To confess (or to lie)
The next day, at dawn.
Gu Nan was woken up by a headline push notification. He yawned lazily, picked up his phone, stared at it for two seconds, and shook his head, marveling at his photo editing skills. He said they had reached a level that could fool even the most discerning eye. He thought that if Sun Qian saw the picture, he might first wonder if he had developed a new sleepwalking problem.
Even with push notifications turned off, Su Wanting's unread messages still appear in the chat window.
【Sir, did your contact send this?】
Gu Nan simply hummed in response.
How can dying in a community not be considered death?
She was quite disappointed; if she hadn't run away last night, she would have definitely seen Sun Qian's amazing facial expressions this morning.
What a pity.
Are you still angry?
Thank you, Master.
[Appearing in that kind of place in the middle of the night, Sun Qian is definitely a bad guy!]
However, he is Lu Yushi's assistant. If you expose him, won't Lu Yushi take action against you?
If you don't tell, and I don't tell, who will know that I hired someone to expose it?
Gu Nan clung to her last shred of conscience and withdrew the message, replacing "expose" with the word "send".
Conscience is a bad thing; it prevents her from typing with a clear conscience.
Sun Qian had been angry with her for so long, and she only retaliated once, which was very magnanimous.
Convincing himself, he looked up and saw his little apprentice, after a long pause, send another message: "Master, does what you said last time about me using Yan Yi's apprentice status still count?"
Gu Nan's eyebrows were slightly pale, and she was slightly taken aback.
"Knock knock knock." The knocking sound rang out abruptly, and the phone danced in mid-air, almost slipping off the bed.
Ye Xu shouted, "The food is in the microwave. Heat it up yourself if you're hungry. I'm going to work."
"Okay." Gu Nan's icy expression melted, and she lowered her head to type: 【Of course.】
I want to put an end to my relationship with Lin Haoyu. Without your status as my disciple, I wouldn't be able to see him at all. Thank you, Master. Since meeting you, my life has become much smoother.
“Heh,” Gu Nan chuckled self-deprecatingly, then spat lightly, “I always said conscience is a bad thing.”
[Please be careful, the courtyard is veiled.]
The sun hung high in the sky outside the window, its golden light spilling across the entire bed. Gu Nan sat with her back to the window, the warm sun casting a small shadow on her back. She lowered her eyes, her long eyelashes obscuring the glint in her gaze, outlining a cold and indifferent expression.
With a slight lift of her eyelids, she switched accounts and casually fiddled with the chat box with her slender index finger.
If you're going to start something, go big.
Without Shen Manman's presence, how can this farce continue?
She couldn't contact Shen Manman, and coincidentally, there was also Shen Ming.
The chat box is filled with seven or eight questions that no one has replied to.
I believe you are innocent. You were forced to have dinner with me; I understand.
[Lu Yushi is ruthless and cruel, he doesn't know how to cherish women. You must have your reasons for staying by his side, right? Why don't you do me a favor, and I'll find a way to get you away.]
Don't worry, everyone has their own culprits, and I won't hold you responsible for what Lu Yushi did.
Don't worry, I won't force you to do things you don't want to do like Lu Yushi did. Furthermore, I will try my best to meet your requests. You'll definitely feel more comfortable with me than with Lu Yushi.
I always keep my word.
What Lu Yushi can give you, I can not only give you, but I can give you even more.
Contact me anytime if you've figured things out; I'll always be there.
Gu Nan raised an eyebrow dismissively and muttered to herself, "Lu Yushi has a face so handsome it's outrageous, do you? Have you ever seen his abs, pecs, and biceps?" She swallowed and scoffed, "Trash."
He glanced at all the messages and still ignored them.
Perhaps one day she would have to express her loyalty to Lu Yushi. She deleted the first message and looked at the remaining messages with satisfaction. These messages were her testimonies of "unwavering loyalty" to Lu Yushi.
Before the "evidence" could even be introduced to the other ladies in the album, it came in handy.
Lu Yushi commanded her to meet him in half an hour.
She didn't utter a single swear word.
"You don't want Wan Yi and Ji Yuanyu to know J's identity, do you?"
Gu Nan rubbed his forehead and muttered, "It can't be that bad, can it?"
Given Lu Yushi's status, if he wanted to put out a fire, he would certainly have plenty of volunteers.
Are you that angry?
Considering the trouble that revealing her identity would bring her, Gu Nan gave up on the idea of "accidentally" meeting Shen Ming and headed to the address on the interface with a sour face.
The Lu Group has always been grand, from its technologically advanced entrance to its private elevators, but she had no interest in appreciating it.
She was greeted by another unremarkable young man with a standard square face and sharp features, like a cube that had come to life. He introduced himself as Lu Yushi's assistant.
Gu Nan looked around curiously and asked, "Where's Sun Qian?"
The cube-shaped figure gave a strange look and replied dismissively, "I don't know."
Gu Nan suddenly realized and began to rehearse the story in her mind.
Sun Qian saw the push notification early in the morning, her head exploded, and she racked her brain trying to recall who she had offended in her life. Finding there were too many people, she couldn't select a target. Suddenly feeling that Lu Yushi's job as his assistant was too dangerous and hopeless, she decisively resigned. Lu Yushi received the resignation letter, his anger rising. Seeing that he couldn't persuade her to stay, he immediately ordered her to come over and find a way to uncover the real culprit.
They're connected.
Gu Nan clapped her hands in praise: "A truly moving story of workplace camaraderie."
The square reveals a question.
Gu Nan looked him up and down. This man was slightly shorter than Lu Yushi and was clearly not fat, but his face looked like a 300-pound gas cylinder, and he wasn't even as round as a gas cylinder.
Each of her features is flawless on its own, but when put together they appear ordinary, making her eyes seem all the more shrewd.
Gu Nan shook her head and sighed, "You just can't do it."
Square: "What did you say?"
"You're not as good-looking as Sun Qian." Making a wronged expression like that is probably as likely as an exploding Michelin tire, and it's hard to feel sorry for her.
Gu Nan belatedly covered her mouth, wondering why she had blurted it out.
She cleared her throat to try and salvage the situation: "You have your strengths too, for example..."
He racked his brains trying to think of any advantages this cube-shaped person he had only met once and spoken five sentences to: "For example, when it comes to casting for comic book adaptations, no one is more suitable to play SpongeBob than you."
The square-faced man led her to the office door and left with a dark expression.
Gu Nan pursed her lips. The employees were quite like their boss; they all liked to wear a stern face.
Looking around the office, Sun Qian realized her dream of becoming a director had been shattered before it even began, but she didn't blush and threaten to resign.
Lu Yushi's gaze was fixed on the computer screen. Sun Qian was hunched over beside him, her face serious. She would occasionally pick up a document and compare it with the computer screen, exchanging whispers.
"Cough cough."
Both of them looked towards the door at the same time. Gu Nan smiled and tidied her hair: "Good morning, both of you."
The two exchanged a glance, Lu Yushi nodded, Sun Qian quickly tidied up the documents on the table, greeted Gu Nan as she passed by, and closed the door behind her as she left.
Gu Nan strolled over to Lu Yushi with her hands behind her back, leaned to one side, and sat half-on the table, propping her hands on her thighs: "What do you want?"
Lu Yushi looked displeased.
Gu Nan crossed his arms indifferently. Since she met Lu Yu, she had rarely seen him happy. His brows were furrowed so much they could practically fly a train, but that didn't diminish his handsomeness.
She was more satisfied with her face than anyone could have imagined.
A blue folder was pushed in front of her, and Gu Nan casually opened the cover.
[Lu Yushi's assistant was spotted in a red-light district, surrounded by women, seemingly in a daze, spending the night with three women before being carried out of the house.]
Gu Nan tried hard to control her facial expression and exclaimed, "You can't judge a book by its cover! This is... willing but unable? You should give him a break. He's already exhausted from working, and he almost died. He even had to be carried out. How pitiful."
Lu Yushi coldly pulled the folder back: "He did what I told him to do. If you have any complaints about me, you can tell me. There's no need to take it out on innocent people."
"Eh."
Gu Nan's expression changed, and she glared at him, "What do you mean? You think I secretly filmed him? Where's the evidence?"
Despite her lack of confidence, she threw her phone away, and the chat interface happened to show Shen Ming's deliberate attempt to win her over.
"Even when Shen Ming spoke like that, I never considered betraying you. Without any evidence, you actually suspect me?"
A mixture of resentment, sadness, and confusion welled up in her eyes, which filled with tears. She closed her mouth, but the hurt of being misunderstood escaped through her eyes as she turned away.
To make the performance convincing, he covered his face and occasionally twitched his arms.
I feel a pang of regret that I couldn't get my hands on the surveillance footage. Otherwise, I could have submitted it to the Oscars and maybe even won an Oscar.
The room was quiet, except for her occasional sobs.
The person behind her seemed not to exist; she couldn't hear their breathing. She secretly glanced back and saw Lu Yushi staring at his phone, then suddenly looking up.
"Cough cough." Gu Nan rubbed the tip of her nose, trying to hide her unintentional guilt, and unconsciously took a step back.
The footsteps were incredibly slow. Lu Yushi walked around the desk, his deep, dark eyes fixed on her. The faint scent of wood seemed to draw out the surrounding air as he pressed closer with each step.
"You have your reasons?"
"Did I force you?"
"uneasy?"
Perhaps feeling guilty, Gu Nan's eyes seemed to say, "Aren't you acting quite naturally?"
Shaking his head to clear away those messy thoughts, he pushed against the chest blocking his way.
The force was too light; the person in front of him didn't move an inch.
She simply grabbed his arm, pulled him down, and looked up at him, demanding, "Is Shen Ming's delusion my fault?"
She can argue her way out of anything, even when she's wrong, let alone when she's right.
A gaze shrouded in cold mist lingered on her face for so long that it almost made her flinch.
"If you have any complaints, come to me directly." Lu Yushi tossed the folder into her arms, lowered his head slightly, and said, "Clean it up. If it happens again," he warned, his gaze sweeping over her, "I don't mind doing what Shen Ming said and not knowing how to cherish women."
Gu Nan avoided eye contact, stepped back to keep her distance from Lu Yushi, and rubbed the tip of her nose. Lu Yushi's aura when he was really angry was indeed frightening.
She refused to back down, stubbornly muttering, "Have you ever understood... you called me here just for this? You're accusing someone and you think you're right?"
“There’s an event,” Lu Yushi said meaningfully, “You weren’t originally needed to go, but since Shen Ming is so eager to win you over, why don’t you come along?”
Gu Nan gripped the folder tightly and scoffed, "You think I'd end up with a contract of servitude through dating?"
“Prove whether you’ve betrayed me,” Lu Yushi took a half-step closer, his eyes narrowing as if he were looking at prey that was within easy reach. “Or have you already agreed to work with him from the inside?”
Gu Nan: "...You're sick. If I wanted to work with him from the inside, would I show you the chat history?"
"If you can think of using someone else to do your dirty work, why can't you play hard to get?"
The footsteps and heartbeats overlapped perfectly. Gu Nan's expression froze, and a fleeting look of panic crossed her eyes. Her erratic heartbeat disrupted her breathing rhythm, and cold sweat soaked the back of her collar. The air seemed to freeze, and she yawned exaggeratedly, trying to play dumb and get away with it.
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
Lu Yushi's lips curved into a smile as he watched her violently trembling eyelashes gradually calm down. However, he couldn't adjust his disordered breathing rhythm for a while. The sunlight shone on her fair and flawless profile, softening her facial features. Her exaggerated movements resembled a little fox dozing in the sun, her round eyes darting around, pretending to be dozing to confuse the enemy, but in reality, her eyes were full of vigilance.
"I like to talk openly and honestly. You can make your requests, but don't do anything behind my back, that's outside my bottom line."
"Really?" Gu Nan glanced at his expression and took a step forward tentatively. "You'll agree if I bring it up?"
"It depends."
At this point, Gu Nan tugged at his sleeve in a show of weakness, then hooked her arm around his, nuzzled against his arm, and looked up at him with a sincere expression, looking every bit the doting wife.
It felt like they were having a heart-to-heart talk.
"Then I'll be honest. Wan Yi is my friend, and I'm going to help him."
How will Shen Ming explain this?
Gu Nan tilted her head slightly, obeying Lu Yushi's hand as he helped her straighten the hair that was obstructing her vision. In the blink of an eye, she had already prepared an excuse: "If you don't help me, I'll go to Shen Ming."
Lu Yushi lowered his eyes slightly: "You agreed to Shen Ming's request?"
"No."
Lu Yushi smiled for the first time ever. Gu Nan searched her memory carefully and realized that this was the first time she had seen Lu Yushi smile without any other meaning. She also couldn't find any pleasant parts in their conversation.
He's possessed.
"Shen Ming can't even make decisions about the Shen family's affairs. Do you expect him to stand against Master Wan for your sake?"
"Then help me." Gu Nan stood on tiptoe and rested her chin on his shoulder, her longing gaze tinged with an unyielding grievance.
She regretted it.
Lu Yushi's Adam's apple bobbed, and when he lowered his eyes, his gaze was intense. Their breaths collided, the air was hot, and all the parts of their bodies that were in contact felt hot. Yet the face beneath his gaze was fair and pure, untouched by worldly desires, and its light-colored pupils were like pure frost flowers that had never experienced the world and were aloof from it all.
The scalding heat crashed into the glacier.
He pushed Gu Nan away with his other hand, turned around and returned to his office chair.
"Huh?" Gu Nan was completely confused and began to doubt herself. Had she overdone it?
No way, she really covets Lu Yushi's face.
"How can I be sure this isn't part of your and Shen Ming's plan? A honey trap?"
Gu Nan: "Tell the truth?"
Lu Yushi raised an eyebrow, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
"If both a good-looking person and an ugly person are willing to help me, I will choose... the good-looking one." This time she spoke the truth, and Gu Nan saw obvious disbelief in Lu Yushi's eyes. She assured him, "None of my friends are ugly."
The air fell into a deathly silence.
Gu Nan sighed. "After talking so much nonsense, the truth is no longer believed."
“Tell me what you need me to do. I won’t refuse reasonable requests, and I won’t make things difficult for you if I can’t fulfill them.” He changed the subject, his smile fading. “But I hope this is the last time you’ll try to trip me up.”
Gu Nan pouted: "Oh."
She glanced at him, then looked down and typed: "I regret it."
Leaf order: [What?]
He smells so good.
Why did you run away last night when everything was fine?
Gu Nan sighed, realizing that she couldn't even empathize with herself from 10 hours ago.
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