Chapter 34 – A Heart Laid Bare
Xiao Xi woke to the sterile, impersonal silence of a hospital room.
White lights, the steady, quiet rhythm of medical beeping, and the clean scent of antiseptic.
Beside her, slumped in an uncomfortable, rigidly-angled visitor's chair, was Gu Yanzhou.
He was still wearing the same tailored suit from the set, now rumpled and stained with set dust.
His hair was messy, his jaw shadowed, and thick, dark circles underlined his eyes.
He hadn't left her side.
Her heart squeezed painfully, a wave of profound guilt washing over her.
She lifted a trembling hand, reaching out to brush a stray strand of hair from his forehead.
He stirred immediately, his eyelids fluttering open, instantly alert.
His eyes, when they focused on her, were filled with an overwhelming, vulnerable relief.
"Xiao Xi…" His voice was a dry rasp that cracked with emotion.
"Thank god."
She looked away, ashamed of her weakness and her secrecy.
"You didn't have to stay, Gu Yanzhou."
"I did," he stated simply, his hand covering hers gently on the white sheet, his touch an immediate, anchoring comfort.
"You scared me half to death."
The old Xiao Xi would have joked.
Would have deflected.
But now—now she was too tired, too fragile, and too close to death to pretend.
"Why are you doing this?" she whispered, her voice barely audible.
"We're… not us anymore.
You chose the distance."
He inhaled sharply, the painful intake of breath echoing in the quiet room.
"Is that what you truly believe? That I chose to leave you?"
"It's what you allowed," she countered, her eyes stinging with fresh tears.
"You let your mother and the media push you away.
You let me walk."
He closed his eyes, pain flashing across his face, the realization of their complete miscommunication hitting him like a physical blow.
"I never chose to leave you.
I stayed away because I was afraid the hacker would hurt you if I came closer.
I was trying to protect you from the very thing that attacked you on the cliff.
I was trying to honor your demand for distance."
"And you let me believe you traded me for your mother's approval and a business deal?"
The silence that followed was sharp enough to bleed out the painful truth of their shared fear and stubbornness.
Before either could speak again, a prim, efficient nurse entered the room.
"Mr. Gu, I'm sorry to interrupt, but your mother has arrived and is looking for you downstairs.
She's rather insistent."
His mother.
Her rejection.
The true source of the public scandal.
Xiao Xi's chest tightened, the reality of the external threat returning with crushing force.
"…Go," she said quietly, pulling her hand back.
He hesitated, a portrait of profound conflict. Torn.
Broken.
Then he did the one thing she didn't expect.
He leaned down, his eyes filled with fierce devotion and regret, and pressed a long, trembling, desperate kiss to her forehead.
"I'll come back," he vowed, his voice husky. "And we will finish this conversation.
Don't you dare leave this bed until I do."