Everyone Regrets It After My Death - Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Misunderstanding

The news of Su Mingran’s hospitalization was known only to Gu Pei.

Just as Su Mingran was preparing to be discharged, Gu Pei’s call came through.

Lately, Gu Pei had been following Qi Xinghe so closely that Qi’s university had practically become his second home. Friends jokingly called him Qi Xinghe’s “errand boy.” Some high school friends were curious why he had become so close to someone he previously couldn’t stand.

Gu Pei’s reason was simple: he claimed he hadn’t understood Xinghe before, but now that he knew him deeply, he realized Xinghe wasn’t the person he thought he was.

“Xinghe is kind-hearted and meticulous,” Gu Pei would argue. “He cares about other people’s feelings; he just acts tough on the surface. Besides, if I were the youngest in the family, I’d be a bit spoiled too.”

Regardless of what others said, Gu Pei felt they only saw the surface. He witnessed Qi Xinghe’s popularity and good reputation firsthand. His change of heart hadn’t happened overnight; it traced back to the period after the college entrance exams.

…

The Gu family had been in business for three generations, and Gu Pei was the sole heir. His life was strictly controlled: extra classes during holidays, specific diets, and a social calendar full of networking with high-ranking officials.

When he met Su Mingran at sixteen, Su became his only friend. Gu Pei cherished him, noticing the mysterious bruises Su Mingran often had, though Su never spoke of them.

By the second half of high school, the pressure from Gu Pei’s parents became pathological. They installed surveillance cameras in his room and monitored his every move at school. When they felt he was becoming too close to Su Mingran, they forced him to distance himself.

Isolated and living like a “walking corpse,” Gu Pei one day found a letter and a bottle of cola in his desk drawer.

His parents forbid “unhealthy” drinks, but Gu Pei loved them. Soon, a letter appeared every day, accompanied by snacks. One day, he opened a letter to find a drawing of the school basketball court with a note: The sun is beautiful today; won’t you come down and play?

The letters were written on the cheapest scrap paper in plain yellow envelopes, detailing mundane campus gossip—the dean’s crooked wig, the music teacher’s new boyfriend. To anyone else, it was trivial. To Gu Pei, it was a lifeline.

He began to write back, using the most expensive stationery he could find as a “thank you” to this anonymous friend. They discussed books, music, and the crushing weight of his parents’ expectations. Encouraged by these letters, Gu Pei’s relationship with his parents improved, the cameras were removed, and he regained his freedom.

But as he grew happier, the letters became less frequent and finally stopped. Gu Pei panicked; he had never asked who the sender was.

On the morning after the college entrance exams, Gu Pei went to school early. He saw a figure slip into the classroom.

It was Qi Xinghe.

He watched Qi Xinghe place a yellow envelope and a bottle of cola in his drawer. Gu Pei rushed in to find a letter in that familiar handwriting: Happy Graduation.

From that moment, Gu Pei was convinced Qi Xinghe was his savior. That same day, Qi Xinghe was being honored under the national flag for a provincial essay prize. Gu Pei watched him from the balcony.

“He’s amazing,” a classmate told Gu Pei. “He won that big prize, while your friend Su Mingran didn’t even get a participation award.”

What Gu Pei didn’t know was that Qi Xinghe’s popularity in his own class was bought with “money power.” He had bullied many students, but the teachers, paid off by Su Renhua, turned a blind eye. Those who tried to speak up were transferred. To the rest of the school, Qi Xinghe was a perfect, if slightly delicate, star student.

…

After graduation, Gu Pei became a fixture at the Su house, using Su Mingran as an excuse to see Qi Xinghe. When Qi Xinghe failed his exams and cried, Gu Pei was there to comfort him. They became inseparable.

When Gu Pei eventually asked if Qi Xinghe had left things in his desk, Xinghe’s face reddened. “So what if I did!” he snapped.

Gu Pei just smiled, thinking him a “tsundere” (cold on the outside, warm on the inside).

As they grew closer, Qi Xinghe began to feed Gu Pei a narrative: “I was picked up from the street… that’s why my parents occasionally favor me out of pity.” “Su Mingran used to bully me because he thought I stole his place.” “When I won that essay prize, Su Mingran claimed he wrote it. He even tried to tell the principal.”

It sounded plausible. Why would a teacher credit the “wrong” student? But Su Mingran’s teacher had simply chosen the path of least resistance (and most funding).

Later, when Qi Xinghe was “pushed” down the stairs by Su Mingran (a staged incident), Gu Pei’s loyalty was sealed. When he heard Su Mingran had punched Qi Xinghe recently, his anger reached a peak. He called Su Mingran, found out he was in the hospital, and drove there to confront him.

…

Entering the hospital room, Gu Pei saw his old friend lying pale and lifeless on the bed. His anger softened slightly, but he couldn’t stop himself from defending Qi Xinghe.

“Why did you hit Xinghe? He’s a good person. Even in high school when you accused him of stealing your essay, he didn’t hold a grudge. When you pushed him down the stairs, he let it go. What more do you want?”

Su Mingran propped himself up, staring at Gu Pei. A cold, sharp laugh escaped his lips. “I framed him? I pushed him? He… didn’t hold a grudge?”

“Mingran, your misunderstanding of him is too deep,” Gu Pei said earnestly. “He encouraged me in high school. He sent me those letters every day. He’s a good person; he wouldn’t steal from you.”

Su Mingran began to laugh even harder, clutching his stomach as if he’d heard the funniest joke in the world.

Gu Pei’s expression soured. “What are you laughing at?”

Su Mingran wiped a tear of laughter from his eye and looked at Gu Pei with pure pity. “Gu Pei… you should really just donate your eyes. Give them to someone who can actually use them.”