I Heard You Liked Me First - Chapter 14
When Gu Yue returned to the Gu residence, she didn’t go straight home. Instead, she went to look for her cousin, Gu Nan.
In her eyes, her cousin had far more life experience than she did and she trusted her completely. Whenever Gu Yue was confused about something, she would always go to Gu Nan for advice.
At that moment, Gu Nan was searching for a missing piece of clothing.
She was wearing a thin knitted sweater, frowning slightly as she said to the housekeeper beside her,
“I remember wearing that coat just the other day. How could it suddenly be gone? Are you sure you didn’t send it for cleaning?”
The housekeeper looked troubled. “No, I didn’t. When was the last time you wore it?”
Gu Nan thought for a moment. “It was the night I went out drinking. I wore that coat when I went to the bar.”
The housekeeper immediately recalled, “Oh, that night! When Chi An dropped you off, you weren’t wearing a coat at all. I remember worrying you’d catch a cold.”
“I wasn’t wearing a coat?” Gu Nan frowned even deeper.
The housekeeper nodded. “No, you weren’t. I thought it was odd too, but you were drunk, so I focused on helping you upstairs. I guess I just forgot about it after that.”
So where had it gone? Did she lose it at the bar?
That wasn’t impossible after all, bars were usually warm, and she had taken it off when she got there.
Maybe she’d simply forgotten it when she left drunk.
Gu Nan sighed, a little deflated. “That was my favorite coat.”
Just then, Gu Yue’s voice came from downstairs. The housekeeper quickly went to greet her, then led her upstairs.
“Your cousin’s looking for something upstairs. Go help her. I’ll bring up some tea and snacks.”
When Gu Yue entered, she saw Gu Nan sitting on the bed with a sour expression.
Gu Nan’s moody aura made her a little nervous, and she hesitated in the doorway.
Gu Nan rubbed her temples, adjusted her tone, and asked,
“What brings you here? Did you sleep well last night?”
Gu Yue nodded. “I slept okay.”
“Did you go home? Your mom said you didn’t.”
“Not yet,” Gu Yue said quietly. “She probably doesn’t know I came back.”
Gu Nan patted the space beside her. “Then sit down. Did you come to talk about something?”
Gu Yue carefully sat beside her, her little face scrunched up in worry.
Gu Nan didn’t rush her. After a long silence, Gu Yue finally glanced at her cousin and whispered, “Cousin, can I ask you something… but you have to promise not to tell anyone.”
Gu Nan nodded, not thinking much of it until she heard the question that nearly made her drop her jaw.
“Cousin… how can you tell if… if I’ve done something with another woman?”
For a moment, all thoughts of her missing coat vanished. The word done echoed in Gu Nan’s mind like a thunderclap.
Her mouth opened, but no words came out. She was too stunned to respond.
After what felt like forever, she finally managed to say, “Last night… were you with Su Wan?”
Gu Yue’s face turned scarlet. She waved her hands frantically.
“No! I mean she said we didn’t, but first she said we did, then she said we didn’t…”
Her voice trailed off in defeat. “So I don’t know if we did or not. That’s why I wanted to ask you.”
Gu Nan nearly laughed from despair. Why me?
She thought helplessly, I’ve been single my whole life what kind of question is this for someone like me?
But seeing her cousin’s lost expression, she decided to at least try to help this poor girl drowning in confusion.
Her gaze swept up and down Gu Yue twice, then stopped at her legs.
“Do you feel any soreness… down there? Or in your legs? Weakness, discomfort anything like that?”
It was the most basic question she could think of. She felt a bit guilty even asking it how was she supposed to know what it actually felt like without ever having experienced it herself?
Gu Yue shook her head. “No, I don’t feel anything weird.”
Gu Nan thought for a moment. Then maybe nothing happened after all.
It’s not like her little cousin somehow… slept with Su Wan, right?
The idea struck her like lightning, she almost went dizzy from the thought.
Her drunk little cousin couldn’t possibly be that wild.
Feeling uncertain, Gu Nan pulled out her phone, sneaking a look at Gu Yue before hurriedly typing something into the search bar.
After a while, she looked up again and asked cautiously,
“Then… are your hands sore? Or do your fingers look a little wrinkled, like they’ve been soaked in water for too long?”
Gu Yue stared at her blankly and then her entire face flushed red again.
The shy girl froze like a statue.
Gu Nan lowered her voice. “You could… try moving your arms a bit, see how they feel.”
Gu Yue’s face burned even hotter. Move her arms? She could barely move at all!
Panicked, she jumped to her feet. “Cousin, I should go home now!”
Gu Nan quickly grabbed her wrist. “Hey, you came here to ask me, didn’t you? Don’t just run off halfway through!”
“Come on, just try it move your hand. See if it’s sore.”
Flustered, Gu Yue gave in, flexing her fingers and moving her arm a little. There was no soreness at all.
“My hand’s fine. Not sore at all. I don’t feel anything weird.”
Gu Nan nodded. “Then you’re probably okay. She might’ve just been teasing you.”
Gu Yue had thought of that too but Su Wan, gentle and composed as she was, didn’t seem like the type to lie or joke like that.
“Maybe,” Gu Nan said knowingly. “That woman’s good at pretending to be soft. She probably just wanted to mess with you.”
Gu Yue’s heart tangled with something she couldn’t quite name. “Oh… I see. Then I’ll go home now. Mom’s probably waiting for me.”
That was, after all, a much bigger problem than whether Su Wan had been joking.
Gu Nan asked, “Do you want me to drive you?”
Gu Yue shook her head. “No need. Mrs. Xiao said she already called my mom.”
Gu Nan watched her go, still a little worried.
The housekeeper, who’d just come back from the kitchen, sighed regretfully. “What a shame, I hadn’t even finished baking the pastries yet.”
Then, trying to comfort her, she added, “I’ll ask around the other servants later. If her mom scolds or hits her, someone’s bound to hear.”
Gu Nan nodded, frowning. “Still, she can’t just stay cooped up at home all the time. She’s at an age where she should be in school, not stuck here every day.”
The housekeeper sighed. “You don’t know the half of it. When she was studying, her mom kept pulling her out of class every few days. Said there’s no point in girls studying too much. Just get a diploma to raise your marriage prospects. Since their family owns a few schools anyway, they might as well send her to one of those. And if all else fails, send her abroad to ‘add polish.’”
After Gu’s family managed to climb up through Gu Nan’s mother’s connections, they built several private schools and eventually formed an education group.
But whether those schools were actually good that was another matter.
Gu Nan couldn’t understand how anyone could be so ignorant, thinking education was just a tool to improve one’s value on the marriage market.
She let out a cold laugh. “People like that are ignorant because they don’t read enough.”
She was, of course, talking about the Gu family.
Gu Nan had been raised by her mother and grandparents to believe that studying wasn’t about chasing status, it was about cultivating knowledge and character.
The housekeeper, who had worked for the Gu family for years, had also been influenced by the family’s scholarly atmosphere.
“That’s right,” she agreed. “Education is so important. How can they let a young girl spend all day thinking about marriage instead of learning?”
Because she’s living in the Gu family, Gu Nan thought silently.
She didn’t know whether Gu Yue’s life would’ve been any better if she’d stayed with her father’s side of the family, but one thing was certain living with the Gu family all these years had done her no good.
Gu Nan sat cross-legged on the bed, resting her chin in her hand. After a moment of thought, she turned to the housekeeper.
“Auntie, if my grandmother were still alive or if my mother were here, do you think they’d support me if I wanted to get my cousin out of that miserable house?”
The housekeeper looked at her for a long time before gently patting her hair.
“Of course they would. If Gu Yue herself didn’t want to fight it, that’d be one thing. But if she wants to escape that kind of life, she’ll be grateful for whoever reaches out to help her—for the rest of her life.”
She smiled softly. “That’s why I’ve stayed with your family all these years. I know what it’s like when someone rescues you, when a bit of light suddenly appears in your life.”
“You’re all good people. There’s no way any of you could just stand by and watch someone suffer.”
A faint smile tugged at Gu Nan’s lips. “Still, we can’t help everyone.”
Then, with a burst of energy, she hopped off the bed and grabbed a coat from her wardrobe. “In that case, I’m going to find Chi An and ask her what she thinks.”
Chi An was the person who knew the Gu family best no one was better suited to discuss this with.
Instead of having someone summon Chi An, Gu Nan stopped a servant on her way downstairs.
“Did Assistant Chi go to work today?”
The servant thought for a moment. “I don’t think she did.”
Hearing that, Gu Nan immediately headed toward the servants’ quarters where Chi An lived.
The housekeeper followed behind and happened to pick up a bit of gossip from another maid along the way.
“Ever since the old master passed away and the third young master took over as president, Assistant Chi hasn’t been going to the office as often,” the maid said.
The housekeeper leaned in, lowering her voice. “Because she’s unhappy that the third young master got the position?”
The maid made a face. “That’s what everyone’s saying. The third young master spends his days fooling around, and lately, he’s even started chasing after Assistant Chi. No wonder she’s avoiding him.”
The housekeeper frowned. “He’s unbelievable. Even rabbits don’t eat the grass beside their own burrow but him? His older brother’s barely cold in the ground, and he’s already setting his sights on Chi An.”
The servants all thought the same. Privately, they agreed that the third young master, Gu Hongkang had no sense of decency.
After all, Assistant Chi had once been close to the late master. Their relationship had never been public, but everyone in the household knew about it. For Gu Hongkang to go after his brother’s woman so soon after his death it was shameless.
The housekeeper confirmed, “So Xiao Chi hasn’t given that bastard the time of day, right?”
The maid thought, No wonder this woman’s from Miss Gu Nan’s side of the family—she even dares to call the third young master a bastard by name.
Living in the same building as Chi An, the maid knew a bit more than most.
“Of course not,” she said firmly. “She avoids him like the plague. Won’t even let him come near her.”
Then she added, lowering her voice, “Actually, Assistant Chi isn’t some promiscuous or shameless woman. When she was with the late master, Madam Gu had already been away from the family for years.”
The housekeeper sighed softly.
She didn’t know what exactly had happened back then she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes.
But Gu Nan, who had still been living at the Gu estate at the time, probably knew a little of the truth.
And because of that, the housekeeper never brought up these old stories in front of her.
As for what kind of person Chi An truly was well, that was something she’d have to keep watching to find out.