Chapter 2: Aren't We Friends Too?
Planting a Love Gu.
Plant the Gu worm inside the body of the person you fancy, and that person will be devoted to you for life.
The other guests all laughed when they heard this. Only Lin Yi couldn’t laugh. Her face was pale white, her pupils slightly widened, like she was shocked.
She really had planted a Love Gu in her husband’s body. That was how she made him fall in love with her.
But that was six years ago. How could Lu Yiyan know?
She forced down the strangeness on her face, swallowed hard, then spoke: “Mr. Lu, what do you mean by that?”
“Spreading rumors carries legal consequences.”
“If you have an issue with me, we can talk about it privately.” She tried her best to keep smiling, but her tone was ice cold, like a warning to Lu Yiyan: “We’re live right now. The audience is watching.”
The guests beside her were afraid of offending Empress Lin, so they stopped laughing too and chimed in: “Yeah, yeah, you need evidence when you speak.”
“You can’t fully trust face reading stuff,” another guest tugged at Lu Yiyan. “Hurry up and apologize to Sister Lin!”
Empress Lin’s fans were furious too, spamming the bullet comments like crazy as the heat spiked:
【Wait, is Lu Yiyan a dumbass? People actually believe in face reading?】
【Planting a Love Gu, does he even know what planting a Love Gu means?】
【Why bother talking to this idiot? Sister Lin, send a lawyer’s letter!!!】
【Looks to me like Lu Yiyan wants the hate-fame route? Played the coward all season, then spouts this in the finale. What kind of charlatan script is this?】
【Fuck, he might actually be going for the hate-fame route.】
“Evidence?” Lu Yiyan thought for a moment, then tilted his chin up. “Isn’t the evidence right here?”
He looked at Mr. Gu: “Mr. Gu, didn’t you keep saying you felt something was wrong with your marriage, but couldn’t figure out exactly what, which is why you came on the show?”
Mr. Gu didn’t speak.
It was true. He came on the show because of that strange feeling.
“Then please think carefully. Do you really love Ms. Lin?”
Mr. Gu almost wanted to laugh at that. Without a second of hesitation, he was about to say “love.”
But the words reached his lips, and suddenly he couldn’t get them out.
He looked stunned by the question. All that burning anger from just now vanished completely. He even seemed lost.
The moment Mr. Gu hesitated, the bullet comments exploded:
【Dumbass!! Deadbeat freeloader!!】
【?? What the fuck are you hesitating for???】
【Fuck, watching this pisses me off. I must be sick to watch a divorce variety show!】
【I’m the only one who actually cares about their marriage! I really hope they divorce. Empress Lin deserves better alone!】
Mr. Gu raised his eyes. Their gazes met.
Lu Yiyan’s features weren’t sharp. You could even call them gentle and pretty.
Winter night, biting wind. The young man’s coat blew open, revealing a pale yellow cashmere base layer that set off his fine, fair skin.
Right now he was sitting across the table. The hot pot bubbled and gurgled. Through the rising steam, the young man’s lips were pressed into a straight line. His double eyelids curved beautifully, his lashes long and drooping, his eyes black and bright.
“I…” Mr. Gu’s lips moved, but he didn’t know what to say.
He wanted to say love, but didn’t know how to open his mouth.
Their marriage was weird.
Every single moment, Mr. Gu could feel a voice constantly telling him that he liked Lin Yi, that Lin Yi was the love of his life, that he couldn’t live without Lin Yi.
But did he really love Lin Yi that much?
Lin Yi saw the strange look on Mr. Gu’s face. She immediately stood up and grabbed his hand: “Hubby, what are you thinking about?”
“You don’t actually believe what he said, do you?”
“Planting a Love Gu? How could you believe something like that?” Lin Yi pulled at Mr. Gu, trying to make him look at her. “Why would I plant a Love Gu? What good would that do me? It’s not like I couldn’t find someone else to marry!”
“Hubby, hubby, look at me.” Lin Yi raised her hands, cupping Mr. Gu’s face to make him look at her. “Don’t listen to his nonsense. You know better than anyone how I treat you.”
Mr. Gu looked at Lin Yi, feeling the warmth of the woman’s palms.
Their eyes met, but there wasn’t a single flutter in his heart.
Lin Yi’s pretty eyes turned red, brimming with tears as she asked pitifully: “Hubby, do you love me?”
Mr. Gu opened his mouth, but couldn’t answer.
【Holy shit!! My blood pressure is through the roof!!】
【Is this freeloader sick?! Why aren’t you talking??】
【Getting more disgusting by the second. Can Sister Lin have some backbone? Can you just kick him to the curb??!?】
【Fuck, still asking him? Lock them up together. One simp, one beast!!!】
“What’s the point of asking that?” Lu Yiyan’s voice was flat. “Ms. Lin, you don’t love Mr. Gu either, do you?”
“Others plant Love Gu because they can’t have the one they love. But you did it to steal Mr. Gu’s fate pattern.”
Sweat covered Lin Yi’s forehead. Her heart was racing, her breathing fast. It felt like all the blood pressure in her body was surging toward her chest.
She stared at Lu Yiyan in disbelief.
How was this possible? How did he know? Why would he know?
Lin Yi was terrified. She fought so hard to reach this position. She couldn’t lose it.
Did this Lu Yiyan want to ruin her?!
No, no, no… calm down.
Lin Yi desperately steadied her emotions.
With something like this, as long as she didn’t admit it, so what if Lu Yiyan knew? He had no proof!
She could still sue him for defamation!
“What the hell are you talking about?” Having figured that out, Lin Yi wasn’t panicking anymore. She paused for half a second, then took a breath: “Fine. Since you say I planted a Love Gu, do you have any evidence?”
“Just based on what you said… that face reading crap about me being destined to be mediocre?”
Lu Yiyan thought for a while after hearing that. Finally, he shifted his gaze, looking behind Lin Yi: “You killed your brother. Does that count as evidence?”
Lin Yi’s pupils shrank sharply.
Her breathing turned rapid, her voice pitching higher: “What nonsense are you spouting?!”
Lu Yiyan spoke calmly, neither humble nor arrogant: “I’m not spouting nonsense.”
“Ms. Lin Yi, seven years ago you set a fire and burned your own biological brother to death. Did you forget?”
Lin Yi froze completely in place.
“Lin Yi.” Lu Yiyan paused for half a second, then raised his hand and pointed to the side. “Lin Yi, your brother is standing right behind you.”
The original body was afraid of ghosts. The instant he saw the male ghost, Lu Yiyan’s heart rate hit 180. Zero-frame reaction. Tears burst out of his eyes.
He sobbed while keeping a cold face to wipe his nose, smearing himself into a mess.
Lu Yiyan hated it.
He was a dignified, aloof Heavenly Master. How did he transmigrate and turn into a little crybaby scared of ghosts?
This was killing him.
Stupid tears, stop already!
He didn’t want to cry, goddammit!
Lin Yi originally didn’t believe it. She was about to speak when a gust of cold wind brushed past, freezing her from spine to neck. Her scalp instantly went numb.
Like someone was really standing behind her.
“…” Lin Yi sucked in a breath of cold air and whipped her head around. Nothing behind her.
She exhaled, thinking, how could that be?
In this world, how could there be ghosts?
Even though she thought that, she was breaking out in a cold sweat. Lin Yi turned back around: “Can you stop spouting nonsense?”
“My brother died a long time ago. It was an accident!”
Lin Yi wouldn’t admit it with her mouth, but her face was scarily pale. She glared at Lu Yiyan, her eye rims turning red.
The other guests saw this and were baffled.
What’s going on?
Why is Empress Lin panicking?
The guests looked at each other, processed it for two seconds, then unanimously turned to look at Lu Yiyan beside them—tears and snot streaming down his face, crying and mooing like a cow.
Could it be… what he said was true?
【??? What kind of melon is this?】
【Oh my god, aren’t we watching a divorce variety show? How did it turn into a murder case???】
【How could Empress Lin kill her brother? Everyone knows those siblings were close.】
【What happened with the siblings? Not trying to start drama, just a passerby, don’t know.】
【Lin Yi’s dad was an alcoholic abuser. Killed her mom, then tried to assault Lin Yi. Her brother killed their dad to protect her. Lin Yi was only five back then, her brother was nine. He raised her.】
【Right! The brother was super smart. Won competitions back in elementary school. Had such a bright future! But he gave up school for Empress Lin, working odd jobs at a young age to pay for her education.】
【Sister Lin and her brother were so close!!】
【Exploiting the dead. Lu Yiyan is truly trash!】
“Little sister.” After a long silence, Lu Yiyan suddenly spoke. He abruptly looked at Lin Yi, then said word by word: “I told you, I’d stay with you for a lifetime. Even in death.”