Chapter 57: CH 57

The second day of the first month of the lunar year, 10:40 am.

Lin Zixi stood downstairs in front of Building B of Tiancheng·Huayuan Community in X City, took a deep breath, and finally rang the bell at the door of the unit building.

Soon his mother's voice came through the intercom, "Zixi, you're here. I’ll open the door for you."

"Cough. Mom, I brought someone here." Lin Zixi coughed dryly and tilted his body sideways, letting Gu Zecheng, who was standing behind him, appear in front of the surveillance camera.

The woman on the other end of the intercom suddenly lost her voice. After a long silence, she spoke again, "You come up first. I'll go down and… talk to him."

After she finished speaking, the intercom was hung up, and the door of the unit building was opened.

Lin Zixi glanced at the man beside him with some worry, but the other party looked calm and patted his shoulder, "Go upstairs. It's cold outside."

Lin Zixi glanced at his dad again, but in the end, he still went into the elevator alone with some apprehension.

When he got out of the elevator, his mother just opened the door and came out of the house.

Mrs. Lin was already in her 40s, but she had been single-mindedly devoted to exercising and maintaining good health for the past many years. She was now wearing a slim, well-fitting white dress and a rose red coat with delicate makeup on her face. When she stood next to Mr. Gu downstairs, they were like a proper pair of a handsome guy and a beautiful woman in their early thirties.

Lin Jing, seeing her eldest son looking her up and down, unable to take his eyes off, reached out and swatted him on the head, "What’re you looking at! Your uncle Zhou's relatives came to pay New Year's greetings this morning and have just left. It only took you a minute to come up. Was it enough for me to apply makeup?!" 

"Oh." Lin Zixi secretly breathed a sigh of relief and put a smile on his face, "I just didn’t see you wearing stockings, so I’m afraid that you’ll be cold when you go out!"

Lin Jing swatted his head again, hating iron for not becoming steel, "You're also a star in the entertainment circle, but you don't even know about bare-legged artifacts!"

"I don't even wear this when acting..." Big Star Lin was halfway through his words and saw that his mom was going to hit him again, so he promptly fled and entered the house, "Mom, you take care. I'm going to find Uncle Zhou and Qianqian."

Mrs. Lin scoffed at him and took the elevator downstairs.

Although Lin Jing and Gu Zecheng had not seen each other for more than 20 years, one of them still vaguely looked the same as in the past, and the other was a face that would appear from time to time in media reports, so it was not like they were in a situation where they did not recognize each other.

Gu Zecheng, seeing Lin Jing kept sizing him up silently since she came out of the unit building, still spoke first, "Long time no see."

"Long time no see" Lin Jing, also known as Lin Zhenzhen, took out a car key from her bag, "Zixi opened a coffee shop near my house. It's closed for a few days. Let's go there and talk."

"I remember that this seemed to be your wish back then. He’s surprisingly filial." Gu Zecheng nodded and went to the nearby commercial street with Lin Jing.

It was a small coffee shop, but it was decorated very stylishly. At a glance, it was a holy land for Internet celebrities who liked to pose and take photos. 

Mrs. Lin opened the shop door and led Gu Zecheng to the counter seating area. She poured herself a cup of Perrier, made a cup of three-in-one instant coffee, and then put the two cups on the table before sitting down opposite Gu Zecheng.

"I found out that I was pregnant with Zixi after I returned to my hometown." Lin Jing took a sip of water and went straight to the point, "I struggled for a while but still decided to give birth to him. My parents said they wanted to cut ties with me, but I didn't back down..."

"I'm sorry, I..." As soon as Gu Zecheng opened his mouth, he was interrupted by Lin Jing.

"Sorry for what? You were just a child back then. It’s I myself who was out of my mind." Lin Jing waved her hand, "Besides, Zixi's grandparents fell in love with him when they saw him in the hospital. When they were still alive, they spoiled him more than I did."

Mrs. Lin took another sip of water and continued, "What I want to say is that Lin Zixi was born by my own will. You don't owe me anything, and I don't owe you anything. Whether you acknowledge him or not is a matter between you father and son, and I won’t interfere. But..."

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She put down her cup of water, braced her hands on the table, and spoke word by word while staring straight at the man opposite, "I don't want Lin Zixi to be involved in the grudges and grievances of your rich and powerful Gu family after you have a wife and children in the future.”

Gu Zecheng stirred his untouched instant coffee with a teaspoon. Then, without dodging or backing down, he also looked straight at Lin Jing's eyes and answered her resolutely and decisively, "There will be no wife and children or others. Zixi will be my Gu Zecheng's only heir."

Lin Jing was stunned, and after a while, she asked with a strange expression, "Is it because of Su...?"

Seeing that the man sitting opposite her was noncommittal, she smiled a little self-deprecatingly, "You’re really devoted. I can't compare with you. I saw on the news that he seems to have been living abroad in the O Continent and rarely returned to China. It's a tough job for you to keep at it..."

Gu Zecheng did not continue this topic with her but rather said, "You managed to give birth to Zixi and also taught him so well. I’m very grateful to you."

"I didn't raise him very much. My parents looked after him more than I did when he was a child. Later, I married Qianqian's dad..." Lin Jing spoke halfway and realized that Gu Zecheng was not the right person to talk about this topic, so she changed the subject, "You don't need to thank me. If you want Zixi to be your heir, it should be him thanking you, a father falling into his lap. But..."

Mrs. Lin, who understood her eldest son to some extent, sighed, "Even if you wait for a lifetime, I really don't think Zixi will be able to take over your Gu group."

"I’ve already revised my will before the New Year. If at that time my mother is no longer alive, all the cash assets and real estate in my name will be left to him, while the shares and investment assets I hold will be donated to the country..." Gu Zecheng's face was very calm when he spoke, playing it down as if he was mentioning not the future whereabouts of his family’s hundreds of billion but what to eat tonight.

The crucial point was that he still added a word, "Unconditionally."

Lin Jing took a deep breath and said after a long time, "Your attitude will give me the illusion that I’m your true love."

Gu Zecheng smiled and said in a tone that seemed to be both real and false, "Maybe Zixi is my true love."

Mrs. Lin, who did not realize at all that it was the closest she had ever been to the truth in all her life, shuddered, "You should just continue with big artist Su, your true love."

Then the couple from twenty years ago glanced at each other and both smiled thoughtfully.

Some while later, Lin Jing raised the cup of water in her hand to Gu Zecheng, "Anyway, I wish you and your love can be together until the white hairs of old age."

After saying that, using water as wine, she drained the cup in one gulp.

"Thank you for your blessings." Gu Zecheng replied and looked at the cheap instant coffee in front of him, which was brimming with the sweet smell of additives. In the end, he still toasted her and drank the coffee slowly.

This pair of former lovers, parents of a common child, as well as… a mother-in-law and her son-in-law decided to end the meeting in this friendly but not candid atmosphere.

When the two separated, Lin Jing hesitated for a long time but still said her request to Gu Zecheng, "If Zixi asks in the future... Can you not tell him the actual situation of that time? Just tell him that we broke up after a brief relationship because of family background and incompatibility of temperament. I... I'm afraid he’ll be hurt."

Gu Zecheng was stunned. After a moment, he put away the disguise he had been putting on in front of Lin Jing all this time and spoke from the bottom of his heart while staring at her, "Lin Zhenzhen, to Lin Zixi, you’re a much much better mother than I, his father. No matter what you think, in his case, it’s I who’ll be forever indebted to you. If you need any help from me, you can come to me at any time."

Lin Jing did not accept the personal business card handed over by Gu Zecheng and only left some words, "My son is a big star and also filial. What will I need from you? We'd better not see each other again." She waved her hand casually to say goodbye, turned round, and left.

Gu Zecheng stood in front of the coffee shop watching her leave. Then he took out his mobile phone, sent a message to the person he noted as "Baby Siren", and took a taxi to Gu group's chain hotel in X City.

So, Mr. Gu and Mrs. Lin, a man and a woman who had once been in a relationship by mistake and seemed to be destined to give birth to a new ill-fated relationship, got together in a hurry.

After that, they would never meet again in this life.

TL’s note:

光腿神器 (guāng tuǐ shén qì) is a thin stocking with color close to the skin color of the human body, so when you wear it, it’s like wearing nothing and gives the illusion that you have bare legs on a cold day. However, it’s very warm and has velvet inside. Even in the cold winter, you won’t feel cold, so it’s also called "bare leg artifact".

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