Chapter 54#

Chapter 54: A Thousand Loose Ends

That night, after the conversation with He Hailou that was almost a showdown, Gu Chenzhou’s days became much more comfortable—He Hailou no longer appeared in front of him for no reason, and he didn’t have to smile at that face that could be associated with bad things at a glance.

But would He Hailou just let it go like that?

Gu Chenzhou would bet his knees that He Hailou would never let it go like that—just as he couldn’t ignore He Hailou’s underhanded dealings with the Gu family, He Hailou couldn’t just let his plan be thwarted. To put it broadly, this was a political game of competing for resources from different positions; to put it narrowly, this was the pride of two equally self-centered people who couldn’t stand others being better than themselves.

There’s still half a month. Gu Chenzhou thought.

—In this half month, what else will He Hailou do?

But unexpectedly, He Hailou seemed to do nothing.

Compared to Gu Chenzhou’s low-key life of going between three places every day (Tianrui Garden, Zhengde Garden, and the small courtyard at the foot of Tianxiang Mountain), and occasionally visiting his maternal grandfather’s house, He Hailou’s recent behavior was no different from usual, except for one thing that seemed a bit strange: in Gu Chenzhou’s investigation, in the past few days, although He Hailou still attended parties in the circle and drank and had fun with everyone as usual, he seemed to have restrained himself a little, and no longer played the drag racing and promiscuous games he was keen on before.

Looking at this investigation report with recent photos of the other party, Gu Chenzhou sat in his chair and pondered: if He Hailou’s restrained behavior was because of the recent change of term, and he had to tuck his tail a little, that would be too wishful thinking! He Hailou was a person who was sinister, treacherous, and extremely bold, and he would go crazy from time to time. It was almost impossible for him to restrain himself. Such a situation… either He Hailou was tired of playing himself, or he was distracted by other things?

“Knock knock!” A knock on the door suddenly sounded.

This was the first room on the third floor of Gu Chenzhou’s house in Tianrui Garden. Gu Chenzhou looked at the open door and saw Gu Zhengjia standing outside: “Brother, can I come in?”

In this family, both Gu Xinjun and Zheng Yuelin worked in government departments and often came into contact with some confidential work materials. Therefore, whether it was the two young ones or the master and mistress of the house, they all paid great attention to this aspect of politeness and privacy.

“Come in.” Gu Chenzhou slightly gathered the materials scattered on the table, but did not put them away: He Hailou, this enemy, did not need to be hidden from Gu Zhengjia. Not only did he not need to, but on the contrary, this kind of thing had to be made clear to the other party, lest someone start from Gu Zhengjia’s side and deceive him with a few words.

Gu Zhengjia walked into the room with a piece of paper in his hand. The first thing he saw was the materials scattered all over Gu Chenzhou’s desk—this was very conspicuous—and the red pen annotations on them. After looking at them for a few moments, he clicked his tongue slightly: “Brother, why do I feel that no matter whether He Hailou does good or bad, you have reason to say that he has ulterior motives?” Isn’t this a bit like wanting to condemn someone and not worrying about the lack of a reason?

“Because he definitely has ulterior motives.” Gu Chenzhou said lightly, not intending to explain in detail.

Gu Zhengjia scratched his face. He didn’t have much talent for politics—this might be related to his lack of interest—but he had one advantage, which was that he was very obedient. He listened to Gu Xinjun’s words, then Zheng Yuelin’s, and then Gu Chenzhou’s. As long as they said it, he would remember what was easy to understand, and he would also remember what was not easy to understand. Regarding this, his thoughts were very simple: not listening to the words of his own family who had lived together for more than ten years and believing outsiders, isn’t this just making trouble? And even if he had to believe, he couldn’t believe a scumbag who played with underage girls.

—It can be seen how bad Gu Zhengjia’s impression of He Hailou was.

“By the way, big brother,” Gu Zhengjia changed the subject and waved the paper in his hand—which was also the purpose of his visit, “This term’s test paper.”

“Failed again?” Gu Chenzhou joked.

“Dad will kill me,” Gu Zhengjia said, “How could it be? I told you last time that I would definitely do well next time.”

“What’s the score?” Gu Chenzhou said, and extended his hand to Gu Zhengjia.

Gu Zhengjia stuffed the test paper into Gu Chenzhou’s hand, with some pride in his expression: “Comprehensive subject 141 points!”

Gu Chenzhou was stunned for a moment, flipped through the test paper and said, “Not bad at all. I didn’t even score this high before.”

Gu Zhengjia chuckled twice, and then his face turned bitter: “The teacher is going to have a parent-teacher conference this time…”

“Minister Gu can go and show off a bit.” Gu Chenzhou returned the test paper to the other party and said.

Gu Zhengjia’s face became even more bitter: “To praise the students who have made significant progress…”

“…To praise you in public?” Gu Chenzhou.

Gu Zhengjia’s face was as bitter as a bitter gourd: “And it’s the kind of praise that’s used as a typical example.”

“Are you going to confess to Dad or Auntie?” Gu Chenzhou asked.

Gu Zhengjia looked at Gu Chenzhou, then looked again, and then looked again, and then quickly put away his bitter face and said with a flattering smile, “I plan to ask big brother to go to the parent-teacher conference.”

Gu Chenzhou stared at Gu Zhengjia for a long while and shook his head: “One lie really has to be covered up with another lie.”

Gu Zhengjia’s face immediately fell: “Big brother, you don’t agree?”

“I don’t care, but Dad and Auntie must have known about it long ago.” Gu Chenzhou said casually.

“…What!?” Gu Zhengjia was horrified, “No way, Dad and Auntie are so busy every day and still have the energy to call and pay attention to this?”

“Dad and Auntie probably knew the results earlier than you,” Gu Chenzhou shook his head and said, “As soon as your results came out, the teacher probably called their secretaries immediately.”

“Then—” Gu Zhengjia was dumbfounded, “No one talked to me!”

“What’s the big deal?” Gu Chenzhou said, thinking to himself how he didn’t know before that this half-brother was so well-behaved? “Isn’t it just failing once? Didn’t you do well this time?”

Gu Zhengjia looked at Gu Chenzhou for a long while and said with great melancholy, “I was worried and scared for several days…”

Gu Chenzhou looked at Gu Zhengjia, shook his head and also smiled: “You don’t have to worry and be scared now.”

“Yes, I’m just empty now,” Gu Zhengjia said, found a small sofa in the room and sat down. After thinking for a while, he asked again, “Brother, what has Dad been busy with recently? The family is preparing to retreat, is there anything else?”

“No, just preparing to retreat smoothly.” Gu Chenzhou replied.

Gu Zhengjia grunted, and a little unhappiness appeared on his face: “I think this is too exaggerated. They won’t let people in, and they won’t even let people retreat?”

“Retreating is not necessarily not advancing.” Gu Chenzhou said. He was in a good mood now. Seeing Gu Zhengjia’s uncertain expression, he said again, “Do you want to hear a specific analysis?”

Gu Zhengjia shook his head and said, “No need, let the professionals consider this kind of professional political event! Thinking about these conspiracies and tricks every day will lead to premature aging sooner or later.”

“You’ve tarred everyone with the same brush.” Gu Chenzhou said, and then heard the phone on the table ring. He said “wait a minute” to Gu Zhengjia and answered the phone.

Gu Zhengjia sat on the sofa waiting for Gu Chenzhou. Just as he turned his gaze to look at the decorations on the bookshelf in this room for a few moments, he heard Gu Chenzhou’s voice suddenly rise: “When?” He couldn’t help but turn his head back. Gu Chenzhou’s voice lowered again, but his expression was very cold—in the more than ten years they had lived together, Gu Zhengjia had not seen such a cold expression on Gu Chenzhou’s face many times.

“You wait there, I’ll be right over.” Gu Chenzhou said this and hung up the phone. He stood up, took his coat and car keys, and said to Gu Zhengjia, “I have something to do, I have to go out first. We can talk later if there’s anything.”

“Okay, take care, big brother.” Gu Zhengjia responded, watching Gu Chenzhou leave in big strides. Thinking about what Gu Chenzhou had just told him, he also took the test paper and went down to the second floor.

“Mom.” As usual, he knocked on the door first. After Zheng Yuelin in the study agreed, Gu Zhengjia pushed the door in, coughed twice, and handed over the test paper, “The results of this test.”

Zheng Yuelin took it and looked at it, and a smile appeared on her face: “Well, very good. Don’t slack off in your usual studies.”

Gu Zhengjia peeked at the other’s expression: according to Gu Chenzhou’s words, whether his grades were good or bad, his parents would know before him. Then following this line of thought, when his mother saw this test paper again, besides still being happy, there should be nothing else… for example, surprise or something?

Although he thought so, Gu Zhengjia pretended to look at Zheng Yuelin casually several times, but he couldn’t see any deep expression on the other’s face. Instead, Zheng Yuelin asked him, “What are you looking at?”

Gu Zhengjia stammered for a while and told the truth!

Zheng Yuelin couldn’t help but laugh: “You still want to read people like this? How many years have your father and I been in the government? If we can’t even practice our facial expressions well, what kind of government work can we do? And your analysis just now has no theoretical basis. I’m not surprised, which can be said to be calm, or it can be said that I have confidence in you. In any case, it cannot directly prove that I knew your results before.”

“Then do you know or not?” Gu Zhengjia asked.

“I know.” Zheng Yuelin admitted directly. In order to take care of the sixteen-year-old boy’s sense of independence, she even specially explained, “Your father and I actually didn’t take the initiative to ask the teacher, but the teacher knows that you are Minister Gu’s son. As long as there is a fluctuation in your grades, whether good or bad, they will still notify us immediately. You are not the only one who has this treatment. As long as they work in government agencies and have a decent level, the teachers will pay special attention.”

“Then you didn’t talk to me…” This was probably the complicated mentality of a sixteen-year-old boy: he hoped that his parents could recognize him and let him make his own decisions, but once he was really ignored by his parents, he felt a little uncomfortable.

“You’ve grown up.” Zheng Yuelin was concise, “I think you can handle failing an exam once. By the way,” she said, “did your big brother tell you all this?”

“He hit the nail on the head.” Gu Zhengjia said with a bloody face.

Zheng Yuelin smiled, looked at her son, and sighed slightly in her heart.

This is also good. Just like her own family this time, she always has to choose a path to walk. She thought a little bitterly, if she chose this path, the relationship between the two children will be better in the future…

She buried the matter of that diary completely in her heart.

Some things are best not to get to the bottom of.

At nearly ten o’clock in the evening, Gu Chenzhou, who had come out of his house, took his car and called the guards to follow him. Soon, several cars met a few blocks away. Gu Chenzhou turned directly and drove towards the road out of the capital.

He was still thinking about the phone call he had just received.

“Young Master Gu, the person you asked us to follow has finally made a move.”

“We followed Peng Youchun’s mother to the Beijiao Farmers’ Market today and saw her meet a young, tall woman.”

“That woman was wearing sunglasses and had blonde hair. She looked very cautious. We only managed to take a picture of her back and side profile. Although her figure is not exactly the same, from the lower half of her face that was exposed, we suspect that this woman is Shi Shan.”