However, when she finally stood in front of him, before she had the time to open her mouth to speak, with a calm look on his face, he turned his head to the man next to him and asked that man, “Who is she?”
Qin Zhi Ai froze. The words in her mouth vanished without a trace.
The man next to Gu Yu Sheng dubiously sized her up, shook his head and replied, “Don’t know her.”
Gu Yu Sheng gave a small nod and didn’t say another word. Instead, he sent the cigarette he was holding between his fingers up to his lips and leisurely took two puffs. After that, he stubbed out his cigarette, threw it into the rubbish bin and said to the man beside him, “Let’s go. It’s time to go inside.”
Then, he calmly walked off, brus.h.i.+ng past her side.
When his silhouette had completely disappeared from the corner of her eyes, without full control over her actions, just like when she walked towards him just moments before, she abruptly turned around and called his name, “Gu Yu Sheng.”
Both Gu Yu Sheng and his friend halted their steps. Gu Yu Sheng slowly turned around, and looked at her with calm but indifferent eyes, as if he had never met her before.
He simply looked at her without saying a word. His gaze, which was like he was looking at a complete stranger, made her have to expend a great amount of energy before she managed, with great difficulty, to squeeze the words out between her lips, “Gu Yu Sheng, you…… you don’t remember me?”
He fixed his eyes on her and examined her for a while, like he was trying hard to recall whether he knew her or not. After around a minute, he opened his mouth, his tone polite and distant, “I’m sorry, Miss, I really don’t think I know you.”
After he finished speaking, he bowed in apology, turned around and left without any hesitation.
His friend seemed curious, stared at her again and then followed after Gu Yu Sheng, “You really don’t know her?”
“I don’t recognize her,” Gu Yu Sheng replied.
“Makes sense. With that face of yours, you’re always beckoning bees, attracting b.u.t.terflies, if you don’t deal with her properly, she’ll try to hit on you again.
“Maybe.” His voice was as beautiful and elegant as in the past, but hearing that one word, Qin Zhi Ai’s eyes almost turned red.
Maybe…… He was treating her question as a pick-up line?
Six years…… The man she had searched for six years, the man she had remembered for six years, the man she had longed for for six years, did not remember her.
The person she had been waiting this entire time, had already long forgotten her.
All the blood in Qin Zhi Ai’s body felt like it had stagnated. She couldn't feel a thing. The only sounds she could hear were the faint opening lines of a song playing in the evening party venue not so far away: “I changed every day, every aspect of my world for you, you didn’t notice. Everything I sacrificed for you, you couldn’t see.”
♦♦♦♦♦
Immersed in her memories, Qin Zhi Ai didn't snap out of her daze for a long time. The housekeeper reached out and waved a hand in front of her, “Miss, Miss?”
Qin Zhi Ai s.h.i.+fted her eyes, suppressed the stinging heat in her eyes, and gave the housekeeper a light smile.
“Miss, would you still like to eat?”
“No, I’m done.” Qin Zhi Ai shook her head, put down her chopsticks, stood up and then remembered what Gu Yu Sheng had said when she was on the phone with him earlier. Her fingertips trembled slightly, and she turned to the housekeeper again and told her a sum.
