Chapter 10 Forgot About the Scheduled Message!

Gu Shiyan lifted the bag in his hand. "I bought this for my girlfriend. Why are you so intent on upsetting him? Hoping he'll get so angry he'll have a heart attack and leave me his inheritance?"

Gu Liang, who had just been soothed by Su Wan, trembled with rage at those words, his facial muscles twitching. "You! Get out!"

Su Wan held onto Gu Liang's wrist. "Shiyan, you are your father's only son. How can you provoke him like this? Apologize to your father now."

Gu Shiyan paused on the stairs, turning his head to sneer at the pair of lovers before him. The hint of red at the corner of his eye lent him an eerie beauty. "And who are you to say so? You should mind your own man first. Didn't you just make the headlines today with some scandalous news?"

Gu Liang stood up, brushing Su Wan aside, and came face-to-face with Gu Shiyan. The two were about the same height. After decades of navigating the business world, Gu Liang took good care of himself, with staff attending to his food and needs. He was not the typical middle-aged man with a paunch; instead, he exuded an intimidating presence that overshadowed Gu Shiyan.

The cold indifference in Gu Shiyan’s eyes only further angered Gu Liang.

Gu Shiyan pressed on, adding fuel to the fire. “Where’s your award-winning actress? Why not bring her back so we can all join in the festivities?”

Gu Liang forced down his rage. “Go sit down and eat.”

“You have an appetite? Didn’t you eat enough outside?”

Su Wan stepped forward. “Shiyan, your father is just concerned about you. Must you speak so harshly?”

Gu Shiyan’s fingers idly rolled the thin string of the pastry bag. “I’ve always been harsh. If you don’t want to hear it, don’t ask me to come back.”

“There’s something important to discuss. Sit down.” Gu Liang pressed his throbbing temple, enduring the headache as he spoke heavily. “I don’t want you causing a scene later and saying I didn’t tell you anything.”

Gu Shiyan fell silent, his lips pulling into a slight smirk as he leaned against the stair railing, raising his brows to signal he could say whatever he needed right there.

Su Wan glanced at the father and son, then stood between them. “Here’s the thing—I’ve registered my marriage with your father.”

“Heh, so now you want a blessing from an outsider like me?” A wave of nausea rolled through Gu Shiyan’s stomach, a familiar spasm clenching his chest.

Clutching his chest, he turned to leave, but Gu Liang called out to stop him.

“From now on, during the weekly holidays, your Aunt Su’s daughter will be coming. You’d better be polite to her!”

Before Gu Liang had finished speaking, Gu Shiyan had already vanished.

He rushed outside, leaning over a trash bin, but nothing came up.

Sitting to the side, his phone screen lit up.

A message from Gu Liang.

Gu Shiyan turned off the screen without reading it.

People like Gu Liang always made him feel sick—made him sick of himself, too.

It was as if, having inherited Gu Liang’s temperament, he was inherently reckless and wayward.

The people around him, apart from that half-witted Li Zhao, were much the same.

He’d never aspired to be the sentimental type.

But like Gu Liang, who brought woman after woman to his bed, he found it all repugnant.

He hadn’t expected Su Wan to actually marry Gu Liang.

His mother had been gone for over a decade; Su Wan was the second woman Gu Liang had ever married, and now she was allowed to bring her own daughter into the home.

That meant Gu Liang must truly care for her.

The villa was surrounded by manicured greenery, with rows of perfectly trimmed turf and palm trees lined up as if cast from the same mold.

Gu Shiyan had no idea how long he sat there.

The number of cigarette butts at his feet grew.

It wasn’t until his phone chimed, the only light in the darkness, illuminating a corner.

In the night, the faint glow danced at his slender fingertips, smoke curling from his lips into the gloom, his half-lowered eyes touched with white by the screen's glow.

He glanced at his phone.

Midnight on the dot.

A stack of messages: from Gu Liang, from Li Zhao.

The latest—a message from Luo Xing.

With one hand, Gu Shiyan tapped open the phone, automatically entering Luo Xing’s chat.

“Star Baby: Happy birthday, Shiyan! May you always be happy! [heart] [cake] [celebration] [rose] [gift] [fireworks] [firecrackers] [kiss]”

His gaze lingered on that “kiss.”

On the phone screen, their chat burst into life—a bouncing pink heart appeared for two seconds and vanished.

Next came a cake.

Then a spray of colorful streamers.

A cluster of fireworks exploded in the middle of the screen.

Firecrackers burst around Gu Shiyan’s profile picture.

At last, a pink pair of lips—the “kiss”—expanded at the center of the screen.

All of it, fleeting.

Gu Shiyan stared at the screen for a long time, until the ash from his cigarette fell, burning his skin.

His fingertips trembled slightly, his heart following suit.

He flicked the cigarette away, gripped the phone in both hands, and solemnly typed a line of text.

...

The old apartment’s air conditioner was loud. Luo Xing, who had been staying up late for several nights, drifted off at her grandmother’s house to its steady hum.

Cuddling a small teddy bear, she slept soundly, undisturbed even as her phone screen lit up early in the dark.

Morning came. Shen Que arrived at Luo Xing’s home bearing breakfast.

Grandma was making pancakes. When she saw Shen Que, she smiled warmly. “Here you are bringing breakfast again. We should be the ones looking after you.”

“Grandma, didn’t I say I’d make breakfast while on holiday? You just rest.” Shen Que set the steaming congee on the table and glanced at the closed bedroom door. “Is Xingxing still asleep?”

“Yes, who knows what time she slept last night. I keep telling her not to stay up late, but she never listens. Still, she rarely comes home, and she loves my pancakes—it’s no trouble at all.”

“Grandma! I wasn’t up late last night!” Luo Xing pushed open the door just in time to catch that last sentence and shot back before darting into the bathroom.

When she emerged, Shen Que handed her a hair tie. “Here, tie up your hair before breakfast.”

Luo Xing took it and swiftly gathered her hair into a low ponytail.

“Big brother, I haven’t washed my face or brushed my teeth. At least let me do that first.” She headed back into her room.

Shen Que returned to his seat, knowing she’d gone to check her phone.

Grandma shook her head. “This girl, always staring at her phone—even brushing her teeth. No wonder she isn’t nearsighted, must be thanks to our ancestors.”

Shen Que pushed his glasses up sheepishly.

Sure enough, the old lady started nagging him. “Hey, Xiao Shen, no one in your family wears glasses—how did you end up needing them?”

“Aaah! I’m doomed!”

Out in the living room, Shen Que and Grandma nearly dropped their chopsticks in fright.

Hearing Luo Xing’s anguished cry, they rushed to her room, chairs scraping harshly against the floor, but no one cared about the noise.

“Xingxing, what’s wrong?” Grandma pushed open the half-closed door. Shen Que followed, supporting her by the shoulder.

Inside, they found Luo Xing kneeling on the bed, clutching her phone and banging her head against a teddy bear. “I’m doomed, I’m doomed, I’m doomed...”

Grandma went over and stroked her hair. “Don’t say such things—quick, spit it out for luck.”

“Ah... Grandma, I can’t, I really am finished.” Luo Xing stared at her phone, seeing the scheduled message she had set half a month ago.

How could she have forgotten to delete Gu Shiyan from her contacts?

And to think she forgot about the scheduled message, too!

Shen Que hurried over, frowning as he looked at her screen. “A scheduled message?”

He’d guessed it right away.