CH 26.1

Looking at Gu Youchen’s appearance in the photo, Ning Qingqing guessed that he should have been fifteen or sixteen years old, and at that time, she was still living in that town with her grandmother.

Although the town was not too small, it was not easy to run into people, but Ning Qingqing had a vague impression of Gu Youchen’s clothes in the photo.

At that time, the Lakers were very popular in China, and many boys liked to wear their uniforms.

When Ning Qingqing was in that town, almost all the boys of the same age she saw were wearing sportswear, but she saw one exception that day.

She remembered that her grandmother had asked her to deliver some dried goods to her aunt who ran an inn in the town. When she was walking on the small bridge with her things, a boy in a white shirt approached her.

He was much taller than her, and his skin was fair. Because of the light shining against his back, at first, Ning Qingqing couldn’t see what he looked like.

The boys in the town were dressed very casually on weekdays, with basketball jerseys and sweatpants, but this boy was an exception.

But Ning Qingqing did not have a habit of staring at people out of curiosity, so she walked away from him.

However, just as they brushed past each other, she heard the boy opposite of her call out to her, “Hello.”

Ning Qingqing turned her head, and the boy asked, “How can I get to the Xu Family Inn?”

Xu Family Inn was the one run by her aunt; Ning Qingqing called her aunt, but they were not actually related by blood.

Her aunt was mute. When she was young, she married a man, and he operated an inn while she helped out in any way she could.

However, she was unfortunate. The man went out to buy some goods one day, encountered a mudslide on the way, and lost his life. She could only raise herself and her infant child on her own.

Although she couldn’t speak, everyone in the town took care of her.

Because she looked quite like Ning Qingqing’s mother, plus, once Ning Qingqing’s grandmother suffered from a bout of acute enteritis while Ning Qingqing was still young, it was her aunt who drove her to the hospital with her grandmother on her back and saved her.

So later, her grandmother recognized her aunt as a goddaughter, and Ning Qingqing also liked to go to her aunt’s house to teach her 4-year-old daughter how to read and sing.

Hearing the boy say that he was going to Xu Family Inn, Ning Qingqing said, “I happen to be on my way there, so follow me!”

As she spoke, she walked ahead, while the boy silently followed behind her.

They arrived at the inn in silence. Ning Qingqing went to put the dry goods on the side of the road, and then took her aunt’s daughter to the river to wash some apples, without paying attention to the boy again.

She probably wouldn’t have much of a recollection of that moment at first, but she couldn’t prevent the girls her age in the town from talking about him afterward.

They said that a good-looking boy came to the Xu Family Inn, who looked different from the other boys in the town, so many girls went to wander around the Xu Family Inn as if they had nothing to do.

But it seemed that less than a week after the boy arrived, he was injured when he went up the mountains and was picked up and brought away by a helicopter.

At the time, Ning Qingqing didn’t look at his face carefully, so she only vaguely remembered the outline of his face and his pure and youthful aura.

Thinking about it now, it seemed to be very similar to Gu Youchen.

Ning Qingqing turned her head and asked Gu Youchen, “Ten years ago in Qingtang Town, a boy asked me for directions to Xu Family Inn, was that you?”

Gu Youchen never expected that Ning Qingqing would remember, his hands were propped by his sides, his knuckles were slightly bent due to tension, and they turned white under the force.

His throat was slightly dry, and he even wanted to ask Ning Qingqing if she remembered anything other than him asking for directions.

However, looking at Ning Qingqing’s curious eyes which didn’t contain any other emotions, he knew all the excitement and clamor only existed in his world.

He was about to speak when Li Lan asked first, “Youchen, how did you and Qingqing get together? Who first pursued who?”

Gu Youchen’s tight breathing slightly relaxed because of this question, and he answered, “I pursued her; I fell in love with her at first sight.”

When he was talking, his gaze fell on the photo, and after he finished speaking, he looked at Ning Qingqing, with faint particles of light and shadow flickering in his eyes.

Ning Qingqing’s heart beated a little faster when Gu Youchen’s eyes flickered.

But after a while, she realized that Gu Youchen wanted to reassure his mother, so he said that on purpose!

So, she raised her small face and smiled at Gu Youchen.

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The sweetness Gu Youchen felt from her smile almost made him impulsively say that it was love at first sight ten years ago.

But he also understood that if he did that he would put more pressure on Ning Qingqing.

He also hoped that she would come to really like him as they got along day by day, instead of forcing herself to accept him because of other factors.

Li Lan had been observing her son’s reaction, a mother knows her son, she understood everything in an instant.

Her son liked this girl ten years ago and fell in love with her at first sight!

No wonder Gu Youchen went to Qingtang Town not long after he recovered from his injury ten years ago.

In the next few years, he went there several times, and every time he would go excitedly, and be depressed for several days after returning.

Six years ago, when Gu Youchen came back from studying abroad, he went there again. After returning, he was depressed for a month, and he never went there again.

At that time Li Lan asked him what was going on, but Gu Youchen didn’t say anything, and later even the frequency of his returns to China decreased, as he devoted himself to his studies.

After graduation, Gu Heng and Li Lan noticed that their son never had a single girlfriend, so as long as Gu Youchen came back, they would take him to banquets to meet some girls his age, but Gu Youchen wouldn’t even add them as friends.

A few days ago, he suddenly told them over the phone that he was married, and his tone seemed to be serious, but Li Lan could tell that Gu Youchen was very excited. Although he tried his best to restrain himself, each syllable he spoke was filled with happiness.

Her son had never been an impulsive person, Li Lan was very puzzled at the time, but now she understood——

It turned out that ten years of unrequited love had finally been realized.

She didn’t know what method he used to abduct Shen Zhiqian’s ex-girlfriend home, but he was quick and ruthless, just like his father.

It was just a pity that the girl didn’t seem to like him yet.

Li Lan planned to give her son a hand.