Chapter 96 Bridge of the Nose

Chapter 96: The Bridge of the Nose

"......Mr. Gu, are you sleeping?"

"Uncle, please wake up soon."

......Who is calling him?

Such a faint, unclear voice. Which recruit can't even string a sentence together? He should be made to step out in front of the whole company and answer questions at the top of his lungs until he can speak properly.

Such a high, thin voice—it doesn't seem......like a recruit.

It's a child.

......A child.

Gu Zhen had a long, vivid dream, dreaming that he and Zhu Shinian lived a wonderful life together.

In the dream, he and Zhu Shinian also had a child, a boy who looked just like Zhu Shinian—fair skin, big eyes, and a small mouth.

Happiness made even the longest life feel short. The child grew up slowly, and he and Zhu Shinian aged gradually as well.

Zhu Shinian lived to be eighty. When he passed, he was leaning against Gu Zhen's shoulder, soaking up the warm courtyard sun, and Gu Zhen had just finished reciting a poem to him.

......How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

Gu Zhen gently closed his eyes for him, then closed his own in peace.

Just as his consciousness was about to slip away entirely, he heard that high, crisp, indistinct voice.

It was a child.

He knew with certainty that it wasn't the child from his dream with Zhu Shinian, but he still yearned to open his eyes again and see that child's face.

But he was already submerged in a deep pool, engulfed in lightless dark, water enveloping him.

Peaceful and warm. That must be what death feels like.

—But this isn't real.

The child in the dream wasn't real. The life with Zhu Shinian wasn't real. Even the peaceful, perfect death wasn't real.

"......Uncle."

"Sorry, Mr. Zhang, could you take the child out for a moment?"

"Sure, sure, we're leaving right now."

"......Is Uncle Gu waking up?"

"Maybe. Be good, Tingting. Come on, let's step outside for now."

........

"Mr. Gu, how are you feeling? Any discomfort anywhere?"

"I'm......not dead yet?"

The man in the hospital bed opened his eyes. His face, pale from so long without sunlight, was almost vampiric, like something out of a movie.

"Are you kidding? Of course you're not dead. But you were out for a long time, so you'll need to stay in the hospital a bit longer for observation."

"Was there a kid in here just now?"

"Ah?" The nurse blinked in surprise. This floor is mostly for the wounded—there shouldn't be any kids here.

The nurse looked puzzled, and Gu Zhen was just as taken aback.

Had it all just been a hallucination, from start to finish?

"......You mean the kid Mr. Zhang brought? By the time I got here, he'd already taken him and left."

"Mr. Zhang, who is that?" Gu Zhen asked, his mind still sluggish.

In this city, he knew precious few people. He rifled through his limited memory but couldn't recall ever meeting anyone named Zhang in District 29.

"Is that kid his?"

"Mr. Zhang is......" The nurse paused, as if trying to figure out how to explain who Mr. Zhang was.

"Mr. Zhang works for the Resistance headquarters government...... You know Lord Archon, right, Mr. Gu? Mr. Zhang is Lord Archon's adjutant. Lord Archon sent him to check on you. While you were out, Mr. Zhang came by to see you every week. I'm not sure if the kid is his—maybe it's a relative's kid he's watching on the side."

Then, as if remembering something, he added: "Mr. Gu, are you up for seeing Mr. Zhang now? He should be waiting outside for you."

"Please bring Mr. Zhang in. Thanks for your help," Gu Zhen said politely.

The nurse turned and headed out. Xiao Zhang was still sitting on the bench in the corridor, and the kid he'd taken away had come back and was sitting quietly beside him, hunched over a tablet, looking dejected.

Xiao Zhang ruffled his hair to comfort him: "If you don't want to do this homework, Tingting, that's fine. How about I take you back to your room? Uncle still has some things to do, so I can't keep playing with you. I need to wait here a while."

"Mr. Zhang, Mr. Gu is awake. Would you like to see him now?"

"Yes, yes," Xiao Zhang said hurriedly. "Could you ask Mr. Gu to wait a moment? I'll take this kid downstairs, it'll be quick."

The door wasn't fully closed, and Gu Zhen could hear the conversation outside clearly. Feeling a bit awkward about eavesdropping, he averted his gaze toward the window.

When he looked back, he noticed a puppy-shaped chocolate on the bedside table.

"Is this your kid, Mr. Zhang?" Gu Zhen asked. "It's fine, bring him in with you."

"Mr. Gu, he's not my kid." Xiao Zhang smiled awkwardly, but since Gu Zhen had said so, he picked up Tingting and walked into the ward.

The nurse tactfully withdrew.

"This is our Lord Archon's child. He had a minor illness and was hospitalized. There's no one at home to play with him, so when I came to see you, he saw me and followed along."

"Did Lord Archon send you to take care of me, Mr. Zhang? I've put you through a lot during my time unconscious."

"No trouble at all, no trouble at all," Xiao Zhang said quickly. "Just call me Xiao Zhang. I didn't do much—just came by to check on you from time to time. If you want to thank someone, thank Lord Archon and the doctors and nurses. I really didn't do anything."

Gu Zhen nodded, but his gaze remained fixed on the child in his arms.

"What......is he hospitalized for?"

"I'm not too sure about that. Kids have weak immune systems. He's almost ready to be discharged."

Xiao Zhang was vague, and it was hard to tell if he really didn't know or just didn't want to tell Gu Zhen and was pretending not to.

"Uncle Gu, you're awake!"

Tingting was a little shy around strangers, but since he had already met Gu Zhen once, he could be counted as an acquaintance, so Tingting gave Gu Zhen a natural, polite greeting.

He pointed at the dog-shaped chocolate on the bedside table: "The chocolate you gave me—Dad doesn't let me eat too much, says it'll give me cavities. I saved the puppy one; the puppy is the second cutest one, so I'll give it to Uncle Gu to eat."

Gu Zhen didn't mind that he was basically just getting his own gift back; instead, his eyes crinkled and he smiled gently.

"Mm, the puppy is very cute. Thank you for the chocolate."

He then looked at Xiao Zhang: "If Mr. Zhang has work to do, you can send the kid over to play with me these next few days."

"Are you teaching him addition?" Gu Zhen asked, glancing at the tablet in Tingting's hands. "I can teach him too, since I've got nothing else to do here anyway."

"That would be great," Xiao Zhang said gratefully. He could tell Gu Zhen really liked kids, and given how Gu Zhen had risked his life to save Zhu Shinian, there was no way he'd hurt the kid. "And it doesn't have to be math. I was just making him do that because I had no time to play with him while I was waiting for you to wake up."

Hearing that Uncle Zhang was just brushing him off, Tingting deflated instantly, like a rejected puppy, his eyes suddenly turning all pitiful and sad.

Xiao Zhang probably had work and was in a rush to leave, so he didn't notice Tingting's unhappiness. He bent down to remind Tingting to go back to his own room at night and not make the nurses look for him, then left Gu Zhen's ward.

"Uncle Zhang has his own things to do. I'll play with you. What do you want to play?"

"Let me just finish this first," Tingting said, holding up the tablet.

In this regard, he was very much like Zhu Shinian—if he put something on his to-do list, he really wanted to finish it.

Gu Zhen was just about to say that this kid was quite diligent, but before he'd even written a few problems, Tingting closed his eyes as if giving up.

Is he... tired?

"Uncle," he said seriously with his eyes closed, "I've found that when I do math problems, closing my eyes feels really comfortable."

Gu Zhen: "..."

He realized a little late that even though Tingting looked a lot like Zhu Shinian, teaching him math was... not his strong suit.

"Your dad got great grades in school," Gu Zhen said, after careful deliberation, trying to motivate Tingting this way.

But Tingting didn't suddenly snap his eyes open and start writing like he'd been given a shot of energy, as Gu Zhen had imagined.

He opened his eyes, stared blankly for a moment, then lowered his head without answering Gu Zhen right away.

He fidgeted with the hem of his hospital gown, then looked up after a moment.

His voice was low and muffled, like a completely different person from the lively, cute kid he'd been moments before.

"I'm not Dad's biological kid—I was... adopted by them."

"But you look so much like Zhu Shinian," Gu Zhen nearly blurted out.

It wasn't just similar—the look in his eyes and brows was almost identical.

If there was ever a photo of Zhu Shinian at age four, anyone who knew him wouldn't be able to tell them apart.

Tingting's sadness passed quickly. The moment he heard Gu Zhen say he looked like Zhu Shinian, his eyes lit up again, like two round, shiny black grapes catching the sunlight.

"Really? I really look like Dad? Then when I grow up, will I be as handsome as Dad?"

That was the easiest question in the world to answer.

But Gu Zhen, looking at those sparkling eyes, found he couldn't speak for a moment.

"Will my nose get taller too?" Tingting asked, considerately realizing the previous question might have been hard to answer, so he asked something more specific.

"It will," Gu Zhen said, reaching out and gently, very gently, pinching Tingting's nose bridge. "Gently pinching the bridge of your nose will make it taller. Pinch it more, and when you grow up, it'll be as nice-looking as your dad's nose. But you have to be very gentle."

Tingting tilted his face up as Gu Zhen pinched his nose, and mumbled, "Uncle Gu, you're so cool. How do you know everything?"

"Because when Uncle was little, his nose was flat too. Later, I secretly pinched it myself, and it slowly got taller."

Tingting's eyes widened with that pure, wholehearted admiration only kids have.

He looked at Gu Zhen as if he were a great wizard with magic powers.

"Really? Uncle's nose was flat when he was little too?"

"Mm, really. If I'm lying, Uncle will turn into a puppy."

Tingting instantly perked up. He reached out to touch his own nose, then Gu Zhen's, as if checking something.

After that, he nodded, satisfied, but then he remembered something and his little face scrunched up again.

"Uncle Gu, you're so amazing and know everything, so can you tell me when my dad's coming back?"