Gu Qili looked through the crack of the door at him, without any intention of opening it.
"I’m not hungry, and I don’t want to eat with you."
As she spoke, she was about to close the door, but Mu Shuoqian extended his arm and grabbed the door.
The domineering force made her sowhat irritable: "If you’re just here to eat with , then you should go back. I don’t want to see you right now."
She had been holding back all day, and seeing him only made her angrier. He said yesterday that the girl was just room service, but today she was chasing after him, calling him "Shuoqian Brother," such an intimate title. They obviously knew each other.
Gu Qili didn’t deny it; her chest was already burning with jealousy.
"Open the door first." Mu Shuoqian’s tone was softer, his voice gentle as he negotiated, "Let’s talk inside."
"It’s okay to talk inside, but I have three things to declare first. That girl called Qiu Yufei, I know her. The first ti I saw her was at the A City airport, and she was spending generously; the second ti I saw her was outside your door, holding the pillows and teapot from your room’s couch; today she called you Shuoqian Brother, you must know her, so, are you ready to explain that to ?"
Gu Qili stared at him with intense eyes, clearly seeing a hint of struggle in his.
As ti ticked away, in the quiet corridor, it seed as if one could hear the clear beating of hearts. After staring at each other for a while, he finally parted his lips slightly, his voice husky as he said, "Qiu Yufei is my sister."
Gu Qili opened her mouth slightly in surprise.
"To be exact, my mother adopted her, and she lived in my house for half a year before I returned to Aus City." Mu Shuoqian continued to explain calmly, "
A sister, so she was just a sister. But Gu Qili felt not the slightest relief from her emotions.
"If she is your sister, why didn’t you tell , and why did you lie to ?"
"So people are better off not known by you."
Gu Qili pursed her lips, looking seriously at the astonishingly handso man: "Mu Shuoqian, whether I should know so people or be inford about certain things, shouldn’t that be my decision? What gives you the right to subjectively assu I don’t need to et her? You’ve hidden so many secrets, aren’t you afraid that one day these secrets will beco the greatest conflict between us? If you had told about Qiu Yufei’s existence earlier, I wouldn’t have had to conjecture alone for so long. You understand everything in your heart, but I’m like a fool. I’ve said before, I don’t want to hear about you from others’ mouths. I hope we could be honest and trust each other. Is it really that hard for you to do?"
Gu Qili finished in one breath, without hesitation she pushed away his arm from the door and forcefully slamd the door shut.
For the first ti, she was this angry with him, shaking with rage.
How much more was he hiding from her?
Even if Qiu Yufei was his sister, they were not blood-related; it was normal for anything to happen.
Gu Qili had never thought to doubt Mu Shuoqian, but this uncertainty had slowly begun to shake her once resolute determination, invisible though it appeared.
"I didn’t an to deceive you." It was a long ti before Mu Shuoqian’s voice ca from outside when Gu Qili thought he had already left, "There are so things that indeed you shouldn’t know, it’s not good for you."
He never dared to think about what would happen if she knew those things. Over and over again, such assumptions woke him from nightmares. He beca timid and weak; he knew how easily this stolen happiness could shatter.
The most hurtful thing in this world is a lie, yet lies are a double-edged sword, wounding her three parts and him seven.
"Then let it rot in your belly for a lifeti." Gu Qili thought he would say so soft words, but instead, she beca even angrier when he did speak. In her anger, she yelled harshly without considering how much her words hurt him.
She didn’t bother with him anymore and went straight to the bedroom to sleep.
She was determined not to forgive him easily, even if he had his principles, she had her stubbornness.
Mu Shuoqian didn’t leave. He stood alone at her door, smoking, until after the last cigarette was finished, the ashtray beside him was filled with cigarette butts. He turned to knock on the door, but his knuckles stopped just as they touched the door.
Having thought of sothing, he quickly turned and left.
Gu Qili couldn’t sleep at all, and it was still early, so she took out her phone and started playing a ga.
Not long after, there was another knock at the door. Knowing it was Mu Shuoqian, she pretended she didn’t hear and continued to play her ga with her head buried.
The knocking persisted for a while longer, until finally the person outside spoke: "Miss Gu, could you please open the door?"
She recognized the voice as that of a room service attendant; she had been staying here for nearly twenty days and it had always been this attendant providing her room service.
After pausing her ga and climbing out of bed, Gu Qili opened the door to find the attendant holding a food container, who upon seeing her smiled warmly and said, "Miss Gu, your dinner has arrived."
She hadn’t ordered dinner at all, her first thought was a mistake in delivery, but the attendant seed so sure that she stepped aside to make way.
After setting up the al, the attendant said, "Miss Gu, you can just call after you’ve finished eating, and I will co over to clean up for you."
"Thank you."
Once the attendant left, Gu Qili sat down at the table and, faced with a spread of all her favorite dishes, it wasn’t hard to guess who had ordered the takeout.
Though still angry, Gu Qili wasn’t about to make her stomach suffer; she opened the cutlery box to retrieve a pair of chopsticks, but her gaze was drawn to a note inside.
She picked up the note, which had three boldly written characters: I’m sorry.
Gu Qili pursed her lips and the next second crumpled the note and tossed it aside.
A simple apology could resolve everything?
This was evidence, she had to keep it.
For the next few days, Gu Qili ignored Mu Shuoqian completely, even though he ca to knock on her door every evening, but since she refused to open it there was nothing he could do.
On the day of the restaurant opening, the event was grand. During the ribbon-cutting ceremony, she was arranged to stand beside Mu Shuoqian.
Given her experience, it wasn’t her turn to be involved in ribbon-cutting, but the person in charge knew how to handle people and, noticing Mu Shuoqian’s recent bad mood, was looking for ways to make the big boss crack a smile.
So after consulting with several senior executives, they also put Gu Qili on the guest list, ostensibly because she was a ritorious worker of the restaurant who deserved such treatnt. To disguise the real purpose, even Liu Zhining was positioned at the other end of the ribbon-cutting team.
Even though Gu Qili was standing next to Mu Shuoqian, she didn’t give him so much as a glance,
After the person in charge spoke briefly, the ribbon-cutting ceremony began.
It was only then that Mu Shuoqian took his eyes off her, fixating on the scissors handed over by the ceremonial hostess, his gaze suddenly flickering.
With one snip, not only was the ribbon cut through,
but Mu Shuoqian was now looking at his own hand where it had been cut, with blood promptly gushing out.
Gu Qili’s heart tightened, a deep sense of distress wrapping around her heart instantaneously, but under the circumstances, she couldn’t indulge in any overly intimate gestures and had to forcefully suppress it.
Many local businesses and governnt officials from Aus City were in attendance at today’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, including the owner of Jinbi Hotel whom she had encountered on the airplane that day.
After the ribbon cutting, the person in charge invited Mu Shuoqian to speak.
Mu Shuoqian’s speech was succinct and sharp, concluded in just a few minutes, and followed by a round of warm applause, the thank-you banquet was to comnce.
The invited guests began to trickle into the French Restaurant one by one. Gu Qili should have been helping out, but seeing Mu Shuoqian walking ahead as if nothing had happened, completely unconcerned about his bleeding hand, with drops of blood falling here and there along his path,
she bit her lip and quickly ran to the restaurant’s storeroom, found the first aid kit, and grabbed so gauze and hemostatic dicine.
The mont she stepped out, she saw Mu Shuoqian standing not far off on the staircase smoking, all alone.
Gu Qili walked over, firstly snatched his cigarette and threw it away, then with visible irritation took his injured hand and began to dress it silently.
Mu Shuoqian kept his head lowered, his gaze tenderly resting on the top of her head, letting her wrap his fingers in gauze over and over again, and although she said not a word, he knew—she was pained for him.
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