Pretending To Be Affectionate [Transmigration] - Chapter 34

“Ling Yu, you went too far.”

“Look for yourself and see how many times I called you. If Gu Qing hadn’t told me last night that you were safe, I would’ve reported it to the police already.”

Xu Miao’s restrained scolding came through the phone.

Ling Yu raised a hand and rubbed her aching forehead, then looked around at her surroundings.

It was an extremely minimalist bedroom in a spacious penthouse.

The floor-to-ceiling windows occupied nearly half the wall. Ling Yu braced both hands against the mattress and sat up.

As she moved, the dried marks along her thighs were instantly exposed.

Ling Yu brought her slender legs together in a futile attempt to hide them, then shifted her gaze toward the other side of the disheveled bed.

The woman who had lain there last night had vanished.

The sheets had long since turned cold, which meant Gu Qing had left shortly after they finished.

Ling Yu felt thoroughly mocked after being slept with and abandoned.

Her body was extremely uncomfortable. It had been the first time for both of them, and neither had known how to restrain herself.

That would have been bad enough on its own.

But they had not bathed afterward. Ling Yu had simply fallen unconscious.

Consequently, last night had been far from an ideal experience for her.

Perhaps because Ling Yu remained silent for so long, Xu Miao’s accusatory tone quickly changed into a cautious question.

“Yuyu, why aren’t you saying anything?”

“Tell me exactly where you are. I’ll come pick you up immediately.”

“Hello? Say something.”

Bending down, Ling Yu hooked a finger through the pajamas Gu Qing had prepared for her and lifted them from among the clothes scattered across the floor.

She loosened the ties and draped the garment carelessly around her shoulders.

Then, barefoot, she walked toward the bedroom’s private bathroom.

Xu Miao’s voice grew increasingly urgent, as though she was becoming worried.

“Sister, I’m fine,” Ling Yu answered hoarsely.

“Your voice…”

Only after speaking did Ling Yu belatedly realize that her voice had become as rough and hoarse as a broken gong.

Embarrassment entered her pitch-black eyes.

She recalled how Gu Qing’s tears had fallen in the heights of excitement last night, rolling down into Ling Yu’s mouth.

She could hardly tell Xu Miao that she had lost her voice while taking Gu Qing—and while Gu Qing took her.

Ling Yu cleared her throat and avoided the question.

“Sister Miao, did Gu Qing contact you again last night?”

There was no reason for Gu Qing to have gone to such unnecessary trouble. That woman had always remained aloof from anything that did not concern her.

Even after they had slept together last night, Gu Qing had turned around and left without hesitation, withdrawing her fingers and her concern with equal ruthlessness.

Ling Yu could not understand why she would go to the extra effort of reassuring Xu Miao.

Xu Miao muttered a few words before explaining, “You sent me such a frightening message yesterday. I was at the hospital and couldn’t leave Great-Grandmother, so all I could do was call you back. Fortunately, Gu Qing happened to be at Scenic View Hotel too. I asked her to look for you without really expecting anything, but…”

Ling Yu finally understood why Gu Qing had appeared with such perfect timing.

By that reckoning, she truly did owe the woman a favor.

Xu Miao continued explaining, then commented earnestly, “Yuyu, I actually think Gu Qing is different from what we’ve always imagined. She seems like a pretty good person. If someone else had encountered what happened last night, they probably wouldn’t have interfered at all…”

Ling Yu lifted her eyelids and gave a listless hum.

She could not understand Gu Qing’s logic.

Sometimes she thought the woman treated her quite well. After all, throughout their many confrontations, Ling Yu had never sensed genuine malice from her.

For a while, Ling Yu had even suspected that Gu Qing coveted her body.

But after what happened last night, she no longer dared harbor any pleasant fantasies about Gu Qing.

If Gu Qing had at least bathed her once she became lucid, instead of vanishing this morning without a trace…

Or if Gu Qing had not initially and indifferently considered finding her a male escort…

Then Ling Yu might have been moved by Gu Qing’s hidden kindness and willingness to help despite her cold exterior.

But countless incidents had taught Ling Yu never to speculate unnecessarily about Gu Qing.

Otherwise, the truth would leave her so embarrassed that she would want to dig a hole with her toes.

Even though Ling Yu understood this perfectly, when she woke to an empty room that morning, she still had to curse Gu Qing as a scumbag.

It was not that Ling Yu wanted her to take responsibility.

But they should at least have talked.

Leaving without a single explanation made Gu Qing an open and unapologetic scumbag.

Ling Yu could not clearly describe her present mood.

She was certain she was not angry. They had both enjoyed themselves and both had done things to the other.

Neither had taken advantage. They had been evenly matched.

What Ling Yu had never expected was the inexplicable desolation growing like weeds inside her heart.

For the moment, she attributed this subtle emotion to sentimental attachment surrounding her first time.

Ling Yu briefly explained yesterday’s events to Xu Miao, naturally omitting everything she and Gu Qing had done.

“So you’re at Attorney Gu’s home now?”

Ling Yu gave a quiet affirmation.

“Impressive, Yuyu.” Xu Miao’s tone noticeably relaxed and turned suggestive. “I once recommended that you keep her as your mistress. I never imagined you’d be even more capable than your Sister. You didn’t spend a cent, yet you moved directly into her home. No wonder your voice sounds so hoarse. So you had drunken sex. I understand—Sister understands everything.”

Ling Yu’s lips twisted incredulously, and for a moment, she did not know what to say.

Xu Miao was not wrong about the drunken sex, but the manner in which it happened had been nothing like the peaceful scenario she imagined.

The sticky discomfort covering Ling Yu’s body made her frown. Still barefoot, she prepared to shower.

Gu Qing probably seldom visited this place. The bathroom contained only unopened bottles of shower gel and shampoo, along with a new toothbrush and rinsing cup.

A layer of dust covered the vanity.

Although everything had been arranged with perfect neatness, the room carried the desolate feeling of somewhere rarely used.

Ling Yu became curious.

On that night of torrential rain, had Gu Qing really fallen straight into bed without even brushing her teeth?

Ordinarily, that question would have sent her imagination running wild again.

But last night had taught her a lesson. Ling Yu no longer wanted to investigate Gu Qing’s true intentions.

Warm water poured from the rainfall shower, rapidly heating the bathroom.

Mist soon clouded the frosted glass door.

Water traveled down Ling Yu’s straight, slender neck and over the startling red marks covering her body.

She lowered her eyes slightly and inevitably witnessed the evidence left behind by last night’s madness.

A huge mirror stood before the vanity.

Looking at her reflection, Ling Yu discovered for the first time that her face possessed a certain talent for attracting perverts.

The woman in the mirror had fragrant cheeks and amorous eyes. Her features were innocent without appearing immature, radiating an air caught between youth and maturity.

Covered in droplets of water, she resembled a delicate flower bud just beginning to bloom.

Ling Yu stared at her reflection, her body covered in countless watery marks from being gripped. She raised both hands and vigorously rubbed her face, destroying the decadent beauty left behind by having been plucked.

Only then did she lower her hands.

[I’m sorry.]

008 sounded guilty. It opened its mouth but did not know how to comfort her.

After carefully choosing its words, it said:

[Host, what happened has already happened. Since it can’t be changed, I suggest looking at the positive side.]

[Although your body sustained a certain amount of harm last night, your devoted supporting female character mission has reached ninety-nine percent completion.]

In other words, her sacrifice last night had almost completed the mission.

Ling Yu narrowed her eyes. She turned off the shower and gave an incredulous smile.

[Explain. What happened?]

If 008 had not mentioned the devoted supporting female character mission, Ling Yu would have almost completely forgotten the word “devoted.”

Recently, she had been approaching her task with Gu Qing somewhat passively.

As they spent more time together, Jiang Wei’s case had intervened and shown Ling Yu the extreme cruelty concealed beneath Gu Qing’s refined appearance.

To Ling Yu, Gu Qing resembled a vicious beast that might bite through her blood vessels at any moment.

Frankly, the system’s ultimate goal was for her to pacify Gu Qing’s violent impulses.

That was like taming a wild animal. If she relied on selfless devotion, she might merely become another farmer sheltering a snake.

Once Ling Yu clearly understood that all her gentle efforts could not evoke even the slightest emotion in Gu Qing, she felt defeated.

She chose one final method.

She would tear open Gu Qing’s wounds with her own hands, then stitch them closed herself.

Only if the pain cut deeply enough would Gu Qing remember forever and never cross that boundary again.

That was why Ling Yu had originally intended to confront Gu Qing’s madness directly last night, face her wounds without hesitation, and tear them open ruthlessly.

But Jiang Wei had disrupted her plan.

She had not managed to do anything, yet her mission progress had inexplicably jumped to ninety-nine percent.

To Ling Yu, it made no logical sense.

She looked through lowered lids, concealing the absurd shock inside her as she waited for the system’s explanation.

008 drew a breath and repeated last night’s mission update in a businesslike tone.

[The host offered her body to the female lead, successfully allowing the female lead to experience pure and immaculate devotion. Mission progress increased by seventy-five percent.]

[The host successfully prevented the female lead’s loss of control. Mission progress increased by twenty-four percent.]

[Total mission completion has reached ninety-nine percent.]

A mocking curve appeared on Ling Yu’s lips.

So that was what “devotion” meant.

All she had to do was let Gu Qing experience her bodily sacrifice.

Ling Yu laughed in anger.

[Following that logic, do I have to press myself against her one more time to complete the remaining one percent?]

008 was rendered speechless.

In truth, Ling Yu’s mission was one level more difficult than those assigned to hosts in any other world.

She had only an objective to complete. She could neither learn the direction of the plot nor receive mission guidance.

Simply put, she had to stumble through the strategy entirely on her own.

Ling Yu was a wandering soul who had entered this world. She differed from the task executors selected by the main world.

After completing her mission, she would remain here and live until the natural end of her life.

To prevent a host from learning the future plot and damaging the world’s intended course, the main system provided Ling Yu with almost no narrative assistance.

As her companion system, 008 naturally lacked permission to access specific details as well.

Ling Yu was already intimately familiar with 008’s limitations.

The system held no malicious intentions. When it said nothing, it genuinely did not know.

Ling Yu decided not to make things difficult for it.

She slowly dried the water from her body and walked across the red-carpeted floor to the bed.

Her gown and underwear from last night were piled in front of it.

They had been worn for a full day and were somewhat dirty, but under the circumstances, Ling Yu could not afford to be particular if she wanted to leave.

She bent down and hooked a finger through her bra.

The moment she looked at it, her pupils contracted sharply.

The recording button was gone.

She had risked her life last night and used carefully chosen words to entice Jiang Wei into personally admitting his sexual crimes.

Now the recording device containing that confession had disappeared.

The room was empty.

Only one person could have stolen the button from her bra.

“Gu Qing.”

Ling Yu stared at the disheveled bed.

Their equally matched intimacy last night now seemed like a joke.

So Gu Qing had been willing to compromise herself that thoroughly simply to obtain Ling Yu’s evidence.

A coldness like a shattered blade of jade filled Ling Yu’s ink-black eyes.

Dim daylight entered through the floor-to-ceiling windows and fell across her face, casting obscure fragments of shadow over it.

She suddenly curved her lips, held her phone upside down, and sent Gu Qing a message.

[Where are you?]

For the entire week preceding the second hearing in Jiang Wei’s case, Ling Yu never saw Gu Qing again.

The woman seemed to have vanished from the world.

Or perhaps, guilty of theft, she was deliberately avoiding every place Ling Yu might appear.

On January thirteenth, Xu Miao called Ling Yu with good news.

“The old lady woke up in the ICU. She seems to be in good spirits.”

It was the best condition Great-Grandmother had been in since becoming bedridden.

Xu Miao sounded excited.

“Yuyu, come to the hospital if you have time. Great-Grandmother recognized me. The moment she woke, she said she wanted to see you.”

Ling Yu’s hand stopped in the middle of brushing her teeth.

Her face, reflected in the mirror, instantly turned pale.

On the phone, Xu Miao chattered about the good news like a child crying from joy.

“Great-Grandmother had a video call with Grandfather this morning. Grandfather cried like a child.”

“I’ve never seen him shed tears. He’s such a tough man and spent his entire life refusing to show weakness. But the moment Great-Grandmother called him ‘Nizi,’ his tears started falling as though they couldn’t be stopped.”

Xu Miao sighed emotionally.

“Yuyu, sometimes I truly hate Second Uncle. His selfish ambitions have denied the Xu family peace for all these years. Even while Great-Grandmother was bedridden, Grandfather couldn’t return to see her.”

Ling Yu did not interrupt Xu Miao’s happiness.

She merely threw away her toothbrush, grabbed her car keys, and rushed recklessly out of the villa.

“This is going to be such a good year, Yuyu. Even if the Xu family divides, Great-Grandmother made it through. She’ll gradually recover from now on,” Xu Miao said. “Sorry, I got so excited that I forgot you have work. Come later. I’m here with her.”

Ling Yu closed her eyes without saying anything.

It was as if she had foreseen a certain ending.

With the quiet weariness of approaching twilight, she interrupted her cousin.

“No, Cousin. I have to come now. Great-Grandmother finally woke up. Of course I need to hurry over and claim the credit.”

Xu Miao laughed and scolded her. “Look at you.”

In this world, people sometimes experience a final burst of clarity before death.

The old lady passed away at ten that night.

When she closed her eyes, her expression was peaceful.

One hand held Ling Yu’s, while Xu Miao clasped the other in her arms.

Her deeply wrinkled face resembled a blooming chrysanthemum—the most beautiful flower of that winter afternoon.

Overwhelmed by shock, Xu Miao sobbed uncontrollably. Her eldest aunt, who had finally arrived, held her as they pressed their foreheads together and wept.

Old Master Xu sat in his wheelchair and said in a strained voice, “Mom, Nizi came home.”

Ling Yu could no longer hold herself together. Tears gathered in her eyes.

Every descendant of the Xu family had come except those from Second Uncle’s branch. The ward filled with muffled sobs.

Ling Yu left the final farewell to them and turned away.

When she reached the hospital’s small garden for some air, she saw Gu Qing standing inside a viewing pavilion around the corner.

Gu Ting had maneuvered his wheelchair to her feet.

The boy still spoke with his usual breathy, rasping sounds, but his voice was sharper and more anguished than before.

His gaze toward Gu Qing no longer concealed its sticky malice. It was openly dark and resentful.

“What use is there in telling me any of this?”

The boy’s lips had turned dark from the cold and trembled repeatedly in the winter wind.

Gu Qing showed no sympathy from beginning to end.

She lowered her eyes toward the ornamental pond, where frightened koi had surfaced.

“Shh. Don’t frighten them.”

Her voice was as bland as plain water in the winter night, yet pierced Gu Ting’s heart like an icicle.

Sitting in his wheelchair, the boy reached out and tried to seize her.

Gu Qing merely glanced at him and casually avoided his pinpricked hand.

Ling Yu stood too far away to distinguish Gu Qing’s expression.

She could only hear Gu Ting’s hysterical sobbing.

“Sister, why did you expose the truth behind Dad’s death? You only want to sever all ties with Mom and me, don’t you?”

“But you’re too naive. So what if an internal traitor exposed Dad’s identity as an undercover officer? In the end, Dad still died saving you…”

“You owe Gu Hongwei a life. You owe me a father, and you owe my mother a husband. That’s a debt you can never repay.”

This time, Gu Qing did not remain motionless as she had in the past.

She curved her lips and leaned down, meeting Gu Ting’s gaze with her deep blue eyes.

Those beautiful phoenix eyes were clearly looking at him, yet seemed incapable of containing his image.

In Gu Qing’s eyes, Gu Ting was nothing.

Nothing could have been more humiliating than the casual gaze she gave him during that confrontation.

Gu Ting seemed to have had a nerve struck by her indifference.

He shouted hysterically, “You went so far as to defend a rapist just to obtain that evidence?”

“Hahahaha! What kind of bottomless monster are you? You were born this way…”

“So what if you free yourself from Mom and me? You’re still walking toward hell one step at a time…”

In the cold wind, Ling Yu heard Gu Qing’s calm, emotionless voice.

“Gu Ting, I’m tired.”

“What do you mean?” Gu Ting’s eyes widened.

But Gu Qing seemed to have lost the patience to answer.

She merely looked at him without emotion, lowered her long eyelashes, and straightened.

Then she turned and walked away without another word.

Only after she had traveled a considerable distance did Gu Qing’s voice emerge from the darkness.

“I prepaid fifty years of medical expenses for you and your mother.”

Ling Yu did not look at Gu Ting’s expression.

Perhaps it was because Gu Qing’s figure was gradually merging with the darkness, as though she might disappear with dignity and without a choice in the very next moment, just as Great-Grandmother had.

Or perhaps Ling Yu was still angry about being deceived.

She followed Gu Qing and blocked her path at the hospital entrance.

“Hi. We meet again.”

Ling Yu smiled brightly as she met Gu Qing’s faintly surprised gaze.

After that brief surprise, Gu Qing’s eyes traveled repeatedly across her face, as though trying to find evidence of stalking beneath Ling Yu’s brilliant smile.

A moment later, Gu Qing nodded and greeted her with perfect politeness.

“Hello.”

Ling Yu’s smile stiffened.

Then Gu Qing calmly withdrew her gaze and brushed past her shoulder.

It was as though that single “hello” had been intended to define their relationship as courteous and distant.

Ling Yu laughed in anger.

At the same time, however, Gu Qing’s detached expression shocked her. Her entire presence seemed exceedingly faint, giving Ling Yu the same feeling Great-Grandmother had during her final moments.

As Gu Qing passed, Ling Yu quickly reached for her arm.

She had succeeded countless times before.

This time, Gu Qing instinctively avoided her.

Perhaps she detested Ling Yu’s approach so deeply that evasion had already become a habitual reflex.

Ling Yu saw the undisguised aversion in Gu Qing’s eyes.

Nothing demonstrated the truth more clearly than an unconscious reaction.

Gu Qing had engraved her disgust for Ling Yu into every inch of her body.

When that disgust became instinctive, Ling Yu could no longer smile.

Looking at Gu Qing from beneath lowered eyelids, she asked mockingly, “What? Do you think I’m filthy?”

“You seemed to enjoy yourself that night.”

“Or were you pretending the entire time? Did you only remove my clothes because you wanted to steal what you needed?”

Ling Yu advanced step by step.

“Attorney Gu, you’re certainly capable.”

She bent one knee and used the strength of her arm and leg to drag Gu Qing into a shadowed corner.

Leaning forward, she pressed the coldly beautiful woman against the wall with both hands on her shoulders.

Still smiling, Ling Yu placed her lips beside Gu Qing’s ear.

“Give me back the recording button.”

“Get away from me.”

Gu Qing was profoundly irritated by her closeness. She turned her head, swept Ling Yu’s fingers aside, and reversed their positions in a single movement.

For the first time, Ling Yu discovered that Gu Qing was no weaker than she was.

Instead of becoming angry, Ling Yu laughed.

“What? Do you think obtaining the recording means you’ve won?”

Gu Qing did not answer.

She merely stared intently at Ling Yu with those ocean-blue eyes, their depths carrying a salty darkness like spreading seaweed.

A moment later, Gu Qing suddenly covered Ling Yu’s eyes.

“You win,” she said hoarsely.

Ling Yu froze.

“Ling Yu.”

Gu Qing’s voice became a murmur beside her ear.

Darkness covered Ling Yu’s vision, sharpening all her remaining senses.

“Mm?” she responded instinctively.

Gu Qing’s lips suddenly touched her earlobe.

Whether intentionally or not, the woman allowed her cold breath to spill entirely into the shell of Ling Yu’s ear.

Ling Yu abruptly felt an itch there.

Gu Qing did not give her a chance to scratch it.

In her customary distant, cold voice, she enunciated every word:

“You no longer need to concern yourself with Jiang Wei’s case. Consider that my payment for how enthusiastically you cooperated that night.”

“Explained that way, I suppose you did win.”