At the Gu Group building, the meeting originally scheduled for nine o’clock in the morning was postponed to two o’clock in the afternoon.
For this meeting, managers of various departments needed to report their monthly work results to Gu Jingzhou in person. Dozens of people in the brightly lit conference room were on edge and did not dare to be the least bit careless, while mixed Chinese and English PPT slides scrolled across the screen page by page.
Gu Jingzhou sat back in his chair in a suit and leather shoes, his hands naturally clasped and resting on his legs.
Until the sales department manager finished reporting, Gu Jingzhou still didn’t speak.
One second, two seconds passed, and the sales department manager thought something had gone wrong with the content of his report, his hands trembling slightly with nervousness.
Only Gao Xiang, Gu Jingzhou’s special assistant, knew that President Gu was zoning out.
One had to know that Gu Jingzhou was always strict with himself, never letting any detail slip during meetings. Yet today, who knew what was going on; not only had the end-of-month work report meeting been pushed back against all odds, but even the meeting itself…
Gao Xiang coughed lightly.
Gu Jingzhou lowered his gaze and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I already looked over your content this morning. The sales department’s performance and target completion rate this month are very good, keep it up.”
“In addition, the personnel department needs to create a new department specifically to delve into product empowerment issues. Draft a personnel transfer list and give it to me before this Friday.”
As the meeting concluded, Gu Jingzhou walked toward the private elevator.
Special Assistant Gao followed closely behind Gu Jingzhou step by step, keeping away from others and whispering, “President Gu, the item you had people look for this morning was already found. When it was delivered, you were in a meeting, so I had someone leave it in your drawer first.”
“Mhm.” Gu Jingzhou nodded. “Well done.”
“Ding”
The 80th floor arrived. Except for the room closest to the elevator which served as Gu Jingzhou’s office, everything else on this entire floor was Gu Jingzhou’s private space.
Special Assistant Gao glanced and noticed that President Gu had a few bloodshot threads in his eyes today, as if he hadn’t rested well. After confirming several travel itineraries with Gu Jingzhou, he tactfully went downstairs.
Gu Jingzhou opened the drawer, inside of which was a small opaque bag.
With a flick of his fingers, he poured out the contents of the bag, which turned out to be a miniature camera.
He had known it. It couldn’t possibly be as simple as Song Wan just drugging Jiang Shen when he kept targeting him.
This type of miniature camera did not emit red light in the dark, and detector devices couldn’t spot it either; it was very difficult to buy on the market.
Precisely because of this, as long as someone with intentions investigated, they could accurately track down the buyer.
Perhaps someone wanted to use his hands to get rid of Song Wan.
Gu Jingzhou pinched this tiny camera between his fingertips, deep in thought.
Just as he was thinking, the office door was pushed open, and a pretty girl wearing a princess meatball head poked her head in. “Brother!”
Gu Jingzhou packed the camera back up, put it into the drawer, and gave it a casual push. “Why did you come?”
Gu Xuan put her hands behind her back with a well-behaved smile on her face. “Wasn’t it because I was playing too wildly with my friends last night that my phone died somehow? I only saw that you called me this morning, Brother. I’m sorry, you aren’t angry with me, are you?”
“I’m not angry. As long as you’re fine.”
“That’s great! Then did what Brother said before still count? I mean the reward for getting ninety points on the midterm exam…”
Gu Jingzhou raised his eyebrows slightly. So the main purpose of coming to the group building was for this.
Gu Xuan was just a freshman in university this year and had a heavy playful streak. Earlier, Gu Jingzhou had promised her that if she scored ninety points in math on the midterm exam, he would reward her with a private jet.
“It counts, it was prepared long ago.”
“Brother, I knew you were the best!” Gu Xuan cheered and clung to Gu Jingzhou’s side. “This weekend I want to hold a party for my first airplane. Can I borrow the helipad on the roof of the building?”
“As you like.”
Gu Jingzhou was long used to Gu Xuan blowing various rainbow farts right by his ear. He still had work to do, so he told Gu Xuan to go home early.
Just as Gu Xuan was leaving, Gu Jingzhou remembered something and called her back.
“Right, what do you think of someone like Song Wan? Aren’t you in the same school as him?”
“Song Wan…” Gu Xuan frowned and pondered for a moment. “He’s okay, I don’t understand him very well. Word has it that he’s very petty, has bad popularity at school, and Ah Shen seems to really dislike him. Why do you ask?”
Gu Jingzhou tapped his fingers on the desktop. “Nothing, we’ve had commercial dealings with the Song family recently, just asking casually.”
A few days later, the Song family villa.
Du Bingqiao tucked a basketball under his arm and stood at the villa entrance sending a message to Song Wan.
[Handsome to the Point of Homicide: Why are you cooped up at home on such a nice day? I’m downstairs at your place, come out and play ball!]
Three full seconds passed with no reply, and Du Bingqiao’s patience was completely exhausted.
He shouted toward the servant tending to the flowers and plants in the courtyard: “Auntie! Is Song Wan home?”
Everyone up and down the Song family knew Du Bingqiao. Hearing this, the maid hurried over to open the gate. “He’s here, but our young master hasn’t been in a very good mood lately, and he hasn’t stepped out of the house for two whole days.”
Not in a good mood?
Did he have a broken heart? Was he dumped? Did his stocks hit the limit-down? Did he go on a losing streak in games?
A myriad of possibilities flashed through Du Bingqiao’s mind. Familiar with the place, he went upstairs and pushed open the door to Song Wan’s room just like he would in his own home.
“What are you doing? Didn’t you see the message I sent you? You”
Inside the room, a boy wearing a hoodie whose build was seven or eight parts similar to Song Wan was sitting leisurely on the sofa eating potato chips, clearly not expecting anyone to suddenly barge in.
Du Bingqiao locked eyes with him, and both were startled by each other.
“Damn it, who are you?”
Instead of speaking, the boy turned around immediately, preparing to climb out the window.
Thinking he was a thief, Du Bingqiao hurled a three-pointer straight at him: “Still trying to run? Stop right there!”
The commotion upstairs quickly drew the attention of the Song family’s aunties.
Everyone thought Song Wan and the young master of the Du family had gotten into a conflict and started fighting, so they anxiously rushed up in a panic to break it up, but when they saw the situation inside the room, they were all dumbfounded.
Du Bingqiao tackled that boy to the ground, pinning both of his hands behind his back: “Who the hell are you?! Where is Song Wan?!”
Knowing he was no match for Du Bingqiao and seeing that the jig was up, the boy spoke with difficulty under Du Bingqiao’s heavy pressure: “Ran… ran away…”
Everyone chorused in unison: “What?”
Song Wan was missing, Song Wan had run away.
As for how he ran away, he had claimed externally that he was in a bad mood and didn’t want to come out, and then found a boy whose voice and build were very similar to his own to stay in the room and play the cicada shedding its shell trick.
The aunties always left three meals a day at the door and knocked to remind the young master to eat, and after the young master finished eating, they would go back to pick up the empty plates left at the door. Come to think of it, they really hadn’t crossed paths with Song Wan over the past two days.
“How are we supposed to explain this to Mr. and Mrs.!” The servants panicked in a dizzy blur.
“Wait, why is he running?” Du Bingqiao grabbed the boy by the collar and wouldn’t let go.
The boy shrank back like a terrified quail: “I-I don’t know either.”
He only remembered that Song Wan had sought him out, given him a large sum of money, and told him to honestly stay in the room until someone discovered him; Song Wan hadn’t said anything else.
Du Bingqiao dialed a phone number.
“Sorry, the number you dialed is a non-existent number…”
“Damn it! He ran away and didn’t take me with him!”