Chapter 80: The Tyrant CEO Rises
Gu Tang was so embarrassed his toes practically curled into the floor.
But no matter what—seeing Young Master Gu charging bravely forward on his path to becoming an overbearing CEO, both he and the system could finally rest easy.
[Congratulations, Host! Achievement unlocked: “Make the Male Lead Say a Classic Tyrant CEO Line.” Reward: 20 life points and 5 plot coins!]
[Excellent, our plot is progressing steadily!]
The system was already imagining its wonderful vacation, happily making travel plans for after all the tasks were complete.
The Gu family and the Yu family had joined forces to go after the Wang family.
Recently, Young Master Gu had been spending more time with his elder brother than even with Gu Tang. Gu Tang did not understand business matters and could not be bothered to ask. He trusted that Young Master Gu and his big brother would deal with the Wang family and Yu Rong thoroughly and cleanly.
He was not worried at all.
Gu Tang paid no attention to the surging storms of the business world. These days, he had been busy with the welfare home’s affairs, becoming a director in more than name.
Back at Jiang City No. 1 High’s garden fair, the children from Tang Tang Orphanage had left a deep impression on the teachers, students, and alumni. Since then, alumni from No. 1 High had continued donating money and supplies.
Some had even expressed interest in adopting children from Tang Tang Orphanage.
When it came to adoption work, Gu Tang was a hundred times more cautious.
Not only did he strictly review each prospective parent’s qualifications and circumstances, he also established a long-term follow-up system afterward to ensure the adopted children could grow up healthy and safe.
As for the donated money and goods, Gu Tang used them to build a small library for the welfare home.
Recently, he had also been planning to renovate the old basketball court.
“It wouldn’t be bad to build a little children’s playground next to it too…”
As he talked to himself, Gu Tang sketched out the plan on draft paper, the pencil tip making a constant scratch scratch sound against the page.
Just then, Old Director Luo’s voice came from the doorway.
“Tangtang, what are you busy with?”
Old Director Luo knocked lightly on the open director’s office door. Only after Gu Tang looked up did he roll his wheelchair inside.
He picked up one of the discarded draft pages on the desk and glanced at it.
Old Director Luo looked surprised. “You’re drawing the plans yourself? Tangtang is that amazing?!”
Gu Tang scratched his head shyly. “It’s just a simple layout sketch. I’ll still need to discuss the details with the workers later.”
Then he smiled slyly and lowered his voice. “That can save several tens of thousands in design fees!”
Seeing Gu Tang’s proud little expression, Old Director Luo smiled with satisfaction too. “The best decision I ever made in this life was handing the welfare home over to you.”
That praise was too high.
Gu Tang did not dare accept it. Humbly, he said, “How can what I’m doing compare…”
“Grandpa Luo, you’re the amazing one. You built this welfare home with your own hands. Without you, there would be no Tang Tang Orphanage today.”
“I’m old now. Not good enough anymore.”
Old Director Luo shook his head with a smile. “Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll go off to meet the King of Hell.”
Gu Tang hurriedly stuffed a little snack into Old Director Luo’s mouth to block the words, sounding rather annoyed. “You’re not allowed to say that.”
Then he glanced at the wall clock.
Lowering his head, Gu Tang pulled out a blood pressure monitor from the drawer. “Perfect timing. It’s time to check your blood pressure.”
Ever since Gu Tang took over, Old Director Luo had refused to return abroad. The doctor had said his health condition was actually very good. As long as he paid attention to daily care and took his medication, it did not make much difference where he lived.
The old man liked the children, so he simply moved back into the welfare home.
But these past few days, perhaps because the weather was too hot, Old Director Luo had occasionally been feeling dizzy. So Gu Tang had started keeping a close eye on his blood pressure.
Since he had spent so much time in hospitals in his previous life, Gu Tang was very familiar with how to measure blood pressure. He lifted Old Director Luo’s arm and wrapped the cuff around it.
Strangely enough, back when he was abroad, Old Director Luo had hated medical staff fussing with him like this.
But in front of Gu Tang, he behaved very well, holding his arm out without moving.
Once he confirmed the reading was normal, Old Director Luo casually asked, as if it were an offhand bit of small talk, “Tangtang, what’s Qinian been busy with lately? Why hasn’t he come to see you?”
That day, after accidentally walking in on the two young people being intimate, the old man still felt warm in the face every time he remembered it.
He was too embarrassed to ask directly whether the two children were actually together now.
So he could only inquire indirectly.
In Old Director Luo’s view, the welfare home was so busy, and yet Gu Qinian still was not coming to see Gu Tang. Points deducted.
But Gu Tang just smiled sweetly and answered in a soft, gentle voice, “Nian-Nian is much busier than I am. Taking over the Gu family business isn’t easy. There’s just too much work to do. He’s working very hard.”
The old man gave a small huff, reluctantly accepting that explanation, then added, “You shouldn’t indulge him too much. When it’s time to keep him in line, you should do it.”
Gu Tang: “?”
He did not quite understand what Old Director Luo meant.
Actually, the main reason Young Master Gu had been so busy lately was because the Gu family and Yu family were working together to suppress the Wang family.
But after thinking about it, Gu Tang decided there was no need to make Old Director Luo worry too, so he said nothing.
The old man’s eyes shifted a little, and then he seemed to think of something else and grew concerned. “If the Gu family is this busy, will you be busy too in the future? Will you not have time for the welfare home anymore?”
He had worked so hard to trick such a good little director into the welfare home. He absolutely could not let Gu Tang run off!
Gu Tang laughed cheerfully and replied in a teasing tone, “What’s the problem? If I get busy, then Grandpa, won’t I still have you? As long as you’re sitting here holding down the fort, there won’t be any problem at all.”
“Nonsense!”
The old man glared in a panic. “You promised to inherit the welfare home. You’re not allowed to go back on it! Don’t expect an old man who can’t even walk to do it!”
Gu Tang burst out laughing and nodded repeatedly. “I know, I know. I was only joking.”
“That’s more like it.”
Old Director Luo happily swung his legs a little and once again praised his own excellent judgment in choosing a successor.
Gu Tang looked at those legs swinging back and forth and blinked. “Your legs look pretty flexible to me…”
“Who says they are?!”
Old Director Luo instantly stopped swinging them and slumped back in the wheelchair. “I can’t even stand up!”
“That shouldn’t be right…”
Gu Tang tilted his head in confusion.
The attending doctor abroad had clearly said Old Director Luo’s health was excellent, good enough that once he came back to China, he could even join his old friends in dancing in the public square if he wanted.
When Gu Tang had gone to pick him up at the airport and saw him in a wheelchair, he had already found it strange.
How could someone who was supposedly fit enough to dance in the square be unable to walk?
Either the foreign doctor had deeply misunderstood square dancing, or Old Director Luo’s body had not actually recovered as well as expected.
Gu Tang grew worried and suggested, “Shouldn’t we go back to the hospital and have another look?”
Old Director Luo refused immediately. “I’m not going to the hospital!”
Gu Tang: “……”
He tried every kind of persuasion, soft and hard, but the old man simply would not budge. He absolutely refused to go to the hospital.
Just when Gu Tang was at a loss, someone lightly knocked on the office door.
“The door’s open, come in…”
As he spoke, Gu Tang turned his head, only to see Young Master Gu standing tall in the doorway, leaning against the frame with a smile.
“Nian-Nian!”
Gu Tang’s eyes lit up, and he flew toward him like a little swallow returning to its nest.
Then he suddenly remembered that Old Director Luo was still there.
Hugging and clinging in front of an elderly person was a little too shameless…
So Gu Tang had no choice but to slam on the brakes when he was only about ten centimeters away from Young Master Gu. He gave a shy little smile. “You came. Aren’t you busy today?”
Gu Qinian had already been preparing to open his arms and catch him.
But the other boy had stopped at the last second.
Leaving him hugging empty air.
When he looked farther inside, he finally saw Old Director Luo smiling at the two of them with great cheer.
Gu Qinian: “……”
Temporarily unable to hug him, Gu Qinian said awkwardly, “Not too busy. I came to bring you something.”
Gu Tang had already spotted the cake box in Young Master Gu’s right hand, but he still deliberately asked, “What is it, what is it?”
“You already saw it. Strawberry cake.”
Gu Qinian handed him the cake, then lifted a hand and lightly flicked the bridge of Gu Tang’s nose.
Gu Tang wrinkled his nose.
Using the fact that his back was turned to Old Director Luo, he sent an exaggerated silent mwah through the air toward Young Master Gu.
Gu Qinian was so charmed by the boy’s sweet, adorable expression that he could not help thinking—being in love really was wonderful…
If they were only brothers, Gu Tang would never make such a cute face at him.
Whether it was because he had come of age or not, this summer Gu Tang had grown even more irresistibly attractive. His features were lively, his skin was rosy and fair, his body slender and long but still adorable…
Once he got to university, there would definitely be swarms of people confessing to him.
The thought made Gu Qinian feel immensely grateful that he had been bold enough and confessed early enough.
He did not dare imagine what kind of madness would seize him if he had to watch Gu Tang be taken away by someone else, or saw Gu Tang make that kind of expression at somebody else.
Gu Tang carried the little cake in one hand and held Young Master Gu’s hand with the other as he led him inside. “Grandpa Luo was just asking about you. I didn’t think you’d actually come.”
Gu Qinian looked toward Old Director Luo and said respectfully, “Hello, Grandpa.”
The old man gave a little huff, pretending to be displeased. “I’m not well at all. I don’t have any strawberry cake!”
Gu Qinian smiled. From the cake bag he pulled out a smaller one. “You have some too. But you have to follow the doctor’s orders, so yours is sugar-free and only a small portion to satisfy the craving.”
The moment he saw the little cake, Old Director Luo’s eyes lit up and his face broke into delight. “Good, good, good! As long as I get cake, that’s all that matters!”
Like he was soothing a child, Gu Tang first opened the old man’s little cake and handed it to him. Only after seeing him eat happily did he turn back to his own.
Young Master Gu sat beside him and watched him eat.
Gu Tang could not resist sharing, so he scooped up a spoonful and held it toward him. “Do you want some?”
Gu Qinian was never especially fond of sweets, but if Gu Tang fed it to him, of course he would not refuse. He opened his mouth and accepted the spoon.
The two of them ate cake using the same spoon, sticking close and glancing at each other as they did.
They were barely restraining themselves above the table, and beneath it their hands had already found each other again, fingers entwined.
Even if Old Director Luo had never personally seen the two children secretly kissing, just sitting here and watching the way they looked at one another would have been enough for him to guess the truth.
It suddenly reminded the old man of a phrase he had seen recently while scrolling through short videos online.
—The way someone looks at the person they love cannot be hidden.
That was exactly what these two looked like.
And on top of that, the two children were outrageously good-looking.
Old Director Luo felt as if he were watching an idol drama.
It had nothing to do with gender. It was simply that the two of them looked right together.
It was enough to make any bystander start shipping them and sigh from the heart—
it was so good that these two were together…
Gu Tang, of course, had no idea that Old Director Luo was secretly shipping him and Young Master Gu. He still thought he was hiding things very well.
After finishing the cake, he licked his lips in satisfaction.
Unfortunately, he had not licked them completely clean.
There was still a tiny bit of cream at the corner of his mouth.
Gu Qinian noticed it immediately, and his gaze darkened.
Every time they ate cake, he—someone who did not care for sweets—found himself interested only in whatever was in Gu Tang’s mouth or on his lips.
He wanted to kiss the cream right off.
But then he glanced sideways and saw Old Director Luo sitting there, bright-eyed and alert, watching the two of them.
Those eyes were so lively and sharp that they hardly looked like those of someone over eighty.
Gu Qinian: “……”
He gave up on the idea of kissing the cream off Gu Tang’s lips. Instead, Young Master Gu could only pull out a tissue and wipe his mouth for him.
But it was only wiping his mouth, and Gu Tang still got shy.
In a fluster, he snatched the tissue from Young Master Gu’s hand and mumbled, “I’ll do it myself.”
Then, in a tiny mosquito-soft voice that only the two of them could hear, he reminded him, “Grandpa’s still here, so let’s be careful.”
“……”
Gu Qinian gave a soft cold huff and squeezed Gu Tang’s fingers under the table.
Gu Tang’s face turned red, and he poked him once in the palm. “Behave yourself.”
“There really is serious business.”
As he spoke, Gu Qinian opened the file folder he had brought. “Want to take a look?”
“…What is it?”
Gu Tang slipped his hand inside and pulled out two documents. The instant he saw what they were, his eyes widened into circles.
“—Admission letters?!!”
The mailing address listed on both of their admission notices was the Gu residence.
After the house steward received them, he handed them to Su Mei. Su Mei then informed Gu Quan and Shen Ningqing. The three elders had already been celebrating at home for half the day. It was only after Gu Qinian had finished a morning’s worth of work that he got the news.
He had not wanted to share that good news with Gu Tang over the phone.
So he had made a point of coming in person and bringing the original admission letters so Gu Tang could see them himself.
Gu Qinian turned his head to look at the boy, whose face was full of joy, and rubbed his hair. “Congratulations on getting into Hua University.”
This time, Gu Tang could not be bothered to feel shy anymore. He threw both arms around Young Master Gu’s neck.
This kind of monumental news—that both of them had gotten into Hua University—absolutely deserved a hug.
He was going to the same university as Young Master Gu!
“Yes, fellow student.”
Gu Qinian wrapped an arm around the boy’s slender waist and easily lifted him up, spinning him around in circles.
He knew Gu Tang liked this.
Sure enough, the moment he started spinning him, Gu Tang grew excited and even urged him to go faster.
And what could Gu Qinian possibly do in response?
Of course he indulged him.
By the time he finally put him down, Gu Tang was dizzy, stars dancing before his eyes, yet he still hugged the admission letter and kept grinning foolishly.
Hehe, hehe—he and Nian-Nian wouldn’t have to separate anymore!
“This is wonderful news!”
Old Director Luo rolled his wheelchair, preparing to return to his room and wrap two huge red envelopes for the children who had made it into Hua University.
But Young Master Gu reached out and stopped him.
“There’s another piece of good news.”
Gu Qinian looked at the old man and smiled.
“…”
Old Director Luo had a faint sense of danger.
In a gentle tone, Gu Qinian said, “We’ve already contacted the hospital for you. Since you’ve been feeling dizzy lately, you’re going in for a proper period of treatment…”
Before he could finish speaking, Old Director Luo’s wheelchair was already trying to roll away.
Gu Qinian immediately grabbed the handles. “Why are you running? It’s just a routine check-up. You’ll be out again in half a month.”
Old Director Luo struggled. “I’m not going!”
“Well, I’m afraid it’s not up to you.”
Gu Qinian held the handles firmly and steadily pushed the old man forward. “For the sake of your living to a hundred… Gu Tang, pack Grandpa’s things.”
Gu Tang immediately answered loudly, “On it!”
Old Director Luo, forcibly loaded into the luxury car: “Waaaah…”
Old Director Luo ended up being arranged in the hospital room next to Yu Zhongyuan’s, and at the same time, construction began on the children’s playground at the welfare home.
Everything was moving along in an orderly way.
One day, after finishing the welfare home’s daily work, Gu Tang stretched lazily and went to the hospital to visit both his father and Old Director Luo.
He went first to the old man’s room, only to find him gone. Even the wheelchair was gone.
Gu Tang wondered where Old Director Luo had gone off to.
Then he went next door to his father’s room. The moment he pushed open the door, he heard two booming, energetic voices laughing inside.
Gu Tang looked at his mother in confusion.
Yin Ruan smiled. “The grandpa you sent in here is very chatty. He and your father get along extremely well. They’ve been talking so happily this whole time.”
Gu Tang: “?”
He truly had never imagined his father as the type who enjoyed chatting with people.
All he could conclude was that Old Director Luo was a true extrovert among extroverts.
“I’ll go inside and see them.”
After saying that to his mother, Gu Tang pushed open the inner door—
and the sight before him made his eyes go wide and his mouth form a perfect “O.”
The same Old Director Luo who had insisted over and over that he could not even stand up was now inside the room, planted in a horse stance and practicing tai chi. His set of Bagua palm movements looked incredibly convincing.
As he performed tai chi, Old Director Luo was still lecturing Yu Zhongyuan enthusiastically, “You can’t just lie there forever! Let me tell you, if you learn my methods properly, living to ninety-nine is no trouble at all. Just look at these arms, these legs of mine—”
Before he could finish boasting, a tiny disbelieving voice came from behind him.
“Grandpa… you can walk?”
Walk?
He could not only walk—he looked capable of running, jumping, and climbing onto the parallel bars if he wanted to.
Old Director Luo did not even dare turn around. The moment he heard Gu Tang’s voice, he dropped straight back into the wheelchair and immediately began groaning. “Oh dear me, my legs, my legs are no good, no good at all…”
Gu Tang: “……”
“Grandpa, I saw all of that!”
Old Director Luo tilted his head and played dead.
Gu Tang walked around to stand in front of him. “If you’re perfectly fine, why did you pretend you couldn’t walk?”
The old man knew at once that he had been caught and there was no way out, so he reluctantly opened his eyes and awkwardly rubbed his nose. “Because if you knew I was healthy again, what if you threw the welfare home back at me…”
Gu Tang was speechless. “Even so, you shouldn’t make yourself uncomfortable! Sitting in a wheelchair all day must be awful.”
“Not at all!”
Old Director Luo patted the “vehicle” under him. “This mode of transportation is so convenient!”
And having said that, he immediately went right back to pretending to be weak and unreasonable.
“I don’t care. I want to retire!”
“Fine fine fine, retire, retire.”
What else could Gu Tang do? He could only soothe the old man the way he would soothe a child. “I’ll even pay you a retirement salary.”
Yu Zhongyuan laughed from the side too.
Inside the room, the three people—separated enough in age to neatly fill the roles of grandfather, father, and grandson—looked at one another and smiled, the whole atmosphere warm and harmonious.
Just then, the voices of Yu Xiao and Young Master Gu came from outside.
It sounded like the two of them had just finished with work.
Gu Tang heard Yu Xiao complain, his tone carrying some resentment, “Even if you hadn’t stepped in today, I still could’ve crushed that old bastard from the Wang family.”
Young Master Gu answered with respectful composure, “Yes, Big Brother is wise.”
Yu Xiao sounded displeased. “Why do I feel like you’re not being sincere?”
Gu Qinian replied, “That’s only Big Brother’s misconception.”
Yu Xiao snapped, “Stop calling me Big Brother!”
Gu Qinian answered, “Understood, Big Brother.”
Yu Xiao: “……”
Yu Xiao walked in with a dark expression that did not at all match the warm and cheerful atmosphere in the room.
Young Master Gu, however, seemed entirely natural. When he saw Gu Tang there, the corners of his mouth even lifted.
The second Yu Xiao saw that expression, his temper flared. He deliberately positioned himself between the two of them, blocking the brat from the Gu family from making eyes at his little brother.
Gu Tang: “……”
Big Brother was really childish.
Old Director Luo had heard the earlier exchange between the two men outside.
Curious, he asked, “This Wang family you mentioned… is that the very rich consortium with the surname Wang?”
“Yes.”
Gu Tang turned to him. “Why do you ask, Grandpa?”
Old Director Luo frowned, as if searching through some old memory. After a moment, he said, “Back then, it was their boss—that Wang fellow—who wanted to buy my welfare home. If I hadn’t met Tangtang, I might actually have handed the place over to him…”
Hearing that, Gu Tang froze.
[Wouldn’t that make him the hidden boss behind the black-hearted orphanage in the original novel?!]
The system sounded shocked.
In the original book, the beginning of male lead Gu Qinian’s tragedy was being stolen away by the evil nanny, but the place where he truly suffered was the black-hearted orphanage.
Gu Tang sighed. “Who would have thought that after so many twists and turns, the mastermind who turned a perfectly good welfare home into a black-hearted orphanage would reappear like this…”
And just happened to be about to fall into Young Master Gu’s hands.
[This must be what you humans call “fate’s best arrangement.”]
Gu Tang nodded. “Exactly. This is fate. He deserves it.”
He was talking with the system inside his own mind and did not notice the tall boy standing nearby.
Gu Qinian’s black eyes were dark as the abyss, his narrow eyes slowly narrowing further, his whole expression turning fierce.
Much to Gu Tang’s surprise,
the Wang family collapsed even faster than planned.
Under the double pressure from Gu Qinian and Yu Xiao, the Wang family had fallen before autumn even arrived.
And once the Wang family crumbled, the buried truth surfaced as well.
Back then, the Wang family had wanted to swallow up the Yu family through unfair business competition. In secret, they had gotten in touch with Yu Rong, only to have Yu Zhongyuan catch them red-handed behind their backs.
Once the Wang family learned that Yu Zhongyuan had evidence of their crimes, they panicked. They incited Yu Rong to set the fire, threatening that if he refused, they would expose the fact that Yu Rong had already been selling information about the Yu family to them.
Yu Rong set the fire and caused a disaster.
He carried away Gu Tang, still an infant, only to realize afterward that the baby had inhaled too much smoke in the blaze and was in critical condition.
When he learned that Yu Zhongyuan had fallen into a coma, Yu Rong concluded that no one knew he had taken the child. With his twisted hatred of the Yu family fuelling him, he actually did something monstrous and abandoned Gu Tang.
At last, the whole truth came to light.
The Wang family and Yu Rong both had to face legal punishment.
The twenty-odd lives that had been lost in that fire finally lived long enough in justice to see the people responsible pay for it.
The media detailed the criminals’ arrest all over the internet.
Netizens happily feasted on the scandal.
“I heard the future head of the Gu family is only eighteen, but his methods are so fierce. The moment he made a move, the Wang family, which had been locked in a years-long fight with the Yu family, was completely overturned!”
“This time the Wang family’s assets will probably get carved up between the Gu family and the Yu family, right?”
“Exactly. From now on it’ll just be those two standing against each other, with no one else left in the field.”
“I bet the Gu family and Yu family will go to war next!”
But then, after Yu Zhongyuan was discharged from the hospital, the Yu family released a massive announcement that shocked everyone—the Yu family had recovered the young master who had been missing for seventeen years.
In order to protect the young master’s privacy, no photo was released, but the official notice did specifically mention the Gu family.
The Yu family stated: We are deeply grateful for the Gu family’s years of care and upbringing of our child. We will never forget this kindness, and we look forward to future cooperation with the Gu family across many fields.
The internet collectively went numb.
“Doesn’t that mean… they’re basically family now?”
“If the Gu family and Yu family work together from now on, what space is even left for anyone else?”
“What happened to the people who were betting those two would go to war?”
“They’re too scared to show their faces. They lost so badly they don’t even have underwear left!”
“Sob, I’m so jealous of the Yu family’s young master. He really went from one wealthy family into another wealthy family!”
The internet was delighted with its gossip.
Only one person was not delighted.
Inside Gu Tang’s bedroom on the third floor of the Gu residence,
a half-packed suitcase lay open on the floor.
And the owner of that suitcase had been pinned down onto the bed.
Gu Tang lay in the soft bedding, his bangs messy, breathing slightly hard, his round amber eyes staring up at the person above him.
Young Master Gu’s hands gripped his waist, and his eyes were red. “You’re not allowed to leave.”
Gu Tang: “……”
There it was, there it was.
The famous novel scene of pinning someone by the waist with reddened eyes.
He had never thought he would get to experience it in person…
[Of course. This is the real male lead. Since you’ve gone down the romance route, naturally you get all the proper scenes that come with it…]
The system had just smugly said a few words when it suddenly stopped.
Gu Tang became alert at once. “What’s wrong?”
[A task just came in…]
Even the system thought it was extremely unreasonable.
[Why would a cannon-fodder fake young master task appear right now? This is so inappropriate!]
But a task was still a task.
It had to be completed.
The system could only report the requirement.
[Please, Host, within the time limit, complete the critical plot task: “Reject him, insult him, and humiliate the male lead.” Countdown: 2 hours! Reward…]
Two hours for that?
He could finish it in two seconds.
Gu Tang was way too good at this. Before the system could even finish explaining the reward, he opened his mouth and snapped, “Are you insane?! If I don’t return to my proper family, how are we supposed to date?!”
As he said it, he wriggled his waist unhappily under the hands gripping it.
Young Master Gu really had strong hands.
It did not hurt.
But the way he held him made him feel weirdly ticklish…
The moment he finished speaking, the system burst into excitement like it had never seen such a thing before.
[Congratulations, Host, task completed flawlessly!]
[Time used… only two seconds! We broke a record!!!]
Gu Tang: “Heh.”
