Chapter 315: Chapter 291: You Like Tang Tianyou, Don’t You?
Tang Tianyou arranged this place to be absolutely safe, because this is his family residence in Aus City, where his father Tang Jue lives. In Aus City, there is hardly anyone who doesn’t know the grand name of Tang Jue, a dominant figure who people shun in fear, and no one would be foolish enough to target this place.
Moreover, their trip this time was absolutely confidential, and Tang Tianyou was sure they hadn’t been followed.
"This is my room." Tang Tianyou brought her luggage inside.
Gu Qili still hesitated a bit: "Won’t this disturb Uncle Tang?"
"He’s pretty happy to hear that a friend of mine is coming to stay. Plus, he doesn’t come back often, he’s very busy." What mattered most was that he heard it was a female friend.
Knowing her concerns, Tang Tianyou put away her luggage and then handed her a glass of water: "Rest assured, even if he comes back, he won’t feel disturbed. The older he gets, the more he enjoys the liveliness. Also, you can call our housemaid Auntie Luo, I’ve already talked to her, she will take care of you."
"Tang Tianyou." The more considerate his arrangements were, the more unsettled Gu Qili felt, "I don’t even know how to thank you, you’ve helped me so much."
"How many times have I told you, we are friends, friends shouldn’t always be so formal. Once your son is born, let him recognize me as his godfather and treat me well."
Gu Qili laughed: "How do you know it’s a son?"
Tang Tianyou pointed to his eyes: "Just a hunch."
"Pfft, if your hunch is so incredible, what’s the use of all those machines at the hospital."
"Seriously, I predicted my mom would have a sister, and she indeed gave birth to a daughter."
"You have a sister?" Gu Qili was looking around in his room when she suddenly spotted a photo frame facing down on the bedside. She reached out to grab it, but Tang Tianyou quickly snatched it back, his handsome face slightly flushed.
"Hey, what’s to hide? Let me have a look!" The more he hid it, the more curious Gu Qili became.
"No looking." Tang Tianyou held the photo behind his back, regretting not asking the housemaid to hide it in advance. If she really saw it, he would be too embarrassed to show his face,
"I’m going to look." She reached out to snatch the picture from behind him.
As she snatched, he dodged, and as a result, Gu Qili accidentally fell forward,
Their faces almost touching, nose to nose, their eyes met, one deep as the ocean, the other bright as the stars.
Gu Qili was dazed for a moment, propping herself up with her arms to stand, when suddenly her hand slipped, and she fell onto him again, but he promptly supported her shoulders, his slender fingers gripping her arms.
"Brother, you’re back?" Suddenly a slender figure rushed in, and upon seeing the scene before her, the pretty eyes blinked twice, as if she couldn’t recover for a moment.
Gu Qili hadn’t expected anyone else to come, she straightened her somewhat wrinkled clothes, her face full of embarrassment.
But Tang Tianyou calmly stood straight up, looking towards the door where the person stood, stunned as a wooden chicken.
"Hey hey, Zhuo Yuqing, don’t you knock when you enter someone’s room?"
Zhuo Yuqing continued to blink, "Brother, you brought your girlfriend back?"
Before Tang Tianyou could reply, Gu Qili shook her head: "I am your brother’s friend."
Friend, huh.
Zhuo Yuqing then laughed again, a blush crawling over her fair face.
"Brother, when you bring a friend home, you should at least say hello."
Tang Tianyou was still immersed in Gu Qili’s hurried explanation, feeling a loss before he glanced at Zhuo Yuqing with a frown: "This is my house, do I still need to give you prior notice."
Gu Qili detected it. Although Tang Tianyou spoke arrogantly, he couldn’t hide his doting tone, speaking harshly but with gentle eyes and brows.
"How did you know I was back?"
"Mom told me." Zhuo Yuqing approached Gu Qili and extended her delicate little hand: "Hello, I’m Zhuo Yuqing, I started college this year."
"Hello, Gu Qili." Gu Qili shook her hand,
"You seem about my age, should I call you sister or junior?" Zhuo Yuqing asked curiously, blinking her eyes.
Tang Tianyou said from the side: "She just received her degree certificate, what do you think?"
"Ah? You’ve graduated from university? But you don’t look it at all, I thought we were the same age." Zhuo Yuqing said, turning back to Tang Tianyou: "By the way, Brother, mom asked you to come over for a meal."
"Tell mom I’m not going; I have to head back to Aus City later, there are things that need to be handled there."
"Leaving already just after you returned?" Zhuo Yuqing pouted dissatisfied, but still waved understandingly, "Go on, go on, Mr. Busybody."
"From now on, Qili will be staying here, you should take good care of her."
"Don’t worry, your friend is my friend." Zhuo Yuqing smiled, her cheeks revealing two deep dimples, extremely endearing, "Brother, let me drive you to the airport, I came by car."
"Hmm, that works."
"I’ll wait for you downstairs then." Zhuo Yuqing gestured to Gu Qili again, "See you in a bit."
Zhuo Yuqing cheerfully went downstairs, and her lively singing could still be heard from afar, although... it seemed a bit off-key.
"Is she your real sister?" Gu Qili asked, hearing that they had the same mother.
He explained in a seemingly nonchalant manner, "I was raised by my godfather since I was a child, my name wasn’t Tang Tianyou, but Zhuo You. Later, when I was seriously ill, old Tang finally acknowledged me, he donated his bone marrow, and I was saved, after which I started living with him. Old Tang and my godfather were good friends, and Qingzi is the child of my godfather and godmother. My mother died as soon as I was born, so I’ve always called my godmother ’mom’."
After saying all this, he raised his deep eyes to look at Gu Qili standing by the bed, "Is it too complicated, did you catch all that?"
Gu Qili gave him a look that said ’only an idiot wouldn’t understand’, but quickly grasped the essence of his words, "You had leukemia as a child?"
"Yeah, if old Tang had been even a bit later, I would have died."
Tang Tianyou spoke of it with extraordinary lightness, as if narrating someone else’s story, but a faint heartache surged in Gu Qili’s heart, pitying that little Tang Tianyou who had fought against the disease from a young age and suffered so much.
He then handed Gu Qili a new phone, "To be safe, you shouldn’t use your old phone and number anymore. This is an A City number, add the people you need to contact into it."
Tang Tianyou was thoughtful, so Gu Qili did as suggested. She indeed no longer wanted her old number anyway.
Gu Qili took the phone, which already had one number saved, and it was even noted as "Handsome Tang" in the contact list.
Gu Qili chuckled and muttered "Childish" as she began to add the contacts from her old phone, but when she came across Mu Shuoqian’s name, she couldn’t help but feel a stab at those three characters,
Gu Qili hesitated at that string of numbers before starting to delete them one digit after another until she directly hit the delete contact at the bottom. Seeing that empty space suddenly appear on her phone, her heart also seemed to have been hollowed out, and she thought that perhaps it could never be filled for the rest of her life.
After Tang Tianyou returned to Aus City, Gu Qili stayed alone in A City, spending most of her time reading, walking, and occasionally being dragged out shopping by Zhuo Yuqing, with someone sent by Tang Tianyou following her around.
Tang Tianyou came back once a month, and whenever he did, he would take her for prenatal check-ups and sometimes to the seaside to breathe fresh air and enjoy a big meal.
One time, Zhuo Yuqing clamored to join them but got ditched by Tang Tianyou halfway, which angered her so much she went to tattle to Tang dad.
Zhuo Yuqing was sullen for several days, and the next time she saw Gu Qili, she wasn’t as warm as before.
Gu Qili, knowing that Zhuo Yuqing was just throwing a child’s tantrum, didn’t blame her; she was about to head to the kitchen for water when her leg suddenly cramped, and she quickly leaned on a nearby sofa for support.
Now nine months pregnant, her belly was very big, but she still had a slim figure, so it didn’t look all that large, more like others at five or six months into pregnancy.
"Aww, if you wanted water, just say so." Zhuo Yuqing snatched the cup from her hands and scurried away to pour water, having been indifferent just before, but now springing into action at the sight of her difficulty moving.
This girl really had a cold exterior but a warm heart.
"Thank you." Gu Qili took the cup of water she offered, at just the right temperature, neither hot nor cold.
Zhuo Yuqing also held a cup, sipping away, casually flipping through an entertainment magazine.
"Yuqing, you like your brother, don’t you?" Gu Qili suddenly looked at her.
Zhuo Yuqing seemed as if someone had poked at a secret deep in her heart, hastily retorted, "Of course I like my brother, what sister wouldn’t like her brother?"
Gu Qili narrowed her eyes and smiled, "The ’like’ I’m talking about isn’t the affection between siblings, it’s the kind between a man and a woman."
In fact, she had noticed long ago, Zhuo Yuqing’s feelings for Tang Tianyou were different, far exceeding the affection that should exist between siblings; Tang Tianyou treated her like a sister, but she likely didn’t see Tang Tianyou as just a brother.
Zhuo Yuqing almost spit out her water, where did she get that from,
"You really misunderstood, my child doesn’t have the last name Tang, and your brother and I are just good friends," Gu Qili explained somewhat helplessly.
Zhuo Yuqing lifted her sparkling eyes, a layer of joy floating in them, "Then who is the father of the child?"