When the third round of fruit platters was cleared away, it meant the main event at Yuanjuhui[1]KTV Bar jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3657955_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3657955_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); was about to begin.
When the door to the private room was pushed open, Gu Siqiao was sitting in the booth smoking a cigarette.
The manager walked in leading a dozen long-legged girls. Inside, the men were exchanging toasts, and the atmosphere had reached a fever pitch.
“You’re here, Mr. Gu,” the manager said, beaming with smiles. “Say hello to the bosses, girls.”
“Hello, Mr. Gu.”
Unconsciously, the girls all darted their glances toward Gu Siqiao. Having worked in commercial KTVs for a long time, they could tell with a single glance who the big boss in the room was.
Gu Siqiao sat with his legs crossed: “Not for me. You guys go ahead and pick your own.”
“That won’t do, Ge,” said a man who looked to be around thirty-four or thirty-five. “You’re the client here. How could we possibly skip over you and start picking for ourselves?”
He wasn’t wrong. With the contract just signed that afternoon, everyone in the room was relying entirely on Gu Siqiao to rack up massive commission cuts. By all rules of etiquette, even if Gu Siqiao claimed all the girls for himself and left the rest to just watch, it wouldn’t be going too far.
Others chimed in with agreement. Gu Siqiao glanced over the group, pointing with the hand that held his cigarette: “Just that one over there.”
“Go on, Xinxin,” the manager urged quickly. “Hold the ashtray for Mr. Gu.”
Unable to hide her triumph, the selected girl stepped out of line, sat down next to Gu Siqiao, and held up the ashtray.
Only then did the other men rub their hands together, eagerly picking their companions.
Inside the private room, the deep bass from the JBL speakers mixed with the laughter of men and women, growing increasingly noisy.
Gu Siqiao tapped his ashes into the ashtray: “How old are you?”
“I just turned eighteen last month,” Xinxin said.
Gu Siqiao glanced at the face that still carried a bit of baby fat, choosing not to call her out: “Are you the youngest among the group that just came in?”
“Yes, Mr. Gu,” Xinxin replied.
Gu Siqiao: “Do you know how to play video games?”
Xinxin: “Yes, I occasionally play mobile games after work.”
Gu Siqiao: “Alright.”
He raised his chin slightly: “See that kid over there? Keep him company and play games with him for a while—anything works. Keep an eye on him so he doesn’t run around causing trouble.”
Xinxin froze. Turning her head, she realized there actually was a little boy sitting in the corner of the booth, looking about eight or nine years old. The lighting had been too glaring, so she hadn’t noticed him at all when walking in.
The girl—whose actual age was sixteen[2]Lhaozi’s Note: 16????? Are you all nuts??? a 16 yrs old in a ktv bar being tabled by older men?? I am so glad this is just fiction but we never really know, hayst, poor soul. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3657955_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3657955_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });—couldn’t hide her true feelings at all. A look of disappointment instantly washed over Xinxin’s face.
“That’s my biological nephew,” Gu Siqiao said. “You two are close in age, so you’ll have things in common. Just make sure he behaves.”
What kind of situation is this? Who brings their nephew to a commercial KTV?
Reluctantly, Xinxin took out her phone and turned around.
“What’s your name, little brother?” Xinxin asked. “What grade are you in?”
The nephew: “My name is Gu Boyu, third grade. You can just call me Xiao Yu, Jiejie.”
Xinxin asked: “What games do you usually play, Xiao Yu?”
Xiao Yu: “I play Honor of Kings.”
Xinxin: “Honor of Kings is great! Xinxin-jie loves playing Honor of Kings the most. What rank are you?”
Xiao Yu: “Grandmaster 30 stars.”
Xinxin was dumbfounded: “Oh my, then you… you’re amazing.”
“I’m okay. I’m the number one Sikong Zhen in our school,” Xiao Yu added.
“Alright, wait until sister updates the game, and we’ll queue together,” Xinxin said while secretly opening WeChat to frantically ask friends on her list to borrow a 100-star account.
Someone stepped forward with a lighter. Gu Siqiao pulled back his gaze, lit a fresh cigarette, and clinked glasses with the man.
Gu Boyu was the child of his half-brother. When his brother was twenty, he got a woman pregnant and had a shotgun wedding. After the child was born, the couple fought constantly, divorcing in less than two years.
The old man used his connections at the law firm to have custody awarded to the father, but the brother spent all his time living a lavish, chaotic lifestyle, never properly caring for the child a single day.
Gradually, the responsibility of raising the kid fell on Gu Siqiao.
In the old man’s words: Your older brother is divorced and so pitiful on his own—can’t you show some sympathy and help him out?[3]Lhaozi’s Note: my highblood pressure just spiked, agh! jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3657955_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3657955_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
So Gu Siqiao simply dragged the kid along with him in and out of all kinds of places—both appropriate and inappropriate.[4]Lhaozi’s Note: sigh* jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3657955_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3657955_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
Since they wanted him to raise the kid, this was how he’d do it. A mistress’s spawn got this exact treatment from him.
Gu Siqiao chatted casually with several executives from the contractor side. The executives had women on both arms; the fruit-platters girls in their laps were skilled at flattering people, singing and offering toasts, keeping the room full of harmony and cheer.
Suddenly, the door pushed open. A young man around Gu Siqiao’s age leaned in: “Fourth Brother, a call from the company.”
Gu Siqiao stood up to step outside.
Before the door had even closed, a fruit-platter girl slipped out through the crack right behind him, holding a pack of tissues in her hand.
Gu Siqiao looked back: “Something up?”
“Are you going to the restroom, Mr. Gu?” the girl asked eagerly. “I brought you some tissues.”
Gu Siqiao smiled. Due to work, he frequented commercial KTVs often enough to understand all the code words.
“Go back inside,” Gu Siqiao said. “It’s more important that you keep the bosses in there well-entertained.”
With that, he walked toward the exit. The girl looked through the glass of the private room door at the pot-bellied men inside, then looked at Gu Siqiao’s receding back, chasing after him unwillingly.
After just a couple of steps, she was stopped by the young man from earlier: “Beauty, head back. Fourth Brother never needs companionship, nor does he need special services.”
The girl returned to the room in disappointment. Standing at the KTV entrance with the young man, Gu Siqiao heard him say: “Fourth Brother, there was no call from the company. I just made up an excuse to get you out.”
When asked what it was about, the young man let out a sheepish smile: “Saying this might sound a bit ridiculous… do you remember our QQ account from back when we were in school?”
The young man was named Kang Shuai, Gu Siqiao’s high school classmate. After graduation, Gu Siqiao entered the family office early on, and within two years, he called Kang Shuai over to be his assistant.
Now Kang Shuai had become Gu Siqiao’s executive assistant, but he still kept the habit from high school, calling Gu Siqiao “Fourth Brother.”
Gu Siqiao: “Cut the crap and spit it out.”
Kang Shuai: “That QQ account of yours… seems to have been hacked.”
Gu Siqiao paused mid-motion, his hand stuck in his pocket: “Hm?”
Kang Shuai explained: “Just ten minutes ago, an old classmate sent me a message saying our old high school QQ class group chat exploded. I took a look, and your account has been sending private messages to everyone.”
Gu Siqiao: “How old are people now? Why is anyone still using QQ?”
Kang Shuai: “Fourth Brother, why don’t you download QQ and check it out? Do you still remember the username and password?”
Gu Siqiao waved his hand, turning to walk back inside: “Wait for me in the car.”
With a cigarette dangling from his lips, he walked through the corridor, taking out his phone to open the app store, download QQ, and install it—all in one smooth motion.
Back inside the private room, the singing and dancing continued as usual, and the two playing games were in the middle of a fierce battle.
Gu Siqiao sat down, typed in the account number Kang Shuai had sent him, and began trying passwords one by one.
As it turned out, this single step held him up for a full ten minutes—between resetting the password and verifying his identity, he finally managed to log in with great difficulty. Someone finally noticed his unusual behavior: “What’s wrong, Mr. Gu? Is there an emergency?”
Gu Siqiao leaned back into the sofa’s backrest, scrolling through the phone screen filled entirely with red notification dots: “No, my assistant just said my account got hacked.”
“Oh my, quickly freeze whatever needs to be frozen!” The man singing put down the microphone. “Mr. Gu, why don’t we call it a night here so you can handle your business!”
“It’s not WeChat, it’s QQ,” Gu Siqiao said.
“A QQ account?” The man beside him laughed. “Who still uses QQ these days?”
Gu Siqiao tapped into a chat box. He couldn’t even remember which classmate it was; the person had an anime profile picture from ten years ago and was chatting with the scammer impersonating him.
Scammer: Are you there?
Scammer: Something came up and I need surgery right away. Can you lend me some money, brother? I need it urgently right now.
Scammer: I’ll pay you back tomorrow as soon as the bank opens.
The anime profile picture replied with a “?”, and that was the end of it.
Gu Siqiao backed out and clicked into the next person’s chat box.
This old classmate was a bit craftier, replying: Brother, do I look like a sucker to you?
Gu Siqiao felt relieved, tapping through several more. The replies to the scammer were nothing more than jokes mocking the fraud messages, or even worse, leaving the messages on read without replying. The scammer had been turned away repeatedly.
As he kept clicking, Gu Siqiao grew annoyed. Just as he was about to put down his phone, a man next to him suddenly leaned over and pointed at his screen: “Mr. Gu, I didn’t mean to snoop, but why has this person sent so many messages?”
Sure enough, just as he said, there was a chat box showing over twenty unread messages. There was no contact note, just a single-character username: Lou.
Gu Siqiao clicked in, the hand holding the cigarette trembling slightly.[5]Lhaozi note: Hahahaha jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3657955_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3657955_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
This person had actually replied in all seriousness.
Lou: Are you injured? Is it serious?
Scammer: Not me, someone in my family.
Lou: How much money do you need?
Lou: I have thirty thousand yuan, is that enough?
Scammer: It takes roughly seventy-eight thousand, brother.
Lou: I only have thirty thousand yuan.
Lou: [Screenshot]
Scammer: Alright brother, thanks. I’ll ask around and figure out another way.
Lou: Give me your card number.
Lou: Don’t panic, everything will be fine.
The scammer sent a bank card number.
Lou: Done. [Screenshot]
Lou: If you can’t handle taking care of them alone, call me. I’ll go over and give you a hand.
Scammer: I’ll pay you back tomorrow as soon as the bank opens, brother.
Lou: No rush.
Lou: Don’t panic either. There’s always a way out.
“Mr. Gu, this person actually transferred money to the hacker!” Seeing that Gu Siqiao didn’t lose his temper, the man let out a sigh of relief. “Tell him quickly so he can call the police right away—maybe he can still recover it. Fuck, what an obstinate fool! At least make a voice call to confirm first!”
Gu Siqiao: “This is a really close buddy of mine from high school. He’s too familiar with me, so his guard was completely down.”
“Even if his guard was down, didn’t he think about it? How could Mr. Gu of the Shichuang Group be short of thirty thousand yuan!” The man grew bolder, laughing out loud as he teased, “For such a close buddy, why didn’t he borrow money on WeChat instead of coming to QQ?”
Gu Siqiao looked at him sideways without saying a word.
The man’s laughter faded into silence, the smile freezing on his face.
The others were so frightened they didn’t make a sound either. Only the background music from the speakers continued to play, but the air instantly turned icy cold.
“Penta-kill!” In the eerie silence, Xinxin[6]Lhaozi’s Note: I hope Xinxin can have other lucrative job so that she will leave that ktv bar hayst jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3657955_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3657955_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); suddenly lifted her head, slapping Xiao Yu’s back forcefully. “Xiao Yu, brother, you’re definitely the MVP again this round!”
“How did you play?” Gu Siqiao turned toward the two kids.
“Extremely well, Mr. Gu,” Xinxin said hurriedly. “Xiao Yu could practically go professional! I just carried along for a free win every game!”
“It was pretty good,” Xiao Yu put down his phone, which displayed the victory icon. “Sister Xinxin kept ordering fruit and wontons for me; they were all delicious. It’s just that Sister Xinxin plays too poorly—doesn’t seem like a 100-star rank.”
Gu Siqiao patted the shoulder of an embarrassed Xinxin: “Very good. I’ll settle your pay. Tell your manager in a bit that you don’t need to work tonight—just go straight home. I’ll pay you double.”
Overjoyed, Xinxin stood up abruptly: “Thank you, Mr. Gu! Let me toast to you…”
“No need,” Gu Siqiao stubbed out his cigarette and looked around the private room. “Looks like everyone drank well tonight. Shall we call it here?”
Given a way out, the group took it immediately, standing up while making polite small talk to smooth things over.
Before leaving the door, Gu Siqiao motioned for his nephew to keep up. Xiao Yu ran a few steps before turning back, saying to Xinxin: “Sister Xinxin, let’s add each other on WeChat.”
Xinxin felt a bit self-conscious: “My skill isn’t great. I’ll practice a bit back home before queuing with you again so I don’t drag your rank down.”
“That’s not it,” Xiao Yu pulled up his QR code. “Next time I come, I’ll still have my uncle pick you. You can be my gaming companion—no drinking required, eat whatever you want, and he’ll pay.”[7]Lhaozi’s Note: ackkk very good Xiao Yu! jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3657955_1_7').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3657955_1_7', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
Xinxin: “…”
For a moment, she couldn’t tell whether this kid was picking up good habits or bad ones.
All the way out the main entrance of Yuanjuhui KTV, the man who had said the wrong thing kept bowing and scraping. Even after Gu Siqiao got into the car, he was still waving with an apologetic smile toward the rear window.
“Mr. Gu’s good buddy is my buddy!” The man’s tone was deeply sincere. “If you need anything, just let me know! I know people across this whole district’s police department! The chief of the Zhining Road Police Station is my friend!”
Gu Siqiao responded with a few vague words before the car window rolled up, leaving the man’s anxious, smiling face reflected on the dark glass.
The black Maybach pulled away.
Gu Siqiao loosened his Windsor-knotted tie and handed the phone to Kang Shuai in the driver’s seat.
Steering the wheel without looking back, Kang Shuai reached out one hand to take it: “Fourth Brother?”
Gu Siqiao: “There’s someone named ‘Lou’ in the friends list. Help me look into this idiot—”
Seeing Gu Boyu curled up in the executive seat beside him typing away noisily, Gu Siqiao rested his elbow on the armrest and rubbed his temples.
“Look into it,” Gu Siqiao said. “Where on earth did this blockhead come from?”
Author’s Note
The story is officially starting!!
I’m estimating this will be a medium-length novel of over 300,000 Chinese characters. Here are a few disclaimers and things to keep in mind before reading:
Both leads are each other’s only romantic partners, but neither character is perfect. If that bothers you, please don’t read.
This is an adult fairy tale. Everything in the setting serves the romance. The author is basically just a little pig who knows how to type on a keyboard and is terrible at research, so please forgive any mistakes involving professional knowledge or common sense.
Please don’t start fights or engage in personal attacks. No aggressive criticism or unsolicited writing advice, please. You can drop the story without announcing it. Politely declining further discussion is appreciated.
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