After Transmigrating as the Northeast CEO's Pampered Little Husband - Chapter 59

“Cough, cough, cough, cough…” Auntie Qin Yuan immediately choked on her own saliva upon waking. The dull ache in her head and the fractured, distorted memories confirmed the reality of the emotional turmoil she had been trapped in for so long. She vaguely recalled hurting her nephew, yet without clear recollection, she could only feel a sharp, intermittent wrenching in her heart.

“Auntie?” The room door opened. Dai Gucan, carrying medicine, walked to the bed and sat down, reaching out to feel Qin Yuan’s forehead.

“Are you feeling unwell anywhere?”

Qin Yuan looked at her nephew, who had grown up so much before her eyes. Tears instantly streamed down her face. Though she was unsure exactly what had transpired over the last decade, all her bottled-up emotion surged forward the moment she saw him.

“Gucan! I’m back!”

Qin Yuan clutched her poor nephew fiercely and burst into loud, wrenching sobs.

Dai Gucan was startled by Qin Yuan’s sudden eruption but then offered a slightly helpless yet relieved smile. Just as she used to comfort him when he was little, he gently patted Qin Yuan’s back. “Welcome home, Auntie.”

Gu Jiaoyang stood outside the door, watching the moving family reunion and swallowing the mouthful of mango pudding he’d been eating. He watched silently for a long time before returning to his room without a sound.

Dai Gucan’s true family was back. That was a good thing.

The evening sun was beginning to lose its intensity, no longer scorching hot. A cool breeze, filtered by the surrounding greenery, drifted into the garden, providing relief from the summer heat.

Gu Jiaoyang lay alone on a sun lounger, sheltering in the shade.

As the mastermind behind exposing the truth and saving the day, Gu Jiaoyang was unusually quiet today.

Dai Gucan and Qin Yuan, reunited after so long, had talked for a great while. Although the virus system had been parasitic for a long time, because it had created a second personality rather than directly possessing Qin Yuan, it had, ironically, protected her. Qin Yuan now suffered only from slight malnutrition and no other lasting side effects.

Things were definitely moving in a positive direction.

“Hello.” Qin Yuan, carrying a plate of fruit, walked into the garden and spotted the little life-saver looking somewhat isolated in the shade.

“Hello, Ms Qin.” Gu Jiaoyang quickly sat up on the lounger. The large sun lounger wasn’t very stable, and he wobbled slightly as he moved.

“I’ve forgotten a lot, and Gucan was hesitant to tell me everything because of my health. But he did mention I… hurt you, so I wanted to sincerely apologise and offer compensation…”

“No, no, no, no, it’s fine! Oh, honestly, it’s no big deal. I was only acting. It’s really fine, Auntie, please sit down.” Qin Yuan’s eyes were shadowed with sorrow. Gu Jiaoyang could see genuine remorse in them. Furthermore, Qin Yuan herself was an innocent victim; the compensation should come from those awful virus systems.

The real Qin Yuan, when silent, reminded him a little of his Senior Sister—a gentle, soft-spoken person who, judging by her accent, was likely from the water-towns of Jiangnan.

Gu Jiaoyang felt a rare sense of relaxation dealing with an elder like her.

“Gucan told me everything about your arrangement,” Qin Yuan said, looking down and smiling faintly, a note of resignation in her voice.

“Ah? What arrangement… Oh, oh, that one…” Gu Jiaoyang wanted to ask what exactly Dai Gucan had revealed, but seeing Qin Yuan’s expression, he realised Dai Gucan had probably recounted their entire engagement agreement truthfully.

It was a little embarrassing.

Gu Jiaoyang found himself shrinking slightly. Perhaps it was his Master’s influence, but he always felt awkward around this kind of senior figure. He mentally calculated that he hadn’t taken much advantage of Dai Gucan. Surely Qin Yuan wouldn’t be so melodramatic as her possessed self and pull out a cheque to make him leave her nephew.

“Right,” Gu Jiaoyang mumbled, rubbing his nose and sitting on the lounger, his mind already drifting elsewhere.

“I asked Dai Gucan to rip up that agreement,” Qin Yuan said, smiling gently as she pushed the plate of fruit towards Gu Jiaoyang.

Noticing the surprise in Gu Jiaoyang’s beautiful eyes, Qin Yuan gave a resigned but apologetic smile. “I apologise for doing so without your consent, but I felt that on an equal basis in a relationship, those kinds of terms were insulting.”

Qin Yuan spoke calmly, looking directly at Gu Jiaoyang.

“Gucan told me so much about you. And so… I wanted to be very forward and ask you to stay. To treat this as your home.”

Qin Yuan nervously squeezed her fingers as she spoke. She probably hadn’t expected herself to utter such an unpolished, overly direct request.

But she believed in what she saw: the sparkle in Dai Gucan’s eyes whenever he spoke about this boy.

Since his parents’ death, her nephew had rarely been this happy.

“What?” Gu Jiaoyang was confused, the hand holding the fruit trembling slightly.

“No, I was only helping out, hahahaha. It’s truly no big deal. You don’t need to reward me by asking me to…” Gu Jiaoyang waved his hands awkwardly, forcing a laugh to ease the suddenly strange atmosphere.

“It’s not just about a reward.”

Before Gu Jiaoyang could finish, Dai Gucan emerged from behind the door. He must have been cooking, as he wore homewear topped with a pink apron. He walked straight up to Gu Jiaoyang, grabbed his hand, which was dusted with flour, and said resolutely, ” I’m going to steam baozi for you!!!”

“I just steamed a fresh pot. I d-didn’t have time to ask what filling you like, but next time, tell me what you want.”

Gu Jiaoyang was stunned, his hand held firmly by Dai Gucan. He looked at Dai Gucan’s bright red ears and mentally drew a slow question mark in the air.

Beside them, Qin Yuan, who had been clenching her fists tightly under the table as Dai Gucan approached, finally slumped her shoulders under the weight of his “I’m going to steam baozi for you” declaration. She quietly rubbed her forehead.

Oh, dear nephew. Do you really think your father’s method of wooing your mother works on young people today?!

Qin Yuan arrived at the firm conclusion that her dear nephew deserved to be alone for thirty years.

Dai Gucan had often heard his father recount how he won over his mother when he was little. The problem was that their parents’ generation was highly conservative. In that era, where gender roles were distinct, a man proudly proclaiming he would cook for a woman was the equivalent of a marriage proposal.

Qin Yuan looked at her future nephew-in-law, who was completely bewildered, and let out a long, quiet sigh.

It’s a long, arduous road ahead, my child.

The summer evening was a grand spectacle of gold. In the next moment, it would burst into magnificent fiery reds and purples, looking utterly romantic.

Dai Gucan knelt on the soft, emerald grass. The last rays of the setting sun pierced through the layers of the world and fell upon him, outlining his figure in faint gold. Even his pupils, bathed in the sunlight, looked pure, like amber.

Gu Jiaoyang felt a slow sense of understanding dawn within him.

He felt the warmth radiating from the large hand holding his, and he could hear his own heartbeat.

Thump, thump…

Something had sprouted from a seed.

Perhaps he had finally found a home. In this world, he was no longer a floating duckweed, adrift in the air.

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