“President Gu, there’s… no one in the room.” Number Two lowered his head, his voice trailing off.
It was his fault, really. The president had told him to go back and keep watch, but the moment he arrived at the hotel, he discovered that the person who’d spent the night with the president had run off.
Gu Jinji’s face darkened at once, his eyes black and intimidating. Number Two felt even guiltier, wishing he could drop to his knees and beg forgiveness.
Seeing his younger brother’s state, Number One hurried to say, “President Gu, I checked the surveillance footage. It showed…”
Gu Jinji shifted his gaze to Number One. His expressionless face made Number One’s heart pound like a drum. The pressure was immense.
“Ahem, ahem… The person left with an orange-yellow scarf draped over him. The hotel security guards even stopped him at the entrance.”
“Did you find out who he was?” Gu Jinji asked lightly, but the question sent a jolt through Number One.
“No.” Number One tensed all over, looking somewhat nervous. “But I’ve already found a little information.”
“Speak!”
“His name is Yu Rong. His address is Villa 1-105, Xintiancheng Seaside Resort.”
Gu Jinji raised an eyebrow. Yu Rong. The name sounded strangely familiar.
Wasn’t that the name of the son the Yu family’s new wife had brought with her?
As for that address, he’d never heard of it before.
When he heard that Yu Rong had been mistaken for a perverted serial killer and taken to the police station, Gu Jinji’s face grew so dark it looked ready to drip ink. That was what Number One had learned from the police.
Well, wasn’t he something!
The man he’d dreamed of for eighteen years, the man of his dreams, had been taken for a perverted murderer and landed in the police station just to get away from him!
“Keep investigating!”
The desk let out a thunderous bang. Papers flew everywhere, drifting aimlessly before scattering across the floor, as if foreshadowing their own miserable fate.
Number One and Number Two both shrank their shoulders in unison, then hurried off to investigate without wasting a second.
The oppressive atmosphere in the office persisted right up until the secretary came in to report, and even then it didn’t lift.
Qin Yu was the Gu Group president’s personal, top-tier male secretary. He and President Gu had been classmates at the same university.
Even back in school, he’d been afraid of President Gu’s dark expression. After he joined the company, that impassive face only grew more intimidating. Anyone who saw it would shudder and start trembling.
Feeling the cold aura surrounding the president, Qin Yu nearly froze to death. He wondered if something had happened at the company today to make the president angry.
Had some part of the company not been cleaned properly, or had an employee made a mistake?
“Wait.” Those sharp eyes fixed on Qin Yu, cutting into him like knives, piece by piece.
“Do you know where the Xintiancheng Seaside Resort villas are?”
Qin Yu shuddered and quickly ran through everything he knew before cautiously asking, “President Gu, is that a new development?”
Gu Jinji looked at him for a couple of seconds, his expression weary, then waved a hand.
“You can go.”
So that address really had been fake. All eighteen years of his love had been for that man.
For his sake, from childhood to adulthood, he’d never touched a woman other than his mother.
He’d given him everything, and yet he wanted nothing to do with him!
Yu!
Rong!
Yu Rong!
He didn’t even know whether that was his real name…
Gu Jinji viciously repeated the name in his mind. He looked so eager to tear Yu Rong apart and drink his blood that anyone would have thought Yu Rong was his mortal enemy.
Qin Yu left. Before closing the office door, he stole a glance at Gu Jinji and saw his faintly twisted expression. His heart gave a violent jolt, and he nearly snapped the doorknob off.
As soon as Qin Yu came out, everyone crowded around to ask him what was going on.
“The president…” Qin Yu drew a finger across his throat, signaling that President Gu was in an exceptionally foul mood!
The whole company began to feel on edge, afraid of doing anything that might anger the president. Even the employees tasked with delivering documents to his office pushed and shoved to avoid being chosen. And even those who were eventually picked looked as if they were on their way to a funeral.
Meanwhile, Yu Rong, the man everyone was talking about, was living the good life. Food and clothes were brought right to him, and Yu Chen wouldn’t let him lift a finger for practically anything.
Yu Rong lounged on the bed, watching a movie and snacking. Even when he got up, Yu Chen would tuck a pillow behind him, taking care of him as if he were pregnant.
Watching Yu Chen bustle around after him, Yu Rong suddenly thought having an older brother was pretty great.
Back at the hotel, when he’d seen the original owner, who looked exactly like him, he hadn’t given it much thought. Who’d have guessed he’d come from such a powerful family?
If he remembered correctly, the original novel had given the vicious cannon-fodder Yu Rong a rather unusual background.
The Yu family was a blended family. Yu Rong’s original name was Lian Rong, and his mother was the best actress, Lian Yi.
As the son of a single mother, he’d been hounded by reporters since childhood, always having to dodge them. As a result, he’d grown into a rather timid and useless person.
After his mother married into the Yu family, he took the name Yu Rong. With the Yu family backing him, he went on to set his sights on three random men. Ahem, three powerful big shots.
He’d thought that with the Yu family’s status, making a little fuss wouldn’t matter.
Who could have guessed that all three men would have countless ties to the male lead? In the end, the male lead stole them away, leaving Yu Rong disgraced and dying a miserable death.
The Yu family had also taken on the Bai family and the Gu family at the same time, and with various other powers uniting against it, its assets quickly dwindled.
Yu Chen died in a car accident. Yu Meng, the younger brother who hadn’t even been born yet, later died suddenly on the operating table. The best actress, Lian Yi, was exposed in one scandal after another and driven to take sleeping pills and end her life.
The head of the Yu family, crushed by the loss of his family, suffered a stroke and spent the rest of his life in an obscure nursing home.
That was what happened when you crossed the male lead!
If he could, he’d rather stay away from the male lead. He had no intention of pursuing President Gu or that whole crowd of men who adored the male lead. He just wanted to live a quiet, peaceful life of his own.
After two days of recuperation at the villa, Yu Chen decided to take him home.
Over those two days, Yu Chen had noticed that his formerly frail younger stepbrother had changed and seemed to have lost some of his memories. But he hadn’t let on. He’d only instructed someone to look into what Yu Rong had been doing lately. Yu Rong had been missing for so many days that even the Yu family’s information network couldn’t find anything about him.
Yu Chen suspected someone was targeting him.
Yu Rong was extremely nervous. He was about to meet the cannon-fodder’s stepfather and the best-actress birth mother who had raised the original owner, and Yu Rong was worried he’d give himself away.
The Yu family villa was at 1-107, Yunzhong Residential Community, on the outskirts of Jingdu. The families living in that area were all among the top tier in China, and the security patrols were staffed by retired soldiers.
The outer ring was home to families of somewhat lower standing. It was called Moonlight Residential Community, but even there, villas were nearly impossible to come by.
After all, if you wanted to enter high society, the first thing you needed was a villa on the outskirts of Jingdu.
The car passed through seven or eight layers of security scans before it was allowed in. Even then, it was only because the security team recognized Yu Chen and could skip a few steps.
Soon, the car stopped in an underground parking garage on the second basement level.
“This is our villa’s parking garage?” Yu Rong turned his head and saw row upon row of imported cars, including quite a few limited editions. His eyes lit up.
What man didn’t love cars?
Yu Chen gave him a look of concern for his intelligence. “All three underground levels are our family’s garage.”
He really had been ignorant. His apologies!
Back when his own family had been at its most extravagant, they’d only had one big garage. Nothing this lavish.
Yu Chen looked at Yu Rong, his gaze lingering on him for two seconds. He seemed worried about hurting his younger brother’s feelings, so he awkwardly added, “If you like, we can build a fourth level just for your cars!”
Could you just build a garage whenever you felt like it?
How could they be so extravagant? What he really wanted was one of those limited-edition cars in the garage!
Yu Chen watched Yu Rong stand there, all obedient and well-behaved, head lowered, his gaze sneaking again and again toward a limited-edition Rolls-Royce Phantom.
It was the special Olympic edition, with only three in the world. The Spirit of Ecstasy on the hood was draped in the British flag, and the center of the steering wheel was set with a laurel wreath and torch design, symbols unique to the Olympics.
To think he could see this car here! Before, Yu Rong had only been able to look it up on Qidu. A complicated feeling stirred in Yu Chen, and, inexplicably, resentment toward the rich rose up from deep inside him.
Yu Chen ruffled Yu Rong’s smooth black hair and, for once, let a smile show. His face was usually so stern, but when he smiled, it was like the snow melting. Old Li’s heart gave a twitch, and he felt terribly frightened.
“Let’s go in.”
Yu Rong wasn’t particularly affected. Without the memories, he had no idea how rare it was for his big brother to smile.
“Okay.”
“Rongrong, I’ve missed you so much! Where have you been all this time?” They hadn’t even reached the villa before a figure rushed out and pulled Yu Rong into a tight embrace. The front of his shirt was immediately soaked with tears.