Moving On from the Tsundere, I Choose the Perfect Sweetheart

10:30 PM.

Gu Yifan returned to his home in Cuihu District.

The living room was empty. His parents had already gone to bed; his mom had called him around noon to let him know they had to wake up early tomorrow to drive out to his maternal grandmother’s house in the countryside.

Gu Yifan quietly closed the door, doing his best not to wake his parents.

BING BING—BING BING—

He had just sat down on the sofa when his phone chimed with a text message.

Gu Yifan paused. He pulled his phone from his pocket and saw that the text was from that damn Wang Zibo.

’What’s this guy texting me for?’ he frowned slightly and muttered.

As he spoke, he tapped open the message and began to read.

Wang Zibo: "Brother Fan, what just happened? How did you make Princess Ning cry again? When I came out, I saw Princess Ning squatting by the roadside, crying and saying she was going to tell Aunt Mei you’ve been smoking! You’d better get ready and come up with an excuse!"

Gu Yifan: "..."

Gu Yifan was left speechless after reading the message.

’Seriously?’

’What did I even do?’

’I didn’t do a damn thing, did I?’

’All I did was hail a cab home. I didn’t even say a word to her.’

’And since when is my smoking any of her damn business?’

’Damn it!’

’Is that woman insane?!’

’This is ridiculous!’

This time, Gu Yifan was truly exasperated.

’Haven’t I been avoiding her as much as possible, just like she wanted?’

’And now she’s turning around and trying to cause trouble for me?’

’Forget it!’

’Let her do whatever the hell she wants.’

He casually typed a reply to Wang Zibo: "I’m tired. Let the world burn."

Then he tossed the phone onto the sofa and got up to take a shower.

Meanwhile, Wang Zibo was riding his electric scooter into the district with Han Ning on the back.

It had taken him a long time to finally coax Han Ning into stopping her tears.

On the whole ride back, Han Ning had been complaining nonstop, telling him all the ways Gu Yifan was in the wrong.

It was giving him a massive headache.

He was caught between a rock and a hard place; he couldn’t agree with her, but he couldn’t disagree either.

Sigh~

’This is so difficult!’

...

"Princess Ning, we’re here!"

Wang Zibo brought the scooter to a stop in front of her apartment building and turned to Han Ning.

"Oh, oh~"

Han Ning had been lost in thought. Snapping out of it at the sound of his voice, she glanced around in confusion before nodding. "Thank you, Zibo."

"Hah~"

"It’s nothing!"

"We grew up together. No need to be so formal with me!" Wang Zibo said with a dismissive wave and a smile.

"Mm-hmm."

"Well, Zibo, I’m going to head upstairs now. See you tomorrow!" Han Ning said with a slight nod.

"Okay, I’m gonna go park my scooter!"

"See you tomorrow, Princess Ning!" Wang Zibo grinned and nodded back.

Han Ning didn’t say anything else. She just waved at him and turned to go upstairs.

"Sigh..."

Watching Han Ning’s lonely-looking figure retreat, Wang Zibo sighed softly and muttered, "Why does it have to be like this..."

He had uttered what was perhaps the most philosophical sentence of his entire life.

Shaking his head, he turned the scooter around and left.

After parking the scooter in the bike shed and plugging it in to charge, Wang Zibo pulled out his phone to pay when he noticed that Gu Yifan had replied to his text at some point.

He tapped it open and was once again at a complete loss for words.

"Sigh..."

"Why does it have to be like this!"

He sighed softly, repeating the same words as before.

... ...

Meanwhile, Gu Yifan had just finished his shower.

BEEP-BEEP—BEEP-BEEP-BEEP—

He was toweling his hair dry when his phone, lying on the sofa, chimed.

He paused, draped the towel over a chair, and walked over to pick up his phone.

He swiped the screen open and saw a message from Su Qinghe.

July Qinghe: "Are you home yet?"

Gu Yifan smiled slightly, then casually typed a reply: "I’m home, just finished showering."

July Qinghe: "Oh... Should I bring you breakfast tomorrow?"

Su Qinghe replied almost instantly. ’She must have been holding her phone, waiting for my message,’ Gu Yifan thought.

Gu Yifan thought for a moment. His mom wouldn’t be around tomorrow, so it was the perfect opportunity to have this silly Hanhan bring him breakfast.

So he replied, "Sure!"

The two chatted for a little while longer before saying goodnight, since it was already getting late.

After putting his phone down, Gu Yifan found a hairdryer, dried his hair, and went to his bedroom to sleep.

He slept soundly, but over in her own home, Han Ning was suffering from insomnia.

Dressed in a white silk slip, she lay in bed, tossing and turning. She couldn’t sleep at all, her mind completely filled with the image of Gu Yifan.

’She couldn’t understand. Why was he treating her like this just because she’d rejected his confession?’

The moment she thought of Gu Yifan’s cold indifference, an inexplicable sense of grievance and misery washed over her.

The more she thought about it, the more miserable and wronged she felt. Her nose began to sting, and tears started to stream down her face again.

She curled up under the covers, biting down hard to keep from making a sound, like a wounded little white fox licking its wounds in solitude.

She didn’t know how long she lay there before she finally cried herself to sleep.

...

「The night passed uneventfully.」

When Gu Yifan got up early the next morning, he found his parents had already left.

They had left a note on the table along with a thousand yuan, saying they weren’t sure when they’d be back from the countryside and that he should use the money for meals.

Gu Yifan shook his head with a helpless smile, pocketed the note and the cash, and went to wash up.

6:20 AM.

After washing up, Gu Yifan headed out.

Downstairs, Gu Yifan noticed the weather was nice.

HONK HONK—

Just as he was wondering whether he should ride his bike to school, a car horn suddenly blared behind him.

Gu Yifan paused for a second before it dawned on him. In this day and age, most residential districts hadn’t yet separated pedestrian and vehicle traffic, so it was perfectly normal for cars to be driving through.

Thinking he was in the way, he moved closer to the landscaped strip along the side.

To his surprise, the car pulled up beside him and came to a slow stop. The window rolled down, revealing the lightly made-up face of a beautiful, mature-looking young woman.

"Morning, Yifan!" the young woman smiled.

"Uh... Good morning, Aunt Qing," Gu Yifan snapped out of his daze and replied politely.

That’s right.

This beautiful, mature young woman was none other than Han Ning’s mother—Ye Wanqing!

...