After Falling in Love, the Overbearing CEO Finally Saw the Light - Chapter 16

“I am doing quite well. The doctor said my mood has stabilized a lot recently, so we can continue with conservative treatment,” Cheng Zimu said with a light smile. His tone was so relaxed it was easy to forget he was the one who was ill; only Gu He could see the sorrow and stagnant despair buried deep in his eyes.

The day he was diagnosed with breast cancer was the same day he met Gu He. Looking back now, that encounter had been quite wretched.

It had happened on Gu He’s way back to campus after his part-time job. The ink-blue sky was clean, without a single cloud, and the moon hid behind a veil, refusing to come out. The streetlights in the small alley were flickering sporadically before finally giving up and going dark. However, because it was near W University, the illuminated signs of the small hostels lining the alley served as makeshift streetlights to guide the way. This path was a well-known shortcut.

At the entrance of the alley stood two figures. A woman was pointing at a tall, thin boy and cursing him out. The boy looked somewhat familiar.

“Cheng Zimu!”

Gu He originally did not want to meddle in other people’s business, but he froze when he heard the name. Was that not his new roommate? Why was he here?

Before he could speak, the woman sneered with biting sarcasm, “Do you think that because you have been wagging your tail for him for a few years, you can actually tie him down? You are just a man, after all. He does not mind playing with you for a few more years, but eventually, he will have a normal family and his own children. Those are things you can never give him!”

The woman was drenched in expensive perfume, clutching a bag worth tens of thousands, and standing tall on high heels, yet her mouth spewed nothing but filthy, ugly abuse. In the quiet alley, her words were exceptionally piercing.

“Even if that is true, that person will never be you.” Whether in speech or manner, Cheng Zimu exuded a gentle disposition. He chose to simply discard those unbearable insults.

The woman slapped him without hesitation. A bright red handprint quickly appeared on his stinging face; it was clear she had used every ounce of her strength. “You really are cheap, are you not? You have clung to him for so long. Do you call that love? Your existence only makes his life disgraceful. You will always be a stain on him!”

He opened his mouth to argue but found himself speechless. He lowered his eyes, his expression unreadable.

“Do you not find it disgusting? Their family adopted you, and this is how you repay them by climbing into his bed?” The woman, her nails painted a vivid red, moved to claw at his face, but she was startled into a halt by a voice.

“Have you said enough? Please move aside; you are blocking the path.”

She slowly turned her head to see a black-haired youth. His amber eyes radiated a warning and a chilling hostility, devoid of any warmth. He looked as cold as ice. People coming out of alleys like this were usually not good people; she mistook him for a local thug, and a flash of nervousness crossed her face.

Cursing under her breath, she hurried away, her high heels clicking against the pavement. The sound of her retreat felt like a knife stabbing into Cheng Zimu’s heart, a sharp, rhythmic pain that tore his broken heart to shreds, inch by inch.

Cheng Zimu’s eyes grew increasingly blurred with tears. His phone began to ring. The moment he looked down, tears silently dripped onto his trousers. He struggled to steady his voice and took a sharp breath. “A-Ran,”

Before he could finish, a heavy voice came from the other end. “Cheng Zimu, are you done yet? Do you know you were wrong? If you are, then come back on your own. I need to sleep.”

I think I am sick.

Those words felt like a sharp fishbone caught in his throat, making it impossible to speak or move.

“Are you alright?” Gu He picked up the scattered papers from the ground and handed them to him. It was a pathological diagnosis report from the hospital.

“I am sorry.”

Gu He saw a face with heavy dark circles under the eyes. His eyes were swollen and bloodshot, looking utterly exhausted.

Gu He was actually a very slow-to-warm person, and his attitude toward strangers was always cold. But since this person happened to be his roommate, he spoke up with some awkwardness, “Are you going back to the dormitory?”

Cheng Zimu bit his lip and nodded. Gu He was slightly taller than him and walked behind him; for a moment, Cheng Zimu had the illusory feeling of being protected. However, in the darkness, a camera captured their silhouettes from behind. Perhaps due to the blurry lighting and the angle, they looked very close, as if Cheng Zimu were leaning against Gu He’s back for comfort.

Back at the dormitory, Cheng Zimu confessed his sexual orientation to him. He apologized for hiding it and hoped Gu He would not be angry. Gu He was not angry; the right to love whoever one chooses belongs to everyone, and others have no right to interfere.

Cheng Zimu asked him to keep it a secret. Although society had entered a new era with new perspectives, there were still many worldly eyes that would stab at a person’s back. Gu He did not discriminate; he had worked in all sorts of places since he was young and had seen everything. It was clear that an overly panicked person needed a promise to stabilize. Gu He promised to keep his secret.

Cheng Zimu was gay. His father had been gay too, and he deserved to be abandoned. Therefore, he was born with an abnormal orientation; the genetic code was written clearly into his blood and bones.

In their eyes, he was a monster or a pervert.

He said, “It is quite funny, actually. Perhaps the heavens cannot stand people like me, so they had to assign me some kind of special role. Would you say I am lucky or unlucky? I actually fell into that one percent probability. I deserved to get breast cancer.”

He had suddenly fainted in the restroom after a meeting today and was found by a colleague who sent him to the hospital. Only after the diagnosis did he realize he was ill.

He had been in a secret relationship with the son of the family that adopted him for eight years. They had started in high school.

His adoptive mother was a perfectionist with an extreme need for control, and his adoptive father was even worse. They had only adopted him to provide a playmate for their young master. To be precise, there was no difference between him and a pet cat or dog. Because Bian Jinran had originally wanted to adopt a Samoyed but faced opposition, they adopted Cheng Zimu instead. In a way, Cheng Zimu was his dog, a toy for his amusement.

That high-pressure, elite education had indeed created the excellent Mr. Bian, but it had also made him paranoid and cold.

Between them lay an impenetrable mist. Cheng Zimu had completely lost his direction inside it and fallen into an ice cave.

He had thought that person would be a moon-like salvation. Unexpectedly, it was just the next abyss, deeper and more despairing.

He just did not know when his moon had lost its color.

In this city, he was actually just a lonely weed, living a humble yet resilient existence.

The phone in his pocket vibrated. It was an email from his supervisor. A special case had suddenly appeared at the law firm, and Cheng Zimu was called back by his professor to organize the files. Before leaving, he asked Gu He uneasily if he would be alright alone.

Gu He indicated that he was fine. This week had been too exhausting for him. Now, all he wanted was to have a peaceful sleep.

Without He Yunqi, and without that oppressive crowd of people, he could finally feel certain that he was alive.

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