Chapter 93: The Ex-Girlfriend

In reality, Gu Jing had no idea at the time that Zhou Zhaolin was seeing someone. She had even met Zhou Zhaolin’s childhood sweetheart several times, and the girl had never hinted at any relationship with Zhou Zhaolin—instead, she had teased Gu Jing about how close she and Zhou Zhaolin were. Who could have guessed that, in the end, Gu Jing would be painted as the interloper!

“I must have fallen into a trap set by those two back then! Think of all the expensive gifts I gave Zhou Zhaolin—I never even got them back!”

With this thought, Gu Jing felt a twinge of regret.

Qin Miaoyu, of course, knew exactly how much Gu Jing had spent on Zhou Zhaolin. In fact, Zhou Zhaolin’s current success was in no small part due to Gu Jing’s early investment in him.

However—

“Does Xia Lingyan know you’ve come to Jingcheng?”

“Who cares whether he knows or not? Don’t mention him to me—just thinking of him annoys me!”

Well, Qin Miaoyu understood now. No wonder Gu Jing had suddenly made the trip to Jingcheng to settle old scores—it was because she’d fallen out with Xia Lingyan, and Zhou Zhaolin’s news had just happened to cross her path, making revenge and venting her anger a double blow. That would certainly make for a satisfying outcome.

“If Miss Jin comes to your studio next time, give me a heads-up. I’ll go rescue her and make sure that scumbag’s old tricks don’t work again!”

Qin Miaoyu nodded in agreement.

“All right, let’s not talk about me anymore. Tell me about you—how are things going with Lu Qi’an?”

Seeing the glint of gossip in Gu Jing’s eyes, Qin Miaoyu gently pushed her head aside.

“What do you mean, ‘how are things’? It’s just the same as before. Once he’s finished dealing with his family, when the time comes, we’ll go to the civil affairs bureau and get a divorce.”

“He hasn’t tried to persuade you to stay?”

Because Gu Jing was engaged to Xia Lingyan, she’d seen Lu Qi’an several times over the past year. Every time he saw her, Lu Qi’an would either come straight out and ask after Miaoyu or look as if he had something to say but couldn’t. Clearly, his feelings hadn’t faded in the least.

“What good would persuading me do? I don’t want to be a moth drawn to the flame, nor do I want a present with no future.”

Qin Miaoyu knew it was impossible for her to have no feelings for Lu Qi’an at all. But that sliver of affection was not enough for her rational self to do anything reckless.

The gap between their families was already a chasm, not to mention the Lu family’s likely disapproval of her.

Qin Miaoyu’s resoluteness made Gu Jing envious.

“If you want to leave, just leave. That’s great. Unlike me—our families are joined by marriage, and it’s not so easy to break off an engagement.”

Qin Miaoyu looked worried. “Weren’t you two getting along just fine before? How did things get to the point where you want to break off the engagement?”

Gu Jing pouted. “Maybe it’s because of what happened with Zhou Zhaolin. Now I can’t even tolerate my fiancé having an unforgettable ex-girlfriend! Honestly, if I don’t get revenge on Zhou Zhaolin, I’m not Gu Jing!”

But Qin Miaoyu knew Gu Jing wasn’t quite so extreme.

“Did something happen between Xia Lingyan and his ex again?”

“Maybe.”

“Why ‘maybe’?”

“I don’t even know when I somehow ended up adding Xia Lingyan’s ex on social media. The other day I saw her Moments—every photo had Xia Lingyan in it.”

“Was he in the foreground, or…?”

Gu Jing pulled up the posts and handed the phone to Qin Miaoyu.

Qin Miaoyu looked through all the pictures and found that Xia Lingyan was always just a background figure, separated from the ex by at least several people.

“Why not just ask Xia Lingyan? If there’s a misunderstanding, it could be cleared up right away.”

But Gu Jing shook her head. “If I ask, he could just lie to me. If I ever found out one day that I’d been fooled, I’d be sick to my stomach!”

Seeing how truly upset she looked, Qin Miaoyu quickly changed the subject.

When Gu Jing went back to her room to rest, Qin Miaoyu called Lu Qi’an from the living room.

At that moment, Lu Qi’an was working late at the office. When he saw Qin Miaoyu’s name flash on his phone, he almost thought he was seeing things.

The phone kept vibrating on the desk, finally convincing Lu Qi’an he wasn’t hallucinating.

He answered eagerly, his voice made a little husky by a cold, which only lent it a certain magnetism.

At least, when Qin Miaoyu heard him speak, she was momentarily dazed.

“Miaoyu? Miaoyu?”

Lu Qi’an had to call her several times before she snapped back to herself. Realizing she’d been distracted by his voice, her cheeks turned faintly pink.

“I wanted to ask you something about your uncle, Xia Lingyan.”

Lu Qi’an frowned slightly, not knowing why she was suddenly bringing up his uncle.

“Go ahead.”

“I wanted to ask if your uncle’s ex-girlfriend has come back. And is your uncle still in contact with her?”

Lu Qi’an thought back over recent events and realized that young lady really had returned. Given her obsession with his uncle, she would surely find ways to cross paths with him.

“But I can say for sure that my uncle has been busy these days with a joint project with the Gu family in Ancheng. He’s hardly had time to touch the ground, let alone go see his ex. If they ended up at the same event by chance, I could see how it might cause a misunderstanding.”

Qin Miaoyu considered this. If it was just a chance encounter, that was easily resolved. But if Xia Lingyan had sought out his ex on purpose, and Gu Jing—who couldn’t tolerate even a speck in her eye—had to put up with that…

As for breaking off the engagement, Gu Jing talked a good game, but she’d never really go through with it. After all, dissolving a marriage alliance isn’t something that can be done on a whim, especially when both families were already starting to work together.

“All right, then I’ll—”

Qin Miaoyu was about to say she would hang up when Lu Qi’an spoke again.

“If you want to know more, I can look into it for you. Wait for my news?”

Of course Qin Miaoyu wanted to know. “All right, thank you!”

“No need to thank me. Just treat me to a meal sometime?”

“You just said there’s no need to thank you—so why ask me to dinner?”

“It’s just a figure of speech. Miss Miaoyu, you wouldn’t just thank me with words and have no real gratitude, would you?”

Qin Miaoyu felt a strange sense of déjà vu, as if she’d been transported back to the early days of their romance, when they would spar back and forth over trivialities. She never thought it was dull then, and Lu Qi’an always liked to call her Miss Miaoyu.

Realizing the other end of the line had gone quiet, Qin Miaoyu said softly, “All right, I’ll treat you to a meal then. Thank you for your trouble.”

The formality and distance in her words made Lu Qi’an unconsciously clench his hand, only to release it in resignation. At that moment, he felt as if there was no going back.

Qin Miaoyu didn’t care whether he replied or not. She went on, “That’s all for now, then. If there’s nothing else, I’ll hang up. Good night.”

When the call was briskly ended, Lu Qi’an looked at his phone and slowly murmured, “Good night.”