NOVEL WEB Chapter 227: The First Stage, Refining the Heart_3
For three full years, Gu Chen led a life where he wandered through a multitude of temptations untouched. In his thirty-eighth year, Gu Chen's career soared even higher as he monopolized even the overseas markets, amassing a net worth of over one hundred billion. Wherever he went, he was the center of attention.
However, it was in that same year that his father suddenly fell gravely ill, becoming paralyzed and bedridden. His mother, anxious because of his father's illness, grew physically weaker than she used to be.
In that same year, at his parents' urging, Gu Chen abandoned his absurd life of unattachment and chose the most beautiful and compatible woman among his many female friends to marry.
When Gu Chen turned forty, his company's stock price suffered a Waterloo moment, its market value evaporated by hundreds of billions overnight, and that was also the year when his child was born.
No one can be smooth-sailing forever, and Lady Luck won't always stay by someone's side.
As time passed, the child grew up, but Gu Chen's company's stock continued to fall, and by the time his child finished elementary school, his company was on the brink of bankruptcy.
He went from a business prodigy adored by the masses to someone on the verge of being heavily in debt and labeled a scapegrace. Read latest stories on empire
His wife, who had been affectionate for so many years, seemed to become a different person. Before the company went bankrupt, she divorced Gu Chen, taking everything he had left except for their child, whom she left with him.
Gu Chen's father had been paralyzed for many years, surviving only because Gu Chen spent vast sums of money to prolong his life; his mother, due to his father's condition, had always been mentally unwell and in poor physical health.
With his company bankrupt, his duty to care for his parents and child, and the burden of massive debts, Gu Chen had no choice but to start vending on the street.
Suddenly, the news of a hundred-billionaire business tycoon street vending hit the headlines, drawing countless onlookers every day and even attracting former business competitors to mock his downfall.
But Gu Chen endured it all; barely managing to support his child through high school. Before he could see better days, his body began to fail him.
Due to years of staying up late, Gu Chen's body was riddled with chronic illnesses. As he aged, these maladies erupted simultaneously and not long after, he passed away, leaving this world behind.
"Looking back at my life, what have I really left behind?" In the last moment before death, as darkness approached, Gu Chen asked himself.
"I've experienced glory and fall, pride and disappointment, but are these what I truly desired? What is it that I really wanted?" Gu Chen fell into deep self-doubt.
What is the true purpose of life?
Suddenly, a voice rang out from the deepest part of Gu Chen's heart: "Let it go... let it go... relinquishing everything, perhaps death is the ultimate destination."
"Yes, to let go... after letting go, I won't be tired anymore…" Gu Chen murmured to himself.
At this moment, the burdensome pressure in his heart suddenly vanished, replaced by an unprecedented sense of relaxation. Gu Chen had never felt so comfortable, so at ease, with not a single trace of pressure left on him.
But in that final moment, a thought suddenly flashed across Gu Chen's mind, a faint voice echoing in the depths of his heart.
"No... I can't give up... All of this is fake!"
Instantly, Gu Chen's mind sharpened. Decades of living each scene deeply etched into his heart, his memories of Da Xia nearly obliterated; everything seemed all too real.
Yet at the final juncture, his deepest instincts reminded him that all of this was false— he was still in the midst of the Pure Yang Martial Sect's trial, he was in the midst of refining his heart!
"I am Gu Chen, Gu Chen of Da Xia, the commander of the Jing Tian Department in Tiandu. Everything that just happened was fake!" At that moment, Gu Chen suddenly awoke.