Chapter 13: Taking the Initiative in Love

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Chapter 13: Taking the Initiative in Love

After changing trains and boarding the plane, Gao Yun’s emotions remained tangled throughout the journey.

Fortunately, his powerful biological clock allowed him to spend most of the trip catching up on sleep.

At ten in the morning, the plane arrived at Hangzhou Airport. Perhaps because he had slept so well, Gao Yun was feeling considerably more refreshed.

When he walked out of the airport, a fine drizzle was falling. Threads of rain drifted gently through the air, lingering softly against his skin with a cool, refreshing dampness.

“Let nature take its course.”

Gao Yun took a deep breath and calmed himself before calling Daria to confirm her address. Ten minutes later, carrying two bottles of sparkling wine he had bought at the duty-free shop, he arrived outside the apartment she had rented.

One should never come to a date empty-handed. Even if the other person did not ask for anything—or even refused it—one should still bring a small gift.

That was something Gao Yun had learned from Daria.

He removed the black band from his wrist. Given the limited circumstances, all he could do was tie his rain-dampened hair into a ponytail. He was using his phone’s front-facing camera as a mirror, checking himself for anything out of place, when the door suddenly opened.

“Hahaha! What are you doing?”

Daria was wearing a black lace nightdress, her long, straight legs fully exposed. Her carefully made-up face was beautiful and radiant with amusement.

Gao Yun calmly slipped his phone into his pocket. “Reporting to Comrade Angel: your soldier is tidying his uniform.”

“Mmm-hmm. And when will he be ready for battle?”

Gao Yun’s expression turned solemn. He raised his hand and gave a sharp salute.

“Ready at all times!”

…

After a fierce battle, Daria was defeated. The two of them lay on the bed, embracing one another as they talked about their recent lives.

Daria was a foreign model contracted to Dragon Eye, the top modeling agency in the country. The company was highly professional, and there were relatively few sordid complications, but the pressure was immense and the work exhausting. Its models had to travel to cities all across China.

In the nearly year since their breakup, she had visited thirteen cities, large and small, throughout the country. There were many places even Gao Yun had never been.

Her latest assignment had been to stay in Hangzhou for a week and participate in the city’s annual international fashion exhibition. She would be paid forty thousand yuan for a single show.

Unexpectedly, however, she had been caught up in the current upheaval. All her previous work arrangements had been canceled, and Daria had been forced to remain there for more than two months.

“I originally thought things would return to normal soon.”

Daria poured out her grievances. “But more than seventy days have passed, and I haven’t earned a cent. Now I owe nearly one hundred thousand yuan on my credit card. The worst part is that I have no idea when this will end. I’m even beginning to wonder whether I’m going to lose my job.”

“Heh.”

Gao Yun gave a cold laugh and looked around the bedroom. Bottles of every kind of alcohol were scattered everywhere—the windowsill, beneath the bed, on top of the cabinets.

“Did you spend all your credit-card money on alcohol?”

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Daria pulled a pack of women’s cigarettes from beneath the pillow. She took out the last one, swore in Russian, and flung the empty packet away. Then she lit the cigarette with an expensive-looking lighter and inhaled deeply before blowing the smoke directly into Gao Yun’s face.

When he frowned, Daria leaned closer and gave him a malicious smile.

“Alcohol, cigarettes, video games, expensive clothes, handbags, cosmetics, and even more expensive skincare products.”

Staying up until the small hours while applying the most expensive facial masks.

That saying described Daria perfectly.

She smoked, drank, kept irregular hours, spent money without restraint, never knew how to save, had no long-term goals, and cared only about what was in front of her.

She was still the same. Nothing had changed, Gao Yun thought silently.

But who in this world was perfect? If not for this unexpected disaster, the amount he owed on his credit card would have been even greater than Daria’s.

The causes were different, but the result was the same. There was nothing wrong with wanting to make money, but was it really wise to use overdrawn credit-card funds to speculate in futures?

Everyone had flaws. If you thought someone was perfect and absolutely compatible with you, it only meant that you did not know her well enough, or that you had not spent enough time together.

Just as no two leaves in the world bore exactly the same pattern, there was no pair of soul mates who were perfectly suited to one another.

Many people could not accept that fact during the first half of their lives, only to resign themselves to accepting it during the second half. The key was to seek common ground while preserving differences.

“So why exactly did you come to see me this time?”

Daria opened the sparkling wine Gao Yun had brought and placed on the bedside table. She poured it into two glasses, handed one to him, and began drinking from the other.

“Did you come to see how miserable I am now, then show off how much money you’ve made lately and make me regret breaking up with you?”

Something else seemed to occur to Daria, and her expression suddenly cleared.

“Or did you simply come here to sleep with me?”

Gao Yun cast her a sidelong glance and took a sip of the sparkling wine. It was peach-flavored and surprisingly sweet. He wondered why it could not sweeten this woman’s foul mouth as well.

“I don’t know. I don’t even know why I came. But one thing is certain: I traveled fifteen hundred kilometers, not to listen to you spout this nonsense and insult me.”

Daria put her arms around his neck and asked with a beaming smile, “Then what did you come here for?”

“…”

“Why did you come to see me? Tell me!” After waiting for half a minute, Daria shook him by the neck, laughing angrily. “Hurry up! Are you trying to drive me crazy?”

“Wasn’t it you who messaged me saying you missed me? And now you’re asking why I came?”

Gao Yun’s question left Daria momentarily stunned. Then she resorted to the privilege women everywhere possessed: playing dumb.

“Did I say that? I don’t remember.” Her tone was utterly confident. “All I know is that you were the one who took the initiative and traveled fifteen hundred kilometers from Huludao to Hangzhou to see me. So why did you come to see me? We’re already broken up! What are you trying to do? Ask me to get back together with you?”

Gao Yun took another sip of wine and watched her pretend to be innocent, too lazy to respond.

If I’m the one who brings up getting back together today, then I’m nothing but a pathetic little brother. You were the one who suffered setbacks and became lonely, helpless, empty, and miserable. I came all this way to warm your bed—that’s already more than generous.

And you still expect me to be the one to ask for reconciliation?

Dream on!

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“Actually, I came to study a foreign language. I’ve felt lately that my Russian has gotten a little rusty, so I wanted to practice with you.”

Gao Yun wore an earnest expression. He really did want to improve his Russian, after all. The system paid him for studying. Raising his Russian from intermediate to advanced would even earn him five million yuan.

“I’ll screw you to death!”

“You’re nothing but human garbage!”

“You worthless piece of trash!”

“You pathetic coward!”

Daria was nearly driven into a rage-induced faint. A string of Russian curses poured from her mouth.

“Study, you idiot! Get lost! You’re not welcome here!”

Gao Yun refused to be outdone and answered in Russian. Before long, their verbal argument once again escalated into a physical struggle.

From day until night, they fought several fierce battles. Gao Yun displayed overwhelming might while Daria retreated step by step.

In the end, under Gao Yun’s physical coercion, Daria had no choice but to sob and shout in both Chinese and Russian, “Let’s get back together!” Only then was she spared.

In a relationship, the man must always occupy the leading position. Although men generally tolerated and respected women, behaving like the weaker party, they had to seize the initiative when it came to serious matters.

It might seem unimportant which partner was the first to suggest getting back together, but the question involved who was active and who was passive.

The person who proposed reconciliation first was inevitably the one who wanted the relationship more—the weaker party. The one being wanted was naturally the stronger party.

At the beginning, Daria had sent a message expressing that she missed him, placing herself in the passive position.

Then Gao Yun had flown from home to Hangzhou to see her, reversing the situation and making himself the passive party. If he had also been the one to ask for reconciliation, he would have made himself even weaker, and their future relationship would certainly have been uncomfortable.

People—women in particular—were naturally inclined to push their advantage further. It had nothing to do with whether they were good or evil. That was simply human nature.

Provided you possessed sufficient value of your own, the more you made the other person work for you, the more they would invest. The more exhausted they became, the greater your advantage would be, and the more firmly you would hold the initiative.

Do not be afraid of displeasing your partner. Love was made of highs and lows, rises and falls. One had to make the other person experience both love and resentment. A master of romance brought their partner equal measures of happiness and pain.

If a boy constantly thought of the girl’s needs, served her as though she were royalty, agreed whenever she spoke, and followed wherever she led, then he would not be far from being abandoned.

When the man led and the woman followed, the outcome would generally be better.

Gao Yun had made this mistake in his first two relationships, especially his first love. That was why neither relationship had lasted very long.

Afterward, he had reflected deeply on the matter. He never again bent over backward to please the other person. Not only did it feel far better, but his relationships lasted longer as well.

End of Chapter