Chapter 68: Tragic End

The words on Master Gu’s tongue was a question, a question on whether everything happening was planned by her hands. But the words refused to come out.

Her words dripped with acid as she spoke, each of it piercing his heart and rendered him unable to move with the sheer coldness and resentment in it.

“As soon as I was taken in, you began to guard yourselves against me, and even started enabling Gu Xijin! How is this my fault? I was an orphan with no parents, a poor worm that nobody wanted… but once I had parents, I am the illegitimate daughter who is ungrateful and has ill-intentions!”

Her voice had gotten slightly hoarse. “Grandfather, I really do appreciate what you have done, taking me out from there. I’ve always thought that you were the only one who treated me with a semblance of fairness, until you came back this time, I realized I was wrong. You just latched onto my desire for family and brought me back, waiting for the right time to sell me off to the highest bidder. You’d even throw me back out without mercy if the need ever arises.”

“I was so stupid, thinking that I could ever gain any of your approval, but… an illegitimate daughter who had been abandoned from the beginning, whatever she does would forever be in vain, wouldn’t it?”

Gu Xiqiao’s vision was getting blurry as she thought of her previous life, she had always been regarded as expendable by the Gu family. With no proper help nor care given to her, she was still an abandoned child in the end. It was such a simple reality, and yet it had taken her life to truly understand what it had been.

“Have a good look at this document, and consider this the last thing I will ever do for the Gu family. From today onwards, I’m severing all ties with this family!”

She released a deep breath, placing the stack of papers in her hand on the table. She smiled lightly at Master Gu, her eyes once again devoid of any emotions. “You will come to need these things in the future, but remember, my debt to the Gu family has been paid off! From now on, whatever that happens has nothing to do with me! Therefore, it’ll be best not to provoke me either. Put a leash on Gu Xijin, you hear me?”

Reigning in her emotions and expressions, she once more bore an indifferent expression that she had come in with, her back straight and her head lifted in pride. The same instance she opened the door and walked out, a bolt of lightning struck through the sky. The light from it made her eyes flash eerily, the coldness in it more vibrant. The rain started off softly, gathering momentum before falling heavily from the sky, joining the tears on her face that were falling from her eyes.

The dull roar from the thunder sounded, exploding in her ears and covering the sky and earth with its majestic sight and momentum. The dark night sky seemed to be covered entirely in its light.

The petite figure walked into the night slowly, and the servant that had been standing by the door was petrified, an umbrella held tightly in his hand as they didn’t dare to offer it to the person who had walked out. Not everyone was heartless after all, but all they could do was feel regret as they watched the scene play out.

Master Gu, who had been sitting on the sofa in shock, finally blinked back to reality. He reached out to the papers that Gu Xiqiao had left behind. After reading the first piece, his withered hand started trembling, his heart thumping violently in his chest as a wave of pain and regret swept through his body.

Gu Zuhui and Su Wan’er saw him with one hand clenching his heart, and hurried over to help him.

Master Gu waved them off coldly however, and with one hand clutching his chest, his other hand continued to flip through the stack of documents. The more he read, the more upset he became. When he was finally done reading through the documents, he couldn’t help the tears that trailed down his eyes. “I have always prided myself in being wise all my life, but I have watched with my own eyes what would have been the best successor of the Gu family leave just like that! It’s retribution, it’s all retribution! Cough cough!”

He found it hard to breathe, coughing as he tried to pull in the oxygen he needed, and he finally fainted backward onto the sofa.

“Father!”

“Father!”

Gu Zuhui and Su Wan’er rushed forward again, panicking at the unresponsive old man. The servants rushed in, and one of them called for an ambulance. Gu Zuhui pulled the papers that Master Gu was holding tightly in his hands despite being unconscious and flipped through it, and found himself dumbfounded after reaching the last page.

Since it was something that Gu Xiqiao had used as a piece to cut ties with the Gu family, it definitely wouldn’t be something so simple. It turned out to be the thing the Gu family needed the most—the rights of cooperation for the base!

This contract in his hands would allow the Gu family to escape the entire situation of embarrassment and hopelessness that they found themselves in right now. Not only that, the document contained a set of plans, and with it, it wasn’t an impossible feat for the Gu family to be able to return to its former glory!

This had definitely not been written by the Yin family. With the far more aggressive state they were in, Gu Zuhui wasn’t in any disillusion to think that they would be willing to set out a plan like this for them. Moreover, if the Yin family had the kind of talent to draw up this plan, they would have already been the chaebol[1] of N City.

And with that logic, these things were definitely drawn up by Gu Xiqiao.

With that thought in his mind, Gu Zuhui’s hand also began to tremble. What kind of daughter had he forced out of the family?

But it was too late to regret it now, along with the contract, there was also evidence of the Gu family’s bribery activities. The most damning was also evidence of how Gu Xijin had hired an assassin and kidnapped Gu Xiqiao. If all of these came into light, they wouldn’t be able to do anything, and all they could do now was let Gu Xiqiao leave in peace.

“There isn’t any good news whenever that trainwreck comes back to Gu Manor. Tomorrow Ah Jin will be leaving overseas, didn’t she just come back to cause trouble?!”

Slap!

Gu Zuhui had not been able to contain himself as his hand lashed out to slap Su Wan’er. It was this woman in front of him. This woman had cost them a life of regret and lost opportunities!

“Gu Zuhui, you… how dare you…” Su Wan’er’s eyes were wide with shock and surprise. She couldn’t believe her husband, a man who had always obediently listened to her every word, had dared to raise a hand to her!

“Get out of my sight!” Gu Zuhui spat, giving her a look full of contempt as he dismissed her, turning to follow the doctor up the stairs.

Once Su Wan’er had snapped out of her daze, she screamed and started smashing everything in her reach in a violent tantrum.

The Gu household found no sleep that night.

Gu Xiqiao stepped out of Gu Manor, the rain falling harder than ever. It was impossible to tell whether it was rainwater or tears on her face at this point, and yet she continued to walk in a daze. Her focus was on placing one foot in front of another as she walked, just like the first night she had been reborn. The only difference this time was, she was walking out of this place for real.

The rain falling on her vanished suddenly, and Gu Xiqiao lifted her hand to wipe at her face. Raising her head, she looked at a familiar face.

Lightning flashed through the sky, and thunder roared loudly. Although it was raining cats and dogs, the man’s white shirt was still as clean and pristine as ever, not a single drop of rain had touched it. Although the expression on his face was indifferent and seemed to be aloof, his sea-blue eyes held a hint of warmth and gentleness underneath his cold exterior. Standing there beside her with the umbrella in his hands, it seemed like he was the only person left on earth in the world.

At the sight of a familiar face, knowing that it was someone who cared for her, Gu Xiqiao’s tears gushed anew. Like a dam breaking, the tears flowed uncontrollably from her eyes.

She was not a person who liked to cry, and the number of times that she had cried in her life could be counted with one hand. But she was not able to suppress the urge to cry tonight, she wasn’t even sure whether she was crying because of her desire and yearning for the familial affection that she never had, or for the unbelievable past life that she had once lived.

Jiang Shuxuan had started his journey over here the moment he had received her text message. He always had good instincts, knowing how to read between the lines that were left unsaid by her.

Tightening the grip on the umbrella in his hand, he listened to her every sentence and word spilling from her lips. With his position, he naturally would never have imagined that there would be someone like Gu Xiqiao existing in this world. The things that were in reach of his fingertips were things that she would never be able to even touch.

When others only saw her prideful exterior, he saw the broken pieces of her shattered heart.

He lowered his head to be at the same height as her face, seeing the tears that didn’t slide down her face on her eyelashes. The once clear and vibrant eyes were now filled with tears, obscuring the life in them. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying, and rainwater was still dripping from her hair. Her small petite frame was also trembling.

He suddenly recalled the time when he had first met her. When he had first laid eyes on her, he knew how her ending would be—tragic.

[1] family run business-conglomerate