Back Then, I Adored You

“Miss, it’s Mr. Gu,” said the housekeeper. She raised Qin Zhi’ai’s hand, which held the receiver, up to her ear.

Before Qin Zhi’ai spoke on the phone, Gu Yusheng’s cold and indifferent voice sounded. “No need! I didn’t call for her, I just wanted you to ask her for me how much the medical expense was yesterday. I’ll ask the secretary to send it to her; I don’t want to owe her anything in case she continues to use it as an excuse to bother me.”

Qin Zhi’ai had just been about to greet him, but when she heard what Gu Yusheng was saying to who he thought was the housekeeper, she suddenly choked, not knowing how to respond.

With no one responding to him, Gu Yusheng seemed to have realized who was on the phone, so he said even more indifferently, “You must have heard what I just said, so tell the amount to the housekeeper and let her tell me.”

Then he hung up without hesitation.

Qin Zhi’ai held the receiver in a daze and put it down after a while.

Seeing her put down the receiver, the housekeeper immediately smiled at her, saying, “Miss, what did Mr. Gu say to you? This is the first time that he called and asked if you were okey. It seems like Mr. Gu also cares about you—”

“Let’s just have breakfast,” Qin Zhi’ai interrupted the housekeeper emotionlessly, then walked toward the dining room.

In fact, when she had gone down to the first floor and heard the housekeeper telling him her situation, she had been almost delighted, because like the housekeeper did, she thought he was worried about her… But no, he had just wanted to pay for her medical treatment and draw a line between them.

It was probably because of the dreams about the past that she had dreamed recently, but she kept drifting away and recalling what had happened during breakfast.

What had happened after he missed their second date was much simpler than what happened in her dreams.

Since he had left, she hadn’t seen Gu Yusheng for four whole years, so she didn’t know where he went or what he was doing.

From time to time, she took walks around the Gu Mansion, but she had never bumped into him by chance.

Four years later, the reason why she finally saw him was that his parents had passed away. She heard the news from Xu Wennuan, who, of course, had been told by Wu Hao. Gu Yusheng’s father had killed his mother, then taken his own life with poison.

At that time, she had already gone to college and had been attending a meeting in Shanghai. Upon learning that Gu Yusheng was back in Beijing for the funeral, she had immediately left Shanghai overnight to get to Beijing for the very purpose of seeing him.

The Gu Family was a big household in Beijing, with countless properties and family members, but Qin Zhi’ai had been born to a barren family where no one cared about her, so she hadn’t even been able to get into the Gu Mansion. She had waited at the gates of the Gu Mansion for three days and nights, only to see him once from a very long distance. The next time she had seen him was two years later.

She had gotten the chance to attend an evening charity party with her postgraduate tutor.

That day, he had happened to be there, wearing a slim black suit matched with a simple white shirt, the collar straight and the cuffs buttoned, which made him look very elegant and charming.

Like at the funeral, since he had been surrounded by many officials and wealthy people, she couldn’t get any closer to him, until she had gone to the bathroom. When she walked out, she had seen him talking to a man. She had stood in the distance, staring at him greedily, as if she wanted to make up for the past six years that she hadn’t been able to see him. Then she had walked toward him with courage that came out of nowhere.

She had prepared a lot of questions to ask him, such as how everything had been over the years and whether he had a girlfriend, but the question she had been the most eager to ask was, why hadn’t he shown up to the date that day in the past?