This time, of course, Gu Leizhou once again refused without hesitation. He hadn’t yet had enough fun with the few people who dared to scam his money—how could he possibly move?
Gu Leizhou waved his hand, indicating that he was quite comfortable living in his rented apartment now. Moreover, as an outsider, it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to move into the accommodation arranged by the company.
Gu Liaochuan felt a pang of regret in his heart. He truly missed his brother and wanted to live with him. The days from their childhood, when they were inseparable at home, were still vivid in his memory. But ever since his brother dropped out of school, he had always felt a barrier between them.
Indeed, even if his brother didn’t say it, he must be sad deep down about not attending university!
However, this time when he brought up the idea of his brother moving in, it felt like his brother wasn’t as resistant as before. He believed that as long as he worked hard, saved up money, and bought a house of their own in this city, his brother would no longer refuse.
But the more he thought this way, the less he could give his brother so much money—especially the money his brother had taken before, supposedly for a down payment on a house, only for it to vanish without even a trace of a wall.
Yet he was conflicted. His brother seemed to have changed for the better and had even spent money on a car. What if his brother asked him for money later? He wasn’t sure how much to haggle down to, so as not to upset him while still ensuring he had enough to spend.
Before long, Zhang Xia returned with breakfast. Coincidentally, the person responsible for explaining the afternoon program’s schedule arrived. Zhang Xia asked, “Could your brother eat here first while you go over the schedule, Liaochuan?”
Gu Liaochuan hesitated as he went to ask Gu Leizhou. After all, in the past, whenever his brother visited, he would get angry if Gu Liaochuan didn’t stay by his side.
This time, however, Gu Leizhou was surprisingly agreeable. “Go ahead, go ahead. But before you go, pour me a big glass of water. This porridge doesn’t taste good!”
Gu Liaochuan poured the water and considerately closed the door behind him. “Brother, take your time eating. I’ll be back soon!”
Gu Leizhou waved dismissively, pretending to eat attentively. But as soon as Gu Liaochuan left, he immediately opened Gu Liaochuan’s computer, typed in the password without a hint of guilt, and began rummaging through various folders.
There were few folders on Gu Liaochuan’s computer—aside from archived contracts, there were only the archived creative process files he was looking for, all neatly categorized. Gu Leizhou couldn’t have asked for an easier search.
He simply took photos of the content he wanted to delete with his own phone, then uploaded everything to his cloud drive in one go. After logging out of his account, he began recording the process of deleting the files.
Once he finished recording, he didn’t shut down the computer. Instead, he started playing Landlords on Gu Liaochuan’s computer.
When Gu Liaochuan returned, he saw his brother swinging his legs, taking a bite of food and playing a card at the same time.
He instinctively wanted to tell his brother to finish eating before playing cards, but remembering how his brother used to look at him with disdain whenever he said that, he ultimately kept quiet.
“Brother, your phone has been lighting up,” Gu Liaochuan said as he approached, noticing it was an incoming call. However, his brother must have set the phone to silent, so it was only glowing without making any sound.
Gu Liao Chuan recalled how in the past, when he called his brother, eight out of ten calls went unanswered. Now it seemed it was likely due to the silent mode, not because his brother disliked him as Sister Zhang had suggested.
He knew it! His brother had always liked him the most—how could he possibly ignore his calls on purpose? It turned out his phone was set to silent! He used to overthink every time he couldn’t get through, but looking back now, he really shouldn’t have. Everyone has their own habits; how could he impose his own habit of answering calls immediately onto his brother?
Gu Leizhou glanced at his phone. Since the card game had just ended, he answered right away.
Song Pengtao’s excited voice immediately came through from the other end. “Leizhou, where have you been? I went to your room looking for you, but you weren’t there.”
“Oh, I’m at my brother’s place.”
“What are you doing at your brother’s?” Song Pengtao grew even more agitated, fearing he might be there to ask for money.
He had spent all his money yesterday. If Gu Leizhou didn’t mortgage his car today, wouldn’t he be completely ruined? Lately, Gu Leizhou’s brother had been giving him less and less money. At most, he’d probably only get a few tens of thousands. While that wasn’t a small amount, compared to the value of the car, it was nothing.
Gu Leizhou replied, “What kind of question is that? I missed my brother, so I came to see him. Is that not allowed?”
Gu Liao Chuan had originally planned to step out to give his brother some privacy when he saw him answer the phone. But hearing his brother mention him, he paused. Since his brother hadn’t asked him to leave, it should be fine to stay, right?
Then he heard his brother say he missed him. His hand unconsciously tightened. Ever since his brother dropped out of school and left home, he had never said he missed him again. He never expected to hear it today, even if it was during a conversation with someone else.
Still, it filled Gu Liao Chuan with indescribable joy. His brother still cared about him as much as ever!
Song Pengtao pressed on, “Didn’t we agree yesterday to go to Brother Lei’s place? Why did you run off to your brother’s today? A man’s word is his bond—how can you go back on it? I already told Brother Lei we’d come, and we already stood him up once because we were drinking. Now you’ve gone somewhere else without a word!”
Gu Leizhou apologized sheepishly, promising to treat him to a meal and go out in the afternoon. After a few more apologies, he finally hung up.
Gu Liao Chuan frowned as he listened to his brother apologize. As soon as the call ended, he immediately asked, “Brother, who was that? Do I know them?”
Gu Leizhou explained, “It was Song Pengtao—Brother Pengtao. You probably don’t know him well, but remember when I said I was going to treat some friends to a meal? It was him and a bunch of friends he introduced. If there’s a chance, I’ll introduce you to them someday.”
When Gu Liao Chuan heard about treating friends to meals, he immediately understood—this was the scoundrel who had been swindling his brother and making him pay exorbitant amounts.
Unfortunately, his brother didn’t like him meddling in his friendships. “Alright, if there’s a chance, introduce us. I’d like to meet him too!”
He wanted to see just how rotten this person was, taking advantage of his brother and keeping him from visiting, damaging the bond between the two brothers. Song Pengtao—he would remember this name!
After sitting in Gu Liao Chuan's office for a while longer and chatting, Gu Leizhou eventually left. Before leaving, he asked Gu Liao Chuan for another five thousand yuan.
Gu Liao Chuan gave it to him without hesitation. After all, his older brother had used the money he gave him to buy a car, so it was only natural that he would run short on spending money. Asking for five thousand yuan to keep on hand was perfectly reasonable.
Before Gu Leizhou could even drive back, Song Pengtao arrived by taxi. The previous night, Song had sent Lei Ge the photos he took of Gu Leizhou's car, and Lei Ge had taken an immediate liking to it. He instructed Song to bring Gu Leizhou over as soon as possible, and not to bother introducing him to other people who might accept the car as collateral—Lei Ge himself was willing to take it. Unfortunately, Gu Leizhou had been dead drunk the night before, insisting on going home to sleep, so their plan had failed. Lei Ge was already pressing him, clearly very fond of the car. He even promised Song an extra fifty thousand yuan once the car was in his possession.
Gu Leizhou showed obvious reluctance. "Brother Pengtao, haven't we always gone to have fun in the afternoon? Why the rush today? And at this hour, Lei Ge's place probably isn't that lively, right? There must be fewer people than in the afternoon!"
"Not at all! Leizhou, trust me, it won't be like that. I just called Lei Ge, and he said there are plenty of people there—you'll definitely have a good time! By the way, did you ask your brother for money again?" Song Pengtao was worried that if Gu Leizhou had gotten money, he might not mortgage the car anymore.
But when he heard that Gu Leizhou had only asked for five thousand yuan, he felt relieved again.
Just five thousand—in a casino, that wouldn't even last three minutes before being lost!
In the end, Gu Leizhou was dragged into the casino by Song Pengtao. Song, however, simply thought Gu Leizhou was feeling unwell from drinking the night before and wasn't in the mood to come. But Gu Leizhou had been here countless times before—once inside, Song was certain he wouldn't be able to resist playing.
The casino wasn't as bustling as it was at night, but there were still quite a few people. As soon as Gu Leizhou entered, he received a warm welcome.
This was one of the reasons he used to enjoy coming here—the staff, whether the pretty girls or the burly men, treated him exceptionally well.
Of course, their kindness was because he spent a lot of money here. Though the place seemed crowded, at least half of the people were there to earn commissions. Among the remaining half, Gu Leizhou was one of the biggest spenders, so whenever he showed up, every single one of them welcomed him enthusiastically.
Song Pengtao had assumed that once Gu Leizhou arrived, he wouldn't be able to resist joining in. To his surprise, however, Gu Leizhou seemed like a frostbitten eggplant—listless and sluggish. Even when standing right in front of the gambling table, he dawdled, muttering about not wanting to play and finding it difficult.
Lei Ge's displeased gaze fell on him, and Song Pengtao shivered, feeling a twinge of fear. He had guaranteed Lei Ge that Gu Leizhou would cooperate—who could have guessed he'd be so uncooperative today?
"Leizhou, you've seen it now—doesn't it look interesting? Let's exchange some chips and play together?"
Song Pengtao felt a surge of anger as he watched Gu Leizhou standing by the gambling table, slowly eating the lychees provided by the casino. Earlier, he had wanted to take some too, but not only did this little brat refuse to share, he even went to Lei Ge to complain, asking Lei Ge to prepare some for him as well and grumbling about being overlooked.
What the hell, was this really about preparing lychees for him? He was afraid Brother Lei would twist his head off and gnaw on it like a lychee the next second.
That alone would have been bad enough, but after glaring at him twice, Brother Lei actually prepared a plate of fruit for him. To show Brother Lei that he truly didn’t have the guts and wasn’t complaining, he didn’t dare touch the fruit plate. Yet Gu Leizhou showed no hesitation at all—after finishing what was in his own hands, he snatched the fruit from his hands and ate it too.
Eat, eat, eat! Hope he chokes on it!
“I’ll watch a bit longer. It seems a bit complicated, and I still don’t quite get it. Ugh, my head feels all muddled. I should’ve just gone home to rest instead of coming here.”
“How about we play a couple of rounds of the games we used to play first?”
Gu Leizhou pushed him away, giving him a disapproving look.
Song Pengtao forced a dry laugh. “Well, how about we exchange some chips and play a bit? You can’t learn this kind of game just by watching—you’ll pick it up after playing a couple of rounds.”
“Nice! Old Ji made a killing today!” As soon as the game ended, both the players and the onlookers seemed to fall into a frenzy. It was said that an old gambler had won over ten thousand in just two rounds.
Some of the people around were “acquaintances” who had spoken to Gu Leizhou before, and they all chimed in, urging him, “Old Ji also said he didn’t know how to play, but he ended up winning so much money in no time. Give it a try. Your buddy here is right—you don’t even need to watch this kind of game. You’ll get the hang of it after a couple of rounds.”
Gu Leizhou seemed somewhat persuaded. He took out his phone and opened his balance page, but soon wore a conflicted expression. “Forget it. I only have five thousand on me. If I lose it all, I’ll have to mortgage my car. I’d better study a bit more!”
Song Pengtao and the others trying to persuade him were momentarily speechless. Song Pengtao simply snatched Gu Leizhou’s phone outright. “Stop studying. I told you, how can you master the essence of this game just by studying? You have to try it yourself. I’ll go exchange chips for you!”
Gu Leizhou seemed frantic, trying to get his phone back but completely unable to match Song Pengtao’s speed. The people around him all held him back, preventing him from retrieving his phone.
The balance page was already open. Song Pengtao only needed to tap the payment code—no password required. Once this five thousand was exchanged for chips and lost, Brother Lei would get the car he wanted, and they’d all get a share of the spoils. Of course, they couldn’t let Gu Leizhou take his phone back.
Author’s Note:
Thank you to wife 56257308 for the 10 bottles of nutrient solution, and thank you to wife Tao for the 1 bottle of nutrient solution.