Ruan Chutang looked up at him, confusion in her eyes. “What?”
Gu Zechuan thought perhaps she was still upset and didn’t want to give him the gift so quickly. That was fine—he could offer her an olive branch first.
His tone softened slightly. “I was rude in the shop earlier. Don’t be angry.”
Surely that would do the trick?
Ruan Chutang sighed and met his gaze, her expression serious. “I’m not angry.”
Gu Zechuan dismissed it. “You’re just saying that.”
“Think whatever you want.”
Hearing this, Gu Zechuan’s patience instantly wore thin.
“Ruan Chutang, I’ve already apologized. What more do you want?”
Ruan Chutang continued tidying up without pause, her tone flat. “I don’t need your apology.”
Gu Zechuan stared at her intently for a few seconds.
After a moment, he asked somewhat awkwardly, “Where’s the gift?”
Ruan Chutang turned to look at him. “What gift?”
“Jiang Yuzhou said he saw you buying a watch for me,” Gu Zechuan said. “Wasn’t it to apologize and make up with me? I’m back now—aren’t you going to give it to me?”
Just as Ruan Chutang was about to say it wasn’t for him, Gu Zechuan continued on his own, “Enough is enough. Any more of this and it’ll just be tiresome.”
Ruan Chutang suddenly laughed at his words.
Gu Zechuan frowned. “What are you laughing at?”
“What you said is just funny,” Ruan Chutang replied, meeting his peach-blossom eyes. “I did buy a watch, but it wasn’t for you. And I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong, so why should I apologize to you?”
“Not for me? Then who did you buy it for?” Anger flared in Gu Zechuan’s eyes, and his fists clenched unconsciously.
“None of your business,” Ruan Chutang replied lightly.
“None of my business?” Gu Zechuan was furious. “I’m your boyfriend! How is it none of my business if you’re buying gifts for another man?”
Compared to Gu Zechuan’s rage, Ruan Chutang remained much calmer.
She looked at him with amusement. “Aren’t you Chen Wan’s boyfriend?”
Gu Zechuan instinctively defended himself, “Chen Wan and I aren’t like that.”
His voice was much quieter now than when he’d been questioning her earlier, and he spoke without much conviction, feeling guilty.
His relationship with Chen Wan was less like that of a couple and more like that of lovers.
They’d already done everything they shouldn’t have, but Ruan Chutang was still his girlfriend in name.
He liked Chen Wan’s passion and openness, her bold advances, but he also liked Ruan Chutang’s beautiful face and her gentle, understanding nature.
He wasn’t ready to tell Ruan Chutang yet that he and Chen Wan had already gotten together.
Gu Zechuan explained further, “Going to look at rings with Chen Wan today really was my mother’s idea, but we weren’t buying a ring for Chen Wan. We were helping my mother look—she bought a new dress and said she didn’t have the right jewelry to match it.”
“My mother said Chen Wan has good taste and knows how to coordinate, so she asked her to come with me. It wasn’t just rings—necklaces, earrings, bracelets, all of it had to be carefully chosen to match her new dress. I know you misunderstood, but I was angry at the time, so I deliberately didn’t explain, hoping you’d get jealous.”
“Jealous?” Ruan Chutang’s gaze turned cold. “You still think I’d be jealous?”
“Chu Tang, I’m sorry…”
Ruan Chutang said coldly, “I’ve received your apology, but I don’t accept it. The gift really wasn’t bought for you.”
Gu Zechuan’s voice suddenly rose several notches, “Then who was it for?”
“My fiancé.”
“Hah, Ruan Chutang, you’ll say anything to force a marriage, won’t you?” Gu Zechuan’s eyes were mocking. “Are you saying that only if I agree to marry you and become your fiancé will you give me the gift and forgive me?”
Ruan Chutang frowned. How could this man be so narcissistic?
Where did he get such confidence? Did he really think she couldn’t live without him?
Gu Zechuan’s eyes were filled with disappointment as he looked at Ruan Chutang and shook his head repeatedly. “Ruan Chutang, I thought you understood the insurmountable gap between us. I thought you’d be sensible, but you keep pushing for marriage again and again. It’s really too disappointing.”
Ruan Chutang: “?”
After saying this, Gu Zechuan turned and left.
The bedroom door slammed shut with a loud “bang.”
Ruan Chutang shook her head helplessly.
She had originally planned to take advantage of today’s incident to have a good talk with him about breaking up and tell him that she was the heiress of the Ruan family in Jiangcheng and was about to return to get engaged to Jiang Shixu. But he hadn’t given her a chance to speak.
Ruan Chutang thought perhaps Gu Zechuan was so certain she was determined to marry him because she had given him that confidence.
In the past, she had always played the role of the obedient, sensible girlfriend—never checking up on him, never getting jealous, never prying too much into his privacy. Apart from intimate physical contact, she had almost always given him whatever he asked for.
This might have given him the illusion that “she couldn’t live without him.”
He didn’t know that the reason she was so sensible was because she had long known he never intended to have a future with her.
A year ago, she had planned to take Gu Zechuan back to Jiangcheng and tell him about her identity as the Ruan family heiress, but she accidentally overheard him talking on the phone with his mother, Meng Yaqin.
“Mom, don’t worry. I know you wouldn’t agree to her marrying into the Gu family. I’m just dating her for now. If it really comes to marriage, wouldn’t I have to get your approval first?”
“Your son isn’t a hopeless romantic. I know the difference between marriage and dating.”
What a “clear distinction.”
From that moment on, she knew Gu Zechuan never intended to go the distance with her.
To put it bluntly, Gu Zechuan didn’t even like her that much.
But she wasn’t the kind of woman who would cling desperately to love.
She could pick it up and put it down. Since Gu Zechuan only wanted to date, then so be it. She needed companionship and emotional support. In this unfamiliar city where she had no one, she needed a warm embrace—nothing more.
She had protected herself well; her first kiss and first night were still intact.
Why hadn’t she broken up with him sooner?
Because she still liked him back then and had grown accustomed to his company.
Human emotions are complex; often, things aren’t simply black or white, one or the other.
After that incident, she never mentioned being a wealthy heiress again.
But after learning she was just a substitute, she suddenly felt it was all meaningless.
She could accept that there was no future with Gu Zechuan, accept that he didn’t love her that much, but she couldn’t accept him treating her as a substitute for Chen Wan.
She was Ruan Chutang, and she was only herself.
…
Ruan Chutang never expected that Gu Zechuan’s mother, Ms. Meng Yaqin, would come looking for her.
Meng Yaqin wore a dark blue silk cheongsam, adorned with expensive sapphire earrings and a necklace. The pigeon-egg-sized gem on her hand also matched the color of her outfit, truly living up to Gu Zechuan’s description—a wealthy lady who would buy an entire set of jewelry just to match a dress.
“So you’re Ruan Chutang?” This wealthy lady looked at her as if she were an unpleasant object, her eyes filled with disdain.
Ruan Chutang greeted her politely, “Hello, Aunt Meng.”
“Hmm.” Meng Yaqin walked into the room, her gaze sweeping around before finally settling on Ruan Chutang. “I’ve heard about you and Zechuan.”
Meng Yaqin sat down on the sofa, her legs crossed elegantly to one side, but her words were anything but elegant.
“A girl like you wants to marry into the Gu family?”