Chapter 72: Hard to Tell—Quite Open in Private…
“I’m attending a banquet tomorrow night, but I haven’t found a suitable female companion yet. I wonder if you would be willing to go with me.”
“It would be my honor, Mr. Xie.”
“Crap, crap, crap!” Xie Wu clutched his head anxiously. “My brother went to a business banquet last night and actually brought Zhou Qinqin as his companion.”
“I heard about it,” Ying Jiayi said. “Xie Kai hasn’t had anyone by his side all these years. Bringing a female companion for the first time ever—everyone’s saying the iron tree has finally blossomed. The Xie family might finally get a mistress…”
“No!” Xie Wu hurriedly cut her off, his tone so forceful that his expression turned slightly ferocious. “As long as I’m here, there’s absolutely no way I’ll let something like that happen.”
“Do you think it’s realistic if I offer Zhou Qinqin five million to leave my brother?” he asked desperately.
“How could that work? You’re seriously underestimating Zhou Qinqin’s appetite,” Ying Jiayi shook her head. “A one-time meal versus meals forever—she can definitely tell the difference.”
“Then what should I do?” Xie Wu cried out in despair.
Ying Jiayi clicked her tongue. “Even though the scandal with my scumbag dad made a huge splash, Zhou Qinqin and her son didn’t get dragged into it at all. They kept a very low profile. There’s no way to attack from that angle.”
Yu Bai said worriedly, “Have you told your brother about Zhou Qinqin’s rich romantic history and her impressive ‘track record’?”
“I did! My brother doesn’t care at all. He even thinks I’m being weird. He said if someone never had a relationship history, where would the kid come from?” At this point Xie Wu looked even more hopeless.
“D-does your brother believe in Buddhism?” The brainstorming atmosphere had grown intense, and Xu Qingfeng gathered the courage to make a suggestion. “You could bring him to the temple my family often visits. I can secretly arrange something to make him think Zhou Qinqin is some kind of demon.”
Xie Wu: “……”
Although his brother did have a Buddha statue at home, this kind of thing… better forget it. It felt like it would damage his karmic merit.
Gu Yang sat diagonally behind him. Though he hadn’t joined the discussion, he wasn’t sleeping either. Resting his head on one hand, his drifting gaze swept over them.
Under the encouraging looks of the others, Gu Yang finally spoke slowly.
“Why don’t you confess to your brother?”
“That way he probably won’t have the energy to care about Zhou Qinqin.”
Xie Wu: “……”
Black lines nearly appeared across his face.
If anyone else present had said it, he would have assumed they were deliberately joking with him.
But the one who said it was Gu Yang. This was simply an option generated after the idea had taken a full lap around Gu Yang’s mental circuit.
He had no doubt that if Gu Yang were the one in this situation, he probably really would do something like that.
But he couldn’t—
His moral bottom line and his thin skin wouldn’t allow him to say something so scandalous!
“Since Zhou Qinqin doesn’t have any weaknesses right now, we’ll just go find some ourselves,” Lu Ji said.
Everyone looked at him.
“Your brother only brought her as a companion once. Judging by Zhou Qinqin’s usual style, she won’t hang herself on a single tree. Even if your brother can accept that she had past relationships, he might not accept her juggling two men at the same time.”
The dimness in Xie Wu’s eyes immediately lit up. In his view, Lu Ji now shone with dazzling brilliance.
“Great idea. Count me in,” Ying Jiayi raised a hand. “I’m not done settling accounts with that mother and son.”
One thing at a time. Liu Chaoyin would receive his punishment, but that bitch Yu Zhou wouldn’t get away either.
“But speaking of which…” Though he was grateful for his friends’ support, Xie Wu suddenly remembered something else. “A couple of days ago someone sent an email to my brother.”
“It just said: ‘Stay away from Zhou Qinqin, or you’ll regret it.’”
“Huh? What does that mean?” Yu Bai looked confused.
“I don’t know. My brother thought it was a warning from one of Zhou Qinqin’s former lovers and replied with ‘Mind your own business.’”
“Was it… one of you guys who sent it?” Xie Wu asked uncertainly.
The group exchanged looks. Clearly none of them knew anything about it.
Xie Wu subconsciously glanced at the absent-minded Gu Yang, but quickly dismissed the thought.
If Gu Yang really wanted to warn someone, he’d definitely say it to their face. There was no way he’d use such a roundabout method.
The anonymous email account had even been encrypted. His brother had given it to an assistant to crack, but when that failed, they simply ignored it.
Interesting.
“It really does sound more like well-intentioned advice,” Ying Jiayi mused. “But if it wasn’t any of us, then who could it be?”
Xie Wu shook his head. He couldn’t figure it out either.
And there was a big suspicious point.
His brother had only officially appeared with Zhou Qinqin in public last night. Yet the anonymous email had been sent several days earlier.
How did that person know about his brother and Zhou Qinqin’s relationship in advance?
They themselves only knew because of Gu Yang’s inner thoughts.
So what about that mysterious person?
“Something’s off,” Gu Yang said softly.
Xie Wu immediately perked up his ears. Even though Gu Yang’s suggestions had shocked him countless times before, he still couldn’t help feeling hopeful.
Gu Yang looked thoughtfully at the people around him.
“Why do you all know Zhou Qinqin’s affairs so well?”
The moment he said that, it was like throwing a bomb onto flat ground. Everyone almost lost control of their expressions.
They had gotten used to Gu Yang not caring about anything. Yet his casual question now was shockingly effective.
Their faces remained calm while their minds frantically reviewed everything they had said earlier.
It should be fine. The main issue was that they seemed a little too familiar with Zhou Qinqin’s behavioral patterns.
Ying Jiayi brushed her hair back. “Isn’t that normal? She had something unclear going on with my scumbag dad before, so I had someone investigate her.”
Perfectly reasonable logic. Nothing suspicious about it.
But Gu Yang still looked thoughtful, and he kept that expression all the way until they arrived at Xie Wu’s house.
“I didn’t expect you to grace my humble home. That’s rare,” Xie Wu said with an awkward twitch of his mouth. The entire trip he’d been on edge, afraid Gu Yang might say something shocking again.
“I didn’t have anything else to do anyway,” Gu Yang said indifferently.
Xie Wu had invited Lu Ji and the others over mainly to hold a strategy meeting and discuss an initial plan.
He secretly warned himself to be careful during the conversation later so things wouldn’t explode again.
“Your swimming pool looks pretty clean. Do you use it often?” Ying Jiayi asked casually as they passed through the garden.
“Of course. I swim there a lot—good daily exercise.”
“Nice. When my house was renovated, we also built a pool. But nobody in my family likes swimming. I don’t know what we were thinking back then. Now we only fill it in summer so my dog can splash around and avoid getting heatstroke.”
“Dogs really have too much energy. Compared to that, raising cats is definitely easier.”
Gu Yang said, “You’ve had that dog since elementary school, right?”
“Yeah. By age he’s practically an old man now,” Ying Jiayi shrugged. “Whenever he has even a tiny health issue I get nervous, afraid he’ll leave me someday.”
“…I’ve also imagined the scene of that cat dying,” Gu Yang said slowly after a brief silence.
“Your cat’s still young. Why worry about that already?” Ying Jiayi said helplessly. “Didn’t Uncle Gu even hire a caretaker for it? He really spoils you.”
“My scumbag dad was different. When I wanted a dog, he agreed but made a deal with me—try not to trouble anyone else. Since I chose to raise it, I had to take responsibility myself.”
“Thinking about it now, he might have just been messing with me,” she sneered. “But leaving his intentions aside, the idea itself wasn’t wrong.”
“After all, we’re the ones who choose them. So we’re the ones responsible. Pets can tell who truly treats them well. Their standard isn’t who spends the most money, but who spends the most time with them.”
“So instead of letting a nanny take care of it, you should get involved sometimes. If the nanny quits someday, your cat might get so lonely it can’t adapt.”
Ying Jiayi knew she was being a bit nosy, but she still couldn’t help saying it.
“…Mm.” Gu Yang didn’t argue. He only responded very softly. “So when Xiao Huang told me she was leaving, I gave the cat to her.”
“You did?” Ying Jiayi had only just learned about this. She froze in surprise, unable to understand how someone could give away a cat that had cost so much to raise.
But her imagination quickly started running.
Gu Yang had previously attempted to jump off a building. And in the future they’d heard in his inner thoughts, Gu Yang would end his own life.
Ying Jiayi’s mood darkened.
In her eyes, Gu Yang seemed to be gradually cutting off all connections with the outside world. That sign was extremely alarming.
“Gu Yang, have you ever thought about what you’ll do in the future?”
She abruptly changed the topic, and Gu Yang’s train of thought made a sharp turn.
“Who knows?” he said carelessly. “Who knows what the future holds.”
But they did know.
Those pieces of future information had become fragments that they kept assembling, slowly changing their absurdly tragic destinies.
So of course they wouldn’t let the one who revealed everything to them—Gu Yang—be left behind alone.
Lu Ji had been listening to their conversation. He turned and met Ying Jiayi’s gaze, giving her a reassuring look.
She had already calmed herself. Gu Yang had just been suspicious of them—she couldn’t show any cracks now.
Slowly. They had to take things slowly.
The servant opened the door and welcomed them inside.
Xie Wu noticed a letter on the table and casually asked, “What’s that?”
“Someone mailed it to President Xie. It was left in the mailbox, but there’s no name.”
Xie Wu’s mind stirred. He strode forward and tore open the envelope without hesitation.
It wasn’t handwritten—it was printed.
“Stay away from Zhou Qinqin. That woman means no good. What she wants is the Xie family’s fortune.”
Was it the same person who sent the email earlier?
Xie Wu frowned deeply.
This person seemed to know just as much as they did.
He truly couldn’t think of who would do such a thing—or where they learned this information.
The envelope passed between them as they read it, everyone showing looks of surprise. Gu Yang stared at the letter, his thoughts unknown.
“Forget it. Let’s go upstairs and talk.”
Xie Wu stuffed the letter into his pocket, afraid his hot-tempered brother might tear it up later and destroy the clue.
He didn’t usually let servants enter his room, and he cleaned it himself. Though it was messy, it could still barely host guests.
“Why are your clothes just thrown on the floor?” Ying Jiayi stepped over a pair of sweatpants with visible disgust.
“I took them off last night and forgot to hang them up,” Xie Wu said without embarrassment, stuffing them into the closet.
Lu Ji didn’t care about such details, but when his eyes landed on something on the bed, his gaze froze slightly.
It was a half-open photo book with rather bold content.
He was still debating whether to cover it with something when Ying Jiayi had already seen it.
Her expression became even more disgusted. “Seriously, at least clean this kind of thing up.”
“What’s with that look? I just flip through it when I’m bored. Besides, doesn’t this prove I’m comfortable with you guys and treat you like close friends?”
“…Who wants that kind of closeness with you?”
Noticing Gu Yang’s gaze on the photo book in his hand, Xie Wu eagerly offered it. “What, interested? I’ve got plenty more over there. I can lend them to you!”
Then he lowered his voice conspiratorially. “I’ve also got some premium discs. I don’t lend them to just anyone—but I could lend them to you.”
Gu Yang ignored the discs and simply flipped through a few pages while Xie Wu held the book.
Ying Jiayi’s already shocked expression grew even more stunned. Xie Wu was one thing—but she couldn’t imagine Gu Yang flipping through something like this.
While turning the pages, Gu Yang said thoughtfully,
“When I stayed at Song Yinxing’s house last time, he wouldn’t let me go directly into his room. He shut the door and cleaned up for a long time. I heard cabinets banging and even the sound of a lock. Was he hiding things like these?”
“That top student Song?” Xie Wu whistled. “Didn’t expect that. He looks like an iceberg, but in private he’s pretty open.”
Then he added with certainty, “That’s probably it. Otherwise what else would a guy lock up in a cabinet in his room?”
Almost at the exact same moment, Song Yinxing—who was standing not far from the residential complex where the Xie family lived—suddenly sneezed uncontrollably in the cold wind.
