I Heard You Liked Me First - Chapter 2

When Gu Nan received Gu Yue’s call, she was taken aback. She and this younger cousin were never particularly close.But the moment the call connected, Gu Yue’s soft voice came through, hesitant yet desperate.

“Cousin… can I come see you?”

Gu Nan froze. Ever since she and her mother left the Gu family, she hadn’t heard from this girl once. What made her suddenly want to come now?

Before Gu Nan could ask, Gu Yue continued, her tone trembling.

“My mom wants me to go on a blind date during my break. I’m only eighteen. I don’t want to use myself to trade for my cousin’s career.”

Her voice broke near the end.

Gu Nan’s eyes darkened.

 Come. I’ll send you my address. Do you have money for a ticket?

“I do. I have money,” Gu Yue replied. (Chi An had given it to her.)

“All right,” Gu Nan said simply, then hung up.

She turned back to her grandmother, who was reclining against the pillows. Peeling a mango her grandmother’s favorite she said quietly, “Grandma, Gu Yue’s coming.”

Her grandmother frowned. “What’s she coming for?”

Gu Nan explained the situation.

Her grandmother’s face darkened at once, a bitter laugh slipping out. “Your grandfather and I must’ve been blind to ever take a liking to that family. If your mother hadn’t married into them, how would she or your grandfather have died so young?”

Her anger simmered beneath her frail voice, the hate she’d carried for years breaking through.

Gu Nan set down the knife, wiped her hands clean, and gently held her grandmother’s wrinkled one. “Don’t say that, Grandma. Mom said they were very good at pretending back then. They married into our family for our wealth and influence. Some people hide their hearts too well who could have guarded against that?”

Her grandmother sighed deeply. “I’ve seen your cousin a few times. Every time, her mother keeps her crushed under her thumb. That woman, unable to bear sons herself, yet obsessed with them, only ever cares about her nephew. Such a person has no right to call herself a mother. If that child truly wants to change her fate, and you can help her, then help her. This world is far too cruel to girls… especially those born into the Gu family.”

Gu Nan nodded. “I understand. When she arrives, I’ll bring her to see you.”

After the call, Gu Yue felt lighter almost giddy.

She couldn’t help imagining it: the looks on everyone’s faces when they’d one day watch Gu Nan rise to the top, their pride shattered into dust.

She shut her door, flopped down onto her bed, and kicked her legs in the air. Her lips curved into a bright, youthful smile as she raised her hand and made a little finger-gun gesture at the ceiling, playfully “shooting” toward the sky.

But her laughter barely lasted a second before the door burst open.

Her mother stood there, cold and severe. “What kind of posture is that?”

Gu Yue immediately sat upright, straight-backed, hands on her knees, all traces of her smile gone.

The movement was so practiced it almost hurt to watch something she had done countless times before.

Her mother’s sharp gaze softened only slightly. She sighed. “Look at you. How am I supposed to present you to guests like this? They’ll be here tonight. If they see you behaving so carelessly, how could they ever be satisfied?”

Gu Yue bowed her head, lips trembling.

She wanted to argue, but she never dared. Not once in her life.

Seeing her silent, her mother grew even more annoyed. “You look nothing like a proper young lady. So timid and useless who would ever want you?”

Then, in a cutting tone, “Go change into the clothes I bought you yesterday. The family’s coming for dinner tonight. You’ve practiced those dishes I told you to make, haven’t you? Don’t you dare embarrass me.”

Her voice turned colder. “And clean this room. Do you think you’re marrying into wealth to become a spoiled young mistress? If they’re generous enough to hire maids, consider that a blessing. If not, all of this will be your job.”

Gu Yue, the so-called rich daughter, knew the truth all too well, her home was no paradise.

Her mother had forced her to learn housework from childhood, even sending her to cooking classes, determined to turn her into the perfect wife and homemaker.

She didn’t hate housework. She just hated that her entire worth seemed to exist for someone else’s household.

But who would ever see that?

She remembered what Chi An had said to her earlier that day. Gathering every bit of courage she had, her voice trembling but steady, she finally spoke the words she’d rehearsed a thousand times in her head:

“I don’t want to cook for them. Why can’t you just borrow a chef from Grandma?”

Her mother’s eyes widened in disbelief. Her daughter is defying her?

“What did you just say?” Her lips curved into a humorless smile. A second later, her hand struck the back of Gu Yue’s head.

Smack!

The impact made Gu Yue’s body jolt. She nearly fell off the bed.

But it didn’t end there.

Her mother hit her again, harder this time, and then kicked her once, twice until Gu Yue curled into a corner, trembling all over.

She didn’t even try to shield herself. Only her face remained untouched.

That was the price of rebellion.

When it was over, her mother stood over her, breathing heavily, the anger slowly ebbing from her body.

“You don’t have a choice,” she said coldly. “You were born a Gu, so you live for the Gu family. Everything you do should be for your cousin and for the Gu Corporation.”

Then, bitterly, she spat, “If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for being born a girl. Why couldn’t you even get that right?”

Her tone turned sour with self-pity. “If you were a son, I wouldn’t have to bow and scrape before your grandparents, wouldn’t have to live my whole life thinking about someone else’s boy. But this is your fate. You just have to accept it.”

When the room finally went quiet, the silence was suffocating.

Outside, the winter wind howled against the windows, a low wailing sound that made the air feel even colder, emptier.

Gu Yue’s lips twisted into a hollow smile.

She knew too well what kind of world she lived in a place where the continuation of the bloodline outweighed any dream a girl could have.

And yet, she couldn’t help hoping, foolishly, that times had changed. It was the 2020s, after all. Surely people were different now?

But nothing had changed. Not at all.

Her phone chimed softly. For a long moment, she didn’t move. Then she reached out, fingers thin and trembling, and unlocked it.

Her dim eyes lit up faintly.

It was a message from Chi An.

A flight ticket. For tonight.

But tonight… her mother said they had guests.

The Xiao family. The ones the Gu family desperately wanted to climb up to. Marriage alliances, after all, were the most reliable currency of power.

Gu Yue was beautiful so beautiful she looked fragile, almost translucent. Her eyes carried a softness that made people instinctively want to protect her.

The Xiao family’s youngest son had fallen for her at first sight. Both families saw an opportunity and quickly agreed.

Officially, they were visiting to pay their respects to the late Gu Hongfu.

In reality it was a matchmaking dinner.

Gu Yue laid two outfits on her bed.

One: a simple sweatshirt and joggers, easy to move in.

The other: a delicate, slightly revealing dress her “armor” for tonight’s blind date.

One was for escape.

The other, for surrender.

Her heart felt torn in half, the two sides clawing at each other.

If I run tonight, I might not live to see tomorrow.

But if I stay… will I ever live at all?

Marriage, childbirth was that really all a woman’s life was meant to be.

Did she really have no right to want more?

Would she truly die if she left the Gu family?

Or was she already dying here, piece by piece?

Are They Really My Family?

Her entire body trembled.

At eighteen, for the very first time in her life, Gu Yue disobeyed her mother’s orders and chose what she truly wanted.

She bent down and picked up the set of clothes she had decided on: the hoodie and sweatpants.

She was leaving.

Even if it meant she’d be battered and broken afterward could it possibly be worse than living like this?

Carrying a small bag of essentials, Gu Yue quietly descended the stairs and made her way toward the back door.

The moment her hand turned the doorknob, she heard her mother’s voice floating in from the living room, full of feigned warmth and apology.

“My daughter’s just a little nervous, that’s all. She’s been preparing all day. She even wanted to cook a few of her best dishes for you tonight.”

Her mother’s polite laugh carried an undertone of irritation so sharp that even her breath sounded impatient.

Gu Yue pressed herself against the corner of the wall, holding her breath. She waited until she heard her mother’s footsteps heading upstairs before quietly pushing the back door open.

The night swallowed her whole.

Darkness wrapped around her like a living thing cold, suffocating, yet strangely liberating.

Every step she took felt like walking on the edge of a blade, but she didn’t stop. Not once.

This was Gu Yue, with nowhere left to retreat throwing her life into the flames for a single, desperate chance.

Just as she rounded the small garden path, almost at the front gate of the villa, a soft, composed voice called out behind her.

“Are you going out?”

Gu Yue froze, as if struck by lightning. She turned around slowly, eyes wide with terror.

If her mother found her now if she was dragged back home, her life would be over.

But the woman standing there wasn’t her mother.

It was Madam Xiao.

Her heart sank anyway. What difference did it make? One pair of eyes could destroy her escape all the same.

From inside the villa came the faint sound of her mother’s voice again, too sweet and obsequious to be real.

What? Madam Xiao is leaving already? But didn’t we agree she’d try Yueyue’s cooking tonight? I’ll go see if she’s feeling unwell. We have doctors on call if needed.

Gu Yue flinched at the sound, stepping back instinctively. Under the dim garden light, her face had gone completely white, her body cold as though she’d fallen into an ice cellar.

All the courage she had gathered everything she had built up to this moment, seemed to drain out of her.

Then, a hand reached out.

Soft, slender, and warm.

It caught her wrist gently but firmly and pulled.

Before Gu Yue could react, she was being led swiftly away, out through the villa’s front gate.

They stopped by a patch of tall greenery at the corner of the property, hidden from view.

Her mother’s voice echoed faintly from behind.

“Why is Madam Xiao leaving so soon?”

But Gu Yue no longer heard the words.

She only lowered her gaze, staring blankly at the delicate, graceful, and warm hand still wrapped around her wrist.