CH 20

“Gu Chenbai, do you think I take marriage as a joke?” Tu Yan asked with his head tilted as he sat on the lounge chair, hugging a pillow. 

Gu Chenbai’s gaze was fixed on the computer screen, his fingers flying across the keyboard, but he still squeezed out a response to Tu Yan in between, “No.”

“I forced you to sign a divorce agreement, then I ran over to find you after getting divorced, and now you want to remarry,” Tu Yan lied down, trapping himself in a woolen blanket and asked lazily, “Isn’t this playing a joke?” 

After Gu Chenbai was done processing the last document, he turned around and walked towards Tu Yan. Seeing him approach, Tu Yan deliberately swayed the chair and tried to turn to the other side. Gu Chenbai held onto the frame to stop him. 

“I was a stranger to you at the time. Whatever you did was reasonable because you did it for self-protection, so I’ve never blamed you.”

“So there wasn’t even a divorce agreement?”  

Gu Chenbai smiled and reached out to pinch Tu Yan’s face, “No, because I knew you’d regret it one day.”

Tu Yan dismissively slapped Gu Chenbai’s hand away, “Narcissist.” 

Gu Chenbai fished Tu Yan out of the chair. Tu Yan softly leaned against his chest, one foot in his slipper while the other mischievously kicked Gu Chenbai’s walking stick. The corner of Gu Chenbai’s lips tilted as he whispered in his ear, “Tu Bao, did you regret on the day of our divorce?”

“No.” Tu Yan responded resolutely. 

“But how could I have remembered that a certain someone had been crying in bed the night before the divorce?” 

“No way, you were the one who cried, your memory’s been messed up.”

Gu Chenbai chuckled, “Okay, I’m the one who cried.”

Tu Yan sniffed the faint scent on Gu Chenbai’s body, his thoughts drifting back to the most unbearable days before the divorce. 

From Tu Yan’s perspective, there had always been a taste of fate between him and Gu Chenbai. It was like doing a math problem in school, where a wrong method was obviously used, but the correct answer would accidentally be figured out. 

The beginning of the story between him and Gu Chenbai was supposed to be a dog-blood TV series that couldn’t even be made up by screenwriters, but Gu Chenbai had turned it into a sweet romance drama. Tu Yan had also acted in so many films, and this was the first one that didn’t have a script. He could only follow Gu Chenbai’s rhythm and move forward slowly, along with his joys and sorrows. The days disappeared within the rotating hands of the clock, as though there was no end. 

However, things backfired. The half year that Tu Yan was set with was almost up. 

They met in midsummer of June, boisterously getting through the scorching sun and chirping cicadas, then passing the whole season of fall in ambiguity, and finally walking into midwinter. 

Tu Yan didn’t expect that he would be the first to feel regret. 

The first snow of the year fell in Ming city that day. There were many things to do at Hua Sheng at the end of the year, so Gu Chenbai often had to work overtime. As Tu Yan was bored at home, he would occasionally go to Gu Chenbai’s office to stay for a while. 

Of course, he had to avoid people, and even avoid Gu Chaocheng. 

However, he was unlucky that day. Not only did he not avoid Gu Chaocheng, he even bumped into the person he didn’t want to meet the most; Tu Feihong. 

Tu Feihong had just been given the cold shoulder by Gu Chaocheng and was just about to turn to Gu Chenbai for help. When he opened the office door, he caught sight of Tu Yan lying on the couch, his legs crossed leisurely. Tu Feihong’s eyes brightened and he was overjoyed, thinking that there was hope for his situation. 

At the moment when Tu Yan saw Tu Feihong, he stilled in place, before sitting up slowly as his face turned cold. Turning a blind eye towards this, Tu Feihong walked towards him and held Tu Yan’s shoulders lovingly, asking him how he was doing. 

Gu Chenbai put down what he was doing and walked to them, then poured a cup of tea for Tu Feihong, “Director Tu, what’s the matter?”

Tu Yan turned his face and fiddled with his phone impatiently. 

“Nothing big,” Tu Feihong sat down with a smile and undid his oversized suit, “Isn’t the old city district going to be rebuilt? I want to take up the relocation housing project over there. But, as you know, all the money in my company is invested in the projects that were stopped before. It’s indeed——”

Tu Yan’s blood surged as he listened. He turned around and asked in astonishment, “You still have the face to borrow money from him?”

Tu Feihong quickly waved his hand, “No, Yan Yan, you don’t understand. This is a common exchange between companies, it’s not what you think.”

Gu Chaocheng just happened to walk in. Hearing Tu Feihong’s words, he sneered, “Coming often is quite a common occurrence, but why haven’t I seen ‘commonly going off?”

Having lost face, Tu Feihong ridiculed, “Aren’t we all family…”

Tu Yan looked at Tu Feihong coldly, just like how the Gu family had done half a year ago; degrading and laughable. The humiliation that tormented his self-esteem for such a long time swept up again, causing him to clench his fists and sink his nails into his flesh. Gu Chenbai leaned over and held Tu Yan’s hand tightly, maintaining his composure as he pulled Tu Yan’s fingers away. He glued onto his palm, allowing him to relax, but Tu Yan swung it away. 

Tu Yan stood up and said to Tu Feihong word for word, “Gu Chenbai and I are getting a divorce at the end of the month, I won’t have anything to do with him anymore by that time, and you won’t have a chance to borrow money from him in my name.” 

Dumbfounded, Tu Feihong stammered, “Wh-what?”

Gu Chaocheng could also hardly believe it, “Divorce? You’ve only been married for not too long, Chenbai, you agreed too?”

Gu Chenbai nodded his head. 

Tu Feihong asked Tu Yan exasperatedly, “What are you getting a divorce for? Doesn’t Chenbai treat you well enough? You don’t like him?”

Tu Yan blurted out without thinking, “I don’t. The divorce agreement has been signed, it’ll end at the end of the month.”

Tu Yan knew that if these words were only said to Tu Feihong, he might not believe it and Tu Yan would have to unpack it again. But saying this while Gu Chenbai was in front of Tu Feihong, and in addition to Gu Chenbai nodding his head, there was no room to turn around. Tu Feihong had to believe it. 

After Tu Feihong lost his wits and left the office, Gu Chaocheng left as well before glancing at Tu Yan with disgust. Tu Yan didn’t fight back this time. 

Because he saw Gu Chenbai sitting on the sofa with a light expression on his face, but his eyes were filled with a sense of loss. 

He walked towards Gu Chenbai, who pulled him onto his lap. When he opened his mouth, he still spoke with concern, “Does your hand hurt?” 

“Gu Chenbai…” 

Tu Yan’s nose turned sour and tears nearly rolled down his cheeks. He leaned on Gu Chenbai’s chest. After a few seconds, he couldn’t help but hug him tightly, “I can’t stand my dad being like this. You help him once and he will keep relying on you.”

Gu Chenbai encircled him, Tu Yan spoke before he could, “Don’t say anything, just treat it as me begging you.”

He didn’t even dare to look at Gu Chenbai’s eyes, because he was afraid that if he did, he would want to take back whatever he just said, going back to his marriage as if nothing happened and let his father rely on Hua Sheng like a leech, making things difficult for Gu Chenbai and making a fool of himself for others to see. However, his fragile self-esteem didn’t allow him to endure all this. He had to resume work as soon as possible. He had to make money to personally redeem being sold on behalf of his family before. He didn’t want to owe anyone, didn’t want to carry any burdens, but stand in front of Gu Chenbai cleanly. 

Although he knew that he owed too much to Gu Chenbai. 

He thought countless times about how good it would be if he hadn’t met Gu Chenbai, He would rather be shackled by the unbearable pain of marriage for a lifetime, than worry about the gains and losses because Gu Chenbai was too gentle, and falling into the deep swamp with no way to free himself.