Chapter 87

“Why?” Gu Zhi asked with bloodshot eyes: “Why are you treating me like this? I am the young chief of the Miao ethnicity. I humbled myself to ask you to stay, yet why could you be so cold-hearted and unfeeling? Why?!”

Sang Li had her back to him, and did not speak for a long time.

Cold-hearted and unfeeling? What a joke.

“Answer me!” Gu Zhi turned Sang Li around to face him, gripping her shoulders with both hands, looking at her indignantly.

Sang Li looked into his eyes. The pleading that used to be there was gone, replaced by gloominess and resentment.

Sang Li laughed bitterly, tears welling up in her eyes, “Because I never had any feelings for you. When I first saved you, it was just out of kindness!”

Sang Li paused, then mercilessly said: “Gu Zhi, you have been deluding yourself all this time! Why should I have to reciprocate just because you like me? What makes you think that just because you have feelings for me, I have to have feelings for you too?”

Gu Zhi seemed to be provoked by Sang Li’s words. He stared at her with bloodshot eyes filled with gloominess.

He held her shoulders and leaned down to kiss her on the lips!

Sang Li was shocked by this sudden turn of events. She had never imagined that Gu Zhi, who used to be so obedient, would force a kiss on her!

She broke free of Gu Zhi’s restraint and slapped him hard across the face.

The crisp slap left a red mark on Gu Zhi’s fair cheek.

“Gu Zhi, are you crazy?!” Sang Li looked at him coldly.

Gu Zhi turned his head to the side, but his eyes were still on her. He suddenly chuckled and said coldly, “Sister... I was so obedient to you before, yet you still didn’t like me. So now... I will no longer be obedient!”

“You...”

Sang Li felt as if Gu Zhi had become a different person.

No, perhaps this was the real him all along!

Sang Li didn’t want to stay with him any longer. She immediately turned to leave the room.

But just as she reached the door, Gu Zhi’s ominous voice came from behind, “Sister, I just cast a love spell on you. Before long, you will fall in love with me...”

Sang Li stopped dead in her tracks and turned to look at him, yelling angrily, “Are you crazy?!”

“Sister... I didn’t want to use this method, but you forced me to...” Gu Zhi said.

“Gu Zhi, I would never have imagined that after regaining your memory, you would turn out to be this kind of person! I was wrong about you!” Sang Li said indignantly as she left. As Gu Zhi watched Sang Li’s departing figure, he involuntarily let out a bitter laugh. “When I was like that before, you still didn’t like me one bit. So now you can hate me!”

......

The next day at breakfast, when they noticed Gu Zhi wasn’t there, everyone thought he was still asleep. So they asked Yu Yifan to go to his room to wake him up.

“That’s odd. Gu Zhi would always get up early to cook noodles for Sister Sang Li. How come he didn’t cook today?” Su Mo couldn’t help asking.

Sitting next to her, Sang Li paused but said nothing.

“He just recovered from a serious illness. How could he have that much energy?” Xia Miaomiao said, “What’s wrong? You don’t like my cooking anymore?”

“Of course not! Your cooking is the most delicious!” Su Mo quickly took a bite of noodles.

“That’s right! I love eating the food you make the most!” Xiao Han chimed in. “Whoever marries you in the future will have hit the jackpot! I wonder which lucky bastard it’ll be!”

Just then, Yu Yifan returned hurriedly from Gu Zhi’s room.

“Sister Sang Li, Gu Zhi is gone!”

“Gone? How could that be?” Su Mo couldn’t help but ask.

“I don’t know. His bed was neatly made, and all I found was this on the table!” Yu Yifan handed Sang Li the silver bell bracelet that belonged to Gu Zhi.

Sang Li paused before taking the bracelet from him. “Other than this, was there nothing else? No... letter, for instance?”

Yu Yifan shook his head. “Nothing.”

“I see. He must have returned to the Miao village. No need to look for him.” Sang Li's expression was normal. The others could not detect any emotion from her at all.

“But didn’t he say yesterday that he wouldn’t leave?” Su Mo asked.

“I told him to leave. He is the young chief of the Miao people. He shouldn’t be confined here.”

The others looked at her quizzically, finding her response rather strange.

“Sister Sang Li... you don’t seem to have any emotional reaction at all?” Xia Miaomiao couldn’t help but ask. “You two may never see each other again. Aren’t you sad?”

Sang Li smiled elegantly. “What’s there to be sad about? Parting is common in life.”

“But you like him! Shouldn’t you feel differently?”

“Who said I like him?!” Sang Li put down her chopsticks. Her voice turned cold. “I never liked him! Don’t mention him in front of me again!”

The others finally realized something was wrong and wisely kept their mouths shut.

After Gu Zhi left without a word except for the bracelet, Sang Li would often stare at it absent-mindedly. At night, she dreamed of him almost every day.

She didn’t know why this was happening. Could it be the love spell Gu Zhi cast on her taking effect? Was that why she couldn’t stop thinking about him day and night?

Sang Li did not show any abnormal behaviors in front of her sisters, afraid that they would worry if they knew she was under a spell.

......

Today, Su Mo was sitting idly at the counter, laughing foolishly at the photos of Wu Ying she took on her phone. “My boyfriend is so handsome! Hee hee...”

“Great pecs, great abs, long legs... I bet that part is awesome too!” “Ahh... When will you come back? I miss you to death!”

As Su Mo stared at her phone, she suddenly noticed the battery level had dropped over 10%.

“Oh, so it really uses up power. I thought I could use it forever without it losing any charge! Looks like I still need to conserve power.”

Just as Su Mo was muttering to herself, a large hand suddenly reached over and took her phone away.

“Hey! Who’s that?!” Su Mo looked up angrily, and saw the man she had been pining for.

“Wu Ying?!!” Su Mo jumped out from behind the counter and threw herself at Wu Ying, clinging to him.

Wu Ying instinctively caught her so she wouldn't fall.

“You’re back! You’re finally back!” Su Mo smacked several kisses on Wu Ying’s face, pecking the left side and then the right, and finally landing a kiss on his lips.

Wu Ying held her indulgently, but said: “Miss Su, could you please behave yourself? We’re in public...”

“I don’t care! I missed you so much!” Su Mo silenced him by covering his mouth with hers, lightly nibbling on his lips.

Wu Ying was a little helpless. He really couldn’t handle her.

After kissing him a few times, Su Mo finally released his lips. “Where have you been the past few days? Did you miss me?”

Wu Ying smiled and moved close to her ear, whispering gently, “Every moment.”

His warm breath made Su Mo’s ear tingle.

Su Mo threw her arms around him and said coquettishly, “Me too!”

“I know.” Wu Ying waved her phone in front of her eyes. “After all, I just saw you ogling me.”

Su Mo glared at him and snatched her phone back. “It’s totally normal for me to ogle my boyfriend, okay?”

Wu Ying chuckled and stroked her head indulgently. “Yes, normal.”

Just then, Sang Li happened to come downstairs.

Seeing Wu Ying, she walked over and casually asked, “Wu Ying, you’re back? I heard you went looking for the treasure map. Did you find any clues?”

Wu Ying looked at Sang Li suspiciously. “Oh? Miss Sang is interested in the treasure map?”

Su Mo quickly pulled Wu Ying aside and said, “Come on, we’re just curious. I’m curious too. Tell me, please?”

Of course Wu Ying would not refuse Su Mo’s request.

“Yes, I found some clues, but I haven’t located the map yet.” Wu Ying said.

“Why not?” asked Su Mo.

“I investigated with Bai Yunhan before. The Bai family was once raided by a great bandit who switched out the real treasure map. So I went looking for that bandit. I found him, and he did admit to swapping out the real map, but... he said shortly after acquiring the map, it was swindled away by a master flower thief called Hua Wuyou... I still haven’t found that flower thief yet.”