CH 80

Although the woman seemed to know Gu Qingchi, Xie Luyu still didn’t let down his guard.

“Do you have business with him?” 

“He really lives here? Have him come out and see me.”

She peeked behind Xie Luyu. With a turn of her feet, she started walking past him.

Xie Luyu turned his body to the side, blocking her path completely. He didn’t have a very good temper to begin with. In all his years of living, the only person he’d spoken softly in front of was Gu Qingchi. Now, however, he’d finally met his match. Not only did she not listen to him, she even tried to force her way past him. He’d already lost his patience. If it wasn’t for the fact that she seemed to have something to do Gu Qingchi, he would have already lost his temper.

“He doesn’t live here. Let me know what you’re here for, and I’ll pass on the message.” 

He stood there, towering over her. He was wearing a mask and a hat, so she couldn’t really make out his face. However, his eyes were sharp and incisive. He looked rather intimidating.

Although her tongue was still as acerbic as ever, the woman did end up taking a few steps back. She retorted, embarrassed.

“What are you being so aggressive for? Make sure to tell Gu Qingchi that I want him to come home. I take my eyes off of him for just a minute, and he’s already made a mess of things. He knows what he did. If my words aren’t enough, I’ll have someone else come get him. He better not blame me when the time comes. The sooner he returns, the better. In fact, tell him to come home tomorrow. Gosh, he just had to have me come in person. He must think he’s grown now.”

Xie Luyu wasn’t very happy when he heard this. This woman clearly hadn’t come with good intentions. These words weren’t very friendly either.

“What are you talking about? If you don’t make it clear, I’m not going to pass on the message. Just who are you?”

“Who am I? I’m his mother. Is it wrong for me to manage my own son?”

Xie Luyu was usually pretty good at judging people. This woman was, at most, forty years old. Her age didn’t match up. His mind was racing, but his face remained calm.

“Yeah, it is actually. He’s already an adult. He’s got his own life. Besides, he’s very busy with work. If there’s an emergency, then just tell it to him straight. Xiao Gu isn’t an unreasonable person. If it’s really urgent, I’m sure he’ll go make a visit no matter how busy he is.” 

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“P ofv tlw, P mibatfv tlw, P qea j gbbo bnfg tlr tfjv. Qts rtbeivc’a P yf jiibkfv ab wjcjuf tlw? Tbe kjca ab xcbk ktja atf wjaafg lr? Pa’r jii bnfg atf vjwc lcafgcfa! Pa’r jc fwyjggjrrwfca! Lf regf lr mjqjyif cbk, ktja klat tlr ufaalcu vlnbgmfv. Pa’r olcf lo tf vbfrc’a kjca ab mbwf yjmx. P’ii pera afii atf ojwlis vlgfmais. Slatfg kjs, la’r bcis j wjaafg bo alwf. Qtfc atf biv wjc olcvr bea, tf’r ublcu ab yf lc obg atf yfjalcu bo tlr ilof. Zjxf regf sbe afii tlw atja kbgv obg kbgv.”

After the woman finished speaking, she turned around and left.

Xie Luyu was left at the door. He stood there for a while. Then, he clicked his tongue. 

He figured out what was going on now. However, he didn’t plan on telling Gu Qingchi.

He already had somewhat of a guess in his mind. Gu Qingchi’s family situation seemed to be similar to that of his own. It was obvious that Gu Qingchi’s family didn’t even have Gu Qingchi’s contact information. Plus, there was also that woman, who was a little too young.

What a load of crap. These trifles shouldn’t be brought up in front of Gu Qingchi.

After Xie Luyu found out about the divorce, the first thing he did was find Gu Qingchi. However, Gu Qingchi had been in such a bad state at the time. Xie Luyu had been full of questions, but he put all of it aside and went to work comforting Kitty Gu. 

Xie Luyu knew that, at the time, Gu Qingchi had lived in a house under Xie Luyu’s name. It had been given to him by his family when he became an adult. He hadn’t returned to that house ever since the marriage.

All because Gu Qingchi was there.

Unlike Xie Luyu, Gu Qingchi had been far too young. He was stuffed into a cage before his wings even had a chance to grow in.

Now, based on what that woman said, it seemed that his family didn’t even know that he’d gotten divorced. 

Xie Luyu’s brows furrowed. He could almost imagine it.

Gu Qingchi’s family didn’t care about him. He had no choice but to live there alone. He lived alone, went through marriage formalities alone, and signed the divorce certificate alone.

Xie Luyu took a deep breath. He tightened his grip around the car keys. Then, he shut the door and left. He set the topic aside for the time being. Xiao Gu really liked to eat fish lately, and the fridge was running out of groceries.

⁂ 

Gu Qingchi, on the other hand, was just starting to open his eyes. He blinked. He’d gone to bed early last night, so he wasn’t that sleepy. He just didn’t really feel like getting up.

After laying there for a bit, he reached for his cell phone, wanting to check the time.

Gu Qingchi didn’t use his phone much. A lot of the time, his phone was kept on silent because he didn’t like the sudden sound of a phone ringing. Gu Qingchi could go several days without looking at his phone. As a result, Ye Li often found himself having a hard time trying to get in touch with him. Ye Li ended up buying Gu Qingchi a cell phone just for work. It didn’t have anything else downloaded on it. It was used purely for making calls.

As soon as he turned on his cell phone, he saw a series of missed calls and several unread text messages. 

Gu Qingchi hadn’t changed his number all this time.

He randomly tapped on one of the notifications.

[How dare you get divorced! I take my eyes off you for a second, and you go wild! Come home tomorrow. Your dad’s going to deal with you. I can’t handle it anymore.]

There was a gap of a few days. 

[Did you read my message? If you read it, make sure to tell me when you’ll be coming home.]

Then, there was the latest message.

[Have you changed your number?]

There was a note under the contact name that read, “Mrs. Gu”. Gu Qingchi casually deleted the messages. 

Gu Qingchi had met her two years ago. He didn’t have any impression of the Mr. and Mrs. Gu of this world.

There weren’t very many people in his contacts list. The contact names were also very obvious and to the point, such as Husband, Stepmother, Uncle, and Aunt.

In the past, he would only get a sporadic message or two. Occasionally, someone would send him holiday greetings. Gu Qingchi had always regarded them as tools of the plot.

After arriving in this strange new world, Gu Qingchi had also done his own experiments. He found that this sort of randomly generated character setting was very easy to spot. It tended to blur reality in certain key places. 

For example, Gu Qingchi’s family and friends may know of Gu Qingchi’s existence. However, he was only a vague point on their periphery. His sense of presence was just far too low. In order to rationalize this, Gu Qingchi would be kept far away from them or disappear from their view altogether.

The exception was someone like Cheng Ke, someone who already had memories of Gu Qingchi. However, Cheng Ke’s memories were blurry recollections of Gu Qingchi’s marriage and school life. Gu Qingchi should have been admitted into a prestigious school. It should have been smooth sailing from high school up to university.

Now, Cheng Ke believed that Gu Qingchi had dropped out of university and gotten married.

He knew that there was such an event, but, when he thought back on it, the memory was vague and indistinct. After all, it was just an empty character setting. 

Thus, even if someone thought of him every now and then, it was fine because they had never interacted with him. Gu Qingchi, in their eyes, was a stranger. Those memories weren’t anything consequential. After all, they would be forgotten after a couple of days.

Gu Qingchi had just finished deleting the messages when his fingers paused. Cheng Ke existed in this world. The gaps in his current life were being filled in by his past life. In that case, was it possible for his original family to exist in this world as well?