I raised stunning young ladies, but they all wanted to possess me.

"You are Bai Zikong, you should have a way. After all, you know Miss Chen, so it's more appropriate for you to take action than for me."

There was another two-second silence on the other end of the phone, longer than before, before Bai Zikong laughed, his laughter carrying an indescribable sense of helplessness.

"Master Gu, please don't joke around. Only you can cure Miss Chen's illness. What use would I be? I'm not a doctor."

"I'm neither the Emperor's Jade nor Miss Chen's beloved. Going there would be pointless; I wouldn't even be able to get close to her bedside."

"Master Gu, you are the most suitable person. Please don't refuse. I'll leave Miss Chen in your care. I really can't help you here."

"I have something to do, so I'll hang up now. See you later. I'll come see you when I'm done, and I'll treat you to a meal to make up for it."

The call ended with a beep, and the phone screen displayed that the call had ended, lasting only a little over a minute.

Gu Yan stood there, stunned, holding her phone. She looked as if she had been struck by lightning, her eyes wide open and her mouth agape.

He called Bai Zikong to ask him to take over, but Bai Zikong kicked the ball back to him, and did so quickly and accurately.

And they even said, "Master Gu, you are the most suitable," what a load of rubbish! Does being suitable mean the death of him? Suitable, suitable, suitable, what a load of rubbish!

He tossed his phone onto the table, and it slid across the surface, almost falling off, but he didn't reach out to catch it.

I leaned back in my chair and stared at the ceiling for a long, long time. There was a thin crack on the ceiling that stretched from the light fixture all the way to the corner of the wall.

Is it worth it to sacrifice your remaining lifespan to save a delicate young girl?

He still has his grandfather to take care of, he has to go to South Africa to find life-saving materials, and he has to watch his grandfather enjoy his old age. He can't die or fall down.

But the feeling of being held in the arms of that white-haired girl returned, as light as a feather, as soft as a cloud, and as cold as winter snow.

She didn't speak, but her body spoke. She said she was light, she said she was cold, and she said she didn't want to trouble others.

Gu Yan clenched her fist and then relaxed it, relaxed it and then clenched it again, repeating this several times, leaving several red marks on her palm with her fingernails.

The night breeze outside the window seeped in through the cracks, bringing a cool sensation and causing the curtains to sway slightly.

Chen Sinian, still worried, followed Gu Yan down the corridor. He had been with her ever since Gu Yan left Cecilia's room.

He and Zhao Tiegu stood together at the corner of the corridor, the two of them like two statues, one silent and the other coldly silent.

Zhao Tiegu leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, his eyes half-closed as if he were sleeping or listening to something; his breathing was almost inaudible.

Chen Sinian, standing next to him, kept his eyes fixed on the door of Gu Yan's room behind his gold-rimmed glasses, as if afraid of missing something.

He saw Fu Wanqing come out of Gu Yan's room alone, her long pink hair fluttering in the warm yellow light.

Under Zhao Tiegu's gaze, Chen Sinian stepped forward to meet him, his leather shoes making a soft sound as they hit the floor.

"Miss Fu, how is Master Gu? Did he say anything? Did he say whether he can be saved?"

His voice was polite and gentle, but the urgency in his tone was impossible to hide, like the lid of a boiling kettle about to be pushed open.

Fu Wanqing stopped and looked at him. Her amber eyes shone brightly under the light, like two glass beads just pulled out of the water.

"Hello Mr. Chen, Master Gu said he'll consider it. This time he'll have to pay a heavy price, but he didn't say the specifics."

Her voice was soft but clear, without embellishment or concealment, like she was reading a formal official document.

"He's not sure if he can be saved either. He needs time to think about it. Don't rush him. The more you rush him, the more annoyed he'll get. He's the kind of person who responds better to gentle persuasion than force."

After saying that, she left, her steps light as if she had completed some important task, her long pink hair swaying behind her like a happy tail.

Chen Sinian opened his mouth, wanting to ask a few more questions: what exactly the price would be, how long it would take for her to decide, and if she had any way to help.

But before he could even speak, Fu Wanqing had already walked away, her back view as decisive and swift as a knight-errant, giving him no chance to stop her.

Zhao Tiegu opened his eyes, glanced at him, then closed them again. His lips twitched, whether in a smile or a sigh, it was hard to tell.

Chen Sinian stood in the corridor watching Fu Wanqing's figure disappear around the corner, his eyes behind his gold-rimmed glasses slowly shifting from expectation to something else.

He stood still, letting the wind in the corridor blow the hem of his Zhongshan suit, making a whistling sound.

He recalled his old nemesis, Lin Zhenting, during a closed-door conversation in the Lin family study, where there was no wine, only tea.

Lin Zhenting sat in a grand chair, his hands supporting him with his cane. His expression was so serious that it looked like he was discussing a life-or-death deal, and his gray eyebrows were furrowed together.

"Old Chen, let me be serious with you, only Gu Yan can save Jin Yu. I don't ask for anything else, just to cure my daughter."

"You know about Jin Yu's bipolar disorder. When it flares up, she doesn't recognize anyone, and it breaks my heart as her father."

"She lost her mother when she was young, and I've been taking care of her all by myself. If anything happens to her, I don't want to live anymore."

"With children, there is hope."

Lin Zhenting's voice wasn't loud, but every word was like a nail driven into the table, showing no sign of drunkenness or joking.

Chen Sinian remained silent for a long time, not responding, because he didn't know how to respond; Lin Zhenting's words were heartfelt.

Then Lin Zhenting changed the subject, tapped his cane twice with his fingers, and stared at him intently.

"Moreover, I can tell that Jin Yu likes Gu Yan. She has never been interested in any man before, Gu Yan is the first."

"As a father, I don't ask for anything else, I just hope my daughter can be happy and find someone she loves to spend her life with."

"Isn't your daughter the same? She's been treated like a monster since she was little, with white hair and ice eyes. Only Gu Yan doesn't avoid her."

"Old Chen, if you have any ideas, we can each rely on our own abilities. But let me make this clear from the start: if you procrastinate and miss the opportunity, don't blame me for striking first."

After finishing his sentence, Lin Zhenting picked up his teacup, his meaning clear: he was seeing the guest out and would not say another word.

Chen Sinian neither agreed nor refused at the time; he simply nodded, stood up, and left, but his mind was in turmoil.

Standing here in the empty corridor now, looking back, I realize that the old man was serious, frighteningly serious.

Lin Zhenting wasn't after any special abilities or genes; he simply wanted to save his daughter and make her happy.

Lin Jinyu lost her mother at a young age, and Lin Zhenting raised her as both a father and a mother. Chen Sinian understands that sentiment because he is also a father.

Cecilia lost her mother at a young age, and he raised her alone. Whenever people talked about her white hair and icy eyes, he was always the one who stood in front of her.

Lin Jinyu was locked up and couldn't get out; that was Lin Zhenting's fate, and heaven wasn't on his side. But Chen Sinian's opportunity was right in front of him.