Chapter 21.4 (2/2)

She was a former master of ceremonies, so of course no one would stop her from entering.

When it was time for the Suns.h.i.+ne Theatre Society’s act, she was backstage and standing behind the immense stage curtain, watching seven or eight students use an artistic type of voice to act out a scene of graduation and departure from school. The audience seats in front of the stage were largely empty, with only some of the cast and crew sitting in them and observing.

A few people coming from the side stage curtain at the back unexpectedly looked in her direction and politely called out, “Teacher Gu.”

Tong Yan suddenly grew nervous…

Behind her, someone answered, “Thank you for your hard work.”

It was not his voice.

Even her hands had gone somewhat weak, but she was thankful that it truly was not him.

The teacher behind her seemed to be the new supervising teacher for the Students’ Union and did not know Tong Yan, only communicating in low tones with those students about the plans for the evening celebration. While she continued watching the onstage people whom she knew rehea.r.s.e the play, an alert all of a sudden rang out from her phone.

She lowered her head and glanced at it. It was a text message from Gu Pingsheng:

I had originally wanted to say a few words to you, but I realize now that that is not a very easy thing for me to do. Student Tong Yan, congratulations on your successful graduation. TK

“Who has their mobile phone turned on backstage? Don’t you know the rehearsal rules?”

Since this was the rehearsal for a stage play, there was a sound system and speakers on stage, and the sound of these words was enough to disturb everyone.

The eyes of all the people backstage turned toward her. As she stared at her mobile phone, Tong Yan dimly realized that she had committed a wrong. Lifting up the stage curtain, she confessed apologetically, “I’m sorry, Teacher Du. It was me.”

“Oh, it’s Tong Yan.” When Du Half-A-Beat saw it was her, his face quickly transformed into a smile. “Our school gala master of ceremonies of previous years. I think this is your graduation year. So how about it? Are you heading into graduate studies?”

Shaking her head, she exchanged a few words of pleasantries with this teacher whom she had collaborated with for several years.

That night, she directly departed from Shanghai without going to watch that graduation celebration that belonged to her.

Her ticket was for a sleeper berth on the train. In the middle of the night and unable to sleep, she stepped out into the corridor to take a seat on one of the chairs there. Text messages were coming in incessantly from Shen Yao, telling her how many people had jumped into the lake as a way to commemorate this graduation and how many people had posed with the statue of Venus to take a photograph. This way of bidding farewell to one’s era as a student was truly both wild and heartrendingly poignant.

The rumble of the train speeding over the tracks was mechanical and rhythmic.

She read and read until she fell asleep, sprawled on a little table. When the sky was beginning to lighten at five or six o’clock in the morning, Tong Yan awakened. The corridor already contained early risers who were starting to move about. She had just pulled out some toiletries from her bag when she received a call on her phone from Pingfan. Pingfan’s voice was still friendly as before, and she did not say very much, only that she was coming to pick her up at the station.

Tong Yan could surmise that she was coming regarding matters related to Gu Pingsheng, so she did not refuse her.

Pingfan’s vehicle was stopped opposite the railway station, separated by a road. Though she had thoroughly prepared herself mentally, when she saw Pingfan, she still felt extremely awkward.

Pingfan could detect her apprehension, and after she was seated in the car, she quickly said, “Don’t put too great a load on your mind. I told you before that no matter what choice you make, I will understand.” Saying that, she pulled out a stack of printed doc.u.ments from the back seat and handed it to her. “TK personally wrote this up and requested that I bring it to you.”

Tong Yan took it from her. It was a home purchase contract. The seller was Gu Pingsheng, and the buyer, of course, was her.

“When I got this, I was actually very perplexed. Why did he not choose to gift it, and rather, he made it a sale?” Gu Pingfan’s tone was intentionally light, and with a smile, she jokingly mocked him. “He said that it is relatively complex to gift it and would require that he is present before it can be conducted. A purchase and sale transaction is much simpler. You only need to sign your name and then I can help the both of you carry out the remainder of the procedure.”

As Pingfan stated this, she was already handing a pen over to her. Tong Yan did not take it .

“Yan Yan, he is doing this because he is respecting you. In our hearts, we already view you as his wife. Even though the two of you have to separate, this is also something that he must do. And trust me, if you won’t accept it, he will certainly also persist and just change to find a different way to give this apartment to you.” Pingfan set the pen on top of the doc.u.ment and smiled, “You know that he’s really stubborn. It’s pretty annoying.”

“Let me think about it,” she answered.

“Also, I’m going to open a joint account and transfer all the money you kept with him into the account that you and I will jointly own. I will, right off the bat, provide my authorization for any withdrawal and use of considerable amounts, so in reality, I’m just a safeguard that’s there in name only.”

Pingfan continued with all her explanations, regardless of how large or trivial the matters were.

The air conditioning inside the vehicle blew against her skin. So cold. His every arrangement was very well thought-out and did not have a single flaw.

After Pingfan finished saying everything, her eyes were already noticeably reddened. Spreading her arms, she wrapped Tong Yan into her tight embrace. “Alright, I still have a lot of other things I need to do. That little bro of mine who spares me no worry has never let me just relax.”

Tong Yan hugged her back. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t say that.” Pingfan told her, “Although the ending wasn’t good, we still were once family, after all.”

Family. She had once so greatly yearned to have a whole, intact family.

If he possessed a healthy body, how wonderful that would be.

She would unquestionably cast off all heed regarding matters of her family and shamelessly attach herself to him. After all, Gu Pingsheng genuinely was very outstanding and would be very capable of earning money to support the family anyway. But the reality was, his health was so poor. Perhaps there were only twenty years remaining in his lifespan, but as a result of throwing himself into work, it would be shortened by another five or ten years or even more.

This kind of consequence was one that she dared not even think about.

The best now would be if he could leave and go to any other place, one where he did not need to have too much  in savings and also did not have too many burdens weighing down on him.

Even without romantic love, for the many people in his family who loved him, he would still take good care of himself.

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