Zhao Muqing thought Shen Guanzhi’s question was dangerously tricky. What if Shen Guanzhi actually knew everything and was just probing him? If that were the case, any lie Zhao Muqing told would spell trouble.
On the other hand, if Shen Guanzhi still hadn’t figured out the situation, telling the truth would also lead to trouble. After turning it over in his mind and failing to squeeze out a single word for ages, Zhao Muqing finally decided to put on an act. He awkwardly writhed his heavily bandaged lower leg and whined, “It hurts, it hurts like hell! Boss, can you help me call a doctor?”
Shen Guanzhi didn’t budge. A moment later, he reached out and pressed down on Zhao Muqing’s uninjured knee, stopping his pathetic little performance. “I know someone asked you out.”
“Oh, haha,” Zhao Muqing gave an awkward laugh. “You know how it is. I didn’t mean anything by it, otherwise I wouldn’t be lying here right now.”
“I don’t care about your intentions, but if you let any scandals about me leak out,” Shen Guanzhi gripped Zhao Muqing’s chin tightly, forcing him to look up and meet his gaze, “you can forget about ever staying in this industry.”
Zhao Muqing understood completely. Putting aside someone wealthy and powerful in the fashion circle like Shen Guanzhi, even an ordinary person wouldn’t want to step outside only to hear people gossiping about being cheated on.
“Naturally. Don’t worry, Boss.” Zhao Muqing offered a few ingratiating, silly chuckles.
“What did the doctor say?” Shen Guanzhi quickly changed the subject.
“Just rest for a few days and it will be fine. It is nothing too serious.” As if trying to prove he wasn’t lying, Zhao Muqing made a small movement with his injured leg just like before, but ended up accidentally bumping it against the bed frame. The pain made him yelp, “Okay, scratch that last part.”
Shen Guanzhi remained silent.
After a long while, he spoke again. “I have arranged for someone to take care of your daily living and meals. I will not be in Dongyuan for the next few days. If you need anything, you can contact my assistant.”
Dongyuan was the city where they currently were. Shen Guanzhi’s assistant was actually a psychiatrist who treated his insomnia. Because Shen Guanzhi needed to keep his illness hidden from the public, he had given the psychiatrist the title of assistant as a cover.
In reality, Shen Guanzhi valued this psychiatrist a great deal, even entrusting him with certain important matters. As for his other miscellaneous chores, he had other people handle them, but they simply did not appear in public.
If Zhao Muqing remembered correctly, the assistant’s name should be Xu Cheng, who had grown up with Shen Guanzhi since childhood.
Zhao Muqing’s phone vibrated a few times. He picked it up and saw that Shen Guanzhi had forwarded him Xu Cheng’s contact information. “He is staying here too? Then what are you going to do at night?”
“Sleeping pills can sustain me for a few days.”
“Can’t you wait until I am discharged so we can go together? Is it really that urgent?”
“Yes.” Shen Guanzhi had no intention of continuing the conversation. Dropping a remark that he needed to rest, he left the hospital room.
After finishing the paperwork, Jian Shigu returned to the room to check on Zhao Muqing for a bit. Hearing that Shen Guanzhi had already paid the medical bills, Jian Shigu specifically told Zhao Muqing not to bother transferring him any money.
After seeing Jian Shigu off, Zhao Muqing couldn’t be bothered to think about anything else. He lay down, ready to sleep, when his phone suddenly buzzed. Subconsciously reaching out, he unlocked the screen and tapped on WeChat, only to find that the anonymous boss had replied to him.
[What a pity.]
[Let us meet up another day, baby. I will wait for you.]
Goosebumps erupted all over Zhao Muqing again. This thing still wasn’t over! The doctor estimated he could be discharged in two or three days, and by then, he would still have to face this thorny problem.
He couldn’t possibly self-inflict another injury, could he? Putting aside whether people would think he was playing tricks if he used the same move twice, he was afraid he might actually cripple himself if he tried it a few more times.
Supporting his head with one hand as he thought for a moment, Zhao Muqing opened the newly added WeChat chat with Xu Cheng and sent the very first message. [Mr. Xu, hello. Could you disclose where Shen Guanzhi is going after leaving Dongyuan? And how long will he be gone?]
Surprisingly, Xu Cheng replied very quickly. [He has a flight tomorrow to Taozhou to meet a client. He will be back in about five or six days.]
Five or six days was not looking good. Although Zhao Muqing didn’t have much experience, prime-time cheesy television dramas had taught him that people usually waited until the main spouse was away on a business trip to sneak around. Just because he didn’t want to did not mean the other party wouldn’t seize the opportunity to invite him out again, and by then, he wouldn’t have any excuse to refuse.
Since Shen Guanzhi didn’t want any scandals leaking out, Zhao Muqing figured he still had a decent shot at begging Shen Guanzhi to step in and resolve the issue. The problem was that Shen Guanzhi was flying to Taozhou City tomorrow.
At light speed, he messaged Shen Guanzhi. [Boss, can you help me with that matter? I am completely devoted to you, how could I possibly cause you to lose face like that?]
Shen Guanzhi replied promptly. [Who is it? Name them.]
Zhao Muqing felt like he had been struck by lightning.
He genuinely had no idea who it was.
Zhao Muqing. [I will organize the info and send it to you later. Go ahead and get back to work, haha.]
Obviously, with Zhao Muqing’s limited connections, it would be difficult for him to figure out the true identity of that WeChat account within half a day. He tried screenshotting the person’s profile and sending it to Jian Shigu, Xu Cheng, and even Shen Guanzhi, but not a single person recognized it. Instead, Shen Guanzhi even turned around and asked what kind of games he was playing.
He cursed under his breath. It seemed there was only one method left.
Not asking Shen Guanzhi for his itinerary in the beginning was something he had deliberately kept up his sleeve. After all, he didn’t know if a Shen Guanzhi loaded up on sleeping pills would be willing to drag along a useless decoration like him.
He messaged Xu Cheng. [Does Shen Guanzhi mean that I can entrust you with things if I need help?]
Xu Cheng. [Yes. If it is within my ability, I can handle it for you.]
Zhao Muqing. [Please help me book a flight to Taozhou three days from now, as early as possible. Put it on my tab.]
Taozhou City was like spring all year round. Even though it was summer here too, the climate was much more pleasant than Dongyuan City, where Zhao Muqing felt like he was about to be roasted alive on the streets.
His recovery timing worked out perfectly. The day the doctor agreed to let him pack up and leave the hospital, he boarded a plane straight to Taozhou the very next day and even managed to pry Shen Guanzhi’s hotel information out of Xu Cheng.
When he reached the door of Shen Guanzhi’s hotel room, it was locked tight, and there was no answer to his knocking, so clearly, no one was inside. Zhao Muqing simply placed his luggage against the wall by the door and headed downstairs to eat, drink, and wander around.
Zhao Muqing figured Shen Guanzhi was out meeting a client and wouldn’t be back for a while. However, in reality, Shen Guanzhi was sitting in an ordinary café just two blocks away, waiting for a visitor he had never met before.
The café doors finally pushed open, and a middle-aged woman sat down across from Shen Guanzhi.
She looked very haggard, as if she had prematurely endured too much of the ravages of time.
“Hello, Ms. Jian.” Shen Guanzhi nodded politely.
“Sorry to trouble you to come all this way.” The woman fished a cloth bundle out of her pocket and carefully handed it to Shen Guanzhi. “This was supposed to be yours in the first place.”
“Thank you.” Shen Guanzhi paused for a moment, then slid a card across the table toward the woman. “I heard you have been having some difficulties lately.”
“You don’t owe me anything. You don’t have to help me like this.”
“Consider it a loan.”
The woman hesitated for a moment before putting the card away. “I will slowly pay you back in the future.”
“Contact me anytime if you need anything.” Shen Guanzhi left those final words behind and turned to leave the café. He drove back to the hotel parking lot, then took the elevator upstairs.
Soon, he noticed the very familiarly styled suitcase right outside his doorway. Zhao Muqing was leaning against the luggage, absorbed in scrolling through his phone.
“Why are you here?” Shen Guanzhi’s tone carried zero warmth.
“Aren’t I just worried about you? Taking too many sleeping pills isn’t good.” Zhao Muqing smiled ingratiatingly. “I cleared it with your assistant.”
Shen Guanzhi cast a cold glance at him, clearly not believing his excuse. Silently, he unlocked the door with his room key. “Get in.”
Zhao Muqing hurriedly pushed his suitcase inside and followed him in, then very consciously found a spot to sit on the sofa.
Treating Zhao Muqing as if he were completely invisible, Shen Guanzhi went about tinkering with a newly unlocked safe on the table. Next to it were tools Zhao Muqing couldn’t make head or tail of.
Zhao Muqing leaned in close, and seeing that Shen Guanzhi didn’t chase him away, he comfortably settled down on the carpet. Inside the safe, gemstones of various colors, sizes, and shapes were neatly lined up. Wearing pure white silk gloves, Shen Guanzhi picked one of them up and shone a UV light over it.
“You brought so many gemstones with you?” Zhao Muqing observed Shen Guanzhi’s movements, clearly unable to make out what was special about them.
“The client requested gemstones of the highest possible value.” Shen Guanzhi replied with a straight face. “I have been screening them for days. Which one will actually be used depends on the client’s choice.”
“Didn’t you just go meet the client?”
“No.” Shen Guanzhi put down the gemstone in his hand and picked up another. “You will accompany me this afternoon. Since you have the identity of a lover, you need to show up with me in public to some extent.”
“Oh.” Zhao Muqing had no objections. “What if they aren’t satisfied with any of them?”
“We will look for raw stones. Taozhou has quite a few gemstone merchants and trading markets.”
It seemed making money wasn’t easy even for the rich. Thinking this, Zhao Muqing’s gaze landed on a cyan-green gemstone inside the safe. He inexplicably felt the color was very pleasing. Staring at the stone for a long time, he suddenly pointed at it and asked Shen Guanzhi, “Does this look like me?”
Shen Guanzhi swept a glance at him and said nothing.
“If it doesn’t, just say so.” Zhao Muqing muttered discontentedly. “Ignoring people is very impolite.”
“In what way do you think it looks like you?” Shen Guanzhi looked utterly speechless.
“It’s cyan, and I’m Qing.”
“So anything cyan looks like you?” Shen Guanzhi seemed utterly incapable of understanding Zhao Muqing’s logic.
“At least we share a common trait, right?” After saying that, Shen Guanzhi didn’t reply anymore, seemingly too lazy to argue with him over such a boring topic. Finding it uninteresting, Zhao Muqing retreated into the bedroom by himself and started playing Landlords on his phone.
Around lunchtime, Shen Guanzhi finally finished what roughly amounted to his final screening of the gemstones. He closed the safe, put away the appraisal tools, and finally pulled a cloth bundle out of his pocket, which was the one the woman at the café had given him.
Wrapped inside was a cyan gemstone.
Generally, gemstones of this variety would have inclusions, but this one was flawless to the naked eye, with an extremely rare degree of clarity. Coupled with its rare color and impeccable cutting craftsmanship, the industry had secretly driven up the price of this gemstone to astronomical heights, even though no one had ever seen it with their own eyes.
“Why is it cyan?” Shen Guanzhi inexplicably disliked the color right now, even though he had long heard the rumors that this gemstone, which only existed in hearsay, possessed a very distinctive cyan tone.
Retrieving the gemstone had been sudden, and Shen Guanzhi hadn’t brought an extra safe. For now, he rewrapped it properly and placed it in the bottom layer of the previous safe. Because it was fragile, he took special care to provide ample protection.
After finishing this series of actions, Shen Guanzhi contacted Xu Cheng on WeChat. [What do you mean by this?]
Xu Cheng. [What’s wrong? Is the little lover giving you a headache?]
Shen Guanzhi. [He is not my lover.]
Xu Cheng. [Did Xiao Qing give you trouble? Given your condition, the fewer sleeping pills you take, the better. Besides, you’d feel more at ease if someone was around, right?]
[Worried that you wouldn’t agree, I didn’t notify you.]
Shen Guanzhi. [Understood.]
Xu Cheng. [I’d say I’m doing this for your own good, no?]
[Tell me, what kind of trouble is it? Is he trying the honeytrap on you? Harassing you? Forcing you to take him to the grand exhibition? I heard he used to send romantic texts to his boss, and did you get those too?]
Shen Guanzhi was just about to say no when a notification prompt popped up in the next second showing a message from Zhao Muqing. He subconsciously tapped on it and found it was a push notification from Landlords inviting him to join and win beans together.
Zhao Muqing. [Sorry, Boss, sent it to the wrong chat. I lost all my beans and had to share it to the group chat.]
Shen Guanzhi frowned and closed the chat window.
That afternoon, Zhao Muqing deliberately changed into a new outfit. As Shen Guanzhi had instructed, it didn’t need to be too formal, as long as it looked presentable and decent.
The client Shen Guanzhi was going to meet was in a seaside villa district. An elderly butler welcomed them inside, and the client was already sitting in the living room sofa waiting.
On the car ride over, Shen Guanzhi had mentioned this male client’s name to him. With nothing better to do, Zhao Muqing had searched it up on Baidu and discovered that the guy was a wildly famous top-tier celebrity, along with digging up a few old scandals about him enjoying playing around with minor starlets and young models.
“Hello, you two. Please, have a seat.” Xu Yingtang politely greeted the two of them and invited them to sit down, his gaze lingering unnaturally on Zhao Muqing.
For some reason, Zhao Muqing had a bad premonition.