Behind the liquor cabinet, Shi Shuyi held her breath.
Lili had told her there wouldn’t be any important guests in the top-floor rooms tonight and asked her to retrieve a necklace someone had left behind. She hadn’t expected to run into President Gu arriving with his friends.
At Baisen, no one was allowed to break Gu Huaiye’s rules.
Without his permission and arrangements, nobody could set foot in the top-floor private rooms.
Shi Shuyi didn’t want to lose her job at Baisen.
So she had no choice but to hide behind the liquor cabinet, hardly daring to breathe.
She would wait until everyone had left, then slip away herself.
Without anyone noticing.
She had been delighted when the others left, but she hadn’t expected Gu Huaiye to stay behind alone.
Time ticked by.
Shi Shuyi grew increasingly anxious.
She couldn’t wait any longer. She had to go home.
Otherwise…
The consequences would be unthinkable.
She stole a glance up at Gu Huaiye.
He was half sprawled across the sofa, drunk and glassy-eyed.
Maybe she could leave now, while she had the chance.
Shi Shuyi steadied herself and inched cautiously toward the door.
Just as her fingertips were about to touch the handle—
“Stop.”
A low, icy voice exploded behind her, its suffocating pressure bearing down on her.
Shi Shuyi froze.
She slowly turned around. Her long, straight black hair fell forward, partly veiling her porcelain-pale face.
“President Gu, I’m sorry. I… I’ll leave right away.”
Gu Huaiye lifted his eyelids slightly.
“My private room—is it somewhere you can just walk into and out of whenever you please?”
The woman who had suddenly appeared before him was only a vague silhouette in the suggestive light.
He couldn’t make out her features, but he could still sense her graceful figure and shapely curves.
Hah.
Did she think her looks were enough to draw his attention?
“President Gu, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to come into this room… It’s… it’s because…”
Shi Shuyi didn’t know how to explain.
She looked up in a panic. Her beautiful eyes shimmered in the dim light.
But the moment she raised her head, her gaze met Gu Huaiye’s dark, forbidding eyes. She quickly lowered her head again, frightened, and instinctively stepped back.
Then she pulled open the private-room door and ran.
Gu Huaiye, however, had gone still the instant Shi Shuyi looked up.
He didn’t even call after her as she ran off.
So alike. Too alike.
Those eyes…
They looked so much like Gu Zhixia’s.
Just as clear and bright, as if they could wash away the grime in a person’s heart.
And yet there seemed to be a hint of sultry allure in them, too.
Gu Huaiye sobered up considerably in an instant.
He picked up the phone beside him and swiftly punched in a number with his long fingers.
The call connected quickly. A fawning voice came from the other end.
“President Gu, it’s so late. What can I do for you?”
“Find out who the woman who just left the top floor is. I want her information within two hours.”
Baisen International belonged to him, after all. It would be easy to look up the details of a waitress who worked there.
“Yes, President Gu. I’ll take care of it right away!”
Gu Huaiye set down the phone.
His deep gaze fixed on the closed door of the private room as he sank into memory.
He had only just turned eighteen. The Gu family was at the height of its power, with influence in both the underworld and the legitimate world of S City, unmatched in its prominence.
But the tide of the times had turned, and the Gu family’s great ship had to steer toward the light.
His father, Gu Lin, had handed him the helm.
Back then, Gu Huaiye had been arrogant and headstrong, fearless behind the shield of his family’s power. He had known nothing about the intricate calculations required to navigate the worlds of business and politics.
He had acted recklessly several times, leaving behind messes too big to clean up. Each time, Gu Lin had swept them aside without changing expression.
Until that day—
His father summoned him to the study. His voice was hard, devoid of warmth.
“If you can’t secure the Huanda project on the Fourth Ring from your Uncle Lin, I’ll send Zhixia to M Country. Once she’s of age, I’ll arrange her marriage directly.”
Gu Huaiye had clenched his teeth until they ground together.
Resentment. Fury.
Yet for the first time, he learned to keep silent.
After that, he sheathed all his sharp edges and willingly entered the glittering, decadent world of power and money, where treacherous currents ran beneath the surface.
Uncle Lin was a powerful figure, ranking among the top twenty-seven political elites in Huaguo.
For a vast family like the Gu family, with its complicated background and ties to the gray areas of power, the only way to become fully legitimate was to attach itself to a towering tree like him.
But the top circles of power had never been about simple exchanges of favors.
To gain genuine protection and trust, one had to pay a corresponding “price.”
Only when both sides held each other’s secrets could they truly be in the same boat.
And so—
Gu Huaiye began to move among a group of powerful men old enough to be his father.
Surrounded by alcohol, flattery, and inscrutable smiles, he had been coaxed along until he crossed the first line of his life.
From then on, desire and profit became a tangled web.
Women gradually became bargaining chips, playthings, and currency to him.
Never anything to do with genuine affection.
He let himself sink into the mire.
Yet he poured the one clean longing he had left entirely into Gu Zhixia.
She was pure and lovely, like a light untouched by dust.
In his filthy world, she was the one place that must never be defiled.
Now, Gu Huaiye had been in control of the Gu family for ten whole years.
Uncle Lin, meanwhile, had fallen from power after the change in Huaguo’s top leadership and been sentenced to life imprisonment.
The bloody storms of the past lay beneath his feet.
Now no one could threaten him, and no one could force him to do anything.
At last, he felt it was time to confess everything to Gu Zhixia.
But just then—
Gu Zhixia had lifted her face and told him there was someone she liked.
Fu Shiyan.
A man even he couldn’t afford to move against lightly.
His father’s words echoed in his ears:
“The Fu family is one of the most powerful families in B City. After all these years in control of the Gu family, you know business and politics can’t be separated. The Gu family and the Fu family can only be partners. We must never make an enemy of them.”
“If Zhixia likes him, and she has the ability to bring the two families together through marriage, that can only benefit the Gu family. So—”
“Don’t interfere in Zhixia’s feelings. Otherwise, I don’t mind letting her know how many lovers you have.”
Gu Huaiye clenched his fists.
He was used to controlling everything, but he couldn’t control the beat of her heart.
His usually cold, hard heart was being torn in two.
One half wanted to remain the brother she relied on forever, protecting her and keeping her free from worry for the rest of her life.
The other half clamored for something deeper—for possession. It wanted to pull her into his arms and brand her with a mark that belonged to him alone.
He hated the darkness and mire he lived in. He felt that her immaculate light shouldn’t be stained by him.
But the beast of selfishness in his heart still longed to drag her into his domain, where she would belong to him alone.
…But that woman just now.
Gu Huaiye’s gaze suddenly darkened. His fingers unconsciously rubbed the rim of his glass.
Why had her eyes looked so much like Gu Zhixia’s?
Was it a coincidence?
Or… had it been planned all along?
Had someone discovered his deepest weakness and deliberately groomed a pawn like her to test and tempt him?