Chapter 169: Your Daughter

Bai Ran wasn't necessarily all that fond of Bao Sihan; it was more that Bao Sihan was extremely cold toward her.

Although he was polite enough, there was a distance to it, an indifference that didn't even register her as worth noticing.

The more Bao Sihan acted this way, the more it made Bai Ran want to know—where was she inferior to Gu Wenyan? Perhaps this was the arrogance of a Bai family daughter who had been pampered since childhood.

Bai Ran naturally believed she was bathed in glory, the center of any crowd, so she should always be the one everyone focused on.

But Bao Sihan's coldness toward her stirred her competitive spirit, and now her view of him had begun to change.

Bao Mu wanted exactly this kind of feeling from Bai Ran—if Bai Ran could grow interested in Bao Sihan and make a move, then Gu Wenyan would be forced to back away in the face of difficulty…

Then she wouldn't have to keep being dissatisfied with her son bringing home a daughter-in-law she didn't like.

For all these reasons, at this very moment they had made the same choice.

Bao Sihan didn't yet know what his mother was thinking, and he hadn't even bothered to notice Bai Ran.

Gu Family.

The atmosphere these past few days had been very delicate. Ever since Gu Mianmian had lost face at the company and lost the collaboration with Bai Shi Group, she could no longer strut around showing off the way she used to.

She didn't dare act smug in front of Gu Wenyan; instead she grew more and more silent, shutting herself alone in her room, unwilling to go out and see anyone.

That pitiful look of hers actually made the family quite worried about her.

Wang Ma in particular kept telling Gu Fu and Gu Mu how pitiful and remorseful Gu Mianmian was, selling her misery for her, which led them to worry now that she might develop all sorts of psychological problems because of this failed collaboration with Bai Shi Group.

She had already claimed not long ago that her mental state wasn't good, and now it looked like the same issue was about to resurface, so her parents were very worried and offered her every kind of comfort and care.

At times like these, Gu Mianmian would only put on an even more pitiful act in front of them, pretending she was on the verge of breaking under the pressure and about to take her own life.

Gu Wenyan watched all this coldly. In this house, however, she was perfectly at ease—every day after coming home she would sit on the living room sofa watching a movie, with a cup of coffee she had brewed herself beside her, its fragrance filling the air. Very pleasant.

Her parents couldn't say anything to Gu Wenyan either—after all, this matter had nothing to do with her in the first place, and besides, Gu Wenyan was the key contributor who had made the collaboration between Gu Group and Bai Shi Group possible.

They certainly couldn't criticize Gu Wenyan for being too cold at a time like this.

Gu Yeting came home from outside that evening, and his mother walked up to him and said, "You should go talk to your sister too, tell her not to blame herself so much. About what happened before… she certainly didn't want that to happen either."

"If this keeps up, is she going to lock herself in her room forever?"

Yet after hearing his mother's words, Gu Yeting—who had always cared most about Gu Mianmian—was unusually cold this time.

"No one is blaming her. If she wants to lock herself away, what can we do? Let her think it through on her own. Once she figures it out, she won't keep hiding in the house."

"You… you're her brother, you should at least…"

Gu Yeting smiled lazily. "I'm her brother, but that doesn't mean every single thing she does needs me to step in."

Gu Yeting's attitude was very direct and firm. This time, he had already seen through the fact that everything Gu Mianmian was doing wasn't genuine remorse or sadness.

It was simply a way to use this method to win everyone's sympathy and pity.

Once he saw through Gu Mianmian's intentions, what she did could no longer fool him.

Now, whenever Gu Yeting looked back on his own past foolishness, he found it laughable.

Back then… how could he have been so blind? He hadn't seen a single thing wrong with her, but now… every little thing seemed full of holes.

His mother could only sigh and try to find Gu Yefeng to talk to her instead. But Gu Second Young Master had recently been absorbed in a few new calligraphy pieces in his collection, and after hearing about the matter, his view turned out to be remarkably in line with Gu Yeting's.

"This is just a small setback. It's time she learned to grow up on her own. We can't solve everything for her. Are we supposed to keep looking after her like this forever?"

"But…"

Gu Yefeng said coolly, "Mom, you spoil her too much sometimes. If you have the energy, you'd be better off going out shopping with Wen Yan. The weather's been nice lately—getting some sun would do you good."

With neither of the two younger sons willing to go talk to her, all that was left was to find the eldest son.

As the eldest brother in the family, Gu Yechen had always been the one entrusted with heavy responsibilities. Their parents often told him he had to take good care of his sister.

It could be said that from a very young age, Gu Yechen had carried this belief: Gu Mianmian was his very important sister, and whether she was his by blood or not, he had to dote on her and protect her unconditionally.

This notion had long since taken root in his heart, so even though Gu Yechen now understood that Gu Mianmian wasn't his biological sister, and understood her true nature, and knew his kindness toward her shouldn't be unconditional… he could only go along with it anyway.

It was also after Gu Yechen's persuasion that Gu Mianmian finally came out of her room. Seeing her brothers—and Gu Wenyan—she kept apologizing nonstop.

Gu Mianmian said it was her fault, that she had been far too arrogant and conceited before, and she kept reflecting on herself, saying she would absolutely never make the same mistake again.

Gu Wenyan had no interest whatsoever in what Gu Mianmian was saying and kept staring at the projection screen.

Wang Ma also suddenly spoke up at that moment: "Mianmian, no one in this family blames you. You're a member of this family. A small mistake is just a small mistake—let it go, why keep it in your heart?"

Gu Wenyan, hearing Wang Ma say this, couldn't help but curl her lips. "You really do care about her so much. Anyone who didn't know would really think… she's your daughter. Otherwise, how could you care about every little thing like this?"

Gu Wenyan had only mentioned it in passing, but a dark shadow flashed through both their eyes at once, vanishing in an instant, unnoticed by anyone else.

Wang Ma also tried to defend herself: "I've been in this family for so many years. I watched all these children grow up. Naturally I treat them all like my own sons and daughters…"

"Really? Then in all these years, Wang Ma, you never had a child of your own? You seem to like children so much—why not have one yourself?"

Gu Wenyan suddenly brought up such a sensitive topic, and the young masters of the Gu family were all a little puzzled as to why she was asking this.

Gu Mianmian began to panic—she couldn't let this continue—and hurriedly cut Gu Wenyan off: "Sister, please stop asking Wang Ma about these things… don't poke at her wound."