Pretending To Be Affectionate [Transmigration] - Chapter 20

Lightning exploded behind Gu Qing in a dazzling blaze, and Ling Yu instinctively narrowed her eyes.

During that brief instant of distraction, every visible emotion on the woman’s face abruptly disappeared.

Ling Yu looked again, attempting to find even a trace of panic in Gu Qing’s beautifully sculpted features.

She found nothing.

Perhaps the two women had been staring at each other for too long. Gu Ting, who lay sprawled across the floor, endured the pain in his neck and looked toward Ling Yu.

He had been born with cerebral palsy. Although his movements were impaired, his intelligence remained unaffected.

With difficulty, he propped up his limp head and looked upstairs.

When he saw Ling Yu’s face clearly, a viscous, poisonous gleam passed through his narrow eyes.

“Ah, I’ve seen you before.”

Gu Ting gave Ling Yu a cloyingly sweet smile.

“Are you Sister’s friend…?”

The corner of his mouth drooped, and his speech was indistinct. He struggled to hold up his head as he met her gaze.

As a decent woman with proper values, Ling Yu had always shown additional patience toward young people with disabilities.

In her understanding, heaven might have taken certain abilities from them, but that did not make them fundamentally different from anyone else.

They were merely ill and needed additional care.

Unfortunately, Ling Yu could not summon that sympathy when facing Gu Ting.

Being born with a disability was not frightening.

What was frightening was allowing that disability to distort one’s entire worldview, then attempting to drag others into the same abyss.

Gu Ting was completely insane.

Simply looking at him made Ling Yu uncomfortable.

Thus, she gave no response to his question.

She always maintained appropriate vigilance toward anyone she classified as dangerous.

She had assumed the boy would understand the warning and immediately close his mouth.

However, she had clearly underestimated the twisted mind hidden beneath his willful, pathological façade.

“Lunch-box Sister, why aren’t you speaking? Did the sight of my sister having an episode frighten you?”

Provocation filled every word he spoke.

Ling Yu swept him a faint glance.

“Little brother, how old are you?”

Caught off guard by the sudden change in subject, Gu Ting froze.

He instinctively answered, “Sixteen.”

Ling Yu gave an indifferent hum and lazily waved her phone.

“Then you’ll reach adulthood soon. According to our country’s criminal laws, anyone who entices or instigates another person to commit a crime may receive a prison sentence of three to ten years. I recorded everything you just said while encouraging your sister.”

Ling Yu paused and smiled.

“You’re welcome to visit me at Kaihe Law Firm after you become an adult. I’ll introduce you to the finest attorney available.”

Gu Ting’s body stiffened.

The gaze he directed toward Ling Yu appeared coated in poison.

His lips moved soundlessly. Then he tugged at Gu Qing’s trouser leg and raised his head with a sticky smile.

He lifted his chin toward Ling Yu, though his words were directed at Gu Qing.

“Sister, your friend is as interesting as that cat from several years ago.”

At some point, the glass window had been opened wide.

A violent gust suddenly swept through the stairwell.

Standing directly before it, Gu Qing stepped forward. The wind lifted her long curls like a waterfall.

She resembled a demon crawling out of hell, her hair writhing wildly through the air.

Then she abruptly moved in front of Gu Ting, completely blocking his intrusive gaze.

Gu Qing lowered her eyes toward him. The coldness between her brows was even more intense than before.

Gu Ting instinctively shrank his neck.

The pressure filling the air made his already unclear speech even more difficult to understand.

“Is she really just your friend?”

Gu Ting’s almost grotesque obsession made Ling Yu laugh in anger.

She began descending the stairs.

“We’re not merely friends…”

A smile hung from her lips as she approached Gu Ting one step at a time.

The boy sighed.

“I see. What a shame.”

Ling Yu did not understand his implication.

She released a faint hum and continued downward.

At the same moment, Gu Qing abruptly turned her head.

The gaze she directed at Ling Yu was unfamiliar and indifferent, like the calm surface of the sea in the middle of the night—silent and utterly still.

“Don’t come any closer.”

Her voice was extremely slow, almost like a soft whisper beside Ling Yu’s ear.

Ling Yu could not describe the sensation.

It was as though an enormous hand had suddenly emerged from the air and pinned her in place.

It had been a long time since Gu Qing had disregarded her so thoroughly. Ling Yu had nearly forgotten that Gu Qing had been equally unapproachable when they first met.

Recently, she had been deceived by the gradual softening of Gu Qing’s manner and forgotten the woman’s original nature.

Ling Yu remained frozen.

In the next second, Gu Qing slowly asked:

“Is she important?”

Her gaze returned to Gu Ting.

The boy’s sticky eyes continued roaming between Gu Qing and Ling Yu.

Gu Qing’s pupils contracted into needlepoints. Her merciless gaze scraped across his face.

The way she looked at Gu Ting contained a murderous desire to drag him into mutual destruction.

Ling Yu had lived two lifetimes, and her intuition had always been accurate.

Alarm bells shrieked inside her mind.

At that moment, more clearly than ever before, she realized Gu Qing wanted to kill someone.

This was different from earlier.

The monster concealed beneath her heavy twilight gloom had suddenly torn through its disguise and wanted to destroy everything with it.

Excitement covered Gu Ting’s face.

He resembled someone watching a monster he had personally raised finally develop a taste for human blood. Uncontrollable pride spilled from his every feature.

He even indulgently extended his vulnerable neck toward Gu Qing.

Ling Yu was immediately alarmed.

After absurdly cursing him as a lunatic, she instinctively called out:

“Gu Qing.”

Gu Qing’s contracted pupils abruptly relaxed.

She remained still for a long time before straightening.

When Ling Yu looked at her again, the woman had already withdrawn her gaze.

Through the thin fabric of her blouse, her fingers repeatedly felt for the tiny bottle hanging from the silver chain around her neck.

The bottle remained hidden beneath her collar, creating only a small, pod-shaped bulge.

That movement resembled the pressing of a stop button.

It immediately halted the violence that had abruptly surged from Gu Qing again.

Three seconds later, Gu Qing closed her eyes.

She slowly curved her lips and casually pointed toward Ling Yu.

“She’s actually the same as you. She approached me with dark intentions, foolishly hoping to obtain a response from me that never existed.”

Gu Qing spoke in a flat, straightforward tone.

She lowered her eyes slightly and met Gu Ting’s sinister gaze with an arrogant smile.

“But she’s pretending. You’re genuine. You keep provoking one piece of trash after another. Are you satisfied now?”

The air seemed to suffocate.

Ling Yu’s pupils contracted, and she slowly raised her head.

Her gaze collided with Gu Qing’s in midair.

Gu Qing expressionlessly glanced at her before quickly looking away.

As though speaking both to herself and to Ling Yu, she repeated:

“Ling Yu, are you satisfied too? You saw it with your own eyes. Hmm? I warned all of you not to provoke me.”

Ling Yu was still shocked by Gu Qing’s earlier declaration that “she’s pretending” and did not process the rest of her words.

She did not answer immediately.

The boy beside Gu Qing suddenly laughed.

He seemed extraordinarily satisfied by Gu Qing’s response, and his hoarse laughter bent his spine.

Gu Qing glanced at him.

Without warning, she reached out, seized Gu Ting by the throat, and lifted him.

The boy desperately struggled to inhale, his face instantly turning dark purple.

Gu Qing scoffed.

Explosive power filled her slender, pale arm as she raised him higher. Then, like throwing away a bag of garbage, she slammed his fifty-five-kilogram body into his wheelchair.

Gu Ting’s body bounced before collapsing bonelessly into the chair like cotton.

Afterward, Gu Qing removed a tissue from her pocket and carefully wiped her fingers.

Only then did she push Gu Ting away.

From beginning to end, she did not spare Ling Yu another glance.

Ling Yu stood alone in the empty elevator for ten full seconds before tugging at the corners of her lips.

[Daddy.]

[Hmm?]

008 answered cautiously, lowering its voice as though afraid of hurting her.

[I’m sorry, Host. I didn’t know the mission target had become corrupted to this extent.]

008 released a heavy breath.

[If you genuinely don’t wish to complete the mission, I can submit a request to my superiors. However, without the mission’s support, the soul within this body probably won’t last another year…]

Ling Yu interrupted it.

[I only wanted to tell you that you’re remarkably impressive.]

008 hesitated.

[What?]

[It seems my acting genuinely wasn’t convincing.]

Ling Yu’s lips curved playfully.

[And here I was feeling guilty toward that woman tonight. It turns out she knew all along.]

[Fine. I’ll see this mission through perfectly.]

008 was utterly confused and tapped its head.

[???]

Ling Yu did not continue explaining.

In truth, the amount of information she had obtained that night exceeded everything she understood.

She was not frightened.

She was shocked.

Faced with an unhinged adopted brother attempting to drag her into the abyss, Gu Qing’s behavior was profoundly abnormal.

In Ling Yu’s understanding, shouldn’t something threatening one’s life be avoided as early as possible?

Yet Gu Qing seemed to have given all the patience she possessed to this insane younger brother.

Even more frighteningly, Gu Qing herself was perhaps even more insane than he was.

Although she had remained cold and had not done anything truly beyond the limits throughout the encounter, she had displayed an extraordinary tolerance far beyond that of an ordinary person.

But Ling Yu had not forgotten the bead of blood Gu Qing scraped from her deranged brother’s neck with the needle when the lightning flashed several minutes earlier.

Frankly, Ling Yu did not believe it had been accidental.

Still, she could not say she was afraid.

Perhaps she had always been fundamentally different from other women. She naturally enjoyed challenging heights that seemed impossible to overcome.

Because of her profession, before writing any story, she would personally experience an atmosphere similar to the one surrounding her characters.

She enjoyed field research and exploring the tension created by the opposing forces of human nature.

To write Sinking, Ling Yu had once spent three full months working in a correctional facility in M City.

Every sort of person wore a different mask.

Ling Yu enjoyed investigating the original colors hidden beneath them.

The other side of Gu Qing she discovered that night successfully awakened her competitive spirit.

In particular, the gaze Gu Qing had given her when she looked back from above and discarded her like dust ignited a fighting spirit Ling Yu had never experienced before.

She truly did not like Gu Qing.

She had only worked hard to complete the mission because she wanted to live out her natural lifespan.

But after that night, she changed her mind.

She would not merely complete the mission properly.

She would personally drag Gu Qing back and watch sunlight fall over her, painting the sorrows and joys of the human world within those cool eyes.

It had nothing to do with affection.

It was like climbing a snow-covered mountain.

Ling Yu might be repeatedly shaken from its slopes. Anyone else would probably brush off their clothes and leave.

But Ling Yu could not.

The pride hidden within her bones would never allow her to retreat in complete defeat.

That night, Gu Qing had successfully ignited the raging flames of battle within Ling Yu.

Ling Yu remained in the stairwell for three seconds.

After adjusting her emotions, she finally stepped outside.

However, heavy rain continued falling.

Ling Yu had previously intended to borrow Gu Qing’s umbrella, so she had not brought one herself.

She did not realize the problem until she reached the covered entrance on the first floor.

She looked at the unrelenting rain within the darkness and prepared to turn back to the ward to retrieve an umbrella.

Someone emerged from the emergency stairwell again.

Doctor Qin was still wearing his white coat.

He seemed to have come specifically to deliver an umbrella. Upon seeing Ling Yu, he immediately pressed its glittering transparent handle into her hand.

“The rain is too heavy. Take this.”

The middle-aged doctor had apparently rushed after her and was breathing heavily.

Ling Yu’s gaze settled on his sweat-covered forehead, and she hesitated.

“Uncle Qin, how did you know I didn’t have an umbrella?”

The middle-aged man froze.

Then he looked at her affectionately and lightly scolded, “How else? The nurse on duty saw you heading downstairs empty-handed and reminded me to bring you one. Here—remember to return it next time.”

Perhaps it was because his tone was so ordinary, or because the white coat he wore represented saving lives and healing the wounded, making him seem righteous and compassionate.

Whatever suspicion had risen within Ling Yu immediately disappeared.

A grateful smile covered her face, and she repeatedly thanked him.

Ling Yu left the hospital and opened the umbrella.

She discovered that it was designed for a woman. Its handle was delicate and extremely light in her hand.

It probably belonged to Doctor Qin’s daughter.

After all, the glittering transparent canopy was only wide enough to shelter one young woman.

It would have been too narrow for a middle-aged man.

She needed to remember to return it the next time she visited.

Darkness stretched ahead.

Ling Yu stood near the bus stop and hailed a ride.

Her shoes had gotten wet, so she simply removed her high heels and entered the car barefoot.

At ten at night, the streets were deserted.

The driver was a young man with dyed yellow hair and a cross hanging from his neck.

When Ling Yu entered the car, he whistled at her.

[There are cars at the old residence, yet you refuse to drive one. You’re a young woman taking a hired car alone in the middle of the night. Could you please develop some caution? You’re terrifying me.]

Ling Yu was chatting with Xu Miao, who was clearly concerned about the current safety of ride-hailing services.

Her WeChat messages arrived without pause.

[No, secretly take a picture of the driver’s identification and send it to me. If you suddenly disappear… Bah! Forget I said that!]

Xu Miao had always been excessively talkative and suffered from mild anxiety.

Seeing that she was already imagining the driver deviating from the route, Ling Yu helplessly took a photograph of his identification.

At that moment, another clap of thunder sounded outside.

The driver braked abruptly, stopping directly at a pedestrian crossing.

Ling Yu pitched forward from the momentum.

Her finger slipped, sending the photograph to “Kaihe Law Firm Gu.”

Her face stiffened.

She swiftly withdrew the message.

However, the chat box immediately displayed that the other person was typing.

One second later:

Kaihe Law Firm Gu: [?]

Ling Yu ignored her.

There was no reason to explain an accidental message.

If she genuinely chatted with Gu Qing, the woman might assume she had deliberately created an excuse to approach her.

After her persona collapsed that evening, Ling Yu no longer intended to pretend.

She believed she had plenty of positive qualities. Once her bootlicking was excluded, she possessed practically everything one could want.

The height of one’s opponent determined the scale of one’s ambitions.

A vulgar method of starting a conversation like this would ordinarily diminish her dignity.

After considering it, Ling Yu exited Gu Qing’s chat and resumed her conversation with Xu Miao.

The old residence was in the Xishan suburbs, so the journey was relatively long.

The driver was an extremely talkative young man.

At first, he made one suggestive remark after another. Seeing that Ling Yu was beautiful, he repeatedly gave her strongly suggestive looks.

Unfortunately for him, although Ling Yu appeared pure and charming, rolling up her sleeves revealed forearms with smooth, defined lines.

Her fighting abilities were comparable to those of a martial-arts instructor.

When she first entered the car, she had exchanged two moves with the driver using only the heel of her shoe and won decisively.

Thus, he behaved considerably better during the journey up the mountain.

When they reached her destination, the yellow-haired driver turned around hesitantly and looked toward Ling Yu.

He was probably still shaken by her earlier warning. His eyes flickered, and his lips moved twice.

“If you have something to say, say it.”

Ling Yu pushed open the car door.

After hesitating, the driver called toward her back.

“Miss, is anyone home?”

“What? Do you still dare to break into my house?”

When the driver saw Ling Yu raise her fist, his scalp tingled.

He hurriedly shook his head.

“No, no, of course not. I only wanted to warn you. A Porsche seemed to be following us the entire way up the mountain. Did you offend someone? If your family is home, at least you’ll be safer.”

After hearing him, Ling Yu instinctively looked into the darkness.

There was not even a ghostly shadow in sight.

She turned back and glanced at his highlighted hair, then slammed the door shut and walked away without looking back.