“Don’t worry, if you want to ruin your own future, I’d be more than happy to see it. I can’t be bothered to meddle in your messy affairs.”
Speaking these words with a cold expression was Li Cuiping’s final act of defiance.
She couldn’t care less whether Gu Ciyuan was digging his own grave. The only reason she intervened was her fear that he might drag the family down with him.
The story between her and Gu Changyuan could only be described as fate playing tricks.
Gu Ciyuan’s mother was a battlefield doctor. During the war, she became separated from her husband Gu Changsheng while fleeing with their son. Believing his wife and child had perished, Gu Changsheng eventually married Li Cuiping, who was then a temporary nurse, and they had a pair of Dragon-Phoenix Twins.
The year the war ended, the couple reunited, only to find that her beloved had remarried and started another family.
This came as a devastating blow to Gu Ciyuan’s mother, immediately triggering heart problems.
Gu Changsheng and his first wife had been childhood sweethearts and shared genuine affection. After struggling between the two women for some time, he ultimately chose his original wife.
Although he provided Li Cuiping with substantial compensation, losing her family was heartbreaking enough—how could she not resent him?
She protested for a while, but Gu Changsheng remained resolute. She could only leverage his guilt to secure custody of their two children.
As fate would have it, when Gu Ciyuan’s mother died during childbirth along with her baby, Li Cuiping immediately took her children and showed up at the Gu household.
Though the other woman’s plight was pitiable, Li Cuiping was only human.
She couldn’t selflessly sacrifice everything, surrendering her family to watch her husband cherish another.
She hadn’t caused that woman’s death. On the contrary, she had sacrificed so many years for them. What was wrong with reclaiming what was rightfully hers after the woman’s passing?
This was how she reasoned, but in Gu Ciyuan’s eyes, seeing another woman bring her children to force her way into his home right after his mother’s death in childbirth was truly devastating for a child.
Consequently, he despised Li Cuiping and disliked the Dragon-Phoenix Twins.
When people who mutually detest each other live under one roof, conflict is inevitable.
Once filled with love, the abandoned Li Cuiping now cared only about winning and protecting her interests.
Gu Changsheng, burdened by guilt toward Li Cuiping, often found himself manipulated during disputes, inevitably siding with her and her children. This ultimately drove Gu Ciyuan to leave home for many years.
Even now, living in the same city, he rarely returned to that house.
Li Cuiping was perfectly content with his absence—it spared her constant irritation.
Learning from Li Cuiping that Su Wantang had run away, Gu Ciyuan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Compared to her being forcibly subjected to an abortion, this was relatively good news.
Jingdu was vast, and Gu Ciyuan had few people he could trust. Those he believed were reliable had bitterly betrayed him.
Their love for him was undeniable, yet it was precisely this love that became their justification for harming Su Wantang.
When Jiang Hongqi received Gu Ciyuan’s plea for help in finding someone, he was completely stunned.
Returning to The Compound, he’d heard that Gu Ciyuan had a sister seeking refuge with him. Back at the military base, he learned Gu Ciyuan had submitted a marriage report, immediately connecting the two events.
Sure enough, this phone call was another request to help find someone!
And what Gu Ciyuan said next completely shocked him.
The person he was looking for was precisely the girl he had encountered twice—once at the fishing village and once outside the cinema—the one he had fallen for at first sight.
Damn it!
His romance, which hadn’t even begun, had already ended without a trace. How could fate be so cruel to him?
Jiang Hongqi couldn’t help but lament inwardly.
When the two met, Jiang Hongqi was so furious he wanted to punch him hard. But seeing his iron-willed brother looking utterly haggard, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Especially after hearing the whole story.
It was because Su Wantang was the daughter of a capitalist that their marriage wasn’t approved by his family, leading to Su Wantang’s disappearance.
Gu Ciyuan and Jiang Hongqi were close brothers, but he wasn’t careless enough to reveal that Su Wantang was pregnant.
He had told Zhang Fang earlier because he regarded her as a mother figure.
But he never expected things to turn out this way.
Gu Changyuan was also searching for her, and with his greater influence, he had turned half of Jingdu upside down, yet still couldn’t find her.
As dusk fell, there was still no news.
Gu Ciyuan couldn’t help but feel anxious, recalling how Su Wantang had been harassed both times he saw her.
Meanwhile, Su Wantang, whom everyone was searching for, was hiding in the Space.
She had slipped into the Space under the pretext of using the restroom. With Gu Changsheng’s men guarding outside, she wasn’t in a hurry to leave. Not only did she take a comfortable nap inside, but she also enjoyed a satisfying meal.
She had collected a lot of seafood by the shore but hadn’t had a chance to try it yet.
Unfortunately, she didn’t know how to cook or handle these ingredients.
Luckily, there were some ready-to-eat foods in the Space, which she had bought from the state-run restaurant whenever she had the chance. Though the quantity was small, it was enough to last her a few days.
While she lived comfortably in the Space, those outside grew increasingly frantic with no sign of her emerging.
Time in the Space passed at the same rate as outside, with the only difference being that there was no darkness in the Space.
Su Wantang used her watch to keep track of the time and didn’t leave the Space until around eight or nine in the evening, after changing her outfit.
Someone had been terribly inconsiderate, defecating outside the restroom.
She quickly covered her nose and mouth with a gauze scarf and hurried out of the restroom.
Outside, the sky was dark, and only a few people remained in the hospital, with a handful of consultation rooms dimly lit by faint yellow lights.
She left the hospital without any trouble and wandered aimlessly through the streets.
After the brief joy, all that remained was confusion and emptiness.
What should she do now?
Aunt Zhang and the Gu family’s attitudes made it clear that the cost of being with Gu Ciyuan was immense.
Under such circumstances, should she really drag him down with her?
Su Wantang hesitated once again.
She could raise the child on her own.
If he were to leave the military because of her identity, he wouldn’t be able to provide much protection for her or their child.
On the other hand, if he stayed in the military and endured these difficult years, their child would have an officer for a father, which would be far better than the entire family suffering.
After thinking for a long, long time, Su Wantang finally made her decision.
If that was the case, she would let him go.
Li Mingxin had been sitting by the roadside for a long time.
He felt deeply sad.
It had been two days since he last saw Su Wantang. When he went to his aunt’s house in the evening, he learned that Su Wantang had been taken away by Gu Ciyuan and hadn’t been staying at the Gu residence for the past two days.
Moreover, he had accidentally overheard his aunt and uncle’s conversation and learned that that little bastard Gu Ciyuan also intended to marry Su Wantang. This marriage arrangement had even faced opposition from their family, and his uncle had resorted to forceful measures, causing Su Wantang to flee with her current whereabouts unknown.
He knew he could never compete with Gu Ciyuan, but having finally found someone he fancied—someone he could completely control—Li Mingxin truly couldn’t accept defeat.
After encountering someone like Su Wantang, he had no desire for those ordinary, gaudy women anymore.
Other beautiful women would never look twice at him anyway. Only someone like Su Wantang, with her unfavorable background and desperate to escape her original status while seeking protection, could give him some hope.
His neighbor, the cripple, had married a charming beauty through a matchmaker arranged by the neighborhood committee, precisely because the woman had a problematic background.
That was why, from the first time he laid eyes on Su Wantang, Li Mingxin felt a sense of inevitability.
A toad lusting after swan flesh was nothing but a dream, but if the swan had broken wings, it would have no choice but to submit beneath the toad.
That was what he had originally thought.
But then a wild wolf appeared, also eyeing the injured swan with covetous eyes, and suddenly the toad’s significance paled in comparison.