Back Then, I Adored You

She stopped a couple feet away from him.

Her fingers holding the glass were a bit stiff. She looked down and took a breath quietly. Then she raised her head, looked at him, handed him a glass of water, and said “Here…”

The following “you” hadn’t been spoken yet, but Gu Yusheng’s gloomy eyes suddenly became rather bright. His gaze, which had been fixed elsewhere, also slowly fell on her.

Not wearing high heeled shoes, she was much shorter than him. His gaze first reached her head, staying there for a moment before it slowly moved down to her beautiful eyebrows, and then the phone in his pocket suddenly rang.

His fingertips, which were about to touch the glass she was holding in her hand, froze slightly. He said, “I’m sorry,” in a low voice and looked away from her face, taking his cell phone out of his pocket.

Before answering the phone, he had taken a glance at the screen. His expression didn’t change too much, but his beautiful and delicate eyebrows slightly knitted with an imperceptible trace of tension.

Immediately, he answered the phone and held it to his ear, saying in an emotionless voice, “What’s wrong?”

Even not knowing who’s on the phone or what they’re talking about, I’ve seen him act calm and cold all night since he came here, as if he had lost all his energy. Now suddenly, his tone had become a bit urgent. He said, “Where?”

“Okay, I see.” He hung up the phone, turned around, and walked outside the room without saying even a word to Qin Zhi’ai. As he approached the elevator, he thought of Lu Bancheng, then he turned around and took the car keys out of his pocket, raised his hand slightly, and accurately threw it into Qin Zhi’ai’s hand. “Please give these to Lu Bancheng and have him take Haozi home. I have something to do, so I have to go.”

The elevator had opened even before Qin Zhi’ai could answer, “Okay.” He hurried into the elevator and pressed the button to close the door several times.

Qin Zhi’ai had her eyes fixed on Gu Yusheng’s figure, which was disappearing bit by bit behind the quickly closing elevator doors.

And he was staring at his phone with anxiety, furrowing his eyebrows. It seemed that he was looking for a phone number, for he didn’t look up at her this whole time.

When the sound of running water came from the bathroom, Qin Zhi’ai came back to herself.

She drew back her gaze from the elevator door. Lu Bancheng came out, seeing that she was alone in the living room, and asked with confusion, “Where’s Brother Sheng?”

“He answered a phone call and then left,” Qin Zhi’ai replied truthfully and handed the car keys over to Lu Bancheng. “He asked you to send Wu Hao home.”

“Oh.” Lu Bancheng scratched his head and took the keys. He thought that it would be too awkward for a man and a woman who weren’t familiar with each other to stay alone in a room, so he said, “I’ll go then. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye.” Qin Zhi’ai stepped back to let him go.

After Lu Bancheng had entered the elevator, she closed the door and stared at the wall where Gu Yusheng had just been leaning. She stared for a long time without blinking, then she looked away, turned off the light, and went back to her bedroom.

…

After meeting him unexpectedly that day, Qin Zhi’ai didn’t see Gu Yusheng again from then on.

Wu Hao had just started his business, so he was very busy with matters at his company. Xu Wennuan, who was helping Wu Hao, often went out early and returned late.

Although Qin Zhi’ai and Xu Wennuan lived together, they didn’t have much time to see each other. Even when they did see each other, Xu Wennuan talked about things in her life or Wu Hao’s company, never mentioning Gu Yusheng.