To Covet (GL) - Chapter 67

Changlin Road wasn’t far. Since I wasn’t familiar with coffee shops, it took me a turn on the road to find the Starbucks entrance.

The smell of coffee was a little pungent.

“Why didn’t you go to evening self-study today?” I asked her.

“Oh, I scheduled a class with an outside tutor, so I’m not going back to school.”

This was followed by an awkward silence.

“Where is she?” Gao Rui asked me.

“Who?”

“Yu Zhouwan.”

“She went to an outside class,” I responded mechanically.

Gao Rui put down her paper cup and asked what I wanted to drink.

I said I didn’t like coffee.

“So picky. Not even a latte with sugar?” She ordered one for herself. “Oh, right, so? What did you find out?”

“Huh?”

“My brother,” Gao Rui yawned. “You asked me his name before. I thought you already knew and just wanted to confirm with me.”

“Know… what?”

I didn’t like her secretive way of talking, but Gao Rui had been in a bad mood and ignored me for the past few days. I planned to follow her lead and resolve my confusion about these few days—why her attitude towards me suddenly turned sour, and now suddenly improved, taking the initiative to ask me to talk.

“Gao Rui, is your brother named Shen Yuhang?”

“He used to be called that, but he got into some trouble and changed his name to avoid attention.” She smiled brightly, seemingly knowing I would ask these questions.

“You still haven’t told me, ‘know’ what exactly?”

“If you want to know the inside story, you can ask him yourself,” Gao Rui spread her hands, unwilling to answer me. “Ask your father. This should be a family matter for you. You have the right to know.”

“What did he do?” I took a sip of the coffee and got burned. I pretended not to notice the provocation in her words. “Does it have anything to do with your brother?”

To my barrage of questions, Gao Rui chewed her sandwich and didn’t answer.

Her every movement and expression told me that she was deliberately stalling, dangling a topic to keep me hooked, and was quite pleased with my anxious demeanor.

“I can’t say. You won’t believe it anyway.”

Gao Rui gave a fake smile, knowing she had successfully piqued my curiosity. Now, even if she took a broom to chase me away, I wouldn’t leave. So, she truly started playing coy.

“Besides, I don’t get involved in breaking up other people’s family harmony.”

I put down the paper cup, realizing I had unconsciously chewed the opening of the lid into a mess.

Joke. What harmony? I’d be ecstatic if Yu Hanyang went bankrupt tomorrow. I wouldn’t be sleeping on the streets anyway.

“Spit it out.”

“You really want to know?” Seeing that I knew it was a trap but stepped right into it, Gao Rui seemed a little smug. “Then you answer one question for me first.”

I nodded.

“Why did you come to Linzhou?”

“Huh? Coming to Linzhou is of course…” A myriad of ways to express it flashed through my mind. “Because my mother passed away, so my father had to be responsible for raising me, so I came.”

“Did he do it willingly?”

“Of course not.”

I wished Yu Hanyang was that responsible.

“I wasn’t willing to let him shake me off, pretend he didn’t have a daughter like me, marry his mistress with a clear conscience, live a comfortable life, and just leave me there, ignoring me. No matter what, I’m his daughter. It’s his responsibility.”

“But I don’t feel like you hate him, though,” she didn’t conceal the offensiveness in her tone, which was annoying. “You seem to quite enjoy being in this family.”

“I have no choice, after all, I can’t be independent right now, so I have to pretend, right?”

I ticked off the days on my fingers. In about a year, I could expose everything he’d done—domestic violence against his ex-wife, marital infidelity, and so on.

“Then what will you do after you become independent?”

Gao Rui pushed the ordering screen in front of me.

I shook my head, indicating I didn’t want to eat.

She still ordered two sandwiches for herself.

“How will you treat him? Cut ties with him and live independently? Or do you have other plans…”

I couldn’t speak. I felt that everything I imagined sounded too childish and naive in her tone, as if the person sitting across from me wasn’t a peer but a businesswoman like Shi Yunya who had endured the hardships of society.

“Okay, Yu Keyi, I definitely asked you out today for a reason,” she pushed up her glasses. “I need you to cooperate with me… or rather, not with me, but with someone else.”

“With whom?”

“Wait a moment.” She glanced at the time. “She should be here in about ten minutes.”

“Wait, wait. Gao Rui, I don’t understand. What do you need me to do?”

I initially wanted to ask her, “Why do you care so much about my family matters?” But the words felt strange, as if she cared about me and I cared about this family.

“Yu Keyi, I’m asking you, do you want to see Yu Hanyang get his comeuppance?” This was the first time she had called me by my full name.

I nodded seriously.

“Good.” She made a face. “I hope you won’t lie to me.”

“When have I ever lied to you?”

“You have, but it doesn’t exactly count as lying to me,” I rarely saw her shed her dull student demeanor and act like a cunning little fox. “I thought you really enjoyed being with their family of three. If you were really that foolish and willing to take that sweet deal, I wouldn’t mind exposing your secret.”

“What secret?”

I had a bad feeling, but I had to remain calm.

“I can’t say. The premise of negotiation is mutual trust. Saying it would make me seem unreliable.”

She waved to someone behind me. I saw a woman in sportswear walking towards us. As she passed me, I smelled a mixture of mothballs and mustiness.

“Let me introduce you. This is Sister Lu Xiaoting,” Gao Rui placed the extra sandwich she ordered in front of Lu Xiaoting. “Here you go. You haven’t eaten yet, have you?”

“This is Yu Keyi.”

Lu Xiaoting looked at me, lowered her head, and quietly stuffed food into her mouth.

My hands were on my lap, sitting as stiffly and straight as I did in kindergarten while waiting for snacks.

“Eat slowly.”

Gao Rui picked up a lettuce leaf that had fallen onto the table and tossed it into the empty paper cup.

After Lu Xiaoting finished eating, she wiped her mouth haphazardly with her sleeve.

“You are Yu Hanyang’s daughter?”

I said “Mhm,” clarifying, “His ex-wife’s daughter.”

I didn’t really want to be associated with him. He didn’t give birth to me, anyway.

“I know,” Lu Xiaoting clapped her hands. She wasn’t full, but getting down to business was important. “Where is your mother?”

“She passed away.”

Lu Xiaoting didn’t react. This was within her expectation.

“Have you told her about the business between us yet?”

“Not yet,” Gao Rui tried to order more food, but Lu Xiaoting refused with a look. “I wanted to wait for you to tell her.”

“Let’s change location,” Lu Xiaoting looked around. “Too many people here.”

“Then let’s go to my house. My grandma and grandpa are at a banquet today.”

I wondered what mysterious topic couldn’t be discussed in public, but from the moment Lu Xiaoting locked the door until Gao Rui sent the bewildered me out of the house, I still hadn’t fully processed the information.

“Yu Keyi, wait,” Gao Rui stood on the steps, hands in her pockets, warning me one more time. “Swear that you won’t tell Yu Hanyang any of what you found out today.”

“Mhm, I swear.” I swallowed, feeling like there was a hidden meaning in her words.

“If you break your promise, I won’t mind exposing what’s going on between you and Yu Zhouwan.”

My head buzzed. I turned and walked back toward her, a worst-case scenario premonition blooming in my mind.

“Although being gay isn’t a rare thing these days,” she narrowed her eyes, wearing a look of having seen it all. “But with your own sister… that’s a first for me.”

“Even though you’re not from the same mother, you still share a blood relationship, right?”

“I saw it, you know.” She propped her chin on her hand, displaying a knowing smile. “Yu Keyi, you’re quite proactive in kissing your own sister.”

My mind went blank. I forgot to try to deny the relationship.

“Alright, I know you want to say you don’t care. Anyway, once you leave Linzhou, you still have family, and nobody knows who you are,” It was rare to see Gao Rui smiling so happily, as if the usually reserved female classmate had been taken over by another personality. “But Yu Keyi, she’s different. Yu Zhouwan has met many important people as a student representative. Almost everyone knows her. You wouldn’t want a good student like her to be pointed at and cursed, would you?”

I took two steps back. She jumped down the steps and got close to me.

“However, you and I are good friends. I won’t tell anyone, and I don’t have any proof. It’s just what I saw, so it doesn’t count,” she forcibly grabbed my hand and made a pinky promise. “I believe that, just like us, you really want to see Yu Hanyang dead.”