Chapter 388 — Wishes of Old

"Unintentional? Who do you think you're fooling?" Gu Mengyao's eyes went wide. "There was a lock on that box. If you didn't open it, how could you have seen anything inside?"

"Huh?!" Wei Zhao's eyes went wide as well. He stared at Gu Mengyao. "The box? You're talking about the box?"

"If not the box, then what did you think I meant?" Gu Mengyao was thoroughly displeased with Wei Zhao's playing dumb.

"I thought... I thought you meant I'd seen your legs..." Wei Zhao said, sweating.

"My legs?" Gu Mengyao's face flushed red. "Don't change the subject. That was an accident. What I'm asking is why you broke the lock on the box. Don't you know it's deeply immoral to snoop through someone else's private things?"

Had it been anyone else, Gu Mengyao might have wondered whether the lock had been broken by someone else. But with Wei Zhao, she had seen him casually wrench open the iron bars of the storage room in the villa's back courtyard to rescue Shen Yushu. To a man like that, snapping a little lock was effortless.

Not the legs, then? Then everything was fine! Wei Zhao let out a long breath. It seemed Gu Mengyao wasn't going after him for what had happened before, and his heart eased at once. As for this business about the lock on the box, he hadn't taken it to heart at all. "I didn't break that lock. It had rotted away from years of corrosion. The box opens on its own..."

"Really?" Gu Mengyao was taken aback by his explanation.

"Really... Go and see for yourself if you don't believe me," Wei Zhao said with a bitter smile.

"Huh?" Hearing Wei Zhao's explanation, Gu Mengyao felt a sudden flutter of panic. There was no reason for him to lie to her. After all, this was the sort of thing anyone could verify with a single glance outside.

Before Gu Mengyao could say another word, Shen Yushu had already dashed out. A short while later she came running back, a broken little lock in her hand, and said to Gu Mengyao, "Yao-yao, look — the lock really did corrode. Brother Arrowhead didn't do it. I told you before, Brother Arrowhead isn't that kind of person!"

"Xiaoshu! Whose side are you on?" Gu Mengyao's temper flared at Shen Yushu's words. "You found it, so why didn't you hide it? Destroy the evidence!"

"Oh? So should I throw it away now?" Shen Yushu asked meekly.

Gu Mengyao was beside herself with anger, but the moment the words left her mouth she realized Wei Zhao was still standing right there. Her face flushed red. "I was just saying whatever came to mind! Come on, let's go upstairs!"

"Uh, all right..." Shen Yushu nodded, flashed Wei Zhao a grin, and went back upstairs with Gu Mengyao.

Wei Zhao was left utterly bewildered. The criticism session was over just like that? The young lady wasn't going to give him any more trouble? He hadn't expected the whole affair to blow over so easily. It really was a surprise!

"Xiaoshu, you made me lose face completely! You brainless girl, tell me — were you deliberately helping Wei Zhao?" Gu Mengyao was furious. After all that back and forth, it had somehow become her fault. She wanted to give Wei Zhao a piece of her mind, yet she simply couldn't bring herself to open her mouth.

"No, I was just telling the truth..." Shen Yushu said innocently. "Yao-yao, don't you want me to lie? When we were little, didn't you always scold me and say that lying is what bad children do..."

"..." Hearing Shen Yushu steer the conversation elsewhere, Gu Mengyao waved her hand helplessly. "Never mind. Upstairs we go!"

"Okay! I still want to see what wishes we wrote when we were little... I've forgotten all about them!" Shen Yushu, practically dancing with joy, raced up the stairs...

"These two little brocade pouches — which one is yours?" Gu Mengyao looked at the two pouches in her hand, unable to tell them apart. It had been far too many years; otherwise she wouldn't have forgotten where they had buried them.

"I don't know. Let's each open one, since we wrote them so long ago. It's a good chance to see what we wished for back then," Shen Yushu said.

"All right, then..." Gu Mengyao hesitated a moment, then nodded. Though she was reluctant to let Shen Yushu learn her secret — this girl was hardly reliable. Who knew if she'd have it spread to Wei Zhao's ears the moment she learned it? That would be mortifying.

But then she thought: it had all happened so long ago, and she herself had forgotten what she'd wished for back then. Even if Wei Zhao found out, it was nothing but a childhood fancy. It didn't matter.

So Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu each took a pouch and began to open it. The pouches had been sewn shut with fine thread — the two of them must have been quite meticulous back then. Now, though, neither had the patience to unpick the stitching thread by thread. Shen Yushu, long since unable to wait, simply grabbed a pair of scissors, snipped through the fine thread, and opened her pouch.

"Hehe, I opened it first — let's see whose wish this is!" Shen Yushu said with a smile as she unfolded the wish slip inside. The paper had yellowed somewhat, and the handwriting on it was quite faded, yet it remained perfectly legible: "My wish is to live together with Xiaoshu my whole life, happy and joyful forever..."

This wish slip had clearly been written by Gu Mengyao. Gu Mengyao listened in astonishment as Shen Yushu read the contents aloud — she never would have imagined that when she was little, she and Xiaoshu had already been this close.

"Yao-Yao, I'm so touched..." Though Shen Yushu was usually brash and carefree, seeing the words on this slip now, she could not help but be moved. Her eyes reddened and tears threatened to fall.

"Hmph, only now do you realize how good I've been to you?" Gu Mengyao took the scissors and opened the brocade pouch in her hand. Needless to say, this pouch had to be Shen Yushu's: "My wish is to marry Yao-Yao and be with her my whole life... Huh?!"

After reading the words on the slip, Gu Mengyao could not help but stare wide-eyed. Shen Yushu wanted to marry her? Could something be wrong with her head — did she have lesbian tendencies?

"Uh?" Shen Yushu was likewise stunned, never expecting her own wish to be so full of punch: "Yao-Yao, could it be that we were a couple of lesbians back then? Otherwise, why are our wishes so similar?"

"Lesbian my foot!" Gu Mengyao said, speechless. "What do you mean, similar? They're worlds apart! If anyone's the lesbian, it's you — not me! What I wrote was that I wanted to live with you — sisters can live together too! But look at what you wrote — you wanted to marry me. You're the one with the problem!"

"Uh? No way, right?" Shen Yushu thought it over carefully, and indeed that was how it seemed. Could she really have had some abnormal tendency in the past? But she did not remember any of it... Did she not like men? It seemed she did like them... When Arrow-Brand Brother kissed her and touched her boobs, she had felt her heart flutter...