Even Chi Yuan on the other end of the line heard those words, his breath catching slightly.
Husband? Showering?
The information was too much, blasting his ears numb.
Gu Xingzhi remained silent, focused. After a moment, he set down his knife and fork, wiped his mouth, and then leisurely took the phone—but didn’t put it to his ear.
He idly toyed with the phone in his hand, his tone unhurried. “Is there something, Mr. Chi?”
His voice was cold, businesslike and detached.
Like a noble young master, deigning to glance at the mortal world as if it were a favor.
Lu Tao let out a quiet breath.
Good thing she was clever.
A million—that should be locked in.
“She’s showering? And you’re right next to her?” Even through the phone, Chi Yuan’s barely contained fury was audible.
Gu Xingzhi lazily lifted his eyelids. “Is there a problem?”
“No… nothing.” Chi Yuan’s heart and guts trembled; he didn’t dare provoke even a hint of Gu Xingzhi’s displeasure.
The wrath of an emperor—he couldn’t bear it.
In their circle, Gu Xingzhi stood alone, supremely noble; calling him an emperor wouldn’t be an overstatement.
Never mind going up against Gu Xingzhi himself—even Gu Xingzhi’s nephew, Bai Yu, was someone Chi Yuan couldn’t run with.
That tier was still a step above him.
After hanging up, Gu Xingzhi showed no intention of returning the phone. “Don’t play with your phone at the table. It’s bad for your health.”
“Oh.” Lu Tao obediently replied, lowering her long, thick lashes.
Her appearance was the kind that fooled people—when she wasn’t talking, she looked like the most well-behaved student, the kind teachers kept close to their hearts.
But even as she spooned a mouthful of ridiculously delicious cream of mushroom soup into her mouth, her mind was elsewhere:
She’d been surprised to see Gu Xingzhi earlier. From the book, she only knew he was twenty-eight, but she hadn’t expected his body to be maintained like a guy in his early twenties.
His muscle lines were so smooth that water droplets slid straight down like a slide—enough to make a hungry woman’s blood boil!
But the age really did show through…
She had an uncle, just one year older than Gu Xingzhi, who worked in the government system, old-school cadre style, and loved to lecture: “Young people should stay up less, read more, sleep more.”
That tone of speech was exactly like Gu Xingzhi’s now.
Luckily, after the meal, Gu Xingzhi did return the phone to her.
The moment Lu Tao grabbed it, she clutched it tightly, her face betraying no joy, but her steps were a bit hurried as she headed back to her room.
Gu Xingzhi watched her hurried retreat, his narrow eyes narrowing slightly, with a hint of subtle mockery.
So all that talk earlier was just to make Chi Yuan jealous, and now she’s rushing to make up for it?
Back in her room, she opened her phone, the bright glow illuminating Lu Tao’s upturned lips.
Sure enough, her best girl was awake, and her message was as concise as she was: “I’m fine. How about you?”
“…I’ve already died once.”
“…Details.”
Lu Tao called her. Fu Zhi glanced at the half-naked man lying beside her and hung up. “WeChat.”
Lu Tao thought about it—right, walls might have ears. So she typed out everything that had just happened like a spy passing intel.
Fu Zhi: “Yeah, you’re a savage.”
How could she say something as scandalous as “Honey, I’m in the shower, can you get that for me?” In her place… she couldn’t have said it even at death’s door.
Lu Tao: “Anyway, the body’s wild. If I end up with a kid out of it, no loss. As long as it doesn’t touch on principles, he’s a good guy.”
Fu Zhi had already lain back down when she got Lu Tao’s eager follow-up: “What about you?”
Fu Zhi: “..”
Lu Tao: “What do three periods mean?”
Fu Zhi: “Already slept, good review.”
Lu Tao: “Holy crap!!”
She knew Fu Zhi was an Aries, impulsive, but she didn’t know she was this impulsive.
Lu Tao had a belly full of questions for Fu Zhi, but she figured she wouldn’t be getting answers today. After hanging up, she tapped the little red dot on her missed calls.
16 from Father Lu.
12 from Mother Lu.
And 30 from Lu Cen.
Plus 4 from Chi Yuan.
Lu Tao didn’t even blink.
Blocked. Block them all. Out of sight, out of mind!
The next morning, when Lu Tao came downstairs, Gu Xingzhi was already having breakfast. Though he was waiting for her, he didn’t rush her, letting her take her time upstairs picking out clothes and doing her makeup—very gentlemanly.
After breakfast, they were heading to a villa a few houses down to see Elder Gu.
The Gu family relatives were very close-knit, so they often gathered to keep in touch. Fu Zhi’s husband, the capital’s crown prince Bai Yu, was a Bai by name, but he’d been raised by his grandparents and was even closer to the Gu family.
After the wedding, Elder Gu had even set aside a villa specifically for him and his wife to live in.
Just thinking about how Zhizhi would be there today, and that she’d get to hear some juicy gossip, had Lu Tao buzzing with excitement.
Suddenly, Gu Xingzhi lifted his gaze. “Later, keep an eye on my mom.”
He wasn’t going to the office today, dressed more casually—a black shirt with gold-thread embroidery on the shoulder, making his features look even more languid and aloof.
He rose to his feet with one hand in his pocket, the posture accentuating his lean, straight waist, carrying an innate air of looking down from above.
His pale eyes rested on Lu Tao’s face, so light that she barely felt his gaze, yet her throat unconsciously tightened.
Lu Tao blinked in confusion. “Hmm?”
Gu Xingzhi raised a finger slightly, and Butler Song understood instantly, immediately calling the secretary’s office. “Transfer another ten million to the lady’s account.”
“No, no, no.” Lu Tao had barely spoken when the money had already arrived in her account. She couldn’t hide the corners of her mouth curling up.
Gu Xingzhi was really too generous! A generous and good man, she thought, clenching her little fist. So she definitely had to get things done properly for him.
“I just forgot—what exactly is it that I need to keep an eye on my mother-in-law for?”
Her mother-in-law, as described in the book, came from a scholarly family, a proper lady of refinement.
Her parents were a renowned musician and a famous writer respectively, with a harmonious family. She hadn’t heard of her mother-in-law having any illness.
Gu Xingzhi bent his knuckles and tapped them on the table, pulling her wandering thoughts back. “My mother and Bai Yu’s mother don’t get along.”
In a daze, Lu Tao’s pupils contracted as she remembered.
Her mother-in-law and Fu Zhi’s mother-in-law were frenemies!
The two had been middle school classmates, close friends back in their school days.
For some unknown reason, they fell out in university. From then on, they competed with each other in everything—one married into the Bai family, the other into the Gu family. By a twist of fate, they still ended up as in-laws, each unable to stand the sight of the other.
Even their sons’ marriages became a competition.
Her mother-in-law had barely gotten her and Gu Xingzhi married when Fu Zhi’s mother-in-law, refusing to be outdone, moved Fu Zhi’s engagement to Bai Yu, the crown prince of the capital’s elite circle, up by three years, dragging her own son to get the marriage certificate the moment he reached the legal age.
Lu Tao thought of herself and Fu Zhi—the two of them were inseparable, like husband and wife, never having any conflict between them.
She had no idea what kind of melodrama could have driven her mother-in-law and Fu Zhi’s mother-in-law from such a good relationship to such a bitter standoff.