“How could she be like Gu Xiangwen?” He Zhichu disagreed, “Nianzhi is very friendly, lively and talkative. She can get along well with anyone she wants. Gu Xiangwen has a social anxiety disorder. Have you ever seen him talk to anyone? Other than Nianzhi…”
“Also, Auntie Qin, other than giving birth to Nianzhi, she treats Nianzhi like a stranger.”
“Nianzhi doesn’t resemble any of them.” He Zhichu’s lips curled up. “If one were to say she resembles someone, she resembles me. After all, she stayed with me from when she was six to twelve years old. She’s also very talented in terms of legal affairs.”
He Chengjian, “…”
He Zhichu was speechless. How could such a fatherly smile appear on He Zhichu’s face?
He Chengjian was very upset.
He Zhichu didn’t want to talk about the two of them anymore, so he quickly changed the topic. “What about the welcoming banquet? You let her leave the He family and hide her identity. Does that mean we don’t have to hold the banquet?”
“… We can wait for a while. She doesn’t want to get engaged and get married right away.” He Chengjian didn’t want He Zhichu to be upset. “After she comes back willingly…”
He Zhichu reached out his hand and made a “pause” gesture. “Stop. So you listened to Auntie Qin’s opinion and rejected my proposal.”
He Chengjian:”…”
He Zhichu stood up calmly. “It seems that after so many years since my mother passed away, it’s time for the new generation to replace the old.”
“Zhichu!” He Chengjian was panicking. He stood up and growled, “What do you mean by that?! What do you mean by a new generation replacing the old?! I only had one question in my mind from the beginning to the end!”
“Is that so?” He Zhichu’s expression was calm to the point of indifference. “But that doesn’t stop you from listening to what others say. Furthermore, between your son and your wife, isn’t it obvious that you chose your wife’s opinion?”
“My mother is in your heart, and only in your heart. Your mind is now preoccupied with Qin Yaoguang.” He Zhichu pointed at his own head. “But I don’t blame you. We’re all adults, so you don’t have to stay single for anyone for the rest of your life. If you were the one who died first, I would have persuaded my mother to remarry as well.”
He Chengjian’s lips trembled violently. His face gradually turned pale, and his red lips turned purple.
He Zhichu looked at him and pursed his lips. “Don’t be agitated. I don’t mean to criticize you, but I’ve never interfered in your affairs with others, so you shouldn’t interfere in my affairs in the future.”
“But Yaoguang saved your life after all…” He Chengjian said in a trembling voice, “Your illness was beyond curable. Even the best doctor in the world said that you wouldn’t live to be an adult. It was Yaoguang who came up with the gene therapy. She experimented many times for you, and finally gave birth to Nianzhi…”
“I know you don’t like her, and I never thought of asking you to call her mom, but we can’t be heartless. Su Wen gave birth to you, but Yaoguang also gave you a second life!”
He Zhichu rubbed his temples in pain. “I’ll remember her kindness to me, but if you think that because she saved my life and that my life is hers and I have to listen to her, then please take back my life. I’m not going to live, okay?”
His eyes gradually turned red, but he gritted his teeth and tried his best to restrain himself.
“Zhichi! That’s not what I meant!” He Chengjian’s voice became serious. “Yaoguang has never thought of asking you to do anything for her. She saved you for Suwen and me, and also to for a medical breakthrough.”
He paused for a moment, then said, “Yaoguang has a straightforward temper, and her words are blunt, but she doesn’t have any bad intentions. People who are dedicated to scientific research are all like that.”
“Yes, she’s good to everyone, but she abandoned her own daughter.” He Zhichu smiled bitterly. “Actually, what position do I have to criticize her? Wasn’t everything she did all for me?”
He Zhichu’s feelings for Qin Yaoguang were complicated.
He should be grateful to her. After all, without her, He Zhichu would have died at the age of 16, just like He Zhichu over there.
Qin Yaoguang had treated him so well, but now it was clear that she didn’t treat Gu Nianzhi as her own daughter.
To her, Gu Nianzhi was just a medicine, a medicine for He Zhichu.
He Zhichu was confused by the way she expressed her feelings.
He had thought that no matter what, Qin Yaoguang was Nianzhi’s biological mother. How could a mother not love her daughter?
Perhaps he was wrong. In this world, there really were mothers who didn’t love their own daughter.
He remembered that when Nianzhi was still young, she had been quite distant from her mother.
Qin Yaoguang didn’t visit her often, but she didn’t mind.
The happiest time for her was when Gu Xiangwen came to visit her.
However, Gu Xiangwen was also very busy. He was even busier than Qin Yaoguang. Once he entered the laboratory to do experiments, he wouldn’t come out for half a year.
Gu Nianzhi would be happy for a long time if he came once in a while.
She would place the gifts he brought on the floor of the room and carefully stick a note on each gift. She would write down the date of the next year and month before putting them back into the box.
Then, she would open the box every day and take out a gift in chronological order, just like how Gu Xiangwen came to visit her every day.
Although He Zhichu disliked Gu Xiangwen very much, he had to admit that he was a good father.
Of course, this was compared to QinYaoguang.
Compared to He Chengjian, Gu Xiangwen was at least as far away from a good father as two parallel spaces.
Gu Xiangwen was a genius. He deserved to be called a genius.
Most geniuses had weird quirks and bad tempers.
He really didn’t get along with anyone. He was very impatient with the laboratory staff under him. If he was unhappy, he would curse, “Your brain is as small as an atom. You can’t even see it with a high-power microscope.” Or, “Are you a paramecium? You only have one single cell in your entire body?”
Personal attacks were very serious.
If it weren’t for the fact that he was too talented and could publish many world-class papers with him, those people wouldn’t have “endured humiliation” and become his students.
However, when Gu Xiangwen was with little Gu Nianzhi, he was surprisingly patient.
He Zhichu remembered that year when Gu Nianzhi had just turned six, Gu Xiangwen had given her a copy of “Quantum Physics for Cereus”(Quantum mechanics for Cereus) .
He Zhichu was very disapproving at the time and said, “Uncle Gu, isn’t this book too profound for a six-year-old?”
Unexpectedly, Gu Xiangwen said, “This is a children’s book on quantum mechanics that I specially wrote for her.”
He Zhichu knelt down on the spot.
He had personally written a book for his daughter, and it was even a children’s book on quantum mechanics…
This book was still in He Zhichu’s room. It was the only thing that Gu Xiangwen had left behind that hadn’t been smashed and burned by the furious He Chengjian.
He Zhichu wasn’t surprised by the conflict between Qin Yaoguang and Gu Nianzhi, but he was still very sad. He felt sorry for Gu Nianzhi, so he wanted to give her more love, but she didn’t need it.
He Zhichu put his hands in his trouser pockets and clenched his fists tightly. His fingernails dug deep into his palms.
After the death of his wife, the most important person in He Chengjian’s heart was his son, He Zhichu.
Now that He Zhichu was unhappy with Qin Yaoguang, He Chengjian didn’t hesitate to give up on Qin Yaoguang.
He couldn’t let his son be unhappy. This was the treasure Su Wen had left for him. If he didn’t take good care of him, he wouldn’t have the face to see her in the afterlife.
“Since Nianzhi is leaving the he family, I don’t plan to stay.” He Zhichu put his hands in his trouser pockets and stood tall like a bamboo pole. “Please take care of yourself.”
“Zhichu! Forgive me once… I really didn’t think of rejecting you…”
He Chengjian panicked. Had he really done something wrong?
Wasn’t the person He Zhichu loved the most in his heart Gu Nianzhi?
He only wanted to help him be with the person he liked. What was wrong with him?!
Maybe he was wrong.
The last thing he should have done was listen to Qin Yaoguang’s suggestion today and reject He Zhichu’s suggestion. He even agreed to let Gu Nianzhi move out of the He family…
He Chengjian staggered out from behind the desk and said anxiously, “I’ll go find Nianzhi and ask her to stay. Let’s have a welcoming banquet, right away. I’ll get the butler and orderly to prepare the list…”
He Zhichu held his arm and looked a little pained. “Dad, please don’t do this.”
“At first, I really just wanted you to be okay…” He Chengjian’s tears were streaming down his face. “I’ve let your mother down, and I’ve disappointed you. I…”
He suddenly raised his other hand and slapped himself hard!
He Zhichu froze for a moment. He quickly pressed down on He Chengjian’s other arm and said sternly, “Dad!”
“In the beginning, it was Dad’s fault. Dad will divorce Qin Yaoguang immediately!” He Chengjian couldn’t care about anything else now. “Don’t go. I’ll go and tell Nianzhi personally. I’ll apologize to her and ask her to stay, okay?”
He Zhichu could no longer insist on moving out in the face of such a father, who was so devoted to him.
He knew that his father’s illness was already very serious, and it wasn’t a genetic disease. Even if Gu Nianzhi was there, she wouldn’t be able to cure him.
It was an injury from his early military career that caused his organs to fail.
To put it bluntly, he was already old.
In addition, his heart wasn’t very healthy. If he was overstimulated, he could die at any moment.
He Zhichu’s heart was burning with internal turmoil, but he finally held it in and said, “Dad, take care of yourself. I won’t move out, but you don’t have to worry about Nianzhi and me.”
“Really?” He Chengjian grabbed his arm tightly. “Don’t you need me to apologize? It was all Wen Shouyi’s fault today! She kept pushing her around! She was pushed around until she had no choice but to move out… and she even asked Qin Zhining to be her security guard.”
He Zhichu knew Gu Nianzhi very well.
If she didn’t want to leave, Wen Shouyi wouldn’t be able to make her leave.
She had agreed to leave, so there was a high chance that she wanted to leave herself.
Why did she want to leave?
Because she didn’t want to live with him, and was worried that there would be too much involvement.
He Zhichu didn’t say what he meant. He held He Chengjian’s arm and sent him back to his bedroom and said, “Since I’m back, you can rest in peace and recover. The security in the study has to be increased. No one can be allowed in if they don’t meet the security level, even if you agree.”
“Okay, okay, okay. Whatever you say.” Obeying He Zhichu’s every word, He Chengjian washed up and went to bed.
“And Auntie Qin isn’t not a military officer. The security level she enjoys is too high.”He Zhichu was still brooding over Qin Yaoguang’s insistence on performing Gu Nianzhi’s surgery, “Wen Shouyi too. I’d like to see when these two will perform the surgery on themselves.”
“Fine, fine, fine. Do whatever you want.” He Chengjian was almost a “Three-word”man. Other than “fine, fine, fine” and “fine, fine, fine, fine”, he had nothing else to say.
He Zhichu turned off the lights and left after taking care of He Chengjian to sleep.
He had been gone for four years, and his father was really much older.
He Zhichu had originally planned not to come back from the other side, but now that he was back, there was a way for him to return.
He wasn’t in a hurry at all.
He had a lifetime to spend with Gu Nianzhi, to accompany her as she slowly grew older.
When he walked out of He Chengjian’s bedroom, he saw He Chengjian’s orderly, looking worried, standing at the door.
“What’s wrong?”
“Master He, Miss Gu has packed her suitcase and will be leaving soon!”
