The girl was wearing a loose down jacket, with short hair that barely brushed past her earlobes. Her brows and eyes were very familiar, though Chu Lianxing couldn’t recall for a moment where he had seen her before.
Chu Lianxing looked past the girl and saw his good buddy sitting in the main sofa seat like an old grand-lord.
A nameless fire rose in his chest. He lifted his foot and kicked Song Yushun on the leg, saying with full ruffian swagger, “You don’t even know to yield your seat to your daddy here.”
This unyielding, devil-may-care attitude made Song Yushun feel like he had been transported back to their university days. He nimbly stood up to give up his seat, casually grabbed a new teacup, poured water for Chu Lianxing, and doted on him exceptionally. “Please, Xingxing.”
After saying that, he glanced at the woman standing by the door, signaling for her to come in.
He reached out and pinched the white pine-scented down jacket Chu Lianxing was wearing, shaking his head as he said, “It’s no wonder people outside are spreading rumors that you’re Huo Ci’s kept little lover, Xingxing. The way you look right now really is just like his canary.”
Chu Lianxing wore a string of Buddhist prayer beads on his left wrist. As he lowered his head to drink tea, his eyelashes drooped down, concealing the high-and-mighty coercion within. Today, he was dressed entirely in white, and from a distance, he truly looked like a proud, regal white cat. “Huo Ci is my little lover.”
There were quite a few people in elite circles who knew that Huo Ci was married, but very few knew who his partner actually was.
“Clatter.”
The sound of a teacup dropping to the ground made the two of them simultaneously look toward the woman sitting opposite them.
The woman seemed extremely sensitive to people’s gazes. Inside the spring-warm private room, she remained tightly wrapped up, and she put her hat back on—the one that had just been knocked off by Chu Lianxing.
“Who is she?” Chu Lianxing asked.
Song Yushun cautiously glanced sideways at Chu Lianxing, wanting to see if he was in a good mood.
It was just that ever since he took over the company, there were very few things left that could make his emotions show outwardly.
Seeing time slowly tick by, right before the last second of Chu Lianxing’s patience ran out, he heard a name he never wanted to hear again in this lifetime.
“Huang Chuyan.”
Chu Lianxing picked up a tea needle from the side and flipped open the woman’s hat, examining her closely.
In an instant, her face overlapped with that of the stubborn little girl in his memory.
Chu Lianxing had no interest in entangling himself with how she had turned into this state; an ungrateful, faithless wretch did not deserve to occupy his thoughts. “Didn’t I say that if you ever appeared in front of me again, you wouldn’t be able to leave Beijing in one piece?”
Huang Chuyan was far from as flamboyant as she had been in high school. With her head lowered, she nervously pinched and rubbed the hem of her clothes back and forth, a thousand kinds of explanations flashing through her mind before finally condensing into: “I’m sorry.”
Chu Lianxing tossed the teacup in his hand outward. The accuracy he used to practice with darts back in the day was still there, striking Huang Chuyan squarely in the center of her forehead.
Scalding hot tea water slid down her forehead, leaving a red mark wherever it passed.
Looking pitiful indeed.
Unfortunately, Chu Lianxing was blind to pity.
The person he hated most in all the years he had lived was Huo Ci, and the second was Huang Chuyan.
It was also because of her that Chu Lianxing and Huo Ci had become sworn enemies.
After all, given the Chu family’s status, a newly emerged upstart nose-picker like the Huo family didn’t even have the qualifications to be the crown prince’s lackey.
Even though Huo Ci had the ability to compete with him for first place in school, Chu Lianxing didn’t have much of an impression of him.
Although international schools recruited a portion of impoverished students with tuition waivers to boost their college admission rates, the majority were still children from wealthy families, and everyone had one or two illegitimate siblings.
They also held a deep-seated hatred for illegitimate children. To this day, Chu Lianxing still couldn’t understand how the Gu family could let an illegitimate child and a legitimate child attend an international school together.
School bullying was quite severe, but with Chu Lianxing holding down Class 1, no one dared to harbor such thoughts.
The most excessive thing was that no one wanted to team up with Gu Jinyu during physical education class.
Huang Chuyan, acting as though she were blind, fell for Gu Jinyu and went against Chu Lianxing for his sake.
Chu Lianxing still vividly remembered Huang Chuyan looking at him with stubborn defiance and saying, “Being an illegitimate child is his mother’s fault, not his. Why blame him?
Chu Lianxing, don’t you just have a good family background? What are you acting so smug about? Without your family background, you lot are just the scraps of society.”
Chu Lianxing had laughed so hard he couldn’t straighten his back. He was ranked first in his grade, and the students in Class 1 were all in the top hundred of the grade how did they become useless scraps of society?
Sigh! He really had never seen a school bully with a better temper than himself.
The scene of Huang Chuyan shielding Gu Jinyu was filmed by someone and posted on the campus forum, and many students shipped the two of them and even wrote fanfiction about them.
What was baffling was that there could be so many people with such blind eyes.
Gu Jinyu even had a fan club?
Was this world truly not some Mary Sue novel? Or one from twenty years ago at that.
Sometimes Chu Lianxing suspected that he was able to become the villain because he was so sober that he stood out like a sore thumb in this world.
Many friends who were on good terms with Huang Chuyan began to distance themselves from her, and she was even openly targeted by wealthy young misses who liked Gu Jinyu.
When skipping class, Chu Lianxing saw Huang Chuyan being forced by some male students while a wealthy miss and her lackeys stood on the side recording a video.
He was a person with extremely upright values, and even though the other party had offended him before, he rescued her without the slightest hesitation.
Who would have known it was a farmer and the snake—he was accused of attempted rape by Huang Chuyan.
Huo Ci didn’t know what kind of madness he had caught either, as he began targeting him, causing the Chu family’s stock to plummet.
However, the final outcome was that Huang Chuyan was forced to transfer schools.
And he and Huo Ci completely severed ties.
Chu Lianxing pulled out a tissue from the table and wiped his hands. “What do you want with me, Yushun? If you’re not going to say it, I’m leaving.”
With that, he stood up and walked toward the door.
“Wait.”
The two of them spoke simultaneously.
Song Yushun guiltily pointed at Huang Chuyan. “It’s not me looking for you, it’s her.”
This time, Chu Lianxing didn’t even look back, walking straight ahead.
Just as Chu Lianxing was about to touch the doorknob, Song Yushun intercepted him at a hundred-meter sprint speed.
Clinging to Chu Lianxing’s arm, he blinked his gorgeous big eyes and said, “Xingxing, I’m begging you, listen to what she has to say. She really has something important to find you for.”
Chu Lianxing involuntarily softened his heart and sat back down on the sofa. “Speak.”
Huang Chuyan lowered her head. “I was driven to a desperate strait back then.”
Chu Lianxing tapped the table, clear impatience in his gaze. “Get to the point.”
The person interrupted showed no displeasure, instead carrying a hint of shame. “Give me five million.”
Pfft.
Song Yushun braced both hands on the table, shocked by Huang Chuyan’s words just now, and couldn’t stop coughing.
In both of their eyes was an unprecedented sight of someone so shameless.
Chu Lianxing patted his back twice. When he finally managed to catch his breath, Chu Lianxing immediately explained to him, “I don’t know either. She said she came to find you because she has important news about Gu Jinyu.”
Chu Lianxing turned his head to look at the other person, only to see her nod. “I said that back then because…”
Chu Lianxing’s phone ringtone interrupted her words once more.
He glanced at the screen it was Huo Ci, and he raised a hand to hang up.
Thinking of Huo Ci’s relentless, unyielding personality, if he answered, not only would the call drag on endlessly, but he might also have his bodyguards storm the door and drag him away directly.
He still answered the call, accidentally hitting the speakerphone button.
Huo Ci’s voice, laden with coldness, instantly resounded through the entire private room: “Are you done chatting?”
“No.”
“It’s time for your medicine.”
Chu Lianxing slumped back into the sofa, looking up at the ceiling. He was wearing a low-necked sweater today, exposing the hickey on his neck. “I’m not going back for dinner tonight.”
The other side fell silent for a single second, followed immediately by a sigh: “Xingxing, don’t joke with your own body.”
Chu Lianxing immediately hung up the phone and dialed the Chu family bodyguards to have them come pick him up.
Before he could finish dialing, however, Huo Ci pushed the door open and walked in.
Compared to his student days, adult Huo Ci seemed to have changed in nothing except his height, yet Huang Chuyan couldn’t find a single trace of his past self on him anymore.
Back then, even when wearing a black suit, he still exuded gentleness like a jade scholar from a secluded valley.
Now, he was still wearing a black suit, but from head to toe, he radiated an aura of absolute alienation, cold as the peak of the Yulong Snow Mountain.
Only when looking at Chu Lianxing did he reveal a gentle expression.
He walked over to Chu Lianxing’s side, bent down, and scooped him up into his arms. There was no chill on him from just coming in from outside; he must have been waiting indoors all along.
Song Yushun watched as the once-untouchable Brother Chu was cradled in the arms of his former sworn enemy.
His eyes widened in utter disbelief, and immediately after, he watched his Brother Chu extend excessively slender, fair fingers to strike the arm that was a full circle thicker than his.
“Let me go.”
Huo Ci moved, but instead of putting down the person in his arms, he sat down right on the sofa, leaving Chu Lianxing snuggled securely in Huo Ci’s embrace.
Immediately following that, he gestured to the bodyguard behind him. The opposite side brought over a thermal food box, and upon opening it, a thick medicinal smell wafted out.
Chu Lianxing pushed away his hand. Because he used too much force, the medicinal liquid spilled all over the floor, and Huo Ci’s expression turned ugly enough to be seen with the naked eye. Chu Lianxing acted as though he hadn’t noticed, pointing a finger at Huang Chuyan: “I didn’t rape her.”