Monday.
Baisen International.
“Shuyi, you’re finally here!”
The moment Manager Chen saw Shi Shuyi, an ingratiating smile spread across his face. He hurried over to meet her.
“You don’t need to work in the main hall today. Go straight to the top floor and attend to the guests.”
Shi Shuyi blinked in confusion.
The top floor?
That was Gu Huaiye’s territory. It was obvious who had asked for her!
She instinctively took two steps back and refused in a quiet voice. “Manager, when I signed my contract, we agreed… I’d only serve drinks, not keep guests company.”
“Oh, my Young Miss,” the manager replied with a helpless laugh. “When has Baisen ever forced anyone to do anything? All you have to do tonight is take a drink up to the top floor for President Gu. What, now you’re picky about which guests you serve?”
“I… I didn’t mean that…”
Shi Shuyi lowered her head, twisting the hem of her clothes between her fingers. She looked uneasy.
Seeing this, the manager softened his tone, though the impatience in it was unmistakable. “Hurry upstairs. Don’t keep President Gu waiting. You know, there are some important people neither you nor I can afford to offend.”
He gave Shi Shuyi a pointed look, a calculating glint flashing in his eyes.
Before Shi Shuyi could answer, a sweet, lilting voice cut in.
“Well, Manager Chen, what distinguished guest have you arranged for Shuyi this time? How come you never think of me when there’s an opportunity like this?”
Shi Shuyi looked up at the sound and saw Lili approaching with a beaming smile.
She instinctively caught her rosy lower lip between her teeth. A hint of hurt and stubbornness rose in her clear eyes.
“Lili,” she said, her voice trembling slightly, “last Friday… you said you’d lost your necklace on the top floor. I looked for ages, but there was nothing there. You tricked me into going up, didn’t you?”
Lili stepped close and affectionately took her arm.
“Shuyi, how could you think that of me? President Gu showed up so suddenly that day. How could I possibly have known in advance? I found the necklace somewhere else afterward and was just about to tell you. Why would I deliberately put you in a position to run into President Gu?”
Shi Shuyi searched her restless eyes and pressed softly, “…Really?”
As Lili looked at Shi Shuyi’s face—untouched by makeup, yet still strikingly beautiful—a hard-to-describe pang of jealousy swept through her.
She was young, with a pure, clean aura, like a white magnolia just beginning to bloom. Men were naturally drawn to her.
Ever since Shi Shuyi had started working at Baisen, Lili’s earnings had visibly declined.
Last night, she had hoped to use President Gu’s rules to make Shi Shuyi disappear for good. But who could have guessed that President Gu wouldn’t get angry—and that today he’d come to the club early and specifically asked to see her?
Since she couldn’t get rid of Shi Shuyi for now, she might as well lower her guard.
If she could use Shi Shuyi to get close to President Gu, that would be an unexpected stroke of luck.
At the thought, Lili’s face filled with the most genuine concern.
She nodded emphatically, her voice sincere. “Shuyi, what happened yesterday really was an accident. Why would I deliberately hurt you? Could it be… could it be that President Gu is giving you a hard time today?”
She abruptly turned to Manager Chen, raising her voice. “Manager, if President Gu is going to make things difficult for Shuyi, you can’t just stand by and do nothing!”
Shi Shuyi gently took Lili’s hand and shook her head.
Her gaze was clear, her tone gentle but firm.
“Lili, I believe you’re not that kind of person. Your grandmother is still sick and needs money for treatment. Take care of yourself first. Don’t worry about me. I can handle this.”
“At worst… I’ll offer President Gu a sincere apology. If he won’t accept it, I can leave Baisen. That’s all right, too.”
Manager Chen hurriedly tried to smooth things over, his voice edged with impatience and ingratiation.
“Shuyi, you’ve got it all wrong. Someone like President Gu wouldn’t really hold this against you. Don’t dawdle—get upstairs before he has to wait any longer.”
The girl was still too young.
If President Gu really meant to make things difficult for her, why would he specifically ask to see her?
Shi Shuyi’s face was truly one in a million—both pure and alluring.
She was young, with a delicate figure and an aura as fresh as a flower bud covered in morning dew. What man could look at her and not be moved?
President Gu had clearly taken a fancy to this delicate flower.
Shi Shuyi said no more and turned toward the elevator.
Lili lowered her head, but her gaze followed Shi Shuyi’s slender figure as it receded. Her nails nearly dug into her palms.
Some people really were born with the heavens bending over backward to feed them. That figure, that aura, that face—every bit of it was enough to drive anyone mad with envy.
The elevator doors slowly slid shut.
007’s electronic voice sounded in her mind at just the right moment, tinged with displeasure.
【Master, you’ve already used Lili to get yourself in front of Gu Huaiye. Why keep playing along with her? From the very first day you came to Baisen, she’s never stopped envying you and plotting against you.】
Shi Shuyi lowered her lashes slightly and replied with a quiet laugh in her heart.
【Don’t forget, my current public image is that of an innocent, sheltered good girl who secretly takes a job to earn money without her parents knowing. The world I live in is “simple” and “pure.” How could I possibly see through what kind of person Lili is?】
【Why get my hands dirty dealing with her?】
As she lowered her head, the faintest, most wicked curve appeared at the corner of her lips.
“Ding—”
The elevator reached the top floor.
The doors opened, and the air of extreme luxury swept over her once more.
Outside the private room stood six men in black suits, silent as iron towers, solemn and still.
Their finely tailored suits could not conceal the bulging lines of muscle beneath the fabric. They radiated an unspoken sense of menace.
As Shi Shuyi approached, one of them silently opened the door for her, his movements as precise as if he were following a program.
“Miss Shi, President Gu has been waiting for you.”
Shi Shuyi drew a deep breath, suppressing the faint tremor inside her. She pressed her lips together and stepped in.
This was a rule of conduct ingrained in her instincts:
The moment she approached a target connected to her mission, she immersed herself completely in the role of “Shi Shuyi,” allowing herself no slip in her performance.
Only by fooling herself first could she manipulate those heaven-favored sons of fortune in the palm of her hand.
The instant the door opened, a deep, intensely predatory gaze fixed on her as tangibly as a touch.
Gu Huaiye sat in the dim light.
The first thing to enter his field of vision was a pair of clean white canvas shoes. Above them were slender, shapely calves. The hem of a light-blue gradient dress swayed gently, revealing just a glimpse of pale thigh and tracing the delicate curve of a waist small enough to encircle with one hand.
His wild gaze traveled upward, passing over the rise of her chest and her slender neck, until it finally met a pair of dewy, apprehensive eyes like a fawn’s.
It was as if something had struck his heart without warning.
Those eyes…
They were so like the ones that had looked at him when Gu Zhixia, orphaned after her parents’ deaths, had first entered the Gu family.
Just as clear. Just as helpless and uncomprehending, with a trace of fear at facing an unfamiliar world.
Gu Huaiye lowered his lashes, concealing the sudden surge of dark emotion in his eyes. His thick eyelashes cast a small patch of shadow across his stern face.