The mind-reading fake heiress changes her fate by eating melons.

From the end of the family reunion banquet until the airing of their TV series, Qiu Nian maintained a cold and indifferent attitude towards him.

Although he and Qiu Nian participated in many promotional activities during the TV series' run and had many opportunities to interact, they should have promoted their on-screen couple status. Even for the sake of promoting the series, Gu Chenming thought that Qiu Nian could at least appear more intimate with him on the surface.

However, this drama is a revenge drama. In the early part, it does tell the story of the love between the male and female leads. But the sweetness in the early part is to emphasize the pain the female lead will feel when she discovers that her family was destroyed by the male lead's family. So once the plot gets to the main storyline, even the most enthusiastic shippers can't keep up.

Therefore, Qiu Nian's performance was not only not criticized, but her cold and somewhat hateful look when she looked at Gu Chenming was even screenshotted and made into an emoji with the words "kill kill kill" and became very popular for a while.

What made Gu Chenming feel even more threatened was that An Ling's attitude towards him seemed to have changed.

An Ling used to message him all the time, but now she never contacts him first. Although she still replies when he messages her, Gu Chenming feels that An Ling is not as infatuated with him as before.

Not only was there no progress with the real heiress, but the fake heiress was also starting to lose confidence. Gu Chenming finally couldn't hold back any longer.

After failing to contact Qiu Nian again, Gu Chenming actually came to her door when Qiu Nian returned to the An family and said that he had something important to say to her alone.

Qiu Nian originally wanted to refuse, but then she realized that An Ling seemed to have misunderstood something.

[Hmm? What's going on?]

[The male lead has something to say to the female lead alone?]

Could it be that they've made some new progress behind my back without my knowledge?

[They actually came to our house?! What on earth is going on?!]

Why can't this lousy character lookup tool check the real-life situations of the male and female leads?! Could Qiu Nian really have been bewitched by Gu Chenming?

Where are they talking? Can I eavesdrop?

Autumn Thoughts: ...

Why don't we just agree and let Anling hear it for herself? Otherwise, it would be bad if she kept misunderstanding us.

After a brief hesitation, Qiu Nian changed her mind and nodded to Gu Chenming, "Okay, come with me, let's talk in the central courtyard."

This was a place Qiu Nian specially chose. The courtyard of the An family home was arranged in the style of an open-air garden, with a sky corridor on each floor starting from the second floor that surrounds the courtyard.

You can see the entire atrium from the corridor and look down, but people standing in the atrium won't notice the people in the corridor unless they look up.

After much thought, Qiu Nian decided that this was the perfect place for An Ling to eavesdrop. As long as she led Gu Chenming closer to the corridor, An Ling could hear their conversation from the second-floor corridor without worrying about being discovered by Gu Chenming.

Simply perfect!

Sure enough, An Ling's eyes lit up when she heard Qiu Nian's words.

After Qiu Nian and Gu Chenming left, she made an excuse to go back to her room to rest and went upstairs. Her quick movements and agile skills allowed her to arrive at her destination before the other two.

An Ling crouched down and hid in the second-floor corridor, using the corridor railing to cover her body, only peeking out half of her head to secretly watch Qiu Nian lead Gu Chenming slowly towards her direction.

[That's right, that's right, come over here, and pray that Qiu Nian stays closer to me.]

[Closer, closer! I can't hear you if you're too far away.]

Qiu Nian, having overheard An Ling's rambling, knew her approximate location. She found a spot where she could clearly hear An Ling's thoughts, turned to face Gu Chenming, and asked:

"Did you come to my house specifically to see me? You could have just texted me if you had something to say, there was no need to bring it up separately, was there?"

Seeing that Qiu Nian remained indifferent, Gu Chenming could only suppress his displeasure and spoke gently:

"Xiao Nian, we've known each other for so long, why are you still so cold to me? You shouldn't treat ordinary friends like this, right?"

Qiu Nian thought that was because the two of them weren't even ordinary friends, okay?

"Teacher Gu, you're overthinking it. I'm not being cold-hearted. It's just my personality. I don't think there's anything wrong with how I am now."

"Also, you should still call me Qiu Nian. We only worked together on one drama. Calling me that is a bit too intimate."

“But Xiao Nian,” Gu Chenming sighed, “we were supposed to be this close. If you and An Ling hadn’t been switched at birth, you would have been my childhood sweetheart. Shouldn’t it be natural for me to call you Xiao Nian?”

Qiu Nian felt a chill run down her spine at Gu Chenming's pretentious act and took a step back.

"But you also know there are no 'what ifs,' and such assumptions are meaningless. The fact is that we can't even be called friends, so you shouldn't say things like that in the future."

Gu Chenming suddenly stepped forward, a hint of obsession flashing in his eyes:

"No, Xiao Nian, even if there are no 'what ifs,' we can start getting along well from now on. Why are you avoiding me? If you're doing this because of An Ling, isn't that too unfair to me?"

"I've explained to you so many times that there's nothing between Anling and me. I don't like her at all. She's the one who keeps bothering me. Just because she likes me, does that mean I can't pursue my own feelings?"

"What are you talking about?" Qiu Nian looked at Gu Chenming warily, silently taking another step back. "Then you shouldn't have said that to me..."

"No, I'm telling you this!" Gu Chenming pressed on, "Can't you see? The person I like is you!"

Anling: [Huh?]

Qiu Nian: "Huh?"

Gu Chenming's sudden confession completely stunned the two of them.

Qiu Nian, in particular, felt a bit horrified.

Has Gu Chenming gone mad?

Isn't it obvious enough that she's avoiding him?

What was Gu Chenming's mindset when he said such a thing?

“Xiao Nian, you might find this sudden,” Gu Chenming said, looking at Qiu Nian with feigned affection, “but from the first time I saw you, I felt inexplicably attracted to you, which is why I recommended you to the director. Actually, my ulterior motive was to take this opportunity to get closer to you.”

“I’ve always wanted to get closer to you, but you’re avoiding me because of Anling. Do you know how sad that makes me?”

"I don't expect an answer from you right now, but at least can you stop being so cold to me in the future?"

"No, no, I think you've misunderstood. I'm not avoiding you because of Xiaoling," Qiu Nian said, stunned and speechless, but she quickly backed away to distance herself from Gu Chenming. "Let me be honest, I have absolutely no desire to have any contact with you or even to be friends with you. It has nothing to do with Xiaoling."

"Do you understand now? I don't know why you suddenly said these strange things to me, but I have to make this clear to you today: I absolutely, positively could never like you, so please don't contact me again!"

At this point, Qiu Nian didn't care about politeness anymore. After saying these words, she ran away as fast as she could.

An Ling was sitting on the corridor with her back against the railing. Since Qiu Nian had already left, she knew she couldn't eavesdrop on anything anymore. She was about to get up and leave quietly when she heard Gu Chenming's angry voice coming from below.

"Why? How is this possible?"

"I've already confessed my feelings, how could Qiu Nian possibly reject me!"

"I'm clearly the male lead!"