Chapter 45

He had originally intended to leave quietly.

But after thanking Fu Siyao, the young women accompanying Fu Qingshu suddenly began whispering about Gu Yubai. Seeing him about to leave, they rolled their eyes in thought, then suddenly called out to him enthusiastically and said with great sincerity.

"Thank you for lending a hand too, sir. We hope you'll leave us your number so we can thank you personally."

Gu Yubai's expression chilled, and he refused outright. "No need. I wasn't the one who saved you just now. There's no need to thank me."

The girls looked a little embarrassed, but after exchanging glances, one of the wealthy young ladies suddenly nudged Fu Qingshu. "Qingshu, say something. He helped us too. We should thank him."

[These friends of Fu Qingshu's are really forcing the story back onto the plot. The power of the plot really is strong. I think their families all ended up in Gu Yubai's grasp too, another part of his play at conquering the wealthy families. But Fu Qingshu also had a hand in their families' business secrets getting leaked. To win Gu Yubai's affection, Fu Qingshu kept up a pretense of friendship with these wealthy young ladies and became a corporate spy, prying out plenty of important information.]

Fu Huaiyan's expression changed at these words. He thought this was far too shocking. Would Fu Qingshu really go that far for Gu Yubai?

It was truly unacceptable. This had to be strictly prevented.

Still, these wealthy young ladies did seem to fit the mold of fake best friends. If Fu Qingshu really lost her senses over love, it would be no surprise for her to do something like that.

These inner thoughts of Su Wanqiao's left Fu Siyao feeling a little guilty.

Because if she had not broken free of the plot, she too would have been threatened into betraying the Fu Family, becoming an even more loathsome and humiliated mole.

So she was considerably more forgiving when she heard about Fu Qingshu's situation. It was not that her values were crooked, but why hold others to strict standards while going easy on herself?

Whatever foolish things the sisters did in the plot, they were merely eight ounces against half a pound. Neither had any right to laugh at the other. There might even be something more outrageous.

Besides, Fu Qingshu had at least shown some promise. She was love-brained, but she was not actually stupid. She knew to pry into other families' business secrets rather than the Fu Family's. That much was something.

Fu Qingshu had just breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Su Wanqiao think again.

[Fu Qingshu drove out Fu Huaiyan's luxury car and lent it to Gu Yubai. She even covered up the fact that he had run into Fu Yichu, cleaned away the traces inside the car, and destroyed all the evidence. Then she pinned it on her eldest brother, causing the third brother to misunderstand and turning the two brothers into mortal enemies who tried to kill each other. As the plot escalated later, she really was an accomplice who indirectly caused Fu Huaiyan's death.]

*!!!*

This time, all three siblings inwardly sucked in a breath of cold air. Fu Huaiyan himself had recently stopped worrying about dying young, since Fu Yichu had been so well-behaved and obedient lately.

But today's incident had triggered an important plot point again, and the situation had become tense once more.

The fear was that the car-borrowing incident would still happen. That would be difficult to handle.

And only now did Fu Qingshu finally feel that she herself was caught in the game, with that sense of being controlled by someone and unable to escape no matter what.

She had heard about this at the family dinner before, but had not quite believed it. After all, who would firmly believe in something that had never happened? At most, she had been surprised for a moment, then found that her life remained unchanged.

But now it had really happened. Someone who was actually the male lead had come to play the hero rescuing the damsels, and the plot really would begin.

Fu Qingshu truly could not guarantee whether she would have fallen in love with Gu Yubai if Fu Siyao had not arranged for bodyguards to come today, and if she had not had the inner thoughts warning her about future events.

The answer was that she would have fallen in love.

Because if he had saved her, she would very likely have developed feelings for him.

Fu Qingshu had never dated before, much less had any experience, and she too longed for love. Although she was not certain whether her feelings would have taken deep root, the expressions on her friends' faces told her that they were very taken with Gu Yubai's exceptionally handsome looks.

Even if she had not loved him enough at the time, her feelings deepening over the days that followed would only have been a matter of time. She might really have come to like him.

Love could make people lose their minds. Even a perfectly decent person could turn into a devil because of love.

To think she could even harm her own brothers. Her self in the plot was truly worse than a beast.

So she grew even more afraid, afraid that she would suddenly turn from a human into a beast.

If Fu Qingshu had merely been scared by the plot earlier, now she was terrified.

A terror that came from her soul.

So she suddenly spoke sharply to the wealthy young ladies.

"What do you want me to say? He wasn't the one who saved us in the first place. It was clearly my sister who had her bodyguards deal with those thugs. Why weren't you as enthusiastic toward my sister as you were toward him? If I'd known you'd be so grateful to a man, my sister really needn't have bothered saving you."

These words thoroughly mocked the wealthy young ladies. She had all but openly said that they lost all sense of shame at the sight of a man, even overlooking the all-important debt of gratitude for being saved.

In truth, the person Fu Siyao had mainly wanted to save was Fu Qingshu, and the other girls had merely been included along the way. But it was still a fact that she had saved them, so their greater enthusiasm toward that man than toward her eldest sister angered Fu Qingshu. Naturally, there was also something of using that debt of gratitude to pressure them.

When had these wealthy young ladies ever heard such mockery? Besides, Fu Qingshu was usually perfectly polite. This was the first time they had heard her speak so cuttingly, leaving them wishing they could sink into the ground.

"Qingshu, how can you talk like that? That's not what we meant at all. And we're very grateful to your sister too. Besides, your sister mainly came to save you. Do you have to be so petty with us?"

Fu Qingshu's expression changed instantly. "Of course my sister came to save me. So you owe me a favor, not that person. I hope you all understand that."

At this, the girls fell silent. That was indeed the case. They just did not understand how Fu Qingshu had become so petty. She had never been like this before.