I Heard You Liked Me First - Chapter 15

The servants’ villa on the Gu estate was, of course, nothing like the main house.

When Gu Nan stepped inside, her brows instinctively furrowed at the sight of the plain, practical décor.

She wondered if Chi An had always lived here all these years in the Gu household or if she used to stay with her father, in the villa where her parents had lived.

She gave her head a small shake, pushing away the irrelevant thought.

The servants resting in the living room immediately stood up when they saw her. “Miss Gu, what brings you here? You could’ve sent for us if you needed anything. There’s no need for you to come personally.”

“I’m here to see Chi An,” Gu Nan said simply.

The servant visibly relaxed.

The Gu family was very particular about class distinctions. Normally, the masters of the house would never step foot into the servants’ quarters.

So it really was about Assistant Chi.

The servant pointed upstairs. “Assistant Chi is resting in her room. Shall I call her down?”

“No need,” Gu Nan replied. “I’ll go up myself. You can continue resting.”

She went up the stairs, following the servant’s directions to the room tucked in the farthest corner.

After a few knocks, a familiar voice came from inside. A moment later, the door opened, and Chi An looked at her in mild surprise.

“What brings you here?” she asked. As she spoke, a muffled sound a faint sigh or a yawn came from the room.

Gu Nan’s curiosity was piqued, but before she could look inside, Chi An quickly stepped out and shut the door behind her. “What is it? Let’s talk downstairs. I’ll make you some tea.”

She led the way down. Gu Nan followed, glancing back several times at the closed door.

What on earth was she hiding in there?

Once they were seated in the living room, Gu Nan pushed her curiosity aside and got to the point. “It’s the middle of the school term. Why is Gu Yue staying home every day instead of going to class?”

Chi An pressed her lips together before answering. “The Gu family recently aligned themselves with the Xiao family. They’re trying to strengthen that relationship through marriage. That’s why they had Gu Yue take a break from school to focus on the match.”

Gu Nan let out a cold laugh, her fingers tapping lightly on the table. “Figures. That’s exactly the kind of thing they’d do. Absolutely disgusting.”

Chi An said evenly, “Besides, the school Gu Yue attended wasn’t particularly good weak faculty, poor curriculum. Even if she continued, she wouldn’t gain much.”

“That’s still better than sitting at home waiting to be married off,” Gu Nan shot back.

Chi An nodded. “You’re right about that.”

Gu Nan rested her chin on her hand, studying Chi An thoughtfully. “Then do you have any way to get her back to school? At least if she’s in class, she won’t have to live under her mother’s constant scrutiny.”

Chi An’s expression turned serious. “If we appeal directly to her mother or to the old matriarch, it might backfire. The Gu family’s view on women’s education has always been the same marriage over learning.”

Gu Nan scoffed. The Gu family’s backward thinking never failed to disgust her.

After a moment’s thought, Chi An said, “It might be better to start from the Xiao side. If the Xiao family values an educated granddaughter-in-law, the Gu family will naturally make Gu Yue go back to school to meet that expectation.”

Gu Nan’s lips curved. “Then we should invite Mrs. Xiao out for drinks again, shouldn’t we?”

A hint of amusement flashed in Chi An’s eyes.

Of course. Gu Nan was never the obedient type.

Mrs. Xiao was technically her elder, but Gu Nan always seemed to find joy in watching her lose composure.

Chi An rose to her feet, ready to act.

She’d always been decisive, and if not for her unwillingness to assist Gu Hongkang lately, she wouldn’t have been lazing around at home.

Now that something important needed to be done, she didn’t waste a second.

But just as she took her first step, she stopped, turning to Gu Nan. “All my coats are still drying. Can I borrow one of yours?”

Gu Nan froze. She had just lost a coat two days ago, and now someone wanted to borrow another one?

What’s worse, Chi An’s gaze was fixed squarely on the very coat she was wearing.

Was she seriously asking to borrow this one?

That coat had been bought during her graduation trip to Europe she barely even wore it.

Still, she was asking Chi An for help right now. Refusing over something so trivial would seem petty. So, after a moment’s internal struggle, Gu Nan reluctantly took it off and handed it over.

As she did, another thought crept in perhaps her stingy father hadn’t given Chi An much money. Maybe that was why she still lived in the servants’ quarters and didn’t have enough clothes.

That idea softened her even more, and she added casually, “We should go shopping together sometime.”

The moment the words left her mouth, Gu Nan regretted them.

Chi An had once hurt her mother. Her grandmother’s death was tied to her, too. How could she show kindness to someone like that? How could she offer to buy her clothes?

Thankfully, Chi An declined politely.

“No need. I’ll wash this and return it.”

Gu Nan nodded quickly and excused herself.

Back in her room, she replayed the scene in her mind and sighed. She really was too young, too impulsive.

Compared to someone like Chi An calm, experienced, already in her thirties she still had a lot of growing up to do. Especially when it came to controlling her emotions.

She flopped face-down on the bed, annoyed with herself. Losing two favorite coats in a row didn’t help her mood either.

Meanwhile, Chi An didn’t put the borrowed coat on. She carried it upstairs instead.

Gu Nan had no idea what she planned to do with it but when she later saw Chi An leave the villa to meet Mrs. Xiao, she wasn’t wearing the coat at all.

She probably thought no one noticed. But Gu Nan, restless as ever, decided to follow her.

And then, near the servants’ quarters, she caught sight of Chi An walking away wearing her coat.

Gu Nan froze.

Back in her room, she lay on her bed, baffled. What on earth was that woman doing with her clothes?

She didn’t wear it before, but now she suddenly does?

Was she just… staring at it in her room earlier?

That would be bizarre. Why would someone just look at another person’s coat?

As any young person would, Gu Nan pulled out her phone and turned to Baidu for answers.

After a bit of scrolling, she stumbled on something that made her eyes widen.

“Using someone else’s clothing can be a tool for casting curses.”

A curse? Was Chi An trying to curse her?

But that didn’t make sense. Chi An was the one who insisted she return home to inherit the family estate. Why curse her afterward? Unless…

Unless her death would somehow transfer that 20% of company shares to Chi An.

It was absurd. Like googling a headache and deciding you have brain cancer.

She’d just wanted to know why someone would borrow her clothes and ended up spiraling into paranoia.

Still, once she’d read it, she couldn’t quite shake off the unease.

She bit her lip, lying there in turmoil, her thoughts running wild.

Until her phone buzzed with a WeChat message from Gu Yue, pulling her back to reality.

Gu Yue messaged her to let her know she’d returned home safely. Her mother had only questioned her briefly about how she got along with Mrs. Xiao the previous night. After Gu Yue gave a few vague, polite answers, her mother simply told her to maintain a good relationship with Mrs. Xiao and nurture some “mother-in-law and daughter-in-law” affection. She didn’t say much else and didn’t punish her for staying out all night.

Gu Yue wrote: “Looks like my mom really got scared by Mrs. Xiao.”

Gu Nan finally remembered what she’d meant to talk about today. “I spoke with Chi An about your situation. We’re thinking of getting you back into school. What about you? Do you want to stay home or go back to studying?”

Gu Yue hadn’t expected to ever have that chance again.

“I want to go back.”

She really did like school not just for the classes and knowledge, but for the people. Her classmates’ worlds were so much simpler. Their biggest concerns were grades, gossip, and lighthearted chatter celebrity scandals, little love rumors around campus.

She liked that kind of atmosphere. It made her feel happy, carefree.

And at school, no one ever brought up marriage.

School was clean. Pure.

Just seeing those few words from her was enough for Gu Nan to understand how much she longed for that freedom.

“Good. Since that’s what you want, we’ll do everything we can to get you back there.”

Gu Nan had already looked up the university Gu Yue attended. To be honest, she hadn’t been impressed.

Still, even an average school was better than wasting away at home waiting for her mother to marry her off to the highest bidder.

Later that afternoon, Chi An messaged her.

Chi An: “Su Wan said we can’t rush this.”
“She can’t get too directly involved in the marriage talks. Things within the Xiao family are complicated.”
“If we want Gu Yue to go back to school peacefully, we’ll need help from the Xiao matriarch.”
“But the matriarch isn’t much different from the Gu elders—she doesn’t care for women’s education. To her, a woman’s worth lies in having children and managing the household.”

Gu Nan rolled her eyes. “Sometimes I feel like we’re still living in the Qing Dynasty.”

Chi An: “I looked into it. Before the founding of the country, the Xiao family already valued heritage and lineage. Mrs. Xiao’s mother-in-law came from a scholarly family herself, but after marrying into that household, decades of living under patriarchal control completely rewired her thinking.”
“It’s the same with Gu Hongyun. Her mother filled her head with outdated ideas, and her husband’s no better a man who worships sons and sees women as nothing more than toys or wombs.”
“All the men in the Gu family are like that. They don’t see women as people. That’s why Gu Yue’s life has been so hard.”

What Chi An didn’t say aloud was that even in her own poor, working-class family, the same rot existed.

They’d always believed that raising a daughter was just raising someone else’s future child-bearer.

A daughter’s children wouldn’t carry the family name. They wouldn’t be written into the family register. From the moment she was born, a daughter was already considered an outsider someone who belonged to another family.

And that other family would never truly see her as one of their own, either.

So Chi An had grown up without a home of her own until Gu Nan’s mother gave her one.

She exhaled a quiet sigh and continued typing:

“We’ll have to wait a little longer before acting with Su Wan’s help.”
“But that doesn’t mean we should sit idle. You hold twenty percent of Gu Corporation’s shares and have a nominal position in the company. Why not use that to stir things up a little? Distract them make them focus on you instead of pushing Gu Yue into that engagement.”

Gu Nan raised an eyebrow. “That could work.”

Chi An: “I’ll come pick you up, then.”

Gu Nan looked at the message, her brow furrowing slightly.

Why the rush?