Chapter 53 "Living Personal Trust Agreement"...
"Sister Gu Qi." Shang Shu paused for two seconds, then coughed lightly a few times while covering the receiver.
She didn't expect Gu Qi to call her at this time, and with her mind a little foggy, she couldn't guess the purpose of the call.
Gu Qi sat in the back seat of the car, glanced at the time, and said, "I said I'd treat you to dinner last time, but I haven't found a suitable opportunity yet. Are you free later?"
That was so sudden.
"Just... the two of us?" Shang Shu asked hesitantly.
Does Gu Sui know? Will she come too? This was her unspoken meaning.
“Yes, it’s just you and me. There are some things Ah Sui wants to talk to you about, things she doesn’t know about.” Gu Qi was very direct. She could see through the shrewdness and deceit in the business world, so how could she not understand the girl’s unspoken meaning?
The matter of Gu Sui.
Shang Shu felt a pang of anxiety upon hearing this.
"Okay," she agreed quickly. "But I have a bit of a cold, so will it be inconvenient to eat there?"
She didn't know if Gu Qi would mind, after all, she didn't want to infect others, let alone someone as busy as Gu Qi.
“If you’re sick, don’t make a fuss. I’ll come over to your place in a bit, okay?” Gu Qi was as decisive as ever.
"Okay, I'll send you the address."
Shang Shu hung up the phone and sent the address to Gu Qi.
Remembering that Song Lan was still outside, she told Song Lan to go back and also to tell Lin Lang that she didn't need to come over.
Afterwards, Shang Shu forced herself to stay awake, quickly washed and cleaned herself, and tidied up her sickly appearance.
Gu Qi didn't arrive too quickly, as if he deliberately gave people time to tidy up.
"The house is very beautiful," Gu Qi praised as she stepped into the gate of Yijing Bay. She had already admired it carefully from the outside for a while.
Yi Jing Bay is neither too big nor too small, and while it's not extremely luxurious, it's a villa with some Portuguese Baroque architectural style, making it the most unique of the properties left behind by He Landai.
"Thank you, this is the inheritance my mother left me." Shang Shu said, leading Gu Qi to sit down in the living room and personally pouring him a glass of water.
Gu Qi was born early and was on good terms with the Lin sisters, so she had heard about the business. She knew that He Landai was of Portuguese-Chinese descent and was a famous beauty in Macau at the time. She had even met He Landai a few times at banquets before she passed away.
She looked at Shang Shu's beautiful face and said softly, "You are as beautiful as your mother."
Shang Shu opened her mouth slightly in surprise, but ultimately lowered her eyes and said nothing more.
After exchanging pleasantries, Gu Qi got down to business: "A-Sui has been in a bad state lately, and it seems... you are too."
She picked up the water on the table, took a sip, and continued: "When I went to see her this morning, the room was filled with the smell of smoke, and she was lying in a pile of empty bottles. I almost thought she was dead."
Shang Shu's heart skipped a beat, and she couldn't help but cough lightly.
Gu Sui never smokes, and besides, her stomach... how could she...?
Her face flushed from coughing, and she steadied her breathing slightly: "Is she... alright?"
Seeing how worried Gu Sui was, Gu Qi couldn't help but worry about whether he could handle the information that was about to be sent. She seemed to understand why Gu Sui had kept quiet.
However, she had to accomplish the purpose of her trip.
Gu Qi shook her head: "Last time at the airport, I told you that I wouldn't interfere with your choices, but I'm afraid I have to break my promise. Please forgive my selfishness as your older sister, because I know how difficult it was for A Sui to survive, so I can't just watch her torture herself."
Survive.
Shang Shu keenly caught that keyword, and a bad premonition came over her; she began to feel dizzy again.
“What does it mean to survive…?” she asked, her voice trembling.
“Mid-stage stomach cancer.” Gu Qi choked up as he recalled this dark past. “A-Sui had the diffuse type, which has a lower survival rate than others. Moreover, it was already quite late when it was discovered. When you came to me back then, I was accompanying A-Sui during her surgery. She had two-thirds of her stomach removed.”
a bolt from the blue.
Shang Shu's chest heaved violently. She couldn't believe what she had heard. The information was too overwhelming. She felt a throbbing pain in her temples.
Gu Sui reappeared fully healthy, so she never considered the possibility that she was ill.
How could this be? How could it be stomach cancer?
Shang Shu gently shook her head; her mind was blank. She couldn't reconcile the information about cancer and Gu Sui at all.
When Gu Sui was with her, he seemed so healthy, even catching colds and fevers less often than she did; at most, he was prone to gastroenteritis...
But...yes, Gu Sui's gastroenteritis, the kind of gastroenteritis she's always known about.
It's her fault, it's her fault. How could she have been so careless? How could she have failed to take it seriously?
No wonder Gu Sui doesn't eat much meat; no wonder she said it's hard to digest.
Two-thirds of his stomach was occupied; how uncomfortable Gu Sui must have been.
Her heart felt like it was being soaked in sulfuric acid, astringent and burning. Tears welled up uncontrollably in her eyes, as if a broken string had been pulled. Shang Shu's fingertips dug deep into the sofa, and she began to breathe rapidly.
Seeing this, Gu Qi frowned and handed over a few tissues.
Shang Shu didn't answer. She felt like she was about to lose her balance, so she braced herself with her arms, trying to support her leaden upper body.
Gu Qi leaned forward, stuffed a tissue into the person's hand, and sighed softly: "Ah Sui didn't want to be a burden to you, and besides, she had to have surgery as soon as possible, so she left in a hurry."
Gu Qi leaned back on the sofa, staring blankly at the coffee table in front of him.
"I found the best doctor for Asui, and the surgery went smoothly, but the chemotherapy was too painful for her—"
"No...I know, please, don't tell."
Even an ordinary person who has never been sick knows the pain of chemotherapy.
It's worse than death.
She could speak for Gu Qi, but she dared not listen, she dared not think about how that proud, flawless Gu Sui, that cold moon she had always looked up to, was accepting the countdown of his life in agony.
The tissue was crumpled into a stiff ball in her hand. Shang Shu felt like she was coughing up blood and could hardly breathe.
"Take a moment, let's talk slowly."
Gu Qi couldn't help but lean closer and pat the back of the girl whose face was flushed. She came to solve the problem, not to kill someone.
Shang Shu gasped for breath, and it took her a long time to recover from the dizziness. Tears and snot streamed down her face as she asked, trembling, "And what about her now?"
She was terrified of hearing the answer that would make her faint, but she had to force herself to listen because she needed to know Gu Sui's current condition.
"No recurrence or metastasis for three years means we've passed the high-risk period."
"That's good, that's good..." Shang Shu nodded eagerly, tears streaming down her face. After hearing so much, she finally heard some good news.
Seeing that the girl was not in a condition that would cause sudden death, Gu Qi slowly took out a stack of documents from his bag and placed them on the coffee table.
The words "living personal trust agreement" on the document deeply stung Shang Shu's eyes.
Gu Qi pushed the property towards Shang Shu, gesturing for her to pick it up and look at it: "This is the trust that Asui set up back then. Apart from the legally reserved portion, she left all her assets to you. She was afraid you would be sad, so she set the distribution time five years after her death. She thought that five years should be enough time for you to forget her and start a new life."
Gu Qi recalled that year when Gu Sui lay weakly on the sickbed, holding her hand and begging her to become the trustee, repeatedly entrusting the little girl to her, saying that she was the only person she couldn't let go of.
At that time, Gu Sui needed to catch her breath for a long time to even speak a single sentence, but she still repeatedly begged her, saying that if the young girl encountered any difficulties, she should do her best to help and take care of her.
Her younger sister was truly a devoted lover, and Gu Qi even felt a little jealous of the girl in front of him.
"How...how could she...keep this from me?"
Shang Shu was already sobbing uncontrollably. Her hands trembled as she picked it up, but she couldn't help closing it after only turning one page.
Gu Sui had thought of everything for her, but she knew nothing about it.
She didn't want to look at it; she didn't care about any property at all. She hoped the trust would turn to ashes now and never be needed again.
She wanted nothing but Gu Sui.
Gu Qi breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that the relationship seemed to have been saved.
“Ah Sui is such a proud person. Although she doesn’t say it, I know she doesn’t want others to pity her. Back then, she even avoided me and Xiangyi, let alone you, the person she loves so deeply.”
"Back then, I asked her why she kept it from you. She told me that she didn't want to tie you to her side with guilt. She was afraid that if you found out, even if you were with her, you would always be thinking about what she had done for you and wouldn't dare to express your true feelings. Even if you suffered grievances in the future, you wouldn't dare to leave her."
"I won't..." I won't leave her.
Shang Shu shook her head, then subconsciously replied.
How could she leave her? How could Gu Sui bear to let her suffer? This love is so deep that she fears she could never repay it in the rest of her life.
Gu Qi pursed her lips. The pressure of sharing secrets was not easy. Today, she finally spoke out all the words that had been buried in her heart.
"I've said everything I needed to say. This path isn't easy, and I know that. You and Asui probably know it even better than I do. So I didn't come here today to force you to make a choice immediately. After all, I also believe that guilt shouldn't be a reason for someone to stay; love is."
Gu Sui picked up the glass of water again and took a small sip.
"However, I still want to advise you to reconsider the blind date. Although it is your private matter, I hope you will not make a decision that you will regret because of temporary pressure."
Before Shang Shu could recover from the huge amount of information she had just received, she was stunned by these words.
She coughed twice: "Wh...what blind date?"
When is she going on a blind date? And what does this have to do with blind dates?
Gu Qi put down his cup and raised an eyebrow: "Didn't you ask Manman to tell Asui? You even returned the things she gave you."
Gu Qi wasn't stupid. Seeing the girl's clueless reaction, he asked her the question, but he already had a pretty good idea of the answer.
She shook her head inwardly. This clever little devil was really different from her sisters. Although she meant well, her method of making up lies to deceive both sides was really too radical and almost caused her sister to go through another brush with death.
"I didn't, I..." Shang Shu was confused and anxious, and didn't know where to begin her rebuttal.
How could Lin Lang have done so many things behind her back while she was sick? When they meet again, she'll definitely settle all the scores from last time.
But she didn't have time to worry about that right now. She couldn't wait any longer; she had to find Gu Sui. She wanted to be by her side immediately; she had to see her.
Shang Shu grabbed a few tissues, quickly wiped away the snot and tears on her face, bit her lip, and pleaded with Gu Qi, "Sister Gu Qi, can I see Gu Sui?"
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Author's Note: We, the young couple, are finally about to see the light at the end of the tunnel! See you tomorrow! [purple heart]
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