"Grace..."
Before he could finish his sentence, she tightly embraced him. "Julian, I regret it. If I hadn't left four years ago, perhaps we wouldn't be like this now?"
Her lips gently pressed against his, and the soft collision between them made Julian Bai's entire body tense up. After all, this woman was the one he had loved wholeheartedly; she was the adopted daughter of the Bai family. Although she was two years older than him, he still liked her.
From her lips, he could even taste a faint hint of alcohol—she must have had quite a bit to drink. Watching her cling to him like an octopus, his remaining rationality quickly began to crumble.
She was a woman; he was a man. It was that simple. What should happen and what shouldn't seemed to have no limits on this night.
At Ziyuan Villa
On the side, Aunt Lin watched as Grace Gu kept pressing her stomach and trembling uncontrollably, feeling somewhat flustered. Although she knew it was a normal occurrence for girls, every time Miss came around for that thing it turned into quite a commotion.
Today, having consumed alcohol seemed to make it even more painful for her. Seeing her in such agony, Aunt Lin softly asked, "Miss, should I call Young Master Bai? It's not good for you to suffer like this."
"No! Don't call!" Her face was pale and drenched in sweat as she stubbornly refused; Aunt Lin didn't know what else to do.
"Aunt Lin, please get me some hot water; I'll be fine soon." Her period had come early; otherwise, she wouldn't have married Yin Yue back then.
But she'd never felt pain like this before. Arriving in this unfamiliar place made it feel as if that thing would take her life with each visit—it hurt terribly.
Aunt Lin understood her temperament and hurried out to fetch hot water for her.
Watching Aunt Lin walk away, Grace Gu finally squeezed out a few tears from her eyes but they disappeared almost instantly without leaving a trace. She gently wiped around her eyes with the hand that pressed against her stomach to restore some calmness.
As she glanced at the clock's hands pointing towards 1 AM, a faint self-mocking smile appeared on her face. It was already one o'clock in the morning—would he come back? The answer was naturally no.
When she caught that familiar scent of perfume on another woman earlier that night, she already understood how things would end up. The most ironic part was that he once insisted she always wear that fragrance; if it weren't for her skin allergy, would she still be using it now?
She wasn't sure how she managed to endure through that night. When she woke up the next day, her phone kept vibrating incessantly. Looking at the familiar name on the screen, she smiled unconsciously.
"Calling so early?"
"Worried about you! He didn't do anything to you right?" Emily Gu sounded concerned on the other end of the line since after all Julian Bai wasn't exactly a good person; even her brother advised her to stay away from him.
"He hasn't come back."
"Ah!" There came a surprised sound followed by rustling noises as if Emily Gu had turned over in bed.
Grace Gu chuckled lightly. "I knew you hadn't gotten up yet."
The voice on the other end laughed awkwardly before cautiously asking: "Is he with that woman?"
"I'm not sure; probably."
After pausing for a moment Emily Gu continued: "I specifically looked into that woman's background—her name is Julian Ying and she's Young Master Bai's sister but not by blood."
Feeling like there might be some misunderstanding in what she'd said earlier, Emily Gu hurriedly added another comment afterward: after all they grew up together as siblings—there shouldn't be any issues right? But deep down inside she wasn't entirely certain either.