The Fake Daughter is a Max-Level Green Tea [Transmigrated into a Book] - Chapter 58

Chapter 58: Gu Ming

After half an hour of friendly exchange, the two saw off Du Yaqing, who had other matters to attend to.

Noticing a stray strand of hair stuck to Lu Chaoqing’s face, Gu Ming instinctively reached out to brush it away, but Lu Chaoqing subtly dodged the touch. After this happened twice in a short span of time, Gu Ming finally realized something was amiss.

Lu Chaoqing was far more distant than she had been when they were children.

Gu Ming didn’t show much emotion at this discovery, but she insisted on driving Lu Chaoqing home.

The winter rain came fast and heavy, soon turning into a torrential downpour. When they were still several hundred meters from the parking lot, they had to find a place to take temporary shelter. The rain showed no sign of stopping; instead, it continued to pour with relentless intensity.

Gu Ming took off her cashmere coat and handed it to Lu Chaoqing, then suddenly dashed into the rain toward the parking lot. A few minutes later, she drove the car over and stopped at the curb. She took an umbrella from the car, opened it, and walked back to escort Lu Chaoqing inside.

Lu Chaoqing noticed that Gu Ming was soaked and shivering from the wind, yet the gaze she turned on Lu Chaoqing was full of tenderness and patience. That specific look immediately tipped Lu Chaoqing off.

She had seen that look in the eyes of others before, and she knew exactly what kind of emotion it represented. However, Lu Chaoqing found that the original host’s memories of playing with this person were quite blurry. Only the “Two-Star Difficulty” on the system’s interface signaled that this was a case of unrequited affection on Gu Ming’s part.

Lu Chaoqing had no desire to get romantically entangled with anyone else right now. Her previous back-and-forth with Jiang Yang was strictly to deal with him; she had no interest in playing games with people’s hearts.

As soon as they arrived at her house, Lu Chaoqing thanked her loudly and used the excuse of “needing to record a sudden burst of inspiration” to hop out of the car. The next day, when she went to the company to submit her scores and record a demo, she found that Gu Ming had called in sick.

“Yeah, I heard she caught a cold from the rain,” the recording engineer, a warm-hearted older woman, said while packing up. “The weather is getting colder. You should wear more layers too; don’t take your health for granted just because you’re young.”

Lu Chaoqing understood and smiled, saying she would.

After finishing the recording session, she checked her phone and saw a post on Gu Ming’s “Moments”—likely restricted to a few people—with a few words. Gu Ming hadn’t said much, just posted a “tired” emoji and a screenshot of her sick-leave request on WeChat, with the details heavily blurred for privacy.

Lu Chaoqing waited until she had finished packing and had a throat lozenge before slowly replying. She soon received a private message from Gu Ming, her short tone carrying obvious excitement: “Are you planning to come see me?”

Lu Chaoqing glanced at the wall clock to estimate the time: “Around 7:00 PM, is that okay?”

Gu Ming replied “Of course” and followed up with several more questions, but stopped when she saw no reply. After finishing her tasks at the company, Lu Chaoqing ordered a fruit basket and some carnations. Scanning her WeChat, she paused on a photo sent by Mother Lu—it was a pair of exquisitely crafted “couple’s” collarbone chains, clearly designed for two women, in a style that Lu Chaoqing actually liked.

Her heart skipped a beat for a strange reason. She instinctively felt that Mother Lu wouldn’t suddenly make such jewelry for her daughter without a prompt. Just as she was about to subtly ask whose idea it was, a video call popped up. Lu Chaoqing declined it and switched to a voice call.

She didn’t hang up this time, though a hint of impatience flickered across her face. Still, her voice remained gentle as she asked Gu Ming’s intent. Receiving Gu Ming’s subtle prodding, she saw a notification that the fruit basket was only a few hundred meters from the destination. She announced that Gu Ming could get dressed and open the door.

Gu Ming’s voice was full of surprise: “Then wait for me—” She didn’t hang up, and neither did Lu Chaoqing. While Gu Ming was walking and muttering on the other end, Lu Chaoqing turned down her earbud volume and continued looking at her birthday schedule. Less than a minute later, the excited voice on the other end stopped abruptly with the sound of a door opening, replaced by a cold response.

“Yes, okay, thank you.” There was a pause, then Gu Ming spoke with slight displeasure, “Xiaoqing, why did you play a joke like that on me? I hadn’t even finished putting my coat on.”

Lu Chaoqing adopted an innocent, surprised tone, her voice soft and sweet: “Huh? Didn’t I tell you to put your clothes on first? I just wanted to give you a surprise. You’re not angry, are you?”

“…It’s fine. Where are you?”

By the time Lu Chaoqing actually knocked on the door, a wiser Gu Ming was no longer lounging in a slip dress just because the heater was on. She was fully dressed to avoid the embarrassment of another delivery person encounter. Seeing Lu Chaoqing enter with a container of porridge, her smile became more genuine.

It was corn and matsutake porridge. Although she wasn’t crazy about matsutake, she didn’t hate it. The kid didn’t completely forget my preferences, Gu Ming thought with some pleasure, while scanning Lu Chaoqing’s outfit, trying to gauge her mood after a day of work.

However, a disguise that anyone could see through isn’t very clever. Lu Chaoqing didn’t want to linger. She set the porridge on the table: “Eat it while it’s hot. Cold food is bad for the stomach, and you’ll recover slower.”

Gu Ming teased half-seriously, “Are you that worried about me?”

“Shouldn’t I want you to get better quickly?”

“Then give me a kiss and I’ll eat it right now.”

As soon as those playful words were out, Lu Chaoqing’s face changed. Her soft smile vanished. The irritation she had been harboring finally surfaced. By the time Gu Ming realized and tried to apologize, it was too late.

“Hey, why are you so stubborn?” Gu Ming laughed and tried to grab her hand, attempting to use minor physical intimacy to diffuse the tension. “I was just joking. Why can’t you take a joke now that you’re grown up? Didn’t we used to call each other ‘wife’?”

Lu Chaoqing found no trace of such a memory in the original host’s mind. There was no evidence of significant intimacy, only normal neighborly friendship. The only blurry memory was of Gu Ming finding a “girlfriend” around the host’s age and childishly asking if the host was jealous—to which the host had felt nothing and promptly forgotten.

Her patience reached its limit. Lu Chaoqing easily brushed off the hand on her sleeve. Her voice was gentle but firm: “A joke is only a joke if both people find it funny. If you like this kind of humor, you should save it for your girlfriend.”

Without waiting for Gu Ming to recover from the embarrassment, she turned and walked out the door.

Between Jiang Yang and Gu Ming, the original host’s circle of friends was a literal oil field of toxicity. As the saying goes, ‘He who touches pitch shall be defiled.’ Although the host had a good family and kind parents, they were often too busy to personally guide her, leading to a bit of overindulgence. After too much contact with friends like these, it was no wonder her psychological state had been affected.

Gu Ming’s home was very close to Lu Chaoqing’s—walking distance, no car or bike required. Before she had gone far, she heard a door slam. Assuming Gu Ming was chasing her, Lu Chaoqing quickened her pace.

But the other woman was clearly not sick and was in good physical shape; she soon caught up at a jog. Before Lu Chaoqing could reach her own gate, she was blocked. Gu Ming’s cheeks were flushed—either from the wind or the earlier embarrassment. She was breathing unevenly, and the look she gave Lu Chaoqing was intense, but it wasn’t the kind of pure, comfortable love that felt good to receive.

“Xiaoqing.”

Beads of sweat were wiped away with a tissue. Gu Ming stepped forward, blocking Lu Chaoqing’s path. She was tall, nearly half a head taller than Lu Chaoqing, and her downward gaze carried a faint sense of pressure. “Don’t be so quick to get angry or leave. Everything I said just now was serious. You can think about it. Same-sex marriage will be legal one day; you don’t have to fear public opinion or think we’re ‘absurd.’ I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time—I don’t want to be your sister. Let’s change our status. How about trying being my girlfriend?”

Lu Chaoqing’s expression stiffened for a second as she looked up. Then, she broke into a radiant smile that Gu Ming had never seen before. Her eyes were like a winter sun reflected in morning frost, soft and glowing under the streetlights. Her face, unmasked and flushed from the wind, looked so soft and lovely that Gu Ming’s heart skipped a beat. She instinctively reached out to pinch Lu Chaoqing’s cheek—only for the girl to deftly dodge away.

“I’m sorry, but I have to turn you down,” Lu Chaoqing said. Unlike her previous coldness, her tone was now polite and patient. Even in the face of this persistence, she maintained her temper. “While you are a great person and very beautiful, in my heart, I much prefer my own girlfriend.”

Now it was Gu Ming’s turn for her face to pale.

“Your girlfriend?” the woman’s voice grew urgent and skeptical. “When would someone in your industry have time to date? Who is she? Your manager? Someone at the company? An old teammate?”

Under the crystalline light of the streetlamps, Lu Chaoqing ignored the questions and gave a sweet smile, waving her hand enthusiastically toward someone behind Gu Ming.