Chapter 73

Wen Rui looked a little thinner. That spoiled-rich-kid dead-fish vibe was gone, replaced by something steadier, more like a businessman.

They just stood there glaring at each other until the doors were about to close on their own. Gu Yunchi stuck a hand out to block them. 'Either get in or get out.'

Wen Rui thought that was ridiculous. 'Are you kidding me? You're the ones who stood out there forever.'

Gu Yunchi ignored him and walked into the elevator with Wen Ran.

He already knew Wen Ran was alive, but Wen Rui still stared at him for a long moment before saying, 'Brat. Why didn't you just play dead for the rest of your life.'

'I wanted to. Someone found out by accident.' Calling him gege felt weird now, so Wen Ran went formal. 'Hello, President Wen.'

'Like hell it is.'

Wen Ran asked, 'Not good? So what are you here for, President Wen?'

'Keep that up and see what happens.' Wen Rui shot him a look, paused, then said, 'Your former stepmom's getting transferred to a different prison soon. They brought her in for a checkup today, so I figured I'd swing by.'

Wen Ran blinked, instinctively turned to Gu Yunchi. Gu Yunchi's face was cold, like the whole thing was bad luck. 'Should've taken the private elevator.'

Ding. The doors opened again. Wen Rui grunted, 'This is me.'

Cardiology floor. The elevator opened right onto the nurses' station. Two female guards flanked an omega in a blue prison uniform.

Wen Rui stepped out. The omega heard him and turned around.

Wen Ran stood in the elevator, frozen, staring at Chen Shuhui. She'd cut her hair short. Thinner. Deeper wrinkles. But her back was still ramrod straight, just like when she used to wear those pretty suits and gowns.

The second their eyes met, Chen Shuhui froze. She frowned slightly, squinted, lost in thought, then once she was sure, her face started to show shock. Disbelief.

The elevator doors slid shut, cutting off sight and space.

Wen Ran dropped his head. A few seconds of quiet. 'How long is she in for?'

'Life.'

He couldn't name what he was feeling. Not fear, not satisfaction. Something too tangled to put words to. Wen Ran clenched his fist, looked up at Gu Yunchi. 'I need to talk to her.'

Before the checkup, Wen Ran joined the visit.

The three of them sat in an observation room, waiting for the guards to bring Chen Shuhui in.

Gu Yunchi was reading Military Headquarters files on his comms. Wen Rui couldn't shut up. 'So what's the plan? Staying in Capital City, or heading back to that City S place?'

Wen Ran fidgeted with something in his pocket. 'Going back. I'm just here to visit.'

'Coming home in glory, huh.' Wen Rui glanced at him. 'You could've told me you were alive sooner. I could've sent you some cash.'

'I don't trust you. You've got a big mouth. You'd blab.'

'When have I ever had a big mouth?!'

Wen Ran buried his chin in his jacket collar and smiled. A moment later the door opened. Chen Shuhui walked in, the guards sat her across the table. Her cuffs clinked against the surface.

She seemed to have already accepted that Wen Ran was alive. She pulled a smile. 'Big turnout. All three of you here to see me.'

Wen Rui jumped in first. 'Yeah. To cheer you on with your reform.'

Chen Shuhui didn't even glance at him, just stared at Wen Ran. 'What's your name?'

'Li Shu.' Wen Ran's face was calm.

'You took your mom's name. That's nice.' Not quite sarcastic, more wistful. 'Didn't expect you to end up with everything in the end. Fate's funny that way.'

Wen Ran looked at her. 'Everything?'

'More than before, right? Life's fair that way.' Chen Shuhui shook the cuffs on her wrist, at peace with it. 'Like me, right now, taking what I deserve.'

'Did you have anything to do with my mom?'

'No. I only found out she'd died seven years ago. I never meant to hurt her.'

Wen Ran nodded. 'Got it.'

His comms beeped. Gu Yunchi stood up. 'Taking a call.' Then he walked out of the room.

Chen Shuhui watched Gu Yunchi's back. 'Honestly, I've been wondering. Did you tell Gu Yunchi who you really were early on? That's why he let you get closer and closer.'

'You spent your time in prison projecting, huh.' Wen Rui couldn't take it. 'If he'd told Gu Yunchi, would he still have let you push him around every day?'

'Maybe he was a piece the Gu Family planted in the Wen Family.' Chen Shuhui turned back to Wen Ran. 'I heard Gu Yunchi started digging into your real identity after you came back from the Little Fishing Village. Gu Peiwen would've made sure all your paperwork looked clean, to avoid trouble. But someone like Gu Yunchi, once he gets suspicious, he doesn't just drop it.'

By the time she finished, Wen Ran was frozen, looking lost. 'Gu Yunchi investigated me that early?'

'Yeah, so can you blame me for thinking that way? You must've told him something, that's why he looked into you, right?' Chen Shuhui laughed at herself. 'He's probably like Gu Peiwen. He knows everything, just watches us put on a show.'

Wen Ran opened his mouth. No sound came out. He turned back, staring blankly at the closed door.

'Commander, you wanted me?' Gu Yunchi walked out of the observation room, down the corridor a bit before answering.

'Yunchi, I want to ask you about Li Shu.' Pei Yan's voice was serious, uncertain. 'I didn't know him well before. Just knew the Wen Family brought him in from outside to replace their youngest son. Do you know who Li Shu's real parents are?'

'His mother was Li Qingwan, used to play Violin for the Capital Orchestra. Father still unconfirmed.'

'Still haven't identified the father?'

'Ran the DNA. No match.'

Pei Yan was quiet a long moment. 'The day I met him, he looked familiar. Today I got back to my office, saw the photo under the glass on my desk... Do you remember, I mentioned him to you before. The commander of the Southern Theater Command Special Forces. Ning Jinqian.'

Gu Yunchi's grip tightened on the comms. 'I remember.'

'You didn't get a good look at the photo then, so you might not remember. But I compared and thought about it carefully today. Li Shu and Jinqian... they're alike. Not in looks, but in a feeling they give me. Could be me reading too much into it, Jinqian's been gone a lot of years now.' Pei Yan lowered his voice. 'I read Jinqian's will. Simple. He said he'd left part of his assets to someone important, and left a letter for them too, didn't need Military Headquarters to pass it along. The rest, he wanted Military Headquarters to donate to a Preparatory School or Hospital.'

'He was unmarried at the time. I don't know if he was seeing anyone. But Li Shu's age lines up—he was born right after Jinqian died.' Pei Yan sighed. 'Fallen soldiers' genetic data is usually sealed. I'll talk to the Military Hospital, get Jinqian's data pulled. You give me Li Shu's DNA, we'll run a test.'

Click. A door opened somewhere down the hall, the sound sharp in the quiet corridor. Gu Yunchi looked up. Wen Ran was walking out of the observation room, watching him from a distance, panicked.

'Okay.' Gu Yunchi hung up.

Wen Ran took a few steps, then stopped. He looked at Gu Yunchi, trying to find his thoughts, an answer.

A thread of an idea. The Little Fishing Village. Wen Ran thought back to that night when Gu Yunchi had a fever, their talk, the Wish Tree. While Wen Ran was crying and apologizing for something that wasn't even his fault, desperately hiding it, Gu Yunchi had already picked up on the small things.

So later, when Wen Ran had gone to Gu Yunchi half out of his mind during his heat, and the next day Gu Yunchi drove him home, he'd said: next time you say sorry, figure out first whether it's even your fault. Whether you should be the one apologizing.

And later, Gu Yunchi had come through the rain to bring him a model, and in that little guest bedroom, told him: the day you decide to break free, tell me. I'll help you.

Because I care. I need to know the answer.

With me, you're free.

Don't worry about anything else. It'll all work out. You just check a box.

Are you sure you still want to go back? I don't mean tonight.

...

Was 'Wen Ran,' to Gu Yunchi, from very early on, no longer the Wen Family's youngest son, but just him. Just him.

He'd always thought Gu Yunchi saw him as a complete fraud. He hadn't expected the man had seen through him the whole time. All those words he couldn't make sense of—they'd meant something. Gu Yunchi, over and over, patiently, sending out rescue signals.

Saw through it but didn't call it out. Gu Yunchi had guided him, little by little, toward trusting, toward speaking up. But Wen Ran, crushed by guilt, lost in his own fog, hadn't seen the hand Gu Yunchi kept reaching out. So close. One step away. And still missed.

The past had ended with that explosion seven years ago. The guilt, the shame, the regret—Wen Ran had let it go a long time ago. What had haunted him in his dreams, year after year, was always just one thing.

But now, he still didn't have the answer. Instead, there was a new option, even more confusing: seven years ago, had Gu Yunchi been good to him because he knew Wen Ran was innocent, and wanted to pull him out, save him?

Behind him, the clink of cuffs. Chen Shuhui was being led by the guards toward the other end of the corridor. Wen Rui said goodbye to her.

Wen Ran didn't turn around. He stood there, eyes locked with Gu Yunchi's for a long time. Finally, he moved toward him. He'd worked up the courage to ask.

'Li Shu.' Chen Shuhui called out to him suddenly.

Wen Ran turned around. Chen Shuhui tilted her chin up, still proud, still defiant. 'There's one more thing. I want to tell you.'

'Switching out your birth control wasn't my idea. Gu Chongze said we needed more leverage, so I did it.'

The thoughts he'd just started to gather scattered again, blown apart into chaos. After a brief daze, Wen Ran's chest started heaving. His breathing went heavy, fast. He opened his mouth, throat strangled, only air came out. 'You...'

'Knowing your body couldn't carry a child, but getting you pregnant anyway—that was Gu Chongze's call. It had nothing to do with—'

'Stop talking...!' Wen Ran cut her off, voice cracking. His legs almost gave out. He screamed at Chen Shuhui with everything he had. 'Stop!'

Silence. Wen Ran turned back to Gu Yunchi, eyes red, panicked. The corridor lights were too bright, falling on Gu Yunchi's face, freezing it into a sickly gray. The Alpha's features were intact, but they looked like they were full of cracks—something massive, suppressed, shock and grief, about to spill out through the seams.

Wen Ran shifted his legs, tried to get to Gu Yunchi. Before he could take a single step, he felt the familiar warmth rolling in his nose. He looked down. On the pale green plastic floor, a few bright red drops were falling.

Plip, plip. More and more, faster. Wen Ran slowly raised his head. Warm blood was running down his lips and chin. He belatedly tried to cover it with his hand.

His ears were full of ringing and his own heavy breathing. He couldn't even hear Wen Rui shouting. His body lost its center, the world tilted and spun. Wen Ran stumbled back a step and saw Gu Yunchi running toward him.

Maybe the first time he'd ever seen Gu Yunchi look this panicked. In Wen Ran's mind, scenes from seven years ago flashed by—after he'd escaped the kidnapping, red police lights everywhere, sirens, and Gu Yunchi had come to him the same way. It had been too dark, too chaotic. He hadn't been able to see Gu Yunchi's face.

Today he saw it. But only for a second. Everything in front of him stretched into slow motion. The bright white corridor lights swept across his vision, dragging long blurry shadows behind them, like a glowing river with no end.

Wen Ran fell into an embrace. Through the smell of blood, he caught the familiar Pheromone.

All the light started to dim, to fade, until he couldn't see anything at all.

A cool hand, trembling, cradled his right cheek. Wen Ran wanted to pat Gu Yunchi's hand, tell him it was fine, I might just be dying. But he had no strength, no consciousness left. The blood-smeared hand only rose halfway, then fell heavily back down.