Chapter 41 Another Breakup "There will be no more, Gu Qingyan." She...
The room suddenly fell silent, with only the occasional chirping of birds outside the window. Lin Yuwei stood there, motionless for a long time. The warm sunlight shone on her, but she felt a chill creeping into her heart.
She had just lain down fully clothed, trying to find a moment of peace in the chaos, when a series of urgent yet restrained knocks suddenly sounded on the door, each knock striking her tense nerves.
Lin Yuwei took a deep breath, got up, and opened the door. The wooden door of the guesthouse didn't have a peephole, so she had to unlock it. She had just opened the door a crack and hadn't even seen who was outside when a tall figure, exuding a chilly aura, barged in without any room for argument. He turned around and gently closed the door with a "click," completely shutting out the outside world.
Lin Yuwei took a few steps back and saw that it was Gu Qingyan.
He clearly hadn't rested either; his hair was a little messy, and there was a hint of fatigue between his brows, but more than that, there was a kind of anxiety and melancholy that had been suppressed to the extreme and was about to break through the critical point.
The cramped space of the guesthouse room seemed to shrink instantly after his intrusion. His tall figure brought a suffocating sense of oppression. He approached step by step, his gaze like a scorching torch, locking onto her firmly, as if he wanted to see through her soul, allowing no room for retreat.
“There’s no one else here now.” Gu Qingyan finally spoke, his voice low and hoarse, completely devoid of his usual composed calm, carrying a desperate, all-or-nothing urgency: “Tell me, Yuwei, what about us… afterward…”
Lin Yuwei was flustered by his sudden intrusion and direct, almost brutal, interrogation. She subconsciously took a small step back, her slender back pressed against the cold wall behind her, with nowhere to escape.
The familiar yet chilling aura emanating from Gu Qingyan dominated her private space, and the passionate, chaotic, and uncontrollable details of their intimacy in the cabin last night uncontrollably surfaced in her mind, making it almost impossible for her to breathe.
“There’s no more, Gu Qingyan.” She turned her head away, forcefully avoiding his almost scorching gaze, her voice trembling slightly and feigning coldness and resolve: “I need to rest. Get out, now.”
He seemed not to hear her order to leave at all, instead taking a step closer, almost pressing himself against her, his gaze fixed painfully on her pale and resistant face: "Tell me the reason, is it because of Zhou Xubai? Or is it because... you just hate me? Hate me for what I did back then..."
"None of that! It has nothing to do with you!" Lin Yuwei was struck by his relentless questioning and speculation, her emotions suddenly spiraling out of control. She blurted out, her voice rising, "It's because of me! Because whenever I close my eyes, I can see the past! Those happy, painful, heart-wrenching moments... they've never truly left me! Gu Qingyan, you've been my inescapable nightmare for the past eight years! Is that answer clear enough?! Are you satisfied now?!"
The moment the words left his mouth, the room fell into a deathly silence; the air seemed to freeze.
Gu Qingyan was completely taken aback by the answer. He was struck by a bolt of lightning, frozen in place, unable to move. All the eagerness, anxiety, and even the faint, fragile hope on his face vanished in an instant, leaving only utter, unbelievable shock and a deathly pallor.
However, Lin Yuwei's pent-up emotions burst forth like a flood, becoming uncontrollable. She seemed determined to sever all possibilities, or perhaps she had lost her last shred of rationality due to the torment of long-term suffering. She suddenly grabbed her backpack from the bedside table, ripped open the zipper, and roughly pulled out two small, white medicine bottles. She hysterically held them up in front of him, the bottles clattering against each other with a soft but jarring sound as her hands trembled violently.
"Look carefully! Gu Qingyan! Haven't you been asking me why?! Haven't you wanted an explanation?!" Her voice was choked with a breakdown and a sharp, self-destructive tone: "From our reunion at the auction after returning to China! To the start of this damn cultural corridor project! Every time! Every time I meet you, every time I deal with you, those memories come flooding back, choking me and keeping me awake all night! I can't breathe! I can only rely on these! Rely on these sleeping pills to barely get a few hours of sleep! Do you understand now?! Are you satisfied?!"
The two white medicine bottles stood out starkly in her trembling hands, the cold labels on them silently yet deafeningly telling the story of her long-standing pain, struggle, and dependence.
Gu Qingyan's gaze was fixed on the two bottles of medicine. His pupils suddenly contracted, as if his eyes had been burned by the white color. All the color drained from his face. Previously, he had only felt shock and pain, but now he was suddenly stained with a kind of terror and utter despair. It was as if he was realizing for the first time, in a bloody way, that the shadow and torment that everything in the past had brought her was far more profound, concrete, and cruel than he had imagined the worst situation to be... thousands of times more.
He subconsciously reached out, as if wanting to touch something, but it was as if he was burned by an invisible flame. His fingertips trembled violently in the air, and finally fell limply and dejectedly.
All his words of explanation, questioning, and even apology were stuck deep in his throat, unable to escape. His eyes, which were always deep and sharp, seemingly able to see through everything, were now filled with utter shattering and an indescribable, heavy sense of guilt.
Lin Yuwei let her hands fall limply, two medicine bottles rolling from between her loosened fingers and silently sinking into the soft sheets. All her strength seemed to have been completely drained in that outburst, her voice becoming extremely tired and hollow, carrying a kind of deathly calm: "I'm sorry... Qingyan, let's both let go, okay? Our acquaintance, from the beginning, through the process, to our reunion, was all a mistake. Separation is the best ending for both of us. Perhaps only in this way... can we truly... each find our own happiness."
Gu Qingyan fell silent. He stood there like a statue that had been completely destroyed and lost its soul. The rolling medicine bottle seemed not to have landed on the bed, but rather, with immense weight, it had slammed into his heart, shattering his last remaining illusions and convictions.
After a long time, so long that the sky outside the window seemed to darken even more, he slowly, almost mechanically, raised his eyes. Those eyes, which had once been filled with the pride of stars and high spirits, were now only filled with a dead, cold ashes.
He spoke slowly, each word as if painstakingly dug out from ruins, carrying a heartbreaking, desperate resignation: "Is it only when I completely let go, completely disappear from your world... that you can finally sleep well? That you can... no longer need these things?"
Lin Yuwei's tears finally streamed down her face silently. She bit her lip hard, tasting the salty, bitter taste of blood, and nodded with difficulty and heaviness.
“Okay.” He replied in a hoarse voice, so soft it was almost inaudible, yet it was as resolute as the last autumn leaf falling to the ground: “As you wish, Venucia Technology will continue to follow up on the project’s final work, but I will no longer intervene. Zhang Gonghui will be in full charge… I will not make things difficult for you again.”
His gaze lingered on her one last time, deep and heavy, filled with unspeakable pain, regret, despair, and final understanding. Then, he resolutely turned, opened the door, and his figure quickly disappeared into the dim light of the corridor outside, without a trace of lingering affection.
The door closed gently, making a soft "click" sound.
Lin Yuwei felt as if all her support had been removed. She slid down the cold wall and sat on the floor, staring blankly at the two glaring white medicine bottles that had rolled off the bed. Her shoulders trembled violently, and finally, she could no longer hold back. She buried her face in her knees and let out a silent, suppressed sob.
The next morning at breakfast time, the village committee canteen was still bustling, but Lin Yuwei did not see that familiar figure again. Several young women from the Cultural Bureau were talking quietly at the next table:
"Don't you see President Gu?"
"I heard from Director Zhang that General Manager Gu had an urgent matter and left late last night."
"That's right. I was wondering from the beginning why the CEO of such a big company as Venucia would personally participate in this inspection activity."
"Longquan Village is a beautiful place with clear waters and lush mountains. Maybe the boss just wanted to take a break and treat it as a vacation."
The cultural corridor exploration was proceeding as planned, but Gu Qingyan's early departure did not ease Lin Yuwei's heavy heart; instead, it made her somewhat absent-minded. She almost forced herself to devote all her energy to the complicated work, trying to numb all her senses with busyness.
However, some rumors quietly sprouted in the corners, like invisible vines, silently entwining her and tightening their grip.
During a lunch break, she happened to pass by the half-open window of the village committee office and could clearly hear hushed but excited chatter coming from inside:
"Hey, why did President Gu suddenly leave? He seemed really invested in this project before."
"Hey, isn't it obvious? Didn't you see how well President Zhou and President Lin worked together that day? President Gu probably felt it was an eyesore and awkward to stay, so he simply left."
"Tsk tsk, you really can't judge a book by its cover. That CEO Lin usually seems quite aloof and serious, but I didn't expect her to be so shrewd. The heir of the Zhou Group and the boss of Qichen Technology are both completely devoted to her..."
"Maybe they were able to secure such an important project because of some 'special' skills? Otherwise, how could a newly established small studio manage to take on such a big project, haha..."
"Hey, I'm not trying to be mean, but with her face and figure, she's obviously not a respectable person! These days, a lot of borderline internet celebrities are trying to gild themselves as artists."
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Author's Note: Xiaolin: Hey hey hey, who are you calling a slutty internet celebrity?
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