Chapter 51#
Chapter 51: He Erque
That night, they stood in front of Shen Rou’s tombstone and talked about many things.
It wasn’t just about politics and the circle. He Hailou told Gu Chenzhou some things about his childhood in Qingxiang County. He didn’t talk about his mother, but more about his “private property” tree, the rabbits and hedgehogs on the mountain, and even said that he had once caught a roe deer—and at that time he was only five years old!
Gu Chenzhou also talked about some off-topic topics. In the middle of the conversation, he talked about his days studying abroad. He Hailou was very surprised to express—Gu Chenzhou would also fight, brawl, drink, and curse! He also talked about his other life and studies. He Hailou was even more surprised to express—after going abroad, he actually didn’t have a sexual experience with a beautiful man or woman from abroad. This is not scientific!
Gu Chenzhou almost choked on a mouthful of water. He kicked He Hailou. He Hailou dodged, and then the two continued to chat back and forth.
In the end, He Hailou even took out a few cans of beer from his car and sat in front of the tomb with Gu Chenzhou, chatting and drinking.
This went on for more than two hours. By the time the two parted, it was almost two o’clock in the middle of the night.
After a conversation, even if he set aside the information He Hailou had found about Gu Chenzhou before, he had roughly figured out Gu Chenzhou’s attitude towards various entertainments in the circle: he could accompany him to eat, drink, and have fun, but he didn’t often compete with people in drinking. Gambling was a form of entertainment. He never brought men or women into the circle and never played with anyone in the circle.
The first few were not too strange, but the latter…
He Hailou recalled the information he had collected about Zhou Xing.
When he saw the right opportunity and spread rumors about Zhou Xing and Gu Chenzhou in the capital, he had specially investigated Zhou Xing.
Clean background, decent looks, lively personality, good brain, and a schoolmate of Gu Chenzhou.
What did Gu Chenzhou value in this person?
First of all, a clean identity was a must. Secondly, the information showed that Zhou Xing had not had a girlfriend before he was with Gu Chenzhou.
Next, in terms of looks, he had not heard Gu Chenzhou express much. A good brain and a lively personality… He Hailou pinched his chin.
Perhaps from the very beginning, Gu Chenzhou had clearly chosen a worry-free and labor-saving candidate for himself according to the definition of a playmate.
And besides Zhou Xing, had Gu Chenzhou tried anyone else?
He Hailou thought about the information he got from the chat just now.
Maybe there was another woman.
But it seemed that there was only this one woman…
Putting aside these gossips, after this night, the strange feeling Gu Chenzhou had given him for several days finally had an answer: this kind of interaction was clearly a sign that Gu Chenzhou already regarded him as an ordinary friend!
Was it because of the clues he revealed to Gu Chenzhou this time, or because of the past that Gu Chenzhou associated with after the piano last time?
In any case, this is really great.
Keep up the good work. He Hailou thought. Maybe the days of getting in and out of bed and then getting in and out of bed again are not too far away.
With this understanding, He Hailou no longer used the “equal status in the circle” way of getting along with Gu Chenzhou. He changed his way and began to spend time alone with Gu Chenzhou in each other’s homes.
The difference between Gu Chenzhou in life and Young Master Gu in the circle was quite obvious.
Gu Chenzhou in life basically didn’t touch alcohol, but Young Master Gu in the circle would not spoil everyone’s fun in this place.
Gu Chenzhou in life was not particularly picky about where he lived or what he ate, but Young Master Gu in the circle paid great attention to these details.
Gu Chenzhou in life would also read comics and play games, but the focus of Young Master Gu in the circle was never on these things outside the circle.
…To be honest, He Hailou really felt quite disillusioned.
When he discovered the above points after a few interactions, He Hailou really felt a thunderbolt on a sunny day. The phoenix in the sky flew to the ground and became… well, a grounded phoenix.
I’m such a fool. It was the weekend, and the weather was just right. He Hailou was helping Gu Chenzhou cut radishes in the small courtyard at the foot of Tianxiang Mountain.
Amidst the sound of the knife chopping on the cutting board, He Hailou recalled the question he had casually asked Gu Chenzhou just now.
“Why don’t you live in Tianxiang Mountain Villa?”
Gu Chenzhou didn’t even raise his head: “That place is too big. Walking inside at night, I always feel that a ghost will float out from a dark corner.”
“You’re afraid of this?” So before in Tianxiang Mountain Villa, what Gu Chenzhou said was the literal meaning! He Hailou was really horrified. This isn’t a joke, right?
Gu Chenzhou glanced at He Hailou: “I just don’t want to get up every morning and first go to the well to draw water to wash my face, and then drive for twenty or thirty minutes down the mountain to buy daily necessities and then go up the mountain again.”
He Hailou was stunned for a moment, thinking that this was indeed a key point. But…
“Don’t you find it troublesome to cook for yourself every day?” He held up the kitchen knife in his hand and motioned for Gu Chenzhou to look at the radish on the cutting board.
“Of course I do.” Gu Chenzhou said.
“Then every time I come, you cook…?”
Gu Chenzhou: “It’s all just chatting anyway. It doesn’t matter what we do while we chat, so I just do it.”
…This is too different from Young Master Gu in the circle.
He Hailou thought with complicated feelings, but his hands didn’t stop. He cut the radish cubes into radish strips, then the radish strips into shredded radish, and finally the shredded radish was also chopped into minced radish.
“Knock knock!”
“Thud thud!”
“Knock knock!”
“Thud thud!”
“Knock knock!”
“Thud thud…”
He Hailou finally belatedly discovered that the sound of chopping vegetables that reached his ears was a bit wrong. He looked around, and his gaze was fixed on the kitchen window.
It was a bald, half-yellow, half-red monkey.
This somewhat ridiculous-looking monkey stopped outside the window, holding a flower in one paw and bending the other paw, politely knocking on the glass window at a frequency of once per second, and knocking twice and stopping, knocking twice and stopping, which was exactly the same frequency as him waving the kitchen knife to cut the radish.
Perhaps because He Hailou was staring at the window too intently, Gu Chenzhou, who was standing by and watching the dough ferment, raised his eyes and said, “This monkey is yours.”
“I know…” Its fur hadn’t grown back yet, and there was half an iron chain hanging around its neck! “What I don’t know is,” He Hailou said, raising his hand and pointing at the monkey standing outside the window, “what is it doing?”
Gu Chenzhou also looked at the monkey: “It will put that flower on the window sill in a moment…”
Perhaps to confirm Gu Chenzhou’s words, the monkey outside the window really put the orange, six-petaled flower in its hand on the window sill, then chirped twice at Gu Chenzhou through the window, turned its head and jumped away.
He Hailou said: “I don’t understand the world of monkeys anymore…”
Gu Chenzhou said: “Actually, I don’t understand either… This monkey probably wants to exchange flowers for some food, right? The first two times it brought flowers, I gave it food in return.”
He Hailou thought to himself that this monkey didn’t look like it was begging for food. It was more reliable to say that it was here to pursue a beauty. But this was too bizarre. Could it be that the attraction of a phoenix is already universal for both men and women, humans and beasts?
But of course, he could only think about this. He Hailou changed the subject: “Are we having steamed buns for dinner?”
Gu Chenzhou nodded, mixed the meat filling and chopped radish together, poured in soy sauce, sprinkled with green onion leaves, and some cooking wine, seasoned it, and began to make the buns.
He Hailou was bored watching by himself. After Gu Chenzhou made a few, he also started to make them with Gu Chenzhou, which was actually quite fun.
Dinner was simple, a bowl of soup and a few steamed buns. After dinner, Gu Chenzhou took out a game disc from the cabinet and asked He Hailou if he wanted to play.
The golden phoenix in He Hailou’s heart cracked again, but he nodded almost without hesitation. Then the two played a strategy game online against each other for a whole night, until it was almost ten o’clock. He Hailou, who had been at Gu Chenzhou’s place since morning, packed up his mood of wanting to press the person down on the spot, and regretfully and habitually went out to drive home.
But just a few minutes after driving, he suddenly saw a wild flower in the grass on the side of the road that was similar to the one the monkey had picked in the afternoon, except that it was pink…
He Hailou stopped the car. He sat in the driver’s seat, staring at the flower for a few seconds. As if possessed, he opened the car door, got out, and then walked a few steps into the grass to pick the flower, and then…
…If I really put this flower on the window sill of Gu Chenzhou’s bedroom. He Hailou thought. Wouldn’t it really seem very stupid…
The phone rang suddenly on the road with few vehicles.
He Hailou took out his phone from his pocket. After answering with a few “uh-huhs,” he knew the purpose of the caller.
“Go to the Jinsa Club?” He Hailou said, “What, is there something new there?”
“I heard there are a few very special ones,” the male voice on the other end of the phone laughed, “Young Master He, you understand.”
Of course He Hailou understood. Weren’t they just a few virgins with clean backgrounds, decent looks, some brains, and could speak a little human language?
Thinking of this, He Hailou thought of Zhou Xing again.
Speaking of which, Zhou Xing did meet the above requirements, but of the dozens of people he had tasted who met the above requirements, there was really no other Zhou Xing…
A big boss with a net worth of hundreds of millions. He Hailou thought playfully, and his thoughts turned to the woman Gu Chenzhou once had.
—What kind of woman would that be?
“Young Master He, do you want to come?” The person on the other end of the phone was still talking, “We’ll leave the best for Young Master He.”
“Well…” He Hailou looked at the flower in his hand. After a long while, he said with some lack of interest, “Forget it, playing the same thing every day is not interesting at all. When will a phoenix fly out…”
Is this description a bit strange? The person on the other end of the phone was stunned for a long time before saying, “Then Young Master He, shall we play first?”
“Go ahead.” He Hailou said casually and hung up the phone, then got back in the car with the small flower.
The white Porsche slowly moved forward a few hundred meters, then began to reverse straight back to the place where He Hailou had picked the flower just now. Then the figure got out of the car again, walked into the grass, bent down once, bent down twice, bent down three times…
In the small courtyard at the foot of Tianxiang Mountain. After He Hailou left, Gu Chenzhou turned off the computer game. He first took out a few important reports from the company he had shares in to look at, some he signed and agreed to, some he temporarily held back… until he suddenly felt that something was wrong. He turned his head and looked out the window, just in time to see a black shadow flash past the window, followed by a dull thud of a heavy object falling to the ground!
Gu Chenzhou paused for a few seconds, walked to the window, looked at the few pink wild flowers scattered on the window, and then stuck his head out: “Young Master He?”
He Hailou, who had hidden under the tree and was about to run away, thought to himself that the other’s guess was too accurate. He coughed twice, walked out from the shadow of the tree, raised his head and said, “Good evening.”
Gu Chenzhou picked up a pink wild flower from the window sill and asked He Hailou, “Young Master He, this is?”
“Oh,” He Hailou said with a serious face, “I just wanted to study the mentality of that monkey.”
“And the result of the study is?”
“Actually, I still don’t understand…” He Hailou said.
Gu Chenzhou: “…”
In the end, He Hailou went into the house again to drink a cup of tea, and then took the triangular buns, square buns, and round buns he had made in the afternoon back to his home.
More than ten minutes after He Hailou left the small courtyard again, Gu Chenzhou received a call.
On the other end of the phone was a middle-aged male voice: “Young Master Gu, Zhao Xianyang contacted Minister Gu through Director Chen thirty minutes ago, saying that he had something to tell Minister Gu. Minister Gu asked me to inform you that this matter is now in your hands.”