According to My Heart (GL) - Chapter 2

Standing in the hallway was no way to handle things, so they stepped inside for the time being.

The living room was pitch black. Meng Buqing stood by the entryway, back against the wall, staring at Ji Wan. “I get it. So, you’re here to collect a debt?”

“You could say that.”

Ji Wan looked around. Excessively simple wooden furniture sat in the corners of the living room, leaving a sudden, large empty space in the middle. With no other decorations, the place felt as desolate as the home of an elderly person in their twilight years. The windows were closed, and the heavy curtains hung motionless, making the atmosphere gloomy.

Ji Wan suddenly asked, “Was your father’s funeral held here?”

“Yeah,” Meng Buqing replied. “I’ll contact a lawyer tomorrow to clarify things. If everything you said is true, then… we’ll discuss the specifics.”

She needed some time to think and find someone to help.

Ji Wan nodded. “Your uncle tried to contact you, but he said he couldn’t get through.”

“…”

Meng Buqing had just changed her phone and gotten a new SIM card; she hadn’t moved her old card to the new phone yet. Hearing this, she hurried into her room and plugged in the card. Several missed calls popped up, followed by a few text messages explaining the situation.

Meng Buqing’s father, Meng Yong, used to be a company CEO but went bankrupt. After two years of unemployment, he joined a large foreign trade company. His job required frequent business trips, so he was rarely home. Before he passed away, Meng Buqing only knew he was being treated at a hospital in a neighboring city. She hadn’t expected it to be stomach cancer.

Her uncle told her that before her father was diagnosed, he had already poached a team of trusted aides to start his own business. The office space was rented, and everyone had resigned from their previous companies. To keep the team stable, he had to grit his teeth—working hard while secretly going to the hospital for treatment and surgery preparation.

The startup funds were severely lacking. Ji Wan was an old acquaintance, and somehow Meng Yong had convinced her to take her life savings and sell her house to invest in his company. The will was written then.

Unexpectedly, before his scheduled surgery, Meng Yong collapsed and died suddenly on his way back to the office. With the leader gone and competitors putting pressure on the business, the unformed company collapsed instantly. Most of the investment vanished like a burst bubble. Ji Wan’s money was gone.

There were no lights on in the study, only a faint glimmer from the window. Meng Buqing stared at the words on her phone until her eyes grew dry. She tilted her head back and closed her eyes to think. It wasn’t surprising that her father had tried to start a business again. He always felt his previous bankruptcy was a fluke of bad luck and trusting the wrong people. If he hadn’t gone bankrupt, his wealth would have put him on the billionaire lists by now.

But Ji Wan… what kind of person would invest their entire net worth into a new company with no foundation?

A woman in love.

Meng Buqing gave a hollow laugh. She couldn’t imagine a woman as beautiful as a fox spirit like Ji Wan being so infatuated with her father that she’d lose both her money and her future.

Her uncle’s message read: [Your father knew that only the final will would be legally binding. He intended to write a new one later to update the previous version.]

As it turned out, he died too suddenly to change it. Her uncle laid out the whole situation for her. His final message was a piece of advice: [This is the worst-case scenario. Fortunately, she agreed to wait until you graduate and go abroad before handling the property division and asset liquidation. Bu-bu, you’re not a child anymore. You need to coexist peacefully with Ji Wan and take this chance to make a clear plan for your future!]

Meng Buqing’s uncle was a lawyer living and working abroad, so his Chinese was occasionally a bit awkward. To make sure she didn’t misunderstand, she read the texts over and over. Her heart sank further and further, but her suppressed anger mostly dissipated. Now that she knew the reason, she felt giving Ji Wan half the assets wasn’t wrong. Even if Ji Wan’s loss was technically a failed investment, Meng Yong’s concealment of his terminal illness was clearly intentional deception.

Meng Buqing rubbed her temples, trying to pull herself together and accept the situation. Clutching her phone, she walked gloomily back to the living room.

Ji Wan was still standing properly at the entryway, waiting. When she saw Meng Buqing come out, she asked calmly: “Have you confirmed everything?”

Meng Buqing’s hostility softened slightly. After all, this woman was a victim too. Meng Buqing was a reasonable girl; even though her mood was heavy, she said politely, “I’ve confirmed it. Ji… Auntie Ji? You can sleep in the guest room for now.” She pointed to the room at the end of the hallway.

Ji Wan walked to the door but stopped, looking upstairs. “Is your room up there?”

The house was a duplex.

“Upstairs is empty,” Meng Buqing said, “because I’m too lazy to climb the stairs.”

Ji Wan naturally started ordering her around: “Fine, I’ll sleep in the room upstairs. Help me with my suitcase, thank you.”

“…”

Meng Buqing glared at her back and lifted the suitcase, resigned to hauling it upstairs. Then, without a word, she retreated to her own room.

Meng Buqing slept in the side bedroom. Her room was small, with the bed taking up most of the space. The simple, plain bedroom helped her fall asleep easier at night. She sat on the floor, zoning out for a long time before taking out her phone. Her heart was still racing, her thoughts a mess.

Several new messages were people asking her to play games. She ignored them. Two chat groups were at 99+ notifications. In one novel group, someone mentioned her, saying she hadn’t spoken all day. Meng Buqing listlessly sent an emoji as a greeting.

Xiao Ran: [I just noticed that all of Jun-jun’s status signatures are quotes from Qi Bao’s novels! It’s always the very first sentence of each story!]

“Jun-jun” was Meng Buqing’s nickname in the group. Someone immediately checked her history.

… : [Why is it the English version?]

Shi Yu: [Cultured people are just different.]

Meng Buqing typed out an explanation:

Jun-jun: [If I use the original text, people can search and find out what novel it is. I don’t want to come out of the closet just yet.]

Mo Heng: [Dazed.jpg]

Mu Jiu: [Why would being found reading a GL (Girls’ Love) novel out you? Plenty of straight girls read them too.]

… : [But if she ONLY reads GL, it’s a bit obvious…]

The topic soon shifted to the latest chapter of Qi Wen’s ongoing novel. They were ruthless with spoilers, but since there were only nine people in the group—all of whom read updates immediately and wrote long reviews—it didn’t matter.

Meng Buqing closed the chat and opened her reading app to catch up on the latest chapter. Qi Wen was an author she had loved for four years—the “favorite of favorites” kind. The plots were exquisite, the writing superb; the simple, plain sentences were comfortable for skimming yet stood up to deep reading.

After finishing, her mood miraculously stabilized. She even felt a slight smile tugging at her lips. She switched back to the group chat to join the discussion, outputting a barrage of her own interpretations and wild guesses for the next plot point.

She hadn’t even been happy for five minutes when there was a knock on the door. “Come here for a second,” came Ji Wan’s voice.

Meng Buqing stood up quickly. She opened the door, looked at Ji Wan, and let out an undisguised, long sigh. “What is it now?”

There was a spider in the corner of the upstairs hallway. Between the white wall and the baseboard hung a sparse, half-finished web that looked like a deflated, thin piece of cotton candy. A long-legged spider the size of a coin sat quietly. It looked like a common cellar spider.

Originally, Ji Wan had planned to clean it up with a tissue. But as she got closer, she saw a brown sticker on the wooden baseboard right below the spider. It looked like a Spider-Man sticker peeled off a toy. On the sticker was a line of small, rounded text: [Spider-Man is here~]

Ji Wan: “…”

So she called Meng Buqing up. Pointing at the corner, she asked, “You clearly saw a spider here. Why didn’t you clean it up?”

And even put a sticker next to it…

Meng Buqing looked at the spider, pursing her lips. After a long pause, she explained reluctantly, “I feel like… it’s my roommate.”

Ji Wan: “…You feel like it’s what?”

“Never mind,” Ji Wan rubbed her temples. “Hurry up and take your roommate downstairs.”

Meng Buqing shook her head. “But it lives here. The web is here.”

“It can also die here. Wiping the web and the corpse with the same tissue would be a fitting end.” Her tone dropped eight degrees in temperature.

Meng Buqing curled her lip, suppressing her annoyance. “Wait a second then, I’ll find something to put it in.”

She went downstairs and rummaged through her jars and bottles, looking for a container with a wide mouth. After a long search, she found an expired jar of passion fruit jam in the fridge. She dumped the awful-tasting jam into the trash, washed the jar, and hurried back upstairs.

Ji Wan stood there with her hands behind her back, keeping a distance while observing everything.

Meng Buqing pointed the mouth of the glass jar at the spider. She paused for a few seconds as she got close, then with a swift, accurate move, she trapped it. The spider was swept off the wall along with its broken, wispy silk. Adjusting the angle of the jar, the spider fell inside.

It didn’t move, looking like a piece of paper. Meng Buqing shook the jar; it was indeed like shaking a piece of paper that couldn’t be any lighter.

So it was already dead. She didn’t know when it had died. It had just been hanging silently on its web, motionless. Meng Buqing looked at it closely through the glass, her gaze serving as a faint farewell. Then she tightened the lid.

Ji Wan’s voice came from behind her: “Don’t be sad. It looks like it died of old age. Who knows, its descendants might already be filling some other room.”

It sounded like comfort, but also like mockery. Meng Buqing didn’t care to figure out which it was. “Go to sleep. Goodnight.”

Ji Wan stopped her again, her tone natural. “Since it looks like you usually cook for yourself, could you prepare breakfast for me tomorrow as well?”

“…”

Meng Buqing froze and turned back, looking at her in disbelief. She suddenly felt like Ji Wan was the wicked stepmother from a fairy tale—living in her house, taking her inheritance, and now enslaving her.

“My breakfast is very simple. You probably won’t like it.”

“I like simple things.”

“Fine…” Meng Buqing nodded, too tired to argue.

The next morning, soft sunlight filtered into the living room, filling the space and dispelling the desolation of the dark night. In the typical Chinese-style kitchen, the pots and pans were neatly arranged, and the tones were warm and harmonious. The oven and dishwasher were all in place.

Meng Buqing took pre-prepared ingredients from the fridge and made a large sandwich, cutting it in half. The fried eggs and toast were ready quickly. As she worked, she imagined making some kind of “dark cuisine” or dumping heavy seasoning into Ji Wan’s portion, but she ended up serving the breakfast properly on the table.

Just as it was ready, Ji Wan came downstairs.

“Hi,” Meng Buqing said dismissively. “Breakfast is ready. Is there anything else you need?”

Ji Wan: “Morning. Bring me some cheese or butter.”

“…”

She was just joking, but Ji Wan actually took her up on it. Fine, a small favor, just a small favor. Meng Buqing suppressed her morning annoyance, opened the fridge, and brought her a tub of butter.

Ji Wan was clearly planning to go out; she had already applied light makeup. She wore an elegant double-breasted black cashmere coat, her high collar revealing a cream-colored turtleneck sweater. Her long hair was draped casually over her shoulders, looking slightly languid and softening the distance created by her exquisite features.

Meng Buqing sat down and stole glances at her. She really couldn’t imagine how such a charming and seemingly shrewd beauty could be tricked so thoroughly by her father.

While her mind wandered, she ate her breakfast with her head down. Suddenly she looked up and realized the paper Ji Wan was flipping through looked familiar.

“What are you looking at?”

“Looking at your final exam transcript from last semester that you left on the table for me to see.”

“Leaving it on the table doesn’t mean it’s for you to look at!” Meng Buqing had tossed it there the moment she got it and had forgotten its existence.

“It’s quite disastrous. I don’t even know how to evaluate it.”

“Did I ask for your evaluation?!”

“Your father always said his daughter was brilliant and had always been great at studying—” Ji Wan put the transcript back exactly where it was and looked at Meng Buqing with genuine curiosity. “So, do you have an older sister or a younger sister?”

“What do you care?!”

Ji Wan gave a light laugh. “I’m not ‘caring,’ I’m mocking you.”

“Do you know there’s a saying in Zhuangzi?” Meng Buqing paused, then said proudly, “The useless tree lives out its natural span.”

“…”

She had just seen it in a novel yesterday. It meant that by being a useless tree, one wouldn’t be cut down and could live a full life.

Ji Wan raised an eyebrow and carefully picked the lettuce out of her sandwich. “Do you know the second half of that story?”

“What?”

Ji Wan finally looked up, staring at her, and articulated clearly: “The useless goose gets turned into roast goose.”

“…”