I Heard You Liked Me First - Chapter 3

Gu Yue got into the woman’s car and quietly told her she wanted to go to the airport.

Even as the engine started, she still couldn’t quite believe what she’d done how she’d so easily placed her trust in this stranger.

If this woman harbored any bad intentions, wouldn’t she have walked straight into a trap?

The car moved smoothly, pulling away from the Gu family estate.

Through the rearview mirror, Gu Yue watched as the cluster of villas grew smaller and smaller in the distance. Slowly, the tightness in her chest began to ease.

It felt like the thousand-pound weight pressing on her heart had finally been pried loose, just a little.

The car smelled faintly of incense, a soft, calming scent that made her relax without realizing it.

The woman’s voice was gentle, warm. “Where are you headed?”

Gu Yue stiffened for a second, her tone slightly tense. “You can just drop me off by the roadside. I’ll get a taxi from there.”

Madam Xiao smiled faintly. “Since I’ve already started, I might as well take you all the way. It’s not safe for a young girl to travel alone.”

Before she could think twice, Gu Yue blurted out her destination the airport.

And even as she said it, she was puzzled. Why did she trust this woman so easily? They’d only just met and she was the elder of her blind date, of all people.

Gu Yue snuck a glance at the driver’s seat. The woman’s delicate, refined profile seemed to have its own quiet gravity, pulling her gaze again and again.

Maybe it was because she was… beautiful?

Realizing she’d been staring, Gu Yue quickly turned away, feeling embarrassed. That was rude. She shouldn’t have been looking at her like that.

The road to the airport seemed long at first. The silence between them might’ve been awkward, but oddly, it wasn’t. The faint scent in the car and the steady rhythm of the road had a calming effect.

Before long less than an hour they reached the airport of a city Gu Yue had never seen before.

The car stopped by the terminal entrance. Gu Yue unfastened her seatbelt and murmured, “Thank you.”

The woman turned to her. “Will someone be meeting you when you arrive?”

Gu Yue hadn’t expected her to still show concern after sending her all this way. A little flustered, she twisted her fingers in her sleeve. “Yes, someone will. I already told her I’m coming.”

The woman nodded. “Good. Still, be careful. Don’t trust people too easily.”

Gu Yue blinked, not quite understanding, before quickly realizing the misunderstanding. “Oh I’m not meeting an online friend. The person picking me up is… family.”

That explanation seemed to reassure her. The woman’s tone softened. “Then you’d better hurry in, or you’ll miss your flight.”

Gu Yue got out of the car. Madam Xiao watched her walk through the terminal doors before finally starting the engine.

The moment she did, her phone rang. It was her husband.

“Where are you? The Gu family’s servants said they saw your car leaving.”

Madam Xiao replied calmly, “I wasn’t feeling well, so I decided to go home early.”

Her husband fell silent for a beat. “I know you’re unhappy with this marriage. But since our families have arranged things this way and you can’t change it, why not at least put in some effort? Even if he’s not your biological son, you’re his mother in the eyes of the world. How can you be so indifferent to his marriage?”

Madam Xiao thought of the girl she’d just sent off. Her lips curved in a faint smile, though her eyes remained cold. “Indifferent? Of course I care. After all… we have a long future ahead of us, don’t we?”

She hung up, and in the quiet cabin, she murmured to herself, almost amused, “If I didn’t care, would I have gone so far as to send his fiancée away?”

Meanwhile, Gu Yue, dragging her small bag, turned back again and again as she walked into the terminal. Through the glass doors, she caught a last glimpse of the departing car.

A small, nearly invisible warmth flickered across her frozen heart.

She sent her flight details once more to her cousin and, after receiving a confirmation reply, stumbled her way through check-in, security, and boarding.

When she finally sat on the plane and turned off her phone, her heart still felt like it was floating somewhere high above the clouds.

She could hardly believe what she’d done.

At such a critical moment, she had abandoned everything everyone and flown off alone to find a cousin she barely knew.

Yet beneath the fear, there was excitement too.

For the first time in her life, she could feel freedom so close she could almost touch it.

And for the first time, she understood what rebellion tasted like.

It was intoxicating.

She felt a little guilty, maybe. But whenever she pictured her mother’s furious face, unable to reach her, a strange, uncontrollable sense of satisfaction bubbled up inside.

It was childish, but oh, it felt good.

Despite coming from a wealthy family, this was actually Gu Yue’s first time on a plane.

She listened intently as the flight attendants explained safety procedures and followed each instruction carefully.

When she heard they’d be serving meals, she turned her head several times, watching eagerly to see when the attendant would reach her row.

The food wasn’t anything special, but to Gu Yue, it was the best thing she’d ever tasted.

It wasn’t about the flavor it was the freedom that made it delicious.

Whatever happened next, no matter what price she’d have to pay for tonight’s decision, this moment this fleeting joy was enough to remember for a lifetime.

When the plane landed, she followed the crowd to collect her luggage, her steps growing more hesitant as she approached the exit.

And then she saw her.

She spotted the girl instantly, not because of the A4 paper with her name on it, but because the girl stood out like a beacon.

Her skin was pale, almost luminous, her face small and exquisitely shaped. Her short hair barely brushed her shoulders, slightly tousled, giving her an air of easy confidence.

A loose-knit sweater slipped slightly at the collar, revealing the curve of her collarbone.

Long legs hugged by jeans and short boots.

Gu Yue could feel the contrast between them instantly.

This girl was like a rare flower blooming in the high, frozen mountains vivid, proud, untamed.

While she… she was just a carefully sheltered daisy in a glass house fragile, soft, and afraid of the wind.

That girl was her cousin, Gu Nan. Her name was printed clearly on the paper she held.

Gu Yue approached, unsure how to greet her. She had never been good at sincerity.

Gu Nan, on the other hand, was much more straightforward. She took a step forward, her gaze not exactly gentle but not cold either, and said naturally, “That’s all you brought? I’ll carry it for you.”

Gu Yue clutched her small duffel bag tightly. “No need, I’ve got it. I’ve already troubled you enough.”

Her expression froze awkwardly before she forced out a polite, practiced smile. “Hi, Cousin. Thank you for coming to get me.”

Gu Nan frowned slightly at that smile.

Don’t smile if you don’t mean it, she thought. Why pretend, even down to the curve of your lips?

Unable to resist, she reached out and tapped Gu Yue’s forehead lightly. “Stop smiling it doesn’t suit you.”

Gu Yue stiffened, lowering her head, and followed obediently behind her.

Gu Nan sighed. She hadn’t meant to sound harsh, but her mouth had run faster than her brain again.

This cousin of hers was only a few years younger, and today she’d come all this way to seek refuge. The least she could do was be kind.

She remembered the few times she’d seen Gu Yue years ago, before her mother took her away from the Gu family. The girl had always seemed like a perfect porcelain doll every gesture precise, every word proper.

Back then, people used to compare them, saying Gu Nan lacked the grace and poise of her younger cousin.

Now Gu Nan understood this was the “perfect young lady” her aunt had molded.

With a quiet sigh, she led Gu Yue into the car.

After making sure her seatbelt was fastened, she glanced over and said, “I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that expression you had just now.”

She trailed off, not quite knowing how to explain.

Gu Yue hadn’t expected to speak first, but she did, her voice softer, more fragile than before.
“My mom told me to smile like that,” she said quietly. “She said I look the most obedient that way. Everyone likes a well-behaved child.”

Gu Nan let out a sharp, humorless laugh. “Your whole family’s messed up.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she bit down hard on her lip. There you go again.

Running your mouth. She’d basically just insulted all of Gu Yue’s ancestors.

But Gu Yue didn’t seem to mind. She even tilted her head slightly toward Gu Nan and agreed in a small voice, “Yeah. They are.”

She paused, then added seriously, as if to back up the statement, “Your dad passed away, but no one went to see him. Grandma didn’t, my mom didn’t even burn a stick of incense for my uncle. My uncle’s younger brother’s worse he’s been holed up in the club these days. Only came home once when Grandma called him, and then left right after.”

Gu Nan’s lips curled into a cold smile. “Serves him right. After all the rotten things he did, it’s only fair that no one cares when he’s gone.”

Suddenly, a name flashed through her mind Chi An.

Her brow furrowed slightly. “Chi An must’ve been there, though. Even if everyone else stayed away, she would’ve made sure he was sent off properly. That’s the least he deserved.”

Gu Yue listened to the faint scorn in her cousin’s tone. She thought of what Chi An had told her before about the reason she’d come here in the first place. She’d planned to wait, to find the right time to bring it up, but now the words spilled out before she could stop them.

“It was Chi An who told me to come.”

The car jerked slightly before steadying again.

Gu Nan’s expression hardened. “She sent you to talk me into visiting my father’s grave?”

Gu Yue shook her head quickly, flustered. “No! She said you should go back and take everything the Gu family stole from you!”

Gu Nan’s grip on the steering wheel tightened instantly. She pulled the car to the side of the road and turned sharply toward Gu Yue, eyes flashing like a leopard cornered in the wild. Her voice was low, dangerous.
“What did you just say? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Gu Yue shrank back instinctively, trembling.
“She… she told me to tell you… that before your dad passed away, he said he hoped you’d take back the Gu family. Everything they have comes from your parents in the first place. The Gu family doesn’t deserve any of it. He didn’t have time to return it all before he died, so he wanted you to take it back yourself.”

The Gu family, back then, had been nobodies. It was Gu Hongfu, Gu Nan’s father, who changed their fate after getting into university and marrying her mother. The so-called “phoenix man” had latched onto a “peacock family,” rising high on their wealth while hollowing them out from within.

Her mother’s family had been ruined for it.

And after the marriage, because she never bore a son, Gu Nan’s mother was humiliated endlessly.

The Gu matriarch had even suggested giving Gu Nan away so her mother could “try again” for a boy.

Gu Nan had hated them ever since. The Gu family destroyed her mother, and with her, the entire maternal side of the family.

And now, to think that her father’s dying wish was for her to go back and take the Gu family down?

Her eyes lost focus, her mind spinning with conflicting thoughts.

Meanwhile, Gu Yue, in her fragile little voice, said something startlingly bold:
“If you can’t take it back… then you could just let the Gu family go bankrupt instead.”

Gu Nan froze. She lifted her head and looked at Gu Yue in disbelief. “You want your own family to go bankrupt? Are you out of your mind?”

Gu Yue immediately shrank into herself like a frightened hamster, shoulders hunched, saying nothing.

But her gaze stayed fixed on Gu Nan, bright with a barely hidden excitement.
As if asking silently, So… can we let them go bankrupt.