Chapter 298: Chapter 278 Who Exactly is Zhou Xiaoyu
Mu Fan selected the photo he had just taken and had just clicked to send it when he suddenly retracted the message in haste.
"Oh right, since Second Brother wants to give her a surprise, revealing it now would spoil the surprise, wouldn’t it? Dumb Mu Fan, nearly made a mistake." Mu Fan hurriedly pressed the red button on the remote, and the wall began closing, returning to its previous state in less than half a minute.
Staring at the backdrop wall in front of him, Mu Fan suddenly realized that the painting on it depicted a vineyard. Even though it was hand-painted, the resemblance was striking. He wondered if this could be a miniature representation of the Gu Qili family’s wine estate?
Just how much does Second Brother adore Gu Qili that even the painting on the backdrop wall has to be related to her?
After sighing to himself, Mu Fan quickly ran downstairs to put the key back where it belonged and then left pretending as if nothing had happened,
The servant’s bewildered look deepened a little, as if Mu Fan’s face was saying: "I know a secret you all are unaware of."
Mu Fan’s phone chirped,
Mu Fan replied swiftly: No worries, I accidentally clicked the wrong thing just now.
He clutched at his chest, relieved that she hadn’t seen it.
A little while later, Mu Fan received a reply consisting of three words: Nut case.
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After calling Mu Fan a nut case, Gu Qili initially didn’t intend to pay attention to that notification message on her phone, but after tossing and turning for quite some time, she still sat up and lit up the screen.
The reply that came back to her was indeed from the person claiming to be Zhou Xiaoyu’s middle school classmate "Pheromone": simply an emoji of a question mark.
Gu Qili stared at the screen for a good while, her mind still in disarray from the conversation with Mu Shuoqian earlier, telling her she shouldn’t continue dwelling on it any longer, or else she would only embarrass herself further. But her intuition kept prompting her, reminding her.
"One thought leads to white hair," she thought again of this phrase from Nan Zhan, saying that once he was determined about a person, he would be unwavering until death.
Gu Qili took a deep breath and typed quickly on the screen: "Hello, are you really Zhou Xiaoyu’s classmate?"
It wasn’t long before Pheromone replied, "Yes, are you a reporter? If you are, I do not give interviews to reporters,
"No, I’m not a reporter."
"Then how can you prove it?"
"Would it be appropriate to meet in person? I really have an urgent matter to verify with you. It has nothing to do with Zhou Xiaoyu’s future, nor will it cause her any trouble."
It took a while for the other side to respond: Sorry, I can’t just meet with strangers, goodbye.
Gu Qili became frantic, typing even faster, feeling that in order to gain Pheromone’s trust, she had to be frank.
"Actually, the situation is this: my husband wants to divorce me recently, claiming his first love is Zhou Xiaoyu. But I can’t accept it – I want to know if he is lying or not. Rest assured, if it’s truly as he says, I won’t disturb their relationship or harm Zhou Xiaoyu. I just simply want the truth, really."
Perhaps the other party finally believed her story,
Gu Qili eagerly replied: Thank you, I’ll treat you to a meal.
After finishing the conversation with Pheromone, the intuition that the truth was about to emerge left her completely sleepless.
That night, she kept dreaming, and in every dream, Mu Shuoqian appeared.
Later, she also dreamt of her father. He was still sitting under the grape trellis. As she was about to approach him, her father’s face turned into Mu Shuoqian’s face, and then back to her father’s. Suddenly, a blood-red violet emerged from his face, not violet in color but the hue of blood, like a gaping maw.
She screamed out ’Dad’ and woke up abruptly,
Why is it that every time she dreams of her father, Mu Shuoqian appears in the dream, and each dream becomes more terrifying than the last.
Upon waking from this sleep, she wasn’t the least bit drowsy, lying in bed with her mind racing until dawn.
The next day upon arriving at work, a waiter informed Gu Qili that A-V was going to resign.
This news truly surprised her; she often chatted with A-V lately, and he never mentioned resigning. It made no sense for him not to tell her if he really was going to leave, and he was doing well and happy here, so why suddenly resign.
Gu Qili ran into A-V exiting Manager Qi Meihui’s office and he smiled upon seeing her: "Qili, you must know by now, right?"
"Are you really leaving?" A-V was one of her closest friends in the French Restaurant, and she genuinely didn’t want him to go.
Ah V sighed, "Yes, this was a sudden decision I made last night, sorry for not informing you right away."
"Is there something that can’t be solved? Can I help?"
Ah V turned his gaze faintly toward the window and after a while, he said in a low and slow voice, "If there is still hope, I want to seize it, even if it means giving my all, I don’t want to have regrets anymore."
After speaking, he looked at Gu Qili with a smile: "Qili, you are the most beautiful, kind, and strong girl I have ever met, so you must be happy."
"Will we still be able to contact each other in the future?"
"Of course, I am still waiting for you to get better so that we can drink and be merry together."
"Okay, it’s a promise."
Farewells are sentimental, but they create a reason for future reunions.
After seeing off Ah V, Gu Qili was about to go back to work when she bumped into Qi Meihui who seemed to be heading to a meeting with her assistant in tow.
"Gu Qili, I really didn’t expect it," Qi Meihui stood in front of her with a condescending air.
Gu Qili looked back at her indifferently, without uttering a word.
"I’ve heard about what happened that day. The moment the chandelier fell, Mu Shuoqian chose to save that Zhou Xiaoyu instead of you. Oh, and I heard he’s now heavily promoting that little star, investing quite a lot of money. What did I say before? His interest in you was just a whim, and he would tire of you eventually."
Qi Meihui brought up the accident again, and Gu Qili’s heart was stabbed once more, but she would not show any discomfort in front of Qi Meihui. Instead, she held her head high, with a hint of sarcastic smile on her lips: "Whether what you say is true or not, I do not know. But I do know that your niece’s intentional injury case will be going to court next month, and as for the odds of winning, I think you should have an inkling as soon as you know that my lawyer is Nan Zhan."
Qi Meihui touched her sore spot, and she would touch Qi Meihui’s as well. True to that, Qi Meihui’s face changed color drastically, and all she could muster with trembling lips were two words, "Bitch."
"Manager Qi, you come from a prominent family; spewing profanities is beneath your status, don’t lower yourself."
"Hmph, Gu Qili, you won’t be pleased for long. Once Mu Shuoqian completely kicks you to the curb, let’s see how long you can strut about. When that time comes, I want to see how you’ll fight with me." Having said that, Qi Meihui left angrily in her high heels.
Gu Qili stood there, silently sighing.
As soon as Qi Meihui left, a girl wearing a yellow duckbill hat walked in from the main entrance. She looked around for a while and finally chose the most secluded spot.
This yellow hat made Gu Qili’s heart race. She casually picked up a menu and briskly approached the girl, stopping a waiter and saying, "I’ll take care of this customer."
"Alright." The waiter went off with the menu to another table.
The girl in the yellow hat, still looking around, noticed Gu Qili coming towards her and gave her an extra glance.
"Are you Pheromone?" Gu Qili lowered her voice, walked closer, and placed the menu in front of the girl, pretending to take an order, all the while smiling and subtly moving her hand by her trousers.
"Yes, I am. Are you that number?"
Gu Qili was in a hurry at the time and had written down a random string of numbers when registering the account.
"Yes, that’s me. Thank you for agreeing to meet. However, our restaurant has a rule that staff cannot sit down to eat with customers during work hours, so please play along with the menu."
"Okay." Pheromone took the menu and naturally began to flip through it. "So you really work at a restaurant."
"Now you believe I’m not a reporter, right?"
Pheromone nodded, "Are you and your husband doing okay?"
"Not very well." Gu Qili’s expression immediately dimmed, "That’s why I need your help."
She remembered the words Ah V had said before leaving: If there is still hope, I want to seize it, even if it means giving my all, I don’t want to have regrets anymore.
This was her last act of persistence, and the last time she tried to believe in Mu Shuoqian.
"Sigh, I broke up with my boyfriend recently too. He told me he fell in love with someone else. I was upset for a long time, so seeing your story, I truly sympathized, and that’s why I agreed to meet you." Pheromone stared at the menu, her eyes beginning to redden, "Ask whatever you need to."
Gu Qili cautiously glanced around before asking, "Is Zhou Xiaoyu her real name?"
"No, her real name is Zhou Yan. Zhou Xiaoyu is a name she adopted later. I was in the same class as her in elementary school, and our homes were close. Although we weren’t very close friends, we pretty much watched each other grow up." Pheromone pulled out several photos from her bag and placed them on top of the menu, pretending to inquire about the dishes: "These are her childhood photos; these are from her junior high."
Gu Qili scrutinized the photos seriously. Though still showing signs of youth, it was evident that it was Zhou Xiaoyu herself.