What did Big Sister say again? When someone you have no relation to adopts you as a brother, there is a very high chance they are a green tea person, but someone like Little Bull should probably just be counted as coffee?
Wait a minute. Why would he want me as a brother? Wouldn’t it be better to try and get some of my money? Why target my personal favor instead? Silver-tongued as he was, Gong Nanxing was once again short-circuited by Little Bull’s direct pitch.
“Mr. Gong, if you’re not happy about it, never mind. I was just joking around.”
“No, go ahead and call me that. I thought it was a big deal.” Seeing that Little Bull’s large eyes were filled with disappointment, Gong Nanxing gave in and agreed. Well, now he had successfully saddled himself with a student he couldn’t get rid of, and on top of that, a younger brother.
“Really? That’s great! Actually, Big Brother, I’ve always felt you were a really approachable person, and I just wanted to call you brother.”
Once he was satisfied, Little Bull beamed from ear to ear. Seeing that the wall clock indicated it wasn’t early anymore, Gong Nanxing told him to quickly practice today’s Mandarin homework, and if it got too late to take a taxi back to school, he would reimburse him. Only then did Little Bull fish his notebook out of his backpack, follow the example sentences Gong Nanxing had written, and start spelling and reading out loud character by character.
Gong Nanxing watched for a while, correcting mistakes from time to time. Watching how every single organ on Little Bull’s face participated in the rhythm every time he spoke Mandarin, he couldn’t help feeling worried. If Little Bull’s commercial value was sixty percent based on his physique, his face had to account for forty percent! If his facial features flew everywhere the moment he spoke, they couldn’t exactly just cut away the camera during a live stream, could they?
He could teach him how to fix incorrect intonations, but how on earth do you coach someone’s speaking demeanor? He couldn’t have Little Bull copy him; he had worn this exact expression since the day he was born, and forcing a poker face onto Little Bull wouldn’t match his youthful, pure college student vibe at all.
As he thought about it, Gong Nanxing sighed with worry, which immediately made Little Bull extremely nervous. Looking up with wide, eager eyes, Little Bull asked, “Big Brother, did I read that badly?”
“Huh? No. You can practice up to here for today. The words are all passing, and tomorrow we’ll move on to short phrases.” It wasn’t time yet to adjust his speaking demeanor anyway. Gong Nanxing still needed to find time to go online, look for case studies, and research, so he decided to let the cow off the hook for today.
“It’s getting late. Even though you’re a sturdy young man, going back too late isn’t safe. Let me pack some things for you, and I’ll send you downstairs to grab a cab.”
Lifting his hand to check his watch, Gong Nanxing stood up to pack some items for Little Bull to take. Little Bull quickly packed his schoolbag, turned around, and cleaned up the tableware on the desk. By the time Gong Nanxing came back carrying a paper bag, he found the cow vigorously washing the bowls.
“Leave it there. I do know how to wash bowls.”
“It’s fine, I’m really fast at chores! Big Brother, are you really giving me stuff?”
“Since you called me brother, did you expect to get away with a freebie?”
Even though Gong Nanxing still wore a cold expression while saying this, Little Bull could just tell he was being entirely sincere. So, he happily ran out of Gong Nanxing’s apartment with the trash in one hand and the gift in the other to press the elevator button.
“You don’t need to walk me down, Big Brother! Send me a message next time you haven’t eaten!”
Ah, youth. From six in the morning until now, he still possessed such vibrant human energy. After waving goodbye to Little Bull outside the elevator, the exhaustion of the entire day instantly washed over Gong Nanxing’s body and soul. After taking a quick shower and enduring his drowsiness just long enough to send Little Bull a red packet for his cab fare, he rushed off to meet the God of Dreams.
He didn’t know that Little Bull never claimed the cab fare, rode his little electric scooter like the wind, and managed to catch the last subway train. Sitting on the empty bench inside the carriage, breathing evenly with a smiling face, he eagerly opened the bag Gong Nanxing had given him. Inside was a brand-new, never-before-opened razor and an expensive brand of aftershave that Little Bull had never seen before, bought just today.
This must be very expensive. Little Bull couldn’t help furrowing his brow. He idolized mature, calm, and resourceful business elite men like Gong Nanxing and couldn’t help wanting to get closer to him, but he didn’t want Gong Nanxing to think he was just after freebies when he called him brother. What should he do?
Little Bull opened his backpack, placed the chopstick he had used during practice earlier right alongside these gifts, and zipped them up together inside the bag. Looking at the flickering lights outside the subway window, he couldn’t come up with a good answer for the time being.
“Mr. Gong, this is today’s summary document collected by various departments regarding the cross-border cultural tourism project. Please take a look.”
Qiao Xi knocked on Gong Nanxing’s door, holding yesterday’s spoils of war. Although she didn’t mean to, her gaze still involuntarily drifted to the private chat box on Mr. Gong’s computer screen, which displayed the message Little Bull had sent that morning:
Thanks Big Brother for the gift! The razor is smoother than me slurping noodles, and the aftershave smells super good!
Good heavens, he really is a formidable man, actually daring to call Mr. Gong brother! Qiao Xi hurriedly averted her gaze, taking half a step back with a guilty conscience. Are aftershave and razors things you just casually hand out to people? She had only ever bought those for her ex-boyfriend, and didn’t they say they weren’t that close just yesterday?
“Assistant Qiao.”
“Ah, Mr. Gong!” Lost in her wild thoughts, Qiao Xi was startled by Gong Nanxing’s sudden voice. Her reply was so loud that it startled Mr. Gong right back.
“…I wanted to ask you to check if Little Bull has any arrangements for the National Day holiday. Never mind, I’ll ask him myself later.”
Not a single worry-free person in sight, day in and day out. But at least one thing was certain: Qiao Xi wouldn’t walk in here asking if she could call him brother. Gong Nanxing took a sip of his self-ground coffee and went back to reading documents with a blank expression. Only then did Qiao Xi remember to salvage her professional image, hurriedly pulling out two urgent documents from the pile of papers for Gong Nanxing to review first.
“Mr. Gong, these are documents from two nearby commercial complexes inviting us to hold a new product launch event. Would you like to take a look first?”
“I know about this. Their person in charge called me yesterday. The reason I was looking for Little Bull was to ask if he has time during National Day to do an offline event. If so, the format will be much easier to finalize.”
Fine, it wasn’t like she hadn’t known Gong Nanxing for a day. He was the terrifying kind of man who loved finishing work ahead of schedule. But hearing this, Qiao Xi thought of another problem, so she asked, “Closer to home, Mr. Gong, isn’t Little Bull’s Mandarin still in progress? Can he participate in offline events already?”
“Isn’t there still half a month? I have plenty of ways to make him work.”
Hearing that sent a chill down Qiao Xi’s spine. Silently reciting Buddhist chants in her heart for Little Bull, she hurriedly retreated from the office back to her own workstation. Sitting down and pretending to work for a while, the more she thought about it, the more wrong it felt. Whether it was the fact that Mr. Gong stopped going through her or PR and contacting Little Bull directly, or the inexplicable thank-you message from the cow, all of this indicated that their relationship was nothing like what Mr. Gong claimed yesterday about them not being close.
Yesterday he even asked if he should sponsor Little Bull! Could it be that Mr. Gong has other designs on Little Bull and wants to find a clean channel to give him money?! Qiao Xi was frightened out of her wits by her own thought. After all, in this industry, the relationships between higher-ups and models held far too many unspoken secrets.
Little Bull was an honest kid straight from the mountains; he couldn’t let this kind of unorthodox trend corrupt him! With that thought in mind, Qiao Xi used the reflection of her mirror to quietly glance at Gong Nanxing behind the glass wall. Mr. Gong looked entirely like a man whose sole focus was building his career; he didn’t look like someone capable of pulling off something like this either. But why would he suddenly gift someone private items like aftershave and razors?
As the saying goes, you can know a person’s face but not their heart. Whatever Mr. Gong did every day was something ordinary people with three heads and six arms would find hard to pull off. If he wanted to get himself a little cow to play with, doing it on a whim would be as easy as lifting a finger! Putting down her mirror, Qiao Xi silently assigned herself a righteous mission. From now on, she was going to keep a close eye on these two and absolutely refuse to let any unorthodox tendencies sprout right under her nose!