CHAPTER 756: CHAPTER 756: HEART-TO-HEART

"Tang Yue, my love for your aunt has never changed." Gu Chun made his stance clear; over all these years, the person he has constantly thought about, apart from Lian Tong, has never changed.

Tang Yue didn’t believe it, and retorted, "If you love my aunt so much, why then have you left her all alone for all these years? Why have you never shown up when my aunt looked for you?"

"I..." Gu Chun just began to speak when he stopped abruptly, his gaze falling on Lian Tong behind Tang Yue. Even without seeing her face, just thinking about her numb and stupefied expression made his heart hurt as if it was being squeezed.

Was it because of him that Tongtong ended up in this state?

"Are you trying to say you have your reasons?" Tang Yue pressed on. "What reasons could you have? If you spoke up, my aunt would understand you. But you say nothing about your reasons, nor do you clarify things with my aunt. You’ve just left her to wait hopelessly year after year. How can you bear to waste the best years of my aunt’s life?"

"My aunt has suffered a shock because of your issues and now she’s lost her mind. How are you going to compensate my aunt?" Tang Yue’s accusations pierced him like stabs to the heart.

He believed that if he left without a word, Lian Tong would end up with someone with the surname Lei.

Little did he know that he would later board a ship by accident, one filled with people not to be trifled with. He ended up in a den of bandits, and after a great deal of difficulty escaping, he got involved with things as a youth that he should not have touched, and Gu Chun felt even less worthy of seeing Lian Tong.

After finally getting clean, as the years went by, he found himself increasingly unable to even entertain the thought of seeing Lian Tong.

He was already insecure at heart, and now he felt even more unworthy. Although he had since established a successful shipping company, he still felt inferior and believed he didn’t match up to her, content only to guard her from a distance.

Year after year passed, and deep down Gu Chun would always tell himself that surely Lian Tong would come around, that she would see reason on her own.

Every year Gu Chun would visit Lian Tong secretly, but even after so many years, Lian Tong still clung to him.

Countless times Gu Chun wanted to clear things up with Lian Tong, but he couldn’t bear to do it. Plus, as he slowly built up his own shipping company, his opportunities to see Lian Tong became rare. Every time he mustered the courage, wanting Lian Tong to find her own happiness, he would always... back out at the last minute.

"Gu Chun, if you refuse to tell my aunt, can you at least tell me?" Tang Yue could see Gu Chun’s struggle and compromised in her request.

She stood in front of Lian Tong, afraid that Gu Chun would notice something off, fearing that if he did, their ruse would have been for naught.

"Do you really want to know?" Gu Chun took a deep breath, these matters had been buried in his heart for who knows how many years, he had originally planned to never speak of them in his lifetime.

Now, he felt he didn’t even deserve to stand beside Lian Tong.

It was something he had intended to take to his grave.

He looked at Tang Yue, this was Tongtong’s close niece.

"Yes." Tang Yue nodded affirmatively, her gaze resting on Gu Chun’s unusually gaunt frame.

Lian Tong’s hand rested on Tang Yue’s lower back.

Tang Yue thought for a moment and said, "Aunt, if you’re tired, lie down for a while."

Tang Yue helped Lian Tong to lie down on her side before she began to converse with Gu Chun.

Gu Chun slowly began to speak of the events of the past.

After leaving the Lian Family, Gu Chun did so partly because of being disheartened by the denouncing from those surnamed Lei, which led him to leave. Later, he inadvertently fell into a bandit’s lair.

...

Gu Chun spilled everything about his past, things he had initially intended to keep bottled up forever. But with Lian Tong becoming like this, as well as Tang Yue’s calm and composed words, it gave Gu Chun the courage to dare to reveal his mental journey over these years.

"Why did you quit addiction and then start a shipping company? Why didn’t you come to find Auntie?" Tang Yue pressed on.

Gu Chun’s expression dimmed, and Tang Yue asked, "Do you feel that you’re not worthy of Auntie? But Auntie doesn’t despise you, are you afraid of other people’s gaze?"

"Auntie has stayed away from the Lian Family for your sake. Don’t you think you owe her a response?" Listening to Gu Chun’s understated words, Tang Yue also knew that Gu Chun hadn’t had it easy over the years. Escaping from the bandit lair, he got involved with things he shouldn’t have touched. If it were an ordinary person, maybe their life would be ruined.

But not Gu Chun. He didn’t only manage to quit his addiction by his sheer willpower, he also started and successfully ran a shipping company.

She didn’t understand why Gu Chun felt so inferior. Auntie didn’t mind, yet Gu Chun was always avoiding her, but...

After hearing Gu Chun’s story, Tang Yue felt even more that no matter what, this matter needed a decision.

Whether to cut ties completely or decide to be together, there has to be an outcome.

Otherwise, if Lian Tong keeps delaying year after year, her entire life would be ruined.

"You don’t understand, she’s like the sun in the sky, unreachable, and I’m just a speck of dust on the ground." In Gu Chun’s heart, Lian Tong was the distant, unattainable ray of sunlight.

"Gu Chun, when have I ever despised you? Not to mention that you are now running your own shipping company, even this... even during your addiction, it couldn’t stop my determination to be with you. Why do you always run away? You keep saying it’s for me, but I think, you’re being selfish. Don’t you realize my heart is already torn to pieces?" Tears streamed down Lian Tong’s face as she sat up, blurring her visage, ever since she heard Gu Chun speak.

The tears in Lian Tong’s eyes seemed as if they had never ceased.

"Tongtong." Gu Chun was shocked to see Lian Tong suddenly sitting up.

"No matter what you and Auntie decide for the future, you both need to have a proper talk." Tang Yue stood up and solemnly addressed Gu Chun, "If you keep letting Auntie wait without hope, who knows, one day she might truly go mad with despair."

With that, Tang Yue walked out, leaving Gu Chun and Lian Tong alone in the room.

She took a few steps, then tiptoed back, pressing her ear against the door, wanting to eavesdrop on what the two of them would say.

Privately, Tang Yue naturally hoped that Lian Tong would attain a perfect love.

Inside the room, there was silence; no one spoke.

Gu Chun approached carefully, pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, and began to wipe her tears.

Lian Tong’s gaze fell upon the checkered handkerchief, causing her tears to flow even more. This old, checkered handkerchief with an unsightly ’Tong’ embroidered on the corner was a caprice of her younger days; she never imagined that after so many years, he would still carry it with him.

"You once said that you would never break up with me in this lifetime. But you disappeared that year, and now you’ve been gone for so long. Why... why do you still keep this handkerchief?" Lian Tong looked up, her eyes brimming with unstoppable tears.