t even matter if you don’t like me. It’s okay as long as I like you…… I was wrong before. It doesn’t matter if you’re pure or vicious or malicious. As long as you’re you, I will always love you.”

……………………

A nurse carrying an umbrella passed by. Seeing him standing in front of the grave staring out into space, she drew closer and said, “Excuse me, are you Mr. Fan’s friend? I am the nurse that took care of him.”

Seeing that he didn’t answer, she was undeterred and said, “If you know a man with the surname of Gao, please help me pass a message along to him. Can you?”

Gao Yu raised his head and looked at her, his dark eyes empty. Just listening to her gently spit out a single sentence, he was instantly pushed into a bottomless abyss.

She wore a malicious smile on her face as she slowly said, “While he was at death’s door, Mr. Fan kept dialing his number. Even after he died, he didn’t let go of that phone. In the end, he was buried with it. That must be what they call ‘dead but will not close the eyes,’ eh?”

Gao Yu’s originally empty chest suddenly felt so painful he could barely breathe. He firmly grabbed his stomach and suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.

“Mr. Gao, I recognize you. You know why? Because when Mr. Fan was in the hospital, I would frequently see him staring at your photograph, lost in thought. You must have no idea how painful chemotherapy is, so you could actually be so cruel as to not even answer a single one of his calls. In fact, your callousness and cruel heart is no different from breaking his hope and spirit. You indirectly killed Mr. Fan.”

Gao Yu used the back of his hand to wipe his mouth. He looked at the bright red blood on his hand and stared at it blankly for a while. He muttered, “What phone call…… What newspaper…… What news report…… I had no idea. Why? Why? Who on earth was it who hid this from me……”

A black maelstrom faintly picked up in his vacuous eyes. He grew more and more hysterical. It was as if that black vortex could swallow up everything.

“Who dared hide this from me?!”

His expression was excessively vengeful, the brutality and killing intent almost made people tremble. That nurse was frightened and continuously backed up. At last, she turned and fled.

The millions of years of prior memories streamed into his body at the same time. Everything from his body to his spirit ached in absolute agony, but it was like he was tormenting himself as he continuously drew in that power. The unending stream of power made his consciousness gradually return. That force was too powerful, so much so that the entire world quaked.

A robotic voice ecstatically said, “Congratulations on Master’s awakening! The next male lead’s body in the lower plane has no way to support Master’s power. Master, please return immediately to the cultivation room.”

“Leave? How can I leave…… I want to find him. I don’t care what it takes, I must find him.”

“According to system sensors, Fan Yuan is an actor of the male side character class. If Master wants to find him, Master must invade the host system of the male side character. As the previous system’s replacement, Gui La’s energy and rank are insufficient and Gui La has no authority to execute the operation.”

“Then just seize the energy of this world.” What a casual sentence to decide the existence or extinction of that whole world.

The rules and plot were just like a newborn child to him. They could only be slaughtered.

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Although the plot of the lower plane was simple, the body of the son of destiny was too weak. He had just recently regained his own power and couldn’t control it very well. In order to control the possibility of accidents, he chose again in the second world to seal away his strength.

Later, he awakened because of a basic, low insignificant little ant attempted to tarnish his darling in vain. He didn’t kill him only because he did not want to scare Fan Yuan. He finally could not hold back upon seeing the marks made on Fan Yuan’s neck by that insignificant ant. He confessed in a manner that was half genuine and half fake, but that little fellow was scared into running away. He finally realized that if he wanted to take him, he must plan and take things slow.

Good thing he had nothing but time.

Hi all, it’s Lanlan with an announcement to make. I am handing this story over to a new translator on CG, chels, starting next chapter. Real life has been getting a bit busy and there isn’t really any feasible way I can translate two stories at once, so I have decided to focus on The #1 Pretty Boy of the Immortal Path. I sincerely appreciate all of the comments and love you showed this story during my time as translator. I apologize for the suddenness of this announcement, but I am confident I’m leaving this story in good hands and I know she’ll do a good job. Please join me in welcoming chels to CG and, perhaps more importantly, to MGLR! ❤ ❤