In the original novel, after Gu Zhixia and Fu Shiyan got together, Gu Huaiye seemed to shed some kind of psychological burden and began seeking out girls who resembled Gu Zhixia.
Li Yue was the first substitute he found after that.
She not only broke Gu Huaiye’s habit of never keeping a lover for more than a week, but also became the first girlfriend he openly acknowledged.
“Miss Li, President Gu would like you to come up to the top floor. Follow me.”
Miss Shi met Li Yue’s gaze.
Li Yue had clearly taken care with her appearance today. Her round face was neatly made up, giving her a pretty, sweetly innocent look.
She resembled the female lead by about thirty percent.
The male supporting characters in this world really did have it good.
In the previous few novel worlds she’d transmigrated into, every man—whether the male lead or a supporting character—had stayed chaste for the female lead, with pure and undivided feelings for her.
But as her mission completion rate rose and the levels of the worlds she entered grew higher, people’s hearts became more complicated and real, increasingly close to those of people in the real world.
Just like the male supporting character Gu Huaiye: defiant and scheming, he looked down on women and carried himself like a man in power.
Even though he kept a white moonlight in his heart, that didn’t stop women from coming and going at his side.
Li Yue had come to Baisen today intending to go straight to the top floor, but she’d been stopped and told that President Gu was meeting with Miss Shi.
Her mind had been in turmoil, afraid that the hard-won opportunity would slip away.
Now, hearing Miss Shi deliver the message with her own ears, she finally felt her anxiety settle. She even couldn’t help lifting her chin.
“Let’s go.”
Ten minutes later.
Miss Shi led Li Yue back onto the top floor.
A faint curve appeared at the corner of Gu Huaiye’s mouth as his gaze moved between the two women.
One held her face up, her eyes full of expectation and ingratiation, as if waiting for him to favor her.
The other kept her eyes lowered, as though she wanted to hide herself completely and take up as little space as possible.
Li Yue really was sweet and pure-looking, with a beauty that was entirely unthreatening.
In the past, Gu Huaiye would never have touched a woman like her.
He’d always felt that women like that carried at least a trace of Gu Zhixia’s shadow, and he’d never had any interest in finding a substitute.
That would sully Xiaxia and disgust him.
But ever since Gu Zhixia chose Fu Shiyan, the vivid, voluptuous flowers that had once given him brief pleasure had lost all their color in his eyes.
They were utterly dull.
Seeing that he’d changed his tastes, Jiang Cheng had picked a girl like Li Yue this time—one who seemed clean and innocent.
Li Yue obediently sat close beside him.
Like a king with everything under his control, Gu Huaiye stretched out against the sofa. One arm rested casually around the woman’s slender waist; he held a cigarette in the other hand.
Li Yue had evidently received some guidance. She deftly picked up the limited-edition Las Vegas lighter on the table.
With a click, she lit his cigarette.
Smoke curled upward.
Yet Gu Huaiye’s gaze pierced the thin haze and fixed firmly on Miss Shi, who had remained standing quietly to one side.
“Miss Shi,” he said, exhaling a ring of smoke, his voice slightly husky. “There’s nothing for you to do here now. If you’re still hanging around… are you planning to join us?”
“President Gu, Manager Chen instructed me to serve you on the top floor tonight. Since you don’t need me, I won’t disturb you and Miss Li Yue. I’ll be going.”
With that, she turned and left as if fleeing.
As the door closed, Miss Shi’s gaze involuntarily fell back on the dimly lit room.
Li Yue was already sitting on Gu Huaiye’s lap.
He bent his head to kiss the side of her neck, their bodies close.
But—
A pair of eyes, filled with predatory intent and undisguised desire, looked over the woman in his arms and seized on Shi Shuyi at the doorway—precisely and without the slightest attempt to hide it.
Miss Shi’s lashes trembled, as if scorched by that burning gaze.
The door shut swiftly and decisively.
All the room’s suggestive intimacy was cut off completely.
Watching the rabbit flee in panic, Gu Huaiye let out a low laugh.
*
Inside the elevator.
System 007’s electronic voice erupted in Miss Shi’s mind, indignant:
【Mistress! Gu Huaiye is nothing but a horny dog! How can he do that with another woman right in front of you… like that! He’s obviously provoking you on purpose, trying to make you come crawling to him! Then he’d have all the control. It’s a classic scumbag move!】
A flicker crossed Miss Shi’s eyes. She replied calmly in her heart:
【What, did you expect a man like Gu Huaiye to become a lovesick puppy? Of course, other people are the ones who crawl after him. The only person he’d ever crawl after is the female lead, Gu Zhixia.】
007 puffed up with anger and fell silent.
After coming down from the top floor, Miss Shi returned to her post.
She only had to work at Baisen two days a week, from six in the evening until midnight. After all, she wasn’t needed in the small hours of the morning…
It was such an easy job, yet it could bring in tens of thousands a month with ease.
If she got a generous client, her monthly income could even exceed a hundred thousand.
Naturally, she had to make the most of it.
Aside from weekends, when she had to go home and put up with her parents checking up on her, her schedule was quite flexible while she was living at school.
But—
Miss Shi lit up her phone screen.
It was already eleven at night, yet she hadn’t sold a single bottle of liquor.
The few bosses who regularly patronized her business had been completely quiet tonight.
It seemed Gu Huaiye had already started making his move.
If so, there was no point in dragging things out tonight.
Shi Shuyi opened WeChat and sent Wu Yang a message:
【Senior Brother, I just saw The Road to Reality at Pumen Library—the book you said you wanted to borrow. Would you like me to bring it for you?】
Pumen Library was only a few hundred meters from Baisen.
Very close.
The reply came almost as soon as she sent the message.
【Shuyi, are you at Pumen now?】
【Yes.】
【Thanks for thinking of me when you saw that book. There are a few books I’ve been looking for, too. I’ll come over now. Could you wait for me?】
【Sure.】
Shi Shuyi left the chat and locked her screen.
After sending the message, she went to the changing room, changed out of her work clothes, put on her own clothes, and walked straight out of Baisen.
In the top-floor suite.
After taking a shower, Gu Huaiye came out of the bathroom, casually toweling his wet hair. Water droplets clung to his clearly defined eight-pack abs.
Li Yue was lying on the bed.
Her cheeks were flushed, and her gaze was shy and expectant, waiting for the tenderness that usually followed.
Instead, Gu Huaiye’s first words were a cold command:
“Go downstairs. Wear less, so Shi Shuyi can see the marks on your neck.”
The smile on Li Yue’s face instantly froze.
“President Gu… what do you mean?”
Gu Huaiye tossed the towel onto the floor.
“Can’t you understand?”
“I want to fuck Teacher S.”
“I’m going to force her to make the first move.”
“And you’re going to provoke her. Understand?”
Li Yue’s face went pale, and her lips trembled. “B-but I…”
Gu Huaiye didn’t give her a chance to finish. He casually tossed a card onto the bed.
“Is this enough?”
Li Yue bit her lower lip.
She silently took the card.
She had no right to say no.
She forced a compliant smile.
“It’s enough. I’ll do as you say.”
Li Yue left reluctantly. Gu Huaiye leaned against the headboard, his muscular upper body sharply defined, its lines taking on a savage edge in the dim light.