Chapter 48: A Crisis of Identity

The tall girl’s face was icy cold, her angry gaze fixed directly upon her.

Seeing her ex-girlfriend suddenly appear before her, Zhou Ruoyu gasped, then…

She reacted instantly—

She bolted!

Unfortunately, her short legs were no match for anyone. Before the petite figure with long black hair could even take a few steps, Gu Xue abruptly yanked her back!

“Still trying to run?!”

Gritting her teeth, Gu Xue shoved the girl against the wall, then fiercely pinned her hands. Zhou Ruoyu immediately trembled in fear.

Mainly, she felt a palpable surge of murderous intent in her ex-girlfriend’s eyes.

‘Help me! This, this, this… This is a life-or-death crisis! What do I do? What do I do? Gu Xue couldn’t have recognized my true identity, could she? Save me!’

Meanwhile, Gu Xue’s eyes blazed with fury, her grip on the girl’s wrist unyielding. After a long moment, seeing the petite figure with long black hair looking guilty and flustered before her, she finally sneered.

Her hour-long vigil, squatting in the hospital corner until her legs went numb, had not been in vain.

‘I finally caught you, you little green tea!’

“Hmph… hmph… Speak, speak up! I’m asking you a question, didn’t you hear me? I’ll ask you again, who are you? And what exactly is your relationship with Gu Jiachen?!”

Gu Xue’s sharp gaze pierced Zhou Ruoyu as she questioned her, word by cold word.

Upon hearing her ex-girlfriend ask who she was, Zhou Ruoyu finally breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed Gu Xue hadn’t recognized her.

‘In that case… should I play even dumber?’

“Ahem… Wh-what Gu Jiachen? Who are you talking about? I don’t know him…”

Zhou Ruoyu stammered, shaking her head, which made Gu Xue’s eyebrows twitch. After a moment, her ex-girlfriend crossed her arms and scoffed coldly.

“Shameless! Don’t know him? You’re not going to try and say you and Gu Jiachen are strangers, are you? Ha, but I just saw you two together. He even fed you an orange! And before that, I saw you holding Gu Jiachen’s arm at the community entrance!

“After all that… you, you still want to deny it?”

Gu Xue grew angrier with every word, and her gaze towards Zhou Ruoyu couldn’t help but carry a hint of disdain.

‘This petite figure with long black hair really is a little green tea,’ she thought. ‘Caught red-handed, and still trying to act like an innocent lotus!’

Uh…

However, Zhou Ruoyu’s mood wasn’t much better. Listening to Gu Xue’s righteous condemnation of her, Zhou Ruoyu’s mouth twitched, and she even started to wonder if she’d misheard.

‘No… no, aren’t you also kept by your archenemy CEO? Where do you get the right to look down on me, huh?!’

‘We’re both kept women. At least I’m enduring humiliation to be a good business spy, but my ex-girlfriend? She just straight up cheated for money and became a sugar baby! Compared to that, why does she get to look down on me? Why? Why?!’

The petite figure with long black hair screamed internally, also noticing a hint of jealousy in Gu Xue’s expression. After a moment, she pouted unhappily, then suddenly spoke, feigning a disdainful tone to mock her back.

“Alright… heh, since you saw it, I won’t pretend anymore! That’s right, my relationship with Gu Jiachen is exactly what you think it is…”

Seeing Zhou Ruoyu’s sudden shift to a tougher attitude, Gu Xue was momentarily stunned. But a moment later, after she processed it, her ex-girlfriend’s eyes widened in disbelief.

‘This… this person is too arrogant!’

“Indeed, you stinking little green tea, stay away from Gu Jiachen…”

“That’s right, my relationship with Gu Jiachen is the same as your relationship with Gu Jiachen!”

Eh?!

Just as Gu Xue was baring her fangs and claws, ready to engage Zhou Ruoyu in a girl-on-girl brawl, she was suddenly left dumbfounded by Zhou Ruoyu’s declaration before she could even finish her sentence.

After a moment, she tilted her head in confusion, then reached out a hand, pointing vaguely at herself.

“You said… your relationship with Gu Jiachen is the same as my relationship with Gu Jiachen? You… do you know what our relationship is?”

Just to be sure, Gu Xue wanted to confirm again. However, hearing such a request, Zhou Ruoyu’s heart immediately filled with bitterness.

‘Did she really have to make me say it? Such an embarrassing thing… especially since the girl in front of me is my ex-girlfriend. What happened during our relationship has long been a scar in my heart.’

Hesitating for a moment, Zhou Ruoyu finally decided to phrase it delicately, omitting any mention of transactional relationships, sugar babies, or being kept. She simply spoke in a cold voice:

“What do you call Gu Jiachen? I mean… what do you usually call him?”

“Uh… Dad, Daddy?”

Gu Xue tilted her head, answering cautiously. Zhou Ruoyu immediately nodded, then stated:

“What I call him is about the same!”

‘Maybe even a little less… after all, Gu Jiachen requires me to call him Master…嗚~’

“Eh—?!”

After hearing Zhou Ruoyu’s explanation, Gu Xue instantly froze, petrified. It took her a long while to finally comprehend what Zhou Ruoyu had said.

‘Does this little green tea mean… she, she and Daddy are also father and daughter? She’s also Daddy’s daughter?!’

‘No… that’s impossible. Daddy isn’t even married, and he only adopted me because I was already a relative. How could he have another daughter? This, this, this… I’ve never heard of having a sister my whole life!’

‘Hmm, but… the Zhou Ruoyu in front of me is indeed speaking with such conviction. And seeing Daddy’s attitude, and the doting look he gives her, it’s hard not to suspect that there’s a real basis behind this little green tea’s confident demeanor.’

‘Could it be… she, she’s telling the truth?’

Gu Xue’s mind couldn’t help but storm with thoughts. Of course, her skepticism was mainly because Gu Jiachen was simply too good to Zhou Ruoyu.

So good, in fact, that Gu Xue even began to doubt who Gu Jiachen’s adopted daughter truly was.

If someone could be more favored than her, an adopted daughter Gu Jiachen had raised since childhood… then if she wasn’t a lover, there was only one other possibility.

‘This little green tea in front of me… is Daddy’s illegitimate daughter? And his biological one?’

‘Hiss—’

‘Ugh… C-could that be a possibility?’

‘It doesn’t seem impossible, after all, I can’t be by Daddy’s side every day. Although Daddy has never brought any women home, if he had a woman outside, and that woman bore him a child… and Daddy didn’t want to marry, so he never brought the girl around, it’s possible they only recently reunited as father and daughter.’

‘Ahhh, no, I can’t think about it any further!’

‘Gu Xue… my status as Gu Jiachen’s daughter is in grave danger!’