TNSFC – Chapter 107

Lu Su this year wasn’t like last year. The wind was chilling, and temperatures dropped below zero, but it still hadn’t snowed.

It wasn’t until Qiao Yuchu dragged her to Chun Chao before the New Year that Que Yining suddenly realized more than a year had passed.

It felt like the blink of an eye, yet it also felt as if several years had gone by.

It was still the same private room as before, but the people had changed somewhat.

Qiao Yuchu and her girlfriend Yu Tao were there, along with Bian Ji’an. As for people like Gu Qianqian and Wang Ruiyuan, they had long since been dealt with and had disappeared without a trace.

“Why isn’t Wanwan Jiejie here yet? The traffic shouldn’t be that bad, right?”

Qiao Yuchu was holding her phone, sending a message to Jiang Xiaowan. Her dyed blue hair exuded a cool vibe under the lights.

Que Yining remembered when she first met Qiao Yuchu. Back then, she was a girl with questionable taste who loved heavy makeup. Now, she was especially good at dressing herself up, a trendy, pretty girl.

“What’s the hurry? Maybe she’s busy. Look, CEO Gu isn’t here yet either, right?”

Bian Ji’an was leisurely playing on his phone. Looking at the room full of lesbians, he sighed internally.

He once thought all his good friends were straight girls, but they had unknowingly gotten into same-sex relationships and even paired up. Only he remained single, having just broken up two days ago.

“She’s almost here. I’ll go down and wait for her.”

Que Yining looked at the message on her phone and stood up from the sofa.

Bian Ji’an exclaimed, “No way! CEO Gu can’t possibly not know the way. Do you have to be so clingy and over-the-top just because you’re in a relationship?”

“Shut up, you single dog! You’re the one who talks so much nonsense.”

Qiao Yuchu blatantly showed her disdain, hurting Bian Ji’an’s feelings.

“What’s wrong with being a single dog! This is called waiting for true love, understand? Besides, I was the one who set Ningning and CEO Gu up! As the matchmaker, why can’t I say anything!”

Que Yining walked out amidst Bian Ji’an’s wails of “There’s no justice!” and couldn’t help but laugh.

Everyone had changed more or less this past year, but Bian Ji’an was still the same carefree, happy-go-lucky rich kid as before. That was quite good too.

As Que Yining got out of the elevator, she happened to meet Gu Shanxue, who was waiting.

“You cut your hair?”

Que Yining was a bit surprised. She reached out her hand towards Gu Shanxue and, after Gu Shanxue entered the elevator, pressed the floor button.

“Yesterday… I decided to cut it short.”

Gu Shanxue paused for a moment in the middle of her sentence, her words a bit vague.

Que Yining also thought of yesterday and couldn’t help but let out a light cough.

Yesterday had been a less-than-perfect, embarrassing incident.

Last night, Que Yining had been wearing a buttoned skirt and hadn’t specifically stripped completely naked before they got intimate; after all, such things required a certain atmosphere. As a result, Gu Shanxue’s long hair had gotten tangled in the buttons. When Gu Shanxue moved away from between her legs, the situation became very awkward, and to make matters worse, Que Yining couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Gu Shanxue had calmly gone to sleep, and today, she had cut her hair.

Thinking back on it, Que Yining felt like laughing again.

Gu Shanxue’s fingers lightly tickled Que Yining’s palm, while her face feigned nonchalance.

As they reached the door of the private room, Gu Shanxue’s steps faltered slightly.

“The first time I saw you, it was right here.”

“You remember? I recall you said you’d gone to the wrong room back then.”

Que Yining remembered that on the first night after she transmigrated, Gu Qianqian had hypocritically wanted to hold a welcome dinner for Gu Shanxue to humiliate her. Gu Shanxue had pushed open the door, come in, and said she had gone to the wrong room.

“Actually, I did it on purpose back then.”

Gu Shanxue pressed her lips together, then a hint of a smile appeared on her face.

“Thinking about it now, it’s a good thing I deliberately walked in.”

At that time, she had just returned to the country. She hadn’t taken the provocations of her stepsister—whom she had never met but had investigated for a long time—seriously. However, she couldn’t help feeling somewhat annoyed, so she had specifically arranged her meeting for that night in the room next door and then deliberately pushed open the wrong door.

And it was precisely because of that push that she saw Que Yining, sitting among the crowd, reacting differently from everyone else.

She looked at her, and there was a light in her beautiful eyes.

At that time, Gu Shanxue hadn’t thought about what kind of entanglement she would have with this person; she just thought Que Yining was quite good-looking.

“It’s a good thing you walked in. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known you could make my heart flutter like this.”

Que Yining smiled and whispered sugar-coated words by Gu Shanxue’s ear, then pushed open the door to the private room.

The lights were dazzling. Bian Ji’an was jumping around with a microphone in hand. Seeing Que Yining and Gu Shanxue walk in, he hyped up the atmosphere.

“Let’s welcome the great beauty, Miss Que, and her lover, CEO Gu! Let me passionately dedicate a song to you, 【I Like You】!”

“Bian Ji’an, if you want to get out of here alive, then shut your mouth!”

Qiao Yuchu hurriedly went to grab the microphone. With Bian Ji’an’s off-key singing, if he sang more than a few lines, they’d probably all have to be carried out.

“I won’t!”

Bian Ji’an ran off, sticking his tongue out, while Qiao Yuchu leaped over the table and charged at him. The two of them, whose combined age was over fifty, were fooling around like a couple of ten-year-olds.

Yu Tao came over to pour water for Que Yining and Gu Shanxue. Compared to her timid appearance a year ago, she had changed a lot.

She was no longer a thin, anxious girl; her every move now radiated confidence.

Que Yining was quite satisfied with how she was now. After all, if she were still like before, how could she keep up with a lovable goofball like Qiao Yuchu?

Que Yining introduced them to each other and thanked Yu Tao.

“You’re welcome.”

Yu Tao sat to one side, a smile curving on her lips as she watched Qiao Yuchu fooling around with Bian Ji’an.

Jiang Xiaowan was the last to arrive. Que Yining pushed a drink towards her.

“Arriving late means you have to drink a penalty!”

“Alright.”

Jiang Xiaowan didn’t try to refuse and downed three drinks as a self-imposed penalty.

Although there weren’t many people in the private room, they all knew each other well. As they drank, they started to play games.

“Guess big or small! Loser drinks or tells a truth. Who’s in?”

Qiao Yuchu held a dice cup, squinting at the people present.

Que Yining was just about to raise her hand when she heard Qiao Yuchu say, “We’re not playing with Ningning.”

Qiao Yuchu turned to Gu Shanxue and said, as if complaining, “Your wife is too good! Absurdly good! She’s practically a cheat; I’ve never won against her!”

“Then I’ll play.”

Gu Shanxue was amused by Qiao Yuchu’s words and rolled up her sleeves.

Although she had a cool personality, she wasn’t a boring person. She knew Qiao Yuchu was Que Yining’s good friend and was happy to build a good relationship with her.

Bian Ji’an naturally joined the game, and Yu Tao watched from beside Qiao Yuchu.

Que Yining tilted her head and noticed Jiang Xiaowan looking down, drinking.

“What’s wrong?”

Que Yining moved to sit beside her, frowning as she saw Jiang Xiaowan clearly trying to drown her sorrows in alcohol.

Ever since she had known Jiang Xiaowan, she had rarely seen her like this.

Could it be that her family had gone bankrupt?

She hadn’t heard anything about that.

“Yining, tell me… am I old?”

Jiang Xiaowan rested her arm on the table and said with a bitter smile, her tone a mix of questioning and lament.

“You’re not young, but that doesn’t mean you’re old.”

Que Yining pressed down on her glass, stopping her from drinking away her sorrows.

Admittedly, Jiang Xiaowan was almost forty. She wasn’t young anymore, but she was far from her twilight years; life was still in its prime.

“Did she break up with you?”

The ‘she’ Que Yining referred to was the girl who resembled Que Chuling’s first love, Jiao Shanyue. Que Yining had never imagined she would get together with Jiang Xiaowan, just as she’d never expected that girl to be the one to dump Jiang Xiaowan.

After all, with Jiang Xiaowan’s looks, figure, and status, she had always been the one to dump others.

“Yeah. She told me there was a generation gap between us, that I didn’t understand her pursuits and dreams. Compared to her, I might really be old. I actually thought about… forget it, it’s meaningless. After all, young people are just fickle; their futures still hold countless possibilities.”

Jiang Xiaowan shook her head and slumped back onto the sofa.

She was genuinely hurt. She’d never imagined she’d one day be dumped because of her age. But this was indeed an unchangeable fact. And yet, how to put it… her younger self might not necessarily have liked younger girls either.

“Don’t be discouraged. It’s just that the one you met was fickle. Look over there,” Que Yining gestured towards Yu Tao. “What she’s afraid of is Qiao Yuchu leaving her.”

“And then there’s my Miss Gu. She decided she wanted to spend her whole life with me before she even agreed to be with me.”

Que Yining wasn’t deliberately showing off; she was just reflecting with some emotion.

Whenever she thought about Gu Shanxue’s way of thinking, she wanted to call her a silly goose—it was annoying, amusing, and made her heart ache all at once.

Jiang Xiaowan waved her hand dismissively. Seeing Gu Shanxue looking over, seemingly afraid she’d take advantage of Que Yining, Jiang Xiaowan deliberately put her arm around Que Yining’s shoulder and said through gritted teeth, “Stop showing off, will you? You two are a rare exception.”

“If you lose hope, then your chances of encountering one of those ‘rare exceptions’ will disappear completely.”

Que Yining pushed her hand away and crossed her legs.

Just like she had never imagined she would end up here and meet Gu Shanxue.

Fate was strange like that sometimes. Perhaps in the next moment, it would bring disappointment, but after that, there would be another turn for the better.

Suddenly, jeers erupted from the group shaking dice and drinking. Que Yining looked over and saw Qiao Yuchu goading Gu Shanxue into drinking.

“What, ganging up to bully my girl?”

Que Yining went over and sat down, leaning against Gu Shanxue.

“How would we dare bully CEO Gu? CEO Gu couldn’t answer the truth question, so she has to drink.”

“What truth question?”

Que Yining was curious.

Bian Ji’an chimed in teasingly, “Xiao Qiao asked CEO Gu to name three of your flaws, but CEO Gu couldn’t name a single one! Her survival instinct is too strong; she has to drink!”

“I was telling the truth. In my eyes, she has no flaws.”

Gu Shanxue responded very seriously, looking at Que Yining and blinking.

“She’s beautiful, her voice is lovely, she’s very smart, good-tempered, plays the piano beautifully, dances beautifully…”

“Stop, stop, stop! Enough is enough! Have some pity on us single dogs, I beg you! It’s a good thing Xiao Qiao asked her to list flaws. If you’d asked CEO Gu to list her good points, she probably would have gone on endlessly.”

Bian Ji’an yelled for them to stop, feeling emotionally scarred.

Forget the other things, but Que Yining good-tempered?

CEO Gu’s girlfriend filter was a bit too strong. With Que Yining’s ruthless methods and explosive temper—one only had to look at how miserable her enemies were now to understand. He still felt intimidated when Que Yining was displeased. And that was good-tempered?

Qiao Yuchu felt an unspoken bitterness. She was clearly in a relationship too, but she was still overwhelmed by their sickeningly sweet display of affection.

In the dim lighting, Gu Shanxue’s eyes twinkled like hidden stars.

That icy exterior of hers had completely melted away, replaced by a tender, spring-like affection.

Que Yining’s heart was struck. She wished she could just pin Gu Shanxue down and kiss her wildly.

She restrained the impulse in her heart, squinted at Qiao Yuchu with an enigmatic smile, and said, “You think I have many flaws?”

Qiao Yuchu whimpered and shook her head, then downed the drink herself.

She roared internally, Can’t you take a joke?!