Together Forever

Chapter 10.3

Wanting Only to Be Together

After Gu Pingsheng hung up his phone, he continued sitting in the brightly lit and vibrant lobby. Around him, there were many people who had stepped out midway for a cigarette. He was sitting in a very comfortable, relaxed position on the sofa, watching the hotel's fireworks display.

Countless streaks of white light launched up into the sky and in an instant, exploded into a wide display of brilliance.

What was Tianjin like? He still had not yet visited that city.

Gu Pingfan came over to him, took a seat, and patted him on the back of his hand. When he turned toward her, she smiled and said, "Just now, [paternal] Granddad asked about your girlfriend. I didn't mention that she was your student. You know ... he is quite against romantic relationships between teacher and student."

"I know." He was not overly concerned. "I used to be against this type of relationship as well. Remember, you once asked me, did I fall for Tong Yan because of the similarities to my mother? In fact, it was the exact opposite. It was because of my mother that there was a period where I wavered over whether I should begin this sort of relationship."

During that time, he had used a period of two weeks to avoid her.

He had even privately asked Zhao Yin to take over her tutoring lessons. He had thought that everything had been well arranged, that perhaps his heart had merely by chance been stirred and so long as he avoided her for a longer period, he would be fine. In any case, it would be better than coming along and disturbing her life.

But on that afternoon, when he had sat down beside her and told her that he would no longer be tutoring her, the disappointment that could faintly be seen in her eyes had, just like that, caused his heart to soften.

He remembered, that day, sitting there beside the window, she had been facing the rays of sun shining in through the glass. Her features had been blurred, except her eyes, which had been so arresting. At the time, he had not known about her family and her past relationship, but he had sensed that she must have met with many unbearable disappointments and pain in her life.

Yet even so, the feelings he saw inside those eyes were still warm and sincere.

So sincere it was as if she had never before been hurt.

Gu Pingfan handed the cup of hot water she was holding to him. He took it from her and said thank you but did not drink from it.

"The results, this time, from your check-up were not very good. Do you have any plans for going back to the U.S. for your surgery?" Gu Pingfan decided to nonetheless try to persuade him one more time. "Even though there are a lot of clinical cases of this in China, I still feel you should choose the place that provides the better medical environment ..."

"It's fine," he interrupted Gu Pingfan's words. "I want to have my surgery in Peking Union."

Gu Pingfan fixed her eyes intently on him for some time until finally, she breathed a lengthy sigh. "Fine. You can sometimes be really annoying. On the surface, you seem easygoing but in reality, you are so stubborn it can be scary. Just like how you've always refused to accept using a hearing aid, and no matter who talks to you about it, it still makes no difference."

"Thank you, Pingfan."

Smilingly, he gave his thanks to her, stopping all of her words that, outwardly, seemed to be complaints but in fact were expressions of her heartache for him.

The start of school happened to fall before the Lantern Festival[1].

Grandmother was very sad to see her go and had made yuanxiao[2] [glutinous rice balls], both the fried and the boiled type, in advance. She had eaten them for two whole days and by the end, felt that she was about to turn into a rice ball herself.