Study.
Gu Yanjun sat upright on the rosewood chair, his cane leaning against the armrest. His stern expression softened.
“When did you get back?”
Gu Beiyan poured tea and brought it to his side.
“Yesterday. Has your leg still been hurting recently?”
He set down the teacup, knelt on one knee, and massaged Gu Yanjun’s right leg.
That accident had nearly cost both their lives, but Gu Yanjun had risked his life to protect him. Because of this, his leg was left with a chronic ailment. Not only was his mobility limited, but whenever the weather turned bad, it would ache piercingly, and the muscles had deteriorated to varying degrees.
He always claimed it was just due to old age, but Gu Beiyan knew it was caused by protecting him back then.
Gu Yanjun sighed. “You came back yesterday but didn’t tell me. Were you planning to go straight to the engagement venue to snatch someone away?”
Gu Beiyan raised his eyes, his sharp gaze curving into a hint of slyness.
“How could that be? I am not that kind of person.”
Gu Yanjun glared at him, thinking to himself: Do I not know you?
“How many days are you staying this time?”
Gu Beiyan stood up and sat opposite him.
“I don’t want to leave.”
Having fled for eight years, his wings were now fully grown. His second brother was no longer a threat to him, and he had absolute confidence that he could protect the person he wanted to protect.
Gu Yanjun looked at him for a moment, picked up his teacup, took a sip, and slowly set it back down.
“If you don’t want to leave, then don’t. It just so happens that I am getting old, and I can rest easy leaving the company’s affairs to you. It is just…”
His brow furrowed tightly as he suddenly paused.
Gu Beiyan understood what he was worried about and spoke first.
“Don’t worry, I will handle the matter with Nansheng properly.”
Gu Yanjun nodded. “Mhm. We are a family, after all, and we should stay together properly. This was also your father’s final instruction before he passed away.”
Gu Beiyan let out a low chuckle, agreeing out loud on the surface while complaining inwardly: You treat Second Brother like family, but Second Brother certainly doesn’t think so.
When Gu Beiyan came down from the study, Gu Bochuan’s family was just about to drag Gu Hongyu to the Xu family to apologize.
Because Gu Hongyu had previously said those unfilial words in front of his eldest uncle, Gu Bochuan was still angry with him and told him to take a taxi to the Xu family himself.
“If I don’t see you at the Xu family, I am severing our father-son relationship.”
Just as Gu Beiyan drove his car to the entrance, Gu Bochuan’s car had already pulled away, leaving Gu Hongyu standing alone and desolate at the gate.
In his anger, he raised his fist and punched a nearby tree to vent his frustration.
“Ah! Damn it, it hurts so much!”
Gu Beiyan watched all of this from inside the car and couldn’t help but let out a scoff. Only after Gu Hongyu had spun around and jumped in place in pain for several circles did he leisurely pull his car up in front of him.
“Going to the Xu family?”
Gu Hongyu forced back the pain in his hand bones, pretending as if nothing had happened, and replied with pressed lips.
“Yeah.”
“I will give you a ride.”
For a split second, Gu Hongyu was pleasantly surprised.
Everyone of their generation knew that no one did not fear Gu Beiyan. Even though he never bullied anyone, they had felt an instinctive, bone-deep awe toward this uncle who was only a few years older than them since childhood.
Gu Hongyu feared him, but he also admired him.
Gu Beiyan had been outstanding since childhood, existing like an overpowered character in a game, making him seem hopelessly out of reach. Naturally, it was impossible for him to look down upon them.
Yet today, he could clearly sense that his uncle was being quite good to him. In the old family estate, he had been the only one speaking up for him, and now he had even volunteered to give him a ride. A trace of warmth welled up in Gu Hongyu’s heart.
On the way to the Xu family, using gratitude as an excuse, he began to air his grievances to his uncle.
“Uncle, don’t you think my parents are completely unreasonable? They keep saying they will not interfere with my happiness, but when I want to marry Qing’er, they stubbornly refuse no matter what. Every time Xu Nansheng and I have an argument, they force me to go to the Xu family to apologize and make amends. I am completely sick of it. They manipulate me like a puppet. Where on earth are there parents like this?”
He rattled on about his dissatisfaction with his parents, while Gu Beiyan occasionally chimed in to speak a few words on Gu Bochuan’s behalf, saying that they did not have it easy either and urging Gu Hongyu to show more understanding toward his parents.
Yet the more Gu Beiyan advised him, the deeper Gu Hongyu’s resentment toward his parents grew. He even went so far as to make fierce threats, declaring that even if it meant severing ties with his father, he would never let them manipulate him into marrying Xu Nansheng.
“I will never let them manipulate me again! This time, I will fight for my own happiness myself!”
Gu Beiyan parked the car without rushing to go inside, leaning lazily against the car body. He fished a cigarette out of his pocket, clamped it between his lips, tilted his head slightly, and lit it.
Exhaling the blue smoke leisurely, he said casually,
“Your parents will see your determination.”
It sounded like encouragement, but in reality, it was a reminder.
Gu Hongyu thought about it and felt that his uncle was right. If his parents saw their determination to be together, they would surely agree to let him marry Qing’er.
Taking one final puff of his cigarette, Gu Beiyan caught sight of the dialing screen on Gu Hongyu’s phone. He extinguished the cigarette in his hand with satisfaction and unconsciously sniffed his sleeve.
Good thing the smell is not too strong.
Xu Nansheng was completely unsurprised by the arrival of Gu Bochuan and Gong Mieshuang.
When the two of them walked in carrying large and small bags, Dong Man was nearby discussing the art exhibition with people from the gallery, while Xu Lingyue was answering a phone call. Since the male lead had vanished from yesterday’s engagement banquet, such concerned phone calls had poured in one after another without stopping.
Busy with their affairs, neither of them showed any intention of paying attention to Gu Bochuan and Gong Mieshuang. The dignified Second Master and Second Madam of the Gu family were left standing stiffly in the lobby like two pieces of wood.
Xu Nansheng sat on a sofa a bit further away, a manicurist seated across from her doing her nails. Her older brother, Xu Jingze, wore a worried expression as he urged her to stay far away from Gu Beiyan.
“Gu Hongyu is a scumbag at most, but he does not have much of a brain. Gu Beiyan is completely different. Crossing paths with him is no good thing. On the surface, the Gu family looks peaceful, but underneath it is fraught with danger. People losing their lives is completely normal. Do not get involved with anyone, but whatever you do, do not get involved with Gu Beiyan. Did you hear me?”
Truth be told, Xu Nansheng was also afraid of Gu Beiyan. She had been afraid of him since childhood.
Yet listening to her brother’s words right now, she felt that her brother was exaggerating. Perhaps it was because of the wild, frenzied night they had shared, or because she had witnessed another side hidden behind his cold exterior, giving her the illusion that Gu Beiyan was not as terrifying as people made him out to be.
He was actually quite gentlemanly and gentle.
Still, why on earth was her brother so worried?
“Brother, what on earth did Uncle say to you when he called you yesterday?”
“What else could he say? He said the Gu family’s discipline was lax for producing a good-for-nothing like Gu Hongyu, and that since you happened to run into him, out of a senior’s responsibility, he safely escorted you to the hotel and told us not to worry.”
He did indeed safely escort her to the hotel, but that word, senior, felt peculiar.
Recalling the madness of last night, Xu Nansheng blushed with shame.
This damned sense of forbidden transgression.
While the brother and sister were whispering to each other, a tall figure appeared at the doorway.
Sensing something, Xu Nansheng raised her eyes to look. He was standing against the light, the warm yellow sunlight casting a golden halo all around him.
His expression was unclear, but Xu Nansheng inexplicably felt as though he was in quite a good mood.