Boundary - Chapter 13

Gu Yetong’s message arrived just as he was getting off the plane.

“Grandpa had a minor stroke. I’ve been staying with him at the hospital these past couple of days.”

The message had actually been sent yesterday afternoon.

“Which hospital? I’ll come over.” Worried she might not be able to answer the phone at the hospital, he quickly sent a follow-up text.

By the time the driver dropped him off at his home, Gu Yetong’s reply finally came through. “No need, he’s being discharged today.”

When Jin Nanting got home and asked the butler, he learned that Grandpa Gu had been admitted to the hospital on Wednesday night, and Gu Yetong hadn’t been home for the past few days.

At least she had the decency to inform him.

Jin Nanting frowned as he reread her polite yet distant message. He knew all too well her stubborn reluctance to ask for help.

He still remembered that time in their second year of high school when she sprained her ankle during a school hiking trip. The path down the mountain wasn’t far, but it was narrow and steep. Several boys offered to carry her down, but Gu Yetong refused every one of them.

“What if someone else falls while carrying me? That would just create more trouble.”
As the student council president, Jin Nanting had been involved in the entire emergency response discussion.

He could tell that the boys who offered to carry her had ulterior motives. After all, this was probably the only chance they’d ever get to get close to this aloof orchid, to touch her thighs, to feel her soft chest pressed against their backs.

But Gu Yetong’s defenses were impenetrable. In the end, the agreed-upon solution was for him, as the event organizer, to support her as they slowly made their way down the mountain behind the main group.

“I’ve scouted this route before. Even if we fall behind, I won’t get lost.”
His reasoning was equally flawless.

Though he and Gu Yetong weren’t exactly friends, they had known each other for years. He didn’t want to see her, in a vulnerable state, being taken advantage of by boys with less-than-honorable intentions.

And so, he let the girl use him as a crutch, limping her way down the mountain step by step. At first, a few classmates deliberately slowed their pace to walk ahead of them, but seeing that neither of them was particularly chatty, they soon lost interest and left. As the crowd thinned, the girl’s pained expression began to show. Several times, when descending steps, he noticed her gritting her teeth so hard it seemed she might shatter them, all to keep herself from crying out in pain.

“The path ahead isn’t as steep,” he said, shifting his hand from her arm to her ribs to give her better support. “I could also carry you down.”

She said nothing, only pressed down on his right hand, which was supporting her. He thought she might be pushing him away, feeling he had overstepped, but instead, she simply used his hand as a steadying point.

Beyond that, she didn’t allow herself to get any closer to him.

The next day, he received a report: Gu Yetong had a tibial fracture and would need two months to fully recover.

Their wedding night had been much the same.

Gu Yetong would rather bite her lip until it bled than utter a single word about still being a virgin.

“What would it change? Could you really make it not hurt?”

He could almost imagine her retort if he asked why she hadn’t told him beforehand.
And he truly couldn’t have.

During the wedding, when he leaned down to place the ceremonial kiss on her lips, his attention was entirely captured by the glimpse of her snow-white breasts peeking out from her neckline. A strange heat surged through him.

A call from the European law firm became his lifeline, giving him a chance to step away from her and steady his thoughts.

But it did little to help.

Every time he didn’t have to speak, his mind would drift upstairs. What was his bride, who had seemed half in a daze for much of the day, doing now? Did she regret running away? Or was she obediently waiting for him in bed?

Neither seemed like something she would do.

The meeting, originally scheduled for an hour, ended abruptly due to his constant distraction.

When he returned to their honeymoon suite, he found his bride had already fallen asleep on her own.

With the heavy bridal makeup removed, Gu Yetong, reclining on the bed, looked even more beautiful than she had at the wedding. Perhaps it was because, at this moment, she no longer wore that deliberately aloof expression, allowing her beauty to radiate without defense.

But her brow was slightly furrowed, as if troubled by a nightmare.

And so, he woke her with a kiss.

He didn’t want to be the prince who woke the princess, sharing her beauty with the world. He’d rather be the dragon, claiming her dreams for himself.

As he untied her robe and saw the red marks left on her soft, snow-white skin by the ill-fitting wedding dress, his only thought was to leave his own marks on her.

And when he broke through that barrier, the surprise in his heart nearly made him lose control of the pace he’d set.

Jin Nanting didn’t consider himself a man with a virginity complex. On the contrary, he couldn’t understand how a woman as beautiful as Gu Yetong could have remained untouched.

Had she never encountered a man brave enough to approach her?

Perhaps it was for the best.

The men she would meet in the future wouldn’t dare to have such ambitions or intentions either.

He wouldn’t allow it.

His solitary brunch was set up in the living area, but even here, the absence of one person made the space feel excessively empty.

He wasn’t someone who feared loneliness, and even when he was with Gu Yetong, their conversations weren’t particularly frequent. They always seemed to start a topic only when the atmosphere grew too quiet—sometimes about a project one of them was working on, other times about industry news or new policies. Whatever the topic, the other person always knew how to keep the conversation going.

This way of being together had become their tacit understanding. But now, all he could hear was the crisp clink of his own utensils against the dishes.
After finishing his meal, he decided not to wait any longer.