The Moon Shines Upon Me - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: First Love

Those rich second-generation heirs didn’t know Ji Xiao’s identity at first, but later Lin Qinghuan told them—the eldest daughter of the Ji family.

If this were twenty years ago, they might have had some reservations, but now that the family had fallen into such a state of decline, whose family background among them was actually worse than the Ji family’s?

However, this Gu family… they were a bit tricky.

Gu Shiwei saw that they had no reaction and grew impatient. She directly took out her phone and tapped the dialer. Seeing that Gu Shiwei was truly intent on calling the police, the men lunged forward, trying to snatch her phone.

With a swift sidestep and a flying kick, Gu Shiwei sent the man flying quite a distance. Her ten-plus years of Taekwondo hadn’t been practiced for nothing; it was meant to be used at critical moments like this.

“You dare touch me when you don’t even know who I am?” Gu Shiwei slowly crouched down, holding her cold phone between her thumb and index finger and patting the man’s face with it. “I’m giving you one minute to get the hell out of this bar. Otherwise, every single one of you here—I’ll make sure your families go bankrupt by tomorrow.”

Hearing Gu Shiwei say this, the group didn’t dare stay for a single second longer, terrified that she might remember their faces.

Earlier, when Lin Qinghuan said she was calling the eldest Miss of the Gu family, they hadn’t really believed it. But seeing her now, Gu Shiwei indeed looked very much like Gu Qingfeng. Add to that her willingness to involve the police, and running away was currently the best possible strategy.

Dignity and the like were nothing compared to survival.

A wise man knows when to retreat.

And so they fled, even carrying away the one who had been kicked across the room by Gu Shiwei.

In an instant, more than half the people in the booth were gone. The remaining seven or eight were all friends who had come out with Lin Qinghuan.

“Thank god for you. Those people act like dogs leaning on their masters’ power; they’ll bully anyone.”

Lin Qinghuan breathed a sigh of relief. She poured a glass of wine and handed it to Gu Shiwei.

Gu Shiwei took it but didn’t drink. She walked to the sofa and looked down at Ji Xiao, suddenly frowning. “Who invited her here?”

Ji Xiao was several years younger than them. She had been in poor health since childhood and rarely left her house. Usually, if they wanted to hang out with her, they had to go to her home. How could she appear in a place like a bar?

“Sister Shiwei, I wanted to come myself.” Ji Xiao seemed to have been shaken tonight. Her eyes were moist, shimmering with tears as she looked up at Gu Shiwei.

Gu Shiwei took one look and then averted her gaze.

“Sister Shiwei, why didn’t you tell me you were back? I heard from Qinghuan that they held a welcome party for you.”

Ji Xiao bit her lip with a look of grievance. They used to be so close, but ever since Sister Shiwei went abroad, they had lost contact. She had returned and hadn’t even told her.

“Our gatherings are usually in bars, so we didn’t call you.”

After saying this, Gu Shiwei found a clean sofa and sat down. She set aside the glass Lin Qinghuan had given her and checked her phone.

The time was 8:00 PM.

“Xiaoxiao, don’t overthink it. Shiwei didn’t call you because she was thinking about your health. Besides, you can’t drink anyway, so what would you do here? Watch us drink? Don’t feel bad, little ancestor. So, did you ask us out today specifically because of this? There’s no need. No one can shake your status as the ‘group favorite’ in our circle. Just relax—”

Gu Shiwei: “Lin Qinghuan, come and drink with me.”

Lin Qinghuan’s words of comfort to Ji Xiao were suddenly interrupted. She turned back, looked at the drink Gu Shiwei had just banished to the “cold palace” on the table, and said meaningfully, “I thought you weren’t drinking?”

“Suddenly I feel like it again.”

Gu Shiwei picked up the glass and took a shallow sip.

Lin Qinghuan had nothing to say to Gu Shiwei’s sudden whim. She patted Ji Xiao’s shoulder and then sat down next to Gu Shiwei.

Lin Qinghuan: “So, how is it? Is everything going smoothly at the company?”

Gu Shiwei didn’t look at Lin Qinghuan. She raised her glass and swirled it, her light-colored eyes staring blankly at the wine as the light passed through it.

“Quite smoothly.”

“You’re the one among us who’s doing the best. Becoming a CEO right after graduation—everyone is so envious of you.” Lin Qinghuan took a sip of wine and said neutrally, “Of course, I’m envious too.”

Lin Qinghuan’s family had been in medicine for generations. While they had some assets, it was negligible compared to the Gu Group. The others present were much the same; ten years ago, they might have been prominent in Jinghai, but now, with new stars rising, they had been pushed onto the shore by the incoming waves.

“Look at you. You have the education, the looks, the body, and more money than you could spend in several lifetimes. How do you not have a partner?” Lin Qinghuan stared at Gu Shiwei in wonder and downed another mouthful of wine.

Gu Shiwei suddenly laughed. She said, “I’d like to know that too.”

In the past, it wasn’t as if men and women hadn’t confessed to her, but she had been too busy with her studies to have any interest in dating. Even after graduating, she had no intention of looking for a partner.

For some reason, Gu Shiwei suddenly thought of Shen Yuan. Shen Yuan wasn’t just “not liking” her—she was cold.

Was she, Gu Shiwei, really that repulsive?

She had been kind enough to pay her fare on the bus, yet the woman had been so aloof afterward. Then there was the chance encounter on the street where she had been in a hurry to cut ties, and the next day, she didn’t even reply to a WeChat message.

Thinking of this, Gu Shiwei suddenly took a large gulp of wine, the alcohol sliding down her throat to suppress a trace of irritability.

“Eldest Miss, take it easy. This wine has quite a kick; you can’t drink it like that.”

Lin Qinghuan quickly poured a new glass and swapped it for the one in Gu Shiwei’s hand.

After doing this, Lin Qinghuan said, “Speaking of which, several younger guys and girls have asked me for your contact info. They probably want to pursue you. How about I give it to them and you can chat privately?”

Lin Qinghuan reached for her phone as she spoke. Before Gu Shiwei could say a word, Ji Xiao, who had been listening quietly, suddenly spoke up: “What? Someone wants to pursue Sister Shiwei?”

“Yeah, your Sister Shiwei is so beautiful, how could no one be chasing her?” Lin Qinghuan laughed and pointed toward the door. “The people chasing her could form a line from here to France.”

Gu Shiwei gave Lin Qinghuan a look that said ‘stop exaggerating’ and said coldly, “No need. Not interested.”

Whether intended or not, that one sentence made both Lin Qinghuan and Ji Xiao fall silent.

“You deserve to be single.”

After a long pause, Lin Qinghuan spoke through gritted teeth.

Gu Shiwei’s elegant eyebrows arched, and she suddenly laughed. “Aren’t you the same? And you’re criticizing me.”

Gu Shiwei looked very beautiful when she laughed. She was mixed-race, a “deep-featured” beauty, and having had a few drinks, she was slightly tipsy. That smile had a touch of a fox spirit about it—alluring without even trying.

It was normal for someone like her to be hard to catch.

Lin Qinghuan and Ji Xiao were both dazed by the sight.

“Alright, I should go. You guys have fun.”

Gu Shiwei checked her phone again. It was now 9:00 PM.

As Gu Shiwei stood up, Ji Xiao also rose from the sofa. She lowered her head and said shyly, “Sister Shiwei, thank you for helping me out tonight.”

Gu Shiwei: “You’re welcome.”

“You’ve been drinking, let me take you home.” Ji Xiao moved as if to support Gu Shiwei, but Gu Shiwei simply slung an arm around Lin Qinghuan’s shoulder and led her out. “No need. Don’t come out, it’s not safe.”

Gu Shiwei lifted her chin toward the others in the booth. “When everyone leaves, follow them. Qinghuan can see me out.”

Ji Xiao gripped the fabric of her gorgeous dress, saying weakly, “Then… okay.”

“OK, I shall see the Great Miss Gu off.”

Lin Qinghuan wasn’t really drunk at all. She supported Gu Shiwei as they walked out of the booth.

As soon as they were out, Gu Shiwei’s hand retreated from Lin Qinghuan. Her steps were steady; you couldn’t tell at all that she had been drinking.

“Wait, Gu Shiwei, so you were just using me to block your ‘peach blossoms’ (romance)?”

The cold wind blew, and Lin Qinghuan suddenly realized what had happened.

It was obvious to any observer that Ji Xiao liked Gu Shiwei, but Gu Shiwei clearly had no such feelings for her. Lin Qinghuan had been careless today and got played by Ji Xiao’s setup, but they had all grown up together after all; they couldn’t just fall out over such a small thing.

“You finally figured it out.” Gu Shiwei glanced at her, frowned, and added, “You’ve been burned so many times, how do you still get… used so easily?”

When Lin Qinghuan had called her, Gu Shiwei had already roughly guessed how tonight’s mess had started. Seeing Ji Xiao confirmed her judgment. The reason she hadn’t exposed it just now was simply because she didn’t want to make the scene too ugly.

But still, Ji Xiao had deliberately put herself in a dangerous situation to force Lin Qinghuan to call her over, just to see her face and say a few words?

Lin Qinghuan raised her hand in a promise: “I’ll definitely be careful in the future. Live and learn.”

Gu Shiwei nodded and reminded her: “Stay away from places like this in the future.”

“If I can’t drink and look at beautiful women, what’s the point of living!”

“Seriously though, Gu Shiwei, are you still staying ‘pure’ for Mingyue?” Other than that, Lin Qinghuan truly couldn’t think of any other reason why Gu Shiwei had become so devoid of desire.

At the mention of the name “Mingyue,” Gu Shiwei’s footsteps suddenly faltered.

Lin Qinghuan stared at her back from behind, her pupils dilating. “No way, Miss Gu. It’s actually true? Is a first love really that hard to forget?”

“And that didn’t even count as a first love, right? It wasn’t even a ‘cyber-relationship’.”

Lin Qinghuan thought back. It seemed like eight years had passed. She only remembered that Mingyue’s voice was quite pleasant—a very gentle, mature “onee-san” voice. Back then, it had absolutely enchanted Gu Shiwei.

While Lin Qinghuan was still chattering in her ear, Gu Shiwei’s thoughts had already drifted far away.

She recalled the days of eight years ago.

Eight years ago, and then another two years back. Gu Shiwei had just finished her high school entrance exams. Bored during the summer vacation, she had played a game developed by a subsidiary of the Qingfeng Group on a whim. The game was published by Zhaoyang, born in the same year as Gu Shiwei, and was called Wen Jian Jiang Hu.

Back then, Gu Shiwei was a total gaming noob. She often died from falling while trying to level up, her gear was so bad she could only kill one monster per hour, and she could somehow manage to drown just by walking into a river. She was a genuine, bona fide “moe-newbie.”

When she was being bullied by monsters for the 156th time, the cry of a crane came from the wind. A rotating Five Elements Bagua formation fell from the sky, with a vibrating longsword plunged into the center of the array. A girl with twin-tails, wearing a magnificent dress, stepped onto that sword. With just a finger-flick of sword-intent, she wiped out every monster around Gu Shiwei.

Gu Shiwei was undeniably awestruck. She stared dazed at the gorgeous and powerful girl on the screen, then looked at her own dirty, weak, and pathetic self in the corner. For the first time, she realized how vast the gap between people could be.

After mourning for herself for one second.

Gu Shiwei decisively chose to cling to those powerful thighs.

Zhao Zhao: “Big Boss, will you take a disciple? QAQ”

Mingyue: “I don’t know how to teach disciples. 0.0”

Gu Shiwei thought the boss was giving her a tactful refusal and that their fate ended there. But a second later, the message box lit up again.

Mingyue: “But if you don’t mind, I can give it a try. φ(゜▽゜*)”

Zhao Zhao: “Of course I don’t mind! Master! (≧▽≦)”

Following her message, Gu Shiwei sent an in-game emote of ‘Disciple bows to Master!’

Mingyue: “You can just call me Mingyue. (=.=)”

Zhao Zhao: “Okay!”

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