Pretending To Be Affectionate [Transmigration] - Chapter 7

Just as Gu Qing’s fist was about to strike Ling Yu’s forehead, Ling Yu suddenly lifted her eyelids.

Beneath her thick lashes was a pair of dark eyes veiled with moisture.

Ling Yu tugged at the corners of her lips, aggrieved tears swirling in her eyes.

Gu Qing had never encountered such a two-faced woman before. She froze.

Suddenly, a ding sounded from the pantry nearby, indicating that the water had finished boiling.

VIP patient rooms generally had their own private bathrooms. Aside from reheating meals, very few people visited the pantry merely to collect hot water.

Gu Ting and Li Lan had lived in the rehabilitation department’s VIP ward at Yuncheng’s finest hospital for several years. Although Gu Qing came every month to pay their expenses, she never stayed longer than necessary.

Only after hearing the ding did she realize there was a pantry around the corner.

From the corner of her eye, she noticed the hot-water flask beside Ling Yu’s feet.

Gu Qing’s fist abruptly changed direction in midair. Instead of striking Ling Yu, it slammed into the wall beside her face.

At the same moment, Ling Yu realized that showing weakness had failed and became angry.

Seeing that Gu Qing truly intended to hit her, she instinctively bent one leg and pressed it against Gu Qing’s knee. Her wrist wrapped around Gu Qing’s slender, shapely waist, and using the leverage, she reversed their positions.

Their movements happened almost simultaneously.

Several flakes of old white paint fell from the snow-white wall.

Gu Qing could no longer retract the force behind her blow, while Ling Yu unexpectedly exerted strength.

Amid the pulling and pushing, Ling Yu stumbled forward several steps and crashed directly into Gu Qing’s embrace, pinning her against the wall.

Within the cramped space, Ling Yu’s soft, delicate lips brushed across Gu Qing’s cool cheek.

Gu Qing instantly seemed to have been placed on pause.

Every movement ceased at the same moment.

The hospital’s heating was on, so neither woman wore particularly thick clothing. Fabric rubbed against fabric as the softness of their chests pressed together through the thin layers, like two clouds drifting together and overlapping.

Time briefly stopped.

Ling Yu blinked.

Despite ordinarily being smooth and adaptable in every situation, even her mind temporarily shut down.

She had originally planned to use self-defense as an excuse to pin Gu Qing against the wall in a way that would leave her unable to resist.

She had not expected a technical error in her execution to make the situation considerably more intimate.

For a playgirl who had passed through countless flowers without allowing a single petal to cling to her, this was Ling Yu’s first technical failure.

She had practically embedded herself in the other woman’s embrace.

Ling Yu glanced at Gu Qing from the corner of her eye.

The fierce, cold woman before her was pinned against the wall. Her eyes were half-lowered, making her emotions impossible to discern.

However, her chest rose and fell.

Their nearly colliding bodies produced an unmistakable sensation, like pieces of memory foam squeezing and rubbing against one another.

Even more suffocatingly, Ling Yu’s fingers were clasped firmly around Gu Qing’s waist. Through the thin layer of fabric, she could feel its supple curves.

And farther down…

Inside her mind, the system cried out in despair.

[It’s over! It’s over!]

Ling Yu’s gaze flickered. A beat later, she raised her head and met Gu Qing’s dark, stormy eyes.

They were extremely close. Gu Qing’s fragrance, mingling cool indifference with danger, swept into Ling Yu’s nose.

It resembled the scent of ripened fruit—but fruit steeped in poison.

Although Gu Qing was currently pinned beneath her and physically restrained, the murderous intent erupting from her upturned phoenix eyes felt almost tangible.

Gu Qing possessed the imposing, cold beauty of perfectly balanced classical proportions. Even without makeup, she naturally inspired the reverence of someone gazing upon an unreachable mountain peak.

Outwardly, she was a stunning, intimidating woman.

Deep inside, however, she was an unhinged lunatic with absolutely no empathy who could kill someone at any moment.

Ling Yu had not forgotten Gu Qing’s cold ruthlessness toward Gu Ting.

Now that she had pinned Gu Qing down like this, she could easily imagine the woman’s long fingernails closing around her throat in the next second.

Ling Yu reacted first and swiftly withdrew her wandering hand.

She raised her palm-sized face and shrank backward.

Pressing her arms against Gu Qing’s shoulders, she barely managed to retreat. However, as she stepped back, one calf twisted awkwardly and she swayed, appearing about to fall forward again.

Fortunately, she braced an arm against the wall in time. Instead of falling into Gu Qing’s embrace again, she toppled toward the wall beside them.

Gu Qing observed her movements and slowly lowered her tightly clenched fist.

Her gaze settled on Ling Yu’s feet.

A moment later, her tense brows relaxed slightly.

Ling Yu wore slender high heels. One foot remained planted on the floor, while the heel of the other hovered halfway above it.

She was supporting herself against the wall with one arm, clearly displaying the symptoms of a sprained ankle.

That explained why she had abruptly grabbed Gu Qing and reversed their positions.

Sensing Gu Qing’s assessing gaze, Ling Yu maintained the moist sheen in her pitch-black eyes. Her thick lashes trembled.

“I’m sorry. I’m…not usually such a casual person…”

“That’s enough.”

Gu Qing interrupted her. She straightened nonexistent creases in her cuffs and stepped closer.

The distance between them narrowed again.

Ling Yu hesitated.

Was Gu Qing planning to continue fighting?

It would hardly be surprising for a vicious and ruthless woman like Gu Qing to eliminate the problem completely.

Ling Yu sighed and deliberately limped one step to the side.

It was not that she feared fighting Gu Qing.

They were in a hospital, and a fight would disturb the family matriarch’s rest. More importantly, if she completely fell out with Gu Qing, approaching her again would become more difficult than climbing into the heavens.

Conflict appeared in Ling Yu’s eyes.

Gu Qing noticed every detail of her frightened attempt to evade her. Several words emerged from her throat.

“You were quite brave a moment ago. Now you’re finally afraid?”

Ling Yu slowly raised her eyelids and made a questioning sound.

“What?”

Gu Qing said nothing and stopped before her.

She bent down, picked up the hot-water flask beside Ling Yu’s feet, and entered the pantry to fill it with hot water. Then she returned.

Ling Yu: […]

The dim lighting revealed only half of Gu Qing’s profile.

Ling Yu stared blankly for three full seconds before Gu Qing became impatient.

“Which room?”

008 cheered inside her mind.

[Ahhh! Host, she’s going to escort you back! This is wonderful! Maintain this momentum and win her over today!]

Without changing her expression, Ling Yu muted the system. Then she brightened with delight and gave Gu Qing the matriarch’s room number.

Unexpectedly, Gu Qing bent down in the next second and placed the hot-water flask beside Ling Yu’s feet again.

“How much…did you hear just now?”

She carefully considered her wording before asking.

The woman before Ling Yu had deep, unfathomable eyes and an indifferent expression.

Ling Yu smiled stiffly.

“Not much.”

“You’re lying.”

Gu Qing approached one step at a time. Her dark-blue eyes resembled frigid blades carved from jade.

The atmosphere, which had only just begun to ease, froze once more.

Under the pressure, Ling Yu lowered her lashes and awkwardly explained, “It truly wasn’t much. Ah, don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone. Even a three-year-old wouldn’t believe in something like a ‘cursed star destined to bring disaster.’ You shouldn’t take it to heart.”

Gu Qing glanced at her and responded coldly, “So you heard everything…”

Ling Yu choked.

“Gu Ting was right.”

Gu Qing rubbed her forehead, speaking at an unhurried pace.

“Ling Yu, stay away from me. Consider this my sincere plea…”

Little emotion could be seen on Gu Qing’s face. Her clear, cool voice was extremely soft. She did not sound humble—only somewhat exhausted.

Ling Yu’s clear black-and-white eyes met hers, and she nearly lost herself in those dark-blue pupils.

Frankly, no one could have refused Gu Qing’s exceptionally gentle plea at that moment.

Ling Yu could not either.

For one instant, she genuinely intended to nod and agree. But when she noticed the indifference remaining on Gu Qing’s face, she abruptly returned to her senses.

This was Gu Qing, the female lead of a novel without a romantic pairing.

She was Attorney Gu, the scheming lawyer in the courtroom who excelled at identifying the weaknesses in people’s hearts.

Ling Yu had confronted her for quite some time.

Their odds of winning were usually evenly matched.

Gu Qing was not someone who would soften so easily. However, she would always use the fastest method available to achieve her objective.

This time, she wanted Ling Yu to give up voluntarily.

Ling Yu looked away.

Her expression changed instantly. Her foxlike eyes curved calmly, and a single tear slid down her cheek.

She refused to look at Gu Qing, stubbornly keeping her gaze fixed ahead as she murmured, “I’ve fallen for someone, and so far, I haven’t been able to quit her…”

Gu Qing initially froze.

Then her gentleness disappeared at a visibly rapid pace, and a complicated emotion flashed through her eyes.

“Then you’re welcome to try.”

With that, Gu Qing coldly brushed past Ling Yu’s shoulder and walked away.

A moment later, a nurse carrying a medical kit appeared at the end of the corridor. She hurried toward Ling Yu.

“Miss, how do you feel? Can you put your foot down? I’ll take you to the treatment room and apply some medicine.”

Ling Yu moved her limbs experimentally and looked toward the end of the corridor.

“She left?”

“Are you referring to Ms. Gu?”

When Ling Yu nodded, the nurse inclined her head.

“Ms. Gu explained your condition to me, then left.”

Ling Yu scoffed.

She picked up the hot-water flask beside her feet and stuffed it into the nurse’s hands, smiling brightly.

“The weather is cold. Pretty jiejie, remember to drink plenty of hot water.”

The nurse blushed and instinctively glanced at the flask in her hands.

“Huh?”

This was the hospital-use hot-water flask the nurses’ station had thrown away yesterday.

She had never expected it to return after being lost.

A beat later, the nurse raised her head, but Ling Yu had already walked away.

Delighted, she called out a word of thanks toward Ling Yu’s retreating figure.