After Transmigrating as the Supporting Female Lead, I Got My HE with the White Moonlight - Chapter 3

Her appointment with Yan Muhuai was set for 11:30 AM.

Gu Xiaoting woke up at nine to wash, do her makeup, and change. Today, she wore a new dress she had recently bought—a fiery, brilliant red that was the epitome of vividness.

Whether it was due to her transmigration or not, the original owner’s face was identical to her own. She was perfectly suited for bright, striking colors like vermilion or scarlet. Not only did these shades create a visual “wow” factor, but she also genuinely liked them. The original owner, however, had worn “fresh and simple” cotton and linen clothes to please the scumbag. Her wardrobe had been full of white dresses, completely squandering her natural advantages.

At 11:00 AM, Gu Xiaoting drove out and arrived ten minutes early. Her reserved table was by the window. As she followed the waiter to her seat, her heels clicked silently on the cashmere carpet, yet many patrons still looked her way, inevitably drawn to the sight of her in that passionate red dress. Only after the beauty vanished behind the partition screen did they withdraw their gazes.

Five minutes before the appointed time, Yan Muhuai arrived. Gu Xiaoting rested her chin on her hand, watching her approach.

Yan Muhuai wore a long dress that perfectly outlined her graceful curves. A light-colored sun hat hid most of her face, leaving only her slightly full lips and a glimpse of her well-defined jawline visible. Even so, she attracted plenty of attention.

Gu Xiaoting raised a hand, and the newcomer took the seat opposite her.

“My apologies,” she said, her voice incredibly soft. “I just returned to the country and don’t know the roads very well. I almost ran late.”

Gu Xiaoting glanced at her watch. “Sister Huai is joking. There are still three minutes left; you aren’t late at all.”

Yan Muhuai removed her sun hat. She seemed to have tucked her hair inside the hat, for as she took it off, her silky black hair tumbled down, sliding from her shoulders to her chest, instantly framing her face.

It was a feast for the eyes.

Gu Xiaoting reflected that being with a beauty truly improved one’s mood. For a moment, she suddenly understood how the scumbag felt. While she was always confident in her own looks, she had to admit that Yan Muhuai truly lived up to the title of “White Moonlight”—whereas she herself was probably the “Cinnabar Mole.”

If someone asked her to be “pure and white,” she simply couldn’t pull it off.

“Sister.”

Gu Xiaoting called out, her eyes curving into crescents. The beauty mark at the corner of her left eye was particularly prominent; when she smiled like this, it added a touch of piteous charm to her look.

“I have a hair clip here. Your hair is long, Sister, it might be inconvenient while eating.”

Yan Muhuai readily agreed. “Alright, thank you.”

As she reached out, Gu Xiaoting suddenly leaned forward with the clip in hand, smiling brightly. “Let me help you, Sister.”

Yan Muhuai seemed like someone who didn’t know how to refuse others. Hearing this, she tilted her head slightly. “I’ll trouble you, then.”

Gu Xiaoting’s hand brushed against her clean earlobe. In a few deft movements, she gathered the seaweed-like long hair together and secured it with the clip. She took a few seconds to admire the view of that slender, white neck, her fingertips tracing the skin almost imperceptibly. Seeing the skin shiver slightly, she finally withdrew her hand and sat back.

“Done.”

Yan Muhuai thanked her again. At that moment, the meal was served—standard Western cuisine. The aroma of the appetizers broke the slightly stagnant atmosphere.

“How many years were you abroad, Sister?” Gu Xiaoting handed over the lemon water for rinsing. She spoke only after seeing the other person accept it.

Yan Muhuai replied, “Six years. I went abroad right after high school.”

That matched the timeline in the original book.

Gu Xiaoting noted this and continued, “Did you return just recently? Things have indeed changed a lot here; no wonder you couldn’t find your way.”

She asked a few more casual questions, keeping it light. She leaned her head to the side as she sliced her steak, watching the slightly rare beef get cut into small pieces while steam blurred the surface of the silver knife.

She bit into a piece of beef and said somewhat indistinctly, “Speaking of which, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you, Sister.”

Yan Muhuai instinctively looked up and was momentarily dazed by the sight of the girl’s face.

The girl had told her that loose hair was inconvenient, yet she herself had her long hair down. It fell like loose seaweed around her cheeks in wavy arcs, making her face look no larger than a palm—tender, vivid, and accented by bright red lipstick.

Her cheeks were slightly puffed as she chewed, and from this angle, her eyes looked full of earnestness. But when she lifted her lashes to look over, that earnestness vanished, replaced by a casual, playful smile.

“—Sister? Why are you zoning out?” Gu Xiaoting asked.

Yan Muhuai composed herself. “It’s nothing, I just got distracted. Ask away.”

“The person sitting with you at the cafe yesterday—is he your boyfriend?”

Yan Muhuai replied, “Just a friend. We aren’t that close; he only asked me out because he knew I had returned.”

Ding.

Gu Xiaoting set down her cutlery, creating a light clink against the plate. She looked up with a half-smile. “I see. I thought he was your boyfriend. I was just thinking that someone like you, Sister, wouldn’t have such poor taste to fall for someone like him.”

“Hmm?” Yan Muhuai asked curiously. “Do you know him?”

Gu Xiaoting clasped her hands and rested her chin on them, leaning forward lazily. She smiled like a little fox about to cause mischief, making one’s heart itch.

“Since you’ve been away so long, you wouldn’t know. In our circles, he’s a famous scumbag and a bastard.”

Yan Muhuai stopped eating and looked at her.

“Don’t doubt me, Sister. Everyone knows he has a ‘White Moonlight’ in his heart. Since she looked down on him, he kept a bunch of substitutes to disgust people. Two of them got pregnant and were forced by him to get abortions, and another had her leg broken by him. A man like that has violent tendencies, is unfaithful, and loves to play around. He clearly has someone he loves, yet he still messes with others.”

Yan Muhuai’s brow furrowed slightly.

Gu Xiaoting then delivered the final blow, happily badmouthing the scumbag: “You absolutely must not be with him, Sister. Try to see him as little as possible, lest he gets angry when he can’t get his way with you and tries to hit you.”

She said it with such gravity that any stranger would believe her. In reality, except for keeping substitutes, the rest was made up. In the original book, the scumbag always believed he could win over the White Moonlight and feared she would be unhappy if she knew his past, so he only “looked” at the substitutes and kicked them out the moment she returned.

But Yan Muhuai wasn’t close to him. She nodded, her furrowed brow smoothing out. “I understand. Thank you for telling me. I’ll stay away from him.”

Having successfully slandered the scumbag, Gu Xiaoting happily picked up her knife and finished her beef.

Once the meal was over, Gu Xiaoting grabbed her light jacket and reached for her car keys. “Where are you going, Sister? Let me drive you.”

Yan Muhuai hesitated. “Is it convenient?”

“I have nothing to do this afternoon anyway. Being idle is being idle.”

The original owner was a wealthy heiress and a general manager in name only; she only went to the office ten days a month, spending the other twenty revolving around the scumbag. Yet the scumbag never gave her a second glance.

As Gu Xiaoting reversed the car, she saw Yan Muhuai’s upright posture in the rearview mirror. She smirked and asked, “Where to, Sister?”

Yan Muhuai gave her an address.

Gu Xiaoting was slightly surprised. “Why are you going to an orphanage, Sister?”

Yan Muhuai rolled up the car window, stopping the wind from rushing in. She leaned against the frame, watching the scenery blur past. Her voice was low. “To tell you the truth, I’m an orphan. I came back this time planning to find my biological parents.”

Gu Xiaoting glanced at her while waiting at a red light. “Do you need my help? I felt a connection with you the moment we met, Sister. I like you a lot; if you need anything, you can come to me.”

She had known all along that Yan Muhuai was an orphan. Not only that, but in the original story, Yan Muhuai was the actual heiress of the Gu family in City A. The original owner was just a “fake” who had taken her place. This would be revealed later in the story by the original owner’s sister to humiliate the villainess.

Gu Xiaoting was always happy to help people—especially with matters as messy and complicated as this.

She remembered this plot point: the true heiress, Yan Muhuai, was swapped with the fake heiress right after birth. The fake one lived a life of luxury like a phoenix, while the true one was abandoned by foster parents and ended up in a suburban orphanage.

“I won’t trouble you,” Yan Muhuai said. “I can manage. You can head back once you drop me at the orphanage gate.”

Seeing they were close, Gu Xiaoting pulled over and cut the engine. “Well—call me anytime if you need something, Sister. I’ll help with anything I can.”

Yan Muhuai unbuckled her seatbelt. “Mhm, I know.” She pushed the door open.

Gu Xiaoting pursed her lips in the rearview mirror; her matte lipstick made them look very full. She seemed satisfied with her makeup today as she pressed her fingertip against her lip.

Knock, knock, knock.

A tapping came from the right side. She rolled down the window. A stray lock of hair drifted in, along with a woman’s slender wrist.

“I forgot to return the hair clip. Here.”

Yan Muhuai’s nose suddenly twitched slightly—a small movement that didn’t escape Gu Xiaoting’s eyes. “What is it?” she asked.

Yan Muhuai looked a bit embarrassed, tucking a stray hair that glowed warm brown in the sunlight behind her ear. “There seems to be a scent of roses. It smells very nice.”

When she smiled, tiny dimples appeared; it was as if the sunlight were flowing into them.

“It’s my perfume,” Gu Xiaoting said. She took a small bottle of deep pink perfume from the console; the liquid inside looked like a swirling galaxy.

Usually, people would just hand the bottle over or spray it in the air for the other person to smell. Instead, she sprayed it directly onto her own wrist and held it out.

“Take a sniff, Sister. Is it this scent?”

Yan Muhuai leaned down slightly and smelled the fragrance coming from that narrow, delicate wrist.

“Yes.”

She reached out and used her fingertip to gently push the wrist back down. Her smile at that moment held a hint of imperceptible doting, as if she truly enjoyed these slightly intimate little gestures.

“I’m going now. Drive safely.”