Chapter 11

Her decisiveness, and how quickly she moved, left Lin Yuewei standing there in stunned silence.

She took a few steps forward on pure instinct before it finally dawned on her that Gu Yanqiu had been getting back at her for the exhaust she’d blown in her face a few days ago.

Lin Yuewei had never seen anyone so petty, but she didn’t have the heart to care about something so trivial right then. It was better that Gu Yanqiu left; at least then Lin Yuewei wouldn’t have to let her see her like this.

Lin Yuewei rarely argued with her parents. She looked playful and unreliable, but in another sense she was the perfect daughter: excellent grades, good character, and admission to a top university to study finance. From childhood to adulthood, she had never given her parents any real trouble. The only thing Lin Dad had ever been dissatisfied with was that she had refused every winter and summer internship at the Lin family company over the years. Aside from the three months she’d been forced to intern in her senior year because graduation required it, Lin Dad had assumed she simply wanted to enjoy student life while she could and hadn’t taken it seriously. As for Lin Mom, there was no need to say more; though she seemed nagging, she doted on this only daughter even more than her father did. It was thanks to that that Lin Yuewei hadn’t grown up into some wildly unruly rich kid spoiled rotten by her parents.

This time, however, her decision caused a huge uproar at home. Lin Dad and Lin Mom had never been more united, standing together against her and expressing their resolute opposition. In a fit of anger, Lin Dad had nearly cut ties with her as father and daughter; of course, Lin Mom had stopped him in the end.

Lin Yuewei wasn’t going to change her mind. Telling her parents was informing them, not asking permission; otherwise, she wouldn’t have arranged everything in secret before bringing it up. Although she had anticipated this outcome, she still couldn’t help feeling hurt. Why wouldn’t her parents respect her dream? Why did they have to belittle it?

The family had fallen into a terrible stalemate, and Lin Yuewei had left home with nothing but her phone.

There wasn’t a single star in B City’s night sky. Lin Yuewei lifted her head and let out a soft sigh, thinking through her next move. She could stay with a friend first—she had quite a few, after all—crash there for a few days, then buy a few new outfits at the mall and go straight to the program. As for her parents... Lin Yuewei didn’t want to think about it. They would understand eventually that this wasn’t some passing whim.

She stepped on a small pebble and kicked it away; it rolled beneath the base of a roadside trash can.

She stopped and started scrolling through her contacts for a friend’s number. A sudden beam of light made her raise a hand to shield her eyes; she took half a step back toward the edge of the road and squinted at the sports car driving toward her.

“Miss Lin.” Gu Yanqiu had returned, parking beside Lin Yuewei.

Lin Yuewei shot her a cold sidelong look.

There probably wasn’t a normal person who would still be so polite after getting a face full of exhaust from the other person.

“I’m sorry, Miss Lin. I apologize for what happened just now.” Gu Yanqiu, however, completely refused to follow common sense.

Lin Yuewei didn’t want to deal with her, but one question still rose in her mind: what was she up to now?

Gu Yanqiu’s earlier step on the gas had been purely instinctive. Their eye contact had happened so suddenly that she hadn’t even had time to decide what to say before her body chose to get away first. The moment she hit the accelerator, she regretted it. It was the dead of night, and Lin Yuewei was alone wandering the streets in a deserted area; whatever else happened, she shouldn’t have left her there. So once she reached the nearest place where she could turn around, she came straight back. Thankfully, Lin Yuewei was still on the road; otherwise, Gu Yanqiu probably wouldn’t have been able to sleep all night.

“Are you going somewhere? I can give you a ride,” Gu Yanqiu said. Lin Yuewei hadn’t even brought a bag with her; her long hair had been blown across her face by the evening wind, making her look oddly bedraggled. It was spring, but the night was still cold. She was only wearing a short-sleeved long T-shirt; beneath her shorts were a pair of long, straight legs. Her figure was so good she could have gone straight onto a runway. Under normal circumstances, Gu Yanqiu might have admired her for a moment, but she couldn’t spare the thought now; worry had taken over.

How had a wealthy young lady ended up in this state?

Lin Yuewei, shivering in the night wind, lowered the hands she’d crossed in front of her and caught a flicker of pity in Gu Yanqiu’s eyes. She immediately bristled. “My friend’s coming to pick me up soon. None of your business.”

“Get in the car.” Gu Yanqiu raised the roof, turned on the heater, then leaned over and opened the passenger-side door.

“No.”

“It’s warm inside.”

“I’m not cold—achoo—”

A pink flush rose across Lin Yuewei’s face. If you thought she was embarrassed, you’d be wrong; she was embarrassed and furious at the same time. She and Gu Yanqiu were definitely natural-born enemies. Every time she wanted to hide something, her own body always betrayed her first.

She’d thought Gu Yanqiu would laugh, but Gu Yanqiu didn’t.

Gu Yanqiu only looked at her quietly, attentively, with those beautiful, clear black eyes, full of gentle goodwill and not the slightest trace of mockery. “If you keep standing in the wind, you’ll catch a cold. Be good.”

As if under a spell, Lin Yuewei got into the car. There wasn’t a thin blanket inside, and the air-conditioning hadn’t warmed up yet. Gu Yanqiu took off her own coat and, without a word, draped it over Lin Yuewei’s legs. Then she settled back into the driver’s seat. Knowing that Lin Yuewei didn’t like her, she didn’t say anything else. Besides, now that Lin Yuewei was in the car, there wasn’t much else to say.

Lin Yuewei turned to stare at her profile. Gu Yanqiu had always been extremely good-looking; with her eyes lowered and her expression quiet, the streetlights sweeping along the road cast interwoven bands of light and shadow across her face, giving her a serene, almost moving beauty.

Her fingers twitched; they brushed against the fabric of the windbreaker that didn’t belong to her. She came back to herself with a jolt, leaning forward slightly and letting out a breath. Alarm flashed through her mind: was this person a fox spirit or something? Every time they were alone, she’d drift off without meaning to.

What had she been about to do just now?

Lin Yuewei gripped the phone in her hand, which she had unknowingly clenched so tightly it felt hot, and called the number she hadn’t managed to dial earlier. To keep Gu Yanqiu from noticing she’d been spacing out, she’d even forgotten what she was doing and blurted out, exasperated, “Why aren’t you here yet?”

Her friend on the other end was baffled. “Where, Your Highness?”

Lin Yuewei said, “Didn’t I tell you to come pick me up? Tonight, I’m planning to move my royal carriage to your Fengyang Palace, so hurry up and receive me. I’m on XX Road, across from the XX Hotel. Forget it, I’ll send you a location.”

Her friend said, “Yes, Your Majesty. I’m on my way. What are you doing out there so late anyway? A date?”

Lin Yuewei was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on; her fur bristled in an instant. “You’re the one on a date! Your whole family is on a date!”

“I was just asking casually. Why are you so worked up?”

Lin Yuewei pretended nothing had happened. “Am I worked up?”

Her friend nodded. “You are.”

Lin Yuewei said, “You heard wrong. Less nonsense, get here quickly.”

“Got it. I’ve already taken the car keys and headed out.”

Lin Yuewei ended the call with her heart pounding wildly, then sent her friend the location. After everything was done, she stole a glance at Gu Yanqiu beside her and found that Gu Yanqiu wasn’t looking at her at all. She breathed a sigh of relief, while at the same time a trace of disappointment welled up in her heart that even she hadn’t noticed.

To stop herself from being bewitched by her again, Lin Yuewei turned her head away and looked out the other window.

Gu Yanqiu’s back, which had been tense the whole time, gradually relaxed almost imperceptibly. She flipped to the next page of the email she had been staring at for several minutes and fingered her prayer beads.

***

“Hello, I’m Jiang Congbi, Yuewei’s good friend.”

“Gu Yanqiu.”

Lin Yuewei’s friend and Gu Yanqiu met face-to-face. Lin Yuewei stood beside Jiang Congbi, watching the two of them shake hands. She lightly shook her head at the look Gu Yanqiu sent her; only then did Gu Yanqiu leave the rest of her introduction unsaid.

Lin Yuewei’s wedding had brought many guests, Jiang Congbi among them. Jiang Congbi had already been stunned by Gu Yanqiu’s beauty on the wedding day, and now she couldn’t take her eyes off her.

Lin Yuewei understood that loving beauty was human nature, but... She reached around from behind and pinched Jiang Congbi’s waist. In the midst of Gu Yanqiu’s awkwardness, Jiang Congbi finally let go of her hand, which she had been holding far too tightly.

Jiang Congbi deserved to be Lin Yuewei’s best friend; the two of them shared the same temperament. The moment she turned her head, Jiang Congbi started talking nonsense at her. “What? What’s wrong with shaking hands? You jealous?”

Lin Yuewei said, “Jealous my—” Gu Yanqiu was right there; Lin Yuewei didn’t want to say anything vulgar, so she changed direction on the spot. “...Don’t talk nonsense.”

Jiang Congbi looked shocked. “Has the sun risen in the west, or have you been possessed?”

Lin Yuewei mouthed “get lost” at her; of course, only from an angle Gu Yanqiu couldn’t see.

Jiang Congbi took the hint immediately. “Sure, I’ll get lost. You two go off and live happily ever after.”

Lin Yuewei was almost unable to hold herself back.

“It’s getting late,” Gu Yanqiu broke the stalemate between the two of them and said with a nod, “I should head back. I still have work tomorrow. Good night, Miss Lin.”

Jiang Congbi, who loved nothing more than stirring up trouble, leaned in. “What about me? What about me?”

Gu Yanqiu paused, then couldn’t help but laugh. “Good night, Miss Jiang.”

“Good night, good night. You’re really beautiful,” Jiang Congbi said with a smile, waving at her.

“Thank you. So are you.” Gu Yanqiu returned the smile. She had already safely handed Lin Yuewei over to her friend, so she didn’t linger any longer and drove off first.

Lin Yuewei smacked Jiang Congbi’s hand away. “They’re gone, and you’re still waving. Who are you waving at, ghosts?”

Jiang Congbi said leisurely, “The moment she leaves, you show your true colors. Such two-faced behavior. Why am I the one suffering like this?”

“Get in the car. We’re going to your place.”

“What’s the rush? The night’s still long.” Jiang Congbi reached out and blocked her path. “Your contract wife is seriously top-tier. Aren’t you tempted at all?”

Lin Yuewei said coolly, “The only heart that doesn’t move is a dead one.”

Jiang Congbi said, “You know that’s not what I’m asking.”

Lin Yuewei said, “I really don’t have those thoughts.”

Jiang Congbi said, “That’s what you said. Now I can relax.”

Lin Yuewei’s heart jumped. “What do you mean?”

Jiang Congbi curved her lips into a smile. “I want to pursue her. You don’t mind, do you?”

Author’s note: Anyone with a name is here to help move things along, so don’t panic ﹁_﹁