Chapter 112: Keep Me on the Side Part 2

“You said you liked me,” Gu Qingshuang said with stubborn obsession.

Ming Li corrected her. “That was in the past.”

“But I like you now,” Gu Qingshuang argued. “If you hadn’t liked me before, I wouldn’t have fallen for you.”

“Are you sure that’s actually love?” Ming Li’s entire body was tense, yet she refused to let herself lose ground. “Why is it that you only like me because I liked you first? Does that mean you’d return the feelings of anyone who liked you?”

The peaceful negotiation they had intended had devolved into a fierce debate.

They traded barbs, neither willing to yield. Their breaths mingled, and Gu Qingshuang’s body temperature was high—climbing higher by the second.

Ming Li didn’t know if it was an illusion or if the fever was truly that bad, but she felt hot as well.

She desperately wanted to escape this environment.

“Of course not.” Gu Qingshuang stared at her, her gaze sweeping over Ming Li’s lips with a hint of feverish desire. She lightly licked her own lips, her eyes shimmering. “I only like you.”

Ming Li was speechless.

She realized she couldn’t let herself be led by Gu Qingshuang’s logic anymore. She had to break out of this conversation immediately.

Tangling with Gu Qingshuang would lead to no good end.

“But I don’t like you anymore,” Ming Li said. “I don’t want you showing up in my life abruptly like this. You’re acting like a relentless madwoman, like a piece of skin-plaster I can’t shake off. You’re disrupting my life. You wanted peace before, and I gave it to you. Now I’m the one who wants peace—can’t you show me the same respect?”

“But you don’t have peace. Are you at peace when you’re with Luo Chaoxue?”

“Yes.” Ming Li felt as though Gu Qingshuang’s lips might touch hers at any moment. Her heart was pounding. She spoke through gritted teeth. “She is gentler than you, more tolerant, and more respectful. Naturally, I am more at peace!”

“I can give you those things too, as long as you’re with me,” Gu Qingshuang said. “Didn’t you say you liked me? How can you be with her?”

The proximity was making Ming Li’s blood boil. Having lacked intimacy for so long, this sudden physical contact was difficult to resist.

Especially since Gu Qingshuang carried a scent she was familiar with—a scent she loved.

Furthermore, she knew every one of Gu Qingshuang’s buttons.

They might have lacked chemistry in other areas, but physically… they were perfectly synchronized.

Ming Li frowned and averted her eyes, reaching out to push her away. “Feelings change.”

“You’re lying.” Gu Qingshuang reached out and pinched her chin. “Look at me, Ming Li. Do you really have no feelings left for me?”

Ming Li was forced to meet her gaze. She hated this feeling of being restrained, yet when she faced Gu Qingshuang’s features, she felt a sense of helplessness.

She did like her.

It was a visceral, physical attraction.

It even carried a trace of psychological dependence she couldn’t quite name.

In Ming Li’s heart, the image of Gu Qingshuang was always frozen at the moment they first met—a woman so beautiful she seemed otherworldly.

Gu Qingshuang had a cold, elegant beauty, but her eyes weren’t narrow. Her lashes were long, and when she stared directly at someone, it was almost unnerving.

No one could escape her gaze.

Ming Li closed her eyes. “What answer do you want to hear, Gu Qingshuang?”

“You’re lying,” Gu Qingshuang’s voice hitched with a sob. “Your heart is beating so fast. You still like me.”

“I already have a girlfriend,” Ming Li said, throwing caution to the wind. “Just give up.”

Gu Qingshuang looked as if she had been struck by lightning. After a long pause, she asked, “You’re really with her?”

Ming Li couldn’t make her give up through peaceful means, so she had to use this extreme method.

“Yes.” Ming Li sensed Gu Qingshuang’s grip loosen and immediately tried to shift toward the door. However, Gu Qingshuang lunged after her instantly, her body halfway over the center console and into the driver’s seat. “You aren’t lying to me?”

“What would I gain from lying to you?” Ming Li countered.

Gu Qingshuang froze. “You want me to give up.”

“Shouldn’t you?” Ming Li said. “You should have known there was no ‘later’ when we divorced.”

“But I’ve only just begun! Is that fair to me?” Gu Qingshuang argued. “You never told me you liked me!”

Ming Li’s eyes snapped red at those words. “Could I have? You were always keeping your distance! I had to follow the contract! I wasn’t allowed to like you!”

“But our contract is over now! Why won’t you like me anymore?” Gu Qingshuang questioned, her face almost touching Ming Li’s. “If you like me, why do you have to torture me like this?”

Ming Li felt a dull ache in her chest, but she knew that a clean break was better than lingering pain. She forced herself to speak coldly. “Because I don’t like you anymore.”

Before the words had even fully left her mouth, Gu Qingshuang’s cool, trembling lips pressed against Ming Li’s. Ming Li looked at her in shock, but Gu Qingshuang was already trying to use her tongue to pry open Ming Li’s teeth.

While Ming Li was stunned, Gu Qingshuang desperately drew warmth from her lips, kissing her with a frantic, almost prayer-like devotion.

But a second later, Ming Li bit down hard on the tip of her tongue. The taste of copper filled her mouth. She shoved Gu Qingshuang away and slapped her across the face. “Are you insane?”

The weakness brought on by the kiss meant the slap lacked full force, but it still landed solidly on Gu Qingshuang’s cheek.

Gu Qingshuang only dazed for a second before staring back at her intently. “Yes, I am insane. I can’t stand to see you with someone else.”

“But we can’t go back,” Ming Li said. “I have a girlfriend now.”

Silence stretched in the car. Ming Li finally let out a breath, thinking that Gu Qingshuang had finally given up.

Gu Qingshuang’s behavior tonight was so abnormal it frightened her.

Ming Li reached for the door handle, intending to leave the dangerous area immediately.

The current Gu Qingshuang was a world apart from the woman she used to be.

Ming Li didn’t know if this was just how Gu Qingshuang acted when she fell in love, or if she simply couldn’t accept failure and was determined to get what she wanted by any means necessary.

But it didn’t matter anymore.

Ming Li was determined to sever ties, even if it meant using such a lie.

Unexpectedly, just as she pushed the door open and a gust of cold wind rushed in, Gu Qingshuang spoke in a low, ghostly voice.

“Then… just keep me on the side.”

She spoke softly, her voice hollow. “I won’t show my face in front of her. Just in case one day you like me again… and decide to dump her.”

Ming Li: “…??”