Chapter 23

Gu Yunshuang felt that his whole body was very hot, as if he was a fish that was spread out in the scorching sun and was almost dehydrated. He felt very uncomfortable.

He wanted to wake up, but his eyelids were too heavy to open.

He really wanted to drink some water, so he opened his mouth to call Qi Yue, but what came out was "Dad" and "Mom". His voice was very childish, like that of a two or three-year-old child.

A raspy, hoarse voice rang out, "I've told you countless times, if you want to torture him, there's no need to rush now. You can even cripple him once we get the money. Now, before we even get the money, you've already tortured this kid to death with a high fever! If he dies, we won't even get the money. All our efforts will be in vain!"

A woman's voice nearby said aggrievedly, "I haven't even done anything to him yet. How could I have known this kid would be so vulnerable? What should we do now? Should we take him to the hospital?"

"You're stupid! Were you sending him to the hospital because you were afraid the cops wouldn't be able to find us?"

A third voice suddenly appeared, "Brother Kun, this is bad! Check the news! We kidnapped the wrong person! The family of three was happily going to the amusement park, and they were photographed by reporters!"

The woman panicked, "Impossible! How could this be wrong? I've already found out everything!"

Brother Kun cursed, "If they were really his biological children, why would they bring other children to the amusement park at this time? I wonder why they're so perfunctory. They're wealthy, yet they haven't prepared the money yet. They think we're scammers! Oh no! Let's go! Maybe they're already working with the police to keep an eye on us!"

Woman: "What should we do with this little ghost?"

Brother Kun: "Throw it out of the car. Since you can't exchange it for money, there's no point in keeping it."

"This is in the middle of nowhere, what if..."

"Oh, then we can only blame his bad luck."

Gu Yunshuang felt a surge of panic and grievance in his heart, and subconsciously reached out to grab someone, "Mom and Dad! Don't leave me! I'm very good!"

A pair of strong hands lifted him up and held him in a warm and comfortable embrace. Familiar hands caressed his face, and in his ears was his mother's gentle and loving voice: "Baby, don't be afraid. Mom and Dad are here."

Gu Yunshuang finally opened his eyes and saw that the person he was holding was a thin little boy. There was more black than white in the boy's eyes, and they looked dark. His face was very pale and bloodless, looking like a ghost child in a horror movie, eerie and scary.

But at this moment, he was patting his back with his little hands, coaxing awkwardly: "Little Shuangshuang, don't be afraid, don't be afraid, with your brother here, Aunt Tiger won't dare to come."

He held the little hand and heard himself ask anxiously in a childish voice, "What if my brother is no longer with me and Aunt Tiger comes?"

Xiao Qiyue was stunned by the question, but soon said proudly, "Then I will stay by your side forever and never leave, so I can protect you forever."

"We agreed to stay together forever and never separate."

"Okay, okay, let's stay together forever and never separate. I will also protect little Shuangshuang forever."

Gu Yunshuang heard his own voice turn into the clear and crisp voice of a young boy, and Qi Yue in front of him also grew from a skinny little carrot head into a handsome young man.

The young man Qi Yue's gaze towards him was still gentle and passionate, but it was also filled with a strong sense of reluctance and guilt.

"Well, Shuangshuang, I might have to leave you for a while. It's all Old Man Qi's fault! I don't know what he was thinking, but he actually got me a place to study abroad. Even before he died, he was still thinking about me going abroad to study. I thought, after all, it was his last wish, and he even paid for my tuition, so I couldn't let his efforts go to waste..."

Gu Yunshuang just stared at him, watching him scratch his head guiltily, his eyes flickering, not daring to look at her. In the end, he spoke more and more quietly, with his head buried in his chest.

Gu Yunshuang actually knew that Qi Yue never knew how to pretend in front of him. He could tell at a glance when he was lying. Because Qi Yue really didn't like lying to him, he would never lie to him unless necessary.

But Gu Yunshuang also knew that if Qi Yue lied to him, it must be because he had no choice. Exposing him and digging deep into the matter would not make Qi Yue tell the truth, and it would only make Qi Yue more embarrassed.

So he had always been very understanding and never exposed Qi Yue's lies, let alone tried to get to the bottom of it. Mom said that people need to respect each other, trust each other, and give each other some room to make a long-term relationship.

But that day, he almost couldn't help but expose Qi Yue's lies. After that, he often wondered, if he had exposed Qi Yue's lies at that time, would Qi Yue not have left, and would he not have left and never returned?

In fact, he has always known that Mr. Qi's identity and his death are not simple.

In his memory, Grandpa Qi would occasionally disappear for a while, and Qi Yue would say he was on a business trip. When Grandpa Qi returned, he would smile and share with them many toys that could only be bought in big cities, or snacks from other places that even his parents had never heard of.

Moreover, sometimes Mr. Qi did not return alone. The people who brought him back included important figures with bodyguards in black suits, mysterious people with unpredictable temperaments in Tang suits or Taoist robes, and even police officers and soldiers.

Once, he saw Mr. Qi getting out of an SUV at the back door of the community where not many people passed by.

The person who opened the car door for him was a middle-aged man with an ordinary face, but with the gait of a dragon and a tiger and an extraordinary aura.

The man had very sharp senses. Gu Yunshuang just glanced at him, and he suddenly turned his head and his gaze shot like a sharp sword at Gu Yunshuang who was hiding behind the door and peeping.

That look reminded Gu Yunshuang of the generals in TV dramas who killed people as easily as cutting melons and vegetables, and he shrank his neck in fear.

Old Master Qi also looked over, and when he saw it was him, his face immediately turned into a brilliant chrysanthemum. "It's Xiao Shuangshuang! Where's your brother? Why did he leave you here alone? Did he go out to play and leave you here alone? I'll help you beat him up when we get back."

Xiao Yunshuang's big eyes flickered, and she hesitated for a while before she said, "No, Grandpa, please don't hit my brother. My brother was in the house, and I ran out by myself. I, I just wanted to see if Grandpa was back. This time, Grandpa has been gone for a long time and hasn't come back for a long time. I miss him."

Old Master Qi felt like his heart was melting, and the smile on his face became brighter and more loving. Just as he was about to go forward and pick up Xiao Yunshuang, Qi Yue rushed out from nowhere.

He was covered in black mud, looking like a little clay figure that had just crawled out of the mud. He was holding a large rat's tail in his hand and excitedly said, "Shuangshuang, look what I caught! This rat is even bigger than a kitten!"

Then he met Grandpa Qi's eyes. Both grandfather and grandson had their eyes wide open and stood there stiffly.

Qi Yue was the first to react. He let out a cry, dropped the mouse in his hand, and rushed into the community.

"You little bastard! Stop right there! If I don't punish you for three days, you'll tear off the roof! I'll beat you to death!"

Old Man Qi roared and immediately gave chase. It was hard to believe that he, who normally walked with a breathless pace, could suddenly sprint a hundred meters, running with the momentum of an athlete. He quickly caught up with Qi Yue, grabbed him by the collar, and with a long branch he had snatched from nowhere, he whipped Qi Yue's buttocks, making him scream.

Xiao Yunshuang shrank her neck again and looked at the middle-aged man again. He just smiled at Xiao Yunshuang in a friendly manner, did not say hello to Mr. Qi, turned around, got into the car and left.

That year, Gu Yunshuang was only six years old, and Qi Yue was eight years old, the age when even cats and dogs disliked them.

Time flies, and Mr. Qi's business trips have become a normal thing in their eyes, and no one takes it seriously.

Until that time, Mr. Qi was awakened by a sudden phone call and left in a hurry in the middle of the night.

No one could have imagined that this departure would be a farewell forever. When Mr. Qi returned, he was a cold corpse, lifeless, lying in an icy coffin, covered with a bright red flag.

Gu Yunshuang and her parents cried until their eyes were swollen, but Qi Yue remained expressionless and lifeless from beginning to end, without shedding a single tear. It was then that Gu Yunshuang vaguely remembered that from childhood to adulthood, no matter how hard Qi Yue howled when he was beaten, he had never shed a single tear.

Many important people in black suits came to Mr. Qi's funeral.

Some of them were people who had brought the old man back home, and some were people he had never seen before.

After Mr. Qi's funeral, these people left, many of them with sad faces and hurried expressions.

But Gu Yunshuang knew that several important figures in Tang suits had not left, and they talked with Qi Yue alone for a long time.

Then Qi Yue suddenly came to tell him that he was leaving to study abroad.

He knew that Qi Yue was lying. Qi Yue was going to go with those people. It was very likely that he would leave panting like Old Man Qi, and finally come back lying coldly, or never come back again.

He wanted to expose Qi Yue's lies, wanted to hold his hand tightly and not let him leave, and asked him if he had forgotten their vow to never separate.

But when the words came to his lips, he couldn't say them.

Maybe it was because of Qi Yue’s eyes, which were as firm and resolute as Old Man Qi’s, or maybe it was because of the bright red that covered Old Man Qi at the end.

In the end, he just hugged Qi Yue and cried all night, begging Qi Yue weakly over and over again to come back and not forget their agreement.

Gu Yunshuang looked at the young boy Qi Yue in front of him. He was as immature as the sixteen-year-old Qi Yue back then, telling clumsy lies. Then he looked at him deeply, backing away little by little, as if he wanted to imprint his appearance deeply in his mind.

Qi Yue retreated step by step and soon disappeared into the darkness. In a blink of an eye, the grown-up Qi Yue came back and stood in front of him. However, his dark eyes did not show any trace of long-awaited reunion. Instead, they were filled with endless sorrow and regret, and there were even ripples in them.

Is Qi Yue... actually crying?

"Shuangshuang, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come back. I thought I came back to protect you from getting hurt again, but I didn't expect that in the end I would end up hurting myself! I'm sorry, Shuangshuang, I, I really shouldn't have come back. I'm leaving. Don't worry, before I leave, I will deal with those who bully you, and no one will dare to bully you anymore. I won't be by your side in the future, you have to take good care of yourself, don't be foolish and don't know how to fight back when being bullied, but just accept it..."

Qi Yue kept talking, as if he had thousands of words to say and could never finish, but his eyes gradually turned into a violent scarlet and he slowly disappeared into the darkness.

Gu Yunshuang was extremely panicked, and a very ominous premonition strongly reminded him that if he continued to let Qi Yue go on like this, or let him leave like this, he would lose Qi Yue forever this time.

He rushed forward and tightly grasped Qi Yue's hand, which was as cold as ice. With all his might, he finally shouted out what he had been wanting to say. His voice was dripping with tears, a tone he hadn't even noticed.

"Brother, don't go! Last time you left for someone else, this time, can you stay for me? Qi Yue, I beg you! Don't abandon me again!"

The last thing he saw in his consciousness was Qi Yue's stunned face.