The streets were unusually quiet late at night, making the honk all the more jarring.
Miss Shi and Wu Yang turned toward the sound at the same time.
The moment Miss Shi realized the driver was Gu Huaiye, a flicker of panic crossed her eyes.
The light turned green, but Gu Huaiye pulled over instead.
Resting one hand on the steering wheel, he raised an eyebrow at Miss Shi.
“Miss Shi, what a coincidence. Where are you headed so late? I’ll give you a ride.”
His tone was commanding, and he didn’t spare Wu Yang so much as a glance.
The usually mild-mannered Wu Yang’s expression turned cold.
“Shuyi, do you know him?”
Miss Shi nodded.
“Senior Brother, I… know him.”
Then she turned to Gu Huaiye. “President Gu, there’s no need to trouble yourself. I’m just going back to campus.”
Gu Huaiye only smiled. “It’s no trouble. I want to take you.”
The look in Gu Huaiye’s eyes was full of certainty, as though Miss Shi were already his future girlfriend.
Wu Yang stepped forward, putting himself between Miss Shi and Gu Huaiye. He met Gu Huaiye’s gaze directly.
“Sir, Shuyi has made it clear she doesn’t need a ride. Please respect her wishes.”
Leaning lazily against the seatback, Gu Huaiye looked tired and indifferent.
“What are you to her?”
Miss Shi’s heart sank.
The more impassive Gu Huaiye looked, the more intimidating his presence became.
She instinctively caught Wu Yang by the arm and drew him behind her.
“President Gu, he’s my boyfriend. So there’s no need for you to trouble yourself taking me back to campus. Thank you for the offer.”
After she spoke, she turned her face slightly and silently pleaded with Wu Yang:
Please, just pretend for now.
Wu Yang understood it was only a temporary measure, but he still couldn’t help feeling a secret flicker of joy.
In fact, he had noticed this beautiful junior from the physics department long before Professor Shi had tried to set them up.
The profile of her quietly turning pages in the library, her focused gaze at lectures, her figure hurrying along the campus’s tree-lined paths…
He had simply never imagined that Miss Shi, the girl everyone admired, was Professor Shi’s daughter.
Gu Huaiye had already looked into Miss Shi’s background. He knew perfectly well she didn’t have a boyfriend.
Besides, when the two of them had been walking side by side just now, the distance between them had hardly looked like that of a couple.
He leaned forward, casually resting one hand on the car window and leaning slightly out.
“Miss Shi, you’re beautiful and accomplished. I think you could easily have two boyfriends at once.”
Even Miss Shi, who had seen plenty in her life, nearly lost her composure at that.
Gu Huaiye’s character really was unshakable. What a shameless man.
Wu Yang stared at him in disbelief, then put an arm around Miss Shi and drew her into his embrace, his gaze cold.
“Sir, just because you have no scruples doesn’t mean everyone else is like you. She’s my girlfriend—and she’ll only ever be mine.”
Gu Huaiye’s eyes swept coldly over Wu Yang’s arm around Miss Shi’s shoulders, then fixed firmly on her.
“Miss Shi, I hear you and Lili are good friends. She seems pretty drunk tonight. Aren’t you going to check on her?”
Shi Shuyi frowned.
Gu Huaiye knew she “cared” about Lili as a friend.
It was an unmistakable threat.
She pressed her lips together and looked at Wu Yang with feigned reluctance.
“Senior Brother, you should head back first. I need to go check on Lili.”
Wu Yang hesitated. “Shuyi, he’s…” threatening you.
Before he could finish, Shi Shuyi gently shook her head, signaling him not to say more.
Wu Yang had no choice but to give in.
“Then message me once you get back to campus, or Professor Shi will worry.”
“Okay.”
Gu Huaiye smugly raised an eyebrow at Wu Yang, then got out and walked around to the passenger side to open the door.
“Please, Miss Shi.”
Shi Shuyi got into the passenger seat. Gu Huaiye closed the door briskly, then deliberately clapped Wu Yang on the shoulder as he brushed past him, lowering his voice.
“Before you try to win someone over, make sure you’re even good enough for her.”
Wu Yang’s fist clenched abruptly. His gaze passed over the limited-edition Bugatti.
It was a symbol of a social stratum that was still far beyond his reach, even though he came from an A9 family.
But love was about mutual consent and mutual affection.
Wu Yang met Gu Huaiye’s disdainful gaze.
“Sir, a melon forced off the vine won’t be sweet.”
“Oh? Then let’s wait and see.”
With that, Gu Huaiye circled back to the driver’s seat, slammed on the accelerator, and sent the Bugatti shooting into the night like an arrow loosed from a bow.
Inside the car, the sudden acceleration threw Shi Shuyi sideways. The book in her arms slipped to the floor, and a photograph tucked between its pages fluttered out.
Gu Huaiye had glanced at it without interest, but the instant he recognized the person in the picture, his eyes turned to ice.
He gripped the steering wheel hard, veins standing out on the back of his hand. His voice was cold enough to cut.
“You know Fu Shiyan?”
Could she like Fu Shiyan too?
The information he’d found said she often went to B City for auditions. Could she have been using them as an excuse to see him?
Shi Shuyi hurriedly picked up the photo and hid it. “I don’t know him.”
Gu Huaiye sneered. “Good. He’s taken. Don’t go getting any ideas.”
Shi Shuyi’s fingers slackened. She turned to look at Gu Huaiye in surprise, disbelief written all over her face.
“What? Don’t believe me?”
Her reaction only poured fuel on the fire. Gu Huaiye was now almost certain that she liked Fu Shiyan.
It was one thing for Gu Zhixia to like him. But now this woman, who had just caught his interest—who he’d even wanted to make his first girlfriend—had Fu Shiyan in her heart too?
Damn it. Was Gu Huaiye really so unappealing?!
A piercing screech of brakes suddenly rang out.
The car lurched to a stop, and the force threw Shi Shuyi forward.
Without the seat belt holding her back, she would have hit the dashboard.
Still shaken, she gripped the seat belt across her chest.
“President Gu, whether Fu Shiyan has a girlfriend or not has nothing to do with me.”
She steadied her breathing and spoke earnestly.
“He only gave a talk at our university. I admire his abilities and see him as a role model, that’s all.”
“And besides… who I like doesn’t seem to be any of your business.”
According to the original story, after the male and female leads got together, Gu Huaiye uncharacteristically started dating his first girlfriend: Li Yue.
Since Shi Shuyi intended to win him over, she naturally wouldn’t settle for being his “weeklong lover.”
She was determined to become Gu Huaiye’s official girlfriend.
Wu Yang’s presence could only stir a faint twinge of jealousy in Gu Huaiye.
For a man who had been around the block, that little ploy was nowhere near enough.
But if he were to think the woman who had caught his interest had fallen for his “rival” yet again, then—
A man’s competitive streak would be well and truly ignited.
The photo of Fu Shiyan was something she had carefully arranged, deliberately letting Gu Huaiye see it.
“A role model?”
Gu Huaiye scoffed.
But he couldn’t stop himself from remembering the buoyant tone in Gu Zhixia’s voice whenever they spoke after she fell in love—
Every word she said was full of praise for how Fu Shiyan kept himself in check and how capable he was. Her girlish admiration practically spilled through the phone.
Gu Huaiye lifted his eyelids and shot Shi Shuyi a sidelong glance.
He was going to root Fu Shiyan out of his “future girlfriend’s” heart.
He wanted her gaze and her thoughts to belong to him alone, completely.
Fu Shiyan kept himself in check?
Maybe he was simply impotent!
Weren’t the women who were with Gu Huaiye there of their own free will?
Why was Fu Shiyan praised as a paragon of virtue, while Gu Huaiye was dismissed as a womanizer?
His eyes settled on Shi Shuyi again.
He was twenty-eight. Finding himself a sweet, well-behaved young girlfriend and experiencing that thing Gu Zhixia called “being in love” didn’t sound so bad.
It wasn’t as if Gu Huaiye had to have her.
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