Pretending To Be Affectionate [Transmigration] - Chapter 3

“Attorney Gu, I didn’t expect you and…Ling Yu to know each other.”

“Of course we know each other,” Ling Yu interjected.

Hearing this, Jiang Song’s face grew even paler. He did not dare respond.

Offending a spoiled second-generation heiress like Ling Yu would merely cost him his money tree.

But if he offended Gu Qing, it would be extremely difficult to find another suitable lawyer willing to take his family’s case.

Jiang Song began to stammer. Under Gu Qing’s intimidating gaze, he forced out a smile, lowered himself, and pleaded, “Since we all know each other, perhaps you could do me the honor of sitting down and catching up with us. The case is secondary. What truly matters is the friendship between us.”

Gu Qing’s gaze remained on Jiang Song’s face for less than two seconds before the freezing pressure radiating from her swept overwhelmingly toward him.

“Friendship?”

Her intonation rose, carrying the mocking amusement of someone looking down upon an insignificant ant.

Gu Qing’s ruthlessness differed from Ling Yu’s casual irreverence. Perhaps because she was a quarter mixed-race, she possessed elegant bone structure and deeply sculpted features. When she stared at someone, the viciousness in her eyes resembled a wolf regarding its prey.

Danger rushed directly toward him.

Jiang Song involuntarily retreated several steps. His back struck the corner of the table, and the pain twisted his features.

Gu Qing swept him a faint glance. Without saying a word, she turned away, offering the most heartless possible interpretation of their so-called “friendship.”

As she brushed past Ling Yu’s shoulder, she suddenly turned her head.

“Have you stared enough?”

“Ah?”

Ling Yu’s smile widened without the slightest attempt at concealment.

Fearlessly courting death, she shook her head and raised her fair, delicate face. Her eyes curved teasingly as she looked at Gu Qing from the corners.

“Not yet. I could keep looking…”

Ling Yu was naturally fair. Her small face was nestled within the pure-white fur lining of her puffer jacket’s hood, making her complexion appear even more exquisitely porcelain-like.

At that moment, specks of light danced within her clear black-and-white eyes. She made no attempt to hide her emotions, which were direct and passionate.

Gu Qing looked away.

She had never liked being stared at so openly, especially when the person staring was Ling Yu, who appeared as pure and innocent as a blank sheet of paper.

The other woman resembled a fearless, blazing sun attempting to warm her.

Cruel words and insults had no effect on her whatsoever.

It seemed that as long as Gu Qing wished it, she could effortlessly paint increasingly intense colors across Ling Yu’s blank surface.

Ling Yu never concealed anything. She seemed determined to become a pure, radiant sun that shone solely for Gu Qing.

But Gu Qing was accustomed to darkness.

She detested this innocent woman who continued drawing closer to her.

At the thought, Gu Qing’s expression darkened. She pulled her arm free from Ling Yu’s tight embrace.

Then she bent down, leaned close to Ling Yu’s ear, and lowered her voice.

“Jiang Song likes you?”

They were standing rather close together. Gu Qing’s pleasant, cool fragrance drifted over Ling Yu.

It was light and faint, lingering around her nose in delicate strands.

Ling Yu narrowed her eyes at exactly the right moment.

She had been Gu Qing’s bootlicker for two months, and Gu Qing usually refused to spare her so much as a glance.

This was the first time Gu Qing had voluntarily approached her…

Surprised, Ling Yu raised her moist eyes.

“What?”

Gu Qing gave her a long, impeccably courteous look. Then she straightened and sighed quietly.

“Then his eyesight must be terrible… You’re far too slutty.”

Ling Yu: […]

“Ha ha ha ha ha! She said you were too slutty? Too slutty! Ling Yu, I never thought I would live to see this day!”

Xu Miao clutched her stomach and collapsed sideways against the table, nearly laughing herself breathless.

It was eleven o’clock at night at Canghai Club.

Down on the first-floor dance floor, dazzling lights flashed while punk music thundered, driving the nightclub’s atmosphere to its peak.

Ling Yu spread her hands and lazily yawned.

“Exactly. I was wondering whether a woman like Gu Qing was blind, deaf, or simply ignorant. Does she really think my innocent little schoolgirl act is what true sluttiness looks like?”

Ling Yu lifted the glass of multicolored liquor beside her to her lips, tipped her head back, and took a sip.

Xu Miao laughed even harder. She casually wiped away the tears that had gathered at the corners of her eyes.

She glanced at Ling Yu.

Tonight, Ling Yu wore a short, pure-white lace dress, and her long hair hung loose around her. She had seemingly washed it not long ago, because her waist-length black hair had not yet fully dried.

The damp strands clung to the fabric. When she turned sideways, half of her satin-smooth back was revealed at precisely the right angle.

“So you came here tonight to prove how irresistible you are?”

Ling Yu shook her head. Curled up in the booth, the emotion on her face visibly faded.

Seeing her cousin’s expression, Xu Miao immediately realized something. After carefully considering her words, she asked, “What did Yu Xin do to you this time?”

It was phrased as a question, but her tone made it a statement. A trace of concern lay beneath her words.

Ling Yu smiled reassuringly.

“Don’t worry.”

That was as good as an admission.

Xu Miao’s expression darkened.

“That bitch! She’s done so many disgusting things to you behind everyone’s backs over the years. You’ve already fled to Yuncheng, yet she still refuses to stop. Ling Taiguo certainly knows how to keep things ‘fair,’ doesn’t he? One side of his scale is practically in the heavens and the other is buried underground!”

Xu Miao ground her teeth furiously.

“Don’t force yourself to endure everything. If it becomes too much, I’ll go speak to Grandma.”

“It’s nothing serious. There’s no need to trouble an elderly woman.”

Ling Yu gave Xu Miao a look telling her to remain calm. Seeing that their champagne still had not arrived, she casually poured Xu Miao a glass of ice water.

“Yu Xin isn’t capable of anything presentable. She merely learned from Jiang Song yesterday that I like women.”

Ling Yu languidly pointed toward the dance floor below.

“See that woman downstairs? She’s Yu Xin’s distant niece. Ling Taiguo called me tonight and told me to ‘take good care’ of her while I was here.”

Xu Miao followed Ling Yu’s finger and glanced toward the first-floor dance floor. Her face nearly turned green with rage.

The final revelry of the night was taking place in the center of the dance floor.

Punk music exploded through the room. On the dimly lit stage, a woman dressed in little more than a chain-covered bikini performed a pole dance with a rose held between her teeth.

As her seductive body unfurled around the pole, the chains covering her jingled with an unmistakably suggestive rhythm.

“Ahhhhh!”

“Wife, I love you!”

“Dance another one!”

…

The audience’s cheers rose and fell around the stage.

The woman Ling Yu was pointing at was none other than this dazzling dancer.

Xu Miao’s face darkened. She slammed her wineglass onto the table and said furiously, “Those two bastards actually dared to do this! Do they think everyone in the Xu family is dead?”

“Miao-jie, why get angry with a pair of animals? You know what I’m like. How could something like this possibly affect me?”

Ling Yu patted her shoulder.

Yu Xin’s methods had been filthy for years. The dancer downstairs had seductive eyes and clearly spent her life mingling in places of drinking and pleasure.

Even Xu Miao could see that Yu Xin had ulterior motives.

Naturally, Ling Yu understood as well.

The fact that Ling Taiguo and Yu Xin were so impatient to arrange a woman for her could mean only one thing.

The couple was losing patience.

They wanted to eliminate her.

Ling Yu smiled meaningfully and continued soothing Xu Miao in a mild voice. Suddenly, her pupils contracted.

The pole dance downstairs had reached its conclusion. The dancer stepped off the stage as the men and women surrounding her cheered even louder. One after another, they stretched out their necks and offered her their lips.

It was Xu Miao’s first time seeing a stage so chaotic that it practically resembled an erotic free-for-all. She tilted her head and asked Ling Yu, “Are they…fighting over the flower?”

Ling Yu’s gaze had settled on a woman seated on a tall stool beside the bartending area.

She blinked and looked again.

It was still the same woman she had spent the past several months unsuccessfully pursuing.

Ling Yu’s lips curved in disbelief. Distractedly, she replied, “They aren’t fighting over the flower. They’re asking for kisses…”

Xu Miao did not notice anything unusual about her. Rubbing her forehead, she clicked her tongue.

“I have to admit, Yuncheng is quite open-minded… This is even more exciting than the clubs our circle usually visits…”

Before she could finish praising the place, the pole dancer lightly pointed her toes and walked seductively through the crowd, a smile playing on her lips.

She made her way to the bar.

Bracing one hand on the counter, the dancer leaned toward Gu Qing.

Gu Qing wore a long black knitted dress, its hem reaching her ankles.

Her long, slender legs were pressed together and angled at forty-five degrees. Even while sitting inside a noisy nightclub, she lost none of her dignified, aloof bearing.

Ling Yu watched as the dancer’s supple body pressed inch by inch into Gu Qing’s embrace.

Not only did Gu Qing make no attempt to refuse her, but beneath the multicolored lights, she lazily swirled a glass of red wine, the faintest suggestion of a smile curving her lips.

Ling Yu scoffed.

“Huh?”

Xu Miao had clearly noticed Gu Qing as well. Somewhat uncertainly, she nudged Ling Yu’s arm.

“Little Yu, isn’t that the woman downstairs you’ve been desperately in love with lately?”

The nightclub lights flickered between brightness and darkness.

Ling Yu narrowed her eyes.

“Looks like it.”

She casually discarded her wineglass and pushed herself to her feet. Her peach-blossom eyes curved into crescents as she headed downstairs.

“I’ve chased her for so long without getting anywhere that I thought she was impotent. Turns out I simply wasn’t slutty enough…”

She smiled.

“She should’ve told me sooner!”