The Story of Gossip Girl Chapter 23

An Yuesheng wanted to see Feng Ping again, but unfortunately he didn't have any way to contact her and the gossip magazines didn't have much information about her either. Her low-key attitude was actually somewhat out of his expectations. Usually speaking, when a poor person grabs a hold of a rich CEO, they would usually try to leech some of that limelight and become haughty, not to mention for someone like her who achieved such astounding results. Of course, her caution was correct as well since she hadn't actually married into the Tang family yet.—He thought that he knew her very well and understood her plans.

Recently, the paparazzi was frantically trying to find out Feng Ping's identity, and the more unsuccessful they were, the more smug and self-satisfied he was, because she was once his. Her gestures, her thinking, these were all things he had once paid close attention to, so it was like he had a secret that no one else knew. He felt very happy, only regretting that he didn't try to understand her even better at that time so that he could know more.

The reason he wanted to meet her was partly because of his own feelings but also partly because of his curiosity. He was very interested about her experiences these past few years, and he couldn't sit still. A few days later, he picked out a bouquet of flowers and sent it to the Tang family house. In it was a card with his contact information and a few sentences, expressing thanks about the Ming dynasty vase again. He vainly thought that this excuse was quite fitting and that she would definitely call him when she received it. However, he did not expect that Feng Ping went to Yi Eryang's to work that day and stayed out until late. In the end, those flowers ended up in Tang Jianan's hands, who took one glance and laughed, thinking that this Vice Chairman An was too polite, not thinking too much of it.

Every year, Beicheng would have many business parties as the year came to a close, so Yi Eryang naturally had to prepare some dresses for Feng Ping. He also took the opportunity to try to persuade her to show up to events some more. Feng Ping scoffed, speaking evilly, “Great designer Yi, do you know how many people are giving me dresses for free?”

Yi Eryang stared at her, “I'm not just giving you dresses, I'm also giving money.”

Feng Ping laughed, “Forget it, I haven't even seen anything.”

Yi Eryang laughed as well, pointing at the high-quality fabrics and the two half-finished dresses in the room, speaking, “Are these not considered money? Exactly how expensive these fabrics are, you are clearer than anyone. It's a sin to lock them in the closet…”

Through Tang Jianan's teachings, Feng Ping had long heard of Yi Eryang's infamous miserliness during his school days, so she did not bother to argue with him any further. Raising her wrist to check the time, she spoke, “It's getting late, I should head home.”

Yi Eryang: “Give me another half hour, I will drive you.”

Feng Ping: “It's alright, I'll just call a taxi.”

Hearing this, Yi Eryang had a suspicious look on his face, eventually voicing his question, “Why don't you just buy a car? Ah Nan wouldn't be…”

He wasn't able to finish his sentence before Feng Ping began to laugh, “He actually did give me a car, I just didn't drive it out.”

“Why?” Yi Eryang didn't understand.

“It's not like I'm in a rush.” Feng Ping smiled.

“You don't even have a cell phone…” Yi Eryang finally found an opportunity to ask the question that's always been on his mind.

“I think that people should keep an appropriate distance from each other. Nowadays, technology for communication is so advanced, even if I don't have a cell phone, weren't you still able to find me…” Feng Ping smiled.

“This is the era of messaging, you will miss a lot of opportunities because of this.”

“There are pros and cons to everything, it just depends on which angle you look at it from. I actually want to live a life like the ancient peoples. Nowadays, everything is able to be obtained so easily, even happiness comes at a discount. Plus, you also know,” She suddenly lowered her voice, blinking craftily, “for someone like me, there are many people who want to ask for my phone number. If I don't give it, I might offend them, so I might as well just not have one at all to eliminate anything troublesome!”

Yi Eryang laughed loudly, “Who is so dumb that they would dare to have any thoughts about you?”

The underlying message was actually who had enough wealth and power to surpass the Tang family.

Hehe, for a woman who was born in an ordinary family, the best scenario would also be for her to give her love to an ordinary man as well. That way, no one would be able to criticize anything. The moment she gives it to a rich man, then her love was severely discounted, people would constantly discuss whether she truly loved that rich man and there would always be some people that believe she had some other motives.

Of course, Feng Ping was not a woman from an ordinary family and she also did not deeply love Tang Jianan. Thus, she could only smile as if nothing happened and grabbed her jacket from the coat rack, organizing her clothes before bidding goodbye to Yi Eryang.

It was only 4 PM, in another half hour, the traffic in this city would be unbearable. Tens of thousands of people would crawl out from all corners of the city, bring it to a deadlock, so calling for a cab would be very difficult.

Feng Ping exited the office building and waited by the road for a while. When she didn't see any empty cabs pass by, she started walking towards the station on the other side of the street. If she had a cell phone, she could just call the chauffeur to pick her up, but ever since she threw away her cell phone three years ago and left An Yuesheng, she did not use it ever again.

After leaving An Yuesheng, she embarked on a very lonely journey. She traveled to many different places, met many people, and saw a lot of different things, but she was never able to achieve peace within her. She once thought that if she loved humbly and gave respect, then An Yuesheng would definitely be hers, but reality told her that love and  character qualities had nothing in common.

He was not a bad person and neither was she. But so what if they were both good people? It was not set in stone that they would stay together, love would not favor you just because you were young, beautiful, and rich.

That's right, An Yuesheng really did love money and himself more, but that wasn't something to blame him about. Most people in this world were chasing after wealth, it was the norm and understandable. If she had to blame anyone, she could only blame herself; she shouldn't have hid her identity when she was dating him.

Actually, it was not necessarily a bad thing for love to happen due to money, because not all love that came from money was insincere. What she lacked was love, not money. Even though she did try to tell him her identity towards the end, she didn't know if it was because her method was wrong or if her timing was wrong or some other reason, but she always seemed to overreach. Before she could even expand on the topic, he would already be very impatient.

Later, she slowly realized that they had already walked into a dead end, there was no more road left in front of them to walk on. If she were to reveal her identity, then it would be equivalent to slapping him in the face. Just based on his male ego, they were no longer possible.

Even more later, during one of her sleepless nights when she was traveling, at an old inn in a small town, she was reading a novel under the hazy, yellow light. There was a sentence that caused tears to well up in her eyes.

The sentence went like this.

“I know you're stupid, frivolous, and empty-headed, but I still love you. I know your motives, your thoughts, how you're selfish and vulgar, but I still love you. I know you're a second-rate human being, but I still love you.”

She knew that An Yuesheng was not good enough for her, but she still loved him. That was the first time she loved someone, and she dived in headfirst, loving him so much, not caring about the methods or the means, it was hard for it to have a happy ending. At that time, she was too young and did not know that the methods of loving someone were sometimes more important than love itself. If she had the chance to do it all over again, she would definitely do better but there was no practice run in life.

At the intersection, she waited for the light while her thoughts were in turmoil. Only when the green pedestrian light was halfway through, did she come back to her senses and frantically ran across. Before she could stand steady, there was a sudden whooshing sound coming from her side and a car came rushing by, frightening her into taking a few steps back.

Who know that that car would actually stop right in front of her, the dark windows rolled down to reveal a handsome face, smiling at her, “Get in, I'll take you.”

Feng Ping never expected that she would meet Tang Zhan and she was stunned into standing still. He opened the door, smiling as he reminded her, “It's inconvenient to park here.”

Feng Ping's mind still hadn't caught up with what was going on but her two legs had already made the decision for her. Tang Zhan stood up to scoot to the seat inside and she sat in the spot he just vacated. The chauffeur quickly started the car and began to drive.

Although he said he was giving her a ride, he didn't ask her where she was going, instead asking, “Why didn't you drive?” He had a casual attitude, his hands folded against his chest. Even the crinkles of his eyes were emitting a warm aura.

Feng Ping did not know why she always felt unsettled whenever she saw him. To prevent the conversation from extending for too long, she decided to lie, giving a faint smile, “I don't know how to drive.”

Tang Zhan did not expect this answer and was momentarily stunned, “That's alright too. If you knew how to drive, then you wouldn't be sitting here.” Finished, he began to laugh as if nothing happened, his attitude still as carefree as before. Feng Ping felt somewhat embarrassed and her cheeks heated up. Even so, she still couldn't help but glance at him from the side only to see him looking at her as well. His face carried hints of laughter, the corners of his eyes had faint wrinkles, but it did not detract from his charm.

His eyes were like a deep well, sucking people in.

Feng Ping took a glance and immediately turned her head away to look forward, her heart pounding. It was extremely quiet in the car, she wondered if he could hear her heartbeat and became embarrassed again.

He spoke, “Feng Ping, if you don't have anything urgent, shall we have dinner? I have something I want to talk to you about.” Even though it was phrased as a question, the tone of voice was very commanding.

Feng Ping secretly inhaled, forcing herself to look calm, “Sorry Mr. Tang, I still have some matters to attend to.”

Tang Zhan's face changed.

In the past twenty years, he had never been rejected, no matter if it's a man or a woman.

He hurriedly laughed again, “Then, can you give me your cell phone number? We can reschedule for some other time.”

Feng Ping felt a little awkward when she heard this but she could only speak truthfully, “I don't have a cell phone.” Finished, she didn't dare to look at him, not only feeling ashamed on his behalf but feeling more ashamed for herself, even her voice became quieter as she spoke as if she did something wrong. Thinking back to the words she spoke to Yi Eryang just now, she was really ashamed.

She didn't look at Tang Zhan so she didn't know what kind of expression he had on. She heard some rustling sounds and soon after, a post-it note appeared in front of her. Tang Zhan's voice was extremely gentle and friendly, “This is my number, if you have time, please call me?”

Feng Ping could not help but secretly praise his attitude, reaching out to stow the paper away.

Forchen's Note: I created a Discord server in case you want to talk about the latest chapters for both TWHIC and also The Story of Gossip Girl! Also, I will be posting any announcements there too (like schedule changes, etc.). Click  to access the invite.

Chapter end