After getting out of the car, Huo Yanxiu’s indifferent gaze swept across her face and Gu Tingshen’s.
When he looked at her, his gaze seemed to pause for a moment, but it very quickly went back to normal.
“Lao Zhang, what a coincidence, running into you here.”
President Liu shook hands with President Zhang and immediately added, “I’m treating President Huo to dinner here tonight.”
“President Huo…” President Zhang’s eyes lit up.
Although they were not usually in the same city, who did not know Huo Yanxiu?
He exchanged a glance with Gu Tingshen, and the two of them immediately reached an understanding.
After greeting Huo Yanxiu, President Zhang extended a warm invitation. “We’re having dinner here tonight too. Why don’t we join together? More people makes it livelier.”
President Liu naturally had no objection. After all, nothing confidential would be discussed tonight, and a dinner like this helped bring about new cooperation. Who knew, some deal might well be settled over the clinking of cups.
“President Huo, what do you think…” President Liu turned to ask Huo Yanxiu’s opinion.
Huo Yanxiu said flatly, “Whatever President Liu arranges.”
Although his words were very easygoing, the sharp aura of a man at the top that he carried was impossible to ignore.
President Zhang and President Liu both wore accommodating smiles.
Gu Tingshen felt the heavy pressure too.
He was worthy of being the heir of the Huo family, one of the four great families of the capital.
He instinctively turned to look at Shen Suiwan, only to find that Shen Suiwan was looking at Huo Yanxiu.
Gu Tingshen’s brows knit, and he suddenly felt very uncomfortable.
He shifted a few steps to the side, blocking Shen Suiwan’s line of sight.
Shen Suiwan: “?”
Out of his mind.
She had only been reminded again of how Huo Yanxiu had helped her that day.
But right now Huo Yanxiu clearly had no intention of showing that he knew her, so of course she would not make an issue of it.
The group went together to a private room on the top floor of the restaurant and sat down. After a few glasses of wine, the conversation somehow came around to Shen Suiwan.
President Zhang and the several other clients were simply full of praise for Shen Suiwan, all saying she was young and capable and did not do things by halves.
Faced with everyone’s praise, Shen Suiwan remained neither humble nor arrogant, courteous and polite throughout.
Only occasionally would she feel an intense gaze land on her.
Her instinct told her it was Huo Yanxiu’s.
But when she raised her eyes to look at Huo Yanxiu, she found that he was not looking at her.
Could it be her imagination?
As they went on talking, those few clients brought up Gu Xirou again.
President Zhang could not hold his liquor, and a few glasses in he was already getting light-headed.
Right now he was patting Gu Tingshen on the shoulder and saying, “Little brother, don’t hold my bluntness against me, but that Miss Gu, you’d better not send her out to discuss work in the future. Is she your sister? I never heard you had a sister. Could she be your girlfriend?”
Gu Tingshen’s expression stiffened slightly. He glanced at Shen Suiwan and then explained at once, “She isn’t my girlfriend. President Zhang, you’ve misunderstood.”
Mockery flashed in Shen Suiwan’s eyes.
That’s right, not his girlfriend. She was the real wife he had registered a marriage with…
President Zhang gave a drunken hiccup. “Not your girlfriend? Then why do you favor her so much, letting her take over a project Secretary Shen worked so hard on?”
Gu Tingshen smiled. “President Zhang, you’ve had a bit too much to drink.”
There was a trace of coldness in his eyes, which sobered President Zhang up a little.
“Haha, it is a bit too much. Just a joke, President Gu, don’t mind me.”
The topic passed just like that, but at that very moment a bottle of red wine was suddenly turned around to sit in front of Gu Tingshen.
Gu Tingshen’s brows drew together slightly, and when he looked up he met Huo Yanxiu’s gaze.
“President Gu.” The dark colors churning in Huo Yanxiu’s eyes were like the whirlpool of an abyss, carrying a pressure that allowed no question. “A drink?”
Gu Tingshen stared at the bottle of red wine in front of him, his throat tightening.
For some reason, he kept feeling a strange sensation in his chest.
Huo Yanxiu, did it seem, had not come with good intentions?
But the pressure radiating from Huo Yanxiu was so thick it had almost taken solid form, weaving an invisible net through the sealed private room. He could not refuse.
A waiter standing to one side came over, opened the wine, poured him a glass, and then quietly withdrew.
Gu Tingshen steadied himself, picked up the glass and smiled at Huo Yanxiu. “President Huo, please.”
With that, he drained the wine in his glass in one go.
Huo Yanxiu did not hold back either, drinking down all the wine in his own glass.
Gu Tingshen had thought that would be the end of it, but unexpectedly Huo Yanxiu moved a finger, and the waiter immediately stepped forward again and poured red wine into the glasses in front of them both.
“President Gu.” Huo Yanxiu gently swirled the wine in his glass. “How can one glass be enough to enjoy it?”
Gu Tingshen’s expression went stiff.
It seemed his feeling had not been wrong.
But why was Huo Yanxiu targeting him?
He was not so easily thrown into complete disarray by Huo Yanxiu. After all, his Gu family was a household of some standing in Hai City.
But if he really fell out with Huo Yanxiu, in the end there would be nothing good in it.
Gu Tingshen could only pick up the glass once more and say with a smile, “President Huo is so generous. How could I refuse?”
With that, he drained the wine in his glass again.
After drinking it, his brows knit tightly and his face gradually took on a bad color.
He actually disliked red wine very much. Every time he drank it he felt awful, not physically, but a kind of psychological aversion.
Shen Suiwan knew this.
So in the past, whenever a social occasion called for drinking red wine, Shen Suiwan would take the drinks for him.
However much there was, she would drink all of it. Even when someone was displeased by her taking his drinks and deliberately made things hard for her, she took all of it as it came.
In the end she would drink until she was nearly senseless, and yet she would still smile and tell him that as long as he did not have to suffer, it was fine.
But today…
Watching the waiter pour him another glass, Gu Tingshen turned to look at Shen Suiwan, only to see Shen Suiwan calmly drinking the soup in front of her.
With no intention whatsoever of taking his drinks.
Gu Tingshen felt terrible inside, more terrible than any time he had drunk red wine before.
And Huo Yanxiu went on forcing him to drink, glass after glass.
Several more glasses of red wine down, and Gu Tingshen felt he was almost at his limit.
And the alcohol was starting to go to his head.
He could not really hold his liquor. Beer was all right, but this bottle of red wine was a few degrees stronger than beer.
As the bottle of red wine reached the bottom, the waiter opened a second one.
Gu Tingshen was going mad. He could not help speaking up in an attempt to change the subject. “I hear President Huo just acquired a plot of land in Liancheng…”
“President Gu.” Huo Yanxiu did not give him the slightest chance to finish. “Today we only drink. We don’t talk business.”
Gu Tingshen’s fists were already clenched tight, but in the end he still held himself back.
There was no need to offend Gu Tingshen over such a small matter.
After several more glasses, Gu Tingshen was nearly unable to hold on. He instinctively looked toward Shen Suiwan, only to find that she could not even be bothered to spare him a single glance. She even rose and said softly to the others, “Excuse me, I’m going to the restroom.”
With that, she left directly.
Gu Tingshen watched her retreating back and felt as though the wine he had just drunk was blocked up in his chest, choking him.
…
Shen Suiwan stood in front of the sink, calmly washing her hands.
She did not know why Huo Yanxiu had suddenly started plying Gu Tingshen with drink, and she did not want to know.
She had noticed that Gu Tingshen kept looking at her, clearly asking her for help.
What a shame. The Shen Suiwan who had once held Gu Tingshen at the very tip of her heart and was willing to give up everything for him had long since vanished completely.
Turning off the tap, Shen Suiwan wiped her hands dry with a paper towel.
She had just stepped out of the restroom when a shadow suddenly fell over her.
She frowned slightly and was about to look up to see who was in front of her when she was abruptly yanked with great force into the empty private room beside her.
The door of the private room shut with a bang.
And she was pinned against the wall.
Shen Suiwan’s heart was about to leap out of her chest. She was about to scream when a hand covered her mouth.
“Don’t scream. It’s me.”
That was… Huo Yanxiu’s voice.
Shen Suiwan’s heart slowly settled. Although it made no sense at all, she simply felt that Huo Yanxiu would not hurt her.
She raised her eyes.
The man in front of her was indeed Huo Yanxiu, only right now his cheeks were flushed with an obviously abnormal red, and his eyes were dazed yet restrained.
Something was very wrong with his condition.
“Mm, mm…”
Shen Suiwan tried to struggle.
And Huo Yanxiu finally let her go, stepping back several paces and dropping into the chair behind him.
“President Huo, are you all right?” Shen Suiwan took two steps toward him.
“Don’t come over!” Huo Yanxiu warned, his eyes bloodshot.
He was breathing very hard. He gave the collar of his shirt a violent tug, and two buttons came right off and rolled clattering to the floor.
“President Huo, could it be…” Shen Suiwan abruptly realized something. “Did, did someone tamper with your food or drink tonight?”
From the look of Huo Yanxiu, he had probably been given… that kind of drug.
“Mm.”
A drop of sweat rolled down from the top of Huo Yanxiu’s head, carrying, of all things, a certain unusual sensuality.
But Shen Suiwan was in no mood to appreciate it. Right now the alarm bells in her mind were ringing loudly.
She trusted Huo Yanxiu’s character, but under the control of a drug, what a person did was not within their own control.
“President Huo, I’ll go get someone for you.”
She was about to leave when her wrist was seized, and the next moment she was pulled into a scorching embrace.
“President Huo!” Shen Suiwan cried out in alarm. “Let go of me!”
But Huo Yanxiu held her tightly and would not let go.
“Huo Yanxiu!” Shen Suiwan was genuinely alarmed now. She even considered biting down on Huo Yanxiu’s wrist.
Just then, Huo Yanxiu’s strained voice sounded. “We still don’t know who drugged me. Don’t make a sound.”
Shen Suiwan understood his meaning instantly.
They still did not know who had drugged him or what that person wanted to do, and that person could not be allowed to know that he was here right now.
From the look of him, it seemed he still had some of his reason left?
“Then now…”
His burning breath fell against the side of her neck, so hot that her whole body shivered uncontrollably.
Because he had just drunk quite a lot, there was a faint smell of alcohol about him, but it was not unpleasant. If anything, it carried a hint of something bewitching.
Shen Suiwan cautiously raised her eyes to look at him.
But in the instant their gazes met, she saw the terrifying desire at the bottom of his eyes.
His trembling fingertips brushed the corner of her eye, his throat rolling as he swallowed down his out-of-control desire.
“I need you. Help me…”