Chapter 24: Talented and Beautiful

Gu Nanyan stood beside the hospital bed, her eyes still lingering on her older brother, Gu Nancheng.

He was renowned in the medical world for being both extraordinarily talented and handsome. However, although his face was striking, it somehow didn’t resemble hers at all. While her own beauty was once the talk of her school, especially as the campus flower, there seemed to be no connection between their looks.

“Take a good rest,” Gu Nancheng said after finishing his routine check-up and was about to leave.

Before leaving, he glanced at Gu Nanyan. His gaze was so cold that it made her feel like he wasn’t the warm brother she remembered. Perhaps he had been hurt too deeply.

He took one last look at her and then walked away, not even bothering to say a simple greeting.

When he turned, his brown eyes deepened with a fleeting sadness that only someone truly observant could notice.

“Nanyan, you and your family…?” After Gu Nancheng left, Lu Wan glanced at her and hesitated.

“I haven’t gone back in a long time.” Gu Nanyan sighed, “I was too impulsive before, and I hurt everyone in the family. I didn’t have the courage to return. But don’t worry, when the time is right, I will go back and explain everything.”

“It will pass, Nanyan.” Lu Wan gave her a soft smile. She had just experienced life and death herself, yet she was now comforting someone else.

“Yeah, it will pass.” Gu Nanyan smiled back at her.

Lu Wan’s smile faded a little as she instinctively glanced at her bandaged wrist.

“Actually…” Gu Nanyan sat down beside the bed and changed the subject, “Huo Beiting might not be as terrifying as people say.”

Lu Wan didn’t speak but frowned slightly as soon as she thought of him. Her eyes revealed an obvious discomfort.

“Although everyone says he’s a killer and heartless, think about it, Wan. If his entire family turned against him and everyone wanted to trample on him, would you call that a fight back or just letting them crush him?”

Last night, when she learned from Shen Boyan that Huo Beiting had some things he couldn’t control, Gu Nanyan looked into the Huo family’s background.

She discovered that Huo Beiting’s parents died young, and his childhood was tragic. He had been slandered, framed, humiliated, and abused, surviving in the Huo family like a stray dog.

This continued for many years, and only after growing up did he begin to rebel against the family. Those who oppressed him either died by his hand or suffered worse.

He single-handedly changed the entire Huo family and gained control over the Huo Corporation. No one knew how he did it, and people just called him a born villain, a demon. Even the Huo family matriarch had once lamented why he wasn’t strangled in his cradle.

No one ever considered that when a person is pushed to the brink of survival, they become incredibly strong.

“The entire family… against him?” Lu Wan’s discomfort slowly turned into sympathy as she thought about it. She still had the slight affection of her father, but he was… all alone.

“Anyway, you can’t believe everything you hear. Wan, you’ve never met Huo Beiting, and you don’t know him, so there’s no need to fear him. If you don’t want to marry him, there are plenty of ways to avoid it, but don’t hurt yourself.”

“I understand, Nanyan.”

Lu Wan nodded, her clear eyes showing some complexity in their light.

…

Gu Nanyan stayed with Lu Wan for half the day at the hospital and left in the afternoon.

As soon as she stepped out of the hospital, she saw a striking figure.

He Yuehui was wearing a suit and holding a bouquet of bright red roses. When he saw Gu Nanyan, he smiled and walked toward her.

Gu Nanyan froze.

How did He Yuehui know she was at the hospital?

It was the hospital entrance, and he was so openly presenting flowers to her.

Gu Nanyan furrowed her brows and scanned her surroundings. Sure enough, she spotted a black sedan parked not far from the entrance, and it seemed someone inside was holding a camera.

She immediately understood what was going on.

Someone was deliberately trying to create a misunderstanding.

And here, at the hospital entrance, with people coming and going, she definitely couldn’t just hit He Yuehui right there. She’d be sent to the police, and may even face prosecution.

A flash of understanding crossed her eyes, and an idea came to her.

He Yuehui had already approached her by the time she finished thinking.

Like a gentleman, he extended the roses to Gu Nanyan. “Nanyan, I know everything you’ve done before was for a reason. Let’s make up. I’ll cherish you properly. Our future will be wonderful.”

“Really?” Gu Nanyan glanced at the black sedan but didn’t take the flowers. She simply said coldly, “I do have my reasons. And I have a lot to say to you, but it’s clearly inconvenient to talk here. How about we go somewhere more private?”

“Really?” He Yuehui’s eyes lit up.

Gu Nanyan had always been exceptionally beautiful. Unfortunately, he had known her too early, and because her family restricted her, they could only secretly date. They hadn’t even held hands.

Now that she was finally eighteen, he thought he would get what he wanted. But then, Shen Boyan had gotten the advantage.

The two hadn’t even met in person over the past few years, let alone anything more.

It seemed that today, he would finally get what he desired.

Even though she was no longer a “virgin,” at least she was cleaner than those women in the clubs.

Gu Nanyan got into the car with He Yuehui and left.

Inside the other black sedan, a man wearing a baseball cap “clicked” several photos, his face filled with excitement.

These photos, once organized, would be enough to send to Miss Qin.

At the Yu Jin Manor.

When Qin Yuwei received the photos, her joy was beyond words.

Gu Nanyan, I knew you liked He Yuehui for so many years, and you wouldn’t give up that easily.

See, the flames have been reignited.

You actually eloped with He Yuehui.

Hahaha… this is heaven helping me.

“Madam has returned.”

As Qin Yuwei’s smile was about to bloom, the servant’s words caused her expression to freeze.

Gu Nanyan had the driver stop the car right in front of her.

As Gu Nanyan stepped out of the car, Qin Yuwei quickly put her phone away.

Gu Nanyan raised an eyebrow. “Miss Qin, why do you look so bad? Could it be that I was right, and you’re really sick?”

“You’re the one who’s sick.”

Qin Yuwei hid her phone behind her, sizing up Gu Nanyan from head to toe. After confirming that it was really Gu Nanyan, she still unwillingly asked, “What are you doing here?”

Hadn’t she just eloped with He Yuehui?

How could she return so quickly?

“I just went to visit a friend at the hospital. Why can’t I come back?” Gu Nanyan smiled at her. “Why do you ask so strangely? Don’t tell me, you don’t want me to come back?”

“I never said that.” Qin Yuwei didn’t want to talk much more, so she turned and walked away.

As she turned, she couldn’t help but wrinkle her brow. Did the sewage pipe explode at home? Why did the air seem to have a strange smell?

Even if there was no elopement, the photos in her hands were enough to prove that Gu Nanyan had secretly met with He Yuehui!