Vulgar Love - Chapter 5

Returning home happened three years later.

Before coming back, I chatted with an old friend. She sighed and told me that Gu Shaoheng had found a girlfriend.

She added that the girl looked somewhat like me.

But then she quickly supplemented, “Of course, she’s still not as beautiful or as elegant as you.”

I stared blankly at the bouquet of roses in the vase on the table not far away, lost in thought. After a while, I came back to myself and smiled, “After all these years, he still hasn’t changed.”

My friend laughed and said, “That girl looks so much like you, we all know Young Master Gu isn’t serious about her.”

I could hear the disdain in her tone toward the girl. She said:

“It’s good you’ve decided to come back. I didn’t even dare tell you before, but that girl is just too irritating. It’s not her fault she looks like you, but somehow she found out about your preferences and deliberately imitates you all the time…”

“Your hairstyle, your fashion sense, your way of speaking, your taste in food, even the curve of your smile-she copies it all.”

“We’re all disgusted by it…”

I was silent for a moment, then changed the subject. After chatting idly for a few more minutes, I hung up the phone.

I didn’t take it to heart.

Not until I returned home and my friends threw me a welcome party did I meet Gu Shaoheng and the so-called “substitute” my friend had mentioned.

I didn’t know if Gu Shaoheng had brought her on purpose to meet me. He led the girl over and introduced her, “Fang Suiran, this is Qin Manman, my girlfriend.”

He emphasized the words “my girlfriend,” and watched my reaction closely after he spoke.

Out of curiosity about how much Qin Manman resembled me, I looked her over for a while. In fact, our features weren’t that similar, but the contours and charm around the eyes and brows were about fifty or sixty percent alike. Coupled with our similar fashion and hairstyles, that fifty or sixty percent resemblance became seventy or eighty percent.

I withdrew my gaze and gave Gu Shaoheng and Qin Manman a faint smile. “Hello.”

Qin Manman stared at me in a daze, then came to herself after a moment and gave me a pale, weak smile. “Hello, I’ve heard so much about you.”

I sighed inwardly. I suppose, in the eyes of all of Gu Shaoheng’s girlfriends, I am the “white moonlight” who doesn’t have to do anything-just stand there and win.

This love, exaggerated by imagination and speculation, became the imaginary enemy for all of Gu Shaoheng’s later girlfriends.

I didn’t respond to her words, turning instead to greet other friends.

I don’t know if my prolonged gaze at Qin Manman gave Gu Shaoheng the illusion that I cared. Later, as if deliberately putting on a show for me, Gu Shaoheng was extremely attentive and gentle toward the girl.

He pulled out her chair, poured her drinks, and at one point, seeing Qin Manman’s pale face, he touched her forehead with his hand and asked with concern, “Are you cold?”

He took off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders. The friends nearby said nothing, only silently shifting their gaze from him to my face.

I smiled gently at Qin Manman and asked, “If you’re still cold, should I ask the waiter to turn up the heat a bit?”

She silently shook her head.

Later, my favorite spicy shrimp was served. The friends all laughed, “Oh, who told the kitchen to make the blue lobster spicy? What a waste!”

After saying this, they all knowingly glanced at Gu Shaoheng. He didn’t look up, just started peeling the shrimp. Back when we were together, he always peeled shrimp for me. Everyone said it was Young Master Gu lowering himself. This time, after peeling, he placed the shrimp in Qin Manman’s bowl and said gently, “Eat.”

Qin Manman glanced at me, then at Gu Shaoheng, and silently ate.

Gu Shaoheng kept peeling shrimp for Qin Manman; she ate as much as he peeled. I didn’t touch a single one on that plate.

Later, the initial tenderness on Gu Shaoheng’s face had turned to indifference. Without expression, he placed the last shrimp in Qin Manman’s bowl and asked, “Do you want more? Since you like shrimp so much, I can ask the kitchen to bring another plate.”

Qin Manman’s voice suddenly choked. She said softly, “I’ve never eaten spicy food, nor do I eat shrimp.”

Everyone fell silent, the atmosphere awkward. I stood up with a cold face and said, “Excuse me, I’ll step out for a moment.”