72. You are the joy of my youth.
"Heh~"
Gu Zhao chuckled softly: "That explanation makes sense too."
He held her slender waist and bounced her in his arms: "Ke Qiqi, your Uncle Gu has given me a generous dowry. From now on, you are a member of the Gu family. Don't even think about running away again, understand?"
Just how generous was this dowry? Ke Qi understood the moment Ke Hengyuan severed ties with her father without hesitation.
"knew."
She gave him a quick, fleeting kiss on the lips, complaining, "But that was a bit too much."
It's even hundreds of millions of times more than the amount Ke Hengyuan spent raising her from childhood.
She muttered, "He got off easy."
"fine."
Gu Zhao reached out and poked her pouting lips: "Just let him see it. Anyway, my brother will take it back in less than a month. He can't keep it warm."
Is this even possible?
Ke Qi realized what was happening and her expression became complicated: "Are you using Brother Gu as a tool?"
Unfortunately, businessmen are driven by profit, and such a large piece of "fat meat" was lost. Gu Ye was furious. Even though he knew that he had been tricked by his younger brother and father, as the current head of Shengyao, he had no choice but to swallow his anger and take it back.
Involuntarily, Ke Qi thought of the time that Gu Zhao and Gu Zhuoyan had spent most of the day chatting in the study.
Only then did she realize what was going on and asked him, "So, the day I first came to your house, were these the things you and your father were discussing in the study?"
Gu Zhao: "Mm."
Ke Qi was surprised: "You planned to help me break free from my family of origin so early?"
But she remembered that she hadn't told him about her family situation before.
Her eyes widened: "You investigated me?"
"No."
Gu Zhao chuckled: "These betrothal gifts were originally something my dad and I discussed and decided to give to your father, and it was even more than originally planned."
“If he hadn’t been so short-sighted and unwilling to treat you well, no one would have taken these things back from him.”
"Qiqi~" He looked at her complexion, which was much better than a few hours ago, buried his face in the crook of her neck, and whispered, "It must have been hard for you to grow up in such a family."
Thank you for your hard work~
Ke Qi repeated these words, her heart instantly softening.
"It wasn't hard work." She gave him a sweet smile. "It's a good thing I met you, isn't it?"
Looking at it this way, Yu Sheng and Chen Youting, who helped her get together with Gu Zhao, are simply angels. In the future, they should definitely become her and Gu Zhao's godmothers.
but……
Recalling the scene at that time, Ke Qi asked the question that had puzzled her for a long time: "Gu Zhao, why did you agree to my pursuit so readily back then?"
“After all, you were tricked back then,” she pointed out. “I’ve heard people say that you’re a very hard person to pursue and that you hate being deceived or tricked.”
But when she deceived and schemed against him, he not only wasn't angry, but he also let her plan succeed. He even doted on her and showed her great favor, showing no signs of being aloof because she was being pursued.
Ke Qi found it all very unreasonable. "This is so unlike your temper."
"Gu Zhao, why are you so special to me?"
She smiled and teased, "You haven't been secretly in love with me for a long time, have you?"
It was just a joke, but unexpectedly...
"Um."
Gu Zhao admitted, "I've had a crush on you for many, many years."
This was a completely unexpected answer, and Ke Qi was dumbfounded. "Huh?"
Silence fell between them, leaving only their gazes meeting.
Ke Qi looked into his dark, deep eyes, which held no hint of a joke, and asked in a daze, "How could that be?"
She found it strange: "We've never met before, and we've never had any contact. Why would you have a crush on me?"
"Actually, I've met him before."
Gu Zhao lowered his eyes and looked deeply into her beautiful, bright eyes: "When we were five years old, but you may have forgotten."
Ke Qi was even more confused: "Huh?"
Seeing her bewildered expression, Gu Zhao decided to begin recounting the story: "When I was five years old, I was actually abducted."
Upon hearing this, Ke Qi's bewilderment instantly turned into shock: "What?"
“Yes.” Gu Zhao continued, “The one who kidnapped me was one of our family’s nannies.”
"At that time, her husband gambled away all their assets and owed a huge debt."
"To make matters worse, her son was also diagnosed with a terminal illness around the same time and needed a large sum of money to keep him alive."
“The Gu family provided her with a lot of financial support back then, but in the end, her husband gambled it all away.”
“At that time, my father had made many enemies in the business world, and someone offered an exorbitant price to kill me and my brother.”
This is truly a classic scene from a high-society business battle.
"So—" Ke Qi interjected, "your nanny was bribed by these enemies who want you dead, right?"
"Um."
Gu Zhao toyed with her beautiful pink and white hair with her fingertips: "After she sold me, the buyer moved me to a small mountain village in M City."
“There, I was used as a bargaining chip to negotiate with my father. I was locked in a hidden basement and kept alive with some dry food every day.”
Ke Qi's heart tightened upon hearing this: "Did they hit you?"
Gu Zhao shook his head: "No."
"But the basement was very dark. I couldn't eat or sleep well there, and no one talked to me. It was very boring."
Fortunately, there is a vertical mesh-like cement ventilation opening at the top of the wall.
"Through that vent, I could barely glimpse a bit of the daylight outside, breathe some fresh air, and hear the occasional chirping of insects and birds."
"Unfortunately, after listening to it so much, I still feel lonely and bored."
Under her pained gaze, a smile slowly bloomed on his lips: "Until one day, a new friend came to the vent."
Ke Qi's curiosity was immediately piqued. "What new friend?"
"A girl with a sweet voice and bright, large eyes."
He ran his fingertips over the long, naturally upturned corners of her beautiful eyes and said in a slow, deliberate tone, "The top of that basement is probably her newly discovered secret hideout."
"She always liked to lie on it and draw. She would always bring some fruit and snacks with her. When she was in a good mood, she would draw and eat snacks at the same time."
"Back then, those people probably weren't satisfied with the terms they negotiated with my dad, and they didn't give me any food for several days."
"The day she came, I happened to be so hungry that I fell asleep, but I was woken up by the rustling sound of her opening snack bags."
He took Keqi's small hand and played with it idly: "I wanted to call her to save me, but those people were afraid I would be discovered, so they gave me a drug to make me mute beforehand. So I could only keep banging my head against the wall to signal her."
Ke Qi's heart clenched as she listened: "Did she find out?"
“She found me.” Gu Zhao chuckled. “But the basement was too dark, so she didn’t see me. She mistook the pile of straw next to me that was barely illuminated by the light for a little yellow dog and mistook it for me.”
"So, I was treated like a little yellow dog and fed by her for several days."
"Strawberries, chocolate, jelly, cookies, and many other sweet snacks and fruits..."
"I was lucky to survive thanks to the food she fed me."
His eyes were full of gentle smiles: "She really loves sweets. I didn't like sweets before, but I've developed a liking for her ever since."
"So at that time, I carefully collected all the snack wrappers that she fed me and that I ate myself, and hid them under that pile of straw, thinking that if I really couldn't get out, on the day my life ended, I would still have these last sweet things as my burial offerings."
"Fortunately, fate was on my side, and I was eventually rescued by my father's men."
“But I still have regrets.” He lowered his eyes and gently stroked the corner of Ke Qi’s beautiful eyes again. “On the day I was rescued, I was unable to see her and thank her in person.”
"When I came back to look for her later, she never appeared again."
"Years later, I met a beautiful girl at a friend's birthday party."
As he spoke, he suddenly leaned down and kissed the corner of her eye, which had been rubbed until it was red, and said with a smile, "She has a pair of beautiful eyes just like that girl from back then."
"At the banquet, she looked at me timidly, but unexpectedly boldly played a flawed game of pursuing me right in front of me."
“After letting her get her way,” he said with a smile that was both teasing and indulgent, “she happily said she wanted to be serious about dating me, and even marry me.”
Keqi: ...
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