GV – Chapter 72

Time, amidst Shen Wei’s suffering, marched on to September.

Waking to the sound of her alarm, Ye Yuhuan glanced at the date as she turned it off and realized with a start that a full year had passed since that dream had entered her life.

She threw back the covers, got out of bed, and accidentally knocked over one of the dolls Song Zhiqing had piled up in her room.

After placing the fluffy little thing back where it belonged, Ye Yuhuan looked down at the rabbit slippers on her feet, which looked like actual rabbits, and let out a heavy sigh.

Her tit-for-tat affection with Song Zhiqing, aside from allowing Song Zhiqing to start decorating her living space like the lady of the house, hadn’t led to any real change in their relationship status. The last time, Ye Yuhuan had been able to ask, “Do you like me?” without any reservations because she had already prepared herself for the worst possible outcome.

Now, the choice was still Song Zhiqing’s to make, but Ye Yuhuan could no longer accept the worst-case scenario.

She was hesitant, caught in a dilemma, and had even begun to shamefully avoid the issue.

Changing out of her plaid pajamas with the rabbit embroidery, Ye Yuhuan got ready and went to the cafeteria. She bought a meal for herself, then picked up a cup of what was supposedly the best red bean soy milk—a drink you could only get at the Qinglin cafeteria—for Song Zhiqing.

Nonsense, she thought. The soy milk the maids at the Song residence make is much better than this.

Ye Yuhuan quickly finished her breakfast and headed for the academic building, carrying Song Zhiqing’s soy milk. With her height and long legs, she stood out in the crowd. She was still at an age where she was growing, and had even shot up a few more centimeters recently, much to Song Zhiqing’s deep resentment.

Thanks to her height advantage, Ye Yuhuan spotted Song Zhiqing waving at her from a distance.

The backpack on her shoulders bounced up and down. So cute.

With that thought, the corners of Ye Yuhuan’s mouth lifted, and she broke into a jog toward Song Zhiqing.

Song Zhiqing, however, walked forward at a leisurely pace. She felt that if they both started running, the scene would be suspected of being overly dramatic.

Like a long-awaited reunion in a movie.

She didn’t like long-awaited reunions, mainly because she didn’t like the “long separation” part.

Given the distance between them, they quickly met. As Ye Yuhuan reached her side, Song Zhiqing blinked her round, bright, almond-shaped eyes, hooked a finger around her cup of soy milk, and used her free hand to take Ye Yuhuan’s.

Ye Yuhuan couldn’t breathe easily until they had walked more than ten meters.

No matter how many times this happened, she still felt nervous.

Song Zhiqing chewed on her straw, her words slightly muffled. “How long are you going to be in Germany this time?”

“About half a month, I think,” Ye Yuhuan answered carefully. In truth, it might be longer.

Song Zhiqing pulled her mouth away from the soy milk and complained indignantly, her words now clear, “But you’re still just a high school student! This counts as child labor for Sheng Jing, doesn’t it?”

Ye Yuhuan had no choice but to remind her in a low voice, “I’m technically one of the bosses.”

“And you’re a boss, too.”

Song Zhiqing huffed and ignored her. The mere thought of Ye Yuhuan being gone for a whole half-month made it impossible for her to think rationally about the matter.

Half a month.

Fifteen days.

Three hundred and sixty hours.

Twenty-one thousand, six hundred minutes.

One million, two hundred and ninety-six thousand seconds.

That was so many hugs and cuddles—all wasted.

“Why do you have to be the one to go? You already left the management team,” Song Zhiqing tried to argue.

“Maybe because… I speak German?”

Ye Yuhuan tried to brush it off with a joke, but its effect was likely negative.

Song Zhiqing slowly raised her head and let out a slow “Oh.”

Then she strode away on legs wrapped in white, openwork stockings.

The little leather shoes, ill-suited for running, clacked loudly as she stomped off.

Left behind, Ye Yuhuan shook her head and gave a helpless smile. She started to follow in Song Zhiqing’s footsteps to catch up, but perhaps because she was hiding something, her steps felt unusually heavy, unusually slow.

Going to Germany to procure production machinery was the official reason. The real reason was—in just over four months, Shen Wei would turn eighteen. She needed to prepare to receive the true inheritance Jin Yuan had left for her. As one of only two people who knew, Ye Yuhuan was playing the role of her cover. Otherwise, she really wouldn’t want to be away from Song Zhiqing for so long.

After all, Shangguan Xianxian wasn’t going to Germany either. The thought made Ye Yuhuan uneasy.

Did Song Zhiqing still like Shangguan Xianxian? She didn’t know.

Truly, she had no idea.

That master had made a lot of sense, but perhaps he’d forgotten the part about onlookers seeing things clearly. Trapped deep within the situation, Ye Yuhuan didn’t have enough clear-headed rationality to distinguish between Song Zhiqing’s true and false feelings. When you fall in love with someone, a single drop of water can make you think of the ocean, to say nothing of the fact that Song Zhiqing would say that sentence so directly.

“I like Shangguan Xianxian.”

Such a direct and vivid sentence.

It left Ye Yuhuan no time to discern whether Song Zhiqing’s expression was shy or if her eyes held affection; the literal meaning of the words alone was enough to make her use all her strength just to remain calm.

What was worse, it wasn’t just about Shangguan Xianxian anymore. Now, she felt uneasy seeing Song Zhiqing get close to anyone.

Even if she doesn’t love Shangguan Xianxian anymore, could she fall in love with someone else?

It wouldn’t necessarily be me.

This inexplicable and inescapable anxiety tormented Ye Yuhuan. She wanted an answer but lacked the courage, so she could only mechanically do what she thought was right—let Song Zhiqing witness the protagonists’ love story, and maintain the closest possible relationship with her.

As for the outcome, Ye Yuhuan had set a deadline for herself.

On the day the entire plot ended, when all traces of supernatural forces had vanished, she would confess to Song Zhiqing.

Song Zhiqing, walking ahead, grew angry when Ye Yuhuan didn’t catch up. She stomped her foot, tossed her empty soy milk cup into a roadside trash can, and turned back. Without looking at her, like an intelligent robot with eighteen cameras, she precisely locked onto Ye Yuhuan’s hand, deliberately turning her head to the side as she grabbed it.

Her entire being radiated an astonishing aura that screamed, “Come on and placate me.”

Ye Yuhuan completely understood Song Zhiqing’s meaning. With a silent smile, she decided to set aside all her hidden worries. How could she let her speculations about Song Zhiqing affect the real Song Zhiqing?

That was neither smart nor kind.

She lowered her head slightly, leaning close to an ear that was the warm, lustrous color of mutton-fat jade. The early autumn morning light covered them evenly, warmly.

“Alright, alright. How about I buy you a gift when I come back? I’ll buy you whatever you want. Even a hardcover original edition of Goethe.”

Song Zhiqing shot her a glare. Who would want something like that!

Seeing that she was finally getting a reaction, Ye Yuhuan stopped joking and explained softly, “There really is a very important reason I have to go, otherwise I wouldn’t want to be apart from you either. But I don’t leave until the end of September, so there’s still plenty of time, and I don’t have much else to do. Whatever you want to do until then, I’ll do it with you, okay?”

Song Zhiqing nitpicked, “Hmph, are you saying you wouldn’t hang out with me if you weren’t going to Germany?”

Ye Yuhuan took the hint and whispered in her ear, “Alright, I’ll wear that Princess Elsa cosplay dress. Are you satisfied now?”

Song Zhiqing nodded, deliberately forcing her unsteady lips into a flat line. “Hmph.”

Okay, that seems to have done the trick. As expected, when dealing with Song Zhiqing, all you had to do was sell your looks.

As they entered their third year of high school, their studies became increasingly intense. Under the pretext of studying, Song Zhiqing and Ye Yuhuan ousted their respective deskmates and sat together, greatly increasing the amount of time they spent stuck to each other every day.

Ye Yuhuan was an earnest person. When she said study, she meant study. She prepared an upgraded high-score guide for Song Zhiqing, all because of something Song Zhiqing had said in a moment of excitement: “Ye Yuhuan, I really want to go to the same university as you.”

But seeing Song Zhiqing diligently working through practice problems every day, she probably wasn’t just caught up in the moment. Rather, she had a clear intention of sticking together just like this in university, too.

As for systematic advanced studies in music, well, Song Zhiqing arrogantly believed that with her talent, she didn’t need specialized training. She could study under a master, but there was no need to attend a school for it. After all, she had already decided to start releasing records after graduating from high school.

Song Zhiqing had a genius of her own. She had always known that.

At that moment, at the Shangguan residence.

The closed door sealed in the white smoke. At the center of the smoke was a massive man, the glowing tip of the cigarette by his lips constantly producing new clouds. Stimulated by the nicotine, he felt no discomfort. Cigarette butts filled the crystal ashtray, its transparent sides smeared with black streaks, making it look as if it had lost its expensive soul, no different from the glassware at the food stall Shangguan Chong used to frequent in college.

Guo Yu, holding her breath in the smoke, was no different from when she had been stranded in the slums, earning money for milk powder and rent by cleaning a mahjong parlor every day.

Except that the man in front of her now wouldn’t rack his brains trying to take advantage of her.

Which was, in fact, even more terrifying.

Guo Yu accidentally inhaled a mouthful of secondhand smoke and immediately choked, starting to cough.

No, it was different. Her body hadn’t been so delicate back then.

Guo Yu’s coughing startled Shangguan Chong. He stubbed out his half-smoked cigarette, not out of consideration, but to make it easier to talk.

To talk about how this woman had the nerve to keep cuckolding him after what had happened.

Shangguan Chong was perplexed. Guo Yu had been with him for so many years and had seen all sorts of things, big and small. Did she mistakenly believe that some kind of camaraderie could develop between them?

Was she worthy?

Shangguan Chong asked this question out loud.

His question was sincere, and the humiliation was direct.

Guo Yu ignored him.

She just repeated the words she had been saying since she walked in the door: “I want to leave you.”

“Are you worthy?” Shangguan Chong repeated.

Guo Yu tore off the mask of gentle submissiveness she usually wore in front of Shangguan Chong and said calmly, “Of course I’m worthy. I’m worthy because I was the one who handed Jin Yuan the knife to kill herself.”

This sentence dredged up that dark past. Shangguan Chong began to find the room too stuffy and suffocating. He turned on the ventilation fan. As his massive body moved across the floor and the white mist gradually dissipated, the power his frame held lost the mysterious aura granted by its environment, revealing its bloated, obese nature.

“You should know I’m not a sentimental person. Besides, even if I were, your transgression last time used up what little sentiment was left. For that alone, it’s already an act of kindness that I haven’t cleaned you up. Why would you think this is enough to threaten me?”

Guo Yu waved away the few wisps of smoke still lingering in front of her. In all this time, the only thing about her that hadn’t faded was her soft, charming voice. It was the kind of voice that gave the illusion of comfort even when speaking cold words. “I’m just reminding you of what we did back then. And now, the daughter of the woman we drove to her death has grown up. Her wings are fully fledged, so much so that even you have to bow your head and negotiate a partnership with her. What do you think? If she knew the truth of what happened back then, would she still obediently let you invest in Sheng Jing?”

“She’s my daughter, too!” Shangguan Chong shouted.

A trace of mockery flickered in Guo Yu’s eyes.

Shen Wei still uses the surname Shen, after all.

Shangguan Chong panted heavily, like a wild boar caught in a trap. The necessity of suffering was absurd; he had made this the guiding principle of his life, the driving force behind his relentless climb to the top.

But recently, he had been falling.

The last time law enforcement paid a visit, they took away many of his trusted subordinates. That bunch of old fossils from the Jin family seized the opportunity to start stirring up trouble again.

And that idiot Guo Siwan couldn’t even handle a kidnapping right and got herself sent to prison. He had created so many opportunities for her in vain. If anything had happened to Shen Wei, everything she had would have belonged to him, her guardian. But that idiot only knew how to go crazy and didn’t do a single useful thing, just like her mother, always holding him back.

He wanted to marry off Shangguan Xianxian to quell the internal conflicts in the Shangguan Group, but Shen Wei stood firmly in the way, protecting her. They were supposed to have a relationship of mortal enemies, yet those two were somehow closer than biological sisters.

Because of this, Shen Wei kept delaying his investment, and who knows how many people in A-City were laughing at him.

And now, Guo Yu had come running to him, saying she’d found some damn “true love” and wanted to break up.

Her timing was just perfect.

An icy light shone from Shangguan Chong’s eyes, which were squeezed into slits by his fat cheeks.

Does she think my empire is about to collapse?

“If you want to go, then go. But if you dare take a single thing I’ve given you, I’ll make you know what Jin Yuan felt back then.”

Leaving those words behind, Shangguan Chong left the room.

He didn’t know why, but lately, he always felt drained of energy.

It was all because of those troublesome, money-losing wenches. Shangguan Chong’s brow furrowed tightly.

It was time to clean house. You couldn’t rely on heaven or earth; you could only rely on yourself.

Still sitting on the sofa, Guo Yu took off her jewelry piece by piece, placing it on the coffee table next to the pile of cigarette butts.

It will all come back.

Guo Yu thought, When the edifice collapses, there will be time for me to go in and pick up my jewelry.

But for now, it was best to cut ties as quickly as possible, lest she be considered part of the edifice itself.

Sigh. That’s the good thing about being an ornament. You can run whenever you want.

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