President Song Is Critically Ill. Madam, Please Stop Torturing Him

Gu Wanrou died, and Song Yichen said to Wen Zhixi, “Let’s get divorced. The mistress of the Song family can’t have a single stain on her reputation. You’ve sullied that position.” Wen Zhixi tried to explain, her voice breaking, but he said, “She harmed the Gu family’s daughter. That alone is enough to make her utterly wicked and deserving of death.” Yet after he was gravely wounded, he told Fu Xinian, “Yes, I love her. I’ve never stopped, not for a moment, all these years. What is Gu Wanrou to me? How could she ever compare to my Axi?” But... “There are always things a person must do in this life, and people they want to protect... I... don’t have much time left. I can’t protect her and make sure the rest of her life goes smoothly, but I still want to do everything I can in the time I have... to do a little more for her, so that things might go more smoothly for her in the future...” As he lay dying, he thought, “After I’m gone... keep the news of my death from her for as long as you can. At least she’ll have a little more time to be happy. She’s still young. She shouldn’t have to endure this kind of soul-deep pain.” He dragged his ailing body up Lingshan, kowtowed three times at every step, and begged Master Wuwang: “My beloved has known little family affection in this life. Her parents cast her aside like a blade of grass. She has already suffered far too much, and I can’t bear to see her suffer like this again. I, your devotee Song Yichen, beg the Buddha to protect her and grant her a peaceful life after my death. I am willing to give up anything, except her.” But he hid his deep love so well that he fooled everyone, even the woman he loved with all his heart. Heartbroken, she left for a foreign country with another man. It was only a year later that she learned he had loved her so deeply, and that he had felt every pain she suffered. She had never known how much he suffered for her.