Chapter 5: Caught Red-Handed.

If I still couldn’t understand what he meant after that, then maybe I really needed to sign myself up for an “Emotional Intelligence for Beginners” class.

A thought suddenly flashed through my mind, and it scared me so badly that I couldn’t bring myself to stay under the same roof with him anymore. I grabbed my things and immediately went looking for my older sister, Qiao Yi’ning.

“Oh, so Gu Shen finally couldn’t take your goldfish brain anymore?”

“Sis! Fine, he can call me stupid, but you’re my actual sister!”

Qiao Yi’ning continued painting her nails, barely bothering to lift her eyes.

“Don’t tell people I have a sister like you. It’s embarrassing. Qiao Yi’an, seriously, you still haven’t figured it out? How many things in your life since childhood have happened without him getting involved?”

“When Dad scolded you, he was the one who comforted you. When you struggled in school, he tutored you. Every time he went somewhere, he came back with gifts for you. When those boys bullied you in middle school, who was it that brought people over to teach them a lesson? Have you forgotten all of that?”

I stood there frozen like a statue.

My sister delivered one final blow, just to complete the combo.

“With the way you’ve been completely blind all these years, only capable of seeing Gu Xing while treating Gu Shen like your sworn enemy every single day… If I were him, I’d have given up on you too.”

My brain felt like someone had hit the rewind button.

Thinking back carefully… she was right.

For twenty-five years of my life, Gu Shen had been everywhere.

And Gu Xing…

He had always existed in my life like a dream guy I could only admire from afar.

That evening, I returned to the Gu family villa.

The moment Auntie Gu heard that I’d managed to injure myself again, she was so worried that she dragged me over and checked me from head to toe.

“Mom, she’s always bumping into things. You should be used to it by now.”

One sentence from Gu Shen earned him a sharp smack on the back from his mother.

“Who said you could talk about your wife like that? Don’t you know how to worry about her?”

Gu Shen gave a quiet snort.

“Ask her who took her to the hospital.”

Just then, Gu Xing and his wife walked in.

They were holding hands, looking sweeter than sugar.

But this time…

Watching them together didn’t hurt anymore.

I wasn’t jealous. I was strangely calm.

Oh.

So this was what letting go felt like.

I secretly glanced at Gu Shen.

Did he… really like me?

The gorgeous mixed-race woman showed up again, this time supposedly to discuss a contract.

I stared at my phone, feeling so sour I could’ve practically squeezed vinegar out of my heart.

I wished I could crawl through the screen and physically drag the two of them three feet apart.

“If you’re going to act like a jealous wife, then go straight to his company and stake your claim. What good is sitting here being jealous online?”

Xu Chi snatched my phone away.

“By the time you lose him, don’t come crying to me.”

Just as I was desperately trying to come up with an excuse to visit Gu Shen at work, Gu Xing placed an order for thirty cups of coffee for a meeting at the Gu Group.

My opportunity had arrived.

I immediately packed everything up, grabbed Xu Chi, and headed straight for the Gu Group.

An assistant escorted us to the top floor.

And right outside the conference room…

I saw something that sent all the blood rushing straight to my head.

Gu Shen was standing extremely close to that mixed-race beauty.

So close that from where I stood, it looked like they were about to kiss.

I didn’t have time to think.

I charged straight over and yanked him away from her.

“What the hell are you two doing?!”

Gu Shen looked at me, clearly caught off guard.

“Why are you here?”

My voice was so sour it could’ve curdled milk.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I come? How else would I get to witness such a spectacular scene? Gu Shen, seriously? You can’t even behave yourself at work?”

The woman looked at me in confusion.

“Shen, who is she?”

I stepped in front of Gu Shen, full of righteous fury.

“I’m his wife! So please stay away from my husband!”

I said it with such conviction that even I thought I sounded pretty badass.

“Wife?”

The woman’s eyes widened as she turned to look at Gu Shen.

The next second, an arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me into his embrace.

Gu Shen held me with such natural ease, as though we’d rehearsed the move a hundred times.

“Yes. She’s my wife. Maria, I already told you. I’m married.”

For some reason…

Those simple words made my heart bloom like I’d just won the lottery.

Oh.

So this was what it felt like to have an official title.

“Maria, she really is my wife. And I…”

Before I could even process what he was about to say, his lips covered mine.

“I love her.”

He said…

He loved me?

I sat in Gu Shen’s office, replaying those words in my head for what felt like the hundredth time, my face as red as a ripe tomato.

He hadn’t just publicly acknowledged me as his wife.

He’d casually confessed his love at the same time.

Talk about a double whammy.

I sat in his executive chair, spinning around like a dazed idiot.

Then, absentmindedly, my eyes landed on the photo frame sitting on his desk.

And I froze.

It was a picture of the two of us taken on my eighteenth birthday.

I was eighteen, smiling brightly at the camera.

He was twenty-three.

And he was looking at me.

In that moment, I suddenly understood something.

All this time, I’d been so busy staring ahead that I’d forgotten there was a whole view behind me.

Someone had always been standing there.

Someone who had never left.

Gu Xing’s words suddenly echoed in my mind.

“Try turning around and looking behind you.”

Oh.

So he’d known all along.

Two hours later, Gu Shen finished his meeting and returned.

When he saw me staring at the photograph, he paused.

There was an unmistakable flicker of guilt in his eyes.

“The picture… looked nice, so I kept it.”

I didn’t call him out.

I simply smiled softly.

“Gu Shen, I’m hungry.”

“What do you want? Cake, fried chicken, bubble tea, or hot pot?”

The second he listed the options, I knew every single one was something I loved.

I took his hand myself.

“Come on. Let’s go get perilla-leaf frog hot pot.”

Gu Shen froze for a beat.

Then he seemed genuinely happy.

He hesitated for a moment before finally bringing up the mixed-race woman.

“About the last time we were photographed together… it was because we were attending the same event. She tripped over her dress, so I caught her. That’s all. I swear there was nothing going on.”

I stopped and looked straight into his eyes.

“Gu Shen…”

“I believe you.”

A man who could have chosen someone better suited to him, yet still chose to stay.

Chose me.

I was beginning to discover all the little clues he’d left behind, scattered everywhere like secret love letters.

The stuffed animal I’d casually shoved into his hands.

The fountain pen I’d given him.

Even the hair clip I’d lost.

He had kept every single one of them, carefully cleaned and preserved.

I even dug up a secret social media account of his.

There, he had recorded every little thing that happened between us.

The happy moments.

The arguments.

Even the times he’d felt hurt.

He’d written:

That heartless girl really is blind.

She eats so much of my food and still has the nerve to fall for someone else.

By the time I finished reading…

I was crying.

So this was where his love had been hiding all along—in every argument, every petty fight, every moment he pretended not to care.

And I had spent every day treating him like my mortal enemy.

Gu Shen was right.

Qiao Yi’an really was beyond saving.

I wanted to see him.

Right now.

No reason needed.

No waiting.

I hailed a taxi and rushed to the hotel where he was attending a party.

When I was almost there, I called him.

“I’m at the hotel entrance. Can you come downstairs?”

“You’re downstairs?”

His voice was unmistakably surprised.

“Wait for me. I’m coming right down.”

The moment the taxi stopped, I saw him hurrying out toward me.