Chapter 1
The crystal chandeliers in the banquet hall flickered, and the air was filled with the cool, rich aroma of expensive champagne and perfume. Gu Jing held a half-full glass, his knuckles slightly white from the cold, but a flawless smile remained on his face. As the glasses clung to each other, everyone who passed by complimented him on how he and the person beside him were "a perfect match" and "a perfect match."
Beside him, Qin Yu nodded slightly, responding appropriately, the curve of his lips perfectly inflected. His eyes, like deep pools, swept across the crowd, distant yet commanding. Unnoticed, his hand, hanging by his side, fingertips still inches from the hem of Gu Jing's shirt, as if separated by an invisible chasm.
A drama that must be performed for everyone to see. For the sake of their respective shaky families, and for that ridiculous alliance of interests.
Back at the wedding villa that could be called a work of art, the lights in the entrance hall came on, and the cold white light poured down, instantly stripping away the false warmth that remained from the banquet.
The air was stagnant, the thick carpet absorbing all footsteps.
The two of them walked towards the master bedroom at both ends of the corridor, one on the left and one on the right, in tacit understanding.
There was no conversation, no eye contact. The door hinges creaked softly, and both doors closed simultaneously. The sound of the locks was barely audible in the silence, yet it weighed heavily on my heart.
Gu Jing ripped off his bow tie, letting it fall to the floor. He took a deep breath of the cool, detergent-scented air that belonged only to him. This was reality. He and Qin Yu were each other's most hated business rivals, trapped beasts forcibly tied together, pretending to be respectful but privately refusing to even touch the corner of each other's clothes.
I don’t know when days like this will end.
The turning point came unexpectedly.
A week later, the approval of a key Gu family project was unexpectedly stuck, and the situation became tense, with the finger pointed towards the Qin family. Gu Jing needed a copy of an old contract that might be stored in Qin Yu's study as evidence.
He stood at the door of Qin Yu's study, his fingertips hovering over the combination lock. Qin Yu was on a business trip, and the password was his birthday—the most basic information exchange in a formal marriage.
With a beep, the green light on the door lock flashes.
The study was spacious and austere, decorated in black, white, and gray. Files were meticulously organized and organized, revealing a strong Qin Yu style. Gu Jing, with a clear goal in mind, walked straight to the filing cabinet against the wall.
The search went smoothly, and the contract was right where he expected. He breathed a sigh of relief and was about to pull out the document when his fingertips accidentally opened a thin, unlocked drawer below.
There were no documents in the drawer, only a hardcover notebook lying quietly, dark blue, with no words on the cover, and looking a little old.
For some unknown reason, Gu Jing stretched out his hand.
The notebook was heavier than he had imagined. He frowned and opened it.
On the first page, a photo was tucked away. The image was low-resolution and skewed, as if it had been snapped hastily with an old phone. The boy in the photo was wearing a blue and white school uniform, a schoolbag slung over one shoulder, bending down to get into a black car parked on the side of the road. His profile was youthful, a picture of him at around seventeen or eighteen.
Gu Jing's heart skipped a beat.
He quickly flipped back.
In the second, he's asleep by the window in the university library, the sun falling on his eyelashes, casting a small shadow. In the third, he's at graduation, holding his certificate, chatting with a classmate, smiling broadly. In the fourth, he's outside a cafe he frequents, holding an umbrella, lost in thought as he gazes at the rain...
One after another.
The time span is clear, from the end of high school to entering society, from the entrance of his old house to every place he frequents. The angle of the candid camera, from awkward to gradually stable and clear, the silent and tracking gaze, has permeated him for a full decade.
Not the cold, voyeuristic nature of commercial investigations. These photos… have an almost paranoid gaze.
Turning to the last page, there was no photo, only a line of sharp and sloppy handwriting, so strong that it could be seen through the back of the paper, as if it was the product of extreme emotional repression:
"Gu Jing."
Behind it were dots of ink that were repeatedly corrected and written, and finally solidified into a sentence:
“How to pretend not to love you.”
Blood rushed to his head with a thud, then drained away in an instant. Gu Jing stood there, his fingertips cold, his heart pounding wildly in his chest, his eardrums buzzing. Those fragments of details he had deliberately ignored—Qin Yu's occasional, overly prolonged gazes, his sudden silences on certain occasions, even the Qin family's overly forthright response to the marriage proposal—all rushed to his mind, piecing together a truth that chilled him to the bone.
There was the sound of an engine downstairs, and the beam of light from the car headlights swept across the study curtains.
Qin Yu came back early.
Gu Jing mechanically and tremblingly put the notebook back where it was, closed the drawer, grabbed the contract, and fled the study. Every step felt like stepping on clouds, yet also like stepping on broken ice.
At night, the villa was dead silent.
Gu Jing stood in front of the French window of his bedroom. Outside was the city's ever-bright lights, yet he felt only a vague chill. The door behind him was silently pushed open.
He didn't even look back.
The familiar, cold scent of cedar, carrying the air of a cold night, approached. The next moment, an irresistible force slammed him against the cold glass!
The dull thud of the collision made his eyes dizzy.
Qin Yu's body pressed tightly against him, his warm chest heaving violently, his heartbeat heavy and erratic, repeatedly hitting Gu Jing's back through the thin fabric. His hot breath puffed against his ear, bringing with it a tiny, uncontrollable shudder.
In the darkness, Qin Yu's voice was hoarse and completely out of tune, and every word seemed to be ground out with difficulty between his teeth:
"Do you know... how hard it is to pretend not to love someone?"
Gu Jing's body was stiff, and the chill of the glass penetrated into his bones.
Qin Yu's lips were almost touching his earlobe. His voice was low and hoarse, filled with the pain and despair that had accumulated over the past decade and was almost rotting away.
"For the past ten years...I've walked past your house every day...watching you smile for others...crying for others..."
The aloof and always calm Qin Yu was completely shattered at this moment.
Gu Jing closed his eyes and said nothing. His heartbeat was frantic, hammering against his spine and the secret that had remained silent for ten years.
After that night, something changed completely. Qin Yu no longer maintained that cold distance. His gaze became penetrating, carrying an undisguised weight of possession and pain. They still slept in separate rooms, but the air was filled with silent tension, and every casual touch was like a spark splashing into dry grass.
Gu Jing endured it silently, but beneath the frozen soil in his heart, something strange was frantically trying to break through.
The days passed in a strange and tense atmosphere. The joint project advanced with unstoppable force, and the Gu family's precarious situation quickly stabilized, even escaping danger faster than expected.
It was a sunny afternoon when the official announcement of the crisis being resolved was made.
Sunlight shines through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, dividing the living room into two halves: light and dark.
Qin Yu came out of the study, wearing a well-tailored black suit, his face calm, even indifferent. He walked up to Gu Jing, holding a document in his hand.
"Gu's is safe." He spoke, his voice steady and emotionless. "As agreed, this is for you."
He handed over a divorce agreement with his signature on it. The property division terms were surprisingly generous, almost like a generous gift.
Gu Jing didn't answer. He withdrew his gaze from the window and fell on Qin Yu's face, on his eyes that were trying to hide something with coldness.
The sun is glaring.
Qin Yu held up the agreement, her fingertips turning slightly white. Seeing that he didn't take it, the corners of her lips curled up into a very faint and bitter arc: "Don't worry, you won't be treated unfairly in terms of property. The identity of Mrs. Qin has bound you for long enough."
His eyes uncontrollably turned red little by little.
Gu Jing looked at him quietly for a few seconds, then suddenly reached out and took the agreement.
The paper rubbed against each other and made a slight sound.
The faint light in Qin Yu's eyes, which he himself had not even noticed, suddenly went out, leaving only a dead silence like ash.
The next second, "Sizzle——"
A crisp tearing sound suddenly rang out!
Gu Jing's face was expressionless, but his movements were ruthless. He tore the agreement into pieces in just a few seconds! Snow-white scraps of paper flew up and fell down like a sudden snowfall.
He raised his hand and grabbed Qin Yu's neat tie, forcing him to stagger forward half a step and almost bump into him.
Gu Jing raised his eyes and looked directly into Qin Yu's suddenly constricted pupils. His voice was not loud, but every word was painful:
"Ten years of secret love," he asked, "and you want to exchange it for this little fortune?"
Qin Yu froze, the blood drained from his face, and a storm suddenly rose in his pupils. He looked at the person in front of him in disbelief, at the falling paper scraps, as if the whole world was collapsing and reorganizing before his eyes.
He opened his mouth, but his throat was dry and he couldn't utter a single syllable.
In this dead silence, with only the sound of their intense heartbeats as the only sound left—
“Beep—beep—beep—!!”
A sharp, piercing alarm blared without warning! It was the villa's highest-level security alarm!
The surveillance screen embedded in the wall automatically lit up. On the screen, several infrared-captured figures were rapidly approaching from various blind spots outside the villa! Their movements were professional and swift, and the weapons they held reflected a cold, hard luster under the surveillance camera!
A cold, voice-changed, mechanical voice simultaneously spread throughout the villa through the internal communication system, without a trace of emotion:
"Protocol destroyed. Cleanup procedures initiated."
The shock and fragility on Qin Yu's face froze and peeled away, replaced by an extremely cold sharpness and gloom that Gu Jing had never seen before. He suddenly pulled Gu Jing behind him, his action completely protective and tough.
The cold light of the screen reflected his instantly frozen profile and the murderous intent surging in his eyes.
He stared at the rapidly closing shadows on the screen, his voice lowered to a whisper, each word icy:
"It seems that my father still refuses to give us a chance to live."
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