Chapter 40
The darkness pressed down like a heavy curtain, with only the sounds of their rapid breathing intertwined in it.
Tang Yuchuan's chest suddenly rose and fell rapidly, followed by a suppressed cough. He tried to cover his mouth and nose with the back of his hand, but he couldn't stop the hoarse gasps in his throat.
The sound seemed particularly abrupt in the cramped space, as if reminding them that the danger at the moment had not passed with the temporary cessation of shaking.
Zou Ping's heart tightened, and she instinctively moved closer. "Are you okay? Is it... an asthma attack?"
Her voice trembled with fear.
Tang Yuchuan shook his head, trying to even out his breathing, but the dust in the air made his chest feel stuffy. He said in a low, hoarse voice, "It's okay... There's just too much dust. Don't move for now."
Zou Ping subconsciously searched her pockets, but found nothing.
"It's over, my phone is gone." Her voice was very soft, almost speaking to herself.
Tang Yuchuan paused for a moment, his cough still not completely subsiding. He lowered his head and fished out his cell phone from inside his coat, trying to keep his tone calm: "I have it here."
As the screen lit up, the dim light cut through the darkness, reflecting the messy furniture and broken glass around.
Countless tiny dust particles were suspended in the air, and the light penetrated through them like dirty snow.
Zou Ping stared at the light, as if it was the only coordinate for her and Tang Yuchuan in this dark world.
He raised his phone and turned it slightly, tentatively shining it around. The calmness in his eyes was not complete, but that cautious calmness still made her feel a sense of strength.
"Don't be afraid," Tang Yuchuan said softly. His voice was hoarse, but still as steady as a stone.
Zou Ping didn't answer. She just moved closer to him and unconsciously grabbed the corner of his sleeve with her fingertips.
She could hear his slightly rapid breathing due to asthma, and she could also hear her own chaotic heartbeat.
Tang Yuchuan coughed violently again, his shoulders shaking violently, and the cough was reflected by the fragments in the darkness, sounding even deeper.
He leaned forward slightly, shook his coat pocket, and fished out a small asthma inhaler, checking it with the dim light of his cell phone. The action was very careful, almost instinctive out of habit.
He took a deep breath and exhaled. His breathing was still not smooth, but his coughing had eased a bit. He looked up at Zou Ping, a smile of comfort forced its way through his lips. "It's okay, it's still with me."
Zou Ping's heart tightened, and she reached out to feel among the fragments, and touched her thermos.
The glass was still half full, and the cool metal exterior sent a jolt through her.
She carefully unscrewed the lid of the cup and was about to pour a little water on the corner of her scarf when Tang Yuchuan saw her action and immediately understood her intention. His voice was hoarse but firm: "Don't waste water. Your phone has no signal now, and you don't know what's happening outside. You don't know how long you'll be trapped. Keep the water for yourself."
Zou Ping paused, pursed her lips, and continued to wet the corner of the scarf.
She handed the wet cloth to him: "Come, cover your mouth and nose, it will feel better."
Tang Yuchuan froze for a moment, staring at the scarf she offered him. In the dim light, he caught a glimpse of the barely concealed determination in her eyes—that gentle yet stubborn gaze felt like a thin thread quietly tightening around his chest, causing his breathing to pause slightly.
Zou Ping's voice was soft, yet it carried a seriousness that could not be ignored. "Tang Yuchuan...if only one of us can survive, I hope it's you."
Tang Yuchuan's breath was choked, and the dull pain in his chest seemed to turn into another kind of stabbing pain at this moment.
He reached out and held her wrist firmly. The movement was not heavy, but it carried a force that did not allow for retreat.
"Zou Ping—" His voice was low, but it held a rare sharpness. "I know you like me, and I cherish it. But love is never as important as life. When it comes to life, everyone should take care of themselves first."
He stared at her, his eyes like a cold light ignited in the darkness: "Before you love me, you must love yourself first. No one is worth your life, and neither am I."
His tone was not as gentle as usual, but rather carried an uncompromising firmness, as if he was trying to pull her back from the edge of danger. His breathing was still unstable, but at that moment, every word he uttered was unusually clear, as if it was engraved into her heart.
Zou Ping stared at him blankly, the bitterness in her heart surged up like a tide. She knew that he was trying to make her understand that loving him could never be more than loving herself.
"Do you understand?" Tang Yuchuan noticed Zou Ping's silence, and a hint of urgency lingered in his voice. In this darkness and dust, he needed a reassurance; he didn't want her to take her life lightly.
Zou Ping's throat moved, as if blocked by something.
She understood what he said, but her emotions were more stubborn than her reason. She hesitated, her breathing trembling slightly.
She had read those lines about "loving yourself first" countless times in books and online, and had nodded in agreement before. But when life and death were truly approaching, her heart stubbornly whispered: If only one could survive, she hoped it would be him.
A thought suddenly came to his mind - the lies between them that had not yet been exposed, the truth that had not yet been revealed.
She suddenly had an almost absurd thought: perhaps dying here would be like dying in a complete love. If someone found them in the future, seeing two bodies pressed together, they might think they had already loved each other deeply.
If that happened, their love would be finalized. The lies, the truth, the past... all the unexplained entanglements between them might never be exposed.
That's it, it's pretty good.
This thought flashed through her mind like a chill, making her feel a little crazy.
Why did she have such thoughts? Zou Ping suddenly felt a little scared, scared of herself like this.
"I don't know." Zou Ping finally didn't make the promise to prioritize herself in times of crisis. She couldn't say it.
That crazy idea, that it would be good to die together if no one rescued them, was quickly suppressed in her mind.
"...I just hope that we can all get out." She finally whispered, her voice so soft that it was almost swallowed by the dust.
At this moment, the earth once again shook violently as if it was grabbed by some invisible giant beast.
The aftershocks hit unexpectedly, and broken furniture and loose ceiling panels began to fall one after another.
Tang Yuchuan had almost no hesitation. He turned around suddenly, pressed Zou Ping into his arms, and turned his back to the dangerous direction.
"Be careful!" He growled, and the next moment, a sharp metal edge with a cold light fell down, accompanied by a dull cracking sound, and pierced into his shoulder.
The muffled groan was swallowed up in the darkness, and his body shook, but he held on tightly, preventing Zou Ping from being hit by any debris.
Zou Ping was stunned for two seconds before she reacted. She looked up and saw that the fabric on his shoulder was stained darkly with blood, and there was a warm breath and a metallic smell mixed with the smell of dust.
"Tang Yuchuan——!" Her voice broke and her hands trembled uncontrollably.
He just took a deep breath, frowned, and said in a hoarse and low voice: "It's okay... just a minor injury."
But the words "minor injury" sounded ridiculous and fragile in his mouth - blood flowed down his arm and wet her cuffs.
"Didn't you just say... that everyone should love themselves first?" Zou Ping's voice was trembling. She stared into his eyes, tears trembling slightly in the light, and it was almost impossible to tell whether she was angry or heartbroken. "Why don't you do it? Why do you care about me!"
Tang Yuchuan didn't answer immediately. He was panting, but his eyes were extremely clear. He raised his hand and stroked her hair with difficulty, as if to comfort her, or to make sure she was still intact.
"Okay," he smiled, his voice hoarse, but he managed to squeeze out a hint of tenderness, "Why are you crying? We are still alive now. Maybe rescue will come soon and we can get out."
Zou Ping choked up and looked up at him, tears leaving blurry traces in the dust.
Tang Yuchuan was silent for a moment, then whispered, "Let me tell you a story, okay?"
Zou Ping paused for a moment. For some reason, she instinctively didn't want to hear this story, but looking at Tang Yuchuan's eyes, she couldn't say no.
She knew he was trying to comfort her, but it was more than just comfort.
Tang Yuchuan's voice was low, but with slight pauses, as if he was afraid to disturb the dust floating in the darkness. "A long time ago, there was a castle. In the castle lived a king and queen. They had never had children of their own, so they adopted a little boy. But in their hearts, the king and queen always felt that he was not their true blood... If he did not meet their expectations, the boy would be locked up in a cold, dark room and even punished."
He paused, his eyes softening in the darkness. "Later, the queen gave birth to a little princess. She was as soft as the morning light, but before she could learn how to protect herself, she was blown away by the wind of fate and lost in a distant forest."
Tang Yuchuan sighed softly, "The adopted son lives in the shadows, unable to touch the princess's light; while the princess is adrift, not knowing where her home is. Two lives, separated from each other, yet both seeking their own peace."
"Why did you decide to tell me?" Zou Ping understood immediately. "You want to tell me about me. I used to have a name called Gu Wanqing. You want to tell me about the Gu family, right?"
Her heart skipped a beat, and a terrifying thought flashed through her mind: would he think she was going to die? She didn't want him to die.
Tang Yuchuan was silent for a moment, then whispered, "What if..."
As expected! Zou Ping didn't want her to continue.
She interrupted immediately, her tone firm: "There is no such thing as a chance."
His eyes fell on her, and he looked slightly serious: "I know that you probably know something, but I'm not sure how much you know. If... I feel it is necessary to tell you the truth I know at this time."
Zou Ping's breathing quickened slightly. She lowered her eyes, her voice as low as if swallowed by dust: "I don't know how much I know, and I don't really want to know... I met Gu Xing, and he told me a version of the truth, but I'm not sure if it's credible."
Tang Yuchuan nodded, his voice low and slow: "The later Gu family has the foundation left by your parents, and also the life that Gu Xing has worked hard to build. If you want to compete with him-"
Before he could finish his words, Zou Ping gently stood up and covered his lips with hers. The warmth penetrated the darkness and directly flowed into his heart: "I don't want it. I don't want any Gu family. Since it's all in the past, I will just be Zou Ping from now on."
Tang Yuchuan was stunned, and an elusive and complex emotion flashed in his eyes.
Zou Ping raised her eyes and said softly with a smile: "Isn't this what you want? If you don't want me to fight for it, then I don't want to fight for it either."
Tang Yuchuan said frankly, "I really don't want you to get involved in the Gu family's affairs. But that's just my opinion, not your decision. You don't have to listen to me."
Zou Ping's mind was not on the Gu family's affairs. What she cared about was never the Gu family, but for Gu Xing or other things. Tang Yuchuan's concealment from her had been exposed, a concealment that could not be avoided.
"So... it's because of this debt that you agreed to be my boyfriend?"
"Half." Tang Yuchuan was particularly frank today.
She blinked and asked, "What about your other half? Do you like him, or..."
Or in order to forget that person, she did not say the word "Tan Jing", but a cautious tentative tone was revealed in her breath.
Tang Yuchuan glanced at her and said softly, "Is it important?"
"It's important to me." Her voice was firm.
He lowered his head again, as if picking up a glimmer of light in the darkness. "I think it's hard for anyone not to like a girl like you. But if it weren't for those entanglements... I don't think I would be your boyfriend. You deserve someone better. Perhaps it's your persistence and my indebtedness that gave me a hypocritical reason to indulge my feelings."
Zou Ping didn't say anything else, just nodded and responded, "Okay."
"What do you mean?" he asked, with a hint of confusion in his eyes.
"Literally, I get it." She replied softly.
He was silent for a moment, a hint of laughter in his voice: "You have come to know me a little better. Actually, I'm not as good as you think. I'm just an ordinary man with a filter put on him by you."
Zou Ping's gaze paused at his deep voice, but she didn't follow his words. Her heart felt like it was being pulled by an undercurrent. Never before, no one had ever stirred such a wave of emotion as this man before her. She thought he was good. If there really was a filter, then so be it. Her filter only applied to him.
After a moment of silence, she whispered, "Gu Xing said that it was his arrangement for you to come to the studio to find me... So, is it because of him that you helped me?"
Tang Yuchuan had never thought about this question before. After a brief thought, he said bluntly, "If it weren't for Gu Xing, I probably wouldn't have met you, let alone helped you. But if he hadn't asked me to, I would have wanted to help you if I had met you at that time. But there are no ifs."
Zou Ping leaned against the darkness, replaying the scene she had imagined in her mind: if the secret was revealed, Tang Yuchuan might think she was troublesome, would suspect her involvement with Gu Xing, would withdraw, and the outline of their shallow love might be torn apart.
That situation had almost suffocated her. But now, the truth was before her, and he had spoken first, but once he had spoken, everything seemed to have passed so smoothly and quietly, which made her involuntarily breathe a sigh of relief.
She thought to herself that all her nervousness, worry, and even cautious defenses hadn't happened. No arguments, no running away, no rifts. Everything was much simpler than she had expected.
Tang Yuchuan looked at her profile in the darkness, his eyes slightly softened.
From the moment he promised Gu Xing to keep it a secret, he knew that the truth would eventually come out. The truth is the truth and it will come out one day.
He had anticipated countless possibilities in his mind: when Zou Ping learned the truth, she would question him, get angry, be disappointed, or even completely lose her trust.
He had also rehearsed dozens of conversations in his mind, and almost every time they ended with a heart-wrenching quarrel between the two of them, and then they would part ways forever.
But at this moment, she just pursed her lips and breathed quietly, and he realized that those worst-case scenarios had not happened.
A rare sense of relief and relief flickered like a gray light among the dust. The unspoken feeling between the two of them flowed quietly in the air, bringing an inexplicable sense of peace to the two people trapped in the ruins after the earthquake.
The secrets of the past, though heavy, were but a stone in the midst of life, and surprisingly, this stone didn't crush anything. Perhaps the truth being revealed wasn't the end of the world, Zou Ping thought.
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