CHAPTER 454: CHAPTER 454: UNEXPECTED ACCIDENT

Originally, Assistant Li didn’t want to tell him these things either. But seeing him in his current state, he couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable himself.

"How could you possibly be a stand-in? It’s just that this matter is complicated. It’s better if you don’t involve yourself in it for now."

He had already tried his best. Saying this much was the furthest he could go within his limits.

"So what exactly is the truth? Why won’t you tell me?" Gu Qixiao was already somewhat unhinged at this moment.

He merely wanted the truth, but the truth seemed impossibly difficult to grasp.

"If you don’t uncover the truth, you won’t feel as heartbroken." Assistant Li still looked at him seriously, hoping he would understand.

"You may feel unsettled for now, but it will get better after some time." As long as he stayed away from Ji Yu, this matter would eventually pass.

Gu Qixiao didn’t do much. For the next few days, he indeed refrained from seeking out Ji Yu.

Everyone thought the matter had been resolved.

But then, an unexpected accident occurred.

When Gu Qixiao looked at the person before him, they seemed somewhat familiar.

"It seems President Gu doesn’t remember me anymore." Jiang Huai looked at him with a sly smile, as if he had thought of something amusing.

He always derived great enjoyment from such things.

"Just imagine how interesting it would be if you remembered the past one day." The thought alone brought him immense pleasure.

To him, the things they had done in the past weren’t particularly terrible.

"It looks like you know a lot. But I’m not interested in the past right now." Gu Qixiao didn’t want to discuss the past any further.

In recent times, the past had tortured him enough, so he opted to stop thinking about it altogether.

"Can you really not care?" Jiang Huai asked in a tempting tone, his wide grin betraying his delight at Gu Qixiao’s expression.

"Someone like you, how could you possibly give up now? You’re probably secretly investigating the past, aren’t you?" Jiang Huai had already anticipated this.

Gu Qixiao didn’t know how to respond to him.

"If you know what kind of person I am, then stop spouting nonsensical things." Gu Qixiao was intrinsically sensitive about the matter.

Hearing these remarks made him deeply uncomfortable.

"I came today to tell you the truth, not to let you wallow in the sorrows of the past." Jiang Huai wore a facade of self-righteousness, as if he were doing a good deed.

But Gu Qixiao didn’t believe for a second that Jiang Huai was acting out of goodwill.

"If I’m not mistaken, you were also someone Ji Yu despised. What qualifies you to stand here and lecture me?"

For the first time, Jiang Huai felt that dying on the spot might not be such a bad idea.

Not only had Gu Qixiao taken the place of the man Ji Yu loved, but he also spoke so harshly.

"Gu Qixiao, are you sure you don’t remember me?" Otherwise, why were his words so cutting?

"Of course, I don’t remember. How could we have had any sort of connection?"

Whenever the subject came up, faint, blurred images would flash through Gu Qixiao’s mind.

He had tried several times to seize these fragments but never succeeded.

Now that Jiang Huai had practically delivered himself to his doorstep, Gu Qixiao naturally wanted to seize the moment and see if he could uncover the past.

Jiang Huai gritted his teeth slightly.

"Gu Qixiao, you and Ji Yu were indeed in a romantic relationship. However, the two of you can’t be together now. Do you know why?"

"I suppose it has something to do with my memory loss?" Upon hearing this, a strange sense of ease washed over Gu Qixiao’s heart.

Perhaps it was this revelation that made his current reality feel marginally less unbearable.

"If you have something to say, just say it outright. Playing these games only shows you’re feeling guilty, doesn’t it?" Gu Qixiao was typically composed when dealing with others.

He didn’t yet understand Jiang Huai’s motives, but judging by his expression, it likely stemmed from an inability to obtain what he desired.

"Now, you and I are probably the same kind of person, aren’t we?" Gu Qixiao recalled the scene in the restaurant that day and looked at Jiang Huai with a newfound pity.

"Someone like you will probably never comprehend love, will you? Look at you, so obsessively chasing after something, only to find, in the end, that you still can’t have it. Even if I’ve lost my memory, it’s impossible for you to claim her."

Gu Qixiao’s words were spoken casually, yet they cut deep, shattering Jiang Huai’s defenses.

The disparity in their significance to Ji Yu couldn’t be clearer.

Jiang Huai had thought countless times about ending Gu Qixiao’s life on the spot.

But the current situation filled his heart with hesitation.

"Gu Qixiao, have you regained your memories?" He looked at the man before him, utterly baffled by this unexpected twist.

"I haven’t regained my memories. I’m merely piecing things together based on your reaction. You must really love Ji Yu, don’t you? But unfortunately, she doesn’t love you."

Gu Qixiao didn’t harbor any grand thoughts about Jiang Huai’s actions, only believing that his misery was well deserved.

"You wouldn’t understand how I truly feel." Jiang Huai’s heart ached—a yearning for redemption, only to be abandoned time and time again.

It was as if he were a discarded, broken toy, always on the verge of being tossed aside.

"Perhaps all of this is your own doing." Gu Qixiao thought back to what he had witnessed and suddenly felt there was nothing pitiable about Jiang Huai. If he truly understood Ji Yu’s feelings, how could he keep clinging like this?

"Your relentless obsession is one of the primary reasons why the feelings between the two of you shattered so quickly." Gu Qixiao chuckled bitterly. Wasn’t he, too, chasing after something relentlessly?

But their situations were different in certain ways—ways that had now become evident.

"Gu Qixiao, who do you think you are? You’re just someone who’s lost his memory, and besides, Yu probably doesn’t want to deal with you anymore." Jiang Huai’s eyes gleamed with malice as he spoke.

"They’ll never find a cure for this, and I certainly won’t hand over the antidote. Let’s see how long you can stay in your current state. I’ll watch to see whether you end up with someone else." Jiang Huai’s goal was to prove one thing.

To prove that Gu Qixiao’s love wasn’t steadfast.

To prove that only he could love Ji Yu the most deeply in this world.