CHAPTER 296: CHAPTER 276: BEGINNING TO SUSPECT ZHOU XIAOYU

Are you willing?

His Qiqi might forgive him for the hurt he’d caused her, even willing to be with him in the next life through all hardships and dangers, but his Qiqi will definitely not forgive the murderer who killed her father. He knows how much she loves her father.

When he first struck at the Gu Family, he had already lost the right to continue loving her. Some mistakes, once made, last a lifetime, and the game between him and her was ultimately unsolvable.

Mu Shuoqian reached for a pack of cigarettes from the bedside table and put one in his mouth.

Having defected to his biological father Mu Haotian, despite feeling nothing for him, he had to pretend to be the filial son, working hard to catch his attention, striving to become the pride of the Mu Family, and in the end, he did. Although Mu Haotian loved his eldest son the most, his regard for Shuoqian, his second son, grew day by day.

So he plotted revenge with Qiu Lan, and the first person they targeted was Gu Dezhong.

At that time, Qiu Lan already had the Execution Order Jason gave her. Mu Haotian’s most hated wife was dead, so she wanted to use the Execution Order on Gu Dezhong. Not only that, but after hearing that Gu Dezhong had a daughter, she borrowed a few men from Jason.

To protect Gu Qili, Mu Shuoqian persuaded Qiu Lan to leave this matter to him, convincing her there was no need for the Execution Order, that he could make sure the Gu Family paid.

It took him three years to plan a scheme that would bankrupt the Gu Family. Everything went smoothly; the Gu Family finally declared bankruptcy, and he also met Gu Yunxi.

But what he never expected was that after the bankruptcy of the Gu Family, Gu Dezhong suffered a sudden cerebral infarction, was hospitalized, and though his life was temporarily saved, he became a vegetative person with no awareness.

No one knew the torment he went through during those three years of Gu Dezhong’s coma. Perhaps only two people in the world were anxiously hoping he’d wake up: one was Gu Qili, and the other was him.

Every day he was anxious, constantly sending people to check on Gu Dezhong’s condition. He secretly hired the best doctors, used the best medicine, and when Gu Qili was financially strapped, even set up a charity foundation to let the foundation’s people connect with her and help her through tough times. His hatred for Gu Dezhong was no less than Qiu Lan’s, but at this moment, he only hoped for a miracle to happen on this former enemy because if he died, she would be grief-stricken; if he died, there would be no possibility between him and her.

He could let go of all resentments just to be with her, as those over a decade of hell could be sweetened by a single smile from her.

He could take her and her father to a place where no one knows them; if Gu Dezhong was willing, he could make a comeback. But fate played a joke on him, Gu Dezhong died.

His enemy was dead, and he should have been happy, yet that night, he stood outside Gu Dezhong’s hospital room, guarding the girl who wept heartbreakingly. She couldn’t see his presence, but he wept with her.

She lost the dearest person in the world, and he lost the person he loved most in the world.

In this unconsummated love affair, the one who was emotional was him, heartbroken was also him, ardently pursuing was him, letting go was still him, it’s just that in the end it implicated her.

Flipping through this brochure, Mu Shuoqian thought of Gu Qili holding it, ecstatically turning the pages, not missing a single one, saying this one was good and that one was great. He said, then we will shoot them all, and he booked all the places she wanted to go; as long as she was happy, he was willing to accompany her to photograph the entire world.

He couldn’t give her a grand wedding that’d be the talk of the town, now he couldn’t even give her a set of wedding photos she liked. If possible, he just wanted to be an ordinary person, have an ordinary love story, and start an ordinary family, no need for immense wealth, as long as she’s there.

He wrote down every place he could think of, by the time he got to the seventh, the phone suddenly rang.

He saw it was Bai Chengxi calling and put down the pen to answer.

"Shuoqian, it’s not good, Qili is beginning to suspect Zhou Xiaoyu," Bai Chengxi repeated the phone call he received from Gu Qili, "The information I gave her was fake, the same as the ones we made up online. Tell Zhou Xiaoyu to be careful too, not to slip up."

Gu Qili suspects Zhou Xiaoyu?

She just came to him, resolutely seeking a divorce, and seemed very normal. Why did she start suspecting Zhou Xiaoyu the moment she left here? Did he slip up somewhere?

Mu Shuoqian suddenly saw the rabbit doll on the pillow, his heart chilled. Ignoring the sharp pain in his leg, he hobbled to the door and pushed it open with great effort. He opened her bedroom, and for an instant, he had the illusion that she was still living there. These were the things he had discarded and not wanted, which he had found places for again, the illusions he had crafted for himself.

Did she discover these things? He had been too careless; he should not have let her come in because it was too hot outside.

Mu Shuoqian regained his composure and thought of a way to respond after a brief moment of panic.

Gu Qili was still tirelessly searching online for information about Zhou Xiaoyu, even though the content was repetitive and offered few clues, she examined it very closely. Until on a gossip forum, she found an article. The article was about the roles Zhou Xiaoyu had played before she became famous; she had so few roles back then, most of which were passersby with only a line or two. There was only one drama where she played the sister of the male lead, but she died shortly after appearing, leaving the male lead to seek revenge for the rest of the plot.

As Gu Qili scrolled through the comments, on the twelfth page, a netizen nicknamed "Pheromone" commented: Zhou Xiaoyu was my middle school classmate; her real name is Zhou Yan,

A few people replied to her, obviously not believing what she said, accusing her of seeking attention and chasing followers.

Gu Qili hastily registered a new account on the website to reply to "Pheromone": Hi, can I add you?

After sending the message, she stayed online waiting, but after two hours the person still hadn’t replied. She continued to send private messages: May I ask if you really are Zhou Xiaoyu’s middle school classmate? Can we talk?

Instead of waiting for the reply, she received a call from Mu Shuoqian.

The instant she answered the call, she almost asked him if his leg was okay. When she left, the plaster on his leg had shattered.

But her strong sense of pride kept her silent; she would not humiliate herself over and over again.

"Have you already left?" he asked indifferently.

"Yes, have you set a time?"

"That’s not what I want to talk about," he said, looking at the room he had only recently managed to set up, his eyes full of pain but his words as cutting as a knife: "The new housekeeper has put all the things you didn’t want back in place, I had them packed again, do you want to take them with you, or should I just throw them away?"

"I’ve never been back to Jingshan until today, and only noticed today that you’ve left so many things behind. I hope this isn’t what you..."

"You’re overthinking it; those things are indeed unwanted by me. I simply didn’t have time to throw them in the trash bin, definitely not to cause any misunderstanding for your current girlfriend."

After saying that, she hung up the phone.

He actually suspected that she intentionally left those things for Zhou Xiaoyu to see, yet she was fantasizing that it was his way of cherishing her memory.

Gu Qili, enough is enough, how much longer will you continue to be foolish? The man you’ve always wanted to believe is treating you this way, your past feelings are completely worthless, are you going to continue deluding yourself with them?

Just as Gu Qili had put down her phone and lay down, a message suddenly popped up from the website she was just browsing - "Pheromone" had replied to her.

～

Mu Shuoqian stared at the darkened screen for a while, then lit up the screen again and made a phone call to Yuan Yi.

Soon, the doorbell rang outside; he thought it was Yuan Yi, but when he opened the door, he found a delivery person.

"Is this Miss Gu Qili’s residence?" The delivery person said while setting down his backpack and taking out a parcel.

She had been gone for over a month, it was impossible for her to still have undelivered parcels. Mu Shuoqian took the package and glanced at it, the sending address was very general, with only a few words - "West Avenue, Aus City."

West Avenue?

What would she be purchasing from West Avenue? That’s not even a commercial area.

Mu Shuoqian took a pair of scissors and carefully opened the package. It was tightly wrapped in many layers; he had to unwrap it layer by layer until finally, the mysterious object within was revealed.