Stars In His Eyes

Chapter 1827: True Feelings, Sincere Treatment 40

When Gu Hengyuan asked this, both He Father and Little Tuanyuan didn’t know how to respond.

Seeing their silence, Gu Hengyuan understood the answer.

"You came to see your grandpa without telling your mom?" Although Gu Hengyuan was asking, he already knew the answer in his heart.

He couldn’t quite describe what he felt; at first, seeing Little Tuanyuan, he vaguely wondered if Zhilan had forgiven him. Maybe she was too embarrassed to come and see him herself, so she sent Little Tuanyuan instead.

However, upon learning the truth, Gu Hengyuan felt a slight ache in his heart.

So many years had passed, yet his only daughter still refused to forgive him.

But Gu Hengyuan knew he had no right to blame his daughter. The hardships that He Zhilan endured outside, he barely understood, but what little he knew was already too painful for him to bear.

In this prison, Gu Hengyuan often thought of the day the old man celebrated his birthday. He Zhilan came as the classmate of Gu En and attended the birthday banquet with the Zhou Family’s son. The image of her holding back tears in the face of the Gu Family’s accusations, and at the Gu Family’s gate, where she hugged the old man and cried bitterly, wishing him a long life—every scene filled Gu Hengyuan with immense regret.

Gu Hengyuan thought, back then, if he had been more attentive, if he had questioned what He Zhilan said to the old man before leaving, or if he had just been a responsible parent and personally apologized to Zhilan on behalf of Gu En, perhaps Zhilan would have forgiven the Gu Family and told him, her father, that she was Gu Zhilan.

"Little Tuanyuan, go home. Don’t come again secretly. If your mom finds out, she’ll be unhappy. Your mom has suffered a lot for you, both mentally and physically. Remember, never do anything to make your mom sad, okay?" Gu Hengyuan sighed, then said to He Father, "Thank you for bringing Little Tuanyuan to see me today. But if Zhilan can’t forgive me as a father, you keeping this from her will only make her sad if she finds out. The Gu Family has already wronged Zhilan, and you, the He Family, are her only remaining relatives in this world. So you must not make things difficult for her or make her feel you are distancing yourselves from her."

"Grandpa, we won’t let mom know!" Little Tuanyuan shook her little head and then raised her backpack high to hand it to Gu Hengyuan, saying, "Grandpa, I’ve drawn many pictures for you to see. Mom says my drawings are really good, so I want to show them to Grandpa!"

The drawings in Little Tuanyuan’s backpack were completed in his room over the past few days, secretly from He Zhilan. Inside, there was a drawing he did based on a family photo.

He was still young, so his drawings couldn’t compare to those of a master, and some were even a bit naive.

But as Gu Hengyuan flipped through Little Tuanyuan’s sketchbook, the tears in his eyes finally fell drop by drop.

One family portrait, though just a simple line drawing where the resemblance was unrecognizable, had two extra figures added.

"Grandpa, let me introduce them to you! This little one in the middle is me; next to me are dad and mom, then it’s grandpa, my second uncle, and my future second aunt. Here is my aunt and future uncle-in-law," Little Tuanyuan pointed to each as he introduced them. Finally, he pointed to the two figures he had drawn, erased, and redrawn several times, "This is supposed to be grandpa and grandma. I’ve seen grandma from a distance a few times, so I know she has long hair, but I’ve never seen grandpa. If you think I didn’t draw you well, I’ll redo it at home and bring it back to show you next time."