Chapter 640 - Just One Favor...
When Old Lu saw Guan Gao Huan's face, he smiled.
The closer he looked at his third grandson, the more he saw his semblance with him when he was in his twenties. This eased the heavy feelings in his heart a lot.
"Gao Huan. Why did you visit this old man?"
Guan Gao Huan entered the room and saw the photo albums on the table. His heart froze.
Was... the old man started to become suspicious of him?
Old Guan saw that Guan Gao Huan's smile stiffened. The eyes of his grandson was on the table where the pictures of him, his daughter, and his grandsons were scattered.
Once more, the ache in Old Guan's heart stirred.
"Gao Huan..."
Guan Gao Huan calmed down and forced out a gentle smile. "I have not seen you for a long time, grandfather. How is your condition?"
Old Guan smiled lightly. "I am getting better. But I am still advised to rest indoors. Come here."
Guan Gao Huan walked to the table and sat across the old man. His eyes subtly glanced at the photos.
Among the scattered photos were pictures of the young Gao Huan.
The little boy was smiling while holding a kiddie ball. The pair of bright warm brown eyes and big smile made Guan Gao Huan feel strange.
He had never seen the young boy in the hospital bed awake. Until the real Guan Gao Huan's final moments, he had never seen the little boy's eyes.
So his eyes were really this brown... Unlike his.
"Do you remember this? You insisted on playing children's basketball even though you were too weak to throw the ball to the basket. When your big brother Xixin pleaded for you to let you play, you just kept the ball to yourself and never brought it down."
Guan Gao Huan's eyes lowered.
He had no memory of that, because he was not the real person in the picture.
His childhood days had no such happy memories.
"..."
Old Guan did not hear any response. His smile slowly diminished and became bitter.
A wizened old hand reached out to hold Guan Gao Huan's hand. "My youngest grandson, I know that you still haven't forgiven me, but I hope that I could at least help you ease the anger in your heart."
Guan Gao Huan's ears perked up. He smirked inwardly.
The old man was still the same as last time. Always asking for his forgiveness.
This weakness could be taken advantage of.
Turning melancholic, Guan Gao Huan looked at his grandfather's eyes. "Then... If I ask you for one more favor, just one favor, will you grant it for me?"
Old Guan stared at his grandson's eyes. This might be the last time his grandson would be asking a favor from him.
"What is it? If I can make you feel better after what I have done to you, then I will do it with everything I have."
Everything?
Guan Gao Huan lowered his eyes to hide the darkness flashing within them.
"Grandpa, I'll be honest with you. I... am unable to truly forgive you for leaving me alone in a strange place with unfamiliar people when I was at the lowest point of my life. Grandpa, I was still very young back then... My heart was full of bitterness and grievances..."
The words echoed with emptiness.
Guan Gao Huan seemed to be brought back in the past.
....
His new father who gave him food and new clothes suddenly brought him to a hospital one day. The man led him to one of the private rooms.
"From now on, you will stay and study here."
The young boy looked around nervously. There was another younger child in the room, but that child had many strange apparatus attached to his body while sleeping.
A pair of hands rested on the wide-eyed boy's small shoulders.
"That's you. From now, that child is you." His new father whispered to his ears.
As the days passed, the young Gunan understood what it meant to be that child.
When Lu Jin, his only friend, and his new brother, came to visit, the young Gunan asked Lu Jin, "Why is that boy left here alone? Is he like me, without a family?"
Lu Jin who was still full of innocence answered honestly.? "He is in a coma because of an accident. But he has a family. He has brothers and a grandfather back home in the country..." The young Lu Jin then expressed sadness." But his mother died recently and he became like this."
"Then where are they? If they are alive why did they leave him alone? Was he abandoned and unwanted as well?"
Lu Jin's eyes turned wide. "Where did you hear that?! He is not unwanted! He is sent here to get better!"
Gunan dubiously eyed the little boy in coma on the bed.
He was sent here to get better? But his new father said that this boy would soon die...
If this boy really had his family who loved him unlike him- an orphan- then they would not allow a person from the dirtiest slum to replace their child and live as their cild.
His family clearly sent this child here to die, and he just happened to take this boy's place.
...
It was actually a blessing for him. He would not be needed if this old man did not idiotically send away his grandson to die. However, being with Guan Gao Huan and accompanying him in that room for several years, seeing the flesh slowly shrink into skin and bones, Gunan understood the feelings of the abandoned young boy.
His father, Ming Zhi Yi, was right. He was... Guan Gao Huan.
Their feelings were the same.
It was not hard for Guan Gao Huan to print the grievances of the real Gao Huan in him. He spoke out his feelings with conviction.
"I can't forgive the man who left me alone to die...and who abandoned me to suffer such cruel fate."
These words were like a saw-edged knife slowly being pierced at the old man's heart. Old Guan felt as if his heart was stabbed countless times painfully.
He knew it, but hearing the words from the person himself was even more heartbreaking.
The elder's breathing became ragged.
Guan Gao Huan took a deep breath. "But I also can't stay angry with you, since you are also the reason why I? am still alive today."
Old Guan kept back the tears that were threatening to come down. He held his grandson's hand tightly as he choked out, "...I am deeply sorry, my dear grandson. This foolish old man was too blinded by rage. May the heavens punish me."
Guan Gao Huan scoffed inwardly.
The heavens were already punishing you.
"What could I do... what could I do to make it up to you? Tell me..." The old man begged. What could he do to make his grandson's heart full of grievance be comforted?
Guan Gao Huan smiled. "Just one thing, grandfather."
"What is it? Tell me..."
"Please hand over to me the Guan Empire."
!!!
Old Guan's eyes widened.
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