Best Friend Yan: “…………”

But now she didn’t mind being roasted, because as long as she looked at the special effects, she immediately became happy again.

After playing, she finally received the old grandpa’s notice. Although regretting she couldn’t use the golden finger, Yan Luqing thought that she had been watching the old grandpa’s inner thoughts for so long, and had even seen the senior brother’s inner thoughts last time, so there shouldn’t be a problem.

Thus in the afternoon, just like before, Yan Luqing went out with Big Black.

Before leaving she hadn’t seen Gu Ci’s figure, so she asked Big Black. He answered: “He hasn’t come out since noon, probably taking a nap.”

Not long after Yan Luqing’s car left, in the room at the end of the first-floor corridor came the sound of a phone vibrating.

Gu Ci reached over, glanced at the caller ID, and picked up the call: “Uncle.”

The background noise on the other side was somewhat loud, but the voice was deep and forceful, the words not difficult to make out.

As always, the conversation was some trivial matters—entanglements between companies, movements of enemies related to parents’ grudges.

“…Not to mention, the information you gave me the other day was a huge help. You child, from before you always said you wanted to study physics. Not studying business is really a pity…” The man spoke far more than Gu Ci, endlessly talking, then suddenly seemed to recall something and added: “I just got off the plane. A’Ci, the matter I instructed before has already been dealt with. Your family will be able to return to its original state in a few days.”

Gu Ci didn’t respond.

He propped himself up with one hand, slowly sitting up. “Mm, thank you, Uncle.”

“I didn’t say this for you to thank me,” the man asked, “When do you plan to move back to live? At that Yan family classmate’s place… it’s about enough, isn’t it?”

This was the excuse Gu Ci had given before, back when he was contacted while still abroad.

Temporarily staying here.

The man was still speaking, while Gu Ci switched hands to hold the phone. Waiting until he had finished, he said lightly: “Still need to wait a bit longer.”

The man was very puzzled: “Why?”

…Why?

Gu Ci suddenly gave a soft laugh, answering irrelevantly: “No more talking, Uncle.” His tone was gentle as he cut off the call, “You just got off the plane, take care of your business first.”

Fortunately, the other party was familiar with his temperament, and likely would not take it to heart.

The afternoon sun was blazing. From the curtains never fully drawn came a beam of light, falling precisely upon the blanket before Gu Ci’s eyes.

He stretched out a hand, and that beam of light spilled across his faintly-lined palm.

Why?

Alone in the room, he looked at his own hand, and the corner of his eye bent ever so slightly. His voice was very low and very soft, as though murmuring to himself:

“Because I realized… so much time has already passed.”

Two lifetimes.

“I finally regained the ability to feel happiness.”

——

Yan Luqing’s second trial in person also went quite smoothly. She succeeded in opening the Q&A mode, received praise, and on the way back checked her senior brother’s inner drama—it was nearly the same as last time.

On the return journey, Yan Luqing felt as if she wasn’t sitting in a car at all. She had a pair of invisible wings, drifting freely through the sky.

Since the golden finger had long been bitterly resisted by Gu Ci, she could only rely on her wits to conquer this great figure.

As Yan Luqing thought these things, she conversed in her mind with Makka Pakka: “What day is it now? How many days are left until the plot of Gu Ci leaving my villa?”

Five seconds later, Makka Pakka answered: “Twenty-one days left.”

Yan Luqing froze.

Her first reaction was: only twenty-one days… left?

The purpose of asking had been to use it as reference, to decide when she should make her move, and also to hear the current timeline—after all, she was the sort of person who, as long as she wasn’t in school, wouldn’t know what day of the week it was.

After freezing once, she froze a second time.

The second time was because she hadn’t expected her reaction upon hearing the answer would be like this.

“Maria, why are you asking that?”

“…,” Yan Luqing returned to herself, “Nothing. Because I’m not used to keeping track of days, so I asked.”

Twenty-one days… that was still okay, right?

Nearly a month.

The past month had been so joyful, the next one would be the same.

And even if, according to the plot, he left, unlike in the original book they weren’t enemies. She could still… go find him to play, right? Maybe happy things couldn’t be shared with him at every moment anymore, maybe she couldn’t tease him into popping up dialogue boxes and changing his outfit anymore… but if something happened, she could still go ask him for help, right?

After these absurd thoughts suddenly bubbled up, Yan Luqing startled herself: a qualified carefree sand-sculpture actually worrying about the future?

Clearly, ever since she transmigrated, she had always believed in “take one day as it comes.” How could she begin to worry about things so far ahead?

Something wasn’t right.

Yan Luqing quickly adjusted her mindset, and by the time the car returned to the villa, she had thoroughly ended her wild thoughts and regained her happiness.

After all, he was still here for now. After all, she was just about to obtain the thing she had been looking forward to for so long—this was truly worth being happy about.

After the head of the household got out of the car, she didn’t go inside but, as usual, walked toward the back garden, planning to pick some flowers for her pitiful wife whom she was about to offend, as consolation—otherwise her conscience would not be at ease.

But she hadn’t expected that there would already be two men standing in her back garden.

The first person she saw was the one she had been conflicted over the most in the car. His one hand was in his trouser pocket, the other holding a watering tool. His face bore no expression, but though he seemed casual, his movements in watering the flowers had a definite rhythm.

Yan Luqing suddenly recalled a scene described in the book.

Later, Gu Ci had always lived alone in the Gu family’s large but empty villa. He raised a patch of flowers, and every time he eliminated an enemy, or the enemy’s company, he would go home, wash his hands clean first, and then, with a gentle expression, water that patch of flowers.

It was only a very small detail, probably just something the author had casually mentioned, because it appeared only once.

But Yan Luqing was inexplicably struck to the heart by it.

She hadn’t expected to suddenly encounter such a similar scene in reality.

However, this brief shock was quickly broken—because she only then noticed that beside Gu Ci there was another person.

So Little Black was also watering the flowers. He had apparently been there for a while already, but being too much of a background board, Yan Luqing hadn’t even seen him.

Yan Luqing was not exactly someone who cherished flowers, but as a child she had inexplicably enjoyed watering them. The flowers planted at the residence of the director and his wife had all been her responsibility. But all she liked was the feeling of sprinkling water; she never knew why one person watering flowers could look so different from another.

——Little Black and Gu Ci were holding the same tool, producing the same small streams of water. Clearly Little Black’s bodyguard uniform was more formal, while Gu Ci was in the simplest of casual clothes with no patterns.

Yet their temperaments were worlds apart.

Good heavens, putting these two together was simply a vivid performance of “The Servant Watering Flowers” and “The Princess Watering Flowers.”

Yan Luqing couldn’t stand it anymore. She walked toward them and said to Little Black: “Why don’t you move a bit further away from him.” She even felt a surge of pity for him. “The contrast is really too tragic.”

Little Black clearly didn’t understand the second half of the sentence. He only knew that Miss Yan wanted him to leave again, to let her be alone with Gu Ci. So, with his eyes carrying a trace of excitement, he turned off the watering tool and walked away.

The stream of water in Gu Ci’s hand also stopped.

“Why did you suddenly come here to water flowers?” Yan Luqing asked.

She watched Gu Ci turn his head toward her, and he looked as if he had been waiting for her to ask this very question. With a light tone he said: “I thought you would come here.”

“…??” Yan Luqing froze. “What?”

She had wanted to pick some flowers for him, especially since the day Gu Ci called her bestie, she had decided—she would weave many garlands for him. But she hadn’t said this aloud! How did he know?

Yan Luqing wanted to ask him again: Do you have mind-reading, or do I have mind-reading?

Gu Ci paid no attention to her question. He walked to the spot where Yan Luqing wove flower garlands, plucked a stalk with its leaves still attached, and handed it to her.

She blankly accepted it, discovering that the stem and petals were dotted with fine, dense dewdrops.

Today Gu Ci… seemed a little different. Especially the way he looked at her, it was very… Yan Luqing hadn’t figured it out yet, when by her ear came an indistinct chuckle.

Gu Ci suddenly laughed: “Best friend, I don’t want a garland anymore.”

His smile was exceedingly handsome, and in such a beautiful garden backdrop, it was even more captivating.

The head of the household lifted her head, staring at her princess-consort—whom she gave a nickname to every day—and her brain directly crashed.

Gu Ci walked up to her, lowered his head slightly, and said:

“You’re so eager to give me something, don’t pick flowers anymore. Pick me a star instead.”