Generosity

Gu Nan suddenly stood up, the chair legs scraping against the floor with a screeching sound.

Her mind was blank and unable to react; she turned around stiffly.

The man at the doorway didn't move; his arms hung naturally at his sides, and he didn't even seem to have any intention of going in.

My heart was pounding so hard I felt like it was going to burst out of my throat.

How much of what those words were heard by Lu Yushi?

"You..." Her reaction after being seriously injured was not as good as before. Even her deliberate composure was tinged with helplessness. She tried her best to adjust her facial muscles, wanting to make herself look more natural, but she unintentionally pulled down her lower eyelid and let the tear that was still in her eye socket fall.

Tears brushed across her cheeks, fell onto her chin, and then landed silently on the ground.

When did you arrive?

Lu Yushi swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue and lowered his voice: "Just arrived, still not awake?"

It would be a lie to say he wasn't angry. He knew how to use people. To prevent any mishaps, everyone in the know about the fourth-generation Tianyu system was his person. The only uncertainty around him was Gu Nan. When Gu Nan approached him, she revealed that she knew the hacker N. He could be sure that the person who stole the parameter information was Gu Nan without much effort.

I've already done it, and now I'm scared.

After several sleepless nights, she finally gave the shareholders an explanation. The anger that had been building up inside her was completely extinguished by a single tear from Gu Nan.

"Dr. Du means that we should just wait for him to wake up on his own."

Gu Nan lowered her eyes and answered haphazardly, "Okay, okay."

After a while, he said again, "Thank you."

The sound was as soft as a mosquito's buzz.

“He’s all alone here with no friends, and I want to transfer him to another hospital.”

At the very least, we cannot allow Wan Yi to fall into Lu Yushi's hands, and in the future, we cannot allow Wan Yi to become a handle for anyone to use against her.

Even if Lu Yushi couldn't guess her purpose before, after hearing what she just said, he understood perfectly.

The anger that had been suppressed so fiercely was showing signs of resurfacing.

The tear lingered in her heart, but she managed to control her emotions, only asking in a cold tone, "Where are you going?"

His retreat only emboldened Gu Nan to take advantage of him.

"You've already helped us a lot, so we won't trouble you with the transfer to another hospital."

"you?"

His hands, hanging by his sides, were clenched together, his knuckles white, and his sleeves were rolled up to reveal a small section of his arms, with veins bulging from the effort.

He suppressed his temper and tolerated Gu Nan making enemies for him time and time again, causing countless losses, until finally he received the words "we".

What do you mean by "don't want me to worry about it"?

Gu Nan's eyes darted away, and she instinctively backed away, desperately squeezing a sliver of clarity from her muddled mind. The moment her leg hit the bedpost, she came up with an excuse: "Wan Yi is, after all, a member of the Wan family. Your interference will make Master Wan suspicious... suspicious..."

"Suspicion about what?" The recent rescue of Wan Yi did indeed give Master Wan an opportunity to make trouble, and he made a phone call to the old house.

He didn't take the chairman's few mild reprimands to heart, but they only caused his parents unnecessary worry.

He repeatedly used the news of the tragic deaths of dozens of members of the Xue family to convince himself not to argue with Gu Nan, to be tolerant to the greatest extent possible, and not to expose those lies that could be easily debunked.

But when the word "we" came out, he lost his composure.

"I...I..." Gu Nan gasped for breath, "I have my own plans."

The strange feeling that swept through Lu Yushi's heart was something he couldn't even distinguish—whether it was anger or something else.

"You have your own plans? What are they? Take him to a small hospital with average doctors and equipment, or... go abroad?" Go to a place he can never find again. "Yes, you're very good at planning. You've calculated everything perfectly. How did you end up in the cold storage?"

After he finished speaking, the space fell into dead silence.

Both of them lost their voices at the same time.

Gu Nan looked up in a daze. Lu Yushi rarely spoke harshly to her directly. Twice in a row, the last time at the conference room door, his angry "Get out" and this time, his blatant mockery made her eyes involuntarily redden.

She knew that what she needed to do now was to find a way to calm Lu Yushi down. When emotions overpower reason, the reaction doesn't even wait for the brain to give a signal.

He gritted his teeth and said, "Thank you for saving my life, Mr. Lu. I am very grateful, but this is my own business. You don't need to worry about it. I will pay you back all the expenses as soon as possible."

The harsh words he uttered were significantly less forceful than his reddened eyes.

She swallowed hard, her throat dry and itchy. She clenched her index finger and thumb into a fist and slid down the still-warm bracelet from her wrist bone. As she brushed past Lu Yushi, she shoved it into his hand.

She wasn't lying; she had long been fed up with this life where her heart was constantly tormented.

The sunlight outside was blinding, but the wind that hit my face was bone-chillingly cold.

The north wind howled, and the tall buildings released their powerful impact. She reached out to catch a withered leaf that seemed to have drifted from somewhere. Her gaze fell to the farthest point, but she couldn't find where the leaf had originally landed. It quickly slipped through her fingers and went on its next journey.

During the day, "Night" only had a few waiters dozing behind the bar. When they heard someone push the door open, they impatiently shouted, "We're not open for business yet."

The footsteps continued, unhurriedly treading on the marble floor, growing ever closer.

The waiter then looked up from his phone and said, "I said you're deaf... Sister Nan," he stammered, "what would you like to drink?"

Their attitudes before and after were completely different.

Gu Nan wasn't in the mood to tease him, so she refused the waiter's attempt to lead her to a booth and instead sat down at the bar.

Before I could even sit down, the bartender asked, "Would you like a Martini with double lemon juice?"

"Where is Sister Yan?"

"He went out at the end of the month and hasn't come back yet."

Gu Nan paused for a moment, a look of realization flashing across her eyes, and then let out a soft laugh.

I've been spending too much time in the hospital lately, and my brain isn't working properly. I shook my head and said, "Something strong, please."

Sister Yan has the backing of the Wan family, and she would go to the Wan family for a few days at the end of each month.

She came here today specifically because of the relationship between Sister Yan and the Wan family.

While recuperating in the hospital, she couldn't understand why the Wan family would provoke Xue Li, given her respectable background and family history. It was normal for the Wan family to know that He Xiao was Kang Shengtai's assistant, and it wouldn't be difficult for them to find out that He Wu was He Xiao's brother. But Xue Li had no connection with Lu Yushi. It didn't make sense that the Wan family would bully Xue Li just to sow discord between Kang Shengtai and Lu Yushi.

Just as she was about to leave, a sudden inspiration struck her as she grasped the bracelet.

A problem that had been unsolved for over a month suddenly found a breakthrough.

In order to compete with Sudi, she asked Sister Yan to impersonate J.

His eyes narrowed, and he casually picked up the glass the bartender had placed on the bar and downed it in one gulp.

In Xuncheng, Xue Li's hypnosis company was quite well-known. If the Wan family kept a close eye on Lu Yushi's movements, they would know that Lu Yushi hadn't come for his junior sister's vice president position on that rainy night, but rather for hypnosis.

"Bang!"

She seemed to hear her own heart tremble, making a dull thud.

Perhaps her identity as J had already been exposed, and Sister Yan played a significant role in this.

Suddenly, the image of the Houhai coffee shop flashed through my mind, each memory magnified. Sister Yan stared thoughtfully at Wan Yi's retreating figure, and after fighting with Meng Qing, Sister Yan rushed over and asked, "Why did you let her go?"

Sister Yan and the Wan family might not be able to find Meng Qing, but it would be much easier for Meng Qing to contact them.

After downing her second glass of wine, she took out another phone. Before she could even turn it on, she caught a glimpse of a familiar figure walking towards her.

"Miss Gu."

Gu Nan paused as she reached for her phone, looking him up and down. "What's up?"

"You didn't reply to my messages, and then you were hospitalized. Our branch office had some problems, and I couldn't get away to come and apologize to you that day..."

"Stop it," Gu Nan said, rubbing her temples as her head throbbed from his noise. "Get to the point, stop being so mushy."

Sun Qian pursed her lips: "Oh."

"What's with that expression? Did you break up with your boyfriend, get beaten up, or find out you have a terminal illness?"

Sun Qian dared not speak her anger, silently clenched her fist, and retorted in a low voice, "You look like the one who's heartbroken."

Gu Nan's temples were throbbing. She suspected that she and Sun Qian were incompatible according to their birth charts. Everything was fine until Sun Qian came over, and now her head felt like it was going to explode.

"Dating is just two idiots torturing each other. Do I look like an idiot?"

Sun Qian shook his head.

Does Lu Yushi look like an idiot?

Sun Qian shook his head frantically.

"We didn't even talk, what a load of crap." Gu Nan rolled her eyes. When she reached for her drink, she noticed that the bartender was unusually generous today. She couldn't remember how many glasses she had already emptied, but the five glasses in front of her were all filled to the brim with lemon-colored liquid, with mint leaves covering the tops. The first taste was the rich color of the liquor and the refreshing aroma of mint.

Sun Qian casually grabbed a cup and held it in her palm, frowning messily: "Huh?"

"What do you mean, 'huh'? You've been dating for eight years and haven't learned anything?" Gu Nan said irritably.

Sun Qian imitated Gu Nan, downing the entire glass in one gulp, his mood low: "My girlfriend ran off with someone else."

"Why?"

Sun Qian sighed, his eyes drooping. He put down the empty cup, reached out and took the second cup, bringing it to his lips. He nodded repeatedly and murmured, "I'm just an assistant."

"Smack!"

Before she could finish speaking, Gu Nan slammed her hand on the bar, leaned forward, raised her voice, and began to lecture her incessantly: "Assistant? Whose assistant are you? Lu Yushi! So many big bosses outside treat you with utmost respect, who would dare to be disrespectful to you? Can you please stop embarrassing your boss? Is his assistant so shameful? So unpresentable!"

Sun Qian didn't react much to being scolded to his face, and continued to nod and sip his wine: "The boss has five assistants, and I'm the most useless one. I'm always causing trouble."

Gu Nan's muddled mind suddenly remembered something, and she said sarcastically, "I had forgotten about it until you mentioned it. I heard that you argued with Lu Yushi in front of the emergency room to prevent him from saving Wan Yi?"

Sun Qian: "..."

Pretending not to hear, I continued drinking.

Gu Nan persisted, continuing her tirade: "There are no slaves in the new China! Can't you have some backbone? You're thinking of him, but do you think he appreciates it? He even blames you for meddling and gets angry at you. You need to understand that you and him are just equal employers and employees. You should just do what he says. Why go out of your way to make yourself miserable? Is being a lackey of capitalism really that fun?"

The image of the cold, indifferent figure standing in front of the conference room door resurfaced in Gu Nan's mind. Gu Nan downed a glass of wine to moisten her throat, and was about to speak when Sun Qian suddenly changed his demeanor, holding his glass absentmindedly, as if recalling the past, his voice so weak it sounded like a sigh.

Gu Nan had no choice but to shut up and carefully observe his mouth movements.

"That year, I was studying for my master's degree at the University of Hamburg. It was quite a coincidence that my boss was planning to return to China and arranged for the branch office to be handed over to his assistant at the time. He wanted to hire a temporary assistant before returning to China, and that's when I was hired. At that time, all the money I had was stolen, and I was struggling financially. I couldn't afford the tuition fees at all, and I was planning to give up my studies. But my boss found out and gave me an advance on all my wages for the contract period. For quite a long time, I was working part-time while studying. Later, after graduating, I returned to China with my boss."

Gu Nan frowned and asked, "You still have a 'baby bird' complex towards him?"

Sun Qian was engrossed in her own world and ignored her sarcasm.

"After returning to China, I joined the group with the boss. It was really busy back then. Externally, the boss was constantly being reprimanded by Master Wan, and the old man of the Shen family often tried to embarrass the boss as an elder. Internally, there were also difficult shareholders and directors. Because of Lu Yuanzhi's matter, the chairman never gave the boss a good look."

"He had a very difficult journey." Gu Nan felt dizzy and blurted out what was on her mind. She belatedly covered her mouth, but noticed that Sun Qian's gaze remained fixed on the swaying liquid.

“At that time, the boss had three other assistants in the group. I had just returned to China and was not familiar with everyone’s work habits.” Sun Qian’s brain should have been foggy after drinking, but the more he talked about it, the clearer his memory became.

That was Lu Yushi's first project after returning to China and taking over the group. As the least useful of the four assistants, he was only responsible for the schedule and coordination of the press conference. After coordinating with the platform, venue setup, professional interviews, and other parties, the final time was finally set.

However, he made a big mistake. The itinerary he presented for communication was not the final version. At that time, Lu Yushi suddenly returned to China from abroad and handed over the overseas branches to his assistant. This led to an unprecedented conflict within the overseas branches.

"I still remember that day, because of my mistake, the press conference was postponed by three hours. The compensation for the mess of venue, manpower, and machinery was 2.3767 million yuan. The boss flew abroad and worked non-stop for 21 hours. After getting off the plane, he drove straight to the press conference venue."

Sun Qian held up two fingers: "Two days. Because of my mistake, I only slept for five hours in two days."

Gu Nan was already quite drunk, but with the few remaining clear-headed cells in her brain, she thought for a moment and muttered, "Then why did he keep you here until now?"

"I thought I was going to be fired, since it was considered a serious offense and I figured they wouldn't even give me severance pay. But the next day when I came to work, the boss didn't say anything and just assigned me work as usual."

Gu Nan was taken aback for a moment, then chuckled: "He's so good at winning people over."

Sun Qian immediately objected: "It's not about winning people's hearts."

"that is."

"no."

The two exchanged childish banter three times before Gu Nan slammed her wine glass forward, pointed at him, and said, "Continue."

"I couldn't stand it anymore, so I went to apologize to the boss."

"What did Lu Yushi say?"

"I'll be more careful next time." Sun Qian smiled, her eyes narrowed. "Isn't the boss very generous?"

Gu Nan nodded repeatedly, raising her glass: "Generous. Tch, how come being so generous caused your own uncle such suffering?"

Sun Qian took a moment to react and shook his head: "It's stupid for a boss to be generous only to his own people and to be generous to his enemies."

Gu Nan lowered her gaze and spoke so softly that only she could hear it.

"It's really stupid."