Pretending To Be Affectionate [Transmigration] - Chapter 56

The dinner engagement Gu Qing mentioned must have been extremely important to Fang Jia.

Ling Yu watched Fang Jia turn around stiffly and instinctively check her watch before muttering a curse.

“Fuck.”

She tightened the buttons of her outfit. Still apparently uneasy, she carefully inspected her clothes once more.

Despite the summer heat, she wore a business suit meant for autumn or winter. Her entire body was covered so thoroughly that, apart from her hands and face, scarcely an inch of skin remained exposed.

It was utterly different from the seductive sight she had presented in nothing but a bath towel earlier.

Ling Yu clicked her tongue in amazement, then considerately interjected, “Aunt Fang, if you have business to handle, you should hurry. Once I’ve settled in, I’ll contact—”

“How could I possibly do that?”

Fang Jia blurted out the words without thinking.

She possessed a controlling streak toward Ling Yu, much like an adult managing a child.

Before Fang Jia confessed her feelings, she had genuinely been a wonderful woman.

Ling Yu had always interpreted Fang Jia’s controlling behavior as an older woman’s concern for a younger girl. Therefore, whenever Fang Jia’s stern solicitude didn’t cross her boundaries, Ling Yu usually accepted it with a smile.

Ling Yu was the sort of person who, when she decided to treat someone well, could instantly slip into the appropriate role and make the other person feel incomparably cared for.

When she first arrived in this world, she had inherited the original Ling Yu’s precarious situation and faced difficulties on every side.

Fang Jia had treated her exceptionally well.

For the first few years, Ling Yu had regarded her almost as a real aunt. Naturally, she returned the favor and became the perfect niece in Fang Jia’s eyes.

Then Fang Jia unexpectedly confessed.

Ling Yu had rejected her unequivocally, but she didn’t want to become an ungrateful person either.

She obviously couldn’t continue playing the obedient niece. Yet when faced with Fang Jia’s pursuit, Ling Yu honestly didn’t know how to respond without hurting her.

After all, she couldn’t treat Fang Jia the way she treated her fake ex-boyfriends.

Seeing Ling Yu refuse to listen, Fang Jia’s face darkened.

She drew a deep breath, adjusted her expression, and expertly began arranging everything for her.

“If you want to live elsewhere, I won’t stop you. But none of those dubious friends you made before can be trusted. If you insist on moving out, then—here, ask Xiao Gu…”

Fang Jia paused and abruptly corrected herself.

“Ask your Aunt Gu!”

The air fell silent for a moment.

Brilliant sunlight streamed in through the doorway, while Gu Qing stood leaning against the frame with the light behind her.

She apparently hadn’t intended to approach or greet Ling Yu. But Fang Jia’s address of “Aunt Gu” made her laugh in irritation.

Slowly, she raised her eyes.

“What did you say?”

Gu Qing’s voice was calm.

Her features were exquisitely refined. Her phoenix eyes possessed hidden double lids and long, tapered corners. When she lowered them, the overlapping folds became visible, making her look impatient at first glance.

Now, with her eyes half raised, she looked over Fang Jia’s shoulder and inadvertently met Ling Yu’s gaze.

As their eyes met, Ling Yu thought she detected a hint of mockery in the woman’s irritated expression.

Fang Jia, however, noticed nothing.

“Yu Yu, hurry and greet her. Gu Qing is my closest friend—a friend I’d trust with my life. If you call her Auntie, then after rounding things up, you’re practically her biological niece. Naturally, she’ll do her utmost to help her niece find an apartment.”

Even Fang Jia felt guilty about this blatant matchmaking stunt.

Gu Qing was only three years older than Ling Yu.

At most, Ling Yu should have called her Sister Gu.

But considering that Ling Yu had once liked Gu Qing, Fang Jia couldn’t feel at ease if the two of them started affectionately calling each other “Sister.”

So she forcibly elevated Gu Qing’s seniority.

Gu Qing surely understood that one must never touch a friend’s woman. Fang Jia’s words appeared airtight, but in only a few sentences, she had cut off Ling Yu’s fantasies at the source.

Fang Jia glanced at Gu Qing from the corner of her eye.

Gu Qing gave her a meaningful look of warning.

Fang Jia interpreted it as confirmation that Gu Qing had understood her hint.

Sweat gathered in her clenched palm. She soothed her guilt by reminding herself that she had no choice but to play the villain for the sake of securing her future wife.

Besides, Gu Qing didn’t like Ling Yu. This was the perfect opportunity for her to make her position clear.

Even with those thoughts, Fang Jia couldn’t summon any righteous confidence. She didn’t dare meet Gu Qing’s eyes and merely kept winking at Ling Yu.

The corner of Ling Yu’s mouth twitched.

She failed to understand the undercurrent passing between the two women, but being ordered around by Fang Jia still irritated her.

Had anyone else done this, Ling Yu would already have slapped them.

I indulge you, and now you’re trying to set me up with someone from my mother’s generation?

But Ling Yu couldn’t strike Aunt Fang, an elder to whom she owed a favor.

She had managed to demand six hundred million from Ling Taiguo simply by invoking Fang Jia’s name.

For the sake of that relationship, Ling Yu could only force herself to suppress her temper and give Fang Jia some face.

She raised her eyes.

She couldn’t take her anger out on Fang Jia, but she could reject Gu Qing without the slightest guilt.

Hopefully, Gu Qing would understand the situation and retreat.

Ling Yu wrote her refusal to cooperate plainly in her eyes as she met Gu Qing’s gaze.

She was about to brush the matter aside and tell Gu Qing, “You can think about it.”

Before Ling Yu could express such blatant preferential treatment, Gu Qing abruptly tilted her head, as though she had already anticipated the cruel words to come.

“Fine,” Gu Qing said lightly. “Have her call me Mommy first. Let me hear it.”

Ling Yu thought she had misheard.

Fang Jia froze as well.

Who could have imagined this shameless woman would skip directly past “Auntie” and elevate herself to “Mommy”?

Her ego was enormous.

Would Ling Yu ever call her Mommy?

Absolutely not.

This was why Gu Qing managed to strike Ling Yu’s fury button every single time. Her mouth was practically a virus cannon.

No matter how peaceful the environment, she could spray it with some unexpected new pathogen.

Ling Yu could no longer maintain her composure.

Clenching her teeth, she dragged her suitcase forward and knocked Fang Jia aside.

She stopped before Gu Qing and said with a mirthless smile, “I don’t know how to say it. Why don’t you demonstrate first?”

Ling Yu pressed a finger against Gu Qing’s chest and lifted her chin, revealing the elegant lines of her shoulders and neck.

With arrogance filling her eyes, she advanced on Gu Qing.

“Go on. Say it.”

The thirty-seven-degree sunlight outside streamed diagonally over Ling Yu’s exceptionally fair face, gilding her skin.

At such close range, Gu Qing could see the adorable fine hairs along her skin, each outlined in gold.

Ripples stirred within Gu Qing’s ice-blue eyes.

Watching Ling Yu cast aside every burden and reveal her lively, imperious, troublemaking self, Gu Qing’s pale lips curved uncontrollably into a faint smile.

In front of her, Ling Yu didn’t need to lower her eyes and act obedient.

She didn’t need to suppress her feelings or force herself to endure grievances.

With that thought, Gu Qing smiled softly and answered in a hoarse voice,

“Mm… ah.”

Ling Yu: “…”

The corners of Gu Qing’s eyes lifted.

“Was that good enough?” she asked. “Would you like another?”

Ling Yu’s face cracked: “…”