Mu Huan looked at him and was compelled to ask, “Since you like me so much, why didn’t you trust me?”

Would a person like someone so much and yet not trust her?

If one can’t even trust a person one likes, is that real affection?

“I…” Gu Chenyi was stumped for words.

“Gu Chenyi, maybe you don’t like me as much as you imagine yourself to. Perhaps it’s only because you had lost before you had even gained, and you find that hard to reconcile. If you truly like someone, you wouldn’t behave like this — it wouldn’t be that no matter how hard I try to explain, you wouldn’t believe me; it wouldn’t be that you’d believe only what others say and hurt me. Since you believe them so much and think that I’m the sort of person they make me out to be, why would you still like me and can’t let it go even now? What do you like about me? What is it that you can’t let go of?”

Mu Huan didn’t understand how he could say he liked her yet, in action, despise her. If he thought that she was that sort of nauseating materialistic money worshipper, what would he like about her?

He liked her nauseating money-worshipping materialism?

“I’m not sure what’s wrong with me, I don’t want to be like this…” Gu Chenyi agonized.

Like what she said, since he felt that she was that sort of woman who wanted to get close to him for money’s sake, who sold her body and became a hostess for money’s sake, what did he like about her?

Why couldn’t he let her go?

“If you don’t want to be like this, then stop thinking about it,” Mu Huan said with a sigh.

“How can I not think about it? I see you every day!” How could he stop thinking about her?

“Alternatively, why don’t you go abroad? If you went abroad, you won’t see me — out of sight, out of mind — and you can start afresh. Very soon, you’ll forget everything!” Mu Huan suggested.

“Was it you who suggested to my uncle to send me abroad?” What she just said reminded him of the time his uncle had tossed him two thick volumes and instructed him to finish reading all that in two days. Otherwise, he’d be sent abroad. They were such thick books that it was obvious he was trying to make things difficult.

“Your uncle wanted to send you abroad?” Mu Huan seemed surprised.

Gu Chenyi did not go on. He could tell she didn’t know about this matter.

He looked at Mu Huan for a long time. Finally, he decided, “Xiao Huan, come with me! No matter what happened in the past, from now on, you’ll have me. We’ll leave all of these behind and go somewhere where no one knows us. We’ll start afresh!”

She widened her eyes in disbelief.

He was…

He was asking her to elope?

Freaking hell!

This child… this child… what was he thinking?!

“Xiao Huan, let’s leave the past behind, let everything go. We’ll leave this place and be together forever!” Suddenly he reached out and grabbed her hands tightly, looking at her with his pleading eyes, saying:

Don’t reject him, he’s putting all at risk to make such a decision!

He didn’t care what sort of person she was before, or what went on between her and his uncle. As long as from now on, she liked only him!

Gu Chenyi would not accept that Mu Huan would continue to be with his uncle, and he would not accept that he had to marry Lin Qingya.

The rejection of these facts pushed him to make the firm decision to let everything else go, to not bother about the sort of person Mu Huan was, to not let it matter what she did in the past. As long as from now on, she liked only him and would be faithful to him.

His almost desperate plea stopped Mu Huan from kicking him off like she was inclined to. She couldn’t bring herself to do it and only forcefully withdrew her hand.

“Gu Chenyi, that’s not possible!” She was his aunt now, and she simply couldn’t imagine the consequences of eloping with him! Furthermore, even if there were to be no consequences, and even if they weren’t aunt and nephew, she wouldn’t have eloped with him either!