Chapter 13#

The Self-Deceiving Liar#

What Lin Xiaodong said that day had been on Gu Xi’s mind.

To name the person in this world who understood the youth best, it would undoubtedly be Lin Xiamian, who had lived with him since childhood.

So Gu Xi decided to have a talk with him.

Before leaving this morning, he specifically asked: “Xiaodong, what dishes does your brother prefer to eat?”

The chopsticks Lin Xiaodong was using to pick up a soup dumpling paused for a moment, but he quickly covered it up with a lighthearted voice: “His taste is quite light; he generally doesn’t eat anything too spicy. Why do you ask?”

“Nothing, I want to treat him to dinner tonight.”

Lin Xiaodong asked as if casually: “Will I be coming along too?”

“If your brother doesn’t like spicy food, then the two of you probably won’t be able to eat together,” Gu Xi finished eating, wiped his mouth with a tissue, and stood up to walk in front of him. “When I have time on the weekend, I’ll take you out for hot pot.”

Gu Xi had heard Lin Xiaodong say before that back when they were at home, they basically cooked according to his brother’s tastes. The man wasn’t a picky eater and was fine with any flavor, but he didn’t want Lin Xiaodong to have to compromise when going out to eat with him.

The youth gave a soft “Mm,” lowered his eyes, and his expression seemed a bit dejected.

But as usual, he considerately helped Gu Xi put on his tie.

Finally, the youth sat back in his seat and quietly finished his breakfast.

“Aren’t you leaving with me?” Gu Xi asked him.

“The company has a random inspection at 9:30 AM; I plan to head out a bit later.” Lin Xiaodong smiled at him. “You go first. I’ll bring you lunch at noon.” After a pause, he added, “Remember to be careful on the road.”

Gu Xi frowned but said nothing, silently taking the briefcase handed to him by the butler and sitting in the back seat of the car.

Once the car drove out of the manor, Lin Xiaodong let out a long sigh, immediately set down his chopsticks, and ran upstairs to start packing.

System: “What are you doing?”

“Getting ready to run away,” he said to the system. “Haven’t you noticed? Since Lin Xiamian visited last time, Gu Xi’s attitude toward me has suddenly cooled a lot.”

System: “…Has it?”

Weren’t you two rolling around in the sheets until past midnight yesterday?

“You don’t understand; the body and soul are separate,” Lin Xiaodong said plausibly. “For example, me—although I’m obsessed with the big boss’s body, my inner soul remains pure.”

System: “…………”

Don’t quite understand the logic of you humans.

“Leaving everything else aside,” it reminded him, “you still have three Good Person Cards to collect, and task progress hasn’t moved for a long time.”

Lin Xiaodong thought for a moment. Gu Xi counted as one, there was one from Lin Xiamian, and he didn’t know whose hands the last one was in.

As long as he collected five Good Person Cards, he could enter the next world.

Ding~

The phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated. Lin Xiaodong looked down and found that it was actually a message from Bai Zhizhi. He didn’t know where she got his number from. The message was very brief, as casual as her personality, with only one sentence:

“My brother heard about your matter and is very angry, saying he’ll find someone to teach you a lesson. Remember to be careful when going out lately~ Heart/Heart/Heart”

Lin Xiaodong stared at that string of hearts for a long time: “…No wonder even Gu Xi thinks she’s unreliable.”

He sighed, put away his phone, looked at the half-packed things, and decided to finish the rest when he came back.

The system asked: “Aren’t you going to ask for leave?”

“Asking for leave docks perfect attendance,” Lin Xiaodong said expressionlessly.

He felt he must be the most tragic substitute in this world, bar none.

Working for the boss by day, warming the boss’s bed by night.

Even capitalists would weep.

But today, God knows what kind of day it was. After Bai Zhizhi messaged him, Brother Long, who hadn’t been in touch for a while, also called.

“Hey, Xiaodong,” the usual loud voice made the passing butler frown, but Lin Xiaodong ignored him. “How have you been lately? I heard you found a proper job at the Gu Group. Not bad, not bad. I always said you kid would make something of yourself sooner or later!”

Lin Xiaodong smiled: “It’s all working for a boss anyway, nothing special. Brother Long, let’s skip the irrelevant stuff. Tell me straight, why are you looking for me?”

“You’re the one who knows me best,” Brother Long chuckled. “Then I won’t be polite. Does your company have a cafeteria?”

This question made Lin Xiaodong a bit confused: “Yes, but we generally don’t like eating in the cafeteria much. The company has meal subsidies, and there’s a snack street downstairs. Everyone goes downstairs to eat at noon.”

“I see… Got it!”

Lin Xiaodong was curious why he asked these things, but Brother Long just vaguely said it was useful and made an excuse to hang up.

“It couldn’t be that someone in the company owes money and hasn’t paid it back, could it?” he guessed.

He soon put the matter out of his mind. The random inspection results in the morning were basically up to standard. After work, Lin Xiaodong said to the employees who were so busy they hadn’t even had time for a sip of water: “Everyone worked hard today. Lunch is on me!”

Everyone cheered.

After a vote, they unanimously decided to have “chuanchuan” (skewers) downstairs. Lin Xiaodong walked among the crowd with a smile. Although his heart was bleeding, such expenses for treating others to meals were sometimes necessary.

When he went back, he’d plead with a certain someone to reimburse him, he thought.

…But, did he forget something?

(Gu Xi, still waiting in his office with an empty stomach for him to deliver food: “…………”)

Lin Xiaodong tilted his head and thought for a moment, but before long, his attention was diverted by someone talking to him.

Actually, the youth’s looks could really be considered god-level within the Gu Group. Although he wasn’t like Gu Xi, whose face was cold and sharply chiseled, so handsome that one couldn’t look away at first glance, Lin Xiaodong’s facial features weren’t particularly prominent at first look. But his eyes were a very beautiful cat-eye shape, and when he smiled, it always made people want to smile along with him.

Before, because he hung out with Brother Long and his crew, dyed his hair, and got full arm tattoos, everyone avoided him. Now that he had returned to a normal appearance, girls along the way were sneaking peeks at him.

Even when they entered the chuanchuan shop, the landlady gave them a few bowls of “bingfen” (ice jelly) for free with a smile.

“I’ll go to the restroom first. You guys take your time eating.” Being stared at by the teasing gazes of his colleagues, Lin Xiaodong couldn’t sit still and used the “toilet escape” trick. As soon as he left, the several people present immediately began a heated discussion:

“Manager Lin is really popular.”

“Exactly. After all, he’s someone President Gu took a fancy to.”

“I heard he’s already moved into President Gu’s house? The secretary said they often commute to and from work together.”

“But, how come I heard President Gu has a fiancée…?”

As soon as these words came out, the whole table immediately fell silent.

“Rich families, you know,” an older employee lamented. “For people like us, just watching the drama is enough.”

The topic soon turned to Lin Xiaodong’s background, as no one knew what he did before joining the Gu Group. But the youth’s ability was indeed outstanding, and his way of handling things was very sophisticated, not at all like a young person who had just entered society. So some guessed he was a model, some guessed he was an international student, and some even felt that Lin Xiaodong must be a young master from some big family; otherwise, according to the theory of matching social statuses, Gu Xi wouldn’t have taken a fancy to him.

While they were chatting enthusiastically, a loud, powerful shout suddenly came from outside the shop:

“Which one is Gu Xi’s little lover!?”

The chuanchuan shop, which had been bustling with people just now, immediately became pin-drop silent.

A few thugs with yellow hair swaggered in from outside, not wearing their clothes properly, insisting on rolling them up to show the tattoos on their bellies. The people present exchanged looks, all remaining as quiet as cicadas in winter, not daring to make a sound.

“Is this someone seeking revenge on Manager Lin?” a girl asked in fear, but her mouth was immediately covered by the colleague next to her: “Shh, don’t make a sound! I’ve already called security to come down in the group chat!”

“Is no one speaking? Are you all mute!”

The leader, a “Big Brother” with a gold chain, questioned aggressively, his fierce gaze scaring a nearby baby to tears. A yellow-haired thug beside him accidentally caught sight of the employee ID badges hanging around the necks of the people in the shop and immediately shouted at the top of his lungs: “Boss, these few here are all Gu Group employees!”

“Hmm?” The Big Brother whipped his head around and swaggered into the shop under everyone’s panicked gazes.

“You few are employees under Gu Xi?” He gave a sinister grin and “kindly” patted a young man’s shoulder, scaring him until his face turned pale. “Kid, you tell me, which one is your boss’s lover?”

Seeing this man stammer for a long time without being able to speak, his expression gradually became impatient, and his bull-like eyes glared:

“I’m asking you, do you know how to talk!”

“You… what do you want with Manager Lin?” The man shuddered and immediately confessed everything honestly. “He-he-he just went to the restroom!”

“Manager Lin?”

Brother Long didn’t think of Lin Xiaodong at all; after all, there were so many people surnamed Lin in the world. He gave a cold snort and said: “Fine, then I’ll wait here for him to come back—”

“Eh, Brother Long?” Under the desperate hints from his colleagues to “run away,” Lin Xiaodong wiped his hands and walked in from outside the shop with a look of surprise. “What business do you have with me?”

Brother Long: “…………”

He stared at the employee ID badge hanging from Lin Xiaodong’s neck and said, tongue-tied: “You, you are that Manager Lin?”

“Yeah,” Lin Xiaodong said, scanning the yellow-haired thugs beside him who were equally shocked—every one of them a familiar face he used to hang out with at the internet café. “You guys are here for chuanchuan too? What a coincidence. Want to share a table?”

Brother Long: “…Alright then.”

They hadn’t eaten since coming out this morning and were all hungry now.

A yellow-haired thug whispered to him: “Boss, are we still going to cause trouble?”

“Cause trouble my ass!” Brother Long slapped him on the back of the head. “Don’t you look carefully when you take a job? Isn’t this ’the Flood Dragon Temple being flooded by the Flood Dragon’—our own people fighting our own people? Go back and refund the money for me! And tell the employer that Lin Xiaodong is my brother; whoever the hell wants to cause him trouble is going against me!”

The yellow-haired thug clutched his head and nodded repeatedly: “Yes, yes, yes, I was wrong, Boss.”

The colleagues watched in awe as Lin Xiaodong sat and chatted happily with the “underworld big brother” who came to find trouble. The youth’s status in their minds rose to another level once again—so, Manager Lin really is a young master from some underworld family!?

The landlady tremblingly served them dishes, and before they could even start eating, Gu Xi arrived with a darkened face, leading a group of security guards.

The two groups stared at each other.

After clarifying it was a false alarm, Lin Xiaodong looked at Lin Xiamian standing beside Gu Xi, his eyes widening slightly and his tone carrying a bit of surprise: “Xiamian, why are you with him?”

But looking at his expression, it seemed to be within expectations.

Lin Xiamian replied: “It was Gu Xi… President Gu called and asked me if I was free to have lunch together at noon.”

Lin Xiaodong looked at Gu Xi, but the man intentionally avoided his gaze, staring at the dazzling array of dishes on the table: “You’ve already started eating?”

“Yeah, want to join?”

Gu Xi ignored him with a cold face.

He had waited for Lin Xiaodong in his office for a full hour and a half, worrying if the other person had run into some trouble and been held up. After seeing the news in the group chat, he immediately brought people downstairs to look.

As it turned out, this little ungrateful thing was fine, having completely put him out of mind.

Seeing that the man didn’t speak, Lin Xiaodong smiled: “True, Xiamian can’t eat spicy food, so you guys go—”

“I’m fine.” Lin Xiamian sat right down beside him.

After being apart for many days, he looked at Lin Xiaodong’s profile, a faint sadness rising in his gaze:

“Brother, I haven’t eaten with you for a long time.”

As he spoke, he scanned the dishes on the table and naturally picked up a skewer of fish tofu and placed it in Lin Xiaodong’s bowl: “I remember you used to like this most. Brother, you seem to have gotten thinner lately; eat more.”

Gu Xi frowned.

After letting the security guards outside go back first, he also brought a chair over.

“Make some room,” he said calmly.

Looking at his dark, indifferent eyes, Brother Long gave an inexplicable shudder and silently gave up the other seat beside Lin Xiaodong.

The man held a plate of brown sugar glutinous rice cakes and also placed it in front of Lin Xiaodong.

“Eat,” he said succinctly.

Others present: I feel like we’re a bit redundant.

But before Lin Xiaodong could speak, Lin Xiamian beside him immediately said: “Thank you, President Gu. I love this most.” As he spoke, under Gu Xi’s death stare, he thick-facedly moved the plate of brown sugar glutinous rice cakes in front of himself.

Lin Xiaodong watched expressionlessly as these two flirted across him, picked up a bowl of ice jelly, and gulped it down in one go.

He couldn’t take it anymore.

Tomorrow—tomorrow he’s running away!

The author has something to say:

Thanks to the little angels who irrigated with nutrient solution: Wawa, Xingli (1 bottle);

Thank you all very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!