The Heiress's Game

Gu Yunjin closed her eyes, but another person's face appeared in her mind. Strictly speaking, Bai Junze was her second boyfriend.

Her first love was named Gu Hansheng.

When that name came to mind, Gu Yunjin's eyelashes fluttered slightly.

She hadn't thought of this person for a long time, so long that if she occasionally saw his name trending on social media, she could scroll past it without batting an eye, as if it were an insignificant news item.

But now, in the cabin at 10,000 meters altitude, memories are like unsealed archives, automatically turning page by page.

Describing Gu Hansheng as "extremely handsome" is not enough; he is the kind of Eastern youth who would turn heads even when walking on the misty streets of London.

His eyes and brows were as deep as a poet in a classical oil painting, but when he smiled, they were clean and bright, like the first ray of sunlight breaking through the haze in winter.

He was very considerate to Gu Yunjin, so considerate that even she couldn't find fault with him—he would peel shrimp for her, and his technique was even more skillful than Bai Junze's today, because he had practiced countless times.

He knew she wanted to eat authentic Chinese food, so he learned how to make each dish by watching videos, from fried rice to braised pork ribs to boiled fish. The kitchen was covered with handwritten Chinese recipes.

She casually mentioned wanting to eat sweet and sour pork ribs, and the next day he was able to bring out three different versions for her to blind taste and rate.

He accompanied her to the library late at night to finish her thesis, bringing her hot cocoa and a blanket.

He stayed by her side all night when she was sick, and after her fever subsided, he looked even more haggard than she did.

The way he looked at her always carried a kind of careful and cherished look, as if he were looking at a unique treasure in the world.

During the time they were together, Gu Hansheng gave him almost everything he could.

It was Gu Yunjin who proposed the breakup.

There was no third party, no dramatic misunderstandings, and no irreconcilable conflicts.

The reason is simple to the point of being cruel—he wants to get married.

He was serious. He had planned for the future, chosen the ring, and even secretly looked at several wedding homes.

He thought she would be surprised, touched, and would throw herself into his arms and say yes.

But she didn't. She sat across from him, listened to all his descriptions of the future, remained silent for a long time, and then said, "We're not a good match."

She even remembered Gu Hansheng's expression at the time. He asked her why, and she answered very frankly, almost to the point of cruelty.

She said she was a very realistic person, even snobbish—between money and love, she would choose money;

Between power and love, she would choose power.

She is Gu Zhenxing's daughter. Regardless of whether she is favored or not, she cannot hand over her life to a boy when she is in her early twenties.

What she needs is to keep moving upwards, to keep moving upwards.

She doesn't regret making that decision, and she doesn't now.

But occasionally, when I think of his expression at that time, a faint bitterness still rises in my heart.

Gu Hansheng could give her love, but he couldn't give her what she wanted.

What does she want? She wants to stand at the top of the pyramid, to make Gu Zhenxing take her existence seriously, and to shut up everyone who once looked down on her.

Love is beautiful, but it can't fill your stomach, much less be used as a bullet.

Gu Hansheng couldn't give her these things.

He was a child from an ordinary family, exceptionally talented, and with a promising future—but that wasn't enough.

It wasn't enough to let her hold her head high in the Gu family, enough to shut everyone in the Gu family up, enough to stop Gu Mingyue from looking down on her with that condescending gaze.

They never contacted each other again after the breakup.

She deleted his contact information, and he tacitly stopped contacting her.

He was studying directing at a prestigious foreign university, and everyone thought he would go to Hollywood after graduation, make independent films, and take that niche, aloof genius route.

As a result, after returning to China, he somehow ended up in the entertainment industry.

He became an actor—or rather, a star.

His looks were already top-notch, and with the aesthetic sense and camera presence honed through his directing training, his first drama became a hit.

Then they made great strides and secured their position as top influencers within three years.

Gu Yunjin recalled a time when she was waiting at the airport and looked up to see a huge GG sign across from her—a luxury brand he endorsed, with a black and white photo of him looking at the camera with a deep and distant gaze.

She stared at the GG sign for a long time before looking down to continue replying to emails.

At that moment, she felt not nostalgia, nor regret, but clarity.

She and this man once shared the most genuine tenderness in their youth, and now, he has become a symbol admired by tens of millions of fans, yet she wants no one to know about their past more than anyone else.

His number of fans cannot be described as "large"—it is among the very top of the traffic pyramid.

The number of reposts and comments on each Weibo post is dazzlingly high. If this first love is exposed, the consequences will be unimaginable.

She wasn't afraid of being attacked—she had endured far more cold looks and malice throughout her life than that.

But once this past is exposed, the only thing she doesn't want is for her current life to be disrupted.

She has been caught in a meaningless media storm, and the peace she has carefully maintained will be completely destroyed.

She's doing well now, Bai Junze is doing well, the marriage is going well, her career is going well, and everything is steadily progressing on the track she planned.

Gu Hansheng appeared in her life, then left, and they each went in completely different directions.

He wanted a home, she wanted her own empire.

They're not wrong, they're just going in different directions.