Chapter 43
The first time Qi Baizi’s classmate, roommate, and colleague, Li Yi, came to East Mountain Manor, she was somewhat shocked. She knew from TV shows and novels that the residences of the wealthy were vast and opulent, but seeing it with her own eyes was still breathtaking. She couldn’t help but wonder what she would do with such a large piece of land if it were hers.
Today was her second visit, and that feeling of genuine shock remained.
As evening approached and the sky began to darken, she followed the security guard’s instructions, parked her car in the public parking lot, and walked in carrying her things.
The public parking lot was some distance from Gu Yuetong’s Old Fortress. Her shoulder bag was packed with a laptop and a phone, and she carried a bag in each hand plus a gift box. As she swayed unsteadily towards the fountain in front of the fortress, she saw two figures behind it. The figures were very close, with one head resting on the other’s.
She cautiously moved a little closer to see, and the two figures separated. One of them bent down to tie the other’s shoelace.
A few more steps closer, and she realized the two people were Qi Baizi and Gu Yuetong.
Snap. The strap of the gift box suddenly broke and it fell to the ground. The sudden imbalance in weight almost made Li Yi lose her footing.
Qi Baizi hurried over to help, with Gu Yuetong chasing after her, shouting, “You can’t run, slow down!”
Li Yi wasn’t good at keeping things to herself. Once inside the living room, she found an opportunity to be alone with Qi Baizi and asked directly, “Guess what I just saw?”
Qi Baizi was eating a peach crisp that Li Yi had brought, and she replied absently, “What?”
“I just saw you and Gu Yuetong kissing!”
Qi Baizi sprayed peach crisp all over the floor, her face a mask of astonishment. “What nonsense are you talking about?”
Li Yi scratched her head. “It wasn’t? Right behind the fountain.”
“…Is it possible she was just helping me put in eye drops?”
Li Yi was embarrassed. “Ah… so that’s what it was.”
Kissing, and outside no less. Qi Baizi, sitting opposite Li Yi, gave a bitter smile. Today was the third day since they confirmed their relationship, and the second day since she’d been discharged from the hospital. The time she and Gu Yuetong had spent alone added up to just a few hours. Even when Auntie Qin wasn’t around, Gu Yuetong had never made any untoward moves. Even holding hands was something Qi Baizi only did in her dreams.
Even just sitting close and talking would be nice… Kissing?
As she ate her peach crisp, Qi Baizi thought, I’ll dream about that tonight.
“Ah, it’s just my dirty mind seeing things. My apologies,” Li Yi said, a little embarrassed. “So, how’s your recovery going?”
“What do you think?”
Li Yi leaned forward. Qi Baizi’s forehead was still red and swollen, and the bruised area around it was covered in ointment. It looked more serious than she had described over the phone.
“That Han Zhiyu is really ruthless.”
Although Li Yi wasn’t at the press conference that day, news like this spread like wildfire. Few people in the company didn’t know about it. Coupled with media reports, even though they kindly blurred out the “victim” on the scene, Qi Baizi, and focused on the internal corruption at Gu Corporation, many people were still more interested in gossiping about Han Zhiyu’s on-site assault.
At first, someone had leaked Qi Baizi’s name to the media, but in the afternoon, Gu Yuetong sent Zhou Qin to use a mix of threats and inducements, and even made a personal phone call, to finally have Qi Baizi’s name removed.
“Does your family know?”
“I didn’t tell them.” Qi Baizi lowered her eyes, took out a tissue to wipe her hands, then picked up the peach crisp crumbs from the floor. She turned to Li Yi and asked, “Are you done with your side of things?”
“I guess so, but they said I have to wait a bit for my resignation certificate. It’s the weekend, you know.” Li Yi stuck out her tongue. “Bailing before my probation is over… if this gets written into my file for a background check, I’m afraid no company other than President Gu’s would want me.”
“It’s fine. Worst case, you can get a part-time job at a fried chicken joint,” Qi Baizi joked.
Just as they were talking, Gu Yuetong came down from upstairs, holding a USB drive.
“Thank you for making the trip. For now, you can work from here. There’s a spare guest room upstairs that Auntie Qin has already prepared for you. Of course, if you feel it’s inconvenient, you can go home,” Gu Yuetong said. She was dressed in casual loungewear and slippers. She casually placed the USB drive on the coffee table in front of Li Yi. “This is the information Lawyer Duan has already compiled. Take a good look at it. Xiao Bai has already reviewed it. If I’m not available to appear in court later, I may have to trouble you to make a few trips to the courthouse.”
Li Yi quickly stood up. “Of course, President Gu. It’s no trouble.”
Gu Yuetong hummed in acknowledgment and gestured for her to sit down. “It’s not a workday. No need to be so formal.” She then glanced at Qi Baizi and tilted her chin at her. “Come here for a second.”
Qi Baizi immediately followed her.
They went to the entrance hall. Gu Yuetong stood a meter away from her, arms crossed.
“What did you think of your little run just now?”
Qi Baizi looked her straight in the eye and said bluntly, “Very cool.”
“…?”
Gu Yuetong’s expression turned to one of disdain, then she became serious. “Didn’t the doctor instruct you to use your eye drops frequently, take your medicine on time, and avoid strenuous exercise?”
Qi Baizi replied, looking quite justified, “But you didn’t.”
“I haven’t even settled the score with you for lying about your blindness. Don’t push your luck…”
“Then how do you want to settle the score?” Qi Baizi mimicked Gu Yuetong’s posture, crossing her arms and taking half a step forward. “By faking an injury and fainting again, so I have to give you mouth-to-mouth?”
Gu Yuetong froze, a flash of guilt in her eyes. It wasn’t that she had intentionally come up with that plan this morning. She had genuinely missed the last two steps on the stairs because of menstrual cramps. As for faking the faint… that was definitely a spur-of-the-moment decision.
The result was that she startled Qi Baizi, who had been drinking tea in the living room, causing her to come tumbling over to give Gu Yuetong mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
And then, Gu Yuetong opened her eyes and met that clear gaze. The truth was out.
“I was worried this morning when I saw you weren’t in your room, thinking it would be inconvenient for you to go up and down the stairs. Who knew you had come down by yourself?”
Who knew you were faking your blindness…
“Then why did you fake fainting?”
“…The moment I fell, I saw your slippers in the living room.”
“President Gu is so clever,” Qi Baizi said, looking down at Gu Yuetong with a smile, not a hint of guilt on her face.
She had intended to keep Gu Yuetong and Auntie Qin in the dark for a few more days. After all, they were at the hospital, and if anyone else found out, her feigned illness would be exposed. She thought Gu Yuetong wouldn’t agree to her being discharged, but it turned out to be as simple as her asking.
“Alright, Auntie Qin is almost back from grocery shopping. Go chat with Li Yi.”
Gu Yuetong deliberately put on an impatient expression and turned to slip past Qi Baizi and back to her room.
Once she was no longer face-to-face with Qi Baizi, Gu Yuetong took several deep breaths. It wasn’t until she was upstairs, back in her room with the door closed, that she realized her heart had been beating extremely fast.
That day in the hospital, when she had deliberately pressured Qi Baizi and kissed her on the lips, she had felt no physiological reaction at all. But today… and this wasn’t the first time. Gu Yuetong remembered the morning, when she had feigned fainting and Qi Baizi was about to give her mouth-to-mouth.
At that moment, her heart had been racing too, but she had dismissed it as anger at being deceived by Qi Baizi.
Something was wrong, very wrong.
Gu Yuetong rested her head against the door panel and closed her eyes heavily.
Downstairs, Qi Baizi was still savoring Gu Yuetong’s expression from a moment ago. It wasn’t like she was angered by her roguish behavior, but more like the flustered annoyance of being teased. It was the first time Qi Baizi had seen such a reaction from Gu Yuetong. It seemed that learning some dating techniques was indeed effective. The bravado she had been putting on melted away, and she relaxed. Good, so this works on Gu Yuetong.
Beside her, Li Yi handed her a peeled banana. Qi Baizi came back to her senses and took it, feeling a little embarrassed. “Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me. You don’t have to be so formal. Working here is much more comfortable than being in the office. I’d rather take care of a patient.”
Li Yi spread her hands as she spoke. “If I had known, I would have applied to be an assistant back then. Look, after all this, we’re still colleagues.”
Qi Baizi smiled without saying anything.
Just then, Auntie Qin pushed the door open. Since someone was always home, the glass security door was left open. She returned with two bags of groceries.
“Did you see the news? There’s a super typhoon coming tomorrow morning, a level thirteen. No wonder the food delivery platforms aren’t taking orders. Good thing I made a trip to the supermarket.”
“Jingzhou City hasn’t had a typhoon in ages. The weather this year is so strange,” Li Yi commented as she took a bag of groceries from Auntie Qin’s hands to help her prepare them.
“I’ll help too.” Qi Baizi felt a bit embarrassed and started to get up, but Auntie Qin pressed her back down.
“You should rest, my little ancestor. If Yuetong sees you, she’ll be upset again.”
“She’s upset?” Qi Baizi asked, puzzled.
“I had just parked the car when she sent me an essay-length message, hundreds of words long, all about precautions. She wants me to pay close attention to your condition and supervise you, not allowing you to do any strenuous exercise. Oh, and no cooking either.”
Auntie Qin took out her phone, placed it in front of Qi Baizi, and put on a mock-formal smile, making an exaggerated gesture of putting on a tall hat.
“Comrade Xiao Bai, you have been promoted to the family’s ‘President Bai’.”
Qi Baizi stared at the phone screen. It was just as Auntie Qin had said. Gu Yuetong seemed very angry about her little run earlier, and the tone of her long message was quite harsh.
She forced a few laughs along with Li Yi, then turned and went upstairs.
She knocked on Gu Yuetong’s bedroom door and called out tentatively, “President Gu?”
Gu Yuetong’s reply came from inside: “Come in and talk.”
Gu Yuetong was standing by the window, looking out. Even in the dimming light, she could see a dense, dark mass in the distance—storm clouds being chased by the wind.
It seemed that even without a typhoon, the weather tomorrow wouldn’t be good.
“Is something wrong?”
Qi Baizi stood behind Gu Yuetong, forcing her to turn around. “I saw Auntie Qin came back just now.”
“Yes, she and Li Yi are preparing dinner.”
“You must be tired. You can go back to your room and rest for a bit. We’ll call you when dinner is ready.”
“I’m fine,” Qi Baizi said. “But I heard you’re not very happy.”
“Did Auntie Qin tell you that?” Gu Yuetong forced a smile. “I was just worried about you in the heat of the moment, afraid you wouldn’t recover well.”
“…I thought it was because of something else.”
“What else?”
Qi Baizi’s gaze dimmed for a moment, then she shook her head.
“I’m just tired. Too much has happened recently. Don’t overthink it,” Gu Yuetong said, then turned back to look out the window.
Qi Baizi didn’t leave either, staring motionlessly at the lawn outside.
“I have some regrets,” she said suddenly after a long silence.
Gu Yuetong asked, “Regrets about what?”
“I regret confessing to you so soon… that I like you.”
Gu Yuetong was startled for a moment. She turned to meet her gaze, her fair, slender fingers clenching into a fist behind her back where Qi Baizi couldn’t see. “Why?” she asked.
“Because you seem… very burdened by it.”
For some reason she couldn’t explain, Gu Yuetong felt a sense of relief at this answer.
Then came a helpless explanation. “Why would you think that? I care about you. How could that be a burden?”
“It’s not that,” Qi Baizi said.
It’s that you clearly don’t like me, yet you have to pretend that you do.
Like you’re humoring a child.