I've Been Waiting a Long Time for You to Break Up - Chapter 5

Gu Xiaoshuang was still unable to move past the fact that she had been deceived and heartbroken. She tried her best not to show it while with Lin Huai, feeling slightly better only when Lin Huai chatted and joked with her.

After eating, Gu Xiaoshuang went to tidy up the workroom. She felt a headache coming on just looking at the clutter. While Lin Huai had placed many of the items on shelves, there was still a mountain of things left.

After standing by the pile for a long time, Gu Xiaoshuang suddenly picked up a large plastic bag and started packing them all away. There was no point in keeping these things; she wasn’t sure she would use them again, and even if she did, she wouldn’t need this much.

She was throwing things away with a hint of vengeance. When Lin Huai entered, Gu Xiaoshuang had already filled two bags.

“You don’t want any of this?” Lin Huai asked, walking in with a drink.

Gu Xiaoshuang nodded. “What’s the point of keeping them? It’s better to throw them away early to save space.”

“What if you need them later?”

Gu Xiaoshuang stopped looking at her and went back to packing. “No, no, useless, absolutely useless.”

Lin Huai could tell she was venting her emotions. She sat at her own workstation for a while before asking, “Why not resell them? It’s not worth it to just throw them away. Many of these were quite expensive when they were customized.”

Gu Xiaoshuang knew they were expensive, but the thought of organizing them one by one to list them for sale made her tired. She stopped and squatted for a moment. Lin Huai said, “I’ll do it.”

“It’s one thing to trouble you with one or two items, but how could I let you handle all of this?” Gu Xiaoshuang said, dangling a light blue dress that had fallen out of the bag.

Lin Huai took a sip of her drink. “I won’t be finishing it all in one day anyway. Just leave it here and move it to the side so it doesn’t get in the way.”

Gu Xiaoshuang listened to her and pushed the bags aside. Lin Huai added, “Your drink is outside; go get it yourself.”

“Why didn’t you bring it in for me?” Gu Xiaoshuang turned back, annoyed.

Lin Huai let out a light, airy laugh. “You’re spoiled.”

Coming from the north, Lin Huai had a slightly cold sense of humor. She was very polite in front of strangers, but among those she was close to, she loved to joke around and use playful, contrarian remarks.

Gu Xiaoshuang was already used to this. She muttered to herself, went out to get her drink, and came back to squat on the floor to finish it. There was only one chair in Lin Huai’s workroom. After she had finished half her drink, she suddenly said, “I should have brought that gaming chair. It cost several thousand.”

Lin Huai had been sitting in her chair, watching her. Seeing her finally starting to think about such things, she lowered her eyelids and smiled. She finished her drink, went out to wash the cup, and didn’t return to the workroom afterward, letting Gu Xiaoshuang finish tidying up on her own.

The most important things to Gu Xiaoshuang at the moment were the camera and lenses. She had taken only the good ones, checked them, and placed them back on Lin Huai’s sturdy iron shelving unit. While she was at it, she took a look at Lin Huai’s own lenses.

There was an 800mm telephoto lens among them. Gu Xiaoshuang thought for a long time but couldn’t recall Lin Huai ever photographing any celebrities. Why would she buy such an expensive lens? Was it for birdwatching?

After deciding not to throw anything else away, Gu Xiaoshuang finished in half an hour and came out. Lin Huai was pulling a flatbed trolley, preparing to go out. “Going to the supermarket?”

“Going to the supermarket at this hour?” Gu Xiaoshuang checked the time; it was only a little past 2:00 PM.

Lin Huai gave an “mm-hmm” and was already changing her shoes. “Going to buy some things.”

Looking at the size of the trolley, it didn’t seem like she was planning to buy “some” things; she was likely planning to fill an entire trunk.

Gu Xiaoshuang wasn’t feeling very energetic and didn’t really want to go out, but after thinking about it, she decided to tag along.

The two of them walked downstairs leisurely and left the trolley standing by the elevator to pick up later.

Gu Xiaoshuang worried about the trolley the entire way. “Won’t someone take it?”

Lin Huai laughed. “If it gets taken, I’ll just check the surveillance footage.”

“How can you be so laid back? Even if you check the footage, what’s the point if they don’t return it? They could just deny it.”

Lin Huai suddenly turned her head to look at her. Gu Xiaoshuang turned to look back. “Are you mad?”

She hadn’t said anything serious; surely Lin Huai wouldn’t get angry over this.

Lin Huai took a quick look, turned her head back to focus on driving, and said with a smile, “I am indeed too laid back. I shouldn’t be like this in the future.”

Gu Xiaoshuang laughed, feeling somewhat confused. “You are very careful and cautious in everything else; you just aren’t afraid of thieves.”

Lin Huai nodded in agreement. “Yes, I really should change that.”

With that, Gu Xiaoshuang stopped talking about it.

There weren’t many people in the supermarket at this hour. Gu Xiaoshuang pushed the cart in front, while Lin Huai followed the list and told her where to go.

There were two people living in the house now, so many things needed to be supplemented. At first, Gu Xiaoshuang didn’t realize these items were for her, but when they got to the toiletries section, she remembered: “Don’t you already have body wash?”

Lin Huai put the items she had picked into the cart and said quite casually, “Mine isn’t fragrant.”

Gu Xiaoshuang frowned. “What do you mean? You’ve used half a bottle, and only now realized it isn’t fragrant?”

She walked forward two more steps. “Did you pick this out for me?”

Lin Huai didn’t speak; her eyes were searching for the scent on Gu Xiaoshuang. Gu Xiaoshuang didn’t live a particularly refined life; most of the things she used could be bought at a supermarket, so they were easy to find.

Lin Huai had felt good about buying these things earlier, thinking they were easy to locate. But after walking for a while and seeing Gu Xiaoshuang silently putting back the items she had chosen and picking up ones with completely different scents, she remembered that this scent was no longer hers alone.

Lin Huai stood in front of the row of bottles and jars with her phone in hand, motionless for a long time. For a brief moment, she had the urge to knock over the shelf and smash everything into pieces.

Gu Xiaoshuang didn’t actually know why Lin Huai wanted to buy a separate set for her, but she respected her desire to do so. She didn’t want to use the same ones as before, so she picked a new scent herself.

When she walked back to Lin Huai’s side, the other woman finally shifted her gaze from the shelf. “Let’s go.”

Gu Xiaoshuang looked at Lin Huai, feeling as though there had been some kind of shift, but she couldn’t quite decipher it.

Lin Huai masked her emotions well enough on the surface, but her mind was elsewhere. It seemed she had been treating Jiang Xu too lightly, leading her to overlook these small details.

In Lin Huai’s mind, Jiang Xu had always been an appendage to Gu Xiaoshuang. That might be disrespectful to say, but Lin Huai was simply disrespectful; there was nothing she couldn’t say.

They went to the snack aisle and picked up quite a few things that Gu Xiaoshuang liked.

Lin Huai’s house was filled with low-sugar drinks. She didn’t like snacks, saying she was too lazy to chew; she even preferred juicing her fruit.

These items weren’t heavy, so they didn’t need a cart. Gu Xiaoshuang watched curiously as Lin Huai led her around the produce section and finally headed toward the water aisle, picking up two cases of water and a case of drinks in one go.

“Buying this much at once?” Gu Xiaoshuang was surprised. After helping put them in the cart, she asked, “Is there no other way to get someone to deliver them for us?”

Lin Huai smiled at her. “I can carry them; we don’t need anyone else.”

“Even if you can carry them, there’s no need to,” Gu Xiaoshuang said, still hesitant. “Can’t we just call someone?”

“What? Am I a little princess who can’t even carry some water?”

After saying this, Lin Huai took over the cart. “Let’s go, let’s go home.”

Gu Xiaoshuang sighed and followed behind.

When it came time to pay, she wasn’t allowed to spend a cent; one glance from Lin Huai “killed” Gu Xiaoshuang’s attempt to hand over her phone, leaving her to mutter to herself in the back.

It was nice to go out for a stroll to clear her mind. Gu Xiaoshuang let out a long breath as she got into the car. On the other side, Lin Huai climbed in and couldn’t help but exclaim, “Exhausted?”

Gu Xiaoshuang didn’t answer. After buckling her seatbelt, she said, “Let’s go, Little Lin, let’s go home.”

Lin Huai chuckled. “Since when are you calling me Little Lin?”

“Why not? I was always the boss.” Gu Xiaoshuang remembered the days back at school. Because she was so lively, she ruled the dormitory, those days feeling as distant as a past life. She hadn’t played around like that in a long time.

Jiang Xu had a quiet personality; Gu Xiaoshuang couldn’t really play with her, so she had gradually grown used to the silence.

She was just making a casual joke with Lin Huai and didn’t intend to seriously reminisce about her lost life. On the way home, Gu Xiaoshuang leaned against the window and fell asleep for a while.

Perhaps because they hadn’t been cautious with their words, the trolley was indeed gone from the elevator area when they returned. Gu Xiaoshuang clapped her hands together and spread them apart, looking at Lin Huai with a speechless expression. “Look, I told you it wasn’t safe. It’s gone.”

Lin Huai wasn’t in a hurry to look for the trolley. She tilted her head toward an empty space, laughed to herself for a moment, and then gathered her composure to say to Gu Xiaoshuang, “This is the first time I’ve lost something here.”

Gu Xiaoshuang stepped back half a step. “Are you trying to frame me?”

Lin Huai smiled and nodded, pretending to be serious. “Hurry up and find the trolley for me, otherwise you’ll be the one carrying all those bottles of water.”

Her unreasonable behavior made Gu Xiaoshuang laugh. “I told you not to buy it, but you insisted on buying so much. See what happens when you don’t listen to me?”

The two of them whispered and joked all the way to the security office to check the surveillance footage. They discovered that a fat dog with an injured leg couldn’t walk, and its owner had taken the trolley to push the dog around.

Gu Xiaoshuang waited until Lin Huai had taken a photo and sent it to the community owner’s chat group before saying, “Is that a Labrador?”

“A Golden Retriever, maybe?” Lin Huai leaned closer to the monitor.

“How can there be such a fat Golden Retriever?” Gu Xiaoshuang leaned in next to her, and they studied it.

“The hair is so long.”

Just as they were unable to figure it out, the security guard spoke up from behind: “Mixed breed.”

The two of them quickly exchanged glances and couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

Gu Xiaoshuang turned to the security guard and said, “You make it sound quite fancy.”

“It is a mixed breed.” The guard also laughed. “Calling it a ‘mutt’ sounds too harsh.”

Someone in the community group quickly replied, saying they would send the trolley back immediately. They hadn’t taken it for long; they had just happened to cross paths with them returning.

Gu Xiaoshuang and Lin Huai said goodbye to the guard and went back. The dog owner apologized profusely and even gave them a few drinks. The trolley had been disinfected, leaving a faint scent of disinfectant on it.

It was a small matter, and once they talked it through, it was over.

Lin Huai moved the water out of the trunk. Gu Xiaoshuang also wanted to move a case, but as she exerted force, her lower back made two terrifying cracking sounds. She quickly let go, letting the case drop back down, and rubbed her waist, sounding a hundred years old as she groaned, “That’s it, I’m old now.”

Lin Huai worked out year-round and her body was in a completely different world than Gu Xiaoshuang’s. As she easily lifted the case Gu Xiaoshuang had dropped, she still had the energy to say, “You just need to swap out your spare parts.”

Gu Xiaoshuang leaned against the rear of the car and sighed. “Swapping your waist for mine would be just perfect.”