Days passed, and Ji Jiayu never replied to her again, not even a single word.
Li Tangli would find herself staring blankly at that chat window where only she had been sending messages.
The person beside her seemed to be talking, but the words couldn’t reach her ears, as if coming from somewhere very far away.
Not until a crisp sound burst next to her ear did she startle, jolting back to her senses.
It was Gu Yuqin. She lowered her clapping hands and tilted her head to ask, “Why’d you space out?”
Only then did Li Tangli register that she was a guest at the Gu household. She frantically stabbed the screen dark. “I didn’t notice you’d come back.”
The two of them had been sitting on the floor playing games. After finishing a round, Gu Yuqin said she was going to the bathroom. Li Tangli pulled out her phone, and before she knew it, she’d tapped open Ji Jiayu’s profile picture again.
That photo was still hanging there in his moments feed, untouched, stabbing at her eyes.
“What are you apologizing to me for?” Gu Yuqin had long since noticed something off about her today. She leaned in close, reached out a finger, and gently pressed against the faint darkness beneath Li Tangli’s eye. “You look exhausted. Are you okay?”
Maybe it was because Gu Yuqin had grown up sheltered and rarely went out—she always seemed to misjudge the boundaries of personal space between friends.
Li Tangli’s lashes fluttered. She’d nearly gotten desensitized to it by now, but when Gu Yuqin actually touched her, she still couldn’t quite bear it.
Unfortunately, her back was against a cushion, with nowhere to retreat.
While her face was being touched, she answered honestly all the same: “I picked up another part-time job at night. I’ve been sleeping late these past few days, haven’t been resting well.”
“Aren’t you already a server at the restaurant?”
“Yeah. Wanted to do a bit more work, earn some more money.” Her answer was vague.
The truth was, she had considered borrowing money from Gu Yuqin. Only, doing that carried the taint of trading on kindness for future favors, and they hadn’t known each other long enough for her to open her mouth.
A hundred thousand—to Gu Yuqin, that was just the cost of a single birthday. To Li Tangli, it was a matter of pride too painful to voice aloud.
Though she herself knew perfectly well that pride wasn’t worth much of anything.
Gu Yuqin sat back down beside her, shoulder to shoulder, pressed close. “That sounds exhausting. Want to take a nap?”
“I’m fine, not that sleepy.”
After two more rounds, Li Tangli gripped her controller and, hesitating, finally asked the real reason she’d come today. “Yuqin, there’s something I wanted to ask you.”
Gu Yuqin turned to look at her, gesturing for her to go on.
“Do you know where Jiayu’s been these past few days?”
Propping her arm on a cushion, Gu Yuqin’s gaze drifted instead toward the space just behind and to the side of Li Tangli. That door, which had been shut tight, now stood open a narrow crack.
But the person who’d opened it merely stood quietly outside, showing no intention of coming in, listening to every word she said.
Only a thin, elongated shadow seeped through the narrow gap, dark and heavy, creeping into the room, as if it meant to pool beneath the feet of the girl who was speaking.
Gu Yuqin didn’t give it away. She answered, “Oh, Little Fish. He should be on vacation at the seaside. Didn’t he tell you?”
“Did he say who he went with?” B L A C K L O T U S Novel Translation Site · Black Lotus Novel
Gu Yuqin pretended to think it over. “Let me see… probably the usual crowd?”
She listed off a few names, then shifted, lowering her voice: “Oh right, I heard from my sister that he’s apparently gotten to know a girl recently too—a distant relative of the Shu family, named… Shu Ran?”
Shu Ran?
Li Tangli’s eyelid twitched. The name sounded familiar, yet she was certain she’d never met this person.
No—wait, it hit her all at once. This was the name of the female second lead from the early plot of the original novel!
Before the white moonlight returned to the country, Shu Ran had been one of the biggest obstacles to the male and female leads’ romance. She’d repeatedly stirred up trouble between them behind the scenes, causing the female lead great suffering.
Shu Ran had dated the male lead for two years. Even after they broke up, she’d remained by his side in the role of a devoted confidante.
The two weren’t lovers, yet acted more intimate than lovers, their conduct toward each other affectionate. If not for the female lead, perhaps in the end it would have been her who ended up with the male lead.
So then—at this point in time, had Shu Ran already appeared?
Ji Jiayu’s strange behavior suddenly had a thread to follow. The photo, the inexplicable anger, the urgent demand to break up—didn’t all of it point to one thing? That Ji Jiayu had already fallen for her?
Right on its heels, Li Tangli realized a terrifying fact that followed close behind—the mission had failed.
Even this last chance had slipped away. Would she never get to go back now?
Gu Yuqin’s voice came neither too loud nor too soft: “Tangli, are you suspecting the two of them…?”
Li Tangli shook her head, her face ghost-white. “I don’t know.”
Not expecting this news to hit her so hard, Gu Yuqin momentarily fumbled for words: “You…”
Just then, a knock sounded at the door, right on time.
Gu Zhi appeared in the doorway. “Come down to eat.”
They stood up. Gu Zhi’s gaze fell on Li Tangli, who looked as if she’d lost her soul.
The three of them rode the elevator down. Li Tangli’s mind was a chaotic mess, half fear and half daze, and without realizing it she ended up walking in front.
She didn’t notice that the Gu siblings had deliberately fallen back behind her.
Gu Yuqin said softly, “Brother, I didn’t expect her to take it this hard.”
She paused. “She really does seem to like Little Fish.”
Gu Zhi said nothing. Only after a long moment did he let out a low, heavy hum.
Only the three of them ate dinner; Gu Shufeng wasn’t home to eat today.
The table was unusually silent, broken only by the occasional clink of bowls and chopsticks.
Everything tasted like chewing wax to Li Tangli—she ate even less than Gu Yuqin, who was sick. But so as not to spoil the mood, she forced herself to keep putting food in her mouth.
Gu Zhi’s left hand rested on the table. He clenched it, then spoke: “Don’t force yourself if you can’t eat.”
Li Tangli set down her spoon and dragged out a smile. “Sorry, I’ve wasted so much food. I’m not feeling great today.”
Thinking of the unknown consequences that would follow this mission’s failure, she lost all mood for play entirely. She didn’t linger long after dinner before taking her leave.
What surprised her a little was that Gu Zhi put on his coat, saying he’d see her out as well.
The two of them once again sat at opposite ends of the back seat, a river’s width apart.
As they drove through a quiet stretch of road, dim yellow light and darkness kept trading places inside the car. Her forehead pressed against the window, her face flickering bright and dark by turns, revealing exhaustion and sorrow.
Gu Zhi suddenly said, “Why are you sitting so far away?”
Caught off guard by him speaking at all, let alone with such a headless, tailless question, Li Tangli was stunned for a moment.
Gu Zhi’s tone stayed calm, yet brooked no argument: “Come sit closer.”
This faintly forceful attitude, as it happened, suited Li Tangli perfectly in her current state of complete disarray. She obediently scooted a little closer, though not by much—at least it closed the distance somewhat. · Black Lotus Novel Translation Site · Black Lotus
“You seem to have something on your mind. Mind telling me about it?”
He raised the partition, cutting off the driver’s line of sight. Now the back seat had become entirely their own private space.
Li Tangli didn’t notice. She only nodded, unwilling to say more. He was, after all, Ji Jiayu’s own uncle.
She hadn’t expected Gu Zhi’s next words to cut straight through the thin paper wall: “Is it because of Ji Jiayu?”
How did even he know about this?
Li Tangli looked over at him and found Gu Zhi staring at her, unblinking. She hurriedly dropped her gaze, letting it land on his clasped hands instead. “Mm.”
“What are you planning to do?”
“I…”
What plan could there possibly be? she thought numbly. Ji Jiayu had already broken up with her for Shu Ran’s sake, and she didn’t think she had the charm to win the male lead’s heart back.
It was only a matter of time before the mission was officially declared a failure.
And yet, in Gu Zhi’s eyes, her silence took on an entirely different meaning.
His face, which had been more or less calm, suddenly turned cold. His eyes sank, dark and impenetrable.
He said nothing, leaning back where he sat, gazing at the utterly unaware Li Tangli, his expression almost sinister.
—Things had come to this, and she still wasn’t planning to break up with Ji Jiayu!
That nephew of his hadn’t shown her a shred of respect—making her wear revealing clothes, treating her with hot-and-cold cruelty, forcing her to jump into a freezing pool, even going off traveling with another woman behind her back, which was nothing short of open infidelity.
And even so, Li Tangli still savored it all as if it were sweet nectar. Even learning of his betrayal, she forgave it entirely, unwilling even to bring up the words “break up.”
Did she really like him that much?
An indescribable bitterness rose in Gu Zhi’s chest.
It was he who had leaked word of Ji Jiayu’s signs of infidelity to Gu Yuqin, so that she could find the right moment to tell Li Tangli.
If others knew, they might even praise him for his integrity—that even when his own nephew had done wrong, he wouldn’t shield him out of favoritism.
Whether it truly was integrity, whether it came from good intentions or selfish ones, even Gu Zhi himself couldn’t say for certain.
But in this moment, he realized with a clarity he’d never felt before—he was jealous of Ji Jiayu.
He rarely ever felt jealousy.
Born into wealth and privilege, a golden child born with a silver spoon in his mouth, raised on elite education since childhood, enjoying food, clothing, and every comfort reserved for the tiniest sliver at the very top of the pyramid.
Along a life path that had been nothing but smooth sailing, Gu Zhi had rarely encountered anything he wanted and couldn’t have. Whatever he wanted, he eventually got.
So he had never needed an emotion this powerless, this degrading.
And yet, watching Li Tangli grieve silently over Ji Jiayu, a venomous snake called jealousy coiled tight around his heart, refusing to let go.
What reason he usually had left was eaten away to almost nothing. Gu Zhi felt his chest tighten. He undid his collar, baring a stretch of collarbone, and let out an uncontrolled, cold laugh.
This left Li Tangli utterly bewildered, thinking Mr. Gu was acting strange tonight.
The car fell silent again.
To avoid prying eyes and gossiping neighbors, the driver, following her usual instructions, stopped the car two bus stops away from home.
She thanked him and was about to get out when, from behind her, the man’s voice came, its mood unreadable: “I’ll see you to your door.”
Li Tangli said politely, “No need. It’s just a few more steps. I’ll get off here.”
“Give the address.”
They’d stopped beneath a tree, its dappled shadow obscuring Gu Zhi’s face.
Li Tangli couldn’t make out his expression, but instinctively sensed something was wrong.
She swallowed back her words and quietly gave the driver directions instead: “Straight ahead, then turn right.”
The car drove on until it reached beneath her building, then slowly rolled to a stop. BLACK LOTUS NOVEL Novel Chapter · Black Lotus
Gu Zhi turned his face and saw that Li Tangli had shrunk back against the window again, her right hand still gripping the door handle tightly.
A pang of regret hit him at once—he’d known she was timid, and yet he’d still frightened her.
He said quietly, “Sorry.”
The moment the door opened, Li Tangli got out without a shred of hesitation.
Sitting in the car, Gu Zhi didn’t drive off right away. Instead, he watched her figure until it vanished into the building entrance.
He rubbed his temples, unsure what exactly he’d done tonight.
Three minutes later, the car started moving again.
But they’d gone barely fifty meters when the driver glanced at the rearview mirror, slowed the car, and said hesitantly, “President Gu, Miss Li’s come back down again.”
“What?”
He turned around in surprise. Li Tangli, having doubled back, came running toward the car, waving frantically in its direction, desperately trying to flag it down.
The girl’s voice, thick with tears, tore through the silent night: “Gu Zhi!”
