Night Fire Lingering

"Wen Yan!"

Gu Yanci found her words grating.

"Gu Yanci, you are my husband, yet you spent time with another woman while I was sick, giving the jewelry you bought to another woman! What kind of husband are you?"

She clearly loves Wen Muzhi, but he keeps teasing her. She's had enough!

Wen Yan suddenly remembered the purple jade bracelet on her left wrist that she hadn't taken off yet. She immediately used her right hand to pull it outwards forcefully, leaving glaring red marks on the back of her left hand.

Gu Yanci grabbed her hand, stopping her almost self-harming behavior, and asked, "What jewelry?"

"That sapphire you bought at the auction, Wen Muzhi even wore it to show off in front of me." Wen Yan took a deep breath. "I saw it with my own eyes, and Gu Jinzhi saw it too. Are you planning to deny it?"

Gu Yanci remembered: "My mother asked me for that sapphire ring."

Wen Yan's burning anger came to an abrupt halt.

"You...you gave it to your mother?" Wen Yan asked in astonishment. "Then why is Wen Muzhi in Wen Muzhi's hands?"

She had seen a lot of jewelry since she was a child, and such a large gemstone was unique. Wen Yan remembered very clearly that the one in Wen Muzhi's hand was the one from the auction. Judging from the gemstone's refraction, the possibility of it being a fake could be basically ruled out.

After Wen Yan calmed down, she noticed that many of the students coming and going around her were secretly watching her and Gu Yanci, their eyes gleaming with gossip.

Wen Yan: "..."

Wen Yan quickly lowered her head, grabbed Gu Yanci's wrist, and quickened her pace to leave the spot.

Gu Yanci looked at the woman's hand holding his wrist, letting her pull him along. His long legs seemed unable to move, and he walked slowly and deliberately.

"Junior Wen, is this your boyfriend?" A senior student saw Gu Yanci and Wen Yan holding hands and exclaimed "Wow!" in a gossipy tone.

"No! Senior, I have something to do, let's talk another day!"

Once Wen Yan had walked a little further away, the girl next to the senior secretly took a picture and sent it to a boy on her contact list: "Senior, it seems Wen Yan has a boyfriend."

"Young Master Gu, can you please walk faster?" Wen Yan was inwardly furious and helpless.

Gu Yanci took a slightly larger step in agreement and asked, "Your senior?"

Wen Yan did not answer.

Gu Yanci asked again, "Is the person next to her your senior?"

Wen Yan looked at him as if he were crazy: "How would I know if someone else's boyfriend is a senior or a junior?"

Gu Yanci nodded in satisfaction.

Oh, it's not a senior.

-

Given the gravity of the matter, the college quickly notified Ji Chang.

On the way Gu Yanci was taking Wen Yan home, Ji Chang called Wen Yan.

Wen Yan looked at the caller ID and subconsciously glanced at Gu Yanci: "It's your mother calling."

"No need to answer." Gu Yanci said coldly.

He didn't grow up by Ji Chang's side, and coupled with Ji Chang's blatant favoritism, Gu Yanci didn't have much affection for Ji Chang.

Wen Yan hesitated for a moment, but still chose to answer the phone—she didn't like being ignored.

"Wen Yan, I heard that you have objections to the college giving the direct doctoral spot to Mingzhu?" Ji Chang was in a stable mood today, and her voice sounded calm and gentle, which was very different from when she met Old Madam Gu on her birthday.

"Yes." Wen Yan spoke frankly, "With Mingzhu's grades, she is not qualified for direct admission to a doctoral program."

"Hehehe..." Ji Chang seemed to have heard a joke. "Wen Yan, you're already twenty-one, how can you still say such childish things? What kind of fairness is there in this society? What is enough or not enough? If you weren't Gu Yanci's wife, your college wouldn't have given you a chance to argue, and I wouldn't have called you!"

"Mom, we students are a vulnerable group, but we are not to be slaughtered."

Wen Yan's face was grim. Before she married Gu Yanci, Ji Chang had treated her very well, and she didn't want to break ties with Ji Chang.

Gu Yanci took the phone from her hand and said bluntly, "Mom, I advise you to stop."

Ji Chang was stunned for a few seconds before she realized that the person on the other end of the phone was Gu Yanci.

She became even angrier: "You still know I'm your mother? I'm telling you right now, Mingzhu will definitely get the direct PhD spot!"

"Stop dreaming."

Without waiting for Ji Chang to speak, Gu Yanci hung up the phone and handed it back to Wen Yan: "Why waste words with her?"

Wen Yan pursed her lips.

She never imagined that one day she would be at odds with Ji Chang.

Gu Yanci chuckled when he saw her like this.

"What are you laughing at?" Wen Yan looked up in confusion.

“Wen Yan, people change,” Gu Yanci said. “Besides, her kindness to you before might not have been genuine. Are you really going to keep backing down for the sake of a false past affection?”

A vain old flame?

Wen Yan looked up at him.

But wasn't her love for him all these years simply because of the old feelings she had for him from childhood to adolescence?

If those things are nothingness, then what about all these years of hers?

Gu Yanci's car was parked downstairs at Wen Yan's apartment building.

Wen Yan thanked her and then said, "I can handle school matters myself, so you don't need to bother me."

"How are you going to solve this?" Gu Yanci asked sarcastically.

"I can!"

Wen Yan was determined to end her relationship with him.

Gu Yanci took out a cigarette, held it between his fingers, and asked, "Have you told Grandma about the divorce?"

Wen Yan shook her head: "I haven't had time yet. I'll go as soon as the school matter is resolved. I'll talk to Grandma properly."

“Since we haven’t said anything, I don’t want any more rumors about our disagreements to reach Grandma’s ears and upset her.”

Wen Yan understood what he meant—since he hadn't said anything, he was still her husband, and he would continue to be involved in this matter.

Moreover, if Ji Chang stands against Wen Yan and Gu Yanci is absent, then not only the next day, but within an hour the entire circle will know that he and Wen Yan are about to divorce, and the old lady will probably be so angry that she will be hospitalized.

"Isn't the rumor that we're at odds because of you?" Wen Yan rolled her eyes and muttered resentfully.

"because I?"

Hey, this guy still won't admit it?

"Because you treat Wen Muzhi with special favor! Who in the hosting industry doesn't know that you're Wen Muzhi's sugar daddy? Who in our circle doesn't know that Wen Muzhi and you are childhood sweethearts?"

Gu Yanci chuckled: "Aren't we childhood sweethearts?"

"Young Master Gu, childhood sweethearts are close friends who grew up together without any trouble. Are we like that?"

Gu Yanci had hated her following him and Gu Jingzhou since he was a child, and thought she was a nuisance.

Gu Yanci lowered her eyes, her long eyelashes concealing the emotions within them.

A moment later, he glanced at the gauze on Wen Yan's wrist and asked, "Does it hurt?"

"What?" Wen Yan didn't want to tell him the truth. "It doesn't hurt."

How long has this injury been going on? And you're still asking her if it hurts?

How can it not hurt?

It hurts when you get burned.

It hurts when I change the dressing.

It hurts when it gets soaked in water and becomes irritated.

But so what? It doesn't change the fact that he hurt her.

Wen Yan is soft-hearted, but she also holds grudges.