While Fang Jinshi had plenty of relationship experience, he had absolutely zero knowledge when it came to pursuing someone.
Back then, his getting together with Li Jin had been a natural, effortless progression.
One day, Li Jin had simply said to him, “Shishi, let’s give it a try.”
He figured there was no harm in trying, and thus began that ill-fated romance.
And what a disaster it had been.
They were already broken up, yet it still had to cast a shadow over his next relationship.
Fang Jinshi could dismiss anyone else’s opinions, but he could never be indifferent to Gu Tuo’s.
How could he get Mr. Gu to overlook his status as his “nephew’s ex-boyfriend” and view him as a potential lover?
After racking his brain, Fang Jinshi decided to consult Baidu.
He typed into the search bar: “I’ve fallen for my ex-boyfriend’s uncle, how should I pursue him?”
He clicked search, only for the results to pop up with titles like: “Ex-boyfriend, please don’t, we’re already broken up” and “In the dead of night, Uncle came to my bedside to love me fiercely”.
Words failed Fang Jinshi.
He was momentarily rendered speechless.
It seemed Baidu was completely unreliable. If he wanted this done right, he would have to rely on himself!
Although he hadn’t formulated a concrete strategy yet, one rule always held true—he needed to frequently assert his presence in front of Mr. Gu.
Conveniently, an opportunity was staring him right in the face.
Finding Gu Tuo’s WeChat contact on his phone, Fang Jinshi fired off a message: [Mr. Gu, have you made it home yet? Remember to drink the herbal tea to ward off the cold!]
Predicting that Mr. Gu wouldn’t reply right away, and hearing his mother knocking on his door to tell him she had prepared sweet soup, Fang Jinshi pocketed his phone and stepped out of his room.
He and Gu Tuo had added each other on WeChat when they first established their friendship.
Fearing that Gu Tuo might be too busy with work, Fang Jinshi rarely initiated contact during the day; if there was anything to discuss, they usually chatted at night.
Even so, Gu Tuo wasn’t always available in the evenings.
The man was simply too busy. Day and night, he was entirely consumed by work.
Fang Jinshi wasn’t in Gu Tuo’s shoes, so he couldn’t tell whether the man genuinely thrived on the hustle or was merely persevering out of sheer necessity.
But looking at it from Gu Tuo’s perspective, Fang Jinshi couldn’t help but feel that while such a life was disciplined, it was inevitably too monotonous.
He wanted to bring a sense of lighthearted joy into the man’s life.
With that intention in mind, whenever Fang Jinshi came across an interesting news article, a captivating story, or a quirky piece of trivia, he would forward it to him.
Gu Tuo didn’t always reply promptly, but he read every single message thoroughly and offered precise, meticulous feedback, almost as if he were completing an assignment.
Recalling this, Fang Jinshi couldn’t help but smile faintly, finding the rigidly serious Mr. Gu rather endearing.
The sweet soup was handmade by Madam Fang.
Over the past few days, Fang Jewelry had taken on a massive order, leaving them drowning in work. Both Father Fang and Fang Jinshi’s older brother returned home every evening with exhaustion written all over their faces. Seeing this, Madam Fang had brewed the sweet soup to nourish them and lift their spirits.
By the time Fang Jinshi made his way downstairs, the sweet soup had already been brought to the table.
The caramelized, golden-brown broth was served in delicate, porcelain-white bowls—a single glance was enough to whet anyone’s appetite.
Fang Jinshi took a sip, and finding it absolutely delicious, he buried his face in his bowl and began to eat.
Delighted by his enthusiasm, Madam Fang scooped another half-bowl for him, effectively leaving him stuffed.
After finishing the soup, the family sat around the dining table chatting.
Fang Jinshi was listening intently to his father when his phone suddenly vibrated, instantly breaking his concentration.
Could it be a reply from Mr. Gu?
He pulled out his phone and opened WeChat. Sure enough, Gu Tuo’s response appeared at the very bottom of the chat log: [I drank it. It was very good.]
Those seven simple words caused a smile to bloom at the corners of his eyes and lips, impossible to conceal.
The rest of the Fang family immediately picked up on his sudden shift in mood. They traded knowing glances, and the pace of their conversation slowed significantly.
Oblivious to his family’s scrutiny, Fang Jinshi was busy typing his reply to Gu Tuo: [Don’t work too late tonight, make sure to get some proper rest. I won’t keep drowning you in thank-yous, so let me treat you to some delicious food next time!]
It offered care while seamlessly locking in a next time. Fang Jinshi was highly satisfied with his drafted message.
When Gu Tuo replied with a simple [Alright], Fang Jinshi’s heart settled completely.
Putting his phone away, he looked up, intending to resume listening to his father, only to find all three of his family members staring at him with intensely bright, searching gazes.
Fang Jinshi: “?”
The three elders immediately averted their eyes, feigning innocence.
Though they didn’t voice their questions, they were secretly celebrating in their hearts:
It looks like Shishi has truly moved on.
They always said that the best remedy for a broken heart was to start a new romance; it seemed there was some truth to that old adage after all.
They just didn’t know what Shishi’s new partner was like. They would have to keep a close eye out to vet the person properly for him.
On the other side of town, Gu Tuo drained the last drop of the herbal tea just as his phone chimed with another message from the youth.
The boy was worrying over him, urging him to rest well and promising to treat him to a good meal.
Under the cool, white glow of the lights, a soft warmth finally reached the depths of Gu Tuo’s eyes.
He had never cared much for culinary indulgence, yet every time he ate with the youth, his appetite miraculously improved.
Perhaps it wasn’t merely because the food itself was delicious, but rather because of the company?
Unconsciously, he found himself already looking forward to it.
The following morning, before Gu Tuo could receive an invitation from Fang Jinshi, he received a phone call from Li Jin instead.
It was roughly eleven in the morning when Li Jin called. Gu Tuo was in the middle of reviewing a financial report, and his brow furrowed the moment he saw his nephew’s name on the screen. He had told Li Jin countless times not to disturb him during working hours. Yet, as the phone rang repeatedly without pause, Gu Tuo was finally forced to take it seriously.
Could Li Jin actually be facing an emergency?
Gu Tuo picked up and inquired about the purpose of the call, only to discover that Li Jin had phoned him multiple times simply to invite him out for lunch.
Gu Tuo’s voice turned instantly frigid. “Li Jin, this is working hours.”
Li Jin was somewhat intimidated by his uncle, but the urgency in his chest overcame his fear when he remembered the information he had uncovered. “Uncle, even if you’re busy with work, you still have to eat. I was only afraid that if I called too late, you wouldn’t be available, which is why I reached out now. It won’t happen again. The restaurant I booked is right in the Guangyao Mansion, very close—the Western restaurant on the third floor. You must come! I want to talk to you about Fang Jinshi.”
Gu Tuo had initially intended to decline the invitation, but hearing Fang Jinshi’s name caused his brows to knit together sharply.
What did whatever Li Jin wanted to discuss have to do with Fang Jinshi?
Come lunchtime, Gu Tuo arrived at the Western restaurant.
The waiter led him toward the table Li Jin had reserved, but the moment he approached, he spotted Li Jin and Lin Nuo sitting close together, behaving in an intimate manner.
Gu Tuo’s brow furrowed automatically.
He held a deep distaste for Lin Nuo.
Granted, he knew perfectly well that in the relationship between Li Jin and Lin Nuo, Li Jin was the one driving the narrative. Even so, Lin Nuo’s willingness to degrade himself and cater to Li Jin even after discovering he was merely a substitute was genuinely pathetic.
If Lin Nuo stayed out of his sight, Gu Tuo could maintain his peace of mind and ignore him.
But now, Li Jin claimed he wanted to discuss Fang Jinshi, yet he had brought this Lin Nuo along. Gu Tuo truly couldn’t fathom what was going on inside his nephew’s head.
Noticing Gu Tuo’s gaze, Lin Nuo shrank toward his lover like a startled little bird.
This movement instantly triggered Li Jin’s protective instincts. Shielding Lin Nuo behind his shoulder, he forced a smile. “Uncle, you’re here.”
As if suddenly remembering something, he picked up a small, elegant box from the table. “When Nuonuo heard I was meeting you today, he said he wanted to see you too. He dragged me to the mall yesterday just to pick out this greeting gift for you. Ever since we bought it, he’s been anxious, worrying whether you’d like it or not.”
Gu Tuo cast a cold, indifferent glance at the box. “As the saying goes, one should not accept rewards without merit. I do not understand the intention behind this, so I will not accept this gift.”
The anticipation draining from Lin Nuo’s face left him instantly looking pale.
Ached by his lover’s distress, Li Jin quickly intervened on his behalf. “Uncle, please just accept it. This is just a token of respect from us as your juniors.”
Juniors?
Gu Tuo was glad he was still relatively young; otherwise, he might have suffered a stroke from this brainless fool’s sheer stupidity.
If a cold attitude wasn’t enough to establish boundaries, then there was no need to spare his feelings. “I have never recognized him as a junior of either the Gu family or the Li family.”
Tears instantly welled in Lin Nuo’s eyes. He lowered his gaze in deep grievance, his fingers nervously picking at his trousers in a thoroughly pitiful display. “Unc— Mr. Gu is right. I am not a member of the Li family yet. Please, Mr. Gu, just consider me a friend tagging along.”
Gu Tuo had heard countless people address him respectfully as “Mr. Gu,” yet he never expected that after growing accustomed to Fang Jinshi’s bright voice, hearing Lin Nuo utter those exact words would feel so deeply grating.
Gu Tuo frowned, shifting his gaze back to Li Jin. Predictably, Li Jin’s eyes were fixed entirely on Lin Nuo, his face twisted with profound heartache and tenderness.
Gu Tuo pinched the bridge of his nose, deciding to drop the matter. He merely wanted to settle this quickly so he could return to his office. This nephew, whom he had spent years grooming, currently looked far less appealing than a stack of paperwork.
“Speak. What is this about?”
Hearing Gu Tuo’s biting tone, Li Jin felt a surge of resentment in his chest.
He hated seeing Lin Nuo suffer any grievances, and he hadn’t intended to bring him along today. But Lin Nuo had somehow sensed his turmoil, looking at him with eyes as gentle as water as he said, “Hubby, I am your partner. We are one. I want to face and resolve problems right by your side.” He had ultimately surrendered to his lover’s devotion and compromised.
Precisely because his heart was filled with moving gratitude, seeing Lin Nuo suffer his uncle’s cold rejection purely out of love and concern for him made Li Jin feel a volatile mix of guilt and adoration.
In this world, only he knew how deeply Xiao Nuo loved him. No matter how much he sacrificed for Xiao Nuo, it was entirely justified.
Li Jin’s expression darkened. Thinking back to the intelligence report he had received last night regarding the frequent interactions between Fang Jinshi and Gu Tuo, he spoke in a heavy, ominous tone: “Uncle, I heard that recently, Fang Jinshi has been constantly entangling himself with you.”
The mere word “entangling” caused Gu Tuo’s brow to twitch violently.
Li Jin was highly adept at reading people’s expressions. Seeing his uncle’s face cloud over, he paused. But on second thought, as the old proverb went—honest advice grates on the ear. The words he was about to say might not be what Gu Tuo wanted to hear, but since it was genuinely for his uncle’s own good, he had no choice but to speak the truth.
Analyzing the situation entirely from his own warped perspective, Li Jin provided a calculated breakdown of Fang Jinshi’s motives.
In his view, Fang Jinshi and Gu Tuo had never shared much of a connection in the past; as his boyfriend, Fang Jinshi had only ever crossed paths with Gu Tuo a handful of times.
Yet, ever since Fang Jinshi returned to the country, Li Jin had repeatedly offered his humblest apologies in hopes of earning his forgiveness. Instead of accepting, Fang Jinshi had subjected him to endless humiliation, even viciously mocking him and Lin Nuo as a textbook “toxic scumbag and a pathetic enabler.”
To Li Jin, Fang Jinshi’s volatile behavior was clear evidence that he had been deeply traumatized by the breakup. Everything he was doing now—frequently inserting himself into Gu Tuo’s life—was a calculated act of retaliation. Though his ultimate goal remained unclear, his intentions were undoubtedly insidious.
“Uncle, you really need to be on your guard against him. Don’t let him get too close to you!”
Li Jin drove his point home with this final warning, only to watch Gu Tuo’s expression darken to an ominous depth.
Gu Tuo’s eyes looked as though they held shards of freezing starlight. When he directed his sharp gaze at his nephew, an icy dread instantly seeped into Li Jin’s heart.
“Li Jin,” Gu Tuo said, his voice dropping an octave. “You had me investigated.”
Four simple words, yet they carried an undercurrent of dangerous turbulence.
A cold sweat broke out across Li Jin’s back. He never expected Gu Tuo’s focus to latch onto that specific detail. Panicking, he scrambled to defend himself. “No, that’s not it. Uncle, I didn’t investigate you on purpose. I was just worried about you—worried that you’d fall into Fang Jinshi’s trap.”
“I am perfectly capable of exercising my own judgment,” Gu Tuo interrupted coldly.
Li Jin found the phrase jarringly familiar. Upon closer reflection, he remembered that when Gu Tuo had first expressed disapproval regarding Lin Nuo, Li Jin had thrown those exact words back at him. From that day onward, Gu Tuo had never offered him another piece of advice.
But now, he had the audacity to micromanage his own uncle. Realizing this, Li Jin felt a wave of acute embarrassment wash over him.
Nevertheless, the glaring reality that his own flesh and blood was growing so close to Fang Jinshi triggered a massive sense of crisis. Refusing to back down, Li Jin opened his mouth again, adding fuel to the fire as he shamelessly degraded Fang Jinshi’s character.
Before he could get far, Gu Tuo cut him off. “Li Jin, stop.”
Li Jin’s words died in his throat.
Looking up, he saw that Gu Tuo’s face was as still as deep water, but a dangerous storm of anger was brewing in his eyes. “Slandering your ex is an incredibly classless thing to do. I expect you to never do it again.”
It wasn’t that Li Jin had never been disciplined by Gu Tuo before. While his uncle was known for being fierce and efficient in business, he had always respected Li Jin’s feelings when mentoring him, never using harsh or degrading language.
Scathing indictments like “slandering” and “classless”—Li Jin had never heard such words cross his uncle’s lips.
Watching Gu Tuo’s thin lips part to dismiss him so effortlessly, Li Jin’s blood ran cold. He subconsciously snapped back, “Me, classless? I don’t believe for a second that he hasn’t whined to you about our breakup or called me a miserable scumbag behind my back!”
Ever since passing through adolescence, Li Jin hadn’t dared to raise his voice at Gu Tuo. Even during his most rebellious years, speaking to his uncle in such a tone would have resulted in a severe handling.
But Li Jin was genuinely losing his emotional control.
He couldn’t fathom what kind of spell Fang Jinshi had cast over Gu Tuo to make him distrust his own nephew in favor of defending a complete outsider.
What chilled him even more was Gu Tuo’s calm response to his outburst: “Was he wrong to call you that? In that relationship, you were indeed the one who wronged him.”
Li Jin felt a wave of bitter cold wash over his entire body, leaving him utterly miserable. “I know! I know I wronged him, and I apologized with total sincerity! But he refused to accept it, and now he’s intentionally targeting you! Look at you—you’re completely on his side now. He’s already turned everyone against me and left me isolated, what more does he want?”
Staring at his nephew’s bloodshot eyes and hysterical demeanor, Gu Tuo felt nothing but profound disappointment. “You call your current interrogation and hatred ‘total sincerity’?”
“Do not project your own twisted malice onto him,” Gu Tuo stated, pronouncing each syllable with heavy, unyielding authority. “He is a good person. He has never harbored any desire to target you; his only wish is for the two of you to remain complete strangers. Nor did he intentionally approach me. We happen to be kindred spirits—we are close and trusted friends.”
Trusted friends?
What a beautiful joke!
Li Jin let out a cold, cynical laugh.
If someone told him Fang Jinshi and Gu Tuo had genuinely become platonic friends, he wouldn’t believe it in a million years.
There was an old saying that a distant friend should not come between close kin, yet Gu Tuo was shielding this “friend” so fiercely that he didn’t hesitate to paint his own nephew as a deceitful, dark-minded rat in a gutter. And he still had the nerve to claim they were just “friends.”
What an absolute load of garbage.
Once again, Li Jin felt the crushing weight of his isolated reality. Looking around, he realized that in the entire world, Lin Nuo was the only one who sincerely stood by him.
Suffused with bitterness, he completely lost his appetite. “Uncle, please enjoy your meal. The bill is on my account. Nuonuo and I will take our leave.”
Gu Tuo had no intention of sharing a table with him anyway. He brushed a speck of imaginary dust from his lapel, stood up before them, and said, “There is no need. I have other matters to attend to.”
This meal was something he, too, had absolutely no interest in eating.