Pretending To Be Affectionate [Transmigration] - Chapter 45

The boarding announcement sounded at that exact moment.

“Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention, please? Flight MU5586 from Miebd to Gangcheng is now boarding…”

The boarding reminder played repeatedly. Many passengers who had been sitting in the VIP lounge rose and headed toward the gate.

Only the woman in the corner remained seated.

Her long, slender legs were crossed, and a cigarette rested between her elegant fingers as she tapped the table intermittently.

When Ling Yu looked over, the woman’s long, thick lashes fluttered. Her eyes were half lowered, her gaze fixed on the table.

She appeared to be contemplating something, her expression distant yet focused.

A layer of glazed-red lipstick covered her thin lips, adding a trace of color to her excessively pale skin.

Compared with two years ago, Gu Qing looked considerably thinner. Her white shirt was tucked into a fitted pencil skirt.

Even while seated, not the slightest trace of excess fat could be found around her waist. With her shapely curves, she resembled an ice lotus in full bloom.

Perhaps unaware of Ling Yu’s scrutiny, Gu Qing casually lifted the mug beside her and concealed her face behind it as she took a small sip of coffee.

Then she leaned lazily against the back of the sofa.

With the movement, the cigarette between her fingers swayed through the air. It gave her a faintly decadent appearance, yet it did not feel incongruous.

Ling Yu only looked from afar.

Aside from having grown thinner, Gu Qing did not seem to have changed much. If anything, her icy aura had intensified.

Even while leisurely conversing with a friend, she could not conceal the imperious presence that seemed to have seeped into her bones, impossible to cast aside.

Even the friend beside her stood with a timid, faintly fearful demeanor.

Ling Yu’s gaze remained on Gu Qing for only three seconds before she prepared to withdraw it as though nothing had happened.

Gu Qing suddenly raised her head.

Caught unprepared, Ling Yu was forced to meet her gaze across the room.

From roughly fifty meters away, Gu Qing regarded her lightly while Ling Yu returned the look with a smile.

Neither looked away.

It was like a silent confrontation between scrutiny and indifference.

“Xiao Yu, do you know her?”

Having fought her way through the entertainment industry, Luo Huihui immediately sensed that something was wrong and instinctively looked at Gu Qing.

She was an exceptionally beautiful, cold woman. Her eyes were half narrowed, and the gaze she directed at Ling Yu contained something dark and obscure.

She resembled a lion watching through narrowed eyes.

The smile on Luo Huihui’s lips faded. She reflexively interrupted their eye contact, solemnity flickering through her eyes.

Then she studied Ling Yu’s expression.

Ling Yu wore the same polite, languid smile she had shown when Luo Huihui abruptly stopped her earlier.

It was the look Ling Yu gave a stranger—courteous, but maintaining the appropriate distance.

The tension in Luo Huihui’s brow eased.

Ling Yu’s lips curved almost imperceptibly. The interest in her gaze faded as she looked at Gu Qing.

“I don’t know her.”

As though she had grown tired of looking, Ling Yu finally withdrew her gaze and objectively remarked, “She’s rather beautiful… Perhaps she mistook me for someone else.”

Her tone was perfectly calm.

When she said they did not know each other, there was no evasive guilt in her eyes. She appeared as candid as if she had genuinely encountered a reasonably attractive stranger.

Luo Huihui’s anxiety vanished.

“I’m much prettier than she is, right? You should look at me instead!”

The corner of Ling Yu’s mouth twitched.

Gu Qing might have a terrible personality, but her beauty was unquestionably top-tier.

Was Luo Huihui blind?

Ling Yu gave her a compassionate glance, unwilling to undermine the beautiful woman’s delusional confidence in her appearance.

Instead, she pointed toward the boarding display and lazily interrupted Luo Huihui’s humiliating attempt at comparison.

“Shall we go together?”

Luo Huihui’s eyes lit up, and she nodded eagerly.

Ling Yu waited while Luo Huihui swept her compact, eyebrow powder, and everything else on the table into her handbag. Only then did she rise and leave.

The boarding gate was behind the VIP lounge, requiring them to circle around.

When they reached the rear of the lounge, Ling Yu inevitably caught another glimpse of the booth in the final row.

Gu Qing remained seated as though she had never moved.

Her blue eyes rested somewhere beside Ling Yu, though it was impossible to tell what she was looking at.

Ling Yu could not understand the emotions within Gu Qing’s eyes.

Under the slanting light, she could only vaguely see the coldly beautiful woman lowering her long lashes. Her phoenix eyes had narrowed to thin slits, and their corners were unexpectedly red.

Ling Yu’s heart gave a sudden jolt, but she did not stop to examine her more closely.

Someone as formidable as Gu Qing would only have reddened eyes if she had encountered genuine difficulties.

Yet whatever difficulties Gu Qing faced had nothing to do with Ling Yu anymore.

They had settled everything between them two years ago.

Moreover, Gu Qing was now the woman Xu Miao wanted.

Ling Yu would never give Gu Qing reason to think she intended to continue entangling herself with her.

Luo Huihui walked several steps before realizing Ling Yu had fallen behind. She took out her boarding pass and waved it in front of Ling Yu.

“Xiao Yu, hurry and check. Are we sitting together?”

First class had only twelve seats altogether.

Ling Yu’s seat was at the very front, while Luo Huihui’s was in the final row.

Luo Huihui snatched Ling Yu’s boarding pass with excessive familiarity and examined it repeatedly.

Her face filled with disappointment.

“Could I ask the passenger beside you to exchange seats with me?”

Ling Yu momentarily did not know what to say.

Her boarding pass showed a window seat. It was already ten thirty at night, precisely when she would ordinarily sleep. Ling Yu intended to close her eyes and rest for a while.

After landing, she still had to transfer to another flight back to Jiangcheng.

The journey would take roughly an entire day. If she did not sleep enough, her blood sugar could easily drop.

Luo Huihui obviously wanted to flirt with her.

If they sat together, Ling Yu could not guarantee she would tolerate the woman’s repeated harassment.

Over the years, Ling Yu had grown accustomed to confessions from both men and women.

She was generally more patient with women and would not bluntly ruin their mood.

“Sure.” Ling Yu raised her eyes without revealing anything. After a pause, she casually asked, “Huihui, why don’t you seem much like a celebrity?”

The distrust in Ling Yu’s gaze left Luo Huihui feeling powerless.

She even became slightly angry.

If Ling Yu had not appeared elegant and refined from afar, then revealed the languid, detached air of an artistic young intellectual up close—precisely the type Luo Huihui had liked most over the years—she would ordinarily have been furious at anyone claiming not to recognize her.

Luo Huihui had debuted as a child star and reached the height of fame immediately.

After growing up, she used the connections she had accumulated, along with relentless effort, to refine her acting until virtually no one could rival her.

The name Luo Huihui was known in nearly every household.

How had she become a fraud in Ling Yu’s eyes?

With a complicated expression, Luo Huihui took out her phone and showed Ling Yu her Weibo account with five hundred million followers.

Several seconds later, Ling Yu appropriately expressed surprise.

“I didn’t realize you were so famous. I’m sorry—I’ve been abroad and don’t follow celebrities.”

Luo Huihui nodded with restraint, visibly pleased by the compliment.

Then Ling Yu lowered her gaze and raised an eyebrow.

“Huihui, celebrities must keep a low profile, don’t they?”

She gave a meaningful glance at the lower half of Luo Huihui’s face beneath the baseball cap and tactfully reminded her, “At close range, a fan in first class could recognize you very easily… especially since you’re so famous.”

The implication was clear.

What if Luo Huihui approached someone to exchange seats and was recognized?

Luo Huihui’s expression stiffened.

Remembering her manager’s specific warning before she returned home, she instinctively pulled the brim of her cap lower.

“All right,” she muttered unhappily. “It really isn’t convenient for me to show my face. Xiao Yu, call me if you need anything during the flight.”

Ling Yu nodded readily.

A considerate smile appeared on the master of tact’s face as she comforted her.

“We won’t be far apart. It’s only about ten meters. If you round it off, we’re still sitting together.”

When she thought about it, that seemed perfectly reasonable.

Completely unaware that Ling Yu had manipulated the conversation, the award-winning actress cheered up again.

“That’s true. Xiao Yu, you’re such a good person.”

Ling Yu, who had just received the dreaded good-person card: “…”

Gu Qing used the premium VIP passage because the airline belonged to the Gu family.

Wei Minjun followed behind her.

They had not gone far when Gu Qing suddenly stopped.

Unable to halt in time, Wei Minjun nearly crashed directly into her.

Gu Qing frowned and quietly stepped several paces backward.

Wei Minjun stumbled to a stop, patted her chest in lingering fear, then carefully raised her head and silently asked why Gu Qing had stopped.

The tall woman ahead gave no response.

She merely stood within the quiet shadows, silently staring at a duty-free shop fifty meters beyond the VIP corridor.

Attorney Gu rarely wasted time shopping while traveling for work.

That was especially true now, when less than twenty minutes remained before departure. Gu Qing possessed an exceptionally strict sense of time.

Suppressing her surprise, Wei Minjun shifted her briefcase to her other arm and seriously explained, “Country M’s duty-free shop operates outside the security passage, but the stores there pay higher taxes than those in the airport’s ordinary shopping area. I browsed there during my last business trip. Their sheet masks were quite good…”

Gu Qing gave an absent hum.

Then she abruptly turned around and walked toward the duty-free shop in her high heels.

Ten minutes later, Wei Minjun emerged behind Gu Qing with an indescribable expression.

Gu Qing carried an exquisitely designed shopping bag.

It contained neither cosmetics nor affordable luxury accessories.

It held a bag of White Rabbit milk candies.

Absolutely unbelievable.

Wei Minjun complained wildly inside her head.

What was Gu Qing doing?

She had wasted ten minutes waiting in line and risked missing the flight, only to buy a box of White Rabbit candies.

Wei Minjun truly could not understand it.

She remembered that Gu Qing did not even like sweets.

She continued complaining internally until they reached the boarding gate. From the corner of her eye, she noticed two indistinct figures approaching from roughly a hundred meters behind them.

Once she saw their faces clearly, Wei Minjun exclaimed and nudged Gu Qing’s arm with her elbow.

“Boss, look! We’re on the same flight as those two beauties from earlier.”

Gu Qing said nothing.

She raised her head and glanced over casually, her gaze circling once before returning. With her lips pressed together and her mood clearly poor, she continued forward.

This time, however, her steps were smaller and unusually slow.

Wei Minjun quickly overtook her.

The strange feeling inside her reached its peak.

She looked back at Gu Qing and belatedly realized that something was wrong with her mood.

More precisely, ever since Gu Qing exchanged glances with the beautiful woman in glasses inside the VIP lounge, she had seemed extremely dejected.

Yet she also appeared to want to approach her.

Wei Minjun tilted her head experimentally and studied Gu Qing.

Although she instinctively feared Gu Qing’s intimidating presence, their relationship was fairly close.

Two years ago, when Gu Qing resigned from Kaihe Law Firm and moved to Gangcheng to begin again, Wei Minjun had followed her.

Now QY Law Firm had nearly become one of the industry’s leading firms. Wei Minjun believed she deserved at least one percent of the credit.

Gu Qing was forceful with outsiders, but she treated her own people reasonably well.

Not considering herself an outsider, Wei Minjun recalled Gu Qing’s series of peculiar actions that night and gestured toward Ling Yu with her chin.

“Attorney Gu, do you know her?”

Gu Qing remained expressionless.

After a brief silence, she lowered her eyelids and continued walking as though she had heard nothing.

Wei Minjun coughed, intending to press further.

Gu Qing suddenly glanced sideways at her and said coolly, “Remember to send Vice President Zong an update before switching off your phone.”

She had shifted the subject to work, meaning she did not want to discuss it.

Wei Minjun tactfully stopped asking.

She lowered her head to compose a message explaining the case’s progress to Vice President Zong. When she looked up again, she could not resist glancing at Ling Yu.

A woman’s intuition told her there was definitely a story between Gu Qing and the beauty behind them.

Attorney Gu was a career woman with an exceptionally strong sense of time.

She would never waste precious minutes staring blankly at a stranger.

Yet in the VIP lounge, Gu Qing had silently watched that woman leave.

She had sat motionless in the shadows and made no attempt to follow, but Wei Minjun had felt that when Gu Qing’s eyes rested upon the woman, they contained a warmth absent at all other times.

They must know each other.

Wei Minjun stared at Gu Qing’s long curls falling to her waist and sighed.

This was the first time she had seen such unnecessary emotion on Attorney Gu’s face.

When she thought carefully about it, Gu Qing was merely a woman in her late twenties.

But her excessively forceful methods and cutting, distant personality made her appear unapproachable.

Despite possessing the supremely aloof face of an immortal beauty, she still caused those who secretly admired her to shrink back.

While boarding, Luo Huihui was inevitably recognized by a male fan, who held out paper and a pen for her autograph.

Afterward, he hesitantly walked over to Ling Yu.

“Could I ask for your autograph too?”

Ling Yu glanced at him, both hands in her pockets.

She had far less patience for men.

“My partner wouldn’t allow it,” she refused with a smile.

She said it so candidly that Luo Huihui, standing beside her, looked completely shattered.

Even after they boarded first class and began searching for their seats, Luo Huihui had not recovered.

Her face remained deeply dejected.

“Xiao Yu, do you really have a partner?” Luo Huihui tugged at Ling Yu and asked unhappily.

The first-class cabin was tiny and contained few people.

Luo Huihui possessed a distinctive smoky voice, low and slightly hoarse.

The moment she spoke, she attracted the attention of several passengers.

Seeing multiple gazes fall upon her, Ling Yu frowned.

“Yes.”

“Seriously?” Luo Huihui bit her lip and persisted unwillingly. “What does your partner do?”

Ling Yu narrowed her eyes, took the final White Rabbit candy from her pocket, and tossed it to Luo Huihui.

“Throw the wrapper in the bin when you’re finished.”

Although Ling Yu was smiling, the expression never reached her eyes.

Her curved foxlike eyes slanted toward Luo Huihui, their pupils pitch-black.

Luo Huihui instinctively covered her mouth, her palms immediately growing damp.

Inside, she shrieked wildly.

She had thought Ling Yu was a languid, artistic intellectual.

It turned out she was an elegant female menace!

Ahhhhh!

Following the seat numbers, Ling Yu walked directly toward the front row.

Only eight passengers occupied first class.

Ling Yu’s luck was poor. A woman lay across the aisle seat in the front row.

She had reclined her seat flat and appeared to be sleeping. A white blanket covered her body, while an open magazine concealed her entire face.

First class was ordinarily sparsely occupied. It was not unusual for seats to remain empty throughout a flight.

Ling Yu had boarded late, so the other woman probably assumed no one would sit beside her.

It was already nighttime. Nearly every passenger had reclined their seat and was preparing to sleep.

Ling Yu simply had not expected this woman to fall asleep so quickly.

She walked to the woman’s side.

Her own seat was beside the window.

It was the best seat in the entire first-class cabin, with an unobstructed view. Ling Yu had no intention of compromising and choosing somewhere inferior.

She hesitated for a second, then politely addressed the sleeping woman.

“Excuse me, miss. Could you please let me pass?”

The woman unconsciously rolled over, turning her back toward Ling Yu and burying her face in the shadows.

The magazine shifted aside, revealing long chestnut curls.

Receiving no answer, Ling Yu felt slightly awkward.

At the other end of the cabin, Luo Huihui waved and silently indicated that the seat beside her was empty.

When Ling Yu did not approach, Luo Huihui stood, apparently intending to pull her over.

Ling Yu lowered her eyes and confirmed that the woman before her was deeply asleep.

Deciding to finish the matter decisively, she raised one leg and stepped across the woman’s closed knees.

The next moment, however, the sleeping woman somehow awakened.

“What are you doing?”

She removed the magazine from her face. Her pale fingers pressed the seat controls, causing the entire chair to rise.

One of Ling Yu’s legs was still extended above the woman’s closed thighs.

Startled by the sudden voice, Ling Yu lost her balance and, by a spectacular stroke of misfortune, fell directly onto the woman’s lap.

That was not even the worst of it.

The hem of Ling Yu’s dress brushed the woman’s pencil skirt. Straddling her, Ling Yu pitched forward with the momentum and fell helplessly against her.

At such close range, Ling Yu heard the woman’s heart suddenly begin pounding—heavy and suppressed.

Something soft pressed against Ling Yu’s face, and she could clearly feel the other woman’s body stiffen.

Ling Yu’s face was squashed out of shape, her head buried against the woman’s chest. Raising her eyes, she could see only the tense curve of the woman’s jaw.

“For a woman who already has a partner, pinning a stranger against her seat seems rather inappropriate, doesn’t it?”

Ling Yu: “…”

Incredible.

This woman was deliberately looking for trouble.

Ling Yu narrowed her eyes.

What is she, some manipulative bitch?

If the woman had not suddenly raised the seat, Ling Yu would never have lost her balance.

Before Ling Yu could even demand an explanation, this woman had turned around and blamed her instead.

Ling Yu raised her eyelids and pushed herself upright with one hand braced against the stranger’s thigh.

“Because you suddenly raised your seat, I lost my balance. I don’t believe I was at fault here, and I have reason to suspect you deliberately staged this accident. Miss, are you deranged from sheer boredom or—”

Ling Yu clenched her fist.

Then she finally saw the familiar face before her, and the end of her sentence warped completely.

Gu Qing!

Fuck!

Ling Yu choked, too shocked to speak.

Gu Qing merely lowered her eyes. Her long lashes were half closed as she drawled, “I’m deranged?”

Ling Yu blinked.

Then blinked again mechanically.

Gu Qing’s long-absent cold fragrance, tinged faintly with tobacco, flooded her nose.

Ling Yu’s feelings at that moment were beyond description.

Every trace of emotion gradually disappeared from her face. Even the upward curve of her lips vanished completely.

The air fell deathly silent.

Gu Qing’s gaze flickered before she looked away and spoke first.

“How much longer do you intend to sit there?”

A trace of hoarseness threaded through her clear, cold voice. She twined the ends of her long hair around one finger, winding and unwinding them.

“You should first tell me when you intend to cut off those unfeeling legs of yours.”

Whether the incident had been deliberate or accidental, Ling Yu had no interest in finding out.

She needed to establish the proper attitude.

She had absolutely no interest in Gu Qing’s legs.

Lowering her eyes, Ling Yu pressed against Gu Qing’s slender thighs and rose. Without changing expression, she withdrew her other leg from the aisle and stepped over Gu Qing.

After settling into her seat, she propped her chin in one hand and considered the situation for a moment.

Then she abruptly extended one leg and kicked Gu Qing hard.

Ling Yu’s smile hovered at the edge of her eyes as she stared at her phone screen and said slowly:

“Stay away from me.”