So What If the Pretty Campus Belle Is a Gold Digger? (41)

Gu Yanshen said, "I'm guessing he warned you before not to make your relationship public, right?"

"Y-you... how did you know?" Shi Zheng's eyelashes trembled slightly.

Gu Yanshen took in her reaction, a glimmer of understanding passing through his eyes.

He sighed softly. "I know exactly how someone like him thinks. After all, he and I have known each other for many years."

"Have you thought carefully about why he suddenly made your relationship public?"

Shi Zheng did not respond.

"Hua Jinchen felt threatened because I entered the picture."

Gu Yanshen said, "He originally saw you as a plaything—then suddenly discovered that someone else was interested in you too."

"And someone of equal standing to him, at that."

He put on a regretful air. "He didn't make the relationship public because he likes you. It was because of possessiveness."

"Even if he doesn't like something, he can't let someone else have what he's set his sights on. Do you understand that mentality?"

"It's like children fighting over a toy. It was left gathering dust in a corner, but the moment someone else comes along and wants to play with it, the child hugs it and says, 'This is mine.' It's not because the child likes the toy that much; the child just can't let anyone else have it."

"I don't mean anything else by it. I just think... you deserve to be treated better." Gu Yanshen raised his eyes and looked straight at Shi Zheng, a rare hint of vulnerability showing in his gaze. "No matter who treats you that way."

Those words were truly clever.

Gu Yanshen did not say, "I'm better than him," or, "You should choose me."

He simply expressed his concern, then left something unsaid, full of implication.

It was as though everything he did was for her sake, without a trace of selfishness.

Inside the restroom.

Hua Jinchen bit down hard on his lower lip, tasting blood.

He wanted to rush out and argue: No! It's not like he said!

But—

He really had never seriously discussed "going public" with Shi Zheng.

Only when she was attacked on the Forum had he stepped forward to stake his claim.

Before that, he really had never thought about going public.

He had even thought the title of "girlfriend" was nothing more than a label he had given her on a whim.

Hua Jinchen had thought that was affection.

But Gu Yanshen said it was possessiveness.

He wanted to argue, but found he had no way to refute him.

Because every word Gu Yanshen said was like a scalpel, precisely dissecting the ugliest corner of his heart, a corner he had never dared to face.

Did he really like Shi Zheng?

"President, you've said so much to warn me..."

Then Shi Zheng let out a soft laugh.

Her smile was faint; it was impossible to tell whether it was mocking or something else.

"When all's said and done, isn't your goal just to get me to break up with Hua Jinchen so you can take his place without anyone questioning it?"

"Haven't you given up on that idea yet?"

The question was so pointed that it went straight for Gu Yanshen.

Gu Yanshen neither admitted nor denied it immediately.

He was thinking.

Thinking about whether he should admit, in front of another man, that he wanted to steal that man's woman.

However, before Gu Yanshen could answer, Shi Zheng spoke again. "If you can't answer that question, President, let's skip it for now."

"Let's try another question. President, how can you be sure you don't have the same mentality as he does?"

Shi Zheng took a step forward.

She was now standing in front of Gu Yanshen, less than half an arm's length between them.

The next second, she reached out, pressed her hand against Gu Yanshen's chest, and shoved hard.

Gu Yanshen was caught off guard—or rather, he had not been on guard at all.

He staggered backward, his back slamming hard against the door behind him.

"Bang—!"

The dull impact rang out in the quiet lounge.

The door shook violently, creaking under the strain.

Behind the door, Hua Jinchen's heart nearly leaped into his throat.

The moment Gu Yanshen crashed into it, he was pressed against the door.

The thickness of a door.

The story of three people.