However, Gu Liao Chuan’s hopes were soon shattered.
In the surveillance footage, as soon as Gu Liao Chuan left, Gu Leizhou quickly opened his computer and began fiddling with something, clearly not playing cards. To make matters worse, after a while, he even took out his phone and started recording something. It was obvious that only a blind person could believe he was innocent.
But neither he nor Zhang Xia were blind.
Zhang Xia glanced at Gu Liao Chuan, then silently turned away, unable to bear the pain in the young man’s eyes.
Although Zhang Xia had always hoped that Gu Liao Chuan would keep his distance from his brother and not trust Gu Leizhou too much, at this moment, all she could offer was comfort. “Maybe he had his reasons?”
Honestly, even she didn’t believe her own words. After all, Gu Leizhou in the surveillance footage showed no trace of hesitation or conflict. Instead, he looked much more relaxed than when he was playing cards later.
During the card game, he had even frowned from time to time.
Gu Liao Chuan smiled bitterly and dragged the progress bar back to the moment he had just left the office.
“Liao Chuan, are… are you okay?”
“Sis, do you know? My brother picked me up from the roadside. If it weren’t for him, I would have been taken by wild dogs. Since I was little, he always took me with him wherever he went. He treated me so well. Whenever someone bullied me, he would fight back for me. He dropped out of school for my sake. He was an excellent student. If it weren’t for our family’s financial difficulties, he would never have skipped college and started working so early to earn money…”
Zhang Xia was already familiar with these stories, but she kept nodding, showing she was listening attentively.
“No, I have to ask my brother. I have to ask him why he did this to me!”
With that, Gu Liao Chuan rushed out.
Zhang Xia hadn’t expected Gu Liao Chuan, who had just been reminiscing about the past, to suddenly run off as if energized. She had been thinking…
Zhang Xia shook her head. What had she been thinking? That Gu Liao Chuan might learn a lesson from this incident? That he might cover it up to preserve his relationship with his brother, maintaining a superficial peace?
She had thought of many possibilities but had forgotten one thing: Gu Liao Chuan was still a teenager under eighteen.
Realizing this, Zhang Xia hurriedly followed him.
She had to. Young people were impulsive, and Gu Leizhou… well, there was no need to even mention him. She was afraid they might end up fighting. Even more, she feared Gu Liao Chuan would suffer even greater emotional harm.
Gu Liao Chuan and Zhang Xia returned to the company-provided accommodation almost simultaneously. While they had been busy dealing with online slander and real-life heartbreak, Gu Leizhou, one of the culprits, was still in bed, not even awake!
“Should I knock on the door?” Zhang Xia asked, watching Gu Liao Chuan hesitate and pace in front of the door.
Gu Liao Chuan’s face stiffened. He wanted to nod but couldn’t bring himself to do it.
“Forget it. It’s still early. Maybe we should wait a little longer? I’m actually hungry.”
Zhang Xia: …
The internet was in an uproar, and he still wanted to wait? She had clearly overestimated Gu Liao Chuan earlier!
But she understood clearly that the child's mood was worse than anyone else's right now, and it wasn't good to push too hard. "Alright, then I'll go downstairs to buy something first. In case your brother wakes up later, don't get too angry and don't have a big conflict with him."
Gu Liao Chuan nodded, then sat motionless on the sofa.
He loved music, and he loved the feeling of standing on stage shining brightly, receiving cheers from the crowd. He thought his brother was happy for him too, but now, thinking about it carefully, was it really as he had assumed?
When Zhang Xia returned after buying food and handling some other matters downstairs, she found that everything was exactly as she had left it.
The person sitting on the sofa seemed to have entered a meditative state.
And the door to Gu Leizhou's room remained tightly shut, with not a single sound coming from inside.
It was now exactly 9 o'clock.
"Your brother's sleep quality is quite impressive…" Sleeping straight through from last night until now—if he really hadn't woken up yet and wasn't just playing with his phone in the room, that could be considered a unique kind of talent.
"He…" Gu Liao Chuan instinctively wanted to defend his brother, then awkwardly closed his mouth.
"Let me go knock on the door!" Zhang Xia walked over to Gu Leizhou's door, but before she could knock, the door opened from the inside.
Gu Leizhou walked out yawning, and Zhang Xia felt a surge of anger.
"I'll go back to my rental place to sleep tomorrow. You guys are too noisy, I couldn't sleep well."
Hearing this, Zhang Xia's expression twisted. It was nine o'clock. Last night, he had come back, eaten, and gone straight to bed. Before she left, Gu Liao Chuan had asked him if he wanted strawberries, and he hadn't replied—he must have already been asleep. And now, after sleeping until this time, he still hadn't slept well?
Wait! That wasn't the point right now.
"Gu Leizhou, did you mess with Liao Chuan's computer?" Zhang Xia, afraid that Gu Liao Chuan would be led astray by Gu Leizhou again, quickly got to the main point.
Gu Leizhou nodded, yawned again, and his eyes lit up when he saw the food on the table. He ran to the bathroom only to realize there were no toiletries for him, but it didn't matter—rinsing his mouth before eating wouldn't kill him.
No one stopped him from eating. Gu Liao Chuan sat on the sofa, watching his brother for a long while before softly asking, "Brother, the songwriting process archives on my computer… did you do something to them?"
Gu Leizhou took a sip of porridge before answering, "Yeah, what about it?"
Then, he started eating the steamed buns with the side dishes. "These buns are pretty good!"
Zhang Xia could no longer hold back. "Eat, eat, eat, eat, eat! All you know is eating! Why did you mess with those archives? Do you know how important they are? Do you know the scale of slander and suspicion Liao Chuan is facing right now? How can you sit here so calmly and keep eating? You don't even feel the slightest bit of guilt. You really…"
Zhang Xia grew angrier as she spoke, her hands trembling with rage.
Gu Liao Chuan also asked from the side, "Why did you do this, brother?"
Gu Leizhou seemed overwhelmed by Zhang Xia's barrage of words and only replied, "What happened? I deleted them because someone paid me 500,000 to do it, but…"
"Just because of that, you helped someone else harm your own brother? 500,000? How many times 500,000 has Liao Chuan given you over the years? Do you know the consequences of what you did?"
Gu Leizhou whispered a reminder, "Don't get worked up yet, I haven't finished…"
"How can I not be worked up? Tell me how we're supposed to refute all those accusations online right now? How should the PR department handle this? Should we issue a statement saying Gu Liao Chuan's songs weren't plagiarized or stolen from others, that he had a creative process, but it was all deleted by his brother for five hundred thousand?"
Before she could finish, another phone ringtone sounded.
"Your mom is calling, pick up pick up, your mom is calling, pick up pick up." The comical tone broke through Zhang Xia's angry atmosphere.
Gu Liao Chuan quickly picked up the phone, using his eyes to plead with his manager to stop scolding for now.
As soon as the call connected, a gentle but somewhat anxious voice came through, "Ah Chuan, our neighbor Erlin said you're being criticized online and might have to pay a lot of money in compensation. Is that true?"
"Mom, it's fine. I'll resolve this quickly. You and Dad don't need to worry about me at home. Online rumors aren't a big deal. Don't listen to what Erlin says."
Hearing his response made Mother Gu even more anxious. This child had never been good at lying since he was little. Dodging and not answering directly meant what Erlin said this time was actually true. Her younger son always shared good news but hid troubles. If he was saying this now, he must really be in trouble.
"How did this happen? Why are you being criticized… Ah Chuan, the money you sent us, your dad and I haven't used any of it yet. Let me figure out how to send it back to you for emergencies." She wanted to return it but wasn't sure how to do it herself, and didn't trust others to handle it. This was Second Son's money—it couldn't be stolen from their hands.
Originally, she and the old man thought they'd keep the money saved with them. When Second Son got married and started a family, they'd give it to his new wife for household expenses, so Ah Chuan wouldn't spend recklessly, giving to this one and helping that one, ending up with little left of what he earned.
But now trouble had come unexpectedly. With this much money, they definitely needed to return it to Second Son first so he could solve his problems.
"Tell me how to transfer this money back to you. You sent us so much money. Erlin said you need to pay compensation, right? Let's just pay them what they're asking. Keep the rest for your studies. Don't stay out there anymore. You're still so young. Come home first and focus on your studies. Your dad and I can support you, especially now that your brother is working too. You need to finish your studies to have a future. Everything will be fine then."
Gu Liao Chuan: "Mom, really, it's fine. Spend the money I gave you—it's for you to use. Isn't our house pretty run-down? Dad always talks about rebuilding it. Now that we have money, let's rebuild the house first. Erlin really exaggerated things. You really don't need to worry."
He wasn't at that point yet at all. And even if he were, the money he'd transferred to his mom probably wouldn't even cover a fraction of the compensation if breach penalties were really needed.
But he couldn't say that to his mom, or she'd worry even more.
"Really nothing's wrong?"
"Really nothing! If you don't believe me, I'll have my manager talk to you."
He moved the phone near Zhang Xia.
Zhang Xia immediately chimed in as well. As angry as she was at Gu Leizhou, she couldn't let the elderly couple back home live in fear.
"Then I'll have to trouble you to take good care of our Ah Chuan."
A rough male voice chimed in from beside her, "That's right! If he doesn't listen, just tell me. I'll give him a good beating when he gets home!"
Zhang Xia was nearly amused by the elderly couple. "Well, Liaochuan is quite capable. He's always performed well, and there haven't been any issues. Please don't worry. We're colleagues, so if anything comes up, I’ll definitely try to talk some sense into him. No one would dare lay a hand on him."
Father Gu: "That’s good, that’s good…"
Mother Gu nudged him. "Thank you so much then! A-Chuan has a gentle nature, so please look out for him and take good care of him."
Author's Note:
The male lead's name is Gu Liaozhou, by the way~ I know you all probably already know, but when I listened to the audiobook version, I felt both despair and amusement hearing "Gu Lezhou, Gu Lezhou" over and over. I didn’t think about this when naming him.
Thank you to my dear Mu Li for gifting me 62 bottles of nutrient solution! Thank you to my dear Naitang Buxian for gifting me 10 bottles of nutrient solution! Thank you to my dear Tao for gifting me 1 bottle of nutrient solution! Thank you to my dear Mu Zi for gifting me 1 bottle of nutrient solution!