Gu Wen never expected that after many years, he would once again come across that human infant while investigating the information of his beloved partner.
The presence he had almost erased from his memory.
Shang Xi.
Was she the grown-up Shang Xi?
In his memory, that short and skinny, timid and trembling infant had grown into a stunningly beautiful woman with a gentle temperament and a loving smile.
She was Shang Xi.
She turned out to be Shang Xi.
Gu Wen's deep, dark eyes were filled with astonishment, and his heart surged with intense emotions as he tightly pressed his lips together.
Under the photo was a long paragraph of text.
Shang Xi, female, from An County, Qingcheng City.
At the age of three, her parents died in a car accident, and she stayed with her second uncle.
[Photo] At the age of four, she went to her third uncle's house.
[Photo] At the age of seven, she went to her second uncle's house.
[Photo] At the age of eight, she went to her eldest uncle's house.
[Photo] At the age of ten, she was taken in and raised by her distant relative, Grandma Zhu.
As the girl in the photos grew older, her face gradually took on the appearance of Shang Xi.
She had been changing residences all this time, a young child forced to move from one place to another.
At the age of four, she went to her eldest uncle's house.
Gu Wen's sharp brows furrowed slightly. So, at that time, she had changed residences again, not sneaking away or hiding.
She was also compelled to do so.
Gu Wen looked at the girl in the photo, who had never smiled, from middle school to high school, and then to university.
In her freshman year, Shang Xi tied her hair up high and looked into the camera with a playful expression.
Among so many photos, it was the first time she smiled.
Gu Wen glanced at the words next to it: Qingcheng University.
Qingcheng University was the best university in Qingcheng City, and her academic performance was not bad.
A touch of tenderness also appeared in Gu Wen's eyes. The once destitute and wandering girl, the girl who never smiled in any of the previous photos, finally smiled.
Did it mean that she was living a relatively good life with this Grandma?
He felt happy for her.
He would visit that kind-hearted old lady and express his gratitude.
Thinking this way, his gaze shifted downward, and his pupils suddenly contracted, his brows creasing tightly.
Sophomore year, suspended from school.
On September 10, 2015, her adoptive parent passed away in their sleep at the age of seventy.
At that time, Shang Xi was celebrating a friend's birthday and did not return home that night.
She did not return home that night.
She did not return home that night.
The man's gaze lingered on these four words for a long time, and his chest heaved deeply. He took a deep breath, struggling to swallow his saliva, but it felt suffocating.
She didn't return home that night.
Ha...
Like a patient on the verge of suffocation, he reached out his hand. Those hands had visibly transformed, uncontrollably and unconsciously, from fair and slender hands to hairy, veined, and massive wolf claws. He forcefully tore at his shirt, and the buttons fell to the ground, rolling soundlessly on the carpet.
He felt like there was a heavy stone blocking his chest.
The shirt that restrained him became a burden.
He coughed, then coughed heavily again.
When he realized the truth behind the situation, Gu Wen fell into a deep pit of self-disgust.
He had always thought that she had slept with him and then left.
He had always thought that Shang Xi had bullied him.
He dumped all his prejudice against pure humans onto her, making her bear his disgust.
On the night that respectable old man passed away, Shang Xi was with him.
But in the end, she wasn't there by the old man's side.
She didn't just sleep and leave; she went to find the old man.
She stumbled and collapsed, carrying all her despair and heartbreak, to see the old man's lifeless body one last time.
After the funeral on September 16, 2015, the younger generation of the Zhu family reclaimed the house where the old man lived, leaving Shang Xi homeless.
Over the next month, Shang Xi visited Grandma Zhu's grave (fifty times), Qingshan Luxury Restaurant (twice), Qingshan Amusement Park (three times), Qing Street Shopping Mall (three times), Qingxi Park (twice), and Qingcheng Riverside (thirteen times).
[Image] [Image] [Image]
The women in the three photos were just background figures, passersby captured unintentionally by someone else's camera.
Her eyes were lifeless, hollow, her face pale, and the light had vanished from her eyes.
On October 25, 2015, kind-hearted Mr. Wu saved Shang Xi who was about to jump into the river.
On October 28, 2015, kind-hearted Miss Li rescued Shang Xi who had already jumped into the river.
On November 6, 2015, kind-hearted Mr. Zhang called the police and saved Shang Xi who had jumped into the river.
On November 15, 2015, kind-hearted Miss Zhao encountered the unconscious Shang Xi at Grandma Zhu's grave, sent her to the hospital for treatment, and learned that she was pregnant.
Shang Xi was discharged from the hospital on November 17 and rented a house in the Wu'an Community.
On November 19, 2015, Shang Xi went to the school to apply for a leave of absence.
On November 21, 2015, Shang Xi found a tutoring job and started selling desserts from a stall of her own.
During her pregnancy, she did various jobs: distributing flyers, door-to-door cleaning, setting up street stalls, taking on freelance work from factories, selling desserts from home, selling fruits online, and promoting alcoholic beverages online.
In September, she gave birth to a son at Qingshang Hospital.
In the following two years, her jobs included online promotion of alcoholic beverages, customer service for Taobao alcoholic beverages (working from home), and selling desserts on her WeChat Moments.
Qingfeng Flower Shop opened on September 12, 2018.
A branch of Qingfeng Flower Shop opened on December 3, 2019.
In the last photo, a beautiful woman is holding the hand of a little boy, standing at the entrance of the flower shop, smiling at the camera.
In her eyes, there was a glimmer of hope.
The spacious study was eerily quiet.
It felt like even a pin dropping on the floor could be heard.
Behind the ornate wooden desk in European style, there was a massive pure black wolf sitting there. He was wearing a black shirt that clashed with his appearance, with his limbs turning into claws, and his head was a complete wolf face with terrifying sharp fangs clearly visible.
As if unable to accept an unbearable truth, he completely lost control and transformed into this horrifying and ugly appearance.
This was the werewolf's second form, able to stand upright in human shape, wearing clothes, with no difference between the exposed head, limbs, and pure wolf body.
He sat on the carved wooden chair like a human, the shirt on his chest torn and even ripped apart.
Sitting there, the entire wolf exuded a sense of desolation, the once sharp and aggressive gaze of his narrow, slanted wolf eyes now absent.
At this moment, one could see a trace of self-mockery and self-disgust in those wolf eyes.
He lived for so many years like a victim, rolling around in wealth and treasures.
Another victim, a woman he thought was bad, but who lived a life of suffering far beyond his own.
Shang Xi's tumultuous childhood was not his doing, and he couldn't prevent the old man's death either.
But after that night, after she became pregnant, she became connected to him.
Where was he? He was no different from being dead.
He appeared too late.
She didn't need him anymore, did she?
She was so outstanding, so strong, so intelligent.
Gu Wen suddenly felt ashamed to see Shang Xi.
What was he doing by showing up? He had the audacity to pursue her.
What could he give Shang Xi? Did she need anything from him?
He had money, he had his love for her, but there were so many people who admired her, he was not special.
He wasn't qualified to pursue her.
So... he would stand by her side and protect her for the rest of his life, like a beast guarding a goddess.
After all, he had long prepared for a life of loneliness.
In the near future, whoever she liked, whatever kind of life she wanted, he would do his best to help her.
Instead of pursuing Shang Xi for his own happiness, Gu Wen chose to step aside, to give up his place, the place of... the person she liked.
The pain in his heart spread like a tearing sensation.
---
---
The beast that guarded the goddess, one day, will overflow with love, howl in agony, wag its tail in submissive surrender, and lick the haughty goddess, begging her to look down at him for a moment.
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