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 ti!”
Although the ditation cushion was soft, indeed it was not suitable for soone like who had never kneeled for so long before; after a while, my entire lower limbs had already beco numb.
She reached out to pull 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 sowhat white, and her face was also creased with wrinkles.
It seed that the blow she had received was far greater than I had imagined.
She poured 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 mont.
“Go ahead, what do you want to ask ?”
“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 morial 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 , calling Ayun.
I really didn’t quite want to believe that Gu Yuanzhou was truly dead.
“It’s not because the n 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 ti my brother said, the vein was very good, and we were going to make a fortune. Unfortunately, the good tis didn’t last long. That winter, I was studying out of town, I rember I was in high school. I was in class when several policen entered the classroom and took out.”
Gu Xinlan’s eyes still held a deep sorrow,
“I was still very confused at the ti, and they didn’t tell what had happened. They just put in the police car, and then took all the way to the hospital in my hotown.”
As she spoke, Gu Xinlan’s voice choked up, and her body trembled slightly.
“At that ti, 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 hard?
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 , not to tell him about the hatred. I promised my sister-in-law, to never let the child seek revenge in this lifeti.”
“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 ntioned revenge to him again. Sotis he would ask, but each ti he asked, I always managed to dissuade him. After a few tis, 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 ca to 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 beca a bit ragged.
It actually matched quite closely with what I had conjectured before.
When Gu Yuanzhou first started pursuing , was it only with the intention of using for revenge against the Song Family?
And then he fell in love with ?
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 ca to , knelt in front of , 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 mbers 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 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 ti, he agreed, he promised 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 co to and say…”
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