Chapter 43 — She Doesn't Like Him: The Plot Is Moving Forward... Shouldn't the Recommendation Votes Move Forward Too? Add It to Your Collection — That Is Support for Old Fish

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"Today you saved me, and I am very grateful to you. I will also tell Daddy to give you some extra money as a reward. But that does not mean I have accepted you. When Daddy comes back I will speak to him and have him fire you." Gu Mengyao pressed her lips together and said this only after hesitating again and again.

Wei Zhao shrugged and gave a somewhat helpless smile. "Don't worry. If Mr. Gu fires me, I won't hang around here." Wei Zhao felt he really was a bit of a failure. Was this young lady simply too hard to please, or was he not doing a good enough job? But it did not matter much either way. He was rather attached to this comfortable life of his — going to school and coming home every day, living under the same roof as two young beauties, having a good brother at school — and yet in the end, this life was never meant to be his.

Watching Wei Zhao's somewhat dejected back, Gu Mengyao felt the tightness in her chest grow worse. Could she be wrong? Should she not have driven him away? For the first time, something in Gu Mengyao's heart began to loosen, and she started to waver on the scales that held Wei Zhao.

Wei Zhao went back to his room and took off his clothes. There was a large patch of blood on his trousers; it looked like they could not be worn again. What a waste of such a good pair of trousers. Feeling the pang of it, Wei Zhao tossed them into the trash can in the corner of the room and took out a spare school uniform.

After changing, Wei Zhao left his room. Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu were on the sofa watching television. Wei Zhao did not disturb them; he quietly sat down on the sofa farthest from them and watched the cartoon with them.

Shen Yushu stole a glance at Wei Zhao, then went back to the cartoon. As for Gu Mengyao, she did not so much as look in his direction.

Because of that business with the bank robbery today, they had not gotten home until after nine. Though Uncle Qing had gone straight to the hotel to fetch the food, it was already half past ten at night by the time he delivered it to the villa.

As usual, Uncle Qing left the food and departed. The only difference was that today, on his way out, he made a point of telling Wei Zhao: "Don't forget to check that the front gate is locked tonight. Keep those two girls safe."

"Don't worry, Uncle Qing." Wei Zhao gave him a reassuring look.

When Wei Zhao cultivated at night, it could already take the place of sleep. But that was also the time when his mind and senses were at their sharpest; not the slightest sound could escape his ears. So as far as the villa's safety at night went, Wei Zhao was quite confident.

"Oh!" Shen Yushu cheered at the smell of the food. "I'm starving. Food at last! Sister Yaoyao, let's go eat."

Gu Mengyao rose and walked with Shen Yushu toward the dining room beside the kitchen. She was hungry too, but there was an inexpressible weight pressing on her heart, so she was not nearly as lively as Shen Yushu.

Sitting down at the table, Shen Yushu could not wait to open the lids of the sealed containers, and her mouth began to water. "Sister Yaoyao, it's braised chicken! And sauteed tofu, hot-and-sour shredded potato, and pig's trotter soup. That trotter soup must be a custom-made bust-enhancing dish for you..."

Gu Mengyao shot her a glare, signaling her not to talk nonsense. There was a grown man in the house now; this was no longer the two-girl world it used to be.

"Oh." Shen Yushu shut her mouth, then said: "It smells so good. Sauteed tofu is my favorite. They say if you eat a lot of tofu your skin turns fair — just like the Tofu Beauty in our textbook."

Gu Mengyao picked up her chopsticks, then set them down again, and glanced sidelong at Wei Zhao on the sofa. He was still watching television. Somehow that lonely figure made her deeply uncomfortable. Yesterday he had been fighting to eat with her; today he had not come over at all. It must be because of that business yesterday, when she had eaten his saliva...

"Call your Shield Bro over to eat." Gu Mengyao hesitated, then said to Shen Yushu.

"He's your Shield Bro, all right? I don't need a shield." Shen Yushu pursed her lips in a half-smile, studying Gu Mengyao as if trying to read something in her face. "Why are you the one calling him over to eat?"

"Then never mind him." Under Shen Yushu's interrogation, Gu Mengyao felt a nervousness she could not explain, and so she said coldly.

"Oh, then I'll go call him." Shen Yushu smiled, stood up, and called to Wei Zhao in the living room: "Shield Bro, come eat."

"You two go ahead. I'll eat after you're done. Mengyao doesn't like me." Wei Zhao gave Shen Yushu a grateful look. This girl really did treat him well — his cooking her noodles that morning had not been wasted after all.

Hearing this, the hand with which Gu Mengyao was picking up food trembled, and a piece of braised chicken fell onto the table... She wanted so badly to cry. It was she who had wanted to call Wei Zhao to eat, yet this fellow took Shen Yushu for the kind soul — and on top of that, said she did not like him. Truly, kindness repaid with a donkey's liver and lungs.

"Sister Yaoyao said..." Shen Yushu had just started to say something more when Gu Mengyao pulled her back.

"Never mind him. Let him starve." Gu Mengyao said hatefully. She really did hate him to death.

"Huh? But Sister Yaoyao, didn't you say to call him over to eat with us? Why are you ignoring him now?" Shen Yushu looked at the gloomy-faced Gu Mengyao, puzzled.

"I changed my mind again." Gu Mengyao gave a humph, hesitated, then said: "Xiaoshu, if you like him, then go call him over."

"Me? But he said you don't like him." Shen Yushu said innocently.

"I..." Gu Mengyao wanted to say, I never said I don't like him. But if she said that, would it not amount to admitting she liked him? Her lips moved, and in the end she said nothing, only: "Let's eat..."

Some time later, if time could be replayed, Gu Mengyao thought, then after Wei Zhao finished that sentence she would certainly have stood up and shouted at him without the slightest hesitation: "I like you, I like you! Come and eat with us."

But time cannot be replayed. It was fated that all this had already happened, and fated that on many moonlit nights to come, Gu Mengyao would hold the corner of a quilt soaked with tears and pass those sleepless nights...

In the instant a meteor streaked across the night sky, Gu Mengyao made her wish. But did wishing really do any good? Gazing at that brilliant starry sky, Gu Mengyao found that at some unknown point, the distance between her and him had grown greater and greater...

Though it seemed within reach, between the two of them lay an impassable gulf — and that gulf she had dug with her own hands...

But at this moment, Gu Mengyao clearly had not yet realized this...

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