“Hongyi, this is the place.”
It was the place where Gu Yebai had seen his mother for the last time not long ago.
At that time, the sky was like a piece of glass that could never be wiped clean—always overcast, gray, and filled with the scent of coal cinders and damp rust.
There was no helping it.
After all, Linchuan was a city whose industrial resources had been depleted.
Even if his mother hadn’t passed away that day, the sky over this city had always been dim and lusterless in Gu Yebai’s memory.
But today seemed different.
Perhaps it was because it had snowed a few days ago, or because it was currently mid-morning and the sun was at its peak.
Looking up, he saw a surprisingly clear, vast blue sky.
“Uncle Bai, I lost my composure a bit earlier. I’m sorry.”
“Why?”
“Because when I heard that you had a female friend, I couldn’t help but let my imagination run wild… I was a little afraid of losing you.”
She paused for a moment and then added in a low voice.
“Uncle Bai, in the real world, I don’t have a single male friend.”
“Not even one.”
“In the past, I poured all my passion into the piano.”
“To the me back then, getting to know male friends was simply a waste of life.”
Gao Hongyi looked up at the sky, her gaze quiet and clear.
“If I had to say, the piano was my first lover.”
“When I was very young, I wasn’t actually good at expressing myself.”
“Back then, my parents were busy with work, and I was always alone.”
“Rather than speaking, it was easier to let the notes convey my emotions for me.”
Gu Yebai nodded.
“If there’s a chance, I’d really like to hear you play.”
“I will definitely play for you.”
Gao Hongyi smiled.
The smile was thin, yet exceptionally earnest.
“My second lover was your novel.”
“Through the experiences of the characters you wrote, I completed my own life.”
“Even if it wasn’t my life, as long as I could participate in it even a little bit, I felt satisfied.”
“It’s truly an honor.”
“For me as well.”
She took a gentle breath, as if trying to suppress something.
“That’s why… I lost my composure earlier.”
“Or rather…”
“I was a little jealous.”
At the thought of Gu Yebai once being close to some unknown girl, a cluster of unnamable flames quietly ignited in the depths of Gao Hongyi’s heart.
It wasn’t anger.
It was a type of possessiveness strong enough to incinerate all order.
If Gu Yebai truly fell in love with another girl…
The thought itself was enough to cause her perception of reality to collapse.
It was as if the life she had lived, the emotions she had invested, and everything she believed in would be completely negated in an instant.
She knew such thoughts might be absurd.
But she also knew one thing clearly.
She understood Gu Yebai’s fragility and the hardships he had faced better than anyone else.
She knew what kind of delicate and romantic heart a creator needed when bringing a work to life.
Gu Yebai was exactly the puzzle piece that fit her perfectly.
The only one.
She would never allow him to give his tenderness or his gaze to another woman.
This was the untouchable red line in the depths of Gao Hongyi’s heart.
If something uncontrollable really happened…
She knew very well that she might make choices that even she herself couldn’t bear to look at.
Perhaps she would spread rumors.
Perhaps she would commit a crime.
Perhaps she would simply become a truly evil person in the worldly sense.
As long as she could keep Uncle Bai.
In her view, gentleness and kindness were merely burdens that could be discarded at any time.
“Is this where your parents are?”
Seeing Gu Yebai stop, Gao Hongyi’s gaze fell upon the tombstone that looked ordinary in every way.
Beloved Father: Gu Chengfeng.
Beloved Mother: Lu Xiaoai.
There were no extra decorations.
It was as quiet as if it had been forgotten in a corner by time.
“Yes, this is it,” Gu Yebai’s voice was very soft.
Gao Hongyi quietly turned her head to observe him.
In her heart, however, a faint but real sense of dissatisfaction emerged.
At this moment, Gu Yebai’s thoughts seemed to be pulled back to a past where she could not set foot.
That was a world that belonged to him alone.
She was not in it.
‘No.’
The thought surfaced almost instinctively.
‘I must—even if it’s just a little bit—squeeze into his past world.’
And the people before her, who should have been her biological parents, had turned into a tombstone…
They were one of the bridges leading into Gu Yebai’s inner world.
“You…”
Gao Hongyi murmured softly.
“You should be my true parents in this world too, right?”
She had no emotional foundation with them.
She had never met them.
She had never spent time with them.
She only knew from Gu Yebai’s descriptions that they had been gentle people.
But that was enough.
Gao Hongyi didn’t mind utilizing this “gentleness” a little.
If they also hoped Gu Yebai could obtain unprecedented happiness.
If they truly loved this child.
Then they surely wouldn’t mind her insignificant bit of cunning.
After all…
Everything she did was for Uncle Bai.
On this point, she was certain her conscience was clear.
“Huh?”
In truth, she didn’t feel like crying at all.
What was in front of her was nothing more than a stone carved from marble.
To Gao Hongyi, that was all it should have been.
There were no shared memories between her and the deceased, nor was there any so-called emotional bond.
Rationally speaking, she had no reason to shed tears.
And yet—
Tears still fell without warning.
First, one drop.
It hit the cold stone surface, leaving almost no trace.
Then a second.
A third.
It was as if her body was making decisions on its own.
“…How strange.”
She was crying.
Because she knew Gu Yebai had cried more than once for the people buried under this tombstone.
As long as she cried along with him, she could enter Gu Yebai’s world.
It was so simple.
“Hongyi…”
As expected.
Gao Hongyi noticed a flicker of pity and affection in Gu Yebai’s eyes.
It was working.
She knew Uncle Bai too well.
His tenderness was like water; he couldn’t distinguish between real and fake tears.
“Uncle Bai, our worlds have finally overlapped at this moment…”
“I wish I could have met them so much.”
“Even though I don’t know anything about them, they should have been my parents, yet they’re both gone.”
Who would care?
A couple who hadn’t raised her for even a single day.
Standing before the tombstone, Gao Hongyi was simply thinking about what would happen if Gu Yebai ever left her side.
And so, the tears obediently came out.
Crying wasn’t a difficult task.
“Uncle Bai, can you hold me tight? I’m so cold…”
“I want to be needed.”
‘I’m sorry for using you…’
But she had to get closer to him and give him more happiness.
She wasn’t sad right now, but Gao Hongyi clearly realized that she needed to be sad.
If she didn’t…
If she didn’t enter this world, she would never be at the same coordinate point as Uncle Bai.
‘So come to me, Uncle Bai!’
How could he not embrace a girl who was crying for the parents he once regarded as everything?
“Hongyi…”
Gu Yebai finally acted.
As if pulled by the white strings of a marionette, he held her tightly.
Ah, it was so warm.
This was Uncle Bai taking the initiative to hug her.
Hehe.