"Sir, your wife has come to talk to you." Gong Lu laid in bed, covered by a thin sheet of silk. He was a feeble old man, but reflected within his eyes were various unfathomably deep emotions, oceans within oceans. Regret, pain, unwillingness... Gong Lu, who had lived to the ripe old age of 104, was dying. He knew he had not much time.
The oak door was opened, and an old lady came in. She was able to walk, but barely. The old woman showed an expression of gentle kindness and love.
Gong Lu's wife began. "Xingan, you know I love you. My heart beats with yours. So, why do you hurt me so? We both know that you could live for far longer. Modern medicine could expand your lifespan by years! Please, just tell me why... Have I been too cruel? Have I not loved you enough?"
The woman dropped to her knees. As the respectable wife of Gong Lu, who had unified the world, she was nothing to sneeze at either. In fact, her nickname was "Ice Mistress", because she never showed emotion in public. Not once. She was always dignified and strong, despite her crippling age.
But now, she kneeled on the dark green rug on the marble floor, tears in her eyes, in front of her husband. She begged for him to remain. "Please! I'll do anything! My Xingan, my Xingan, I just want you to stay with me! You're my only light, the only guiding path in this eternal darkness of mine! I'll do any-anything... P-pleas-se..."
Finally, Gong Lu spoke.
"Nuan Yu, we have been together for 81 years. For eight decades, we shared our heart, our mind, we were truly together. Now, I'm afraid I must depart this world. We both know, indeed, that I could stay through modern science. That we could remain together eternally in a virtual world, if we so wished. But, my Xingan, would you torture me so? It is true love I feel for you, indeed, every moment we spend together, but it is also true revulsion that I feel for my life, for every beat of my heart. I have unified the world and ended war and strife, true, but in the process, I've had to plot, scheme, and harm those around me just to get what I want. This is the greatest of my many regrets on this earth. Come. Forgive this old man, but I want to feel the warmth of your embrace one last time..."
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Nuan Yu's tears only intensified. Shaking, her feeble body barely handling the stress, she picked herself up and moved towards the old man in the bed, the one that suddenly felt so many years younger as she looked into his eyes for the last time, as she held him for the last, final, time...
"You scoundrel! I can't believe you bribed my dad! Hmph, you have too much money!"
A young woman scolded her companion, trying to conceal the happy smile on her face as she spoke.
"Well, I mean, you already said yes... All we had to do was get your dad's approval, and nothing speaks more sincerely than money... Okay, look at it like this. Now, your dad won't have to worry about money, and we'll get married happily ever after! See, simple!"
A young man made no attempts to hide his emotions, his jubilance showing on his face as he responded and defended himself from his girlfriend's "brutal" attacks. This was the only time he could be truly happy...
"Oh, Gong Lu... I love you..."
As Nuan Yu held her true love in her arms, and as she cherished very slow beat of his heart, she cried silently, trying to refrain from shaking as her husband died in her arms.
"I love you..."
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Author's Note: Please note that this chapter is unusually short, and is not the template for the size of the chapters of the future. They will be significantly longer.