UCS Chapter 113

Yun Zhiyi did not know whether this was a coincidence or something more deliberate, but a chill crept up her spine from behind.

 

Looking at the disbelieving Yun Wan before her, Yun Zhiyi felt only a deep and weary disinterest.

 

Whether or not Xiao Yusheng had used some means to manipulate things, the truth remained: if Yun Wan had not already harboured that intention, Xiao Yusheng would have had nothing to work with.

 

This was the sister she had given her genuine heart to for more than ten years.

 

She left.

 

Leaving Yun Wan standing there in a daze.

 

She claimed not to believe it. But she knew. Her little sister was not the type to stoop to deception.

 

Which meant it was true.

 

The person she loved had his true interest in a man?

 

She had been used as a weapon?

 

Yun Zhiyi’s family had been genuinely good to her. They had treated her almost like their own daughter. After she entered the entertainment industry, without the Yun family’s support and protection, her path would never have been this smooth.

 

And now, it was all over.

 

She pressed her hands to her head, her thoughts a tangled mess, until someone called out to her.

 

She looked up. It was Madam Yun.

 

Her eyes lit up.

 

“Auntie!”

 

She thought of the fruit brought to her while she was studying. The warm milk before bed. The examination supplies carefully laid out on the morning of her college entrance exams. Hope rekindled itself in her chest.

 

Auntie liked her so much. She would surely forgive her.

 

But the look Madam Yun turned on her was cold and full of disappointment, and plunged her back into an abyss of ice.

 

“I never expected you to be this kind of person. If I had known, I would never have let Zhizhi get close to you.”

 

She turned to leave. Yun Wan immediately broke down. “Auntie! Did you not say you liked me very much? Did you not say you wished I were your daughter?”

 

Madam Yun said coldly, “I do not have a daughter who would sell her own sister. I care about Zhizhi. Liking you was because Zhizhi liked you. It was nothing more than loving someone because of who they love.”

 

Yun Wan wept and cried and begged her to stay.

 

But the call had already been ended. Behind two layers of bulletproof glass, not a sound could pass through.

 

***

 

With the matter of Dongshan settled, Gao Gusheng was dragged off by Gao Shi to study at the Gao family company. Grandfather Gao and Gao Gusheng held passionate discussions every single day. Gao Gusheng’s wild and unorthodox ideas never failed to make Grandfather Gao furious enough to smoke from all seven orifices, leaving him to console himself repeatedly that this was his grandson, his own flesh and blood.

 

When the workday ended, Grandfather Gao would deposit Gao Gusheng at Gao Shi’s door and leave with a spring in his step, off to take his wife on a date. Gao Gusheng would go home sniffling to find comfort from his dad.

 

During this period, Gao Shi and Ying Bujie resolved quite a number of anomaly cases together. All the lingering souls were sent by Ying Bujie into reincarnation. Gao Shi speculated that Ying Bujie’s past life perhaps had some connection to the underworld.

 

And what had his own past self been?

 

Gao Shi looked at his axe. Judging from Ying Bujie’s tone, both he and Ying Bujie had been people of some standing in that past life, capable enough to protect a spirit flower coveted by all.

 

Were there any immortals who wielded an axe as their weapon?

 

…

 

The days passed one by one. Gao Gusheng was pressed to study and absorbed quite a lot. Grandfather Gao was driven to exasperation on a daily basis, yet also found himself pleasantly surprised. He had always known this grandson had a head for business, but had not expected this level of natural talent. Once Gao Gusheng graduated, he imagined he would finally be able to live out his dream of travelling the world with his wife every day.

 

Gao Gusheng’s life was in fact very full. Days at the company, evenings cultivating his techniques.

 

That was right. After Ying Bujie’s memories returned, he had given Gao Gusheng a set of cultivation methods.

 

This set of techniques had been written in a past life by Ying Bujie and Gao Gusheng together, teaching Gao Gusheng how to control his unusual constitution and how to manage the generation of spiritual energy.

 

Gao Gusheng had been so busy during this period that he had almost forgotten he was still being eyed by various men from all sides.

 

The winter holiday was drawing to a close. On this particular day, Gao Gusheng was finishing up his final handover tasks at the company and preparing to return to school.

 

Someone blocked his path.

 

“Let us have a talk.”

 

Gao Gusheng looked for a moment before recognising that the person before him was Gui Yan.

 

The Gui Yan in front of him was so different from the one he had encountered before that it was almost startling.

 

The Gui Yan of before had been like an arrogant, blazing flame. Some people were put off by his pride, but far more were drawn in by it.

 

The Gui Yan now was like the ashes left behind after a fire had burned itself out.

 

His face was still clearly young, but his eyes were full of stories, like a middle-aged man’s.

 

A very strange change.

 

If Gao Gusheng remembered correctly, news of Flame and Moonlight’s engagement had only broken recently. The groom-to-be before him ought to be happy. So why did he look like someone who had just buried his wife?

 

Gao Gusheng declined politely. “I am sorry, I have things to attend to.”

 

Gui Yan frowned. He seemed unused to being turned down by Gao Gusheng, and instinctively wanted to snap back, but caught the slightly puzzled look on Gao Gusheng’s face and swallowed it down.

 

He softened his voice. “There is something very important I need to speak with you about. It concerns a human life.”

 

“What kind of person is worth exchanging for my son’s life?”

 

“Dad! When did you get here?” Gao Gusheng said happily, seeing Gao Shi appear out of nowhere and pull him behind him.

 

Gao Shi fixed his gaze on Gui Yan before him, eyes narrowing slightly. “If I had come any later, someone would have been carrying you off.”

 

Gao Shi’s manner made Gui Yan feel both vaguely guilty and somewhat put out. He said, “Mr. Gao, that is rather a strong way to put it.”

 

Gao Shi said, “Whatever you need to say, you can say it here.”

 

Gao Gusheng peered out from behind him and nodded in agreement. “Right. There is nothing I cannot tell my dad.”

 

This left Gui Yan, who had been about to say Mr. Gao really ought not to interfere so much in his son’s life, with nothing to say.

 

He glanced at Gao Gusheng once more. “I have no ill intentions. I simply wanted to invite the young… Master Gao for a conversation.”

 

Gao Shi looked down at Gao Gusheng. Gao Gusheng thought it over and said, “Alright then. The coffee shop over there should do.”

 

After all, rather than having people keep thinking about him, it was better to simply pull the root out cleanly.

 

The moment they sat down, Gui Yan frowned and said, “Do you not have any space of your own? Does it not bother you, being managed like this by your father?”

 

Gao Gusheng was taken aback by this opening salvo, and thought to himself: I actually feel like my dad gives me too much freedom. We barely saw each other this whole holiday. What exactly are you going on about?

 

And besides, if not for my dad, my life would have been over long ago. Where do you get the standing to say anything?

 

Gao Gusheng immediately took a dislike to Gui Yan. And yet Gui Yan, with no apparent self-awareness whatsoever, continued to lecture Gao Gusheng about freedom, about breaking away from one’s parents to build one’s own life, about how a child is not their parents’ possession.

 

Gao Gusheng simply cut him off. “Alright. Mr. Gui, if you have something to say, please just say it.”

 

Gui Yan frowned again.

 

That was the second time Gao Gusheng had displeased him.

 

In his previous life, Gao Gusheng had been gentle and easygoing, obedient to an extreme, like warm water: a little plain perhaps, but extraordinarily comforting.

 

How had he turned into this in this life?

 

Gui Yan had come to fully understand that the dreams were not ordinary dreams but memories of his past life only when Bai Mingyue suddenly collapsed and was taken to hospital, where a serious illness was discovered.

 

That night, he dreamed again of his past life, of Gao Gusheng ashen-faced after having a kidney removed, being dragged out the door by a bodyguard.

 

It had been raining heavily outside.

 

He looked like a porcelain doll on the verge of shattering, gazing up at him with pleading eyes.

 

When he woke, he finally connected his past life to this one.

 

He supposed that counted as a kind of rebirth.

 

But why had Gao Gusheng, who in his past life should have been crouching pitifully by the roadside, become the young master of the Gao family this time? Why had Mingyue, who should not have returned for another two years, come back early?

 

Someone else had to have been reborn like him, and earlier than him at that.

 

If he was not mistaken, it was most likely the Gao family. He remembered that in his past life, the Gao family had been one of the five great families. In this life, the five great families had become four, with the Gao family sitting above them at an even higher tier.

 

The technology of this life was also far more advanced than the last. The Gao family’s speciality was high-technology research: from everyday phones and computers to military electromagnetic cannons and insect-sized surveillance cameras. This had even indirectly elevated the nation’s military capabilities by an entire level.

 

And Gao Gusheng had become the sole heir of the Gao family, a pampered young master raised with every indulgence.

 

On the surface, the Gao family’s rebirth should have had no bearing on him at all. But if Gao Gusheng was now the Gao family’s young master, what was to be done about Mingyue’s kidney and cornea?

 

He knew that asking Gao Gusheng to give up a cornea was nearly impossible. The Gao Gusheng of now was no longer the A-Yue from his memories, the one who had grown up clinging to him.

 

He had tried to find another way. He had truly tried every way he could think of. But no compatible match had been found in all this time, and the one match that had been found had resulted in rejection after transplantation.

 

His Mingyue, after two failed surgeries, was in an even worse condition than before. A transplant was urgently needed.

 

But where was he supposed to find a compatible kidney and cornea?

 

He thought of Gao Gusheng.

 

Gao Gusheng had been a compatible match in their past life. He had to be in this one too.

 

And so he came.

 

In truth, perhaps even he could not say clearly whether he had come to ask Gao Gusheng to donate a kidney and cornea for Bai Mingyue, or whether he had simply come to see him.

 

Gui Yan lowered his eyes. “I said it before. From the very first time I saw you, I noticed you.”

 

“I wonder if you believe in past lives and present ones?”

 

Gao Gusheng’s heart gave a sudden jolt. He quietly pressed the earpiece, and through it he heard Gao Shi’s breathing become noticeably heavier, sounding very much like someone on the verge of picking up an axe and charging out.

 

[Lele. Say you don’t believe in any of that. Ask him what he wants.]

 

Gao Gusheng crossed his arms, leaned back, and smiled. “I don’t.”

 

“Mr. Gui, I would advise against saying things like that. I believe you only just got engaged. You would not want people to get the wrong idea.”

 

Gui Yan snapped his head up. “You know I am engaged?”

 

Did that mean that even with different circumstances in this life, he would still fall for him?

 

Gao Gusheng was speechless. “Of course I know. Your engagement trended on the day it happened.”

 

And they had set off fireworks the entire night afterward, not even using the pollution-free electronic fireworks the Gao family had developed, making the already severe air pollution in City B even worse.

 

The result was that trending immediately after the hashtag #FlameMoonlightEngagement was the hashtag #EngagementSubjectsDetained.

 

But Gui Yan had entirely stopped listening. He looked at Gao Gusheng, whose features were even more striking than in his past life, and felt something stir faintly in his chest.

 

The roses in the vase on the table were blooming in full glory, like a cluster of dancing flames.

 

But they did not compare to the young man before him.

 

He was the most beautiful rose.

 

***

 

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