Chapter 101: "Luo Xing is not a rival; she is the one I love."

“Do you want to try it?” Gu Shiyan’s voice sent a chill through Su Mo’s ears.

“You can’t do this! That’s a life!” Tears streamed down Su Mo’s cheeks, her eyes red and swollen.

“Gu Shiyan, are you really willing to go this far for her? Have you no regard for human life?” she cried.

Gu Shiyan was unmoved by her pleas. He let out a cold laugh, looking at Su Mo with scathing irony. “You brought all of this upon yourself. Don’t pretend to be noble. If you hadn’t used money to harm others, I wouldn’t have stopped paying your grandmother’s medical bills. Back then, you begged for nothing but the medical expenses, but look at you now. You got the money, only to use it to hurt people.”

Su Mo stepped forward, trying to grab him. “Gu Shiyan, if you really do this, I’ll expose everything online. Neither you nor Luo Xing will be able to escape.”

Gu Shiyan took a step back, making sure she couldn’t touch him at all. Back in the hospital, Su Mo had been nothing more than a pitiful girl working multiple jobs just to support her grandmother.

Now that she’d tasted financial freedom, she had become unrecognizable.

The disdain and indifference on Gu Shiyan’s face were plain for Su Mo to see.

“What are you laughing at!” Su Mo was on the verge of collapse. What right did Gu Shiyan have to look down on people like this? Su Wan had always tried her best to win his favor, but he ignored her, even mocking her outright.

Yet somehow, people like him always obtained the things she could never have.

Even Gu Liang, who seemed to treat her kindly, deep down still valued Gu Shiyan above her.

“I’m laughing at you,” Gu Shiyan said, narrowing his eyes at her. “Why are you always sporting that look of deep suffering and hatred? What have I done to you? What has Luo Xing done to you? Just because others are better off, you can’t stand it, so you want to hurt them?”

His words struck Su Mo right where it hurt most.

She believed she was not at fault, that the world was simply unfair to her.

So she couldn’t stand those who were born better off than she was.

“Su Wan doesn’t know about this, nor does Gu Liang. Tell me, if they find out, what do you think will happen to you?”

“They don’t care about Luo Xing,” Su Mo replied stubbornly, her head bowed.

“The story about me fighting with Ke Yu that went viral online—wasn’t that your doing?” Gu Shiyan’s voice was slow and clear as he met her gaze.

Su Mo’s head shot up in alarm.

“I can make it look like you did it, Su Mo,” he said.

A chill ran through her heart. Gu Shiyan’s words were a naked threat.

Perhaps Gu Liang truly didn’t care whether she harmed Luo Xing or someone else, but if the incident implicated his own son, Gu Shiyan—

Gu Liang would never back down.

Su Mo had seen the online uproar about Gu Shiyan fighting with Ke Yu. Even at dinner today, Gu Liang had brought it up. It was clear the person behind it was targeting Gu Shiyan.

If both incidents were pinned on her, Gu Liang would never let her off.

Su Wan would also never acknowledge her as a daughter again.

“No, that’s impossible. I didn’t do it! How can you falsely accuse me?” Su Mo took a shaky step back, feeling that the man before her was more terrifying than ever.

Gu Shiyan’s calm eyes flickered with a smile. “I’ve told you before, Su Mo, I’m a scoundrel, a degenerate. I don’t care about what others think. So what if I wrong you? What can you do about it? Can you prove your innocence? If I blame it all on you, do you have any way to defend yourself?”

Every word he spoke dragged Su Mo deeper into the mire.

He was utterly without scruples.

“You won’t do it,” Su Mo said, tears wetting her cheeks, but still stubborn. “If you did, how could you ever face your mother? She was driven to jump to her death by someone’s schemes…”

The sudden coldness in Gu Shiyan’s eyes silenced her.

“You’re not worthy to be compared with her. Now, you’re the one scheming against others.”

“I’m not wrong!” Su Mo protested, recalling the file Gu Liang had taken from her the other day. “If it weren’t for Luo Xing, you wouldn’t have negotiated with Lu Yuanyi, and Qi Zhi wouldn’t have left the circle. Tell me I’m wrong!”

“I have no interest in your excuses,” Gu Shiyan replied. “If you want to save your grandmother, here’s what you’ll do: First, release a video before dawn clarifying and apologizing. Second, do nothing else. Go back to your old life, back to the home you once lived in with your bedridden grandmother. As for tuition, medical bills, living expenses—the Gu family will no longer support you.”

Su Mo broke down completely. “Su Wan is my mother too! What gives you the right to decide my future with a single sentence?”

“Do you really think Su Wan would speak for you in front of Gu Liang? Or pay for you? If she would, you wouldn’t have come to my father in the first place.”

With that, Gu Shiyan turned and returned to his room.

Su Mo stood where she was and cried.

Everything Gu Shiyan said was true. That vain woman, Su Wan, would never help her.

Gu Liang cared even less for her, an outsider.

Her grandmother’s medical bills, her tuition and living expenses—all came from Gu Liang.

Once a person has tasted a certain standard of living, there’s no going back to the days of struggling alone.

Gu Shiyan’s words struck real fear in her heart.

Su Mo crouched down, feeling utterly drained.

Just then, Gu Shiyan came out again holding something.

Su Mo’s eyes widened.

It was the birthday gift she had given him—a belated present. It was obvious he’d never even opened it.

“Stop pretending to be a perpetual victim. I owe you nothing. If anyone owes you, it’s Su Wan. Your revenge should be directed at her, not me.” Gu Shiyan threw the box at her feet.

It hit the floor with a bang, spilling its contents—exposing all its ugliness between the two of them.

Su Mo had thought she and Gu Shiyan were the same kind of people, both marked by misfortune.

Gu Liang kept a mistress, and his mother had committed suicide.

Her own father had died in a car accident; Su Wan had abandoned both her father and herself. She’d not only lost her father, but her mother had become someone else’s.

The first time she saw Gu Shiyan, she’d been kneeling in the rain before Su Wan, begging for money. She needed it for her grandmother’s medical bills, for tuition, for daily expenses.

Su Wan had heartlessly abandoned her, even complaining that her touch had soiled her designer bag.

In her own despair, Su Wan could present to Gu Shiyan all the things she desperately craved, letting him choose at will—yet he scorned them all.

He wasn’t even her son; she even hated Gu Shiyan, yet treated him better than her own daughter.

She’d resented fate countless times—she was a human being too.

Why should she be denied what others threw away, when she couldn’t find even a scrap of it no matter how hard she searched?

So she began to investigate the golden boy being courted by Su Wan.

She deliberately appeared before Gu Liang, letting him know she was Su Wan’s daughter. She made her way into the Gu family and got close to Gu Shiyan.

She’d thought that a playboy like Gu Shiyan would be easy to seduce.

She’d always known she was pretty.

From a young age, she’d learned to use her looks to get what she wanted.

She knew Gu Shiyan had a girlfriend, but she didn’t care. She was already tainted—why should she care? She wanted to drag someone as exalted as Gu Shiyan down to her level.

And she wanted to use Gu Shiyan to get back at Su Wan.

A vain woman like that didn’t deserve such a good life. It was her abandonment of her father that had shattered their family.

But with a wave of her hand, Su Wan had easily become a wealthy socialite.

How could that be right?

“So what did I do wrong? Am I supposed to just accept everything that’s happened to me?” Su Mo cried out in anguish. “You should understand why I did all this—we’re the same! How can you be so despicable? My grandmother is my last hope!”

Her heart felt as though it might explode with pain, her mind reeling. “Don’t you hate Su Wan? Why don’t you join forces with me? I can help you drive her out of the Gu family!”

Su Mo stood up, anxiously looking at Gu Shiyan.

“Luo Xing knows nothing. She doesn’t understand. She’ll only see you as a vile, despicable man. Only I understand you.”

Gu Shiyan looked down at the sobbing, broken girl on the floor, but there was not a shred of pity in his eyes. “Even if she calls me names, I don’t mind.”

He was stifled with anger; if not for Su Mo’s actions, he would have been celebrating with Luo Xing tonight.

“Don’t say you understand me. I don’t need it. I just need you to stay far away from me!”

“Don’t you think it’s a joke for you to be with someone like Luo Xing?” Su Mo gave a bitter laugh. “She has parents and a brother who love her. You have nothing. She’s our rival. She can rely on her family for everything, but we have only ourselves. If we live better than she does, it proves the love she receives isn’t so special after all.”

Gu Shiyan stepped back, noticing the countless self-inflicted scars on Su Mo’s arms.

“Luo Xing isn’t a rival—she’s the one I love.”

“What are you trying to prove? That you’re inferior to others? You hurt people but don’t see yourself as wrong, blaming everything on fate. You can believe the world owes you, but if someone uses the same methods against you, don’t call them despicable.”

He left her with one last line: “It’s because your actions are vile that others use the same means to deal with you.”

Su Mo stood alone, crying beside the shattered gift box.

She had only two choices left.