Back Then, I Adored You

More than ten minutes had passed, but the message had still not been delivered, so Qin Zhi’ai gave Gu Yusheng another call, yet the line remained busy.

Qin Zhi’ai had a vague idea of what was going on. She switched to the house telephone on the table and dialed for Gu Yusheng.

The call went through immediately.

It was just as she had guessed. Her mobile phone number had been blocked ever since he hung up on her first phone call.

Qin Zhi’ai’s eyes dimmed slightly. She prepared to hang up and ask the housekeeper to contact Gu Yusheng during the day, but the call was suddenly answered. Gu Yusheng seemed to guess that it was her calling, as his voice sounded extremely annoyed. “What’s your problem? Didn’t I tell you to stop bothering me about anything?”

“Grandpa called…” Qin Zhi’ai immediately brought up the purpose of the phone call in fear that he might hang up the next second. “Grandpa said that he arrived in Beijing early this morning and asked us to meet him for dinner there in the evening.”

Gu Yusheng remained silent on the other end of the line.

Qin Zhi’ai waited for a while, but seeing that Gu Yusheng had still not uttered a word, she continued, “Should I still wait for you at the same spot as last time?”

The time she was talking about was the day she had moved into his house. Grandpa had asked him to take her home for dinner that night. He hadn’t wanted to pick her up in his car and had made her go by herself. She was told to meet him in a small alley next to the area where Grandpa lived before they went in together.

“He’ll probably be unwilling to pick me up again this time around,” she thought.

Qin Zhi’ai suppressed her disappointment and tried hard to make her tone even and indifferent. She asked, “What time should I be wait for you tomorrow?”

Gu Yusheng still didn’t say anything.

“How about in the afternoon…” Qin Zhi’ai just managed to say a few words before she was suddenly cut off by Gu Yusheng’s cold voice. “You use Grandpa as an excuse all the time. Don’t you realize how disgusting that is?”

Qin Zhi’ai tightened her grip on the phone’s handset. She felt as if she had been grabbed by the neck and the phrase “At six o’clock?” was stuck in her throat. It was just unbearable.

The scary silence lingered on both ends of the phone.

After just two seconds, Gu Yusheng hang up.

Qin Zhi’ai continued to clutch the handset. Her stiffened body relaxed gradually after a long while. She slowly put the handset back down, laid down on the bed, covered herself with the blanket, and closed her eyes. She looked like she had drifted off peacefully, but the corners of her eyes sparkled with the beginnings of tears, and her hand, which was clutching onto the blanket, trembled terribly.

Qin Zhi’ai hadn’t managed to make an agreement with Gu Yusheng about the time to go to the Gu Mansion during the phone call earlier that morning, and since Gu Yusheng had ended the call on such a humiliating note, Qin Zhi’ai knew better than to call him again.

Though Qin Zhi’ai didn’t know what time Gu Yusheng would go to the Gu Mansion, she knew that he would leave work at half past five.

So, minutes before the clock hit half past five in the afternoon, Qin Zhi’ai arrived at the small alley near the entrance of the Gu Mansion.

It wasn’t until half past six that a shrill honk sounded on the streets nearby. Qin Zhi’ai turned her head to see Gu Yusheng’s car parked by the roadside with its emergency flashers blinking in the distance.

Qin Zhi’ai walked up to the car, and it was then that she realized that the driver for the day was Gu Yusheng himself, instead of his chauffeur.