Lin Qingping and Gu Juncheng

Chapter 561 It Hurts Here (2)

Meanwhile, the second sister was driving, accompanying Lin Qingping, waiting on the roadside opposite the hospital gate.

Cars were a rare commodity in those days, but Liu Yan, a show-off in the Yun family, was unwilling to fall behind. New cars were too expensive, so they bought an old, discarded car and flaunted it all the time. Seeing his eldest granddaughter-in-law's behavior, the Yun family patriarch worried that his younger granddaughter-in-law might be neglected, so he took out his own money and bought a second-hand car for his second sister as well.

The second sister has been driving this car for a while now. She accompanied her older sister to the hospital and sighed, "Sister, you come to pick him up, but you don't go in. You just wait here. He'll think you really didn't come!"

Lin Qingping remained silent.

The second sister then said, "I don't know what you're thinking either. Gu Juncheng's actions are really infuriating. But I'm grateful that he risked his life to save you this time. However, the most important thing is what you're thinking. Sister, I'll support whatever decision you make, but you never tell me what you're planning! Come to think of it, you and Gu Juncheng are really the same kind of people. You keep everything to yourself, and no one can figure out what you're thinking!"

Lin Qingping looked at her and smiled slightly. One of her greatest successes in her rebirth was changing her second sister's fate.

Gu Juncheng said, "If there is an afterlife, then this and that will happen."

She didn't want an afterlife. In this life, the people she cared about all had good fates, and she didn't know what their fates would be if she could do it all over again.

"Look at you, acting all mysterious again! Making it impossible for anyone to figure you out!" said the second sister.

"I'm not some kind of enigma," Lin Qingping said with a smile. "I'm just thinking about how I can repay what I owe him."

Why do I owe more and more debts in this second life?

The second sister was stunned. "Sister... what you're saying makes it sound like you and Gu Juncheng will only ever be repaying a life-saving debt from now on?"

“But it’s true, isn’t it?” Lin Qingping looked at the three people walking out of the hospital. Gu Juncheng was in the middle, Zhiyuan was holding his arm, and Gu Youlian was on the other side.

The second sister followed Lin Qingping's gaze and hesitated, as if she wanted to say something but then stopped.

Seeing that the three of them were about to hail a taxi, the second sister asked, "Are you really not going to pick him up?"

"No, let's go." Lin Qingping closed the car window.

"Okay." The second sister started the car and drove in the opposite direction from the three of them. She didn't understand why her older sister had come all this way if she didn't want to pick him up from the hospital.

"Sister... Ah—" She was about to speak when she suddenly noticed a person standing on the side of the road ahead. She slammed on the brakes. Luckily, she almost hit the person.

And this person was actually Gu Juncheng...

In the morning light, he walked towards them.

It seems he already knows they're on this bus, so there's no point in hiding anymore.

The second sister simply opened the driver's side door, saying, "You two can both drive, so you can drive yourselves."

She was also looking for an excuse to get off the bus and let them spend time together. She wasn't worried that her sister would be bullied. She wouldn't comment on how Gu Juncheng was, but there was one thing she still firmly believed in today: he wouldn't hurt her sister.

Gu Juncheng then entered the driver's seat and sat down.

Seeing this, Lin Qingping tried to leave, but Gu Juncheng grabbed her wrist.

"Why didn't you see me when you got here?"

His hands were no longer as hot as they used to be when he was healthy; they were slightly cool. It was already December, so how could they not be cold?

"Is it because of Lanxiang that you're still angry with me?" He held her hand, not giving her a chance to leave.

Lin Qingping turned to him and asked, "Gu Juncheng, you are a soldier, you are an upright person, and your belief is to protect the safety of the people. In fact, back then in the cave, if it were anyone else, even a stranger, you would have risked your life to save them, wouldn't you?"

Gu Juncheng remained silent.

"Tell me, isn't that right?"

"Yes." He no longer avoided the question.

"Heh..." Lin Qingping chuckled softly, but still felt a pang of bitterness. "I understand."

“What do you know?” he asked her in return.

"Call my second sister back, I want to go home," she whispered, struggling slightly. "And let go of my hand."

"Impossible, Lin Qingping."

"What? What's impossible?" Lin Qingping felt his hand gripping even tighter.

"There's no way I'll let go of your hand." He gazed at her, his eyes full of meaning. "I went through so much to save you, how could I possibly let go of your hand?"

Lin Qingping found it amusing. "Gu Juncheng, you've saved so many people, do you expect to hold hands with every single one of them?"

"But there is only one Lin Qingping in the world."

His voice echoed in the car, slightly hoarse from the recent recovery from his injury, scraping against people's eardrums and gently brushing against their hearts.

"Maybe I will save many, many people, but only Lin Qingping has shown me what pain here feels like." He took her hand and placed it on his chest.

Lin Qingping stared at him in shock. This man, whose personality was as tough as his physique, always spoke bluntly and bluntly, and had never been so sentimental before.

“Gu Juncheng, you…” She was somewhat unaccustomed to it, or rather, she hadn’t expected it.

"Lin Qingping, I don't want to lose you. I don't want to in the past, I don't want to now, and I don't want to in the next life." He reached out his other hand, stroking her short, newly grown hair, gazing deeply into her eyes. "Lin Qingping, you have secrets, and I have secrets too..."

Lin Qingping looked up abruptly. Was this what she was going to say? "I..."

Gu Juncheng's fingers pressed against her lips. "You know, I know, we all know. I'm clumsy with words, I don't know how to say nice things. Maybe it's selfish of me, but in my two lifetimes, I've met so many people and experienced so many things, yet I only have this one person, a woman named Lin Qingping. Seeing her makes me happy..."

Lin Qingping scoffed, "You're not happy to see Zhangzhu?"

“That’s different. My daughter is my precious daughter, a gift from heaven. There’s a reason I’m happy to see her, because we’re connected by blood. But there’s this one person who feels inexplicably happy to see her, and inexplicably sad when she’s sad. The thought of losing her makes this place inexplicably ache unbearably…” He held her hand, still resting it on his heart. “When I see her being bullied, this place aches too, aches so much that I want to take her home, protect her, and never let anyone speak ill of her again…”

Lin Qingping looked at him in surprise, seemingly understanding why he had asked someone to clarify things. "You... know everything? All those things about my bad reputation..." He knew all the gossip in the village that made her sound like a slut?

"Yes," he answered crisply.

"Then why did you come to propose marriage?" At that time, she was already the subject of much gossip in Linjia Village, and was considered an unmarriageable person...

His hand slid down to the back of her neck. He suddenly moved closer, his dark eyes like stars in the night sky, carrying a faint smell of medicine from the hospital. He lowered his head and touched her lips.

"She's my girl, of course I have to take her home..." a muffled murmur...