Chapter 14: Jealousy and Static

It was eleven at night by the time Ming Li returned to Gu Manor. The entire house was hushed and still.

A servant stepped forward to ask if she wanted a late-night snack, but Ming Li had no appetite. Handing over her shawl, she asked, “Has Miss Qingshuang returned?”

“She hasn’t been back since she left with you, Madam,” the servant replied.

Ming Li lowered her gaze, her fingers still clutching Gu Qingshuang’s phone.

Worrying was useless now. She could only wait for Elder Madam Gu to contact her or wait for Gu Qingshuang to wake up and come home.

Regardless, she would eventually have to return to Gu Manor… wouldn’t she?

Ming Li wasn’t certain. With a heavy heart, she took a shower. When she stepped out, the room felt stiflingly warm, and she instinctively looked for the air conditioning remote.

She finally found it lying by Gu Qingshuang’s pillow. The moment she turned it on, a gust of cold air surged out, making the room feel suddenly cavernous and empty. Usually, Gu Qingshuang was the only one who kept the room this cold.

Ming Li sat on the edge of the bed for a while, vacillating between calling Elder Madam Gu for news and fearing she would seem flighty—or worse, that she would receive bad news.

Sometimes, no news was good news.

As she dried her long, damp hair, her mind was a cluttered mess. She was so distracted that she didn’t even notice her phone ringing at first. It wasn’t until the sudden, jarring roar of a song’s chorus filled the room that her thoughts snapped back to reality.

It was Zhu Hanxing.

Ming Li’s tensed heart settled slightly. She wiped her hands and answered, “Still awake this late?”

“I thought you were the one asleep,” Zhu Hanxing laughed on the other end. “My dear princess, I sent you dozens of WeChat messages and you didn’t reply to a single one. If you hadn’t picked up this call, I was about to give up.”

“I wasn’t sleeping.” Ming Li hid the fact that she had been staring into space, offering a vague excuse. “I was in the shower.”

“Fair enough. So, how is that woman of yours?” Hanxing clicked her tongue. “I never would have guessed. Seriously, she’s a total badass.”

“What?” Ming Li blinked, startled.

“Gu Qingshuang!” Hanxing realized Ming Li hadn’t seen the messages and decided to summarize. “The stuff that happened at the banquet tonight. One of my gossip groups is going wild sharing a video of it. Even though the quality is grainy as hell, I recognized your wife instantly. I always thought she was as cold as she looked on the surface, but I never expected…”

Before Hanxing could finish, Ming Li interrupted, “Wait, let me look at the messages first.”

Specifically, she needed to see that video.

Ming Li put the call on speaker and hurriedly scanned the messages Hanxing had sent earlier. Most were Hanxing’s expressions of shock, while others were screenshots of information she’d scavenged from various group chats.

Tonight’s banquet was a high-end, private affair, but Lu Tingsong had likely invited people from the entertainment industry with Lu Guixiao’s future career in mind.

Someone had been bold enough to secretly record a video and leak it.

The video had started circulating in gossip circles shortly after Gu Qingshuang had struck that man. Zhu Hanxing had been lurking in the groups under a burner account, playing the “newbie” to dig for info. The people in those circles were cautious, using initials to discuss how the incident involved “Ly” and “G’s wife.”

Others might not know who “G” was, but Hanxing had recognized Gu Qingshuang immediately.

She had been so worried that she’d gone AFK in the middle of a gaming match just to spam Ming Li with calls.

After watching the video, Ming Li realized it was indeed very blurry. Unless someone already knew Gu Qingshuang personally like Hanxing did, it would be hard for a stranger to identify her. Her heart finally eased.

Once she confirmed the fallout wasn’t too disastrous, Ming Li replied to Hanxing, “It’s nothing major.”

“Are you hurt?” Hanxing asked with genuine concern.

“No,” Ming Li said. “Gu Qingshuang, she…”

She trailed off, realizing she didn’t truly know Gu Qingshuang’s current condition and that it wasn’t appropriate to tell Hanxing everything. But Hanxing was already pressing, “What about her? Is she injured?”

“In a way,” Ming Li said ambiguously.

Hanxing was puzzled. “What do you mean ‘in a way’? Is she not with you?”

“No.” Ming Li pursed her lips.

“What happened? She basically got hurt because of you. Out of common decency, you should be looking after her.”

Ming Li wanted to, but Elder Madam Gu hadn’t given her the chance.

“It’s not exactly an injury,” Ming Li explained. “She hit someone, and then she…”

She hadn’t seemed to have any external wounds, yet she had lost consciousness. Could it have been low blood sugar? It didn’t seem like it.

“Huh?” Hanxing was baffled. “She didn’t get hit at all?”

“No,” Ming Li said.

Hanxing chuckled. “Damn, your girl is impressive.”

Ming Li: “…”

One of the reasons being friends with Zhu Hanxing was so comfortable was that she never made things difficult. The moment she sensed Ming Li was hesitant about a topic, she would immediately pivot.

While Ming Li was still agonizing over how to respond, Hanxing had already jumped to the next subject. “Li-jie, I’ve been thinking… I don’t think your wife is as indifferent toward you as she seems.”

“Huh?” Ming Li was caught off guard. “Are you talking about her hitting that guy today?”

“No,” Hanxing said. “Remember when I called you earlier and she answered your phone? She sounded pretty annoyed when she heard my voice, hahaha.”

Recalling Gu Qingshuang’s tone at the time, Hanxing became more convinced the more she analyzed it. Finally, she said with certainty, “She’s definitely jealous of how close we are.”

Knowing nothing of the actual conversation, Ming Li could only listen to Hanxing’s conclusion. She said helplessly, “Are you okay in the head?”

“I’m serious,” Hanxing insisted. “Her voice was so cold. One hundred percent jealous.”

“She’s cold to everyone.”

“It’s different.”

“…”

Ming Li couldn’t win the argument, so she let her friend speculate. After a while, Hanxing got bored of the topic and switched gears again. “Oh, by the way, who is this ‘Ly’ everyone is mentioning? Is that Gu Qingshuang’s ex-girlfriend?”

Hanxing paused. “But wasn’t her ex named something-Deng? The one from our year, she was quite the beauty.”

“Ah—”

A sudden, stabbing pain lanced through Ming Li’s brain. She let out a sharp gasp, followed by a loud cry of pain that far exceeded her usual volume. It was so sudden it left Hanxing stunned on the other end of the line.

A few seconds passed before Hanxing asked tentatively, “Li-jie?”

“Do you… not want to hear about this? I won’t say another word,” Hanxing said quickly.

But Ming Li was staring blankly at her phone, her eyes vacant. Her ears were filled with a deafening, crackling static. She knew Hanxing was talking.

But—what was Hanxing saying?

She couldn’t hear a single word.