Beneath the table, Ming Li’s hands were clenched into fists. She glared at Gu Qingshuang. “Do you want to buy me again? To trample my dignity into the dirt, to grind it into dust, and remind me over and over that I’m just a commodity you purchased? That I only need to fulfill my duties as a product, to be replaced whenever time runs out or you’re unhappy? While I… I have no choice at all.”
Gu Qingshuang’s eyes widened in shock. “I never thought of you that way…”
“You might not have thought it, but that is exactly how you acted!” Ming Li grabbed her bag, her voice freezing. “You have always prioritized your own feelings. What I think has never mattered. That’s why you keep coming back to me, trying to use money to maintain this connection.”
Ming Li pulled out her phone and, right in front of her, moved Gu Qingshuang’s WeChat to her block list.
Gu Qingshuang grabbed her wrist. “Ming Li…”
Ming Li’s eyes were red as she looked at her. “From this day forward, our paths are separate, Gu Qingshuang.”
As Gu Qingshuang opened her mouth to speak, Ming Li’s voice went hoarse. “I’m begging you. Just let me go.”
Let me go.
Those three words carried immense weight.
Gu Qingshuang stood frozen as if struck by lightning. She had never realized she was such a heavy burden to Ming Li. Her grip instinctively loosened, and Ming Li pulled her wrist away.
Ming Li closed her eyes. “Let’s leave it at that. Don’t contact me again.”
With that, she walked out.
Gu Qingshuang stood there like a statue. Ming Li’s words were like axes, swinging at her from every direction, splitting her entire being apart.
As Ming Li’s silhouette vanished, a mist clouded Gu Qingshuang’s eyes.
Gu Qingshuang thought to herself: I think I’ve done something wrong.
But what exactly did I do wrong?
She only wanted to maintain a relationship that wouldn’t change.
Emerging from the restaurant, Ming Li walked aimlessly.
After crossing four or five intersections, the cold wind finally began to disperse the suffocating feeling in her chest. Her face was flushed bright red from the cold.
At some point, tiny flakes of snow began to drift from the sky. Someone in the crowd shouted, “It’s snowing!”
The crystalline flakes landed on people, carrying a piercing chill. Ming Li stood by a traffic light; soon, a light dusting of white covered her clothes, and a few flakes even settled on her eyelashes.
Gu Qingshuang’s car was stopped at the crosswalk. Her gaze was fixed on Ming Li diagonally across from her.
As the snow fell, Ming Li stood there quietly. The look she gave the snow was friendlier than any look she had given Gu Qingshuang.
Ming Li seemed to really love the snow. Even now, the corners of her mouth were turned up slightly—she looked peaceful and beautiful.
Gu Qingshuang suddenly remembered last winter. The first snow in Jingan had been exceptionally heavy. When she woke up that morning, she had even received a text alert from the service provider warning citizens to be careful when traveling.
The snow was deep enough to reach a person’s shins. When Gu Qingshuang woke up, she saw Ming Li standing on the balcony, staring at the snow with eyes full of hope.
Gu Qingshuang had asked her what she was looking for.
Ming Li said she was looking for a snowman.
When Gu Qingshuang went to look, she saw nothing but a vast expanse of white. The world was wrapped in silver, and the whistling, bitter wind was filled with tiny ice particles, but no actual “snowmen.”
Ming Li had smiled and said, “I’m going to go build one in a bit. Then there will be one.”
Gu Qingshuang hadn’t built a snowman in a long time. The last time was the winter she was seventeen, when she, Chun Liuyi, and Liu Siwang built three of them. At the time, Gu Qingshuang only wanted to build one as a gesture, but Chun Liuyi refused, insisting they needed three.
So, the three of them hauled snow and packed it together, fueled by endless youthful energy until they were exhausted. In the end, they sat beside their respective snowmen and flashed peace signs. In that photo, the most vibrant things were their three red scarves.
Thinking of that winter, Gu Qingshuang asked Ming Li, “When are you going to build your snowman?”
“Tonight,” Ming Li replied. “Do you want to build it with me?”
Back then, Ming Li’s eyes were sparkling with a hint of expectation. It made it hard for Gu Qingshuang to refuse.
But after a moment’s thought, Gu Qingshuang had declined coldly. “No. I have to work late tonight.”
Gu Qingshuang had indeed worked very late that night, finishing her last surgery at ten o’clock. When she returned to the Gu Manor, it was still snowing.
Her car struggled through the courtyard. Where the headlights shone, the world was a blinding white. And in that whiteness, Ming Li—wearing a red scarf and gloves—was crouching on the ground, building a snowman.
Gu Qingshuang walked over and saw that the snowman was only half-finished. Ming Li’s nose was red from the cold, and her eyes were red, too.
“It’s cold. Go inside,” Ming Li urged her. “You can see the snowman from the window.”
In the end, Gu Qingshuang had crouched down and helped her finish it.
The two of them worked in silence until the early hours of the morning. When they returned to the room and Ming Li took off her gloves, her hands were bright red. So were Gu Qingshuang’s.
They turned on the hot water and soaked their hands. Ming Li asked Gu Qingshuang if her hands hurt, and Gu Qingshuang said no.
Ming Li had pouted. “Mine hurt like hell. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have built it.”
Yet that night, she stood by the window and watched that snowman for an hour.
When Gu Qingshuang walked over, Ming Li pointed it out to her. “See? I told you there’d be a snowman.”
“Yes,” Gu Qingshuang replied. “You’ll have everything you want.”
Ming Li just smiled at her and said nothing.
But that snow had been heavy, and the temperature rose quickly. The snowman they had built together melted into a puddle by noon the next day.
This year’s snow looked like it would be heavy too, but there would be no snowman to see from the window.
The light turned green. The cars behind her honked incessantly. Gu Qingshuang’s car moved forward. As she crossed the pedestrian line, she rolled down the window, letting the whistling wind and snow swirl into the car.
Gu Qingshuang passed Ming Li in the car, but after a short distance, she turned on her hazard lights and pulled over, watching through the rearview mirror.
In the mirror, Ming Li looked small, yet she caught the eye, wrapping her wool coat tight as she blended into the crowd.
Even though she watched Ming Li intently, once she passed the intersection, she could no longer find her figure. It was just like that day—she had simply taken a nap, and when she woke up, Ming Li had decided to end everything.
Gu Qingshuang suddenly felt a hollowness in her heart. This winter was destined to be very cold.
Ming Li started walking back. In the North, people generally don’t use umbrellas when it snows; it’s an unspoken rule.
But Ming Li was different. Growing up, there was always someone to hold an umbrella for her when it snowed. She used to be secretly rebellious, letting the snow fall on her outside, then going into the warm indoors to let it melt into water on her clothes.
Now, with no one to care whether she used an umbrella or not, she walked back at a leisurely pace.
Because of the anger in her heart, she had walked quite a distance without realizing it. On the way back, her legs began to ache before she finally reached her car.
![Malicious Female Lead’s Guide to Causing Trouble [Quick Transmigration]](https://i2.wp.com/dobytranslations.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/quick-t.jpg?resize=151,215 "Malicious Female Lead’s Guide to Causing Trouble [Quick Transmigration]")
