Volume One, Chapter Thirteen: His Childhood Friend Covets His Wife
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Gu Jiuci was dressed with unusual formality.
A deep-blue shirt, a black suit, and an ink-black tie gave him a strikingly handsome, austere air.
He gazed at Ye Wu with a faint smile. “Would you care to sit down and have a cup of coffee?”
After a moment, Ye Wu smiled lightly. “Of course.”
Gu Jiuci set down his briefcase. As soon as he took his seat, a waiter approached and asked politely, “What kind of coffee would you like, sir?”
Gu Jiuci tapped the table once with his long fingers. “Blue Mountain.”
The waiter nodded and said he would bring it at once.
After the waiter left, Gu Jiuci leaned back in his chair and instinctively reached for a cigarette. Then, remembering where he was, he frowned and quickly gave up the idea, turning instead to look at Ye Wu…
It had been some time since they had last met, and Ye Wu seemed to have changed quite a bit.
She wore a long milk-tea-colored wool dress that outlined her slender, graceful figure. Her long black hair fell loosely around her shoulders. She wore no particularly expensive jewelry, only a delicate chain resting against her fair collarbone.
There was a gentleness about her now that reminded Gu Jiuci of a lustrous pearl.
“You had an appointment with a lawyer?”
“Are you here on business, Counselor Gu?”
…
They spoke almost simultaneously.
The atmosphere became faintly awkward, but fortunately, the waiter arrived with Gu Jiuci’s coffee, easing the tension.
Gu Jiuci offered a restrained word of thanks, lifted the cup, and took a small sip before speaking to Ye Wu.
He did not mention the divorce proceedings. Instead, he asked about something else. “Some time ago, you happened to run into Mrs. Chen from Meiya? I heard the two of you had quite a pleasant conversation.”
Ye Wu lowered her head and stirred her coffee gently. Her voice was warm and mild. “How did you hear about that?”
Gu Jiuci fixed his gaze on her. “Mr. Chen of Meiya has longstanding ties with my family. Strictly speaking, I should call him Uncle Chen.”
Ye Wu raised her eyes. “That’s quite a surprise. Zhou Jinghuai never mentioned it.”
At the mention of Zhou Jinghuai,
a strange silence fell between them…
Gu Jiuci was, after all, a lawyer deeply versed in the workings of the human heart. Sensing Ye Wu’s discomfort, he changed the subject. “I also heard that you’re thinking of starting a business of your own and are looking for a suitable storefront?”
Ye Wu gave a soft hum. “That’s the idea.”
Gu Jiuci pushed a gold-embossed business card toward her. His gaze grew slightly more profound. “It belongs to a friend of mine. The property is in the atrium of Kyushu Tower, an excellent location for an art-related business. Eight hundred square meters, with an annual rent of 1.2 million.”
Ye Wu accepted the card—
For a location like that, the rent was exceedingly fair.
She did not refuse Gu Jiuci’s kindness.
Although Gu Jiuci had a close relationship with Zhou Jinghuai, the upper circles of the capital were a single interconnected world. Anyone wanting to accomplish anything would find it difficult to escape that circle. Not to mention Gu Jiuci—even where the Zhou family was concerned, Ye Wu would not lightly tear relations apart.
Ye Wu smiled faintly. “I’ll thank you properly for this later.”
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Looking at her faint smile, Gu Jiuci felt an inexplicable flutter in his heart. Yet his expression remained that of an iron-blooded lawyer, and he merely smiled just as faintly. “Think nothing of it.”
Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, sunlight shimmered in scattered points, falling across the tip of Ye Wu’s elegant, straight nose.
It stung slightly.
Ye Wu could not help touching the spot.
She turned her face aside, a trace of embarrassment appearing on her fair features and lending her an even more distinctly feminine softness… Across from her, the man’s gaze seemed to settle on her face casually, concealing thoughts he did not wish anyone to know.
…
Outside the café.
A black Rolls-Royce Phantom was parked by the roadside, its body gleaming with aristocratic splendor beneath the sunlight.
Zhou Jinghuai sat inside the car, silently watching Gu Jiuci and Ye Wu—
his childhood friend and his wife.
Zhou Jinghuai was no fool—
There was nothing innocent in the way Gu Jiuci looked at Ye Wu. Only when a man was interested in a woman did he reveal such an undisguised gaze.
If Zhou Jinghuai remembered correctly, Gu Jiuci was a workaholic who had never cared deeply about any woman.
Yet the first time he had ever fallen for someone, it was for Zhou Jinghuai’s wife.
Should Zhou Jinghuai be angry, or should he secretly take pride in his wife’s allure?
Ye Wu’s clothes were different from before as well. She had cast off her rigid professional suits, and her current style carried a hint of innocent sensuality, as though she had carefully dressed for a date.
Zhou Jinghuai felt deeply uncomfortable. He took out his phone and began calling Ye Wu.
The moment she answered, Zhou Jinghuai asked coldly, “Where are you?”
There was a brief pause before Ye Wu replied, “Do I need to report everywhere I go to you? Zhou Jinghuai, we’re already getting divorced.”
“That is only what you want.”
Ye Wu laughed in exasperation. “Is that so?”
She did not want to continue entangling herself with him. Suppressing her emotions, she tried to speak as calmly as possible. “I no longer have any value to you. Can’t we part on good terms? Zhou Jinghuai, the truth is, I can no longer…”
“Ye Wu!”
Zhou Jinghuai cut her off.
His voice was swift and urgent. He would not allow her to say those two words.
Two children—one named Zhou Lan’an, the other Xiao Zhouyuan.
They had once been their shared wish.
Without the children, it seemed that he and Ye Wu would no longer have any reason to continue together. At that moment, an overwhelming longing surged through him without warning, catching Zhou Jinghuai completely off guard. For a while, he could not even determine how much he truly felt for Ye Wu.
Just as the tension reached its peak, another call came through on Ye Wu’s phone.
It was the aunt who cared for her grandmother.
Without a second thought, Ye Wu hung up on Zhou Jinghuai and answered the woman’s call. The aunt’s voice on the other end was unusually frantic—
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“Miss Ye, something terrible has happened!”
“A young woman came by just now and angered your grandmother so badly that she suffered a heart attack. Fortunately, there was medicine beside the bed, and your grandmother managed to feel around for it and take it herself. Otherwise, I truly can’t imagine what might have happened.”
…
Ye Wu’s face turned deathly pale.
After hanging up, she said to Gu Jiuci, “Something has come up. Counselor Gu, we’ll have to continue our conversation another time.”
Seeing how pale she was, Gu Jiuci was concerned. He was carefully considering whether he should offer to accompany her outside.
But Ye Wu had already hurried away. She was in such haste that she failed to notice Zhou Jinghuai.
Inside and outside the café…
The two men’s gazes collided through a pane of glass.
Zhou Jinghuai’s dark eyes held nothing but icy indifference. Men of their standing could never tolerate someone coveting their wife—especially when that someone was their own childhood friend!
…
Ye Wu rushed to the hospital.
Her grandmother was already out of danger and had fallen asleep after taking her medicine.
Ye Wu bent over the bedside and gently brushed the silver strands from her grandmother’s face. Rare tenderness softened her features.
The aunt called softly to her. “Miss Ye, I need to tell you something.”
Ye Wu straightened slightly. “Let’s talk outside.”
The two of them walked out together.
The aunt recounted everything to Ye Wu in detail. “It was a fairly young girl, but she seemed very shallow. She came up to your grandmother and said she was carrying Mr. Zhou’s child. She demanded that you give up your place. Your grandmother became so furious that she collapsed on the spot.”
“When the girl saw that your grandmother was in distress, she actually did nothing to help and simply ran away.”
“Miss Ye, everything I’m telling you was captured on the surveillance cameras. I’m not making any of this up!”
…
Ye Wu’s hands trembled.
She struggled to restrain her emotions and instructed the woman calmly, “I understand. Please take care of Grandmother for me. I have something to attend to outside.”
The aunt urged her not to worry.
After making all the necessary arrangements, Ye Wu walked toward the other end of the corridor.
The setting sun streamed through the window frames in bands of crimson light, bathing Ye Wu in a blaze of fire. Her face was filled with the coldness of the human world.
Ye Wu could lose love. She could lose Zhou Jinghuai. She could lose everything.
But she could not lose her grandmother.
Her grandmother was her absolute boundary—
and now Bai Qianqian had crossed it!
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