"Gu Junxing, I heard you're seriously ill? I came to send you off."
Nian Suian tensed upon hearing these words: what a deadly mouth!
"Fang Anzhi, rest assured, I will outlive you even if you die."
"It's not me on the sickbed right now." Finishing, he once again flashed his charming smile to Nian Suian, "Sister-in-law, nice to meet you once again."
No matter how good looking Fang Anzhi is, he was never Nian Suian's type. But she couldn’t deny that he is indeed incredibly handsome. Of course, his taste in fashion was pushing its boundaries, a deep purple satin shirt, downright flamboyant.
Nian Suian thinks Fang Anzhi was a bewitching man, not only in appearance and dress but also his voice was very "ambiguous". Calling her "sister-in-law" in such a flirtatious tone made her feel embarrassed.
Gu Junxing, already being at odds with Fang Anzhi, went blue in the face upon noticing the blush on Suian’s cheeks.
"Get lost once you're done."
Fang Anzhi disregarded Gu Junxing's cold words. Far from leaving, he went straight to the couch and sat down.
Neither of them spoke, and Nian Suian could hear the ticking silence. Considering Fang Anzhi as a guest, she turned around to fetch a glass of water.
Just as Nian Suian returned from the water dispenser, Gu Junxing noticed, "Do not serve him anything. He came empty-handed to visit a sick person, still wanting to drink water now?"
"So grumpy at this age. Don’t tell me you're holding a grudge against me all these years just because I stole your first love?"
First love?!”
Nian Suian had a hint of excitement, Gu Junxing's first love? She thought it was Gu Zhijing’s mother. Regardless, if she had been 'taken away', Gu Zhijing would not exist.
Nian Suian handed the water courteously to Fang Anzhi, disregarding Gu Junxing's sour expression.
"Thank you, sister-in-law. I'll stop addressing you formally, since you call me your brother-in-law." Fang Anzhi smirked at Gu Junxing who was lying in his sickbed.
Hearing him say these words, Nian Suian paused for a moment, unsure of what to call him. Finally, she said, "Should I refer to you as… my little uncle?”
Fang Anzhi burst into laughter upon hearing Suian’s words, causing her to be flustered and clueless about what to do next.
"You're adorable, sister-in-law. What a pity. If you hadn't been married..."
Nian Suian immediately froze. That was not something you should say, bro!
Nian Suian didn't actually think Fang Anzhi was infatuated with her. She assumed he was just trying to rile up Junxing.
Finding herself caught in their cat-and-mouse game, she couldn't help but sigh.
"Suian, do you want to go home to check on Zhijing?" Gu Junxing suggested, as he glared at Fang Anzhi, who was still laughing heartedly.
"Huh?" Nian Suian hesitated to leave. She hadn't heard about Gu Junxing's first love yet...
"Mr. Fang, could you please continue talking about Gu Junxing's first love?"
Though Nian Suian was eager to hear, Fang Anzhi made no move to continue the story. He felt the topic was not interesting for him to narrate, let alone that it should be told by Gu Junxing himself.
He determined that he had sufficiently troubled Gu Junxing for the day and stood to leave.
"You can call me Anzhi, sister-in-law. But about this first love of his, you really should have Gu Junxing tell you himself. He was crying his eyes out back then", Fang Anzhi dropped this bombshell and left without a second thought.
Nian Suian and Gu Junxing were left staring blankly at one another.
"Don't listen to his nonsense…" Gu Junxing helplessly said.
"So you were deeply in love during your first relationship that you even cried? Hey, where is your first love now? did she marry?"
"Nonsense, there was no such thing." Laughable. When did tears ever cloud Gu Junxing's eyes?
"Having a first love isn't something bad, why won't you admit it?" Nian Suian stuck out her lip. She didn’t buy Gu Junxing's denial one bit, thought that he was merely unwilling to admit, possibly out of pettiness.
Gu Junxing wanted to keep Nian Suian from probing further into this conversation. "You should keep your distance from him in the future. He's surrounded by women. He's not a man you can control."
Nian Suian was taken aback by his words. How many women Fang Anzhi was involved with was none of her business. Could it be that Gu Junxing suspected her of having feelings for Fang Anzhi?
"Thank you for the heads up, but I had no intention of controlling him." Fang Anzhi's looks were not to her liking, let alone his personality. She usually preferred to keep such people at a distance. On the contrary, Gu Junxing's mature and well-rounded appearance was more to Nian Suian's taste, albeit, merely at face value.
When Gu Junxing observed her sincere disinterest in Fang Anzhi, he was taken aback.
"I thought you were swayed by his good looks." He'd been neighbors and classmates with Fang Anzhi for over a decade. Almost every girl he knew had a crush on Fang Anzhi. Yet he, Gu Junxing, was never the popular one.
Gu Junxing seemed to forget that back when he and Fang Anzhi were classmates, they were surrounded by teenage girls. It would only be natural for them not to be attracted to his mature appearance, but rather Fang Anzhi’s charismatic good looks. Even Nian Suian herself preferred that type in her teens.
Gu Junxing, initially unpopular due to his mature appearance, became more attractive as he grew older. His transformation, brought on by the passage of time, added significantly to his charm.
Nian Suian was actually very much smitten with Gu Junxing's current appearance, although she did do a good job hiding it…
"I’m not attracted to his type."
"So what's your type then?"
"Hmph, I'm not telling you." Actually, she liked Gu Junxing in his well-fitted suits. He looked extremely appealing in them, drawing her very close to wanting to strip them off him. However, every time he chose to speak out and advise people authoritatively, she would lose any and all existing feeling for him. After all, who would like a man with the aura of a senior supervisor?
"Hey Gu! What happened? Why are you in the hospital?"
Nian Suian wondered why everyone had come to visit today.
"Sister-in-law, you must have been working hard taking care of old Gu." Liu Jian put down his things and said to Nian Suian.
"Why didn't you hire a caregiver?" asked Qin Wei.
"We did hire one, but there's no need for a caregiver at this moment. It's the same when I take care of him," Nian Suian replied with a smile.
Seeing Nian Suian's gentle smile, Gu Junxing knew she was acting again.
"You guys sit down, now that you are here, you can chat with Junxing. I will pour tea for you," Nian Suian seemed to enjoy the performance, today she was playing the role of a virtuous wife.
"Thank you, sister-in-law! You're giving us too much trouble!"
"Sister-in-law, you're really a good person, old Gu is lucky!"
"Didn’t you suspect that her intentions weren’t pure in the beginning and now you’re complimenting her?” Chen Shu teased Liu Jian, not knowing who had doubted her at their first meeting.