10.
My biggest misunderstanding about Cố Ngôn Xuyên was probably that he was cold and distant.
He carried me into the lounge and never left, except to go to the door to pick up the food his secretary brought.
I felt like a kidnapped hostage, unable to leave his line of sight.
He had just promised to take me home for the weekend when Cố Tư Tư called.
“Sis… Help me. My mom wants to sell me…”
Before she could finish, someone covered her mouth.
The call disconnected. When I called back, all I heard was the busy signal.
I sat up and said to Cố Ngôn Xuyên, “Something happened to Tư Tư!”
He calmly rubbed my waist and gave a reluctant “Mm.”
“If she weren’t around, there wouldn’t be any outsiders in the family. Wouldn’t that be even better?”
“Do you have a conscience?”
Cố Ngôn Xuyên sneered. “One of us is a vicious supporting female character, and the other is the big villain. Why should we have a conscience?”
I stressed, “But if it weren’t for her, I’d still be with Tần Tử Dục right now.”
His gaze turned icy, and his expression darkened at once.
Cố Ngôn Xuyên’s people quickly found Cố Tư Tư.
They managed to stop the car taking her away and called the police as well.
Cố Tư Tư’s biological mother had run up a huge gambling debt. She claimed that Cố Tư Tư had stolen money from the family to pay it off. When Cố Tư Tư refused, she flew into a rage and hired people to tie her up and sell her to her creditor to pay the debt.
Although Cố Tư Tư was rescued, she was still badly shaken.
When I arrived at the police station, she immediately threw herself into my arms.
“Sis, you finally came. I was so scared…”
“She’s my biological mother, after all. Fine, she could dump me on the Cố family, but she even wanted to sell me to some middle-aged thug for gambling money. How could she come up with something like that?”
I gently patted her back to comfort her. “There, there. It’s all right now.”
She cried for a long time before finally calming down. She took a deep breath and spoke to me.
“Sis, I’m sorry. I lied to you before…”
“We’re not related by blood. I was afraid she’d get her hands on me again, so I shamelessly stayed with the Cố family…” Cố Tư Tư’s biological mother had wanted to use her to trick my father into giving her some money. She hadn’t expected him to take Cố Tư Tư home outright.
But before he could take her for a DNA test, my father died in a car accident.
I smiled at her. “It’s okay, Tư Tư. From now on, you’re my little sister.”
Cố Tư Tư beamed, her voice choked with emotion. “Thank you, sis. Bro—”
But when she met Cố Ngôn Xuyên’s ice-cold gaze, she swallowed the rest of her words.
[I almost forgot. Only Sis gets to call him her big brother.]
She awkwardly stammered, “Bro… I mean, Pres—President Cố, thank you, President Cố.”
On the way home, Cố Tư Tư remained lost in thought.
“Tư Tư, are you still scared?”
“I’m afraid she’ll come looking for me again after she gets out of prison.”
Cố Ngôn Xuyên drove and said coolly, “My lawyer will make sure she never gets out.”
Cố Tư Tư murmured her thanks, while inside she was so excited she was practically setting off fireworks.
[As expected of a domineering CEO. He dealt with that old hag so quickly. From now on, I’ll just behave and live at the Cố house with Sis and President Cố. The three of us can live happily together.]
Cố Ngôn Xuyên’s hand suddenly tightened around the steering wheel, the veins on its back standing out.
He raised his eyes to look at Cố Tư Tư in the rearview mirror. “I’m planning to send you abroad to study.”
“Huh?” Cố Tư Tư stared at him. “Why do you suddenly want to send me overseas to study?”
Cố Ngôn Xuyên said indifferently, “You’re too noisy.”
[We haven’t even said five words to each other. How am I noisy?]
[I get it. Sending me overseas is the only way to make sure that old hag can’t get to me. President Cố really has thought this through.]
No, you don’t.
11.
I didn’t see Tần Tử Dục for a long time, and only recently heard news of him again.
One bad decision had cost him Tần Corporation more than ten billion.
He had completely lost the right to be an heir and was kicked out of Tần Corporation.
In a large family with as many tangled relationships as the Cố family, blood ties could never matter more than financial interests.
It took me a while to learn that this was the result of cooperation between Cố Ngôn Xuyên and the new head of the Tần family.
The plot had begun to veer off course earlier than it was supposed to.
In my previous life, after Cố Ngôn Xuyên killed himself, Tần Tử Dục took over Cố Corporation and successfully secured the right to inherit the Tần family fortune.
But now he had lost everything.
On the day I graduated, I ran into Tần Tử Dục again.
I was wearing my cap and gown, flowers cradled in my arms, with Cố Ngôn Xuyên standing protectively behind me.
He looked much more haggard, with dark circles under his eyes and an unstable mental state.
“If you agree to come back to me, I can help you manage the Cố family’s company.”
Cố Ngôn Xuyên’s lips curled as he mocked him. “Are you that desperate to make a comeback?”
With that, he pulled me away.
Tần Tử Dục stared at our clasped hands, the emotions in his eyes crumbling.
“Cố Tích, so you turned me down because you’re with him? How can you be so cruel? You both have the surname Cố.”
He spoke loudly enough that the people around us stopped and turned to look.
I instinctively tried to pull my hand from his, but he held on tight.
“You’ve got the wrong person. My name is Quý Xuyên.”
He pulled me away.
Tần Tử Dục was left standing there alone.
Not long afterward, he killed himself.
I heard that, desperate to make a comeback, he had fabricated a project and used his status as the Tần family’s young master to trick people into investing a great deal of money.
He thought that even if something went wrong, the Tần family wouldn’t abandon him.
Unfortunately, on the day his scheme came to light, the only person willing to protect him—Old Master Tần—had just undergone heart surgery. To keep his health from being affected, they hid everything Tần Tử Dục had done from him.
He jumped from a building before the police arrived.
Graduation day.
He held my hand tightly as we walked forward. Sunlight filtered through the tree branches and fell across his handsome face.
I tilted my head and asked him,
“When did you change your name?”
“Two months ago.”
“I remember you really hated your old name.”
He hated everything about his past.
He lowered his head and gently kissed my lips. I caught a faint scent of mint on him.
I suddenly remembered that he’d been trying to quit smoking lately, so he often ate mint candies.
He kissed me, and our breaths mingled, warm and tinged with cool mint.
“If someday… if you’re still by my side, then maybe this name won’t seem so awful anymore.”
A light breeze stirred the fallen leaves on the ground.
Not far away, the sky was soft and serene, with clouds drifting overhead.
Everything was perfect.
[The End]