Assistant to My Contracted Husband

When Gu Xiran and Qin Jin rushed to the airport, Qin Song was already nowhere to be seen.

Gu Xiran’s face went pale. She kept dialing Qin Song’s number, but all she heard was the message that the phone had been turned off.

For a brief moment, Gu Xiran finally understood what it meant to break down.

Qin Song, where are you...

...

Gu Xiran was sobbing so hard she couldn’t make a sound, her whole body trembling violently. Qin Jin slowly pulled her into his arms.

The assistant stepped forward and said, "Mr. Qin, we just had someone check. Young Master Qin may have gone to Iceland."

"Mm."

Qin Jin’s thin lips pressed together. He pursed his lips, then spoke to the woman in his arms.

"Don’t go chasing him for now. There’s no way we’ll find Qin Song that easily. The ticket he bought to Iceland—there’s a good chance he’ll leave from the transfer airport and fly somewhere else."

"Mm."

Sniffling, Gu Xiran rasped, "Then what do we do now?"

"We wait for news first. I’ll have people lock onto his location. Don’t worry, it’s the most advanced positioning system in the military district."

"Okay."

Gu Xiran nodded with difficulty, feeling a bit dizzy. People around them had already recognized her; some fans were there. Seeing this, Qin Jin frowned slightly, then simply scooped Gu Xiran up into his arms and walked toward the airport exit.

"Stay in my arms. Don’t move around."

"Mm..."

"Handle it."

"Yes, Mr. Qin."

After receiving Qin Jin’s order, the assistant immediately sent people to stop the fans who were taking pictures.

"Sorry, this is her private time. Please give them some privacy... Miss Gu is seeing off a friend, she’s feeling a bit down."

The assistant spoke kindly, and once the fans heard this, they immediately lowered their phones.

The airport even sent a security detail to escort Gu Xiran and Qin Jin out.

...

Once Gu Xiran and Qin Jin got into the car, they sat facing each other in silence for a moment. Qin Jin’s dark eyes fell on the woman’s pale little face, and he said slowly, "Where do you want to go now? I’ll take you."

"To the apartment Qin Song gave me before. He told me that after he left, I should go there."

"Okay."

Qin Jin pressed his thin lips together. Seeing Gu Xiran still sitting stiffly in the passenger seat, he quickly leaned over and fastened the seat belt around her waist, then started the car and drove toward the small apartment.

...

Returning once more to the small apartment where she’d stayed before, Gu Xiran felt a little dazed.

Back then, she had really thought she’d received a gift prepared with genuine heart.

The photos on the wall had been put up by Qin Song especially for her birthday, to surprise her...

Gu Xiran stopped walking and looked at the photos on the wall, pressing her lips together. If she had taken a closer look at the time, she would have noticed that some of the photos were new while others were old, clearly from quite a while ago.

So...

Qin Song must have been preparing this birthday gift for a very, very long time.

A bitter smile touched the corners of Gu Xiran’s mouth. She really had been so careless, never paying attention to anything.

The way she got along with Qin Song had always been more like they were brothers.

She even felt a bit disgusted with herself.

Gu Xiran slowly raised her hand and placed it on the photos on the wall... What had Qin Song been thinking when he stuck them on one by one?

It must have hurt.

I’m sorry...

Gu Xiran’s heart was full of guilt. She had always thought she and Qin Song were good buddies, good brothers... Looking back carefully, over all these years, she really had hurt him over and over again. Every time she mentioned Qin Jin in front of Qin Song, it was like stabbing a knife straight into his chest.

...

"There should be something behind the photos."

Qin Jin’s gaze lingered on the photos, then he spoke. His eyes were sharp; he could tell at a glance whether the wall surface was even or not.

𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Gu Xiran’s beautiful eyes froze for a moment. Hearing what Qin Jin said, she slowly reached out and peeled off one of the photos. Sure enough, there was something behind it. She took it out and saw that it was a letter.

Gu Xiran: "..."

A letter.

Had Qin Jin written it to her?

Gu Xiran’s eyes paused. She slowly reached out her small hand and opened the envelope.

"The 1,328th letter I’ve written to you."

Gu Xiran: "..."

"I’m such a damn spineless coward. Every time I want to confess to you, I hold back again... So when I got back here, I wrote you a letter. Gotta cultivate a fine habit: every time I want to confess, I’ll just write you a letter. Mm, this is letter number 1,320. When I think about it, I really am ridiculously timid."

Gu Xiran: "..."

Just the opening of the letter was enough to make tears stream down Gu Xiran’s face.

Qin Song was the sort who’d rather die than take studying seriously. Even writing a simple essay would make him complain like crazy. The old man would get so angry he’d raise his fist to hit him, but it never really had much effect. Qin Song stayed exactly the same as ever.

Gu Xiran sat on the sofa and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, afraid that her tears would soak through the letter he had written.

"Gu Xiran, I like you..."

"Gu Xiran, I love you."

"Tang Bao... Tangbao... I really wish I could be a magician in this life, then I could turn you into two people, so my brother and I could each have one, and that way, none of us would end up growing old alone."

"If someone absolutely has to grow old alone, I’d rather that person be me..."

Gu Xiran: "..."

Gu Xiran’s beautiful eyes reddened as she looked at the emotions revealed between the lines of the man’s writing, all tangled and chaotic.

"Tang Bao, if I could, I really wouldn’t want to love you anymore... Loving you hurts so much... but it also makes me so happy... Every day I feel like I’m sitting in the west waiting to watch the sunrise, clearly knowing the sun rises in the east and I’ll never see it... yet still looking forward to it day after day."

Gu Xiran: "..."

"Mm, I’ll sleep... When I wake up... I won’t love you anymore."

After silently reading this in her heart, Gu Xiran’s face was covered in tears.

Sniffling, Gu Xiran hurriedly put this letter back into the envelope, then lifted the other photos again and took out the envelope from behind.

Every single photo really did have an envelope hidden behind it, and inside each envelope was a handwritten letter from Qin Song to her.

"Hey, April 5th, clear skies, hmm, let me count, this is the seven-three-sixth letter... Shit, as expected, falling in love with a brainless woman makes you brainless too. I never thought I’d do something this stupid and actually stick with it. Hmm, once I finish writing this one, I swear I’m never writing again, otherwise I’ll chop my hands off."

Seeing the beginning of this letter, Gu Xiran couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

Mm, 736...

Obviously he kept stubbornly writing afterwards; totally slapped his own face.

Gu Xiran sniffled; although she was laughing, the corners of her eyes were filled with tears.

"Your Young Master here got a few more girlfriends today... but I really haven’t slept with any of them, I’m still a virgin... You can rest assured about that, hmm, though you probably have zero interest in this..."

"As for why I went out with them, that Zhang Minmin’s eyes look a lot like yours... And that Dong An’an, her nose and mouth look like yours, and there was another one whose name I can’t remember, her expressions are like yours. They all resemble you more or less, that’s why I chose them."

"Of course, there’s another very, very important reason: they’re all in the same crew as you. When I’m flirting with girls, I can openly go to the set to look for you, to see you. Otherwise, even though Your Young Master is brilliant, I can’t keep making up excuses to go see you."

Gu Xiran: "..."

Understood.

Gu Xiran felt a sudden sense of enlightenment.

"You worked really hard on set today, hanging on wires the whole time. Even I felt distressed just watching... Later you got a call from my brother, and it was like you instantly stopped being tired. At that moment, I think I understood: for someone you don’t love, no matter how much he does for you, it’s meaningless to you... but the one you love, even if he does nothing at all, he still makes you happy."

"But even so, I’ll still keep loving you tirelessly... because loving you is my own business; it won’t change just because you don’t love me."

Gu Xiran: "..."

It was as if Gu Xiran were possessed; she finished one letter and immediately moved on to the next.

She read from daytime into late night, and still couldn’t finish all the letters filling the room.

In the end, it was Qin Jin who couldn’t bear to watch anymore. He took the letter from Gu Xiran’s hand and set it aside.

"Rest for a bit first. I just had someone bring dinner."

"Mm."

Gu Xiran nodded and, her voice hoarse, asked, "Any news of Qin Song?"

"He got off the plane in Paris. We don’t know where he went after that, and we can’t determine whether he transferred to another flight."

"Mm."

Gu Xiran nodded, believing that with Qin Jin’s connections, they would definitely be able to find traces of Qin Song.

...

After dinner, Gu Xiran called Sister Ping and asked her to push back her scenes for a few days, which was also her way of asking the crew for leave.

Gu Xiran had always had a very good reputation in the industry, so when she asked for leave this time, the director didn’t say much, only told her to take good care of herself.

That night, Gu Xiran and Qin Jin chose to stay over in this apartment so they could head to the airport at any time the next day.

Qin Jin slept on the sofa; Gu Xiran slept in the master bedroom.

Lying alone on the wide, empty bed, Gu Xiran felt no drowsiness at all. Her beautiful eyes were wide open, but sleep wouldn’t come, her mind remaining in a constant haze.

Gu Xiran got up from the bed and then walked into the living room.

"What’s wrong?"

Qin Jin was highly alert; as soon as he heard movement, he immediately turned over and switched on the light.

With a snap, the lights in the living room came on. Gu Xiran raised her small hand to shield her eyes.

"It’s nothing... I just can’t sleep."

A faint smile tugged at the corner of Gu Xiran’s mouth. Because she’d cried for so long during the day, her eyes were still red and swollen, like a Little Rabbit.

Hearing this, Qin Jin pressed his thin lips together. "Mm, sit and talk for a while."

"Okay."

Gu Xiran nodded and obediently sat down beside Qin Jin. The night was quiet and gentle, and the living room was very still. The two of them sat facing each other, and in the end it was Qin Jin who spoke first.

"Sorry for keeping things from you before... and for doing so many things that hurt you. I’m sorry..."

Gu Xiran: "..."

The two men of the Qin Family: one destined to die for you, one destined to leave you.

Now Song Le’s words often echoed in her mind like a curse. Gu Xiran’s face darkened slightly, and she pressed her lips together.

"Let’s not talk about the past anymore. Saying sorry is useless anyway... If I could, I’d really like to say sorry to Qin Song."

She paused, then lifted the corners of her mouth, a bitter curve on her lips.

"But ’sorry’ is probably useless now."