Chapter 21: Don’t Look
The two of them took the dress and got on the elevator. Because Gu Lingling was too heartbroken, she hadn’t slept at all over the past two hours, but her mental state had improved a lot, and her emotions had calmed down somewhat.
The moment she saw the two gaudy peacocks walking in, her eyes were nearly blinded on the spot. The logos on their clothes practically looked like they were about to slap her in the face.
Gu Lingling’s brow twitched. Looking at the flamboyantly decked-out An Yi and Lin Jiu in front of her, one might’ve thought they had just robbed a luxury boutique. “Why are you dressed like this?!”
An Yi looked puzzled. “Like what?”
Lin Jiu theatrically brushed back his hair. “Like rich people.”
Gu Lingling: …
She asked, “Where did the clothes and watches on you come from?”
An Yi rushed to answer first. “They’re all fake.”
Lin Jiu copied the answer word for word. “That’s right.”
Gu Lingling had known before that An Yi and Lin Jiu each had one or two fake items, but after entering the industry, once she had told them about the taboos in the circle, she hadn’t seen them wear them again. After all, no brand would ever work with a studio whose designers themselves wore fake and pirated goods.
She had thought what the two of them wore back then was already the full extent of it. Who would have expected that now they were decked out head to toe in imitation luxury goods?
Gu Lingling looked carefully over the clothes they were wearing, her gaze drifting over both of them. An Yi and Lin Jiu swallowed at the same time.
They were all in the same line of work. Though Gu Lingling didn’t come from a wealthy family, she had a good brain, and she had a certain ability to tell genuine from fake.
An Yi subtly tried to hide behind Lin Jiu. In one dramatic move to save the situation, Lin Jiu pulled An Yi back to his side and slung an arm over his shoulder like brothers through thick and thin.
Lin Jiu wagged his brows at An Yi.
Brothers need not be born on the same year, same month, same day, but we ask to die on the same year, same month, same day!
An Yi: No. I really do not.
Gu Lingling had already been battered enough by that scumbag. If she found out they were lying to her too, who knew if it would just make things worse. Right now, she was barely any different from a sheet of seaweed.
Under the pressure of her gaze, Lin Jiu finally cracked. In one burst of courage, he shouted at Gu Lingling, “Can you stop looking at me?!”
Gu Lingling: ?
Lin Jiu lowered his head shyly. “You’re making me blush.”
Gu Lingling: …
An Yi: …
Relying on the innate spirit of being thick-skinned, Lin Jiu successfully escaped Gu Lingling’s scrutiny. An Yi’s scalp tingled, and he quickly used the white dress in his hand to redirect her attention.
An Yi placed the dress by Gu Lingling’s bedside. “Get up and try it on. Later we’ll go back and get all your things.”
Gu Lingling looked at the watch on An Yi’s wrist.
“An Yi, your watch…”
An Yi swallowed.
Gu Lingling exclaimed, “The fake is really convincing.”
An Yi: …
An Yi’s fake smile possessed him. “Right?”
Good thing she hadn’t noticed. That had really scared him to death.
Little Frog let out a breath of relief and patted his chest.
Once Gu Lingling had tidied herself up, the few of them checked out of the hotel, then headed to the rental apartment Gu Lingling was leasing.
Gu Lingling was clearly still nervous and fearful. The scene of being thrown out by the two of them yesterday was still vivid in her mind, and those harsh words still rang in her ears. Standing in the hallway outside the door, she didn’t dare knock for a long while, afraid of seeing something that would pollute her eyes again.
Seeing Gu Lingling shrinking back, An Yi raised a hand and patted her slightly hunched back. “Pull yourself together. This isn’t like you at all.”
Gu Lingling: “An Yi…”
Lin Jiu chimed in, “Exactly, exactly. All wilting and girly like that.”
Gu Lingling: …
I fucking thank you for that.
Gu Lingling took a deep breath. When she lifted her hand, she almost used all her strength and pounded on the door so hard it shook the heavens.
“Coming! Who is it?!” Sun Wangzu came out cursing from the room, irritated to the core by the deafening noise. “Who is it?! Don’t you know how to kno—”
The door opened from the inside. The moment he saw Gu Lingling outside, he froze, and a sneer appeared on his face. “So you came back? Don’t tell me you’re begging—”
Before he could finish, Lin Jiu, who had been standing to the side of the door, slammed into him hard, striding inside and deliberately smashing his shoulder against him.
The result was that Sun Wangzu lost his balance and fell straight backward onto the floor, the back of his head knocking against the shoe cabinet to the side. His vision went black, and the pain made him bare his teeth.
Lin Jiu stared blankly for a second. “Damn, what a weakling.”
He’d thought the guy was more capable than this. Looking at him now, he probably only bullied Gu Lingling by relying on his male build.
Scumbag. And you call yourself a man?
Sun Wangzu, lying on the floor, glared furiously at the unfamiliar man who had suddenly appeared. “Who the fuck are you?!”
Lin Jiu’s eighth-grade syndrome flared up. “You’re asking who I am?”
He crouched down and patted Sun Wangzu’s face. “Listen carefully. I’ll only say this once.”
Then, deliberately widening his eyes and acting cool, he said, “I, motherfucker, am rich!”
Gu Lingling: …
An Yi: …
What was this simultaneously embarrassing and even more embarrassing scene?
As soon as the words fell, Lin Jiu kicked Sun Wangzu again and stood up to walk inside.
Kicked for no reason at all, Sun Wangzu burned with anger even as the pain shot through him. He scrambled to his feet and lunged at Lin Jiu. “You dog—”
But before he could finish, An Yi entered and knocked him flat onto the floor again.
Falling in the same place twice, Sun Wangzu ground out, “You.”
An Yi: Oh-ho, really is a weakling.
Sun Wangzu: “Who the fuck are you too?!”
An Yi glanced at him. “Super rich person.”
Sun Wangzu: …
Gu Lingling: …
Sun Wangzu looked at the dumbstruck Gu Lingling at the side, then at the two king-of-the-world types striding inside.
“Gu Lingling, fine. I can see it now. You fucking came here for revenge!”
Gu Lingling didn’t deny it. Looking at the loathsome man before her, she suddenly felt she must have been blind before to ever have fallen for such a piece of trash.
Sun Wangzu looked at the two men already inside the apartment.
Both An Yi and Lin Jiu were taller than he was. If it came to a real fight, he had no chance of winning.
At that moment, the mistress in the kitchen heard the commotion and came out wearing an apron. “Wangzu, what’s going on?”
But the moment she stepped out, she saw An Yi and Lin Jiu sitting on the living room sofa. Their extravagant, glittering style was completely out of place in the shabby rental apartment.
The mistress stared blankly at the designer labels on their bodies. Were these people Sun Wangzu knew? Or guests?
Taking advantage of the fact that Sun Wangzu still hadn’t gotten up, Gu Lingling lifted her leg and added another kick, landing it right on the fatal spot. Sun Wangzu let out a miserable scream, and it took him quite a while to climb up from the floor. Looking at the three bandits lounging casually on the sofa, he pointed at Gu Lingling and cursed, “What the fuck do you actually want?!”
An Yi stood up, scaring Sun Wangzu into quickly withdrawing his finger. Everything the person in front of him was wearing was high-end. It was already impressive if ordinary people could get one or two pieces, but these two could be described as obscenely rich. They definitely had some kind of background. As a mere painter, he couldn’t afford to offend them.
Sun Wangzu gritted his teeth. In that instant, his disgust for Gu Lingling deepened a few points. Since she knew people like this, then when he’d been trying to sell paintings, why hadn’t she introduced him to them? This woman clearly just wanted to see him make a fool of himself.
An Yi got to his feet, planning to reason with him. After all, this was a law-governed society—one shouldn’t abuse private violence. Looking down from above, he said to Sun Wangzu, “We came here today not to do anything much. We just want to take back what belongs to Gu Lingling.”
As he spoke, his gaze drifted between Sun Wangzu and the mistress. “So, the two of you…”
Lin Jiu shouted, “Get out!”
Perfect coordination.
Sun Wangzu looked at An Yi. “You tell me to get out, and I just get out? Who do you think you are?”
An Yi said, “I’m An Yi.”
Sun Wangzu: …
An Yi looked at Sun Wangzu the way one looked at an idiot.
Sun Wangzu said, “This is my home. Why should I get out?!”
An Yi replied, “Gu Lingling paid the rent. How did it become your home?”
Lin Jiu chimed in again, “He’s eating soft rice and acting tough about it.”
Sun Wangzu: “You… you…”
He couldn’t afford to offend those two, so he simply redirected his firepower toward Gu Lingling. “Fine, Gu Lingling. Only now do I see you clearly. You got dumped by me, and now you come to my door threatening me, you mannish wo—ahh!!”
Before Sun Wangzu could finish, An Yi raised his hand and punched him. Unable to endure it any longer, Sun Wangzu got up and rushed to grapple with An Yi.
But Sun Wangzu always claimed he needed to isolate himself to create paintings and had barely gone out for long periods of time, much less exercised. An Yi pinned him to the ground and lifted his fist again.
An Yi: “Apologize!”
Terrified, Sun Wangzu looked at Gu Lingling and gritted out a “sorry.”
Seeing Sun Wangzu pinned to the floor, the mistress hurried over and started tugging at An Yi, trying to rescue him. She didn’t believe An Yi would dare hit her.
Sure enough, when she got in front of Sun Wangzu, An Yi stopped moving. “I don’t hit women.”
The mistress sneered inside. She knew it.
An Yi said, “But…”
Mistress: ?
There’s a but? But what?!
Then Lin Jiu stood up. “I do.”
Mistress: …
She looked at Lin Jiu in disbelief. “You actually hit women?!”
Lin Jiu, thick-skinned as ever, said, “I have no shame.”
Mistress: …
How could he say that so openly?
While Lin Jiu and the mistress were at each other’s throats, Sun Wangzu saw the situation turning bad and quickly rasped out that he would move out.
Lin Jiu was pulling the mistress’s hair. An Yi kicked Sun Wangzu in the stomach. “Fine, you can leave. But apologize to Gu Lingling first.”
Clutching his stomach, Sun Wangzu gagged on the floor. The mistress glared at An Yi. “You!”
Lin Jiu yanked her back. “What are you looking at? Keep staring and I’ll dig your eyes out!”
The mistress immediately shuddered.
These dog man and dog woman—who were they trying to act all deeply in love for?
Sun Wangzu sat on the floor in humiliation, gritting his teeth as he spoke to Gu Lingling. “I’m sorry.”
An Yi said, “Reason.”
Sun Wangzu: “I’m sorry for cheating and living off you.”
An Yi: “What else?”
Sun Wangzu: “Don’t push people too far!”
An Yi picked up a feather duster from the side, clearly planning to push things too far.
Sun Wangzu: ……
“S-sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. It was all because my mouth was filthy. I’m not human. I wronged you.”
Lin Jiu gave the mistress a glance. “And you?”
With her hair still in his hand, the mistress didn’t dare resist and apologized to Gu Lingling too. “I’m sorry.”
Gu Lingling didn’t want to see them anymore and told them to hurry up and get out of her apartment.
An Yi let go of Sun Wangzu and looked at the paintings in the corner. “Leave Gu Lingling’s things behind. Take all your junk with you.”
Junk?!
Sun Wangzu pointed at his artwork. “You call those junk?!”
An Yi suddenly understood. “Sorry.”
Sun Wangzu’s expression eased a little.
An Yi added, “Take all your trash with you.”
Sun Wangzu: …
These weren’t small nobodies. If Gu Lingling had come back alone to demand an explanation, he could have dealt with her. But the people in front of him were not ones he could provoke. He could only swallow his anger, drag the mistress back over, and begin packing up the things in the apartment.
Just before leaving, he looked at Gu Lingling. That one look contained a great deal. Sun Wangzu deliberately filled it with lingering attachment. He refused to believe that after five years together, Gu Lingling could let go so easily.
Just as Sun Wangzu turned away, Gu Lingling spoke.
“Sun Wangzu!”
A curve rose at the corner of his mouth. Hah. He knew it. He turned back to look at Gu Lingling.
Gu Lingling said, “The clothes and pants you’re wearing were bought by me.”
Sun Wangzu: …
At that moment, bruised and swollen, Sun Wangzu humiliatingly and furiously stripped off his clothes in front of them, then wrapped himself in canvas and carried off his easel. The mistress hurriedly slipped out after him as well.
Operation Seize the House: complete success.
An Yi and Lin Jiu sat on the sofa and split an orange, then patted their butts and prepared to leave, giving Gu Lingling some time to sort herself out alone. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to stay with her—just that if the two of them stayed to talk, one sentence would probably make things worse, and three sentences would be rubbing salt in the wound.
Before leaving, An Yi and Lin Jiu turned back to look at Gu Lingling, who was sitting in the living room.
“Goodbye, Greatest Beauty in the Universe!”
The two of them raised their arms, slung them around each other’s shoulders, and prepared to head out.
Watching their backs, Gu Lingling finally smiled for the first time that day.
But the very next moment, An Yi’s left foot hooked Lin Jiu’s right, and both of them fell to the floor together.
Lin Jiu hauled An Yi back up. “Do you even know how to do three-legged race?!”
An Yi said, “We said one-two-three, and we hadn’t even counted three yet!”
Looking at the two little elementary school chickens at the doorway—
Gu Lingling: …
Just get out already.
After coming out of the rental apartment, An Yi chatted idly with Lin Jiu for a bit, then took a taxi home. Once he went in, he wandered around the house for a while but didn’t see Huo Beixing anywhere, nor were Summer Sweetheart and Princess Lily around. They were probably out walking the dogs.
Seeing An Yi return, Uncle Zhong came forward and asked, “Young Master An Yi, have you had lunch?”
As it happened, An Yi was a little hungry. He scratched his head awkwardly. “Not yet.”
Uncle Zhong smiled. “Then I’ll have the kitchen prepare something for you.”
After lunch, An Yi went back upstairs to his room. Although they had already gotten passes for the fashion show, that didn’t mean their studio had been recognized, and he absolutely couldn’t waste his time. As the saying went, one is born in sorrow and dies in ease! Little Frog was absolutely not the sort who only knew how to eat and laze around!
So he rummaged through his suitcase and pulled out an essential item for macho men—
A macho man magazine.
Macho men just loved looking at this sort of thing.
An Yi went to the bathroom and took a shower. When he came out, he changed back into his usual shorts and white T-shirt, then sat barefoot on the chair flipping through the macho man magazine.
Then, halfway through, he suddenly felt like something was missing.
Ten seconds later, An Yi was lying on the bed on his stomach, chin propped up, flipping the pages.
Now this was more like it.
Looking at the macho men in the magazine, some without shirts, some without pants, An Yi was so pleased he kicked his pale feet happily in the air.
Relaxed and at ease.
This was the life a macho man ought to live.
In the very next second, a huge force came crashing down, and suddenly he felt a weight land on top of him.
An Yi: “Cheep…”
Before An Yi could even react, he was pressed down so hard that a muffled little sound escaped him. He tried to turn over, but the person on top of him was pinning him down so firmly that he wasn’t given any chance to move at all.
Huo Beixing was leaning over him, pressing him down. When he saw An Yi kicking his legs around, he lifted one knee slightly and pinned him even tighter.
Huo Beixing ran hot, and almost instantly raised An Yi’s naturally steady body temperature. He loved physical contact with An Yi. Right now, his chin was resting on top of An Yi’s head as he reached out and picked up the macho man magazine from the bed. “Wife, what are you looking at?”
But the moment he saw the men in the magazine, Huo Beixing’s face darkened at once.
He gave an unhappy shout. “Ah!”
Every one of these men was more shameless than the last—none of them were even wearing clothes!
Huo Beixing looked thoroughly displeased and, using brute force, flipped An Yi over a full one hundred and eighty degrees.
That handsome, rakish face of his turned serious. His peach-blossom eyes lowered slightly as he looked at An Yi the way one might interrogate a criminal.
“You were reading dirty books?”
An Yi’s face flushed red, and he hurried to correct him. “That’s not a dirty book. It’s a macho man magazine.”
Huo Beixing stayed pressed on top of him. No matter how An Yi struggled, he couldn’t move. Looking at the red-faced person beneath him squirming around, Huo Beixing made no move to get up. Sometimes he just liked bullying An Yi like this.
His strong arm lifted as he looked at the book in his hand, then at An Yi. It was obviously a dirty book.
Huo Beixing said, “You’re arguing back. I’m very angry right now.”
His wife had actually been looking at other men behind his back. Though these men were shameless and had seduced his wife first by not wearing clothes, his wife still hadn’t held firm either.
Hadn’t he promised to love only him?
An Yi said, “I’m not.”
Huo Beixing reached out and pinched An Yi’s cheeks, meanly squishing his mouth into a little chick beak. “Any book where people aren’t wearing clothes is a dirty book.”
An Yi looked at the person on top of him, who also wasn’t wearing any clothes at the moment.
Then what are you?
A dirty little yellow man?
