Back Then, I Adored You

“To me, the perfect love is having you with me for the rest of my life.”

-Ye Feiyan, “Prince Charming Next Door”

“When I finally met Gu Yusheng after two years of waiting, I was going to ask him why he stood me up that day. He gave me a look and before I could even say anything, he turned to someone else besides him and asked politely, ‘Who is she?’ These three simple words almost caused tears to well in my eyes. So, it turned out that the person I had been waiting for could not remember me at all.”

When Qin Zhi’ai penned this in her diary, she did not expect that she and Gu Yusheng would ever cross paths again. No one would have expected her to be living in his house in another two years.

On the fifth day of her stay at Gu Yusheng’s house, Qin Zhi’ai finally met him.

It was a late night, and while she was sound asleep, she vaguely felt someone lie down beside her. An involuntary shudder went through her and woke her from her sleep immediately.

A man was sleeping beside her.

The lights in the room were dimmed. Qin Zhi’ai could hardly distinguish his features, but she recognized the man as Gu Yusheng.

They hadn’t seen each other for two years. The impromptu meeting caused Qin Zhi’ai to be nervous, not knowing what to do. She tried to calm herself down before she asked, composed, “When did you come back?”

Gu Yusheng did not reply her nor look at her. He swiftly took off his clothes, rolling over and pressing her beneath him.

His body warmth was intimidating to her. Qin Zhi’ai had imagined them meeting each other once again, but never would she have thought that it would be in such a situation. Instinctively, she resisted, trying to break away from him.

“Heh…” Gu Yusheng chuckled like he had just heard a funny joke. He suppressed her again without any effort. Holding her chin and forcing her to raise her face, he whispered the most contemptuous remarks in her ears: “Don’t pretend anymore. You moved into my house, complaining several times to my Grandpa about me leaving you alone here. Didn’t you do all this so I would sleep with you?”

His mockery stunned her into silence. Without realizing what he was doing, he had pulled the quilt off of her, torn her nightgown harshly, and touched her bare skin without any gentleness…

The next morning when Qin Zhi’ai woke up, there was no one around, and Gu Yusheng was nowhere to be seen.

If it weren’t for the soreness of her body and the torn nightgown that was scattered on the floor, she would have thought that everything that happened last night was just a nightmare.

She got up, entered the bathroom, and washed herself. She headed downstairs for breakfast after she had changed into a set of clean clothes. As she passed through the walkway, she looked down over the railings to the living room as usual. Gu Yusheng was standing right in front of the glass window, answering the phone with his back to her.

She subconsciously stopped walking as memories of the night before flashed through her mind.

While she was still in a daze, the phone call ended. The housekeeper, standing right beside him, said politely, “Mr. Gu, the car is ready.”

As he briefly acknowledged the housekeeper, Qin Zhi’ai came out of her thoughts and watched him as he took his jacket from the housekeeper. He walked over to the door and put on his shoes.

Just before he headed out, he seemed to have recalled something. He stopped again. Without looking at the housekeeper, he said evenly, without any emotion, “Get a box of contraceptive pills later. Give them to her after she wakes up.”