My Dongguan Love Story

Lin Tao noticed my unusual expression and looked at me suspiciously, asking, "Dazhuang, what's wrong with you? Your face immediately darkens when Lin Guilian is mentioned?"

My heart skipped a beat, and I felt a little guilty under her gaze. I quickly made up an excuse with a smile: "What else could it be? I'm exhausted today, and my body is completely drained. No wonder I look pale. I'm like an old ox working in the fields every day. When you're so tired, you don't have any energy left."

Lin Tao's face flushed instantly upon hearing this. She glared at me, embarrassed and annoyed, and couldn't say a word. She walked to the bedside table, picked up her phone, and saw that Yuan Kai had made several missed calls, but she couldn't be bothered to answer them.

She had previously wanted me to pretend to be her boyfriend to spite Yuan Kai and make him give up on her completely. Now that she's actually with me, and we've even agreed to get married at the end of the year, she won't even bother to tell me she has a boyfriend, let alone deliberately provoke him.

But then she thought that the Yuan family still had some relationship with her father, and it wouldn't be appropriate to be too heartless. So she edited a text message and sent it: "I already have a boyfriend. Don't contact me anymore, so my boyfriend won't misunderstand."

After sending the message, she immediately blocked Yuan Kai's phone number.

After she finished all that, she saw me still slowly washing the clothes and couldn't help but urge me, "Dazhuang, why are you washing so slowly? Hurry up and finish, we'll go to the hospital to visit Lin Guilian later."

Hearing this, I panicked instantly and could only awkwardly laugh and decline, "Peach, let's not go."

I was secretly anxious; I absolutely couldn't let the two of them meet. With Lin Guilian's quick wit, she'd see right through my relationship with Lin Tao, and it would definitely cause a huge scene. If Lin Tao found out about my past private affairs, I couldn't even imagine what her attitude would be.

I was determined to stop her. As long as the two of us didn't meet, the secret wouldn't be exposed, and I could just avoid her from now on.

I quickly waved my hand and advised, "It's too late now, the patient has already rested. Let's talk about it another day."

Lin Tao nodded after hearing what I said: "That's true, let's go tomorrow then."

I panicked immediately when I heard that: "Tomorrow won't work either."

Lin Tao noticed my strange expression and immediately became suspicious. Her keen intuition as a police officer kicked in instantly. She stared intently at me, her tone scrutinizing as she asked, "Why not?"

Being stared at like that made me extremely uncomfortable, like I was being questioned in an interrogation room. I knew that if I couldn't give a reasonable explanation and dispel her doubts, she would definitely turn around and go find Lin Guilian herself.

I quickly racked my brains for an explanation and hurriedly began to explain, "Think about it, Lin Guilian was just hurt by Li Jianzhong, and she still has lingering trauma. She hasn't fully recovered yet. If you bring this up now, wouldn't that just remind her of those painful experiences? Besides, the incident happened suddenly and she was hospitalized hastily, so she can't provide any useful clues. I've already asked her several times, but I haven't gotten any useful information."

After listening to my reasoned explanation, the scrutiny in Lin Tao's eyes gradually faded, and she nodded slightly, saying, "What you said makes sense. Let's wait until she has fully recovered before making any decisions."

I secretly breathed a sigh of relief, intending to take this opportunity to completely dissuade her from going to find someone else, but I held back the words. Further obstruction would seem deliberate, clearly indicating something was amiss, and would easily arouse suspicion. Oh well, I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

As I was pondering a solution, Lin Tao suddenly asked, "By the way, Dazhuang, what exactly is your relationship with Lin Guilian? I remember when we were taking your statement, you said that she came to find you specifically, and that you went out on patrol together, which is when she was unexpectedly attacked and injured."

When she took our statements, she did record this incident. At that time, she was only focused on finding out where Li Jianzhong was and had no interest in investigating my relationship with Lin Guilian.

Later, when she heard that I had a girlfriend named Tang Yan, she became even more convinced that Lin Guilian and I were completely innocent and had no connection whatsoever.

In her mind, dating is about being single-minded and devoted to one person, and she never imagined that I would be juggling two women at the same time.

Now that Lin Guilian has been mentioned again, she feels more and more uneasy. The other party came to see me specifically, and I was the one who took care of her in the hospital after the accident. All these details make her suspicious and increasingly curious about what kind of relationship we have.

Since we got together, Lin Tao has been paying extra attention to the men I associate with, always trying to find out the details of our relationships.

When she asked me that, I suddenly felt a little flustered. I quickly turned around and pretended to wring out the clothes to hang them out to dry. I used this brief moment to think of an explanation before turning back and speaking calmly: "She is Tang Yan's friend. Tang Yan asked her to come and find me that day, but she encountered an accident on the way."

These words were half true and half false, and no one else could doubt them.

Lin Tao suddenly realized what was going on and nodded gently: "So you're Tang Yan's friend."

With just a few simple words, they directly defined my relationship with Lin Guilian as ordinary friends, successfully covering up the matter.

In Lin Tao's mind, since I was once Tang Yan's boyfriend, I naturally wouldn't have any ambiguous relationship with her friends, let alone any ambiguous entanglements.

But when Tang Yan was mentioned, a new question arose in her mind, and she was very curious about why we broke up back then.

As she pressed me for answers, I felt helpless and sighed inwardly. I realized that people really shouldn't do anything wrong, otherwise they would only be able to cover up all the bad things they did in the past with one lie after another.

Seeing that I remained silent, Lin Tao urged me with curiosity, "Why aren't you saying anything? Tell me quickly."

I couldn't think of a suitable explanation for a moment, and she pressed me so hard that I had no choice but to turn my head away and say, "It's all in the past, so don't ask me about it. Leave me some privacy."

To my surprise, she went up to me and hugged me, looking up at me earnestly and saying, "You're mine now, so your business is my business, and I need to know."

I couldn't persuade her otherwise, so I quickly blurted out, "It's just that her family didn't approve of us being together, so she went back to her hometown."

"That's all?" Lin Tao was stunned, her face full of disbelief, and she felt quite sorry for us.

In her opinion, couples should only break up after a major conflict. She still remembers that day at the barbecue stand, Tang Yan was leaning close to me, her eyes full of love and joy. Anyone could see that she was deeply in love. She had originally thought that we could be together for a long time.

Now that she's heard that the breakup was solely due to family disapproval, she feels increasingly uneasy and that the whole thing seems illogical.

I waved my hand, feigning composure: "What's so hard to understand? That's just how it is."

Seeing that I spoke with certainty, Lin Tao stopped asking questions and nodded slightly, indicating that she believed my explanation.

Seeing how easily she believed my story, a deep sense of guilt welled up inside me. I used to be honest and upright, and I would never lie to anyone. But since I came to Dongguan to work hard, the ways of the world have worn me down, and I have slowly learned to lie to cover up my true feelings.

I sighed inwardly, my heart filled with unease. I really didn't know how long I could keep up this lie with Lin Tao, or how I would handle the situation when the truth was finally revealed.