Lin Zhou nodded slightly, signaling her farewell. Her car was almost there. She turned to leave, but Gu Minxuan grabbed her wrist. She frowned. “President Gu, what do you mean by this?”
This was their first meeting, right? She had done nothing improper at the dinner. How could he assume she was the kind of woman anyone could pull along at will?
“Assistant Lin doesn’t recognize me?” Gu Minxuan finally released her wrist. This had been his question all evening. If Lin Zhou had truly seen him before, she should have been just as shocked. Yet the whole night she had remained calm, showing no reaction.
“President Gu, you must be joking. You are our company’s vice president. How could I not recognize you?” Lin Zhou lifted the corners of her mouth. She was annoyed but not upset.
Before meeting Gu Minxuan, she had heard about him: never serious about relationships, constantly changing women, the typical spoiled rich second-generation syndrome.
Gu Minxuan began to doubt himself. Could he really have misremembered two months ago? His memory was always sharp, and Lin Zhou was his only partner in B City. How could he be wrong?
He smiled. “Just asking casually.”
He glanced at her wrist. “Your wrist is all bone. I couldn’t resist holding it to see if it would hurt.”
Lin Zhou did not believe a word of it.
“All right then. I’ll go, good night, President Gu.” Her impression of him remained negative. A typical playboy.
Wang Peng’s car arrived. Gu Minxuan strode in and instructed, “Check Hefeng Terry Hotel records from the day before I left. See if Lin Zhou stayed there as well.”
Wang Peng was puzzled but complied.
In the past, it might have been difficult to access hotel records, but now, as vice president of Hefeng, it was easy.
The hotel soon confirmed that Lin Zhou had indeed stayed at the Hefeng Terry Hotel that night, directly opposite Gu Minxuan in room 3868.
Gu Minxuan was now certain that Lin Zhou was the woman from that night, yet she had completely forgotten him. “Interesting,” he murmured.
Lin Zhou did not expect to meet Gu Minxuan again only twenty minutes after their previous encounter.
When the elevator at her apartment opened, she was surprised to see Gu Minxuan emerging from the underground garage. “President Gu lives here?” she frowned, finding the coincidence hard to believe.
The man who had just grabbed her wrist was now at her door. If he claimed to be visiting a friend, she could confidently say he was stalking her.
“Yes, the 18th floor. Assistant Lin, you live here too?” Gu Minxuan smiled lightly. They seemed to share a strange kind of fate.
Lin Zhou forced a small smile. “I live on the 16th floor,” she said, pressing the floor button.
They fell into silence. Lin Zhou was not naturally sociable and did not enjoy initiating conversation with unfamiliar people unless work required it.
Gu Minxuan remained quiet as well. He wanted to ask why she had forgotten him, but since they worked at the same company and would meet often, bringing it up would only create awkwardness.
The elevator reached the 16th floor. Lin Zhou said goodbye, but Gu Minxuan followed her out. She shot him a sidelong glance, her displeasure evident. “President Gu, do you still have business here?”
“Nothing, just familiarizing myself with the building,” he said, testing her to see if she was a careless woman.
Lin Zhou pointed politely at her door. “President Gu, I am usually busy with work and do not cook at home.” She subtly rejected him, indicating he should not come over for meals.
Gu Minxuan was not naive. He understood her words. The more serious she appeared, the more he wanted to tease her. “I don’t cook either. What a coincidence. Perhaps we can share a meal sometime.”
Lin Zhou snorted. Was he shameless? She had made her refusal clear, yet he insisted.
Tired of the back-and-forth, she checked the time. “It’s late. I won’t invite you for coffee. I have work tomorrow. You should rest early too, President Gu.”
“But I’m not tired,” he said, pretending not to understand. Seeing her nearly lose her composure, he relented. “Since you are sleepy, Assistant Lin, I’ll invite you for coffee another day.”
Lin Zhou thought to herself that she had no intention of going.
She had encountered senior executives with designs on her, including Zhang Yang, who had pursued her. Once rumors about her and Feng Hexu spread, they had gradually restrained themselves.
Lin Zhou was smart. Even if she revealed a boyfriend, those hunters would not give up.
Thus, she remained ambiguous, neither confirming nor denying rumors to protect herself.
This Gu Minxuan seemed different, unrestrained by appearances. “Goodbye,” she said with a polite tilt of her head, effectively sending him away.
Lin Zhou, exhausted, returned home, quickly showered, and went straight to bed, adjusting easily without jet lag.
Gu Minxuan had already been forgotten.
Lin Zhou truly did not remember the man from that night. She had been too drunk, and their meeting had been brief. After two months, how could she recall him?
Her impression of the man was simply that he was handsome, like Lee Min-ho. She thought this because of Xie Wei’s influence.
For a while, she avoided contacting Xie Wei to prevent the subject from coming up. Two months later, Xie Wei never mentioned it, so Lin Zhou assumed the boy had been cleared up.
True to her routine, Lin Zhou woke at six the next morning, no matter how late she had slept the day before.
Since Feng Hexu was out of the country, she did not have to start work so early. Feeling unwell recently, she decided to go for a run. The apartment had a jogging path of two to three hundred meters per lap, lined with willow trees. The morning breeze swayed the leaves gently.
After three laps, someone appeared beside her. She glanced sideways and saw Gu Minxuan in black athletic wear, smiling. “Good morning, Assistant Lin.”
Coincidentally, he also ran in the morning, only a few minutes behind her.
Lin Zhou thought he was relentless but returned a polite smile.
Gu Minxuan noticeably slowed his pace to match hers. Lin Zhou was not pleased but could not show it, as his position was higher. “President Gu, please run at your own pace,” she said politely.
He replied, “It’s fine. I can run at any pace,” displaying his usual attentiveness.