Chapter 18
Qi Baizi had figured it out: Gu Yuetong saw her as a child. She wasn’t annoyed that she had actually overstepped, nor did she think she was being a know-it-all trying to be brave. Rather, she genuinely thought she was just a child, just like the store manager had said—and that made Qi Baizi very, very unhappy.
So, when she had warned her that Huo Bu wasn’t a good person, had that also been dismissed as a child’s fantasy? No wonder Gu Yuetong still went to have dinner with Huo Bu afterward. For the first time, she showed a resentful attitude in front of Gu Yuetong, turning her head to avoid Gu Yuetong’s hand when she tried to smooth her hair.
Gu Yuetong’s hand froze in mid-air. After a pause, she withdrew it and sat back in her original seat. She looked at Qi Baizi with a smile. “Are you angry?”
Qi Baizi said she wasn’t.
Gu Yuetong let out a slow breath. “I just want to protect you.”
Qi Baizi felt all the blood in her body surge, rushing to her forehead. Her hands and feet grew cold as she clenched them together, forcing herself to calm down before she exploded.
“I don’t need anyone’s protection!” After holding it in for a long time, she blurted out such a sentence.
Gu Yuetong was clearly even more amused. She crossed her long legs, folded her arms, and looked at her expectantly. Qi Baizi didn’t know what Gu Yuetong was expecting. Was she expecting her to say more “rebellious” things?
Forcing herself to calm down, Qi Baizi looked up and met Gu Yuetong’s eyes. “President Gu, I want to be involved in your work.”
Gu Yuetong was taken aback. “What?”
“I mean… I don’t want to just assist you on the sidelines. I hope I can help you with your work as well.”
“Although my major isn’t relevant… I can learn. I want to, like I said that day, stand behind you…”
The sentence came out in fits and starts, but Gu Yuetong still heard her clearly.
“I want to stand behind you, accompany you, protect you…”
Gu Yuetong didn’t speak.
Only after saying it did Qi Baizi realize how ambiguous it sounded. She quickly explained, “I mean in a professional capacity.”
Gu Yuetong remained silent. Qi Baizi’s whole body grew hot, and her heart pounded fiercely. The rain was still falling. Looking out the window, the raindrops formed continuous lines, falling fast and hard, almost at the same speed as her blood was flowing.
After a long time, Gu Yuetong stood up. A hint of hesitation flickered in her beautiful eyes, but Qi Baizi’s heart settled. She knew she had agreed.
When she left in the evening, Qi Baizi was driving Gu Yuetong’s luxury car. It was hard to get a taxi in the villa area, and it would take tens of minutes to walk out. It was getting dark, and it had just rained, so Gu Yuetong insisted she take the car. She even suggested that Qi Baizi stay the night at the old fortress to avoid any danger on the road. Qi Baizi didn’t really want to accept either option. The small community where she rented didn’t have any extra parking spaces. In Jingzhou, where every inch of land was precious, parking spaces had to be rented or bought through a lottery system. She could only temporarily park the car in the underground garage of a nearby mall.
There were empty parking spots on the roadside, but Qi Baizi didn’t feel at ease. If the car got scratched in the middle of the night, she wouldn’t be able to explain it. Although the rain had stopped, the road conditions were still not great. Fortunately, after circling out from the first floor of the mall, it was only a few hundred meters to the community where she lived. At this moment, Qi Baizi walked slowly with her hands in her pockets, her heart calm.
Her job was stable, she had time for part-time work, and her money problems were basically solved. All that was left was her uncle and aunt’s situation. She wondered if her cousin, Qi Wu, had managed to persuade them to move. When she had gone for dinner the night before, Qi Baizi had noticed that one of the legs of their living room dining table was cracked. Either her uncle or aunt had casually glued it with 502 Superglue, and it looked wobbly, as if it would fall apart with a single bump. And her cousin Qi Wu’s desk was almost hollowed out by termites. Those termites were very annoying, only appearing during the wet season. By the time you found the free time to deal with them, the termite army would have retreated, leaving behind nothing but holes and wood dust.
Since Qi Wu spent most of her time at school, that desk was no longer of much use. Qi Baizi was worried it would be inconvenient for her aunt and uncle at home and had wanted to help get rid of it, but the mere mention of the word “termites” gave her goosebumps, so she gave up. She was occasionally afraid of bugs, just occasionally. Moving was the best option. Qi Wu was right; living in such an environment was not at all conducive to her aunt’s recovery. Opening the windows would let in a foul smell, but keeping them closed made it perpetually damp. Her uncle’s family had been living in such a house for several years.
Just as she was thinking, her phone suddenly rang. It was a text from Han Zhiyu: Wanna hang out?
Qi Baizi stopped in her tracks and started to type a refusal. Before she could even type the “n” in “no,” Han Zhiyu called her directly, her tone very blunt. “Where are you? I’ll pick you up.”
“I’m not going.”
Han Zhiyu asked, “Why, are you busy?”
“…” Can’t I refuse if I’m not busy?
Qi Baizi was silent for a moment, then said what was on her mind. The person on the other end was clearly stunned. A few seconds later, she heard Han Zhiyu’s low voice. “I’m downstairs at your place.”
Qi Baizi quickened her pace across the street. “You… I’m not back yet.”
“Mm, I’ll wait for you,” Han Zhiyu said. “I’m here today on official orders to get close to you.”
Qi Baizi couldn’t help but roll her eyes inwardly as she walked. “Gu Hezhu?”
“Come here first. We’ll talk in the car.”
After hanging up, Qi Baizi jogged all the way. When she reached her building, she indeed saw Han Zhiyu’s car. Her expression was calm, but she felt a little annoyed. The slight breeze as she ran had brought a bit of coolness, but the moment she stopped, she felt hot again. Fortunately, the air conditioning in Han Zhiyu’s car was on full blast, and the sweat that had broken out quickly dried.
“Is Gu Hezhu mentally unstable?”
Having been repeatedly harassed by Gu Hezhu, Qi Baizi didn’t give Han Zhiyu a pleasant look either, cursing her along with her. “How much did she pay you to make you do these crappy things every few days?”
Han Zhiyu smiled and said, “Two apartments in downtown Jingzhou.”
Qi Baizi was stunned for a moment, then couldn’t help but let out a cold sneer.
“To ensure President Gu’s social life is within her control, she’s really willing to spend a fortune.”
Han Zhiyu was silent for a moment. “I know about your conversation that day. I’m sorry, I hid some things at the beginning.”
“Are you saying you’ve been Gu Hezhu’s person all along?”
Han Zhiyu tacitly agreed.
“And she even asked you to seduce me to prevent me from having any ideas about her precious daughter.”
Qi Baizi was a straightforward engineering student, not because of a stereotype, but because her straightforward brain was precisely why she had chosen this major in engineering in the first place. Gu Hezhu and Han Zhiyu, these people were too full of twists and turns. She didn’t want to deal with them. But since Gu Hezhu had already targeted her, she couldn’t expect Gu Yuetong to come to her rescue every time. Gu Yuetong herself was covered in fleas and couldn’t even hide from them.
She thought of Wang Lin again. The Wang Lin who had demanded money from Gu Yuetong backstage at the calligraphy competition. A sudden thought occurred to Qi Baizi: could she also have been arranged by Gu Hezhu…? Han Zhiyu gave a negative answer. “Gu Hezhu is as wary of Wang Lin as she is of a flood. She knows Wang Lin won’t be used by her.”
“Do you know why she chased you all the way to Donglin on your last business trip?”
“Why?”
Han Zhiyu sneered. “Because she found out that Wang Lin also happened to be in Donglin. She thought Gu Yuetong would get entangled with Wang Lin again, so she chased after you to check up on her.”
Qi Baizi suddenly understood. So that was it. She had almost taken the blame. “So, Gu Hezhu not only has people around her daughter, but she also has people monitoring her daughter’s ex-girlfriend?”
Han Zhiyu drew out a long “mm.”
Qi Baizi became alert. “Then you?”
Han Zhiyu grunted another “mm.”
“She’s really a lunatic,” Qi Baizi cursed. “Wait, did Gu Hezhu also teach you to tell me all this?”
Han Zhiyu smiled. “How could that be? I’m also very resistant to being monitored by her.”
As she spoke, Han Zhiyu pulled down the sun visor and touched up her makeup in the mirror.
“A friend of mine just opened a new bar on East City Street. Want to go have some fun?”
“I can’t drink.”
Qi Baizi’s face was as black as charcoal. All she wanted to do now was go back to her low-rent apartment and curl up in bed, preferably with the curtains drawn. She felt like countless pairs of eyes were staring at her.
“They have juice,” Han Zhiyu said, closing her lipstick with a smile. “Don’t worry, I’ve confessed everything to you. I definitely won’t do anything to you.”
“Why should I trust you?”
Qi Baizi got out of the car as she spoke. “Please tell Gu Hezhu that if I find out she’s monitoring me, I will definitely report it to the police. No amount of money will make me submit.”
Staring at the slammed car door, Han Zhiyu was stunned for a moment, then let out a cold laugh. After leaving Qi Baizi’s building, Han Zhiyu drove home. As she was taking the elevator, she felt an inexplicable chill down her back. When she turned into the hallway, she found a man standing at her door.
Han Zhiyu’s hair stood on end. She held up her phone and took a few steps back.
“How did you get here?”
When the man saw Han Zhiyu, he let out an extremely exaggerated “Aiyo!” “I finally found you, Xiao Yu!”
“Get out of here, you’re not welcome!”
The man was taken aback, then scoffed and said in a local dialect, “I’m your father, there’s no such thing as welcome or not. Isn’t what’s yours mine? It’s scorching hot in Jingzhou. Hurry up and open the door, let your old man in to cool off.”
“You…” Han Zhiyu was trembling all over, about to say more. The neighbor across the hall suddenly opened their door a crack and glanced over, their eyes full of meaning. Han Zhiyu clenched her fists and had no choice but to swipe her key card and let Han Zheng into the house.
She cleared out a room and told Han Zheng to stay for one night and leave the next day. Han Zheng had traveled all the way from his hometown to Jingzhou, going to the police station and the community center, and had finally managed to find out Han Zhiyu’s address. How could he leave so easily?
Han Zhiyu was on the verge of a breakdown. “What were you doing at the police station and the community center?”
“Looking for you, of course.” Han Zheng sat cross-legged on the sofa without taking off his shoes and socks. “I even went to your company. That little brat at the front desk who doesn’t know what’s good for her wouldn’t tell me, saying something about personal privacy and telling me to contact you directly. What a load of crap! If I could contact you, why would I go to your company!”
“Luckily, the comrades at the police station told me which community you live in. I told them you were missing, but they didn’t believe me. Then I said if I couldn’t find you, I’d just live at the police station, and only then did they tell me.”
“Then I took out our old household registration book and went to the community center to ask, and they directly told me which building and floor you live on.”
“You want to hide from me, pah!” Han Zheng spat, getting more and more agitated. “Not unless I’m dead!”