The door opened, and the faint chirping of birds came in, very light and weak, with a hint of alertness. Gu Siyu closed the door. The hottest season was slowly passing, and these days the rain was pouring down heavily. The room had not been ventilated for a long time, inevitably carrying a sense of stuffiness.
She went to open the window, and the bird flapped its wings and flew over a meter high, fluttering its wings flexibly when it landed.
Gu Siyu leaned against the window and watched it. The bird tried a few times and then stopped trying. She stepped aside, giving the window to the bird. The bird paced inside the box, not noticing her.
The bird food in the box was not finished. Gu Siyu took out the feeder to wash it in the kitchen, wiped it clean with a tissue, and then put in new bird food.
Wild birds are not particular about cleanliness and hygiene when eating. Every time Gu Siyu did this meticulously, she wondered if she was overdoing it.
This reminded her of a famous work, "The Little Prince." The book was very popular, and the illustrations were quite fairy-tale-like. Gu Siyu often came across it while browsing videos before, and the most common scene was a conversation between a fox and the Little Prince. One day, she encountered the book in a bookstore, bought it, read it for a few days, found the beginning confusing, didn't understand the meaning, couldn't persist in reading the later parts, and eventually gave up. Thus, she didn't get to the part where the little fox appeared.
The little fox said to the Little Prince, "To me, you are still just a little boy, like millions of other little boys. I don't need you. You don't need me either. To you, I am just a fox, like millions of other foxes. But if you tame me, we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world."
Later, the Little Prince tamed the little fox. When the Little Prince was about to leave and return to his own planet, the little fox said, "Ah... I feel like crying."
The Little Prince replied, "That is your fault."
After thinking for a while, Gu Siyu somewhat understood the meaning.
After feeding the little bird, Gu Siyu went to the bookshelf in the adjacent room to find the book. Wanting to confirm her understanding, she flipped through the books from beginning to end, one by one. Unfortunately, she couldn't find "The Little Prince." Gu Siyu went to the bathroom to brush her teeth, and when she came out, she searched for a yogurt bar in her pocket, but it was empty. Frustrated with herself, Gu Siyu sat on the sofa to relax. Closing her eyes, leaning back against the sofa, she let all her weight sink into it.
The little bird started chirping again, its yellow beak wide open. After it finished, it lowered its head to eat, almost causing Gu Siyu to miss the sound of a message notification.
Huo Junxian: [What would you like to eat today? How about spicy fish? The seafood market has freshly caught ones, very fresh.]
Huo Junxian usually doesn't cook fish; she doesn't like the way they look when dead and finds it a bit scary every time. On the contrary, Gu Siyu enjoys eating fish. Gu Siyu could sense the underlying message: [Send me the address, and I'll come over.]
After receiving the address, Gu Siyu left a crack in the window wide enough for the little bird to pass through and left. As she left, she looked back, and the bird was still peacefully eating.
'Silly thing, fly away, don't turn yourself into poultry.'
The drizzling rain had stopped, and the sky remained overcast. The dust on the flowers and leaves, washed away by the rain, made the distant scenery refreshed. However, the area near the community wasn't particularly beautiful, with the ground occupied by dirty mud due to clogged drains, all squeezed together.
Sniffing carefully, there was indeed a strange smell.
Gu Siyu wiped off the water on the back seat with a handkerchief. Straddling the motorcycle, she headed straight to the seafood market. When she arrived, she called Huo Junxian, and she could see Huo Junxian from afar as soon as the call was made. Huo Junxian was wearing a white chiffon short-sleeved shirt with jeans underneath. She had a round white handbag hanging on her wrist, and she waved at Gu Siyu.
"Here."
Gu Siyu found a place to park the motorcycle. Entering the market, the smell of seafood filled the air. Gu Siyu asked, "Don't you have a dedicated chef to deliver ingredients to your house? Why come here yourself?"
As a VIP customer, whenever there were fresh and top-notch ingredients, others would ask Huo Junxian on WeChat: [Miss Huo, do you need this? If you do, I can deliver it to you?]
Huo Junxian said, "It's been raining for a few days, and it's stuffy at home. I just came out for a stroll. Don't you like it?"
Gu Siyu with her hands in her pockets replied, "No."
The market was bustling with people. Huo Junxian moved around, casually dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and long pants, blending into the crowd. When she picked vegetables, she looked like a housewife, asking the aunties about the prices and bargaining with them. Gu Siyu found it quite surprising.
"The cucumbers look pretty fresh," Huo Junxian turned to her and said, "How about making smashed cucumbers?"
"Huh?" Gu Siyu came back to her senses and casually said, "If you like it, sure."
The auntie selling vegetables said, "These are good, just picked. I can wash them for you, and you can eat them directly."
After tasting the cucumber, they bought a few. Gu Siyu pinched half of a cucumber and chewed on it while Huo Junxian asked, "Do you want to go on vacation?"
"Where to go on vacation?" Gu Siyu asked.
Huo Junxian said, "To the seaside, you can wear a swimsuit to swim, or I can take you diving."
"I don't know how," Gu Siyu showed little interest.
"I can teach you; I have an OW diving certificate."
"Diving requires a certificate too?"
Huo Junxian nodded, "After all, it's a risky activity."
"Do get some more scallops; the ones you made last time were good," Gu Siyu changed the topic.
Huo Junxian said that these seafood items needed to be eaten fresh. If not finished, they should be consumed the next day, as the taste would change. They couldn't afford to waste too much. She only picked a bit more, and later she would have to buy fish. After choosing, she took out money from her bag, tens, fives, ones, a lot of change.
"Alright," Gu Siyu nodded, "You are quite thrifty."
From one end to the other of the market, with many people coming and going, it was crowded when walking, especially since everyone rushed in early to buy fresh vegetables. Since there were only two of them at home, they didn't need to buy too much.
Finally, they went to buy fish. Huo Junxian was not afraid of live fish. When the fishmonger was picking fish, she stepped back. Gu Siyu stood in front of her, blocking her line of sight, and said, "Make sure it's cleaned properly."
The fishmonger responded with a "Got it," skillfully starting to clean. As it was busy in the morning with many customers, the cleaning wasn't done very thoroughly. After finishing, he packed the fish for Gu Siyu.
Huo Junxian asked, "Don't you have a cooler?"
The fishmonger put some ice in the bag and said, "We are a small shop, sorry about that."
Gu Siyu carried the fish and left the market. She went to push the motorcycle, and the vegetables went to Huo Junxian. Gu Siyu looked around and asked, "Where's your car?"
Huo Junxian said, "I thought you would come over, so I let Uncle Chen handle it. I was planning to ride your motorcycle back."
When Gu Siyu came, she added a trunk to the motorcycle. Things could be put inside, but they bought quite a bit, and some had to be carried by hand. Gu Siyu, puzzled, said, "Aren't you looking for trouble like this?"
A luxury car is much more comfortable to ride in.
Gu Siyu handed the helmet to Huo Junxian, and only when Huo Junxian was seated did she start the motorcycle.
The speed was slow, and Gu Siyu heard Huo Junxian say, "I think it's nice to ride your motorcycle."
Gu Siyu's heart skipped a beat. She gently curled her lips, but the moment of joy only lasted a second. When the cold wind blew in her face, her smile disappeared.
Perhaps, Huo Junxian had said similar things to others.
People always like to clearly define boundaries and frequencies, paying attention to inconspicuous details.
Daydreaming while driving is dangerous, so Gu Siyu tried to focus on driving. Red light, stop; green light, go. Yield to pedestrians. She kept reciting the elementary school rhymes, and at some point, it seemed like she heard Huo Junxian saying something, but she was too focused and didn't catch it.
As the car stopped, Huo Junxian got out from behind and said, "I asked you to stop just now, why didn't you listen? I was planning to buy some snacks for Xiao Yu(dog)."
Gu Siyu parked the motorcycle at the entrance without pushing it in and replied, "You don't like going out, right? Just ask the pet shop to deliver it to you."
Teddy heard the sound of the car and ran from the yard. It had a red olive in its mouth. Gu Siyu picked up the ball, patted it, aimed at a target, and threw it far away. Teddy's four legs moved frantically as it ran to fetch the ball. It didn't know that due to Gu Siyu's negligence, it wouldn't have any snacks for the whole day.
"Gu Siyu," Huo Junxian called her softly. When Gu Siyu turned to look, she said, "Sometimes I feel like the world is not that dangerous."
"So?" Gu Siyu looked puzzled.
"So, I really enjoy going on adventures with you," Huo Junxian replied.
Gu Siyu turned back and walked into the house. Loving to hear sweet words is human nature, and being fickle is instinctive too.
Teddy went in first, holding the red olive ball, asking Gu Siyu to accompany it outside, using its paws to tug at her pants.
Huo Junxian placed the dishes on the table and went to organize her large refrigerator. Living alone, there wasn't much in her fridge on ordinary days, but these days, there were many types and quantities, and it was getting fuller.
Gu Siyu took the dishes to the kitchen to wash. She prepared the fish first, washing it inside and out. After chopping the fish, she put it back on the cutting board and chopped vigorously with a knife, chopping many times in one breath.
The perfectly good fish chunks turned into fish paste.
Huo Junxian asked, "Are you cooking?"
Gu Siyu nodded.
Huo Junxian watched as Gu Siyu continued to chop. The kitchen was filled with the sound of chopping vegetables. Finally, Gu Siyu put the fish into a bowl, added some seasoning and egg white, and mixed it vigorously before washing other vegetables.
Teddy came over, rubbing against Huo Junxian's leg, curious about what Gu Siyu was doing. Huo Junxian picked Teddy up and whispered, "Look, she's cooking."
Teddy widened its eyes, finding it unbelievable.
Gu Siyu fiddled inside for a long time. She could cook a bit, but only up to a certain point.
When the dishes were served, the taste was not commendable, except for the fish ball soup; everything else was quite unappetizing. Huo Junxian picked up a fish meatball and fed it to Teddy, letting it taste Gu Siyu's cooking skills.
Gu Siyu mixed rice with soup.
Huo Junxian looked at her and asked, "Are you venting your anger with food?"
If Huo Junxian didn't bring it up, Gu Siyu could have held it in, but now she couldn't. Gu Siyu put down her chopsticks, moved her lips, hesitated about whether to say it or not, and struggled in her heart. The more tangled thing was the truth. If Huo Junxian lied to her, she wouldn't be able to distinguish the truth. She might step into a lifelong mistake, just like what Jin Yuansen said – being deceived by Huo Junxian's lies, treated as a toy, and discarded when she got bored.
Her trust was too fragile. Gu Siyu didn't know what the right thing to do was. She knew the time with the secret was too short, and she hadn't sorted out the lines that would be beneficial to her.
"Gu Siyu?" Huo Junxian called her.
Gu Siyu looked at her.
Huo Junxian said, "Jin Yuansen's words were half true and half false. Don't believe him. Trust me." She fed Gu Siyu a spoonful of soup, seemingly proving something – "See, I can swallow even the 'poison' you made without changing my expression. What are you afraid of?"
Gu Siyu wasn't an emotional person. She quickly expelled this self-pity from her mind. In front of money, it's best to quantify emotions. Anything else would only lead to a gradual collapse of reason.
"I know. It's just that Jin Yuansen mentioned something about You Wanyue and then looked down on me. I felt unhappy, but I didn't vent it on you. I had to release my emotions somewhere else." Gu Siyu said.
Her heart was pounding as she spoke. This was the first time she lied so dangerously. Gu Siyu picked up some food, put it in her mouth, and almost spat it out because it tasted bad. She quickly brought the trash can over and spit it out, rinsing her mouth with water.
"Are you cooking just to ask this?" Huo Junxian asked.
She misunderstood, thinking Gu Siyu's venting was an attempt to please her, believing Gu Siyu wanted to explain everything over a good meal. Gu Siyu shook her head and said, "No, as I said before, I was venting my anger early to avoid getting angry when I hear you talk later. I don't want to argue with you."
"Oh," Huo Junxian nodded, saying, "You Wanyue is my neighbor. When she first got married and moved here, she lived near me. She was always very friendly to me, saying she wanted to be friends every time she came to my house as a guest. She found it interesting that I raised a dog and went to buy one herself. What did Jin Yuansen say about her?"
Gu Siyu, sitting lazily with crossed legs, leaning against the chair, replied, "Jin Yuansen said he has known for a long time that You Wanyue and you had an affair. In the relationship between you three – no, it's a relationship between four people, including You Wanyue's husband – what exactly are you doing? I'm confused by all of you."
Huo Junxian made a long "hmm" sound and said, "Before I married Jin Yuansen, You Wanyue and Jin Yuansen were a couple."
"What?" Gu Siyu was shocked; she had no idea about this.
Huo Junxian said, "I was as shocked as you when I first found out. I never expected them to form new families while secretly maintaining their old connections, even conspiring to deceive me and You Wanyue's husband for money. When I mentioned someone deceiving me before you, I was talking about her."
"Do you know her intentions? Why are you still playing along with her?" Gu Siyu clenched her fingers tightly.
So, Huo Junxian had known about You Wanyue's scheme early on. Not only did she associate with You Wanyue, but she also kept it intentionally ambiguous?
Huo Junxian, like the moon in the sky, silently observed everyone's secrets and sins, facing confessions of deep emotions from everyone, still pretending to know nothing?
Was she enjoying it or finding it interesting, cooperating with others in this game?
Gu Siyu's scalp tingled. Wasn't Huo Junxian treating her differently? She knew about You Wanyue's intentions early on, yet she still went along with it. What was Huo Junxian's motive?
Gu Siyu took a deep breath and observed Huo Junxian's expression. She asked, "Does You Wanyue's husband know? Considering your strange relationships."
Gu Siyu was also puzzled. When she repaired You Wanyue's husband's car, Huo Junxian could still talk to him, behaving like friends.
"He knows. You Wanyue's husband loves her a lot," Huo Junxian said. "But he can't blame me for these things. I am the victim."
Gu Siyu couldn't describe how bizarre it was. The four of them had mixed together like a pot of dark sesame paste. And she, unintentionally falling into this black sesame paste, was arrogantly saying, "I am black inside, just like you guys. I want to dominate you all," but...
But she was utterly foolish. This was a quagmire, and even if she realized the danger and struggled hard, she was sinking deeper.
"Any other questions?" Huo Junxian asked.
"You...," Gu Siyu didn't finish her sentence, holding back and saying, "You're quite charming. You Wanyue actually fell for you."
"I don't know about that. It happened suddenly," Huo Junxian said seriously. She looked puzzled, thought for a while, and then added, "Very suddenly. She was deceiving well, and suddenly she said she liked me. I was confused for a long time. Why did she stop deceiving me for money? Why did she suddenly like me? Later, she broke up with Jin Yuansen. I can understand if she didn't like her husband, but not liking Jin Yuansen later on, I can't understand. They were each other's first love, and they had planned to deceive and elope together. It's strange."
"Stop," Gu Siyu didn't want to hear about You Wanyue's romantic journey. No matter how she heard it, none of these four people seemed normal. She asked, "When I first came to find you, I saw you with her, doing this and that in the little grove behind, and she even tried to kiss you. Later, when she found out I was watching, she didn't come to you, and you even cried. Moreover, because of her, you argued with me, and you drugged me. What's your attitude towards her... do you really like her?"
Gu Siyu looked at her sideways; this question was crucial.
Huo Junxian said, "She pulled me; I didn't respond. She has a husband; I won't do anything with her." She touched her lips. "I've never kissed her."
Gu Siyu went through her memory; Huo Junxian seemed not to have responded, and it was always You Wanyue taking the initiative. However, Gu Siyu still felt there was something wrong with her understanding. She said earnestly, "Not responding is still a form of compliance."
Huo Junxian remained silent. In a way, not speaking was also a form of agreement.
At the rectangular dining table, the two sat face to face, confronting each other. Gu Siyu dug deep into Huo Junxian's words, leaving no room for her to evade.
Gu Siyu said, "Then why didn't you directly reject her? Why not expose their actions when you found out?"
"What were you up to?"
Gu Siyu urgently wanted to know what role she played in Huo Junxian's eyes, You Wanyue's number 2, or just the 5th wheel in the peculiar relationships of the previous four?
In response to Gu Siyu's questioning, Huo Junxian's lips slightly parted. She maintained the posture of supporting her chin and said, "Because you were peeking at me at that time."
Gu Siyu frowned, not understanding.
Huo Junxian leisurely wiped her mouth with a tissue. She stood up, pushing the chair away, and walked to Gu Siyu. Teddy followed, foolishly squeezing between them, rubbing against one and then the other. Huo Junxian's hand rested on the white chair as she softly said, "I was just curious at that time. I wanted to see how you would react if you saw me with You Wanyue. I got too absorbed and forgot to push her away. Don't be angry. I won't do that again in the future. Even if You Wanyue comes to me, I won't pay attention to her. Really, I will directly reject her."
Gu Siyu was reluctantly appeased, but only to a very small extent. She slightly calmed the anger but didn't flip the table and leave.
Huo Junxian bowed her body, speaking to her. "Before, it was because Xiao Yu(Teddy) liked her dog, the one you've seen, the brown dog named Cotton. That's why I had some patience dealing with her. I usually don't go out, and it gets even more boring at home after my dad left. Xiao Yu also feels lonely."
Listening to this seemed like consoling Gu Siyu, but it clashed with what Jin Yuansen had said. Gu Siyu just curled her lips, forced a somewhat smile, and struggled to make her expression not look so unpleasant.
They were too close, and the proximity felt suffocating to Gu Siyu. Especially the areas touched by Huo Junxian felt like needles piercing her flesh. Huo Junxian, however, patiently comforted her, saying, "Shall I make something for you again? Let's not think about anything else. Jin Yuansen will be pressed down by us sooner or later. Don't get angry with such people."
In reality, Gu Siyu had lost her appetite. She nodded, saying, "Whatever you want."
Gu Siyu was trying hard to control herself, but it didn't seem that way in Huo Junxian's eyes. Huo Junxian stared at her for a while. Gu Siyu, at this moment, was sulking but showing indifference, looking strangely cute.
"That day, when I cried, it was because something very sad happened. I didn't expect you to misunderstand," Huo Junxian took a few steps and then turned back. She slightly bent down, getting even closer to Gu Siyu. She spoke near Gu Siyu's ear, "I like you, you're different from You Wanyue." She was very serious, revealing some of her thoughts, "Gu Siyu, I like you, I really like you."
Gu Siyu's heart was beating fast, thump-thump, almost to the point of pain.
The pain made her mind clear, and the signals sent out by her brain said this: Listen, the madwoman is telling you that she likes you.
So be it, but Huo Junxian tilted her head slightly, looked at her reaction, and smiled, asking, "And you, what do you feel towards me?"
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Translator's note: Damn, Gu Siyu, just say "Yes, I also like you" 😭. Finally, a formal confession. I hope things go well.
Who wouldn't want a Huo Junxian who's not only beautiful and rich but also a wife material, devoted to liking and serving only you? 🤧 I'm so jealous that I'm about to faint.
TO BE CONTINUE...