Chapter Ninety-Six: The Bar

Qin Miaoyu could only sit down beside Gu Jing and wave a hand in front of her eyes. “Jingjing, do you still recognize me?”

“Mia... Miaoyu, how could I, how could I not recognize you?”

Qin Miaoyu was certain then: if Gu Jing was slurring her words like that, she had clearly drunk far too much.

Gu Jing had always had a good tolerance for liquor. To have drunk herself into this state, no one knew how much she had actually consumed.

“I’ll take you back to rest now, all right?”

“No, I’m not going back. Why should I go back? You can play outside until you don’t come home at night, and so can I!”

As she spoke, Gu Jing reached again for the wineglass on the table.

Qin Miaoyu did not understand that remark, so she turned her gaze to the others.

A girl sitting nearby leaned close to Qin Miaoyu’s ear and said, “Miss Gu seems to be suffering for love, but we haven’t seen each other in a long time either, so I don’t really know what’s going on with her.”

Suffering for love? Qin Miaoyu immediately thought of Zhou Zhaolin, whom she had recently seen.

Back then, things between Gu Jing and Zhou Zhaolin had ended quite badly. If there had not been solid proof, Gu Jing would never have swallowed that grievance so easily. If it was because of Zhou Zhaolin, that did not seem likely.

Could it be...

Qin Miaoyu then thought of one of the main reasons Gu Jing had come to Jingcheng: her intended fiance was rumored to have become entangled with an ex-girlfriend again...

Although Gu Jing had never spoken directly about her opinion of Xia Lingyan, the fact that she was this angry over it made it seem, now that Qin Miaoyu thought about it, rather unusual.

After all, with Zhou Zhaolin as a cautionary tale, Gu Jing had long since become much more open-minded about romance.

Sure enough, within a few minutes, Qin Miaoyu heard Gu Jing curse, “Xia Lingyan, you bastard!”

Having confirmed her suspicion, Qin Miaoyu let out a quiet sigh.

“Jingjing, should I call Xia Lingyan over for you?”

Gu Jing heard that clearly enough and shook her head. “No. He... he doesn’t even take the initiative to contact me, so why should I call him over! Maybe, maybe right now he’s laughing happily beside that, that ex-girlfriend of his!”

Qin Miaoyu felt somewhat helpless.

In the photos Gu Jing had shown her from her social feed, the ones that included Xia Lingyan all captured him wearing that same gentle smile.

She fished Gu Jing’s phone out of her pocket and held it in front of her. “Come on, call him.”

Gu Jing would not even touch the phone. “No, I won’t call!”

“Then come back with me and rest early. Otherwise you’ll wake up with a headache tomorrow morning. Have you forgotten how awful you felt after drinking last time?”

Gu Jing still refused. “No... Xia Lingyan didn’t give me any explanation, and he... he didn’t apologize to me either. I’m not going, I’m not going back!”

Very well. Qin Miaoyu put the phone back into Gu Jing’s pocket and took out her own to call Lu Qianan.

“Lu Qianan, hurry up and call your little uncle. Tell him to come to Blue Card Bar. Gu Jing is drunk here, and she refuses to leave unless he comes.”

Half an hour later, Xia Lingyan and Lu Qianan appeared together at Blue Card Bar.

Gu Jing had collapsed into a drunken stupor beside Qin Miaoyu, while Qin Miaoyu was chatting animatedly with one of Gu Jing’s friends.

The expressions of the two men were both rather grim.

Xia Lingyan asked first, “Miss Qin, may I ask what happened to Gu Jing?”

Under the dim light, Qin Miaoyu looked at the man across from her and saw genuine concern on his face, so she said, “Gu Jing has been in a bad mood these past few days. I rarely see her like this.”

Xia Lingyan had already learned the general situation from Lu Qianan. An apologetic look crossed his face. “I’ve been too busy lately. That day, a friend rare as it was asked me out, and I happened to run into her there. I never expected the other party to take such misleading photos and then let Gu Jing see them.”

As he finished speaking, a dark glint flashed in Xia Lingyan’s eyes.

He and his ex-girlfriend had already broken up, and he had never once considered getting back together. He had been somewhat surprised to see her this time, and had not expected her to add Gu Jing and post a social feed visible only to her.

“Jingjing, Xia Lingyan is here.”

“Who? Xia... that bastard Xia is here?”

The way she called him a bastard left Qin Miaoyu a little embarrassed, but fortunately Xia Lingyan did not get angry over it. Instead, he sat down beside Gu Jing.

Lu Qianan also walked over to Qin Miaoyu’s side and said to the man who had been chatting with her earlier, “Excuse me, could you let me have this seat?”

Seeing that the two of them knew each other, the other man readily gave up the seat, and Lu Qianan sat down beside Qin Miaoyu.

Qin Miaoyu picked up the glass on the table and took a sip. “Why did you come over too? Aren’t you busy?”

Lu Qianan looked at her and said, “No matter how busy I am, I still need time to rest. Besides, it’s been several days since I last saw you.”

Perhaps because the lighting was so dim, the latter half of his words sounded especially tender. Qin Miaoyu lowered her eyes to the glass, wanting another sip.

Just as it was about to reach her lips, Lu Qianan stopped her.

“Don’t drink too much.”

Qin Miaoyu looked at the clearly defined hand before her.

“I’ve only had a few sips.”

Lu Qianan withdrew his hand.

“How is Grandma’s leg?” Qin Miaoyu suddenly remembered.

“It’s better now, though Grandpa keeps going to the hospital, which sometimes makes Grandma a little unhappy.”

Qin Miaoyu’s brows knitted slightly.

If this had been before, it was only because Old Master Lu did not much like her that her own impression of him was rather ordinary as well.

But after hearing some of the things that had happened between Old Master Lu and Grandma back then from Lu Qianan last time, she could not help but feel some emotion toward him.

“Grandma injured her foot, so she needs proper rest. Her mood also needs to be good before she can recover quickly. If Old Master Lu keeps going over there all the time and Grandma is always upset, how is she supposed to recuperate?”

Lu Qianan was not as resistant to that idea. “Grandpa just goes to take a look occasionally. Although Grandma says she doesn’t want to see Grandpa, her mood is still fine.”

Qin Miaoyu looked at Lu Qianan as though he were an idiot. “Grandma would rather live apart from him for years than live under the same roof as Old Master Lu. Why do you think she doesn’t directly tell you how much she dislikes him? It’s not because you’re her grandson and she can’t bear to make things difficult for you by standing between you. Otherwise, why would she keep it to herself?”

The last time Qin Miaoyu went with Lu Qianan to visit Grandma at the hospital, she had already realized that Grandma truly had not the slightest feeling left for Old Master Lu. No, perhaps “had not the slightest feeling” was not quite right; it should be said that she despised him.

How could she not despise him?

Old Master Lu had chosen Grandma himself as his marriage partner, then after the wedding rekindled things with his first love. He even spoke of divorce for that first love, paying no heed at all to Grandma’s feelings at the time. Only after the person had gone far away did he realize his mistake, yet he still could not let go of the first love on the other side.

When Grandma was young, she must already have been worn raw and bloodied by that dragging, tormenting love. So at times, she simply did not want to say another word to Old Master Lu.

If Lu Qianan had not been there that day, Qin Miaoyu felt Grandma might well have driven Old Master Lu away on the spot.