Love Rival Turned Lover - Chapter 17

Make amends, huh.

The seat across from her was long empty. Qian Xun sat alone in the corner, replaying the heroine An Yu’s gentle smile from beginning to end. Her brows drew together slightly. Compared to An Yu’s poised elegance, she herself really did seem overly aggressive, honestly.

“This is troublesome.”

Rubbing at the bridge of her nose, Qian Xun leaned back against the soft chair, letting the warm sunlight settle over her cheek.

“Qian Xun, Qian Xun! Are you okay? Did An Yu do anything to you? Did she—”

Ling Qiao’er burst in, breathless from running. But the moment she saw Qian Xun, she froze.

She stared, utterly entranced.

Bathed in golden light, the girl’s refined features softened, a faint halo making her look as if she’d stepped right out of an ancient painting.

Ling Qiao’er swallowed carefully, feeling her whole body go weak. Qian Xun looking this alluring really made her want to commit a crime.

“Ling Qiao’er?”

Qian Xun opened her eyes in surprise. “You’re back?”

“Yes, I’m back! Qian Xun, did An Yu do anything? Are you hurt? Let me see!”

Flustered, Ling Qiao’er plopped down beside her and anxiously looked her over from head to toe. Her panic was so exaggerated that Qian Xun couldn’t help but laugh.

“I’m not made of porcelain, you know. I’m not that fragile. It’s just.”

Qian Xun raised a hand to stop Ling Qiao’er from lifting her clothes, then pointed at the table. “I did run into a bit of a problem.”

“What problem?”

Following her gaze, Ling Qiao’er spotted the blank check on the table. In an instant, her expression darkened.

“A check?”

She picked it up between two fingers, her face tightening with offended fury. “Unbelievable. An Yu dared to use this to insult you? How could she? Is Gongliang Bingyi blind these days?”

Saying that, she moved to tear the check in half.

To insult Qian Xun was to insult her. An Yu had just written herself onto her list.

“Hey! Don’t tear it!”

Qian Xun snatched the check from her hand and shot her a look. “Why would you rip it? I’m still trying to figure out how much Gongliang Bingyi is worth. If you tear it, I lose everything.”

“W-what?”

Qian Xun was calculating how much Gongliang Bingyi was worth?

Ling Qiao’er stared at Qian Xun, who was completely serious.

Sighing softly as she smoothed the check, Qian Xun murmured, “An Yu wasn’t wrong about one thing. What Gongliang Bingyi needs is a wife who matches his family background—someone who can truly stand beside him. Not someone like me, an orphan from a poor family. His parents would never approve of us.”

“And even if we somehow ended up together—then what?”

“I could never fit into his world, and he could never fit into mine. I don’t understand aristocratic etiquette, networking, or anything about high society. Even if I forced myself to try, in the end, I’d just be a joke.”

“Ling Qiao’er, I don’t have that kind of courage or energy. In a relationship this doomed from the start, the only wise choice is to give up early. I don’t want Gongliang Bingyi to struggle because of me, to be mocked because of me, only for this love to be worn down until nothing is left.”

At this, Qian Xun curved her lips into a strange, bittersweet smile.

“So, I’d rather destroy this relationship myself than let it die slowly over time. A slow, quiet death would be even more tragic.”

Her last few words were barely audible, but Ling Qiao’er—and someone else who had been listening in—heard them clearly.

In the business van parked not far away, Gongliang Bingyi, dressed in a white shirt and black pants, listened to the girl’s helpless, aching voice. His eyes stung, tears threatening to fall.

Clutching his hurting chest, he closed his eyes and whispered through trembling lips, “Liar.”

A liar. What nonsense about not wanting him to suffer or be ridiculed. She simply didn’t love him, didn’t believe in him. All it took was a few words from An Yu, and she decided to give him up.

Seeing the boy’s raw, unmasked pain, Ling Aoleng and Ling Junqing exchanged a startled look.

This child of the Gongliang family had always been extraordinarily composed. To see him lose control of his expression—it was harder than reaching the heavens. Yet now, over a girl, he couldn’t hide even a sliver of his heartbreak.

The café conversation continued, each word slicing deeper into Gongliang Bingyi like a blade.

“Qian xun, you.”

Ling Qiao’er looked at Qian xun, her gaze dimming a few shades.

If Qian xun didn’t even want to accept Gongliang Bingyi, wasn’t willing to put in any effort at all, then what about her? Would Qian xun ever accept a love that defied all norms?

Heh. The chances of that were probably just as slim, weren’t they?

“Alright, let’s not talk about that for now.”

Qian Xun placed the check on the table, then fished a pen out of her jacket pocket. “How much should I write? Three thousand? Five thousand? Or maybe a hundred or two hundred thousand?”

She bit the end of the pen and muttered under her breath. In the original storyline, Ye Qian Xun had been slapped with a four-million check by Gongliang Bingyi’s mother.

But the original Qian Xun had backbone—she tore the check up on the spot.

“Qian Xun, what are you doing? Where are you placing Gongliang Bingyi by doing this?”

Ling Qiao’er snatched the pen out of her hand, frowning deeply. “He’s a living, breathing person, not some object you can trade away at will!”

Though she disliked Gongliang Bingyi and wished he would stay far, far away from Qian Xun, watching how Qian Xun was treating him right now gave her a sudden, disorienting illusion—as if Qian Xun might be treating her the same way.

“I wasn’t the one who started this whole ‘trade’ business.”

Qian Xun blinked innocently at her. “He has money, power, parents, and a fiancée. He lacks nothing. But I have nothing. Don’t you think a relationship built on such inequality is doomed to end badly, no matter how long it continues?”

“Or do you want to see the scene where I’m eventually thrown out of their house like trash?”

“Ling Qiao’er, this isn’t a novel, and it’s not a TV drama. This is reality—raw and unfiltered. And the reality is that I’m just a girl. I can’t shoulder that kind of pressure.”

“This pressure didn’t start with An Yu today. It’s been there from the very beginning. It’s just that.”

Qian Xun’s eyes flickered, almost nostalgic.

“The original Ye Qian Xun had been trying her best to delay its arrival. She acted unaware, pretended she didn’t care—just to drag things out a little longer.”

Silence. Heavy, suffocating silence.

Ling Qiao’er stared at her, her brows furrowed tightly.

“So, you’re saying that even if An Yu hadn’t shown up today, you would still break up with Gongliang Bingyi the moment you felt pressured by something else?”

Qian Xun hesitated briefly, then nodded.

That was essentially the truth. After all, she had no reason to stay. She wasn’t like the original host, who loved the male lead deeply. She was a task-taker—a passerby. And passersby shouldn’t grow attached.

“Then what about me?”

A storm darkened Ling Qiao’er’s eyes as she looked at the stunned Qian Xun. Her lips curled into a cold, brittle smile.

“Sorry to disappoint you—I like you too. This forbidden kind of affection, does it suffocate you even more?”