Chapter Two | We Met Again, in the Place We Should Never Have Met

Lin Nian saw Gu Chen at the entrance of the funeral home.

In that instant, she thought she had gone mad.

The sky was a dull, ashen gray, pressing low. The wind whipped the white mourning cloth outside the hall, making it snap loudly. She had just come out from inside, her eyes so dry they ached, unable to cry even if she wanted to.

And then—she saw him.

Gu Chen stood not far away at the foot of the steps, dressed in a black overcoat. His figure was thin, his profile cold and sharp.

Exactly the same as in her memories.

It was as if someone had pressed the pause button on the world.

Lin Nian stood frozen, her heart slamming violently against her chest, almost breaking free. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

She didn’t even dare to blink.

She was afraid that if she did, he would disappear.

Gu Chen saw her too.

The moment their eyes met, his pupils shrank sharply, as if something had stabbed straight into them.

The next second, he turned and walked away.

That was the moment Lin Nian finally broke.

“Gu Chen—!”

She chased after him in a stumble, her high heels striking the stone steps. Her ankle twisted, and she fell hard to the ground.

Her knee smashed against the pavement, pain flashing white before her eyes.

But she didn’t care.

She scrambled back up, her voice tearing itself apart, no longer sounding like her own.

“Stop right there!”

Gu Chen’s footsteps halted.

He stood with his back to her, shoulders drawn taut, as if desperately suppressing something.

Lin Nian walked toward him step by step, her fingertips trembling, barely daring to touch him.

“Aren’t you dead?”

When the words left her mouth, her throat filled with the taste of blood.

Gu Chen slowly turned around.

His face was even paler than she remembered, his eye sockets sunken, his lips almost colorless.

He looked at her with eyes so unfamiliar, as if she were nothing more than a stranger.

“You’ve got the wrong person.”

Lin Nian laughed.

The sound was soft, but completely shattered.

“Gu Chen, you can even make up a lie like this?”
She advanced on him step by step. “Do you really think I’m stupid enough not to recognize you?”

Gu Chen’s Adam’s apple bobbed violently.

“Miss Lin,” he said, “please calm down.”

That single “Miss Lin” was like a knife, plunging straight into the softest part of her heart.

She couldn’t hold back anymore. She raised her hand and slapped him hard across the face.

The sharp crack echoed piercingly in the empty space before the funeral home.

Gu Chen’s face turned to the side, a trace of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, yet he didn’t move.

Lin Nian’s hand hung frozen in midair, shaking uncontrollably.

“How dare you…”
She choked, barely able to stand. “How dare you make me hold your funeral?”

The urn—she had chosen it herself.
The death certificate—she had confirmed it with her own eyes.
And under his name, she had personally signed the words: deceased.

And now, he stood before her, alive.

This was more cruel than death itself.

Gu Chen finally lifted his gaze to her, pain churning in his eyes, suppressed to its absolute limit.

“Because only if I died,” he said quietly, “could you live.”

Lin Nian froze.

“What do you mean?”

Gu Chen closed his eyes briefly, his voice rough, as if scraped raw by sandpaper.

“I didn’t die.”
“That failed resuscitation—it was fake.”
“I begged the doctor to cooperate.”

Lin Nian’s world collapsed completely at that moment.

“Are you insane?”
She nearly screamed. “Do you have any idea how I’ve lived these past three years?”

She woke up screaming night after night, clutching his old clothes and crying until dawn.
Countless times she stood on the balcony, wanting to jump down and follow him.
She didn’t even have the right to go on living.

Yet Gu Chen only said softly,

“I know.”

Those three words shattered Lin Nian entirely.

She shoved him hard, her voice hoarse and broken.

“You know?”
“Then why did you come back?”
“Did you come to kill me a second time?”

Gu Chen staggered back a step, leaning against the cold wall, his face frighteningly pale.

“I didn’t come back for you,”
he said. “I came to get a report.”

“What report?”

Gu Chen was silent for a long time before finally speaking in a low voice.

“Organ rejection.”
“I don’t have much time left.”

Lin Nian stood stunned.

He looked at her—no pleading, no explanation—only a calmness so desperate it was almost hopeless.

“This time,” he said, “it’s real.”