"Gu Junyan, get out of here! If you come any closer, you'll die!"
Hearing this, Gu Junyan not only didn't stop, but a smile actually crossed his face.
"You big fool, why did you come to save me? I've done nothing but hurt you all this time, why would you still save me?"
Covered in blood and lying on the ground, Su Nuohan could only watch helplessly as someone brutally beat his legs with an iron pipe while he refused to fight back. She watched him drag his injured leg, hobbling step by step toward her. Even though only three meters separated them, it felt to her as if an entire galaxy lay between them.
Gu Junyan slowly knelt on the ground. The pain in his legs made his expression shift, but he still pulled the person on the ground up into his arms. "Don't be afraid, Nuonuo, I'm here to save you. I heard that the road through the netherworld is very dark, and my Nuonuo is terrified of the dark. How could I bear to let you go alone?" Looking at the bruised, swollen face of the person in his arms and the pool of blood beneath her, Gu Junyan felt a wrenching, unbearable ache in his heart.
"Hahaha, Gu Junyan, you really did come after all! What's this—this woman stole the secrets of the Gu Corporation and ruined it, yet you still came here single-handedly to save her? How should I put it? You really are pathetic!"
Qin Yu stood off to the side, looking down with a condescending sneer at the two clinging to each other, and tossed a fruit knife onto the ground. "What a touching pair of star-crossed lovers! Let's play a game, shall we? This knife has to draw blood. Why don't the two of you discuss whose body this knife should go into, and as for the one left behind, I might consider letting them go."
Su Nuohan's right hand was crippled and her left hand was injured too, yet she still made a desperate first move to reach for the knife, but Gu Junyan was faster.
"No, Gu Junyan! I'm the one who deserves to die, not you..."
Gu Junyan shook his head slightly and pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head. At the same time, the sound of tearing flesh echoed through the air.
"Gu Junyan, why are you so foolish? It's not worth it..."
Su Nuohan tried to reach out to press her hand over the wound on his chest, but because Su Yue'er had broken her right hand out of jealousy over her talent for painting, she could only awkwardly try to cover the wound with her left hand, watching in horror as blood poured out continuously.
"You are worth it. Always... worth it."
With great effort, Gu Junyan reached out to wipe the tears from the corners of Su Nuohan's eyes. "Nuonuo, if... if there is an afterlife, would you... be willing to truly love me?"
Su Nuohan nodded, forcing out a smile. "I'm willing! I'm willing!"
Hearing the affirmative answer, the corners of Gu Junyan's mouth twitched upward, and the hand resting on Su Nuohan's face slowly dropped.
"Hahaha! Hahaha!"
Tears streamed down Su Nuohan's face as she burst into wild, uncontrollable laughter.
How laughable it was! She had desperately wanted to leave Gu Junyan and had even caused his company to go bankrupt, yet he had still come to save her regardless of his own life. And she had been so desperate to elope with Qin Yu, only to discover in the end that he was the monster who had destroyed her family and driven them to ruin...
"Qin Yu, Su Yue'er, I curse you! May you die a wretched death for all eternity!" Su Nuohan stared at the two people laughing maniacally before her, shouting with venomous hatred.
Su Yue'er curved her lips into a smile. "Then let's see whose death is truly wretched."
Su Yue'er flicked a lighter and tossed it onto the ground. The gasoline instantly ignited, and within moments, the entire abandoned factory was swallowed by tongues of fire.
Bedraggled and battered, Su Nuohan wore a smile on her lips. One hand tightly gripped the man's already freezing hand, while the other gently rested over her abdomen. "Gu Junyan, don't be afraid. The road ahead is too dark, so I'm coming to keep you company. Our family of three will be reunited very soon."
With a deafening explosion, flames soared into the sky...
It hurts!
When Su Nuohan opened her eyes once more, she found herself lying in a bed, a doctor in a face mask in the middle of bandaging the wound on her wrist. Standing nearby was the very man she had once gone to great lengths to escape.
"Gu... Junyan? You're not dead?"
Su Nuohan spoke with great effort, her eyes filled with shock and disbelief. But weren't they dead? This familiar room, this familiar doctor, and the wound on her wrist looked in every way like the scene from three years ago when she had slashed her wrists in a desperate bid to force Gu Junyan to divorce her.
Could it be... I've been reborn?
The doctor: ... (I know Madam dislikes President Gu, but I never expected her to hate him to this extent. What should I do? What should I do? He heard something he shouldn't have—is he going to be silenced? Oh please no, my mom is waiting for me to come home for lunch...)
Gu Junyan's face was cold. "You were hoping that badly for me to die?"
...
Standing to the side, the doctor wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "President Gu, Miss Su's wrist wound isn't deep, and since you applied emergency first aid in time, there's nothing major to worry about. She just needs careful rest."
Gu Junyan nodded, though his gaze remained fixed on the pale-faced person on the bed. Last night, he had overheard her on the phone with Su Yue'er talking about eloping with that man, and in a momentary loss of control, he had forced her down onto the bed. Today at the office, a lingering sense of unease had kept nagging at him, and the moment he returned home, he had found her holding a knife and slashing at her own wrist...
Seeing this, the doctor tactfully picked up his medical kit and hurried out of the room.
Only the two of them were left in the room. Gu Junyan walked over to the bedside with a cold expression, pinched Su Nuohan's chin with one hand, his dark eyes brimming with anger. "To get away from me, you didn't even hesitate to slit your wrists. If I hadn't made it back in time, do you have any idea what the consequences would have been? You'd rather die than stay by my side—is escaping me really that important to you?"
Looking at the stern-faced man before her, Su Nuohan suddenly recalled the scene of him lying in her arms covered in blood. A sour ache rose in her throat, and using her uninjured hand, she tightly hooked it around the man's neck. "Gu Junyan... hold me."
Gu Junyan's entire body stiffened. He looked down at the little woman before him with her slightly red-rimmed eyes, feeling a flicker of bewilderment. But a moment later, as if recalling something else, his expression turned cold as he forcefully yanked her hand away from his neck.
"What? Hard tactics didn't work, so now you're trying the soft approach? If you still harbor any thoughts of running away from me, you'd better crush them right now! Listen to me very carefully, Su Nuohan: even if you die, you will still be nobody's woman but Gu Junyan's!"