I Helped My Best Friend with Her Romance—and Fell for the Enemy’s Strategist - Chapter 39

“Is it not serious? I always feel like there might be something off about her.”

Lin Ruocheng had previously gathered some information, so she was aware of the other person’s preferences.

She even knew detailed habits, menstrual cycle dates, likes, dislikes, everything.

[Lin Ruocheng]: I’ll wait for you at the school gate tomorrow.
[Fu Yanxi]: Okay.

Late at night, Fu Yanxi was still awake.

The side of her face that had been slapped remained swollen and red, but thankfully, an ice pack had eased the pain somewhat.

It didn’t hurt as much now.

Sitting at her computer desk, she still had some work left unfinished.

Ever since she got into university,

her mother had started letting her gradually take on responsibilities within the Fu Corporation.

She had already handled a few projects, and the results were quite good.

There were two knocks on the door.

“Come in.”

Mother Fu entered from outside, carrying a cup of warm milk.

How could she not feel heartache seeing the swelling on her daughter’s face?

This was the daughter she had poured all her effort into raising.

From childhood to adulthood, this daughter had always been outstanding.

Never giving her any cause for worry.

She had thought her daughter would be just like her, despising homosexuality, even instilling in her from kindergarten that homosexuality was a sickness, something utterly disgusting.

She never expected that, as she grew up, her daughter would become the very thing she loathed the most.

She herself had married at thirty, after testing her husband for a full five years.

Only when she was sure he was a good man did she decide to have a child.

But once she was far along in her pregnancy, the man began to reveal his true nature.

He recklessly fooled around with his boyfriend.

Once, he even brought him home and did those kinds of things.

She was utterly disgusted.

“Mother…”

Fu Yanxi stood up. She knew some of these things, her mother had taught her since childhood not to be homosexual, arranging for her to play only with boys since kindergarten. Yu Qiuli was purely an accident. She understood what her mother was thinking.

All these years, she had obediently followed the path laid out for her, striving to be the perfect, filial daughter.

But sexual orientation, it truly was beyond her control.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have secretly admired Lin Ruocheng for seven whole years without ever exchanging more than a few words with her.

Perhaps this was simply her fate.

“Does it still hurt?”

Mother Fu had never regretted having this child; she was her pillar.

The one thought that kept her going all these years.

Afraid that a stepfather might mistreat Fu Yanxi, she never agreed to any suitors, even when pursued.

All she wanted was to give Fu Yanxi a good life.

“It doesn’t hurt anymore… Mother, I understand how you feel… but sexual orientation really isn’t something I can control…”

Fu Yanxi hadn’t originally planned to reveal her sexual orientation to her mother so soon.

But some things couldn’t remain unspoken, she was worried her mother might cause trouble for Lin Ruocheng.

Lin Ruocheng hadn’t done anything wrong; the fault was hers alone.

It was she who had secretly admired her, falling for her from afar since they were young.

“Can’t control it? Then you must control it anyway… I don’t care if you’re homosexual or not, in the end, you must marry and have children!”

She only wanted her child to be normal.

What was wrong with that?

Wasn’t marrying and having children what normal people were supposed to do?

Coming into this world, one must experience everything life has to offer.

Don’t take the niche path.

After all, so many people nowadays are choosing to marry and have children, why should Fu Yanxi be the exception?

Can’t she just be less special?

All I want is a daughter with a normal sexual orientation.

Why is that so difficult?

“But, Mother, how is this any different from what Father did back then? Even if I follow your advice and marry and have children, wouldn’t I just be deceiving another man? That man would become a ‘tongfu’ a husband in a lavender marriage, and the pain you once felt would simply be transferred to him. Is that what you want to see?”

Exactly the same.

Twenty-one years ago, that man had said the same thing to her.

She had once confronted him:

“If you love someone else, why did you choose to marry me?”

He said he didn’t want to bear the pressure from his parents and wanted to appear as a normal man in the eyes of others.

He wanted a child to take care of him in his old age…

“Tomorrow’s blind date… you should still go and see. Don’t call me for a while. I need time to reflect on whether what I’ve been insisting on for so long is right. Give me some time.”

For a moment, she seemed to see her former mother-in-law.

After that man died, her so-called mother-in-law went completely mad, constantly muttering about whether things would have been better if she hadn’t forced him to marry and have children.

Would he not have chosen to end his life then?

Her words were all about altruism, yet she, the deceived “tongqi” the wife in a lavender marriage, had been kept completely in the dark.

From dating to engagement, it took a full six years before she discovered the truth.

For six whole years, she had believed he was a gentleman.

He never forced her into intimacy and always took meticulous care of her.

She thought she had found someone to spend her life with.

Little did she know, she was the most pitiful one, a tongqi.

He said they could divorce, but he had to have the child, it would be the only child he and his boyfriend would ever have.

So… what about her?

What was she? A reproductive tool?

When she was young, she deeply despised people like that.

But in that moment earlier, it felt as if she had become the very person she once loathed.

“Alright, I’ll go.”

Fu’s mother still held onto a sliver of hope that her daughter was joking, what if she was actually interested in men?

Fu Yanxi knew it was difficult for her mother to accept that her own daughter was also a lesbian.

But since her mother had said as much, it seemed acceptance wasn’t entirely out of reach.

Although her mother had strong controlling tendencies, Fu Yanxi understood that, as the mother of a tongqi, she had already done her best.

Rather than tiptoeing around the truth, perhaps this was the best way to handle it.

…

The next day, Lin Ruocheng was waiting for Fu Yanxi at the school gate early in the morning.

She carried breakfast in her hand, along with a small bottle of anti-swelling spray.

She wondered how badly Fu Yanxi had been beaten.

Surely, she didn’t end up with a face swollen like a pig’s head, right?

Well, even if she did… she could tolerate it.

After all, this was the most prized voice in Lancheng, as long as her voice was unharmed, nothing else mattered.

Just kidding, she was very particular about looks.

Her obsession with appearance was entirely inherited from her mother. Rumor had it that Lin Yue had also been captivated by Lu Shi’s looks back in the day, which eventually led to her becoming her mom.

Before long, Fu Yanxi arrived at the school gate, wearing a hat and a face mask.

At first glance, Lin Ruocheng caught her eye. She was wearing an orange floral dress today, paired with an orange hairband, fully embracing a sweet, soft aesthetic.

Lin Ruocheng noticed her right away too, though her all-black outfit made it look like she’d spent the night moonlighting as a thief.

But after learning she was the voice actor Xi Liu, Lin Ruocheng found her even cooler… Was this some kind of bias at work?