In a villa on the outskirts of Jingcheng, the September sunlight was especially intense. Inside the glass conservatory, the air conditioner hummed softly, sealing off the scorching heat outside. Gu Minxuan, dressed in a white casual short-sleeved shirt, sat inside, inhaling the aroma of freshly ground coffee in his hand while staring absentmindedly at the red desert rose in the room.
Beside him sat an elegant woman in her fifties. She held a pair of pruning shears and was carefully trimming the thorns from the rose. She glanced up at Gu Minxuan, who was lost in thought, and a loving smile spread across her face.
“You used to chatter nonstop. Why are you staring at my flowers in a daze today?”
Gu Minxuan came back to himself. “Aunt, does a relationship really have to involve love?”
He had been thinking about this question for an entire week. What exactly was a relationship? He could not understand why love had to be a prerequisite.
His uncle loved his mother, yet married his aunt. His mother loved his father, yet met a tragic end. What was love? It was completely unnecessary. Two people who did not love each other could still date and still get married.
So why was it not acceptable when it came to Lin Zhou?
Wen Qinglan smiled faintly, gentle and composed. “Our Little Xuan has finally come to his senses and wants to date?”
“Aunt, don’t tease me. I just don’t understand this. If two people see eye to eye, isn’t that enough? Why does it have to be called dating?” Lin Zhou had even thrown him a difficult question, asking him what dating actually meant. Eating together, going on dates, sleeping together, wasn’t that dating?
“Little Xuan, do you have a girl you like?” Wen Qinglan asked instead of answering.
“I wouldn’t say like or dislike. I just think she’s very special, different from the girls I met before. I want her, want her to become my possession.”
Wen Qinglan put down the rose in her hand. “I’m guessing the girl didn’t agree?”
Gu Minxuan neither confirmed nor denied it.
“No woman wants to be a man’s possession. Of course, women who only care about money are an exception. But if a woman desires love more than money, that means she isn’t materialistic.”
Wen Qinglan hit the nail on the head. If money could solve it, Gu Minxuan would not be so troubled over dating.
“Have you considered that she might be playing hard to get? Pretending not to care about money, insisting on love first, then taking a roundabout route to gain more?”
Gu Minxuan sighed and shook his head repeatedly. “There are people around her who are richer and more powerful than me.”
In other words, she truly did not care about money.
“Then she genuinely wants to date you,” Wen Qinglan said. There were not many girls these days who did not chase money. She was quite curious what kind of woman could make Gu Minxuan think so seriously about dating.
“No. She doesn’t seem to want to date me at all. When I said I wanted to date her, she asked me whether I even understood what dating was. She also said that dating without marriage in mind was just fooling around…”
For the first time, Gu Minxuan felt a sense of unfamiliarity and helplessness. All these years, he had never wanted a girlfriend. Now that he finally did, he had encountered an unprecedented problem, one even more troublesome than business.
Yet the more challenging something was, the more Gu Minxuan wanted to try.
That day, Lin Zhou had left him with a single sentence:
“President Gu, do you love me? If you don’t, then don’t talk to me about dating. Without love, where does a relationship come from?”
That decisive figure and those disdainful words left his emotions unsettled for a long time.
To think that someone in this world actually believed that two people had to rely on love to be together, it was utterly ridiculous.
Yet this ridiculous woman, with her distinctiveness, had successfully drawn Gu Minxuan in, forcing him to repeatedly reflect on the relationship between love and dating.
Wen Qinglan laughed at his words. “She wants feelings and marriage, yet you won’t give either. How could she be willing to date you? Little Xuan, it’s not that your aunt wants to lecture you, but you’re already thirty. You should seriously think about your own life. Are you planning to never get married because of what happened to your mother?”
She sighed softly. “Your father did wrong by your mother, but that doesn’t mean all marriages lack a foundation of love.”
Gu Minxuan wanted to argue that his aunt and uncle also lacked such a foundation, but he was afraid of hurting Wen Qinglan, so he did not bring it up.
Instead, Wen Qinglan seemed to see through his thoughts and spoke without any avoidance. “Between your uncle and me, at least I love him, and that’s enough. Your uncle treats me well and doesn’t have other women outside. Even if I’m just a substitute, I’ve never felt unhappy. In this lifetime, being able to marry the person you love is already a great happiness. If the person you love happens to love you as well, then that’s double the happiness.”
She paused before continuing, “Little Xuan, if a woman can make you think about what love is, then she must hold a great attraction for you. The fact that she makes you want to date her at all is already no small thing. You could try getting along with her properly. Maybe you’ll come to understand what love is.”
Gu Minxuan shrugged helplessly and took a sip of his coffee. It was a little cold. He set the cup down on the table. “She doesn’t really want to try dating me.”
After he emphasized this several times, Wen Qinglan faintly sensed his disappointment and was slightly surprised. She teased him, “Our Little Xuan is good-looking and wealthy, yet he’s actually being rejected by a girl. That’s rare.”
Gu Minxuan picked up the rose on the table and smelled it. The fragrance was light, rather pleasant. Looking at the fiery red rose, passionate, yet covered in thorns, it reminded him very much of Lin Zhou, who could not be bothered with him.
Thinking about it now, he really had been rejected. Directly, without the slightest attempt at tact.
“Pursuing someone requires sincerity,” Wen Qinglan said as she watched Gu Minxuan droop, looking like a defeated lion. “In the past, the girls around you were too easy to obtain, so you never understood that love requires taking the initiative. Little Xuan, if she really is special, you might as well follow the normal path and pursue her step by step. It’s not something that can be solved by saying, ‘I like you, let’s date.’ Besides, from what you’ve said, I can roughly tell that this girl isn’t swayed by superficial glamour. A non-utilitarian girl wants sincerity, she wants genuine feelings.”
Gu Minxuan, usually decisive and ruthless in business, remained silent. Wen Qinglan said no more. She understood him well. As long as he listened, he would think it through sooner or later.
Recently, there had been rumors throughout the company that President Gu had offended Assistant Lin. Several times when President Gu ran into Assistant Lin, she merely gave a slight nod and walked around him with an expressionless face.
Everyone knew that although Assistant Lin was Chairman Feng’s capable right-hand, she was fairly approachable and never neglected the proper courtesies toward senior management.
Not long ago, she had even gone out of her way to help President Gu save face, intimidating those who gossiped carelessly during a meeting. It had not been that long since then, yet her attitude toward President Gu had taken a complete one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. It was truly baffling.
Many people went to Huang Xiaowen to ask around. The most common question was, “I heard President Gu is quite a playboy. Could it be that he set his sights on Assistant Lin and ended up making her angry?”