Late at night, the South Manor was exceptionally quiet. Gu Qingjiao was lying on a lounge chair by the swimming pool, finding only a single star in the night sky.
It was rare for her to have some idle time today. She emptied her mind and prepared to take a short nap, only to be startled awake by a chat box that suddenly flashed in her mind.
[That Gu Qingjiao is so stupid; she probably doesn’t even know about the inheritance.]
[She was even smiling when we handed her the red envelope today, acting all dopey.]
[Can’t blame her for being naive either. She’s just a kid, so immature judgment is totally normal, but I never expected her to actually be willing to give up a high-society lifestyle.]
[Who would want to marry their daughter off to a guy like that? Look at him walking out in his pajamas today; he really doesn’t treat us like outsiders at all.]
[Sister Hong, why don’t you just head back tomorrow then? Since your daughter isn’t willing to marry him, my daughter still wants to.]
[We’re all just picking up whatever leftovers people throw away anyway; no need for anyone to look down on anyone else, okay?]
Gu Qingjiao was utterly speechless at these two-faced aunties.
Auntie, weren’t you just petting my head earlier today telling me I was pure and sensible? Huh?
System: [Do you want to blow up the chat group?]
Gu Qingjiao half-drooped her eyes, reached out to pull a small blanket over herself, and waved her hand drowsily.
System: [Speak up.]
Gu Qingjiao continued waving her hand, incidentally burying her head inside the blanket.
The system continued to fight the injustice: [Host, this group of people has badmouthed you for the second time already. I have a hunch that if we don’t blow up this chat group, there will be a third and fourth time in the future. Host? Host? Did you fall asleep?]
Gu Qingjiao’s waving arm gradually came to a stop. Just as it was about to drop, another pair of well-articulated hands suddenly grabbed her, pulling her straight up by her arm and body all at once.
Gu Qingjiao woke up with a start, the blanket covering her head slowly sliding down.
Standing before her was Shi Lijin with his hook-like, piercing gaze.
That damned inescapable fate.
Shi Lijin was holding a red wine glass in his other hand, his chilling face looking morbidly pale in the dim nocturnal light. Pulling Gu Qingjiao right in front of him, the corners of his mouth hooked up into a shallow smile. “What play is Miss Gu putting on today?”
Gu Qingjiao caught the faint scent of alcohol on him, that ethereal fragrance carrying a man’s scorching temperature as it radiated over from her lower arm, making her consciousness somewhat hazy and intoxicated. Half-asleep and half-awake, she said, “Care what act I’m putting on; it doesn’t cost your money. Dressed like that yourself, what kind of act are you putting on?”
“Haven’t seen you in two days, and your tone has gotten a lot bolder.”
“Yeah, my fiancé hasn’t come looking for me in two days, and living is pointless. Just give me a quick death.”
Shi Lijin suddenly fell silent.
[Host is amazing! But no danger has been detected so far. Please be sure to act even higher-profile!]
Gu Qingjiao reached out to tidy his collar, speaking in a lazy, languid tone: “You showed up to a banquet in a bathrobe. Were you trying to flirt with elderly aunties, or did you run out of clothes to wear?”
[Host is a genius! But there is still no danger detected so far. Why not be even bolder?]
Gu Qingjiao: “Could it be that you deliberately let them pass the message along so that my Aunt Shen would let down her guard against you? And then you are going to kill…”
[Prompt opening. The system detects that the host is in danger of death. Danger level: ★
Don’t be discouraged, keep up the good work!]
Gu Qingjiao: I’m numb.
She didn’t want to play with someone who had no bottom lines.
Listlessly waving a hand at him, Gu Qingjiao turned back, grabbed her blanket, and went back to lying down.
Hearing no movement from Shi Lijin, Gu Qingjiao suddenly realized that her semi-recumbent posture was somewhat improper and prepared to sit up a bit higher. However, the moment she propped up half her body, she was immediately pressed right back down by a single hand from him.
Gu Qingjiao: “What?”
That danger warning seemed to have arrived a little too quickly.
Shi Lijin’s expression remained composed, without the slightest trace of guilt. Pinching Gu Qingjiao’s chin with two fingers, he gazed down at her with dark, brooding eyes. “With such deep scheming, I see you aren’t so simple either. There’s no need to put on this pure, innocent act for yourself.”
Gu Qingjiao quickly regained her composure, her tone flat: “If you think I’m too bland, then go find someone seasoned instead.”
With a burning gaze, Shi Lijin leaned in slightly toward her. Swirling the wine in his glass, he gently pressed his thumb against her chin. “Open your mouth.”
Her tightly closed pink lips slowly parted, revealing two rows of neat teeth. Shi Lijin tilted the glass slightly, slowly pouring the red wine directly into her mouth.
Gu Qingjiao gripped the armrests tightly on both sides. Completely unable to break free from his control, she had no choice but to swallow it all down.
The red liquid slowly overflowed from the corner of her lips. Looking like a severely injured, ice-cold beauty, the man leaned in close to her ear and murmured, “Why bother looking for someone else? For this kind of thing that requires no emotional investment, I only grab whatever’s ready at hand.”
“Then how many times have you grabbed before?” she asked casually.
Shi Lijin froze for a moment.
Never.
But why should I tell her?
Gu Qingjiao observed his posture at that moment, gentlemanly, yet gentlemanly with an overwhelming sense of possessive invasion.
Gently lifting Shi Lijin’s collar, she raised her head and pressed close, wiping away the wetness on her lips.
Her pinky fingernail lightly brushed across his neck. Shi Lijin’s Adam’s apple burned with heat, rolling back and forth over and over again, as if his entire soul was standing on end.
After a moment of stagnation, the man finally drifted back from his floating thoughts. The pale gray film over his pupils gradually dissipated, much like a pair of long-dead hearts attempting to revive.
Sensing that something was amiss, the system weakly piped up: Uhm, Host, sorry to interrupt, but I told you to find a way to get him to off you, not make him fall for you! Oh no, oh no, what do we do now?
Gu Qingjiao’s gaze remained calm and clear.
Sensing the man’s body finally unable to restrain itself any longer as he pressed close wanting to hold her tight, Gu Qingjiao gently pushed him away.
“Fiancé, nobody has ever liked me since I was little. Even though you’re not perfect, you’re the best person I’ve ever met. But I want to tell you: high heels are meant to be worn for the one you hold in your heart, while you can only look at my slippers.”
Shi Lijin looked at her in confusion, clearly not understanding at all.
Gu Qingjiao propped her body up to sit properly, giving her final explanation: “You’re right, we don’t have much affection for each other, so we can only make do and get through the days together.”
“What I just said…” He was about to explain further, but was blocked when Gu Qingjiao used a single hand to cover his lips.
Looking at him with extreme understanding, Gu Qingjiao said, “Don’t say it, I understand everything. We really aren’t a good match, let’s head back.”
Gu Qingjiao helped him tidy his collar once more, then coldly dropped him and walked away.
Back in her room, the system gave her a thumbs-up: Host, you really know how to play! If you can’t have it, destroy it, what a brilliant strategy!
Gu Qingjiao: “What are you talking about?”
System: I know, the Host must be thinking this, first seduce him, make him like you and unable to live without you, and then dump him to deal a fatal blow! From then on, the villain walks down a path of no return, killing all heartless women under heaven, right? Am I guessing right? Wow, Host is so brutal.
After finishing her washing up and preparing to go to bed, Gu Qingjiao untied her hair tie and replied, “Little Glitch, you’d better just wash up and go to sleep.”
System: How can we rest now? Besides, when the two of you were getting hot and heavy by the pool earlier, someone actually spotted you and took pictures. Right now, people in the South Manor are already shipping the two of you.
Gu Qingjiao frowned. “Shipping what?”
The system was extremely excited, frantically flashing chat boxes into her mind: Look at this yourself.
[Super major gossip! The Second Young Master secretly rendezvoused with a girl in the middle of the night, and ended up pinning her to a chair and aggressively kissing her! Pictures or it didn’t happen! [Image] [Image] [Image]]
[Holy cow?]
[Second Young Master is mighty! May I ask whose little sister he’s kissing?]
[You tell me, who else could it be besides that Gu family girl?]
[No way… He actually likes that type?]
[Sorry sisters, I like that type too. This time I’m rooting for the Second Young Master, wishing them everlasting happiness.]
[Yeah, if he didn’t like her, why would he buy her such expensive shoes? Sigh.]
[He must have been dead drunk. If you don’t believe me, zoom in on the pictures, the Second Young Master is holding red wine, he definitely wasn’t willing.]
[What? The Second Young Master got wild after drinking?! So thrilling!]
Gu Qingjiao: […]
What kind of people were these?
Who kissed?!
She was clearly just using his clothes to wipe her mouth.
The system gloated gleefully: I bet Shi Lijin can’t sleep right now either. He must be feeling super miserable, hahaha.
Gu Qingjiao: […]
Would he feel miserable?
Actually, thinking back slowly, apart from having a sharp tongue, Shi Lijin hadn’t caused her any actual harm.
By the same token, if it weren’t for the sake of escaping this role sooner, Gu Qingjiao wouldn’t have gone out of her way to seduce him, right up until now cutting him off so decisively.
The minor female supporting character was pitiful enough, but the major villain was also destined to be unloved by anyone. In a way, she, who was ostracized everywhere, and he, who plotted step by step, could also be considered a match made by fate.
Two miserable souls at the ends of the earth.
Gu Qingjiao suddenly remembered that her phone content could be monitored by Shi Lijin, so she burrowed under the covers, found a soothing Chinese song, and intended to play it for him since he was highly likely to suffer from insomnia.
Then she went right back to sleep.
So Shi Lijin, don’t be sad, pull yourself together.
You might still be the one I have to rely on to off me later.
The light in the study remained on all night. Shi Lijin muddily busied himself past the dead of night, finally putting down the materials in his hand.
He couldn’t focus at all.
Opening the drawer to retrieve his tablet, he clicked on Gu Qingjiao’s screen content and found that she was looping a single song.
Tapping the speaker to play it, an extremely soothing background melody drifted out, accompanied by very melancholic lyrics.
He glanced at the song title: Don’t Be Sad.
So everything he had done and said during these past few days had made her feel that sad?
So on the surface she pretended to be happy, but inside she was actually very lonely, and could only rely on listening to songs over and over again in the middle of the night to pass the time?
She said that nobody had ever liked her since she was little, but he was the best person she had ever met.
So that was it.
Shi Lijin’s emotions plummeted instantly to rock bottom. He had never experienced a feeling like this.
Switching the software to the map, he saw Gu Qingjiao’s small circular marker wandering around all over the place, its movement track winding and turning without any clear destination.
So she likes to take walks while listening to music.
Glancing at the time, it was 2:30 AM.
Unconsciously, Shi Lijin changed into a neat set of clothes. Before heading out, he even checked his reflection in the mirror a few extra times.
He still remembered that the last time he failed to track someone down, it was because he hadn’t brought his tablet, so he couldn’t check her location in real time. This time he deliberately brought his tablet along, tracking her coordinates while following behind to search.
But that girl was truly clever, and her hearing seemed exceptionally sharp. The moment he tried to get even slightly closer, she would immediately bolt off to another location.
Shi Lijin silently pursued, searching from 2:30 until 4:00, yet her trace remained nowhere to be found.
He understood now: Gu Qingjiao was hiding from him.
Checking the map once more, Gu Qingjiao’s current position was separated from his by only a single wall.
Shi Lijin was smiling the second before, but the next second, he pulled back the foot he had just stepped out. Looking at the small circular marker on the map, he was terrified that if he moved even slightly, it would make her run away again.
After a long while, Shi Lijin sighed and apologized to that thick wall: “Gu Qingjiao, I’m sorry.”
The other party gave zero response.
Inside Shi Lijin’s Bluetooth earphones, the song from her phone was still playing. She looped it several times, and he listened to it earnestly just as many times.
He stood there in silence for a very long time.
To his utter astonishment, in this world, there could actually be such a steadfastly devoted girl.