Chapter 367: Chapter 367: A Detailed Conversation with Gu Xinlan_1
 

“Get up, don’t kneel anymore. You people from the secular world are delicate; how can you endure kneeling for such a long time!”

Although the meditation cushion was soft, indeed it was not suitable for someone like me who had never kneeled for so long before; after a while, my entire lower limbs had already become numb.

She reached out to pull me up, and only then did I manage to struggle to my feet.

“Sit down!”

Gu Xinlan’s reaction was quite calm.

However, upon closer inspection, one could see that the tips of her newly grown hair at the temples were somewhat white, and her face was also creased with wrinkles.

It seemed that the blow she had received was far greater than I had imagined.

She poured me a cup of clear tea.

“In the sacred grounds of the Buddhist Sect, there’s not much with which to entertain guests, only simple tea …”

“Thank you!”

I picked up the rough porcelain cup and took a sip.

Bitter and astringent.

I let that bitter taste linger on the tip of my tongue, slowly seeping down my throat.

Yet, even the most bitter tea was not as bitter as my heart at that moment.

“Go ahead, what do you want to ask me?”

“Uh, I want to know about Gu Yuanzhou’s background …”

Gu Xinlan sighed,

“The man is gone, what good does knowing do?”

“A goose leaves its call behind; I want to know the clear causes and effects.”

“Ah!”

Gu Xinlan walked to the window and glanced out at the lush green mountains.

Another long sigh.

“He was the only male in the Gu Family … Many years ago, our Gu Family was flourishing. At least when I was young, our family was quite reputable in the entire city. The schools I attended were the best, and my elder brother always chose the finest things for our food, clothing, housing, and transportation. The only shortcoming was that our Gu Family had a sparse lineage; starting with my grandfather’s generation, there was only one male heir.”

It was then that I noticed a small memorial photograph placed on the table.

It was Gu Yuanzhou’s.

No bigger than the size of a palm, it lay in an inconspicuous corner.

Had Gu Xinlan not reached out and caressed that photograph, I wouldn’t have noticed it at all.

On that photograph, his voice and smile were still present.

As if just yesterday he was standing lively before me, calling me Ayun.

I really didn’t quite want to believe that Gu Yuanzhou was truly dead.

“It’s not because the men in the Gu Family had any hidden illnesses; in fact, they were all very healthy. The difficulty lay in the fact that they were rather infatuated, monogamous, too fond of their wives, unwilling to have their wives bear more children. Thus, each generation had fewer people than the last. Ah!”

I remained silent.

If she had said such things before, I might not have believed her.

But ever since Gu Yuanzhou died, I began to believe…

“Our Gu Family was doing well originally, twenty years ago, my older brother made friends with a business partner, and they went into business together. They invested in a mine in Myanmar, and at that time my brother said, the vein was very good, and we were going to make a fortune. Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last long. That winter, I was studying out of town, I remember I was in high school. I was in class when several policemen entered the classroom and took me out.”

Gu Xinlan’s eyes still held a deep sorrow,

“I was still very confused at the time, and they didn’t tell me what had happened. They just put me in the police car, and then took me all the way to the hospital in my hometown.”

As she spoke, Gu Xinlan’s voice choked up, and her body trembled slightly.

“At that time, my brother was already gone, only my sister-in-law was barely hanging on. She grabbed my hand, insisting that I must bring up Gu Yuanzhou properly, and that the child must not seek revenge…”

“Not seek revenge?”

I was taken aback. Generally, in powerful and prosperous families, wouldn’t they think about seeking revenge when one of their own was harmed?

What was the lady of the Gu Family thinking?

Gu Xinlan nodded,

“In the face of life and death, hatred is a trivial matter. My sister-in-law didn’t want Yuanzhou to spend his life in pain. So she kept telling me, not to tell him about the hatred. I promised my sister-in-law, to never let the child seek revenge in this lifetime.”

“What happened later?”

“Later, after much inquiry, I finally found Yuanzhou in a small mountain village and brought him back. But since then, I never mentioned revenge to him again. Sometimes he would ask, but each time he asked, I always managed to dissuade him. After a few times, he stopped asking. I thought he had forgotten all about it.”

“Mmm!”

“He was obedient, followed my instructions, and studied step by step, high school, university graduation… I thought, he could really grow up like an ordinary person, safely getting through life as my sister-in-law had hoped. However, to my utter surprise, one day he came to me drunk, saying that he had found his enemy.”

“Why did he have to be drunk to tell you this?”

“Because he was in agony! He said he had swallowed his pride and infiltrated that person’s side, eventually earning that person’s trust. That person not only trusted him but also planned to marry his own niece to him. His agony lay in the fact that he originally intended to use that man’s niece, but then, he found himself falling in love with that girl, deeply in love. This caused him a great sense of guilt.”

Listening to the story thus far, I had a rough idea of the cause and effect.

My breathing also became a bit ragged.

It actually matched quite closely with what I had conjectured before.

When Gu Yuanzhou first started pursuing me, was it only with the intention of using me for revenge against the Song Family?

And then he fell in love with me?

I don’t know, I can’t figure it out.

However, one thing I am clear about is that the things Gu Yuanzhou later did to the Song Family finally had a reasonable explanation.

“What happened later?”

Gu Xinlan shook her head,

“If he had a guilty conscience, he certainly couldn’t live well. He came to me, knelt in front of me, and hugged my knees. He said he didn’t know what to do. If he loved that woman, it would be unfair to all the members of the Gu Family, to his deceased parents. But if he was to kill that woman’s entire family, he couldn’t bring himself to do it, he couldn’t bear to be that cruel. He asked me to consult Buddha, to ask Buddha for guidance.”

“Er, what happened after that?”

“Having lived a monastic life for so many years, I actually had long since let go of my hatred. What’s the end of harboring grudges against each other, I advised him to let go of the hatred and to live his life well. At that time, he agreed, he promised me he would marry and have children, to complete his own life.”

“Later on, he married her. He said, that woman was sent by Buddha to reform him, she was very good… so good that it made him discard all the murderous thoughts in his heart, only wishing to hold each other’s hands to a ripe old age. I thought he had truly let go of all his grievances, I thought he could live out his life fully. I never, ever expected that one day he would suddenly come to me and say…”