Back Then, I Adored You

Gu Yusheng didn’t pay much attention and scrolled down the screen instinctively. As he scrolled past the entertainment news on the cell phone screen, he saw the name Liang Doukou out of the corner of his eye.

He paused his fingers on the mouse for a second and scrolled back up to read the entertainment news, which was about Liang Doukou. “The national idol Liang Doukou invites you to her birthday party. CSK Live welcomes you to join us.”

Birthday party? Is it Liang Doukou’s birthday soon? Gu Yusheng thought to himself.

Gu Yusheng frowned slightly and clicked on that article, where he saw a picture of Liang Doukou. She was beautiful, no doubt, but Gu Yusheng found her eyes looked a little weird. They seemed less sharp and clear than usual.

It could be because of the makeup or how the picture was shot to make it look a little different than real life, he thought to himself as he looked at the picture for a while. He continued to scroll down.

CSK Live was a new platform that had come out the month before. Liang Doukou had signed a contract to advertise for them. Her birthday just happened to be coming up, so they planned a big live birthday party. They wanted to promote their product with the help of Liang Doukou’s fame.

The time was counting down beneath the news.

There were 11 hours and 37 minutes until her birthday.

China and the UK had a seven hour difference in time.

It was 12:23 in the morning in China, so today was already Liang Doukou’s birthday there. In her time zone, it was 9:23 in the evening, while in England, it was 8:23 at night.

Today was her birthday. Why hadn’t she said anything when the housekeeper had called her?

It sounded right, though. Why would she talk about it?

She had been keeping her distance from him, as he wished, since the night of his grandpa’s birthday, after she had been scared by him in the car.

Every time he saw her avoiding him and acting cautious around him, he felt uncomfortable. This discomfort came to Gu Yusheng again. He couldn’t help tensing the corners of his mouth. He was distracted with his cell phone in hand for a long time before he put the locked phone next to his pillow. Not long after, he picked up his phone again and searched for Liang Doukou’s number. He clicked on his messages and typed: “Happy Birthday.”

He reached for the send button, but didn’t click on it. Instead, he deleted it. He tossed his phone on the bed and laid on the it with the back of his head resting on the hands, his eyes closed.

After about a minute, he pulled his hands out from underneath his head out. He turned around to face the bay window.

After a few seconds, he turned again to face the master bedroom’s door.

He kept still for only about ten minutes before he suddenly pulled the blanket all the way up to cover his head with the blanket.

He kept changing his position on bed and couldn’t fall asleep until dawn came.

…

Gu Yusheng woke up at eight in the morning and had breakfast before he went to have a meeting with his partner company.

It started to sprinkle in England at about 11:00 a.m.

Qin Zhi’ai’s group went to a restaurant at noon. It was still raining outside.

Gu Yusheng’s phone rang at about 1:00 p.m. He put his wine glass down and took his phone out of his pants pocket. It was a reminder from CSK Live that it was ten minutes until the start of Liang Doukou’s live birthday show.

Did I accidentally sign up for reminders for her live birthday show when I read the news? he wondered to himself.