Chapter 110

Father Lin gave an address for a residential complex not far from the Lin family company.

Lin Yuewei hung up and told Gu Yanqiu the address.

Gu Yanqiu didn’t ask anything; she simply drove toward it.

Lin Yuewei clasped both hands together, her gaze lowered. Gu Yanqiu glanced at her worriedly and reached over to stroke her hands.

Lin Yuewei let out a breath and looked up to meet her eyes. “I’m fine.”

Gu Yanqiu said, “I’ll stay with you.”

Lin Yuewei nodded, then closed her eyes as if resting.

Her mind was strangely calm. She had started suspecting something like this very early on; probably when Ran Qingqing had first started acting strangely. Like most Chinese families, Father Lin was busy with business and speeches, often away on trips; Ran Qingqing was content to stay home and take care of husband and daughter, occasionally going out with her girlfriends to shop and drink tea. When Lin Yuewei was little, Ran Qingqing would even bring her along to meet the various aunts.

Ran Qingqing’s social circle was actually very small; it was basically the same few people inside and out, and Lin Yuewei knew all of them. And even parents had their own preferences; because Ran Qingqing had taken care of her more as she grew up, Lin Yuewei was closer to her in her heart. Faced with this kind of abnormality, Lin Yuewei, like many children, first suspected the state of her parents’ relationship. The first person she suspected was Father Lin, not her mother, Ran Qingqing.

Later, with Shen Huaiyu, Gu Yanqiu, and the other tangled-up matters, Lin Yuewei shifted her suspicion onto Ran Qingqing, because her oddness was more obvious. On a deeper level, if it really was her mother’s fault, Lin Yuewei had great confidence that she could persuade her to stop before it was too late; and because they were closer, she would also be more likely to forgive her.

The suspicion, built up layer by layer over her own subjective assumptions, was now being torn open. The family’s abnormality had only grown worse, and then there had been Father Lin and the young woman they had run into at the hotel; it was impossible for Lin Yuewei not to think more.

If it was true, what was she supposed to do?

Gu Yanqiu knew Lin Yuewei wasn’t asleep; her eyelashes were trembling too much. Her eyes swept briefly to the roadside, and she put on the right turn signal.

When Lin Yuewei felt the car stop, she opened her eyes and asked, “Are we there?”

The lights outside were bright and glaring; they were clearly still on the street.

Gu Yanqiu leaned over and kissed her forehead, one hand on the door handle. “No. I’m going to buy something.”

“What are you buying?”

Gu Yanqiu had already opened the door and gotten out. She went around the front of the car, wrapped her scarf tighter against the cold wind until only the upper half of her face showed, and jogged off to the convenience store by the roadside.

When the door opened again, the cold air rushed in with Gu Yanqiu. Lin Yuewei’s hand back suddenly warmed, and Gu Yanqiu said, “Milk. Warm your stomach. You drank tonight, didn’t you? You smell like alcohol.”

Lin Yuewei sniffed herself. “Do I?”

Gu Yanqiu said seriously, “Yes. So it’ll help sober you up.”

Lin Yuewei looked at her for a few seconds, then laughed, wearing an expression that said she had seen through everything.

Gu Yanqiu couldn’t keep up the act anymore and laughed too. “Can’t you at least pretend you don’t understand?”

Lin Yuewei immediately played dumb to indulge her. “Right, I did drink quite a bit earlier. I’ll have some milk to sober up.”

Gu Yanqiu started the car and didn’t bother arguing with her anymore.

Lin Yuewei held the milk and drank it slowly. Her originally ice-cold hands and feet gradually warmed up, and she also found a bit more courage to face the truth than she had just now. What was there to be afraid of? She had already anticipated the worst.

Her phone rang once. Gu Yanqiu seemed to sense it and glanced over.

Lin Yuewei slid the screen open and said, “My dad. He told me to message him when I arrived; he’ll come out to get me.”

Gu Yanqiu asked, “Does he know I’m with you?”

Lin Yuewei: “Ah.”

Gu Yanqiu understood at once. “Then should I wait for you in the car?”

“No need.” Lin Yuewei lowered her head to type. “I’ll tell him now that you brought me here.” After a few seconds, she said, “Okay; my dad agreed.”

***

Gu Yanqiu had seen Father Lin only a handful of times. He didn’t quite look like a businessman; instead, he gave off the air of an elegant university professor, perhaps because he often served as a speaker at conferences and gave public lectures. He had already taken off his suit and changed into a young, fashionable light purple sweater with black trousers. He was handsome to begin with and well maintained, so he looked only about thirty-something; standing in front of Lin Yuewei, he didn’t seem like her father so much as her older brother.

“Uncle Lin,” Gu Yanqiu said.

Father Lin nodded.

He brought them both into the residential complex, swiped them through the gate and elevator, and went all the way up to a door.

In that instant, Lin Yuewei was especially afraid that when the door opened, a stranger would come out, and then Father Lin would introduce that person to her and so on. She would definitely turn around and leave.

Father Lin pressed his finger to the lock; it clicked open.

He stepped inside, changed his shoes at the entryway, then took out two pairs of new slippers. “Please come in.”

Lin Yuewei surveyed the place. It was about two hundred square meters, with three bedrooms and two living rooms. All the doors were closed, but from the details inside, it looked like one person lived here alone.

She let out a breath.

The near-certain thought turned back into suspicion.

Father Lin asked the two of them to sit on the sofa, then went to pour them each a glass of water. Gu Yanqiu stood to take hers, while Lin Yuewei took hers and set it straight on the coffee table. She went straight to the point. “What exactly happened, Dad?”

A troubled look fell over Father Lin’s face.

Lin Yuewei grew anxious. “Say something.”

A whole range of melodramatic possibilities flashed through her mind at once.

Father Lin closed his eyes. As if going all in, he said, “We should talk in the room.”

Lin Yuewei looked at Gu Yanqiu, and Gu Yanqiu nodded at her.

Once they were inside and the door was shut, Father Lin stunned Lin Yuewei with his first sentence.

“Your mother and I are getting divorced. We’re in the process of dividing our assets now; once everything is sorted out, we’ll officially divorce.”

Lin Yuewei’s mind went blank with a bang, as if something had suddenly exploded.

She stared at him dumbly. “What?”

Father Lin looked ashamed. “I’ve let your mother down.”

“You cheated?” Lin Yuewei heard her own voice, and then she saw her father give a difficult nod after she said it.

“Why?” Lin Yuewei felt a knot of foul air clog her chest. She had anticipated it, but when the guess actually came true, she found she couldn’t accept it. All these years, she had always thought her family was a model household, with a loving husband and wife, completely unlike the sham couples in their social circle.

“I… was foolish for a moment,” Father Lin said, lowering his head.

“For a moment?” Lin Yuewei let out a cold laugh and looked up at the ceiling, having completely lost all respect for him as a father. “How exactly were you foolish for a moment?”

“You…” Father Lin looked up. Even if he was in the wrong first, that didn’t mean he had to let his daughter speak to him like this.

His momentum was easily shattered by Lin Yuewei’s next sentence, and he couldn’t continue.

Lin Yuewei said, “You always said you loved my mom, didn’t you?”

Father Lin said, “I still love your mother now. No one else could ever compare to her.”

Lin Yuewei immediately pressed, “Then why were you fooling around with someone outside?”

Father Lin’s face turned ugly at once. “I said it was a mistake I made in a moment of foolishness.”

“Then why were you foolish? Can you tell me?” Lin Yuewei put away her spikes and tried to hear him out.

But Father Lin didn’t want to explain. Frowning, he said, “There’s no why. I just did something wrong on impulse.” A flash of ferocity crossed his features, then quickly faded back into his usual mild, refined demeanor. Gently, he said, “Yuewei, I want to ask you for a favor.”

“What favor?”

“Help me plead with your mother.”

“Plead?”

“I don’t want a divorce.” The man’s voice hitched.

Lin Yuewei softened for a moment, looking at him. “If you won’t say anything, how am I supposed to help you? I need to know whether this was a mistake born of your own intentions, or whether it was an accident.”

Father Lin fell silent.

He took a pack of cigarettes from the bedside table, lit one with a lighter, and moved over to the balcony door, smoking slowly as if weighed down by his thoughts and unable to speak.

This was the first time in Lin Yuewei’s memory that she had seen her father smoke, but his movements were already very practiced. The smoke entered his lungs, then slowly drifted from his nose like a cloud of sorrow.

Lin Yuewei waited patiently.

Father Lin smoked one cigarette down to the filter, ground it out in the ashtray, and stood at a distance from Lin Yuewei before slowly speaking. “All right. I’ll tell you everything.”

Father Lin was forty-five this year, still in the prime of his energy. He was handsome, successful in his career, wealthy, and eloquent; wherever he went, he was the center of attention. Naturally, there were many women throwing themselves at him. Even though he had a wife and daughter, even if they weren’t after his money, the vigorous masculine aura he exuded from every movement attracted many women to him, including quite a few outstanding ones.

There were many men in the circle his age, and most of them kept their red flags standing firm at home while flying colorful banners outside. Father Lin had seen plenty of that. He had always kept himself clean and refused to be lumped in with those people.

But after all, he was a man, and a very successful one at that. Spending all year moving through such social settings, it was inevitable that he would also waver. Though he quickly pushed the thought away, like a seed buried in soil, once it met rain and spring wind, it could quickly take root, sprout, and grow wild.

It happened last year. At a relatively relaxed private banquet, Father Lin met a woman. She was completely different from Ran Qingqing’s type; alluring without being vulgar, charming without being gaudy. She was a very special person, and she was the first one at that banquet to catch Father Lin’s eye.

Father Lin had drunk too much that day and temporarily booked a room to rest. Someone led him upstairs, but it turned out the room wasn’t the one he had intended; he only learned later that it had been his friend’s prank, deliberately taking him to that woman’s room.

The two of them ended up sleeping together, as one might expect. The next morning, Father Lin woke up and gave that friend a vicious dressing-down, feeling deeply sorry toward Ran Qingqing. He had thought about confessing, but things like this were tangled and impossible to untie. Ran Qingqing wouldn’t blame him, but she would carry a knot in her heart. In the end, he hid it and said nothing.

Besides, that night, he hadn’t been completely drunk. He knew the woman tangled in bed with him wasn’t his wife, but he still let it happen.

That was the biggest reason he never said anything.

A few years ago, while watching a news story, Ran Qingqing had once said to him: Men are all ruled by their lower bodies. They love one person at home and still go looking for another outside. Love and sex are separate; one and all, they’re trash.

After saying that, Ran Qingqing looked at his furrowed brow and used her soft fingers to smooth the crease between his eyebrows, smiling sweetly as she said, “Of course, that doesn’t include you, hubby. Don’t be mad.”

What had he said then? He had confidently replied, “Of course not. I’m not like other men.”

Father Lin lit another cigarette, took a deep drag, then slowly crouched down in defeat. The hand holding the cigarette remained extended, letting it burn quietly as ash dropped onto the wooden floor.

Ran Qingqing was right. Men were all trash, and that included him.

Father Lin had hidden the matter away, but he often felt uneasy inside. Yet once Pandora’s box had been opened, it couldn’t be closed again. He discovered he couldn’t control himself from replaying the novelty of that night. Yes, novelty; the freshness and stimulation, completely different from Ran Qingqing. After all, Ran Qingqing had been married to him for more than twenty years now, and their child was already this old. He was certain he loved Ran Qingqing and only her, but he couldn’t suppress his thoughts.

He had tossed and turned through many nights. Sometimes he woke from dreams and saw his wife sleeping soundly beside him; the overwhelming guilt nearly suffocated him.

The more he tried to suppress it, the less he could. A few months after that accident, it happened a second time; this time it was no accident. The other person was a female college student who had listened to one of his speeches and admired him for a long time.

He had never intended to have a long-term relationship with anyone. Every time he gave in, he regretted it bitterly afterward, so after each night he cut off all contact.

From last year to this year, it had happened four times.

Judging from when Ran Qingqing had started acting strangely, she should have found out after the second time.

…

The cigarette in his hand burned down to his fingers. Father Lin flinched from the heat, stamped out the butt, and looked up at Lin Yuewei, who had remained silent from the beginning. “It’s all my fault. I let you and your mother down.”

Lin Yuewei’s fingers slowly curled into fists. Her eyes were red, and she held back her tears with all her might.

The “mistake that men all make” had been made by her father too.

She wanted to shout, wanted to scream, wanted to demand: How could you do this to my mom?!

But she couldn’t say any of it.

Father Lin showed a pleading expression. “I really… I was just blinded by impulse. I’m not asking your mother to forgive me, but I don’t want a divorce. You know what your mother is like. She needs people to coax her and go along with her. No one knows her better than I do. Can you make her give me a chance to atone?”

Lin Yuewei lifted her head slightly without showing it, and tears spilled from the corners of her eyes.

“Yuewei…”

As if she could no longer bear it, Lin Yuewei rushed into the bathroom and bent over the toilet to vomit.

She brought up the alcohol she’d drunk, the milk, and finally even bile, all of it coming up together.

Father Lin stood in panic at the bathroom door, too afraid to come forward. Choked with emotion, he said, “Dad was wrong; don’t be like this.” His eyes were visibly red.

Lin Yuewei ignored him. Tears covered her face as she vomited and cried at the same time.

Father Lin was so anxious he seemed to circle in place like an ant on a hot pan. After a while, he suddenly thought of something, opened the door, and rushed out. Gu Yanqiu, who had been waiting on the sofa, immediately stood up.

Father Lin pointed inside and gave them space.

Gu Yanqiu hurried in and found Lin Yuewei in the bathroom. Lin Yuewei was a complete mess; even the makeup she had carefully put on before going out had been ruined. When Lin Yuewei saw her come in, she first covered her face and said, “Don’t look at me.”

Gu Yanqiu’s heart hurt to see her like this, but her reaction also made her want to laugh a little; an expression too complicated to describe crossed her face. She went to the sink, wrung out a wet towel, and came back to wipe Lin Yuewei’s face.

Lin Yuewei had been crying freely on her own, but the moment Gu Yanqiu came in, she suddenly felt embarrassed. When the towel touched her face, she shrank back a little. “Cold.”

Gu Yanqiu immediately said, “I’ll go get you some hot water.”

“Forget it.” Lin Yuewei snatched the wet towel from her hand, wiped her face in a messy blur, then used Gu Yanqiu’s arm to steady herself as she stood up. “Take me away. I don’t want to stay here anymore. Hic.”

She even hiccuped from crying at the end.

Gu Yanqiu said, “Okay.” She supported the weak-legged Lin Yuewei as they went out.

Father Lin was standing stiffly by the bedroom door. Seeing her come out, he took a step forward, then stopped again. He looked at Gu Yanqiu. “Take good care of her.”

Gu Yanqiu nodded.

Lin Yuewei passed by her father without glancing at him. Father Lin didn’t escort them downstairs; he knew Lin Yuewei didn’t want to see him.

After getting off the elevator, Lin Yuewei shook off Gu Yanqiu’s hand and walked ahead alone at a very fast pace. Gu Yanqiu followed her at a steady distance, neither too close nor too far. Lin Yuewei stopped walking; Gu Yanqiu kept the same pace and came up to her.

Lin Yuewei grabbed her, pulled open the collar of Gu Yanqiu’s coat, and pressed her face against her shoulder.

Gu Yanqiu quickly felt an abnormal damp heat on her shoulder, mixed with tiny traces of moisture; muted sobs came from beside her ear.

Gu Yanqiu’s eyes stung too, tears turning over in her own eyes. She unfastened all the buttons of her coat and wrapped Lin Yuewei completely in her arms, one hand patting her back gently again and again.

Lin Yuewei cried out the rest of what had been interrupted earlier. She sniffled, came out of Gu Yanqiu’s embrace, and looked up at her. Her eyes were still red, but her emotions had already settled down. “My dad cheated. They’re dividing the assets now and getting an agreement divorce.”

“Mm.”

“Did you guess it a long time ago?”

“No.”

“Then why are you so calm?”

“Then how should I react? Should I help you denounce your father? Condemn the cheating scumbag?” Gu Yanqiu tilted her head and smiled faintly.

“You’re always so calm.” Lin Yuewei pouted.

Gu Yanqiu lowered her head, watching as Lin Yuewei reached out with slender, deft fingers and helped fasten the buttons on her coat. Then she lifted her gaze. Lin Yuewei leaned in and kissed her once. “And you’re always so reliable.”

Gu Yanqiu said nothing; she only smiled.

Lin Yuewei hugged her hard and sighed, “What am I going to do? I can’t even imagine a day when you’re not by my side.”

Gu Yanqiu answered very straight-facedly, “Everyone can survive without anyone else in this world.”

Lin Yuewei bared her teeth.

Gu Yanqiu seemed to have anticipated this and added leisurely, “It’s only a matter of whether they live well or badly. I’ll always be by your side.” After saying that, she made a pained face. “Ah, I originally wanted to say something touching, but I ruined the delivery.”

Sure enough, Lin Yuewei was not satisfied. She pinched Gu Yanqiu’s face with both hands and kneaded it twice, squeezing the already wind-reddened cheeks even redder before striding toward the parking spot, facing the wind with heroic ease. “Let’s go.”

Gu Yanqiu worked her facial muscles a little, then followed after her with both amusement and resignation.

Lin Yuewei fastened her seat belt and said, “Let’s go to my place.”

Gu Yanqiu: “……”

She lit up her phone screen and held it up in front of Lin Yuewei.

Lin Yuewei: “What are you doing?”

Gu Yanqiu: “Take a look at what time it is.”

Lin Yuewei froze for two seconds. “Two in the morning.”

Gu Yanqiu said, “Your mother is already asleep. We’ll go tomorrow.”

Lin Yuewei knew Gu Yanqiu was right, but she couldn’t resist pushing back a little. “That’s not necessarily true. What if she can’t sleep and ends up crying alone in bed all night?”

Gu Yanqiu: “………………”

Gu Yanqiu said, “Fine. Then we’ll go to your place now.”

Lin Yuewei said, “No. If I wake my mom up in the middle of the night, she’ll beat me. Tomorrow. We’ll go tomorrow.”

Gu Yanqiu stared at her for two seconds without blinking, then suddenly rubbed her head.

Lin Yuewei shivered. “What are you doing?”

Gu Yanqiu said, “Has anyone else ever touched your head? Besides your parents.”

Lin Yuewei thought of one person: Qu Xuesong, who touched her head every time she called her stupid. In front of a girlfriend, no one else existed, especially not Qu Xuesong, so Lin Yuewei answered, “No.”

Gu Yanqiu smiled in satisfaction. “Then it’s mine.”

She meant the head-patting action belonged to her. Lin Yuewei thought: not just head-patting; what part of me isn’t yours? If you want something, just take it.

The two of them went home. Lin Yuewei turned on every light in the house and flopped onto the sofa.

Gu Yanqiu thought she was going to sleep and came over to carry her upstairs, but Lin Yuewei stopped her the moment she touched her. “I’m not sleeping. Stay and chat with me.”

So Gu Yanqiu sat down and talked with her.

Lin Yuewei was just about to speak when her stomach growled. Then it kept growling one after another without stopping. Lin Yuewei said, “I’m hungry.” Aside from drinking, she had only eaten a little dessert that night, then some milk; after that, she had thrown all of it up.

Gu Yanqiu got up to make her a late-night snack.

At 2:40 a.m., the two of them sat across from each other at the dining table eating noodles.

“Don’t you have to go to work tomorrow?” Lin Yuewei put the egg yolk in her bowl into Gu Yanqiu’s bowl.

“I do. I’ll sleep after a while.” Gu Yanqiu returned the yolk to her bowl and said, “I don’t like egg yolks.”

“You’re actually a picky eater???” Lin Yuewei looked as if she had heard some huge piece of news.

“Is it weird that I’m picky?”

“No, no. Then I’ll give you my egg white. If you don’t like egg yolk, you can give it to me.”

The two of them exchanged yolks and whites.

Lin Yuewei no longer wanted to obey the etiquette of not talking while eating. Besides, the noodles were too hot, and as she ate, she wound up chatting about everything under the sun. After talking through her father’s business, she finally ended with a concluding sigh. “I never would have imagined it.”

“I never would have imagined it either.”

“What didn’t you imagine?”

“That my dad would marry a stepmother, and the stepmother would bring in a son older than me; that my mom was actually a lesbian and even had a girlfriend before; I can’t even find the person.”

“……”

Gu Yanqiu drank the last mouthful of noodle soup and said, “So? Compared to my family, isn’t yours much better?”

Lin Yuewei flung a tissue at her face, laughing and not laughing at once. “Who comforts people like that?”

Gu Yanqiu caught the tissue on the fly, wiped her mouth with it, and said, “There are. You’re seeing one right now, aren’t you?”

Lin Yuewei slurped another mouthful of noodles.

Then she heard Gu Yanqiu pause before saying seriously, “I believe things will work out when the time comes. Some things, if you don’t charge through them and take a look, you always think the sky is falling; but the sky is never going to fall. You’re like that, and so am I.”

Lin Yuewei set down her chopsticks, cupped her cheeks in both hands, and looked at her with admiration. “You sound so cool when you say that.”

“Really?” Gu Yanqiu smiled modestly. “Am I not cool normally?”

Lin Yuewei: “Hahahahaha.”

She had really low laughter thresholds today too.

A flash of melancholy crossed Gu Yanqiu’s eyes, then disappeared quickly. “Anything else interesting happen?”

“Yeah, one thing. Qu Xuesong took me to meet a few young people; they were either the sons of producers or directors, or investors, basically all second-generation rich kids. There was this little girl there who liked Qu Xuesong and was against me at every turn. They happened to be playing bridge, and she thought I couldn’t play, so she provoked me; then I went up and beat her so badly she had nowhere to hide.”

“You can play bridge?”

“Yeah, I’ve played…” Lin Yuewei originally wanted to say, “I’ve played for many years,” but she was afraid Gu Yanqiu might catch on to something, especially the fact that she had once liked someone she had never even met in person. Being jealous was one thing; embarrassment was a much bigger one. So she quickly changed it. “I’ve played a little; I’m all right.”

“Oh, like that.”

Lin Yuewei felt her expression looked like she was… deep in thought.

Lin Yuewei asked, “Can you play?”

Gu Yanqiu collected her expression and smiled faintly. “A little.”

Lin Yuewei was thrilled. “Great. If there’s a chance, let’s play together.” She was delighted for only a second before her shoulders slumped. “We’re still short two people.”

“Isn’t there some kind of software online?” Gu Yanqiu said.

“I never play online; it’s not as interesting as face-to-face.” Lin Yuewei absolutely had to guard her online accounts tightly; she couldn’t let Gu Yanqiu discover that she still had an unfinished, unresolved crush on the internet.

“Jiang Congbi and Cheng Guiyuan?”

“Sure.”

“Can they play? Cheng Guiyuan knows a little.”

Lin Yuewei waved a hand. “I’ll make her learn.” Even though Jiang Congbi would definitely be unwilling to learn such a brain-burning card game with her lazy personality, it didn’t matter; by then she could carry Jiang Congbi’s bronze ass like a king, and as long as both sides had wins and losses, that would do.

She had never heard of Gu Yanqiu liking bridge, so her level should probably be pretty mediocre.

Lin Yuewei had already made her plan and wanted to drag those two over to play cards right now.

Gu Yanqiu glanced at the wall clock and stood up. “It’s about time. You can go upstairs and take a shower now, then hurry up and sleep.”

Lin Yuewei looked up at her. “I want to go home tomorrow.”

Gu Yanqiu nodded. “Mm. I’ll take you in the morning.”

“You should sleep at home.”

“No. I’ll take you; I won’t be at ease otherwise.”

“I can go entertain people and you’ll be at ease, but if I go home, you won’t be at ease either.” Lin Yuewei stood up too, looping her arm around Gu Yanqiu’s neck and smiling. “President Gu, what exactly do you take me for?”

Gu Yanqiu kissed her lips lightly, cupped her face with one hand, and looked into her eyes sincerely. “My treasure.”

The sweet words shot up several steps like they had climbed a ladder to heaven, and Lin Yuewei was caught off guard enough to actually blush.

“You…”

Gu Yanqiu smoothly pressed the back of her head and drew her into her arms, giving her a deep kiss.

Lin Yuewei was dazed all the way upstairs. Only when Gu Yanqiu handed her pajamas to her did she come back to her senses and stumble into the bathroom as if her feet were unsteady.

After the lights went out, listening to the long, even breathing beside her, Lin Yuewei finally opened her eyes and watched the night outside the window fade into dawn.

Lin Yuewei quietly turned off Gu Yanqiu’s alarm and only woke her at seven-thirty. Gu Yanqiu lifted a hand to press at one temple; her eyelashes trembled a few times before she slowly opened her eyes.

Lin Yuewei presented her clothes with both hands. “Breakfast is ready. Please come downstairs to eat.”

Gu Yanqiu looked at her bloodshot eyes and said nothing. She reached out to pinch the back of her neck, then pulled her into a hug.

***

When Ran Qingqing saw Lin Yuewei first thing in the morning, her expression was momentarily one of sheer disbelief. “Why are you here?”

The Lin family dog started barking, woof woof woof.

The thick wave of sorrow Lin Yuewei had worked up on the way there was blasted to pieces; Gu Yanqiu had an expression like she was trying very hard not to laugh.

Lin Yuewei walked up to her and said solemnly, “Mom, please have the dog move away for a bit.”

Ran Qingqing handed the dog to a servant and took it out for a walk in the garden.

Lin Yuewei stared at her fixedly. Her eyes turned red, and without saying a word, tears started falling. Ran Qingqing immediately understood. She sighed and opened her arms to Lin Yuewei. “I don’t know whose husband cheated, and I haven’t even cried yet. Why are you crying? Can’t you have a little backbone?”

Ran Qingqing belatedly realized she had accidentally hit Gu Yanqiu too, and turned to say, “Not talking about you, okay?”

Gu Yanqiu: “……”

Author’s note: I don’t mean to sweep all men into one basket; there are still good men, just not many of them ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It really is just a simple cheating story: a successful man with a successful career, despite loving his wife, is tempted by novelty and excitement and doesn’t hold himself back.

I’ve been laying the groundwork from the very beginning, you know.

Go, Palace Museum, go!