"Whoa, whoa, hold on, I admit I was being petty. Now I understand, alright?" Liu Jian quickly cut off Chen Shu's words. He was worried that if Nian Suian came out of the pantry and heard them talking about this, it might lead to a misunderstanding.
Liu Jian had always been like this – seemingly all smiles on the surface, but actually a wolf in sheep's clothing with deep thoughts. Except for a few close friends, he suspected everyone of having ulterior motives. This was part of the reason why, at his age, he had never had a stable relationship. Whenever he met a girl, he always thought she was after his wealth. So when he first met Nian Suian, this paranoid habit of his kicked in again.
Chen Shu was different. He was the type who didn't take things to heart. If a friend had trouble, he would help, but he absolutely wouldn't pry into friends' personal affairs. So even if Gu Junxing had found a 25-year-old wife, or even a 52-year-old one, Chen Shu wouldn't have said a word. That's why he thought Liu Jian was being too nosy at the time. After all, she was marrying old Gu, not him, so why bother worrying about it?
"Chen Shu is right this time. You need to work on that suspicious mind of yours. The way you think, there wouldn't be any good people left in this world," Gu Junxing said calmly. A young girl like Nian Suian was only slightly more worldly than Gu Zhijing. Only Liu Jian would be so suspicious without knowing anything.
"Alright, alright, my bad. I shouldn't have talked about your wife," Liu Jian raised both hands in surrender. Although Gu Junxing's words didn't seem like much, after being friends for so many years, Liu Jian could tell from his look that he was speaking seriously and didn't want them gossiping about Nian Suian behind her back.
Actually, after that dinner, Liu Jian had done some digging. There's nothing new under the sun, and Nian Suian's background wasn't a secret. A casual inquiry revealed everything. Only then did he realize he had misjudged the girl. The poor thing had lost her parents early on, and fearing that someone might swallow up her inheritance and bully her, she had turned to the Gu family. Of course, what he heard was that she had sought to become an adopted relative of the Gu family. How she ended up marrying old Gu, he wasn't quite sure. But that wasn't important – most likely, it was that hypocritical old fox Gu who had seduced the young girl.
Knowing all this, Nian Suian instantly transformed in Liu Jian's mind from a scheming woman after Gu Junxing's fortune to a poor little girl who had been deceived by Gu Junxing.
"I washed some fruit. I wasn't sure what you all like, so I washed a bit of everything," Nian Suian came out carrying a large tray with three cups of tea and some fruit.
Seeing her carrying so many things by herself, Qin Wei quickly went to take the tray from her. "Sister-in-law, you're too kind. We're just here for a casual visit, there was no need to prepare fruit."
Among the four men, Qin Wei was the most attentive and gentle. That's why he was the first of the four to get married. The remaining three – Liu Jian the smiling tiger with deep thoughts, Chen Shu the cold and indifferent one without desires, and Gu Junxing the serious and boring one – had all been equally single. Qin Wei and his wife had been college sweethearts and married right after graduation, their relationship as strong as ever after ten years. That was fine, but Gu Junxing suddenly getting married after being single for so many years had truly shocked the group.
Being called "sister-in-law" by men much older than her felt strange to Nian Suian. She silently grumbled to herself about Gu Junxing: Why did he have to be so old? Everyone calls me sister-in-law...
But outwardly, she smiled and said, "It's no trouble to wash some fruit."
"Sister-in-law, you don't know, but when Gu had his surgery, he didn't tell us anything at first. We only found out from the news online. We were quite shocked when we first saw reports about his serious illness."
"That's just like him. He probably wished he didn't have to tell even me," Nian Suian complained.
"Sister-in-law, have you seen what the netizens are saying?" Liu Jian was about to take out his phone to show Nian Suian.
"What are they saying?" She had only glanced at the news briefly at first and hadn't paid much attention since. She'd been watching TV shows lately and hadn't been online much.
"Ahem!" Gu Junxing coughed, interrupting Liu Jian's motion. "It's just a bunch of nonsense written by netizens. Nothing worth looking at."
The netizens had let their imaginations run wild. It was one thing to just talk, but some of the more active ones had even written "CP fanfiction". He didn't know what that meant at first and clicked on it, following link after link before he finally saw it.
He closed it after five minutes. What on earth were they writing? It made even a grown man like him blush. How could he let Nian Suian see that?
But was Nian Suian the type to listen to Gu Junxing?
Obviously not. If he hadn't tried to stop her, she might not have been so interested. But now that he had, her curiosity was even more piqued. Not only did she want to see it, but she wanted to read it word for word!
Nian Suian took out her phone as well. "Add me on WeChat and send me the links. I'll read them later at my leisure."
"Sure thing."
Not just Liu Jian, but Qin Wei and Chen Shu also scanned her QR code and added Nian Suian on WeChat.
"Don't worry, sister-in-law. Although Gu and I are brothers, I absolutely won't help him keep secrets from you. If Gu ever doesn't come home one day, just ask me. I'll help you find out what's going on," Liu Jian said, patting his chest, as if he hadn't been the distrustful one before.
Hearing this, Nian Suian blinked her eyes. "We'll talk about that later. But actually, I do have something I'd like to ask you all today..."
"What is it? We'll tell you everything we know, holding nothing back."
Nian Suian glanced at Gu Junxing, then said, "I'd like to hear about Gu Junxing's first love. Can you tell me about it?"
Hearing this, Gu Junxing couldn't help but laugh. "That Fang Anzhi kid was talking nonsense, and you believed him?"
"Whether it's nonsense or not, I'll have to hear it to know. I don't trust what you say yourself."
"Well..." Liu Jian, who had been so confident just moments ago, suddenly hesitated.
Gu Junxing himself, on the other hand, seemed completely unfazed, as if he didn't care whether Nian Suian knew or not.
"Gu's first love? Wasn't it Zhijing's mother?" Qin Wei said softly. Seeing Gu Junxing's expression, he figured Gu didn't mind if Nian Suian knew, so he spoke up.
They had only met in college, so they always thought that Gu Zhijing's mother was Gu Junxing's first love. Then suddenly, before graduation, Gu Junxing announced one day that he was going to be a father. At first, they didn't take it seriously, assuming he was joking about getting a cat or a dog.
Later, when graduation time came, Gu Junxing brought the baby and showed them the household registration book, confirming that they were indeed father and son, not brothers. Only then did they believe him. However, they didn't know much about Zhijing's mother, including how the couple got together or why they separated.
"They don't know. They only met me in college, so how could they know about what happened before?" Gu Junxing answered himself. He didn't stop them from talking earlier because he knew they couldn't really say anything substantial about it.
"So, Zhijing's mother wasn't your first love?" they asked.
Everyone looked at Gu Junxing with questioning expressions.
"No, she wasn't," he replied.
"Then who was?" they inquired.