Scenes of the past flashed through her mind, but she couldn’t afford to indulge. Knowing this was enough.
After all, as breathtaking as their first encounter had been, the outcome of their passionate entanglement was equally disastrous.
Gu Lingyi hated adding to her own distress. Her alluring fox-like eyes fluttered shut, as if closing the window on those memories.
She let out a soft, lazy laugh, her mood decidedly lukewarm. “Steal your spotlight? Hardly. I just didn’t take a liking to you.”
She was direct and ruthless, even when facing an old classmate who had just helped her group speak out.
Tan Xinghe was rendered speechless by her bluntness. Knowing Gu Lingyi, he was well aware of her candid nature—she wasn’t belittling him on purpose, but her words still stung.
It seemed Gu Lingyi never pulled her punches for anyone, except her family and Yan Ke.
Tan Xinghe couldn’t begin to imagine what this languid, captivating beauty would look like when she actually fell for someone. She’d probably need a partner who could accommodate every quirk of her temperament.
Gu Lingyi handed over the agreed compensation. Though they were old classmates, there was little left to chat about, so she quickly ended the call.
When her assistant chimed in to report that the presale had gone live on Chi Yin’s official website, Gu Lingyi logged on to inspect it.
The ‘Tingyin’ series had introduced a new “Lucky Bag” tier…essentially b-grade products priced at half the cost of premium items, with deeper discounts applied when bundled together.
The presale numbers were so staggering that they needed to open a dedicated production line just for these flawed items…though they could hardly be called flawed anymore.
Gu Lingyi posted a message in the company chat, asking everyone to brainstorm a better name for this tier.
With the media storm mostly quelled, everyone eagerly jumped in to pitch ideas.
“I propose Tingyin … Silly Dog. That clumsy vibration sensor really feels like a clumsy pup burying its head, working hard, but only leaving its owner covered in droves of drool.”
“…That’s surprisingly deep, but a bit of a mouthful.”
“Seconded. Let’s think of another.”
As the group chat buzzed with excitement, Gu Lingyi looked at her spirited team and couldn’t help a soft laugh. Her arched, gorgeous brows were like the fiery sunset clouds outside the window, swaying gently into the eyes of the other person in the room.
With work largely out of the way, Gu Lingyi didn’t bother checking her black PR trending topics. Her immediate priority was eating dinner.
During lunch, she’d been so busy that she had to call the main estate just to have a drone deliver food. But for dinner, now that she had time, she was determined to cook for Jiang Yanqing herself.
Regrettably, her culinary talents were practically non-existent, leaving her no choice but to take instructions from Jiang Yanqing.
To prevent any kitchen accidents from causing secondary harm to her patient, Gu Lingyi placed the wheelchair just outside the sliding glass door of the kitchen. She shut the door and stayed on the phone with her.
Tying on an apron, she pinned back her long, light-brown waves. Since there were no hair ties in Jiang Yanqing’s house…only ribbons and hairpins, making her seem like someone from an ancient era…Gu Lingyi chose an amber jade pin.
With her slender neck slightly bowed, she listened attentively to the cool, composed culinary guidance. Her knife skills were precise and steady.
One gave instructions while the other executed. Divided by the glass door, they seemed like two actors in a perfectly rehearsed scene, moving with seamless synergy.
Though the student lacked innate talent, she made up for it with sheer intelligence and adaptability. Better yet, she was obedient, never questioning her teacher’s demands.
In fact, the teacher discovered that her student’s talent simply lay elsewhere: she was a natural at tossing the wok.
The delicate skin of her slender arms momentarily flexed, revealing smooth, beautiful muscle lines as the food flew through the air in a graceful arc.
Dressed in a cinched nightgown under a fitted apron, Gu Lingyi displayed her mature, alluring silhouette, creating a striking visual contrast with the subtle strength of her movements.
If half the ingredients hadn’t missed the pan and scattered onto the stovetop, it would have been a flawless visual feast.
Wanting to show off a little before the cold beauty, Chairman Gu now stood completely dumbfounded, staring blankly at the stray ingredients on the counter.
She flicked her charming, innocent eyes toward the door, only to collide with a pair of icy, tranquil eyes.
Bathed in the warm glow of the setting sun, Chairman Jiang sat enveloped in a serene light. Her expression was utterly unruffled, calm and deep like a peaceful sea.
Her mere presence outside offered Gu Lingyi an overwhelming sense of security.
In those deep, obsidian eyes was intense focus…a reflection that held only one single figure.
Jiang Yanqing was watching her cook with undivided attention.
The realization sent a sudden, thrilling jolt straight through Gu Lingyi’s heart. A tingling sensation surged to her brain, making her breath catch in her throat.
“Chairman Gu, watch the fire.”
The remaining half of the beef in the pan was about to burn.
“Chairman Gu, watch me.”
People often hear only what they want to hear, creating illusions out of thin air.
Gu Lingyi narrowed her eyes, lowering her voice like a lazy fox waking up on the wrong side of the bed.
“Who said you could be so overbearing?” she purred nonchalantly. “Fix your attitude. I haven’t agreed to a secret affair with you yet. And I won’t.”
For the first time, the calm, logical, and deeply sophisticated Chairman Jiang failed to grasp the logic of the woman across from her.
She paused, opening her lips slightly: “Chairman Gu, please watch the fire.”
Overlapping with her cool, polite request was the voice of the smart kitchen assistant: “Burned smell detected. Shutting off the heat source.”
It was ‘watch the fire,’ not ‘watch me.’
Gu Lingyi: “…”
At the dinner table, Gu Lingyi kept her head down, quietly focusing on her food.
Fortunately, she was naturally unbothered by small hiccups. After a few bites, the awkwardness evaporated, and she calmly opened the news. As a businesswoman, staying updated was essential.
However, the speed at which the rumors were spreading exceeded her expectations.
An old university classmate had already posted online about how she had received over a hundred hotel room keys back in the day, framing it as a colorful campus anecdote. Because so many people had handed her keys back then, commenter after commenter joined in, piecing together the full story.
With the past dragged into the light once more, Gu Lingyi couldn’t help but slip back into her memories, no matter how much she resisted.
The deep woods behind the mountain had been a beautiful beginning, but it ended in absolute humiliation.
In the presidential suite…
A single drop of bright red stained the center of the pristine white bed, the color already darkened into a dull brown. Gu Lingyi sat on the edge, her bathrobe disheveled.
The lazy charm in her eyes was gone, replaced by anxiety and heartache. She felt immensely remorseful for her lack of restraint, horrified that she had made Jiang Yanqing bleed.
Yet when she opened her eyes that morning, Jiang Yanqing was already gone, leaving neither a note nor a message. Every text Gu Lingyi sent vanished into the void.
She waited from morning till night, from sunrise to sunset.
She didn’t get a reply from Jiang Yanqing. Instead, she got a global press conference broadcast.
The very woman who had shared her bed just the night before sat poised in the main seat of the conference room, her expression indifferent as her crisp voice rang out:
“Jiang’s Education Group has reached an agreement with the capital government to build Zhuyu High School into the nation’s first modern Confucian education base… To ensure the quality of the student body, Zhuyu High School will no longer admit students from same-sex married families.”
Then what was I to you?
Gu Lingyi let out a self-deprecating laugh, the anger in her eyes refusing to die down.
For the very first time, abandoning all composure, she threw on her clothes, stepped on the gas, and raced toward Zhuyu High.