After Redeeming the Paranoid Villain [Transmigration] - Chapter 21

On the other end of the line, Li Wen was stunned by Gu Chen’s intensely possessive remark. His mind raced through various possibilities regarding why Su Yu had refused to sign the contract, including the dark possibility of a forced relationship. Although Su Yu was incredibly handsome, Li Wen recalled the young man’s innocent face and realized that some form of domestic confinement was not impossible in their world.

“Why did he refuse to sign?” Gu Chen asked, sensing the silence on the other end of the line.

“I do not know. He refused immediately after I analyzed the risks of listing his status as married,” Li Wen replied. He scratched his hair in frustration, a headache forming as he remembered the task his cold-faced boss had assigned him. In his view, Su Yu did not seem like the type of person to change his mind easily. Now, he could only place his hopes on Su Yu’s husband.

“Could you please help talk some sense into him? It would truly be a pity if he did not enter the entertainment industry,” Li Wen said.

Gu Chen did not directly agree to the request. Instead, he asked, “What risks did you analyze with him?”

“I told him that if he listed himself as married, people would dig into his family background once he became famous. His partner, in particular, would be scrutinized. No one wants their spouse to be watched constantly. It feels like being followed by a voyeur, which is incredibly uncomfortable.”

Li Wen recounted everything that had happened in the meeting room. To him, Gu Chen was now a lifesaver. Whether Su Yu returned or not depended entirely on Gu Chen. However, despite his rambling, Li Wen failed to mention Su Yu’s specific words: “I love him very much.” He considered that detail irrelevant and focused only on the point that Su Yu refused to sign because he did not want his partner exposed to the cameras.

As Li Wen spoke, the light in Gu Chen’s eyes dimmed. Even after Li Wen hung up, Gu Chen remained silent. He looked at Su Yu, who had just finished drying his hair and was walking out of the bathroom. Then, Gu Chen looked down at his own legs, his thin lips pressed tightly together.

Su Yu noticed that Gu Chen’s mood seemed worse than before he had gone to bathe. His sharp eyes then caught sight of his phone in Gu Chen’s hand. He immediately thought of the strange number that had tried to harm Gu Chen before, and in a flash of anxiety, he snatched the phone back.

“Why are you holding my phone?” Su Yu asked, his voice tinged with tension.

Gu Chen looked at the young man before him. He usually prided himself on his ability to read people, but suddenly, he could no longer see through Su Yu. He opened his mouth as if to ask a question, and his hand tightened slightly on the armrest of his wheelchair. Ultimately, he lowered his gaze and remained silent.

Su Yu sensed that something was wrong and called out Gu Chen’s name, but Gu Chen merely looked up at him once. Before Su Yu could question him further, Gu Chen maneuvered his wheelchair toward the door. “It is late. You should rest.”

Su Yu watched Gu Chen’s retreating figure. He did not know what had happened in those brief ten minutes, but he could clearly see the shift in Gu Chen’s emotions. Gu Chen’s back seemed to carry a sense of desolation and a sorrow he did not want anyone to notice.

Su Yu looked at his phone and checked the call logs. He saw Li Wen’s name and realized the call had come in while he was showering. It was highly likely that Gu Chen had answered and heard something. Su Yu’s expression darkened as he dialed the number back.

Gu Chen barely managed to force himself to leave Su Yu’s room. He returned to his own quarters in silence. The room was dim and oppressive, filled with a heavy atmosphere that made it hard to breathe. Though he had lived here his entire life and the room was deeply familiar, it now felt cold enough to make him shiver.

He looked down at his legs and pinched the flesh. Even as his fingernails sank deep into the skin, his expression remained calm. He still felt no pain.

The car accident had been premeditated with the intent to take his life. The perpetrator had not expected him to be so resilient. He had survived the crash, but he had lost the use of his legs. Sometimes he mocked his own fate, thinking it would have been better to die in that accident rather than lingering in this world as a broken shell of a man.

Gu Chen stared at his legs and thought of what the manager had said: Su Yu did not want him to appear in the public eye. He touched his useless limbs and let out a self-deprecating laugh. It made sense. If Su Yu’s fans found out he was married to a disabled man who was nothing but a burden, they would go mad. Who would allow the person they admired to be stained by such a flaw?

A soft laugh rang out in the vast room, carrying infinite desolation. He had always pursued perfection, yet it seemed his life had been filled with flaws from birth. Just as he had grown enough to make people forget his origins, this accident had dragged him back into a cycle of imperfection. He had become a stain on someone else’s life.

“What a failure,” he whispered. Gu Chen leaned his head back against the wheelchair and closed his eyes as if exhausted.

In a state between sleep and wakefulness, he had a dream. Someone was strangling him, and his ears were filled with chaotic noises. Amidst the din, a woman’s hysterical cry rang out: “Why do you not just die? Why are you still alive? Your birth was a mistake. You are the stain on my life!”

The feeling of suffocation intensified. Gu Chen snapped his eyes open, drenched in a cold sweat. His usually sharp eyes were vacant and lost. His hands shook uncontrollably, and his lips were an unnatural, sickly white. He began to murmur, “I am sorry. I am sorry. I am leaving now. I will not be a stain on your life. I am sorry for being the filth in your perfect existence.”

Gu Chen’s fingers pressed against the armrest of the wheelchair. With a click, a hidden compartment opened to reveal a dagger. The blade glinted with a cold, terrifying light in the dim room.

“I will erase the stain from your life right now. Do not be anxious,” Gu Chen said softly, his eyes glazed.

He raised the dagger slowly and pressed it against the carotid artery in his neck. The cold steel against his skin made him tremble. Gu Chen felt his long-dormant blood begin to boil. Every inch of his being screamed for him to slash down, so that this unloved, feared, and filthy version of himself could finally vanish from the world.

Moonlight fell across his cold, handsome face. Suddenly, Gu Chen’s lips curled into a smile. He laughed, looking as though he had finally found a sense of release. There was a slight sensation of pain in his neck, and then a warm liquid began to drip down the blade. His laughter became manic, yet his eyes were filled with endless sorrow.

The bedroom door was kicked open. The scene before Su Yu made his pupils contract. He rushed to Gu Chen’s side but did not dare to snatch the dagger away.

“Gu Chen!” he cried out, his voice trembling.

As he reached Gu Chen, Su Yu saw that the long sleeves of the man’s shirt had been pushed up. Beneath those slender wrists were rows of hideous, terrifying scars. Some were old and some were new, but because they were always hidden by long sleeves, no one had ever discovered them. On every night his illness flared up, Gu Chen had carved into his own skin, watching the blood drip to the floor as if the filth and sin within him would drain away with it.

Su Yu bit his lip, a suffocating pain blooming in his chest. Gu Chen looked at him with an eerie calm, completely ignoring the fact that the dagger was still pressed into his skin. He smiled as if they were merely chatting. “You are here?”

“Gu Chen, put the knife down, please,” Su Yu said, trying to stay calm even though his voice was shaking uncontrollably.

After speaking with Li Wen, Su Yu understood the reason for Gu Chen’s spiral. Gu Chen believed Su Yu wanted to hide him because a disabled husband would be a source of shame. For someone as obsessed with perfection as Gu Chen, his physical disability was already an unbearable wound. Li Wen’s words had triggered all the darkness he had suppressed in his heart.

“Su Yu, do not be afraid,” Gu Chen said, still holding the knife and smiling. “The stain on your life will be erased very soon.”

His words were blurred, but Su Yu understood his meaning instantly. Gu Chen believed he was the stain, and he was trying to remove himself for Su Yu’s sake.

Su Yu slowly approached the clearly unstable man. He reached out and gently took Gu Chen’s free hand. “Gu Chen, please put the knife down.”

Gu Chen only stared at Su Yu, motionless.

“Gu Chen, you are not a stain. You never were,” Su Yu said, his heart aching. “You are my husband. You are the person I have decided to protect for the rest of my life.”

Gu Chen’s hand trembled. His hollow eyes searched Su Yu’s face. “I am sorry,” he rasped. “Being like this makes things difficult for you. Once I am dead, no one will know your husband was a cripple.”

Su Yu bit his lip hard, his nose stinging as tears began to fall uncontrollably. Gu Chen froze. “Do not cry.”

Before Gu Chen could react, Su Yu lunged forward and threw his arms around him, ignoring the danger of the blade. In that split second before the knife could cut Su Yu, Gu Chen dropped it instinctively.

Gu Chen felt the warmth in his arms. He looked at Su Yu, who was sobbing heart-brokenly. Before his mind could process what was happening, his arms had already wrapped around Su Yu. He looked at the young man, his eyes still filled with infinite confusion.

“Why?” Gu Chen murmured. “Would it not be better if I were dead?”