Gu Chiyuan looked at the investigation report, lightly tapping his fingers against the desk twice.
She hadn’t lived on campus.
She didn’t socialize with her classmates, and she wore a face mask even during lectures.
He suddenly realized that the Yu Wan at university was completely different from the one in his memories.
The spoiled, willful young lady from years ago, who always expected everyone else to accommodate her, no longer overlapped with the Yu Wan of today.
Leaning back in his chair, Gu Chiyuan gazed into the deep night outside the window. The scene from that morning suddenly surfaced in his mind.
Inside the café, the tall man stood behind the counter while Yu Wan walked toward him step by step.
…
Gu Chiyuan’s heart skipped a beat.
No way! He abruptly sat upright, his expression turning grim.
The precious cabbage that the Gu family had raised with such care… surely it hadn’t already been snatched away by some pig?
She wasn’t living on campus because she was already living with someone off campus. She wasn’t using his bank card because someone else’s card was paying for her expenses.
She had been keeping her distance from him, her stepbrother, because she already had a boyfriend.
The more Gu Chiyuan thought about it, the more convinced he became. His entire expression darkened.
“Lin Lang.”
“President Gu?” Sensing the subtle shift in atmosphere, Lin Lang asked cautiously.
“Find out where Yu Wan is living now.” Gu Chiyuan paused, then took out his phone and sent Lin Lang an address. “Start with this café. She’s working there.”
Working there?
Lin Lang froze for a moment before nodding.
“Understood, President Gu. However…”
“However, what?”
“It might take some time,” Lin Lang replied. “A lot of the rental properties around there aren’t officially registered, so I’ll have to investigate them one by one.”
Gu Chiyuan frowned. “How long?”
“Two or three days,” Lin Lang answered. “I’ll be as quick as possible.”
Gu Chiyuan nodded without another word.
Just as Lin Lang was about to leave, he was stopped once more.
“Wait.” Gu Chiyuan lifted his chin. “That campus belle from A University you mentioned earlier, what does she look like? Do you have a photo?”
“Oh! I do. I have her résumé on my phone!”
Startled, Lin Lang hurriedly searched through his phone.
The boss was actually asking what the campus belle looked like?
Could it be that he had finally decided to do something a proper CEO should do?
The more Lin Lang thought about it, the more excited he became. He quickly found Su Nanzhi’s photo and handed his phone over.
Gu Chiyuan lowered his eyes and took a look.
The girl in the blue background ID photo wore a sweet smile and a crisp white blouse, looking innocent and gentle.
After looking for exactly one second, he tossed the phone back onto the desk.
“That’s it?”
Lin Lang looked awkward.
“Uh… they say she’s the campus belle of A University…”
Gu Chiyuan’s tone carried unmistakable disdain.
“Do the students at A University have no taste?”
Lin Lang: “…”
So it was a beauty contest.
Actually, they were both beautiful. They simply had different styles.
…Wait a second.
So President Gu’s defining trait was actually being an overprotective brother?
The next afternoon, at the café.
Sunlight streamed through the glass doors, falling across the robot busily moving around inside the shop.
The fully debugged serving robot traveled back and forth through the café with cups of coffee resting steadily on its tray.
Carrying coffee, it maneuvered around tables and chairs, avoided customers, and accurately delivered every order to its destination.
The customers had already grown accustomed to its presence. Some had even started chatting with it.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Enjoy your meal,” the robot replied in its mechanical voice.
In the corner, Li Yi sat in his usual seat, watching the robot with a satisfied smile on his face.
“Perfect,” he murmured to himself.
Behind the counter, Yu Wan was washing cups.
She let out a yawn, her eyelids feeling heavy.
She hadn’t slept well last night.
Apparently knowing Wu Jiao was moving out the next day and that no one would complain afterward, the couple next door had become even more outrageous.
From ten at night until two in the morning, they kept going without stopping. With only a thin wall separating them, every sound came through with perfect clarity.
Unable to tolerate it any longer, Wu Jiao had gone to knock on their door in the middle of the night.
Not only had the couple ignored her, they had become even louder.
For the entire night, Yu Wan lay in bed staring at the ceiling, listening to those embarrassingly intimate sounds, feeling like she wanted to die.
She honestly felt as though she were lying under the same blanket as the couple next door…
Still grumbling inwardly, Yu Wan yawned again.
“What’s wrong?”
A voice suddenly spoke beside her.
Turning her head, she saw that Li Yi had somehow walked over to the counter and was looking at her with concern.
“Didn’t sleep well?” he asked.
Yu Wan shook her head.
“It’s nothing. I’m just a little tired.”
Li Yi looked at her, clearly unconvinced.
“Here.”
He handed her something.
Yu Wan accepted it and examined the long rectangular object with its two metal prongs at the top.
“This is…?”
“A stun baton,” Li Yi explained. “Our lab developed it ourselves. It’s much more powerful than the ones sold on the market.”
“If I can’t walk you home in the future, carry this with you,” Li Yi said. “Just press the switch. It’ll knock down a cow, let alone a person.”
Yu Wan looked at the stun baton in her hand, then looked back at Li Yi.
Her heart suddenly warmed.
She parted her lips.
“I…”
At that moment, the wind chime above the entrance rang again. The two of them instinctively looked toward the door.
“Welcome…”
Yu Wan stopped halfway through the greeting.
The two young women entering the café included Su Nanzhi.
Today she was dressed in a well tailored white business suit, her hair loosely pinned up, with light makeup on her face. She looked both capable and gentle.
Beside Su Nanzhi stood another girl wearing glasses. The two linked arms as they walked in, clearly close friends.
Why was the heroine here again?!
Yu Wan instinctively reached into the drawer, only to grab empty air.
Oh no! She had run out of face masks!
Yu Wan instantly tensed up. She quickly turned around with her back facing the entrance and silently chanted to herself.
Don’t see me. Don’t see me. Please don’t see me…
“Wow, this café is so unique!” the bespectacled girl exclaimed. “It even has a serving robot!”
“Yeah,” Su Nanzhi replied. “When I came here last Friday, they didn’t have one yet.”
The two of them found a table and sat down.
With her back to them, Yu Wan’s heart pounded rapidly.
What should she do?
She didn’t want to run into Su Nanzhi.
According to the original novel’s backstory, she had disliked Su Nanzhi ever since university.
Those past grievances had laid the foundation for Yu Wan eventually becoming the Villainous Second Female Lead.
Although the current Yu Wan had worked hard to avoid all of that, just to be safe, she still decided it was best to stay as far away from Su Nanzhi as possible.
Besides, today was Tuesday.
Shouldn’t Su Nanzhi have already started her internship at Hongtai Group?
Yu Wan clearly remembered what the original novel had written.
Hongtai Group had established its new office district in the northern part of the city, right next to A University.
But this was the south side of the city.
It took more than an hour by subway to reach A University from here.
As Yu Wan was thinking about it, she heard the conversation from Su Nanzhi’s table.
“Nanzhi, do you know why Hongtai’s new office district was moved to the south side of the city?” the girl with glasses asked. “Didn’t they originally say it would be in the north?”
Su Nanzhi replied, “I don’t know. They changed it all of a sudden. Yesterday HR said headquarters made a last minute adjustment, so all the interns in our batch were assigned to the southern office instead.”
“The south side is so far from campus.”
“Yeah, commuting takes more than an hour every day.” Su Nanzhi sighed. “But there’s nothing we can do. It’s Hongtai, after all. Countless people would fight for a chance to get in. Besides, they’re giving us a transportation allowance, so it’s not too bad.”
Yu Wan froze.
The south side? Hongtai’s new office district?
She suddenly realized something.
Spinning around, she hurried over to the window and looked outside.
Across the street stood a brand new office building, its glass curtain walls glittering beneath the sunlight.
At the top of the building, a massive new sign had just been installed.
Four large characters shone brilliantly in the sun: Hongtai Group.