SFS Chapter 1258 Yun Rui's sincerity: It's easy to choose between the future and love
Chapter 1258 Yun Rui's sincerity: It's easy to choose between the future and love
The rain in late autumn slanted across the floor-to-ceiling windows of the VIP room of Hunan University. Lin Xu looked at the winding water marks on the glass and listened to the time signal coming from the clock tower in the distance.
Half an hour ago, Gu Yunqian's men brought him here. The windows of the black sedan blocked out the noise from the outside world, leaving only the suffocating silence inside the car.
At this moment, the carved wooden door was pushed open, and the smell of cedar perfume rushed in with a chill. Gu Yunqian was wearing a dark gray custom-made suit, and his eyes behind the gold-rimmed glasses swept across his body like an X-ray.
"Sit down." Gu Yunqian pointed to the leather sofa opposite, but he stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the bustling students downstairs.
He gently shook the whiskey glass in his hand, and the sound of ice cubes colliding was as crisp as a metaphor. "Student Lin, I heard that you won the first prize in the national chemical modeling competition?"
Lin Xu straightened his back, the collar of his white shirt was soaked with cold sweat: "Yes." He noticed the Hunan University anniversary commemorative album on the coffee table. In the cover photo, Gu Yunxi was standing on the podium, and his smile was frozen into eternity.
"Excellent." Gu Yunqian finally turned around, but his eyes behind the lenses became colder, "But excellence does not mean you can covet things that do not belong to you." He placed the whiskey glass heavily on the walnut coffee table, and the amber liquor rippled on the rim of the glass, "My sister's life plan has never included 'teacher-student love'."
The rain outside the window suddenly became heavier, and the raindrops hit the glass with dense sounds. Lin Xu thought of Gu Yunxi's flustered but slightly red cheeks last night, and said with a rolling Adam's apple: "My feelings for Teacher Gu have nothing to do with academic status."
"Nothing to do with it?" Gu Yunqian chuckled, took off his glasses and wiped them. His movements were elegant but full of pressure. "Do you know how many academic documents she has to deal with every day? How many international conferences she has to attend? And you are just a student who has just come of age."
He suddenly approached, and the smell of cologne on his body almost drowned Lin Xu. "What you can give her is just a moment of freshness, but her life cannot tolerate the slightest mistake."
Lin Xu stood up suddenly, and the metal chair legs rubbed against the marble floor, making a harsh sound. "So in Mr. Gu's eyes, feelings also need to be calculated using a formula?" He looked directly into the pair of eyes that were similar to Gu Yunxi's but cold. "I admit that I am not strong enough now, but I will work hard."
He recalled the image of Gu Yunxi concentrating on debugging the instrument in the laboratory, and his voice unconsciously became gentle.
“I want to be someone who can see the scenery side by side with her.”
Gu Yunqian's pupils shrank slightly, then returned to their calm state.
He walked back to his desk, took out a stack of documents from the drawer and pushed them over: "This is your family background check report. You are from an ordinary working-class family. Your parents' savings are only enough for the down payment."
He paused, observing Lin Xu's suddenly pale face, "I admit that you are excellent, and I can believe your sincerity towards my sister, but when you really step into society, you will understand that there are some gaps that cannot be filled even with hard work."
The sound of rain was mixed with muffled thunder. Lin Xu stared at his parents' names on the document, his nails digging deeply into his palms.
But soon, he raised his head, his eyes became firm again: "Mr. Gu, you can find out about my family, but you can't find out about my heart." He thought of Gu Yunxi's happy smile at the playground, "Professor Gu deserves all the good things in the world, and I am willing to do my best for this good thing."
Gu Yunqian put on his glasses again, and the look behind the lenses was unpredictable. He sat back in the leather chair, tapping the table with his slender fingers rhythmically: "Young people's passion, I also had it when I was young."
His voice suddenly became low.
"But Yunxi..." He paused for a rare moment, as if he was choosing his words, "She has had so much to carry since she was a child. I can't let her ruin her future because of a momentary impulse."
Lin Xu was silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed.
This smile made Gu Yunqian frown, but he met the other's gaze calmly: "Mr. Gu, I understand your feelings of protecting your sister." He bent down to pick up the documents and put them neatly back on the coffee table, "But feelings are not a cage. If Professor Gu tells me her feelings one day, I will respect it. But before that," he straightened his back, his eyes burning with stubbornness, "I will not back down."
The VIP room fell into a long silence, with only the sound of rain becoming heavier.
Gu Yunqian looked at the young man's back as he turned and left. His white shirt looked thin but straight in the rain.
He picked up the whiskey and took a sip. The spiciness of the liquor was no match for the complex emotions that welled up in his heart. The young man's neither humble nor arrogant attitude actually reminded him of the equally stubborn self many years ago.
When the door was closed again, Gu Yunqian stared at the faint figure left by Lin Xu, and suddenly realized that this game of love was far more difficult than he had imagined.
And he may have to re-examine whether his protection of his sister is protection or another form of confinement...
At dusk after the rainstorm, the flagstone road of Xiangtan University was filled with mist. The remaining leaves of the French plane trees were soaked in the stagnant water, and the footsteps of the students left dark brown lines on them.
There were still water droplets hanging on the floor-to-ceiling windows of the VIP room, which smudged the fiery clouds in the west sky into blurred blocks of color, which were reflected in the unfinished whiskey of Gu Yunqian, creating broken light.
Three days later, Lin Xu was brought into this room filled with the scent of cedar again.
Gu Yunqian turned the ring, and what was spread out on the desk was no longer the investigation report, but a gold-plated invitation letter - a visiting scholar position at the Cambridge University Chemistry Laboratory, and the application deadline was tomorrow.
"This is a good opportunity." Gu Yunqian pushed the document over, his ring reflecting a cold light under the lamp, "A full scholarship, and the mentor is the last disciple of the Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry." He paused, looking at Lin Xu's suddenly tightened jawline, "With your talent, you can save ten years of detours there."
Lin Xu stared at the English words on the invitation letter, and his mother's sigh on the phone rang in his ears: "The price of your father's antihypertensive medicine has increased again." But when he closed his eyes, Gu Yunxi's image of lowering his head and recording data in the laboratory appeared clearly again. "What does Mr. Gu want to say?" His voice was hoarse, and his nails dug deep into his palms.
"A smart person shouldn't ask questions that he already knows the answer to." Gu Yunqian stood up and walked to the window. The dusk stretched his shadow and covered the invitation on the table. "Love is a luxury, especially for children from a family like yours."
His voice mixed with the sound of the wind outside the window.
"When you are thirty years old, and have been beaten to a pulp in society, and watch your loved ones suffer because of you, then you can regret it..." He didn't finish his words, but just looked at Lin Xu meaningfully.
Lin Xu's temples were throbbing. He recalled the look in Gu Yunxi's eyes when she looked at him from across the crowd in the cafeteria last week, and the tingling feeling of her hair brushing against the back of his hand when she taught him how to operate precision instruments in the laboratory.
"How long do you want me to think about it this time?" He regretted it as soon as he said it.
"Twenty-four hours." Gu Yunqian returned to his seat and opened his leather cigarette case. "Think clearly, do you want an illusory relationship or a solid future?" The light from the cigarette illuminated his eyes behind the lenses. "Of course, if you refuse, I'm afraid there won't be any extra space in Xiangda's laboratory."
The sky outside the window was completely dark, and Lin Xu's knuckles turned white as he held the invitation. The night wind blew into the room with a cool breeze, blowing away the ashes in the ashtray, just like his chaotic thoughts at the moment.
This choice is like a sharp scalpel, cutting off all his imaginations of the future - if he chooses the future, he has to cut off his emotions; if he chooses love, he has to gamble on his future.
What Gu Yunqian throws out is not only an opportunity, but also a test of human nature: when the hammer of reality falls, how much weight can the so-called firmness bear?