Chapter 27 There's a sense of shame about getting caught skipping class...

"Shang Shu, please give me a chance to pursue you again."

We start anew.

"Bang!"

It was like fireworks exploding in her mind, colorful, dazzling, and frenzied, blasting a crack in the solid wall of her heart.

Shang Shu stared into those burning eyes, her heart pounding wildly. She thought that when she heard words like "like" or "love" again, she would be able to remain completely unmoved.

Indeed, Gu Sui's earlier declaration of affection had failed to move her heart, but when she fell into those deep, affectionate eyes and heard her pleading, which sounded like that of a devout believer, she admitted that she wavered.

Although that sentence is tempting enough...

But it still wasn't the answer she wanted.

She kept giving Gu Sui a chance, but since he didn't want to talk about it, she decided to let it go.

“Gu Sui…” She opened her mouth, but the wind blew her curly hair, which was gathered to one side, blocking their eyes.

After a while, Shang Shu put the empty wine glass aside and sighed softly, "It's late, let's go back. We have to go back to Macau tomorrow."

"Okay." Seeing that the person didn't refuse, Gu Sui's tense nerves relaxed slightly.

Back at the hotel, Shang Shu simply told Gu Sui to "get some rest" before returning to her room.

She knew that tonight was destined to be another sleepless night.

Shang Shu wasn't actually a heavy smoker, and having spent several days with Gu Sui, she hadn't even thought about smoking. She thought she had quit, but tonight's events had left her head in a mess, and her craving for cigarettes had returned.

She tried taking a very long bath, but it had little effect.

Smoking is prohibited indoors in Shanghai, including in hotels, and she's not one to break rules easily.

So she casually put on some clothes, quietly opened the door, and after confirming that the living room was completely dark, she walked to the door, grabbed her coat, and tiptoed out.

It's all Song Lan's fault. She insisted on booking a suite with a shared entrance, which means she has to sneak around even to smoke.

After several twists and turns, she arrived at the garden downstairs. Shang Shu didn't care about the cold anymore. She lit a cigarette, and the long-lost nicotine climbed into her central nervous system, making her head start to clear.

After guessing for three years why I was dumped, now I have to figure out why the other person confessed their feelings.

After several hours, she finally came to a somewhat plausible answer: it must be because she has achieved some success now that the other party finally thinks she is worthy to stand by his side, so he came back to her.

It's terrible.

And this answer perfectly echoed that reason, as if a giant "Bingo!" had been stamped next to the words "cruelly abandoned" in her mind.

Shang Shu was unsure whether to be happy or sad, and gave a self-deprecating laugh.

Fortunately, those few hours weren't wasted, because besides the terrible answer, she also made a decision about something else:

She had to keep her distance from Gu Sui.

After all, she knew that her self-control wasn't very good. If she let herself indulge in the pleasures of love, she would eventually be met with a painful slap. She had already experienced this once, and it almost cost her her life.

Forget about the flowers, the yacht, the confession. Just consider it a dream he created for her in Shanghai on a whim. Once the novelty wears off, the dream will naturally end.

She brushed the ash from her clothes that had been blown by the wind, got up, and went back to the hotel.

As soon as she opened the door, Shang Shu had a bad feeling. The living room lights were on, and a person was sitting upright on the sofa with their legs crossed and their arms crossed in front of their chest.

The words "Dean of Students" immediately popped into Shang Shu's mind.

She suddenly felt a sense of shame, like she'd been caught skipping class...

But then she thought, what's wrong with going out for a smoke when I'm a grown woman?

So she silently straightened her back and walked past that figure.

That's right, there's nothing to be ashamed of.

"Where did you go?" Gu Sui asked casually before the other person could enter the room, seeing that the other person had no intention of paying attention to him.

From the moment she realized the person was missing, she sat there for a full three hours and seventeen minutes, going from worry to anxiety to anger. She even suspected that the girl had returned to Macau overnight because of her confession.

Gu Sui frowned as he smelled the strong smell of smoke on the other person.

"Nowhere." Shang Shu paused in her tracks.

"Don't feel guilty, stay aloof," she began to silently recite her newly-formulated rule.

Gu Sui noticed the subtle change in the other person's attitude. The two of them didn't seem to have just gone through a confession and being confessed to, but rather seemed to have just had a fierce argument.

It would be a lie to say I have no regrets, but no matter how good we got along before, we still couldn't get past the barrier of friendship. It's better to end it now than to suffer for a long time. Some things can't stay unclear forever.

"I told you before that you should smoke less," she said in a deep voice.

"I've said it before, if you manage people like this, you'll easily end up with no friends," Shang Shu retorted sharply.

That familiar stubbornness.

Gu Sui tightened his arms around his chest: "But we're not friends now."

“But I didn’t agree,” Shang Shu retorted defiantly.

"But you didn't refuse." Gu Sui let out a breath almost imperceptibly, forcing himself to remain patient. "Shang Shu... what exactly are you angry about?"

Shang Shu stood in the shadows, turned to face the person on the sofa, and asked, "So, is this how you pursue people? It's just as unique as the way you like someone."

In the dead of night, she didn't know where she got the courage from; perhaps it was the nicotine she had just taken that made her speech much clearer.

She had felt somewhat inferior to Gu Sui before, but now that they had talked things out, she felt that they were more equals.

This feeling... is wonderful.

Gu Sui was so angry that she felt a heart attack from choking, and even her breasts started to ache. The young girl probably didn't go to smoke, but to eat gunpowder.

"If there's nothing else, I'm going to sleep now." Shang Shu went straight back to her room without waiting for a reply.

Why bother sleeping? There are only a few hours left.

She leaned against the door, her heart pounding.

*

The two barely spoke on the way back from Shanghai until they landed in Macau, where Gu Sui saw his big cow, which the butler had parked at the airport in advance.

Compared to Shang Shu's preference for being driven by a chauffeur, she preferred to drive herself and was used to keeping a low profile. So when she saw the shiny black Revuelto, she helplessly facepalmed. Without even thinking, she knew it must be Gu Qi's handiwork.

"I'll take you," Gu Sui said, touching the tip of his nose.

Shang Shu pinched the temple of her sunglasses and pulled them up to her nose. She glanced at the supercar worth tens of millions of patacas from above the lenses, then put them back on and obediently stood in place to wait for her driver: "Forget it, I don't want the whole of Macau to know that Miss Gu is taking me home."

"Then I'll wait for you to get on the bus before I leave." Gu Sui didn't insist and stood with him in the aisle.

"Let her be," Shang Shu said, scrolling through her phone, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

After seeing Shang Shu off, Gu Sui quickly got into the driver's seat through the conspicuous scissor doors, and with the deep roar of the V12 engine, she disappeared from the airport amidst everyone's gaze.

"Have you finished dropping off the girl?"

When Gu Sui entered Gu Qi's home, Gu Qi was gracefully doing the Downward-Facing Dog pose in the yoga room.

"No, I was scared away by your masterpiece," Gu Sui said casually, fiddling with the flowers beside him.

Gu Qi glanced at the person from under his arm, then stopped his movements and sat down to stretch gently: "I specially asked the butler to pick a low-key but not undignified car to drive there. Sigh, I guess I was just being presumptuous."

Gu Sui shook his head, disagreeing with Gu Qi's low-key approach.

"Where's my GT53?" she asked, pinching the vibrant leaves of the Monstera deliciosa beside her, referring to the Mercedes she had driven to the airport earlier.

“In the underground parking garage.” Gu Qi glanced at Gu Sui standing to the side, puzzled by her overly low-key behavior. “You only drive this one car every day. You have so many cars at home, why don’t you drive them and just leave them as decorations?”

Gu Sui chuckled upon hearing this: "Weren't they all gifts from you and Mom and Dad?"

This is indeed the truth. Ever since she turned eighteen, Gu Yushan and Zhou Ling have been giving her cars, as if they were a gift that didn't require much thought. Even during the years she was abroad, they continued to give her cars. They even felt aggrieved that she couldn't drive these cars abroad and tried every means to persuade her to come back. In their eyes, they simply couldn't understand why their youngest daughter would give up the luxury cars and mansions at home and insist on living in a small house abroad and suffering.

As for Gu Qi's share, including this GT53, it was her personal instruction to choose something more understated.

Gu Qi raised an eyebrow, then suddenly noticed a corner of a bandage peeking out from beside Gu Sui's open collar. She pointed at it and asked, "What happened to your shoulder?"

Gu Sui tugged at his collar, not intending to tell Gu Qi about it: "I'm having an allergic reaction to the change in environment, cover it up."

"Oh, be careful." Gu Qi frowned, closed his eyes, and sat down to meditate, no longer having any doubts.

A few seconds later, she seemed to remember something and opened her eyes excitedly: "Tell me quickly how things went with the girl. There should be some progress after going out."

Mentioning this, Gu Sui's expression darkened slightly. There had been progress, but now it seemed that everything had returned to square one.

She pursed her lips and continued to play with the Monstera deliciosa: "Sis, can you stop being so gossipy?"

Gu Qi was displeased upon hearing this. She straightened one of her legs, which was crossed, and said, "Isn't this about caring about your life's most important matter? In my opinion, you're just too passive. You're always hanging around someone but you don't even know where to begin."

Gu Sui was speechless; she was probably being too proactive.

"Alright, sis, you should worry more about Xiangyi's school." She forcibly changed the subject, silently saying "Sorry" to Gu Xiangyi in her heart.

Gu Qi rubbed his temples: "Speaking of which, Xiangyi is flying to Luncheng next week for a harp training camp. Her assistant, who was supposed to go with her, suddenly broke her leg yesterday, and I haven't been able to find a suitable replacement..."

"How long will it take?" Gu Sui understood the implication in her words.

"One week."

Gu Sui touched the back of his hand. Since Gu Qi had spoken, there must be no other way. However, he was indeed a suitable candidate. He had flexible hours, was fluent in the language, was familiar with the area, and most importantly, he was more trustworthy than outsiders.

The only possible reason for him to refuse her was to leave Shang Shu, but a week is neither short nor long, so it seems that this reason has also lost its effectiveness.

"Okay, send me the details later." Gu Sui raised a finger. "I'm leaving."

Gu Qi shook his head as he watched his younger sister's dashing figure. She agreed to these things so quickly, but the real question was when he could bring the girl home.

Once seated in the driver's seat of the sports car, Gu Sui finally felt at ease. She rubbed her shoulder, stepped on the gas, and drove back to the waterfront.

-----------------------

Author's note: Thank you again for all the nutrient solutions and comments! [doge emoji with rose in hand] I will work hard to write more!