The Moon Shines on Me (GL) - Chapter 34

Shen Yuan was woken up early in the morning for hair and makeup, her mind still in a daze.

“We’ll wear the wedding dress this time, and have another wedding ceremony when we return to the country, wearing traditional Chinese attire. Yuan Yuan, please feel free to raise any suggestions; we will definitely accommodate…” Inside the dressing room, Ms. Gu Qingfeng was speaking softly to Shen Yuan, but her peripheral vision suddenly caught a glimpse of a figure drifting past the room. The powder compact in her hand was slapped onto the table with a thwack, and before Shen Yuan could react, Ms. Gu Qingfeng bolted out like a gust of wind.

The next second, a nearly roaring shout came from the hallway: “Gu Zhao, hurry up and come change and get your makeup done—”

Shen Yuan watched Ms. Gu Qingfeng’s lively retreating figure, a smile blooming on her face.

I wonder what Gu Shiwei looks like in a wedding dress. She must be beautiful.

In less than a minute, Gu Shiwei outside the door was dragged back by Ms. Gu Qingfeng. She was holding a brown paper bag, and the moment she escaped the clutches, she placed the bag on the table in front of Shen Yuan.

“Yuan Yuan, you must be hungry. Have a little something to tide you over.”

Because they were going to wear gowns soon, neither Shen Yuan nor Gu Shiwei had eaten much for breakfast. Shen Yuan had a lot of jewelry and accessories piled on her head and body, and she had been sitting for so long, expending a lot of energy. Her stomach had long been rumbling. The moment Gu Shiwei withdrew her hand, Shen Yuan eagerly opened the paper bag and glanced inside, finding it full of warm desserts.

In that instant, the smile on Shen Yuan’s face deepened.

Gu Shiwei was momentarily stunned by the sight, and she instinctively lowered her head to place a kiss on Shen Yuan’s brow.

“Hurry up and change! I’ll have the makeup artist come in to do your makeup later—” Ms. Gu Qingfeng went out with a look of I can’t even look, closing the door behind them.

Shen Yuan swallowed a bite of dessert, her face showing a look of contentment.

After a moment, she hesitantly asked, “Gu Shiwei, did you go out so early just to buy this?”

“Not just this.” Gu Shiwei smiled, then, as if suddenly recalling something, took two red booklets out of her pocket.

Seeing those two marriage certificates, Shen Yuan felt like she was still dreaming.

A year ago, at this time, she was still immersed in darkness, but a year later, she had actually registered her marriage, and with a woman at that—something she never could have imagined before.

On the lawn outside the room, guests were dressed in elegant attire, their laughter vibrant, while the room separated by a single wall was quiet and peaceful, with only the sound of their mutual breathing lingering between them.

Shen Yuan’s eyes were glistening with moisture. She lifted her eyelids, her dark pupils reflecting the figure opposite her: “Thank you, Gu Shiwei.”

“Thank you for what? I should be thanking you—thank you for coming into my life.” Gu Shiwei tucked one of the marriage certificates into Shen Yuan’s palm, then lifted her chin and kissed her.

The moment their lips touched, Shen Yuan’s back stiffened.

She had just eaten a dessert and hadn’t gargled yet.

Shen Yuan raised a hand and placed it on Gu Shiwei’s shoulder, applying a little force, wanting to push her away. However, Gu Shiwei directly clasped her wrist and pressed it back against the sofa backrest.

The hand Gu Shiwei had resting on Shen Yuan’s chin exerted a slight pressure, forcing Shen Yuan to tilt her head back, her rosy lips trembling open a tiny gap.

Gu Shiwei held the soft cluster of her lips, licking and sucking for a moment. Her nimble tongue then slipped into Shen Yuan’s mouth, almost obsessively scavenging the sweet fluid inside.

Shen Yuan’s earlobes instantly turned bright red. The moisture in her eyes was precarious, and a mist gradually spread over her pupils. At this moment, her mind was a blank slate, and the hand that tried to push her away slipped weakly down.

“So sweet.”

After a long while, Gu Shiwei licked her lips and let go of Shen Yuan, satisfied. She wiped away the slight wetness at the corner of Shen Yuan’s mouth, then used her fingertip to gently stroke her slightly swollen lower lip. Only when the lip was flushed, like a ripe cherry, did Gu Shiwei reluctantly withdraw her hand.

“Your lipstick’s gone. Let me reapply it.”

As soon as Gu Shiwei finished speaking, Shen Yuan’s normally icy-cold face flushed completely. She pursed her lips, swallowed, and muttered vaguely, “No need to reapply, anyway…”

Before Shen Yuan could finish, Gu Shiwei leaned in close. She was so near that Shen Yuan was lost in her liquid eyes until a cool sensation on her lips brought her back to reality.

“Done. Don’t lick it; cover up the mark.”

After saying that, Gu Shiwei grabbed her gown and entered the changing booth. While she was changing into her wedding dress, the phone Shen Yuan had placed on the table suddenly rang. She hesitated for two seconds, picked up the phone, stood up, and walked out of the dressing room, gently closing the door.

In a corner of the manor’s garden, Shen Yuan finally pressed the answer button on the third ring.

She didn’t speak, only a slight breathing sound came through the receiver.

“Shen Yuan, it’s me.”

“I heard you’re getting married.”

“Mm.”

At the same time, Xie Tingxin, on the other end of the line, was standing on the top floor of a hotel in Australia. Her gaze was directed at a certain spot in the manor below her feet. A gentle breeze blew on the high-rise, causing the hem of her clothes to billow and then cling back to her side. It wasn’t until the voice she had longed to hear came through the phone’s earpiece—even if it was only a brief syllable—that her tense shoulders relaxed slightly.

“Shen Yuan, don’t hang up yet.”

“I want to talk to you.”

Shen Yuan: “Go ahead.”

“Are you really unwilling to return to the Shen family with me?”

A few seconds of silence followed on the other end, and then a calm voice came through the receiver:

“Xie Tingxin, everything in the Shen family should have belonged to you from the start, and I am merely an outsider.”

“What if you weren’t an outsider?” Xie Tingxin smiled gently and said with utmost seriousness: “As long as you are willing to come back to me, I can return everything that once belonged to you, and even give you things you never had.”

“…” Shen Yuan said, “No…”

“I’m sorry, after all these years, are you still very bothered by it?” Xie Tingxin had tried her best to make amends for her mistakes. She went to great lengths to suppress the news of Shen Yuan’s plagiarism three years ago and secretly helped her through a full year of depression. She thought that this time Shen Yuan would turn back, and even if she didn’t, Xie Tingxin wasn’t incapable of waiting longer. But why did she choose to marry that woman at this moment?

“Do you hate me?” Xie Tingxin put away her gentle tone and said in an almost pleading voice: “Just consider my twenty years of life exchanged for your eight years. From now on, let all our past grievances be completely canceled out, okay?”

Shen Yuan pursed her lips, lowering her head slightly, quietly listening to Xie Tingxin’s voice continually flowing through the receiver.

“Shen Yuan, do you truly like her? Or is it only because she can shield you?”

“I can do those things too, as long as you come back.”

“Everything I did before was only because I hoped you would turn back. I truly didn’t mean to hurt you.”

…

After an unknown amount of time, Shen Yuan finally frowned and said straightforwardly: “Xie Tingxin, what you did, for a time, did make me feel extremely disgusted and illogical. But whether it was interfering with my work or monitoring me, I never hated you. I just felt… that you, as a person, are very pathetic.”

She then added, “I’m sorry, I don’t want to go back. It’s not just because I’m not interested in those things, but also because I—”

“Yuan Yuan—”

A call echoed through the air, and Shen Yuan’s back stiffened.

She swallowed the words she hadn’t spoken and looked back.

On the pebble-paved shaded path, it was unmistakably Gu Shiwei, slowly walking towards her in her wedding dress.

“Darling, am I beautiful?” Gu Shiwei smiled and reached out to hug Shen Yuan’s shoulder.

Shen Yuan stared blankly and nodded: “Beautiful.”

“Who are you talking to?” Gu Shiwei leaned in, seemingly casually, to glance at the screen, noticing it showed an unknown number.

The next second, a smiling female voice came through the receiver:

“Hello, Miss Gu.”

Gu Shiwei was polite yet tactful, her tone as normal as usual: “Hello, Miss Xie.”

“Yuan Yuan and I’s wedding is about to begin. Is there anything I can help you with?”

The atmosphere was silent for a few seconds; a gentle breeze rustled the treetops.

Gu Shiwei raised an eyebrow and smiled, then asked, “Miss Xie, are you interested in coming to watch the ceremony?”

“No.”

On the other end of the line, Xie Tingxin’s voice suddenly turned cold: “I have things to do.”

“Well then, goodbye, Miss Xie.”

“Goodbye.”

After the call ended, Shen Yuan lowered her eyelids and stared at the phone screen, skillfully bringing up the number and preparing to block it, while Gu Shiwei watched her actions quietly from the side.

If you didn’t look closely, no one would notice that Shen Yuan’s fingertips were trembling slightly at that moment.

After blocking the number, she put away her phone and turned to Gu Shiwei: “How did you know it was her…”

“A guess.” If it wasn’t her, Shen Yuan wouldn’t have walked this far to answer the call. Moreover, Gu Shiwei had heard Xie Tingxin’s voice not long ago at the hospital.

“I’m sorry,” Shen Yuan said. “I shouldn’t have answered her call.”

Gu Shiwei’s heart relaxed a little. She raised an eyebrow and asked, “Oh? Why shouldn’t you?”

“I thought she was calling to talk to me… about my relatives on the hospital side. I didn’t expect…” After leaving the ward that day, Xie Tingxin had never mentioned anything about Mrs. Shen again. Shen Yuan thought this call was to tell her something about Mrs. Shen.

Shen Yuan lowered her head, her thick lashes shading the emotions in her eyes, conveying a sense of docility from Gu Shiwei’s perspective: “What did she just say to you?”

“…She wanted me to go back to the Shen family with her,” Shen Yuan said.

“Oh? And do you want to go back?”

Shen Yuan shook her head.

“Given the circumstances, the wedding is the most important thing. Let’s just ignore her for now.” Gu Shiwei finished speaking and leaned in to place a kiss on Shen Yuan’s lips.

To Gu Shiwei, Xie Tingxin was merely a pathetic clown who was unsuccessful in love and wouldn’t stop pestering. Her call today was clearly ill-intentioned, deliberately aiming to ruin the atmosphere. Gu Shiwei disdained giving such a person another glance, and she certainly didn’t want Shen Yuan to be troubled by her.

They held hands and walked toward the fully decorated manor, toward the path that led to their happiness.

And the figure on the high-rise finally turned to leave, the corner of their garment catching a fleeting arc in the air.