After Becoming a Spare Tire, I Got Together with My White Moonlight - Chapter 13

“Alright, this is my friend, surnamed Luan. You can just call her A-Luan.”

Faced with Jiang Xuehe’s smiling expression, Yan Guiqiu ultimately gave in and added emphatically, “She just broke up with her fifth ex-boyfriend last week and went traveling to clear her mind. Otherwise, I would’ve invited her to support your opening day.”

Friend, A-Luan, straight.

The clarification was quite explicit.

Jiang Xuehe’s gaze briefly swept over the girl beside her. She was quite petite roughly around 150 centimeters tall standing a good half-head shorter than Yan Guiqiu. Her expression was lively and animated, and when she looked up, she shyly stuck out her tongue, making her seem not very old at first glance, almost like a high school student or a freshman in college.

But Jiang Xuehe quickly recognized her: Luan Yinghua, the eldest daughter of the Luan family, the very person her mother had tried to curry favor with at the welcome banquet but who never showed up.

Miss Luan simply had a baby face; in reality, she was a year older than Yan Guiqiu and three years younger than Jiang Xuehe.

Her personality, however, matched her appearance quite well, she seemed like a child who never grew up.

Those who knew her identity didn’t dare underestimate her.

The Luan family had a long-standing, unshakable history. They weren’t particularly flashy and didn’t wield overt influence in the business world, yet they carried an air of confidence, never needing to flatter or cozy up to the powerful. This was because their background ran deep, with intricate connections across various sectors, far beyond just business influence.

No one dared offend the Luan family, but winning their favor wasn’t easy either.

To outsiders unfamiliar with them, Yan Guiqiu’s casual attitude toward Miss Luan seemed rather unbelievable.

A-Luan suddenly felt a chill and pulled her coat tighter around herself.

Jiang Xuehe withdrew her gaze, politely greeted her, and gestured toward the gallery with an inviting hand.

As expected from the rumors, Miss Luan was genuinely fascinated by all kinds of artwork. Her eyes lit up the moment she turned her attention, and she unconsciously quickened her pace.

Jiang Xuehe locked the car and fell a step behind, walking into the gallery with Yan Guiqiu.

“Why didn’t you go with her?” Jiang Xuehe asked.

Yan Guiqiu paused for a moment before realizing she was referring to the trip. She had mentioned before that she’d originally planned to travel with a friend but couldn’t because the friend was busy. She hadn’t expected Jiang Xuehe to remember.

“I made plans with another friend back then,” Yan Guiqiu explained. “A-Luan decided on a whim last week and left right away.”

A-Luan’s personality was unpredictable and impulsive. Occasionally, she’d surprise Yan Guiqiu like this, but she rarely stayed with them for long periods. After all, as the eldest daughter of a prominent family, she often encountered unexpected incidents sometimes being called back halfway through an outing, which was quite frustrating.

Yan Guiqiu had many friends, and the ones she usually traveled with were a different group.

“How many close friends do you have?” Jiang Xuehe asked with a light laugh.

“Not that many,” Yan Guiqiu replied innocently, blinking. “I only have three really close ones. I’ll introduce the other one to you when she’s free.”

“That’s enviable,” Jiang Xuehe said.

“Quality over quantity when it comes to friends, it’s not like we’re bulk-buying cabbage,” Yan Guiqiu consoled.

“I wasn’t talking about you.”

“Huh?”

“I mean them.” Jiang Xuehe looked towards A-Luan, who had already run into the shop. “They have such a good relationship with you.”

They could throw themselves at someone without a second thought upon meeting.

Not to mention Song Anchen, a childhood friend who had known Yan Guiqiu since they could remember, it was hard to imagine any bond surpassing that depth.

Jiang Xuehe was twenty years too late.

Though she said meeting was fate, seeing those who had long been close to Yan Guiqiu still made her feel a little envious.

Even slightly jealous.

Yan Guiqiu was momentarily stunned, unsure how to respond to Jiang Xuehe’s straightforward words. After thinking for a while, she stammered, “Our relationship will be just as good in the future.”

Jiang Xuehe smiled and pushed open the gallery door.

A-Luan had already wandered around the small exhibition hall up front, with Xiao He following behind, introducing the paintings on the wall. A-Luan listened quite attentively, nodding from time to time, though it was hard to tell if she was genuinely interested or just politely agreeing.

Hearing the noise at the door, A-Luan turned her head, her gaze sweeping over the two who had entered one after the other before settling on Yan Guiqiu.

“Ah Qiu! I want to eat watermelon!” A-Luan commanded naturally.

“Where are you going to find watermelon in this weather?” Yan Guiqiu said helplessly.

“Modern technology can do anything,” A-Luan declared confidently. “There must be someplace selling it. If this shop doesn’t have it, just try another one.”

Yan Guiqiu’s eyebrow twitched. She glanced at Jiang Xuehe, sighed, and withdrew the foot she had just stepped in with. “Alright, alright, I’ll go take a look. Wait for me here and don’t cause any trouble.”

A-Luan nodded repeatedly.

Xiao He stood to the side, not daring to breathe too loudly. When the front desk phone rang, Jiang Xuehe waved her off, signaling her to answer it and that she would handle things here. Xiao He, as if granted amnesty, scurried away.

The empty exhibition hall was left with only A-Luan and Jiang Xuehe.

Jiang Xuehe guessed that A-Luan had something to say to her, but A-Luan just wandered around in front of the paintings with her hands behind her back, eventually stopping before a painting in the corner and pointing at the nameplate below.

“I want this painting. Can you wrap it up and deliver it to my home?”

“Of course,” Jiang Xuehe nodded. “Just write down the address up front later.”

“Then I’ll trouble you with it.” A-Luan looked quite pleased.

Up front, Xiao He had just hung up the phone, saying that a frame a customer had ordered had arrived, but the customer was going on a business trip in a couple of days and couldn’t make it, hoping it could be delivered directly to their company.

“Then I’ll have to trouble you to make the trip,” Jiang Xuehe glanced at the time. “After you deliver it, you can head home and rest. You can leave early today.”

“Thank you, boss!” Xiao He nodded eagerly, quickly packed her things, and left.

A-Luan sat on a high stool in front of the counter, spinning around while holding onto the bar. She waved as well, waiting until Jiang Xuehe had tidied everything on the counter and noted down her phone number and address. Only then did A-Luan stop, leaning forward slightly, propping her chin on her hand, and peering at the paper.

“I support you two,” A-Luan said abruptly.

Jiang Xuehe’s pen paused, and she wrote a number incorrectly. She looked up at A-Luan.

“You wrote it wrong here, it’s not 7, it’s 2.” A-Luan pointed at the last number, noticing Jiang Xuehe’s gaze. She looked up and saw the slightly surprised expression on her face, stuck out her tongue, and revealed a pleased look of mischief accomplished. “I’m not joking with you.”

Jiang Xuehe picked up her pen again and changed the 7 to a 2.

Should it be said that this was indeed Yan Guiqiu’s “closest” friend?

Jiang Xuehe thought it over and no longer found it strange.

For someone like Yan Guiqiu, the closer the friend, the more they should understand respect. Even if they had genuine concerns deep down, they would never voice them in front of an outsider like her to put her in an awkward position.

“Do you think I’m just saying pleasantries?” A-Luan saw through Jiang Xuehe’s thoughts at a glance. “No, I genuinely think you must be amazing.”

“Why do you say that?” Jiang Xuehe asked.

“Because you’re the one A-Qiu has her eyes on, after all,” A-Luan said matter-of-factly.

She propped her chin and carefully examined Jiang Xuehe’s face. Undeniably, this woman was a rare beauty, it was only natural for someone to fall in love with her at first sight. One could call it “love at first sight.”

It wasn’t exactly a derogatory description, but when applied to Yan Guiqiu, it became rather intriguing.

Jiang Xuehe was beautiful, but to say she was devastatingly enchanting, capable of bewitching hearts and minds that was a stretch.

Faced with such a sudden case of love at first sight and an overly smooth progression, Song Anchen’s concern was natural.

As for A-Luan, what she thought was that Jiang Xuehe must have some remarkable qualities she hadn’t yet discovered.

When it came to Yan Guiqiu, she harbored an indescribable, almost blind admiration.

“How did you and Guiqiu meet?” Jiang Xuehe asked curiously.

“Life-saving grace,” A-Luan replied without hesitation, holding up three fingers. “Three times.”

Compared to Yan Guiqiu’s other two friends, A-Luan had known her for the shortest time around the beginning of high school.

A-Luan was a year ahead of Yan Guiqiu, but as a proper young lady from a wealthy family, she had always attended private schools. Yan Guiqiu happened to be in the same city for high school.

The first time was a human trafficking case, the second a school bus accident. Both incidents involved students from their respective schools, and Yan Guiqiu was among them. Calm and rational beyond her years she was only fifteen or sixteen at the time, she nearly talked the traffickers into walking straight into the police station during the first incident. During the second, she braved the risk of an explosion to rush back onto the bus and carry the injured A-Luan out.

A-Luan had once darkly suspected whether Yan Guiqiu was putting on an act to get close to her because of her family background. But Yan Guiqiu hadn’t even remembered her face and seemed somewhat impatient when A-Luan approached her.

That slight irritation wasn’t directed at A-Luan. It was much later that A-Luan noticed Yan Guiqiu’s glares were reserved for her classmate, the one named Qin Xiangxi.

As if all those misfortunes were caused by her.

Of course, this was A-Luan’s later speculation; Yan Guiqiu had never explicitly said so.

A-Luan went over to thank her. It was during the second incident that she privately and subtly mentioned her identity to Yan Guiqiu. Only then did Yan Guiqiu show a look of realization, scrutinizing her for a long time before uttering not a compliment, but a lukewarm remark.

“Oh, Chairman Luan’s youngest daughter. I’ve heard of you.”

If not for knowing this person had just started high school and was younger than her, A-Luan might have almost mistaken the one standing before her as some old acquaintance of her father’s, looking her over from head to toe with a condescending gaze before revealing a hint of restrained affection unique to elders.

A-Luan suddenly found this person quite annoying.

After returning home, she subtly inquired with her father and, from his vague praises, gathered that this person was likely quite remarkable not because of family background, but because of her own abilities.

The third time, and the moment they truly became familiar, was after A-Luan graduated from high school. Due to some conflicts, she ran away from home. Once outside, she didn’t know where to go. Coincidentally, during that period, Yan Guiqiu had some private dealings with the Luan family. A-Luan had only met her a few times before, but on impulse, she knocked on Yan Guiqiu’s door.

To her surprise, Yan Guiqiu neither turned her away nor notified the Luan family to come and retrieve her.

A-Luan stayed at Yan Guiqiu’s place for over a month, eating, drinking, sleeping, playing games, and occasionally complaining that the host’s cooking didn’t suit her taste. Though Yan Guiqiu grumbled from time to time about how troublesome she was, she still took care of A-Luan diligently and without complaint.

Before the new semester began, Yan Guiqiu had to return to school for supplementary classes. It was only then that A-Luan felt a twinge of guilt for troubling someone else, so she packed her bags and went home.

The expected argument never came. Her father seemed to know where she had been and greeted her as usual. The conflict dissipated without a trace, as if nothing had ever happened. But after that, her father never again pressured his daughter to sacrifice anything.

Much later, when the two had grown closer, A-Luan overheard her drunken father sigh, “What a pity,” and mention how Yan Guiqiu had once worked for the Luan family without pay in exchange for A-Luan’s freedom.

For her father to completely abandon the idea of an arranged marriage, the value of that unpaid work was clearly far more significant than the casual remark suggested. Yet Yan Guiqiu had never mentioned it to A-Luan.

Back then, they were barely even acquaintances.

A-Luan never directly asked Yan Guiqiu about it. Later, she jokingly asked her, “Were you so nice to me because you had a crush on me?”

She didn’t really believe it herself and had no such feelings for Yan Guiqiu. It was just a joke, and she expected Yan Guiqiu, who was usually quick with banter, to play along. To her surprise, Yan Guiqui clarified the matter very seriously.

Yan Guiqiu despised using family or friends as bargaining chips for personal gain. To her, A-Luan showing up at her door felt like an implicit plea for help. She didn’t dislike A-Luan; in fact, she pitied her. As for what she exchanged with the Luan family, it wasn’t a big deal to her.

Later, she decisively broke away from the Yan family, further proving that she truly didn’t care much about leveraging such things for personal gain.

Helping A-Luan was, to her, just a small gesture far from anything as profound as deep affection.

Yan Guiqiu wasn’t a rigid person, but she never joked about matters of the heart.

“You’re the first,” A-Luan said to Jiang Xuehe. “Song Anchen also said it was the first time she’d ever heard A Qiu say she liked someone.”

But unlike the worried Song Anchen, A-Luan was far more optimistic about it.

“If she can fall for someone, maybe she won’t feel so lonely anymore,” A-Luan remarked.

Jiang Xuehe wasn’t entirely sure whom she was referring to.

When it came to the number of friends, she was naturally far behind Yan Guiqiu could someone like her still feel lonely?

A-Luan didn’t delve deeper into it. Among those past events, she only mentioned the incidents of trafficking and the car accident. As for what followed, it was nothing more than Yan Guiqiu taking good care of her, often sheltering her when she ran away from home. Over time, A-Luan could even call her “Mom” without batting an eye though it was mostly in a tone of mutual teasing and complaints.

So, in a way, Yan Guiqiu’s words weren’t entirely untrue.

The “unfilial daughter” wholeheartedly supported Yan Guiqiu’s rare blossoming romance, going so far as to almost create a PowerPoint presentation to highlight her virtues and the benefits of being with her.

Even Jiang Xuehe found it a bit overwhelming. The corner of her eye twitched slightly as she struggled to maintain a smile and said, “That’s truly my honor.”

A-Luan suddenly paused and looked seriously at Jiang Xuehe, saying, “A Qiu is very good to her friends.”

Jiang Xuehe responded with a soft “Mm.”

She thought A-Luan would go on to say that it was just Yan Guiqiu’s nature, and since they had known each other for so long, it had become a habit, hoping she wouldn’t mind.

Perhaps there would also be some clarification that friends were just friends, with absolutely no overstepping of boundaries.

Jiang Xuehe would, of course, have understood.

There was never any reason to cast aside friends just because one was in a relationship.

But A-Luan said to her, “So, she will treat you even better.”

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