Chapter 362: Chapter 327: The Beginning of Sin
"What is going on here?" Cheng Menghong looked angrily towards the embarrassed Cheng Jinyang, "Jinyang, explain to me why Gu Dezhong’s daughter is here."
Cheng Menghong didn’t even bother to address her properly, she even glared at her viciously when mentioning Gu Dezhong.
Gu Qili really wanted to say, I am Gu Dezhong’s daughter, but aren’t I also your daughter? Just because I was raised by my father, must the grievances between you be imposed on our generation?
But she said nothing. The exquisitely beautiful woman in front of her felt like a stranger, and even though she knew this woman was her biological mother, seeing such a venomous side of her, she would rather not have such a mother.
All she felt now was sadness for Gu Dezhong, the woman he had tried his best to love and protect was ruined by his own wife. If he knew, how regretful and self-blaming he would be.
Gu Qili didn’t glance at Cheng Menghong again. She packed up the diary, opened the door, and went to chase after Mu Shuoqian.
"Jinyang, are you also deceiving me? She is not Yunxi at all." Cheng Menghong trembled with anger, "You are getting bolder and bolder."
Cheng Jinyang was somewhat afraid of Cheng Menghong’s outburst, but the things he had just seen and heard were too shocking, and he was still somewhat in disbelief. His sister, who had always appeared gentle and kind, had done such earth-shattering things decades ago. Thinking about Detroit decades ago, it was incredibly chaotic, and for a mother and child alone to survive there was truly a miracle.
"Cheng Jinyang, I am talking to you." Cheng Menghong’s words were ignored, and she couldn’t help raising her voice,
"Sister." Cheng Jinyang, now grown-up, also felt angry when she shouted at him like this, "Yunxi is your daughter, isn’t Qili also your daughter? You hate your brother-in-law for treating you badly, harboring feelings for someone else, but I haven’t forgotten, initially it was you who drugged your brother-in-law’s drink and then had relations with him. He married you out of responsibility. He’s a good man, who tried his best to treat you well after marriage. You’re always forcing him to love you, often pressing him to do things he doesn’t want to do. You know he doesn’t love you, aren’t you making it difficult for him?"
"Cheng Jinyang." Cheng Menghong’s eyes widened, not expecting this usually compliant brother to speak such rebellious words, "You, you..."
Suddenly, Cheng Menghong’s breath faltered, and she fell backward onto the bed.
Seeing this, Cheng Jinyang was scared and immediately rushed out shouting: "Doctor, doctor."
～
Just as Gu Qili stepped out of the hospital, she saw the car Mu Shuoqian had been in driving away. Without thinking, she dashed out and hailed a taxi.
"Follow that car ahead." She immediately pointed forward as soon as she got in.
The driver looked at her blankly, and she realized she had blurted out in the local dialect of Aus City in her rush, so she quickly switched to English.
The driver said, "OK," and immediately caught up to Mu Shuoqian’s car, also seriously offering, "Do you need to speed? I used to be a racecar driver."
Gu Qili: "..."
Mr. Driver, you are really funny, but she was not in the mood for it.
Mu Shuoqian didn’t go anywhere else, but drove straight back to the hotel. He had just gotten out of his car when a taxi stopped next to him, and he turned to see Gu Qili hurriedly opening the car door, taking money out of her wallet to give to the driver, her eyes meeting his, and her lips curving slightly though she didn’t quite know what expression to use.
If it wasn’t for her finding the diary left by Gu Dezhong, if it wasn’t for her coming to confront Cheng Menghong, perhaps she would never know the great harm her family had once brought him.
Wanting to speak, yet not knowing what to say, she found herself at a loss for words, her emotions extremely complicated.
Mu Shuoqian watched her quietly for a while, didn’t enter the hotel but turned and got back into the car. As he closed the door, he looked up at her and asked, "Coming with me?"
Gu Qili didn’t know where he intended to go, but still without hesitation, opened the other side of the car door.
In the end, they reached the airport.
After four hours of flight, they arrived from San Francisco to Detroit, the now bankrupt city, also the city he had lived in from the age of five until twenty.
Gu Qili felt that some buried past was about to unveil its mysterious veil, the unease in her heart making her steps heavy, yet she knew, what must be confronted, must always be confronted. Hadn’t she also complained that Mu Shuoqian never mentioned his past to her?
Mu Shuoqian bought a cotton-padded coat in a fashion store at the airport.
"The winter in Detroit is much colder than in Aus City." He simply explained and then tore off the tag of the coat, raised his hand, and passed the coat over.
Gu Qili felt the cold as soon as she got off the plane, the trees outside the hall were bare, and people around her were wrapped up tightly.
She put on the cotton-padded coat.
Mu Shuoqian hailed a taxi outside and stopped at a market-like place where he got out to buy something, wrapping it in a black plastic bag before tucking it into his pocket.
"What did you buy?" Gu Qili asked curiously.
"A gun." He looked at her visibly shocked face and replied nonchalantly: "The security here is very chaotic, carrying a gun for self-defense."
Gu Qili glanced at the pocket with the handgun and fell silent.
The taxi finally stopped in a residential area, Mu Shuoqian got out and kept holding her hand: "Follow me, don’t wander off."
Listening to him talk about the history of this place, Gu Qili couldn’t help but feel fear. Compared to the thriving, safe Aus City, this place was simply a nightmare,
A few black men passed by them, their eyes somewhat sneakily circling on the two of them; Gu Qili dared not look at them,
He tightened his grip on her hand and whispered, "It’s okay."
After those black men left, Mu Shuoqian pointed to a playground not far away and said, "I used to play basketball here, back then there was only one basket, and the court was just dirt. We wore T-shirts with the local supermarket’s name, and if we won, we’d get two hamburgers."
There were a few black kids playing on the court, Mu Shuoqian gripped the outside railing of the court, his gaze deep and distant.
"No wonder Yishu said you play basketball like a streetball player, turns out you started playing here at such a young age."
"Others play basketball for fun, but I played for hamburgers. To get a hamburger, you had to win, so back then, I was very desperate."
Gu Qili silently watched those children, almost seeing the shadow of a young Mu Shuoqian in them; imagining him drenched in sweat after a basketball game, standing by the road with his friends waiting for the supermarket owner’s charity, and also thinking of the downcast look when they lost a game and went home empty-handed.
Her nose felt sour, and tears almost fell.
Mu Shuoqian turned around, leaning against the railing and pulled out a cigarette, looking at the dilapidated buildings in front of him, a cold smirk overflowed from his lips: "After so many years, many of these houses still haven’t been demolished. No wonder, these houses are worthless, no one buys them so naturally no one will build."
He took a drag of his cigarette, silently staring at the row of old and dilapidated buildings.
Gu Qili stood by his side, feeling the desolation emanating from him. On this journey, she wanted to speak several times but never mustered the courage. Opening her mouth without organizing her words, the man watching the scenery suddenly said: "Want to ask how I survived those years?"
Gu Qili pursed her lips, "Is... everything Cheng Menghong said true?"
"At that time I was just over five years old, I don’t remember much, but we really were on a ship trafficking humans,
Gu Qili’s heart clenched with his words.
"On the third day at sea, two men dragged my mother away, and when I went to look for her..." Mu Shuoqian took an intense drag of his cigarette, pausing briefly before continuing, "They found me and dragged me in too. They propped open my eyelids; if they hadn’t intended to keep me alive, she would have just jumped off the boat then."
His words were devoid of emotion, as bland as the cold wind beside his ear, yet Gu Qili was already trembling. He was so young at the time; she couldn’t even imagine what it was like.
A sinister ship, a mother and son with no support or hope, almost wailing in pain.
She very much hoped that everything she had heard wasn’t true.