future
Gu Jiansheng walked slowly down the corridor of the Lu residence. The crisp sound of his leather shoes echoed in the empty house, and even under the sunlight pouring in from the windows, it still carried a somewhat eerie and ghostly atmosphere.
This is Gu Jiansheng's third month at the Gu family.
Although he had a cold and aloof appearance and looked harmless, he acted eccentrically and without any scruples. It is said that the soft fear the hard, the hard fear the ruthless, and the ruthless fear the reckless. This saying was extremely apt in Gu Jiansheng's situation.
Everyone is afraid of death, but when a person has no hope of dying, all those fancy principles quietly leave them behind.
The study door wasn't closed properly, and Gu Jiansheng pushed it open and entered.
The man who had been slumped in an armchair by the window immediately sat up like a startled bird upon hearing the noise, looking at him warily.
The man had a stubble beard, messy hair, and fine wrinkles between his eyebrows and eyes. However, due to his superior bone structure, he exuded a mature masculine charm with the passage of time. But the moment he opened his mouth, the beauty brought by his appearance shattered with his timidity and bluffing.
"What are you doing here? What else do you want?! You've ruined the Gu family like this, don't you know the meaning of the word 'shame'?!"
In just three sentences, the man was already breathing rapidly due to his panic.
Gu Jiansheng had never intended to have anything to do with the Gu family.
To him, the Gu family was not even as good as Aunt Zhou next door, but Gu Chengfeng did have a good wife.
No matter how many lifetimes Gu Ruijin had, she had no feelings for Gu Jiansheng, her adopted son, but she never tormented him either, and that was enough for Gu Jiansheng.
Unfortunately, he was already involved.
Neither He Huaizhi nor Gu Chengfeng were willing to let him go. They not only wanted to use him, but they never regarded him as an independent person with a brain and the ability to think.
If he does nothing, he will only be exploited to the bone by the power struggles of the Gu family's collateral branches.
Gu Jiansheng has been reborn more than ten times. Even as a puppet who can be discarded at any time, he has enough experience to see clearly the fragile foundation buried beneath the Gu family.
They are at a critical juncture of transition between the old and the new era, with countless eyes watching them closely, fearing that unforeseen events might once again shatter this opportunity for rapid development and advancement.
Gu Jiansheng didn't even need to take action himself. He only needed to bring out the evidence and clues he knew, and he could attract countless hands from above to set things right and suppress the restless members of the Gu family.
Money held no appeal for Gu Jiansheng, yet it was enough to drive these greedy wolves to the brink of madness. Amidst their mutual tearing and biting, no one noticed him, a figure who had just been recognized by the Gu family and appeared exceptionally small and weak.
Of course, this excludes the middle-aged man in front of him who was completely abandoned by Gu Ruijin after his affair was exposed.
“I think a man who cheats on his wife and lives a life of debauchery should know even less about the meaning of the word ‘shame’ than I do, don’t you think?” Gu Jian said calmly, casually finding a place to sit down. “Do I need to remind you, Gu Chengfeng? You’re living in my house now, eating the food I provide. If you want to live, I don’t want to see you shouting and yelling so indecently anymore.”
Gu Chengfeng's roar was all stuck in his throat.
If Gu Jiansheng hadn't been recognized as a member of the Gu family, where would he have this house? And where would he have found a way to make a living?!
All of this was thanks to him, but this unfilial son showed no gratitude whatsoever!
He wouldn't stoop to being locked up here! He'd rather eat coarse grain bread than eat pork!
But Gu Chengfeng dared not say it.
Because in his eyes, Gu Jiansheng was now already being very amiable.
This adopted son will kill.
From the very first day he fell into this predicament, Gu Chengfeng understood this fact, and his broken leg bone was one of the best pieces of evidence.
"What exactly do you want to do?" Gu Chengfeng's voice trembled, and he could barely support his straight back by gripping the armrests on both sides.
Gu Jiansheng enjoyed Gu Chengfeng's disheveled and dejected state, but unexpectedly found that he felt no pleasure at all.
Feeling weary, he got straight to the point.
"Your old friend is looking for you again. Write him a letter."
Gu Jiansheng took out two letters from his pocket. One was a reply he had already written, and the other was blank, waiting for Gu Chengfeng to copy it before it was sent out.
Gu Chengfeng's face twitched, and he unfolded the letter with trembling hands.
"You..." He wanted to shout again, but when he saw Gu Jiansheng's cold and aloof expression, his heart trembled, and half of his emotions were swallowed back. "You really want to help He Huaizhi? If this batch of goods gets caught, we're finished. The Gu family is already on its last legs. Even if you hate me to the extreme, you still have to leave yourself a way out..."
Gu Jiansheng didn't let Gu Chengfeng finish speaking: "I'll have someone come and pick it up after dinner. If you can't even do this little thing right, you can forget about keeping your hand."
After he finished speaking, he didn't even glance at Gu Chengfeng before turning and leaving the room.
A backup plan.
Perhaps the old Gu Jiansheng would have left himself a way out, but the current Gu Jiansheng has figured out the cruelty of fate towards him and the corresponding favor it bestows.
Only by burning his bridges could he have a chance to survive.
The scene of falling off the cliff three months ago is still vivid in Gu Jiansheng's mind. When death was infinitely close to him, what he felt was not the ease of liberation or the pleasure of completing revenge, but fear.
This fear did not stem from death itself, but from the sudden fear of never seeing the extraordinary Zhou Lexing again when the familiar intuition of impending rebirth over and over again overwhelmed him.
He was reborn eighteen times before he finally met Zhou Lexing.
What if Zhou Lexing is reborn and changes?
There is no solution.
When the two of them fell to the ground at the same time, the world seemed to pause for a moment. Gu Jiansheng was indeed reborn after experiencing excruciating pain, but unlike his previous rebirths, this time the world did not turn back the clock to the beginning. Instead, it forcibly pressed him, the chess piece that had been separated from the chessboard, back into his rightful place.
As the midday sun shone on the dirt road in front of the door, Gu Jiansheng looked at He Huaizhi with almost cold hands and feet. He watched him use that hypocritical face to talk about the difficulties and feelings of helping him find his relatives. He watched him and his father put on a big show with the sole purpose of dragging him into the quagmire of the Gu family.
Let's hit the road.
Like a lamb to the slaughter, he embarks on the predetermined path laid out for him by fate, giving everything for the great achievements of another.
After experiencing extreme fear, Gu Jiansheng became completely calm and indifferent, but the murderous intent and ferocity in his eyes could no longer be concealed by his frail body.
He turned around, wanting to take one last look at Zhoujia Village, which had become incredibly unfamiliar and grotesque in his eyes, but instead saw five familiar faces peering at him from the crowd.
Zhou Lexing.
The name, along with the person's face and voice, jumped into his mind almost without him having to think about it.
The will to live, after the fear of possibly losing that person, once again bound his hands and feet like wildly growing vines, but it also gave him the motivation to keep going.
Since fate does not allow He Huaizhi to die, then let He Huaizhi live his whole life in the cage he has built.
At least this time, having the memory of this unexpected event, he has gained the upper hand.
.
As for the future, it is indeed elusive and intangible, impossible to grasp, yet it is gradually built up by every single thing we do now, leaving traces and preventing us from being completely lost.
Zhou Lexing and Zhou Lixing's discussion about the future didn't yield any concrete results, but it was the first time Zhou Lexing had learned that his second brother had already decided on the person he would spend his life with.
She was a female worker in the same workshop as him.
Even if they weren't exactly in love, they had at least poured out their hearts to each other.
Compared to this, he was truly at a loss. Even after Gu Jiansheng left, he still couldn't quite figure out what this one-sided, profound brotherhood was all about. But now that person wasn't around, and he couldn't understand it himself, Zhou Lexing simply let it go.
He left a week later.
This time, he told his five underlings about his plans, and Zhou Bobo and Li Dagang chose to go on a long trip with him.
Li Cheng's family's pig farming business is thriving, so there's no need for him to travel far, and his parents wouldn't let him go out anyway.
Zhou Xiaobing was timid and preferred to manage his own land.
Zhou Xiaoxiao was too young, and Zhou Lexing hadn't planned to bring him along. Zhou Xiaoxiao even threw a small tantrum because of this, but unfortunately, his protests didn't have much effect in the face of his older brother and the imposing leader. It's likely that among this group, only Zhou Xiaobing could be outdone by him.
Time always flies when you're busy.
This wasn't Zhou Lexing's first time starting a business. This time, with the help of the era's dividends, he was naturally able to make it even more successful. He started with categories like clothing and jewelry that were small in scale and required little investment. After accumulating enough capital reserves, he decisively switched to the real estate industry, taking advantage of the opportunity to travel all over the country to find locations that might appear in the plot of the novel.
Logically speaking, He Huaizhi, being a "proud protagonist," shouldn't be unknown in this era, and Gu Jiansheng, as He Huaizhi's official partner, should always be by his side.
Zhou Lexing had even come up with the excuse he would use when the two met. He was determined not to let Gu Jiansheng disappear without a word this time. However, Zhou Lexing spent nearly three years trying to find the guy's whereabouts.
Zhou Lexing used to doubt the boundaries of this world, worrying that it was too small, so small that he could see the edge at a glance. But now Zhou Lexing feels that this world is too big, so big that even finding a person, the center of a world, is like finding a needle in a haystack.
"Brother Le, how about we look for opportunities overseas?"
Zhou Bobo spoke cautiously.
During this period, Zhou Lexing's foresight was evident to all, but his determination to find Gu Jiansheng and He Huaizhi was also clear.
He looked as if those two people owed him millions and had run away.
Zhou Bobo and Li Dagang were both moved, but dared not tease Zhou Lexing about the matter.
Zhou Lexing glanced at them and said casually, "I'm not looking anymore. Who cares?"
Boss, this is the 126th time you've said this, but I haven't seen you actually give up.
Zhou Bobo and Li Dagang exchanged a glance, both seeing the helplessness and complaints in each other's eyes, but neither dared to challenge their boss's authority, only daring to mutter their complaints to themselves.
"Brother Le, are you going back to the village this year?"
With the end of the year approaching, I should go back home.
Zhou Lexing thought for a moment, then sighed, "We'll see."
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