Chapter 62 If you want to terminate the contract, ...
Night had fallen.
Gu Chang wandered around the garden for a long time before finally catching sight of that familiar figure.
Just as he was about to step forward, a tall figure came into view first—it was Chu Song.
The air instantly tensed, and a deep resentment welled up in Gu Chang's eyes.
If Chu Song hadn't interfered, he should have been the one standing next to Xie Tang!
Chu Song's eyes were also icy cold.
Gu Chang's undisguised, persistent gaze on Xie Tang felt like needles pricking his nerves every time.
"Second Brother," Gu Chang's lips curled into a provocative smile, "Have you seen Atang?"
Chu Song was surprised that Gu Chang would bring Xie Tang to her aunt's banquet, and said coldly, "I didn't see her."
"Then I'll go find her." Gu Chang made a move to leave, then stopped, a venomous glint in his smile. "By the way, A-Tang said she moved out of your house? I wonder when Second Brother... plans to sign the divorce papers?"
"What?" Chu Song's pupils contracted sharply, his voice cold. "So eager to take over and be a sucker?"
"A bargain?" Gu Chang seemed stung by the word, then overwhelmed by even greater anger. "I've liked her since I was 18! She's the only light in my life! But why the hell did you have to steal her away?!"
He took a step closer, his eyes filled with a desperate madness. "Luckily, you were the one who pushed her away! Now, please, Second Brother, show mercy and set her free as soon as possible!"
"Ha," Chu Song scoffed, his eyes filled with undisguised contempt and disgust, "You're addicted to stealing the people around me. First it was Chu Yun, now it's A Tang... Even if I divorce her, she will never be yours!"
"Second brother, what a big mouth you have!" Gu Chang said sarcastically. "You married her because she was useful, and now that she's no longer useful, you're going to abandon her?"
He clenched his fist tightly, his voice suppressing a storm, "A-Tang is a human being! Not a plaything you can dispose of at will, summoned and dismissed at will!"
Chu Song's gaze was like a dagger, nailing into Gu Chang's face, each word icy and chilling, "I never said 'I don't want her'! It's you who—you didn't love her earlier or later, but only after she married me did you put on this saintly act. How much sincerity do you have for her?"
"You're just clinging to the warmth she gives you, you've gotten used to her kindness and can't bear to let go! Or... you simply hate me and just want to take the person away from me as revenge?"
Chu Song's voice suddenly rose, carrying a sharp, judgmental tone, "In your eyes, A Tang is nothing more than a plaything you use to compete with me!"
The word "plaything" was like a poisoned icicle, piercing Gu Chang's heart!
His face turned deathly pale instantly, and his breathing became labored.
All the sincerity, all the struggles, were crushed so utterly in Chu Song's mouth!
The immense humiliation and anger almost tore him apart. He wanted to roar in rebuttal, but his throat was blocked, and he could only let the anger burn wildly in his chest.
"plaything……"
A very soft, mournful voice, trembling with disbelief, drifted from the depths of the shadows.
The air was deathly still.
Xie Tang stood there, the moonlight outlining her thin shadow, long and thin, imbued with boundless chill and disappointment.
The color drained from her face, leaving only a utterly shattered emptiness.
What did she just hear?
"Ah Tang!" Gu Chang was the first to come to her senses and rushed over in a panic.
Chu Song turned around abruptly and saw Xie Tang's pale, tearful face. His heart felt like it had been hit by a heavy hammer!
He instinctively wanted to step forward to explain, but Gu Chang blocked his way.
Xie Tang's gaze swept over Chu Song, her eyes empty as if all their spirit had been ripped out, before finally landing on Gu Chang's face. Her voice was light and airy, as if it would vanish in the next second: "It's late, I think... I should go back."
Each word exhausted her last bit of strength.
"Wait for me, I'll take you..." Gu Chang said urgently.
"Ah Chang!" A deep, authoritative, and furious rebuke rang out like a thunderclap!
Gu Shun appeared at the end of the garden path, his face as somber as the sky before a storm.
Chu Song quickly composed himself and nodded softly to Gu Shun: "Uncle."
Without hesitation, he grabbed Xie Tang's cold wrist, his grip firm yet with a barely perceptible tremor. "Let's go."
He tried to warm her fingertips with his own body heat.
Gu Chang watched helplessly as Chu Song took the distraught Xie Tang away, the sight of their clasped hands stinging his eyes.
He wanted to chase after him, but his feet seemed to be nailed to the spot by Gu Shun's cold gaze, unable to move.
"Come with me to the study!" Gu Shun's command left no room for argument.
Gu Chang stiffly replied "Okay," but his gaze remained fixed on the direction where Chu Song and Xie Tang disappeared, until their figures completely blended into the night.
The heavy door to the study was closed, shutting out the noise from the outside world.
"Smack!"
A resounding slap, with the force of a thunderbolt, landed hard on Gu Chang's face!
Caught off guard, he was knocked to the side, his cheek quickly swelling up.
"Gu Shun! Are you crazy!" Chu Jing screamed as she rushed over, forcefully shoving her husband aside and standing in front of Gu Chang like a lioness protecting her cubs. "Can't you talk things out? Why do you have to resort to violence!"
Gu Shun pointed at Gu Chang, his fingers trembling with rage, his voice echoing throughout the study: "Do you even know who she is? She's your cousin's wife! Do you have any shame? I saw it with my own eyes! How dare you harbor such filthy thoughts towards your sister-in-law!"
Gu Chang slowly turned his head, licking away a trace of fishy sweetness from the corner of his mouth, his eyes as cold and lifeless as a thousand-year-old cold pool.
“When I fell in love with her, she wasn’t even my sister-in-law yet!” His voice was hoarse. “It was Chu Song! He snatched her away from me! She should have been mine!”
"I don't care about your past!" Gu Shun interrupted sharply, his words like knives. "Now and in the future, she will always be just your sister-in-law! Give up your delusional fantasies! Absolutely not!"
His verdict was decisive and left no room for negotiation.
Gu Chang suddenly raised his eyes, his scarlet eyes burning with an almost obsessive light, and said, word by word, "I just want to take back what belongs to me!"
"You wicked child!" Seeing that he still dared to talk back, Gu Shun's anger intensified, and he raised his hand to strike again!
Chu Jing clung tightly to his arm, shrilly, "He's all grown up now! He'll understand! What's the point of hitting him anymore!"
She turned to look at Gu Chang, her voice softening, tinged with sobs and pleading: "Chang... my good child... I know you're hurting right now... let it go! No one in this world is obligated to belong to anyone else! Don't let this obsession ruin your life..."
Gu Chang's chest heaved violently, his eyes surging with overwhelming resentment, humiliation, and bitterness.
His hands, hanging by his sides, were clenched tightly, his nails digging deep into his palms, almost drawing blood.
He clenched his teeth so tightly that his jawline looked like it was about to break.
Finally, under Chu Jing's tearful gaze and Gu Shunchen's furious stare, his taut shoulders slumped down in an instant.
He nodded very slowly and stiffly, as if he had exhausted all his strength.
Then, he turned around abruptly, flung open the study door, and rushed out without looking back, the heavy sound of the door slamming shut echoing in the deathly silence.
Chu Jing could no longer hold back, tears streaming down her face. She cried out to Gu Shun, "You're too cruel to A-Chang! He's grown up now, you can't solve problems by hitting and scolding him! Do you really want to drive him to his death?! He's been like this since he was little..."
"Enough!" Gu Shun interrupted sharply, his face ashen, clearly unwilling to mention Gu Chang's birth mother again.
He waved his hand irritably.
Looking at her husband's gloomy face, Chu Jing swallowed back the rest of her words, but her heart felt heavy and choked.
She hated Gu Shun's harsh and almost cruel way of educating Gu Chang, and she hated even more that he always used Chu Song to suppress Gu Chang!
What's wrong with Gu Chang? He's just... lacking in love.
This child, though not her biological son, was the one she poured all her heart and soul into, treating as her own. His heart was like frozen soil, parched and ravaged by a long winter.
Xie Tang was the only ray of sunshine that pierced through that thick layer of ice and fell upon his barren heart.
He tried so hard to grasp that ray of light, for it was the only salvation and refuge in his bleak life.
But fate played a cruel joke—that ray of light ultimately illuminated Chu Song's palace.
Chu Jing stared at the closed door, as if she could still see her son's desperate and lonely figure as he rushed out.
A strong sense of unease gripped her.
Gu Shun's rage, Chu Song's coldness, Xie Tang's misunderstanding... Under such heavy pressure, how long can A Chang's already wounded heart endure?
Outside the window, the moonlight was dim.
Gu Chang hadn't gone far; he stood in the shadows of the corridor, his back against the cold wall.
Every argument in the study, every humiliation from every slap, and Chu Song's heart-wrenching "plaything"... all echoed wildly in his mind.
My cheeks burned, but the pain was nothing compared to the intense hatred burning within me that threatened to consume everything.
Ode to Chu...
He slowly raised his hand and wiped the blood from the corner of his lips. The icy touch of his fingertips brought a moment of clarity to his muddled mind.
A more dangerous idea, tinged with bloodshed, quietly took root in the boundless darkness and hatred.
He can't just let it go like this.
no way.
The streetlights shone brightly in the cold night, yet felt lonely and desolate.
The wind rustled through the treetops, adding to the desolation of the winter night.
Xie Tang got out of the car, wrapped her thin coat tighter, and just wanted to quickly hide in the warmth of home.
Chu Song stopped her and handed her a bag with a designer logo: "This is for you."
"Why?" More than the gift, his hurtful words tonight bothered her.
Chu Song was a little nervous: "I just felt that it was named after you, and I thought you might like it."
Is this a case of slapping someone and then giving them a sweet treat?
Xie Tang shook her head: "I don't want to."
Chu Song's hand froze in mid-air: "Are you angry?"
Xie Tang almost burst out laughing.
Should I be angry?
She wanted to ask him if he saw her as nothing more than a plaything.
But the very thought itself is humiliating.
"Don't be angry." She forced a smile. "You're the one who should be angry because you feel cheated."
“But your smile isn’t genuine.” Chu Song looked directly at her. “A-Tang, stop investigating. I don’t care about what happened that night.”
"You don't care..." Xie Tang chewed on these words, a bitter feeling welling up in her heart, "But you don't believe me either."
A cold wind swept over her, and she shivered, unsure whether it was from the chill of the night or her serious illness. "I'm sorry, what happened that night may be unsolvable."
Chu Song tried to help her up, but she pushed him away.
His hand fell awkwardly to his side.
"If you want to terminate the contract, I'll cooperate."
"I told you, I don't want this to end!" Chu Song said anxiously.
"Even if you want to stay, I can't stay any longer." Her voice was soft, but every word was like a heavy hammer blow.
"Reason?" Chu Song's voice began to waver.
Xie Tang looked at him, her eyes filled with disappointment, pain, and a last vestige of longing: "Because you don't believe that I will never, ever hurt you."
This is the abyss that lies between them.
"Goodnight." She looked at him one last time, then turned and disappeared into the night.
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