Chapter 17#

The Self-Deceiving Liar#

After a week-long business trip, Lin Xiaodong had gained a noticeable amount of weight.

Actually, they hadn’t gone very far, just to the neighboring city. but the person in charge, who originally thought they would only be hosting a manager, saw that the group’s big president had also come along. Whoa, his blood pressure immediately soared to 250, so stimulated he almost needed smelling salts.

Consequently, during this week, Lin Xiaodong also enjoyed seven-star treatment.

“You are a devil, the source of all evil,” Lin Xiaodong complained with grief and indignation when he stood on the scale back home.

Gu Xi leaned against the door with arms crossed, looking at him with a smile but saying nothing.

In fact, he felt that Lin Xiaodong should gain a bit more weight.

…It felt better to hold.

To retaliate, Lin Xiaodong decided to change his hair color.

From yellow to black to red and then to green, he dyed his hair every color of the rainbow.

After more than half a year of this, Lin Xiaodong achieved the feat of being a VIP user of all the hair salons in the city, becoming a bright scenery within the Gu Group building.

People gave him a nickname: the Walking Neon Light.

And the butler’s gaze toward him completely shifted from “troublemaker” to “menace.”

He even tried a fluorescent blue look once, but because his hair was too bright, Gu Xi couldn’t sleep for several nights. In retaliation, the highly vengeful man pressed him onto the bed and worked him until his old waist almost snapped. He could only go to the hair salon the next day to wash off the dye with resentment.

After the hair-dyeing plan failed, a few days later, Lin Xiaodong had another idea.

He started raising a dog.

And it wasn’t just any ordinary dog.

That day, Gu Xi had just returned from working overtime when he saw Lin Xiaodong leading a Husky whose face was full of “wisdom.” He introduced it to him triumphantly: “This is my son, Lin Puppy. Come, son, say hello to your dad!”

The Husky obediently gave a “woof,” which immediately made Lin Xiaodong beam: “So good!”

The butler following behind him had a pale face, trying hard to send rescue light waves to Gu Xi with his eyes.

Gu Xi: “…………”

Regardless, Lin Puppy eventually stayed in the Gu family mansion, to be cared for by the butler.

Just like its owner, this Husky was not a peaceful one.

In just one month, it chewed up two sofas, broke four vases and two pieces of glass, and even successfully cured the butler’s herniated disc.

“That’s why I say, elderly people shouldn’t sit for too long; they need more exercise,” Lin Xiaodong didn’t forget to claim credit from Gu Xi while lying in bed at night. “Look, how high his spirits have been lately. When he points at the mulberry tree and curses the locust tree toward my son, his voice is full of vigor.”

Gu Xi laughed in a low voice, turning over to pull the small-minded little liar into his arms.

“Uncle Zhong is getting old,” he said. “Don’t toss him around too much. I’ll apologize to you on his behalf.”

“Who’s tossing him around? Am I that kind of person…?”

Amidst the intimate contact, the atmosphere gradually heated up, and Gu Xi’s hands began to wander.

Just then, a strange noise suddenly came from the door, and both of their movements froze.

Listening carefully, they realized it was Lin Puppy scratching at the door with its claws—thump, thump, thump.

“Ignore it.” Gu Xi came back to his senses and lowered his head to continue bullying the person.

But Lin Xiaodong felt it was too shameful for his son to be doing that outside. He tried to resist, but it seemed to further excite Gu Xi’s interest. Lin Puppy stayed outside, and seeing no one come to open the door for a long time, it howled and wailed in anger. Its voice rose and fell, sounding like a weep and a complaint, which happened to echo the sounds in the bedroom.

Since that day, Lin Xiaodong never mentioned raising a dog again.

To give Lin Puppy a good home, Gu Xi specifically gave the butler a fifty percent salary increase each month.

—To cover the renovation costs caused by his “son.”

“I suspect you did it on purpose,” Lin Xiaodong questioned him afterward. “Did you realize long ago that I was intentionally causing trouble for you? Why weren’t you angry at all?”

Gu Xi looked innocent: “Is that so? I just felt it’s only a dog, and it’s not like I can’t afford to raise it. Besides, you’re much more boisterous than Lin Puppy, yet haven’t I still raised you to be a bit chubbier?”

Lin Xiaodong was shocked. Not bothering to argue with him, he scrambled to the bathroom to weigh himself.

…He had gained another five pounds.

“Five pounds!” He was grief-stricken. “Terrifying. System, you’re right. Capitalist sugar-coated bullets are truly hard to guard against. I must start losing weight!”

System: “Heh.”

The system indicated it didn’t want to talk to you and rolled its eyes at you.

But the startling number on the scale and the soft little belly around his waist made Lin Xiaodong reflect and decide to start not eating dinner from today, and to also halve his breakfast and lunch.

Consequently, in the following days, scenes like these occurred:

In the morning, while Gu Xi was eating breakfast in the Gu mansion, Lin Xiaodong was eating “grass” (salad);

At noon, while Gu Xi was eating lunch in the employee cafeteria, Lin Xiaodong was still eating “grass”;

At night, just when Gu Xi decided to accompany Lin Xiaodong in eating salad…

He wouldn’t even eat “grass” anymore.

Three days passed like this.

Rumors began to circulate within the Gu Group: saying that President Gu had a new lover outside, a fair-skinned, tall, and long-legged “little immortal,” and Manager Lin, in his despair, started losing weight, trying to win back the President’s rock-solid heart by eating “grass”…

By dinner time, seeing Lin Xiaodong slumped over the dining table, looking pale and half-dead, Gu Xi finally reached his limit.

He threw the bowl of “grass” that even a dog wouldn’t eat directly into the trash, instructed the butler to prepare an all-meat feast for Lin Xiaodong, and personally supervised Lin Xiaodong, making him finish every bit of food in his bowl.

The three-day weight loss plan also ended in failure.

“Stop struggling,” the system said to him ruthlessly. “You can’t escape Gu Xi’s palm.”

“I won’t.” Lin Xiaodong still wanted to make a deathbed struggle. “I haven’t gotten that Good Person Card yet, I haven’t finished the task, I can’t give up yet!”

System: “Don’t give up, just ‘dog die’ (go die) already.”

Lin Xiaodong felt the system had really learned bad things.

Now it not only didn’t feel sorry for him, but it would even talk back!

Another two days passed. Today was a clear day with a high sky and pale clouds, originally perfect weather for an outing. However, as it was a workday, the humble office workers could only stay in their offices, sighing as they looked at the bright sunshine outside the window.

And just then, Lin Xiaodong suddenly received a message from Lin Xiamian.

The content was very short, only three words: “Check your email.”

The black-haired youth, who had been lazily slumped on his workstation flipping through documents just a second ago, snapped his back straight and immediately became energized.

Lin Xiaodong was very gratified to see that his dear brother was starting to be restless again. It was truly timely help!

He logged into his email and clicked it open, finding that there was indeed a new email. It was a compressed long image, seemingly made up of pieces of chat records.

With many people in the office, Lin Xiaodong downloaded the image to his phone and started reading it slowly bit by bit.

After finishing, he let out a long sigh and put down his phone.

“If this kid Lin Xiamian were thrown into a palace drama, he’d definitely survive until the finale,” he said in admiration. “He might even outlive the emperor and successfully take the throne himself.”

The general content of this chat record could be summarized in two words:

Flirting.

The active party was Gu Xi, and the passive party was naturally Lin Xiamian himself.

But where Lin Xiamian was clever was that although he didn’t know Gu Xi that well, he knew Lin Xiaodong. He knew that if he made it too obvious, his brother would definitely not believe it. So he seized upon what Lin Xiaodong had said himself—that Gu Xi only treated him as a substitute—to strike precisely.

In the messages, this “Gu Xi” appeared very calm and reticent, just like the man’s public image. Not a single sentence went beyond his duty; most were just daily greetings. But if you viewed these dozen or so photos together and assumed the person involved also had a preconceived notion of “being a substitute,” it was very easy to find clues.

Between the lines, it was full of restraint, longing, caution, and a love that couldn’t be spoken because of some obstacle.

As for that “obstacle,” needless to say, those who understand, understand.

Lin Xiaodong read it through again from beginning to end and lamented: “Damn, if the big boss were really this good at talking, I wouldn’t have moved out of the Gu family mansion in the first place.”

System: “Since you know these are forged chat records, are you going to expose him?”

“No, why expose him?” Lin Xiaodong said with great interest. “I’m prepared to see what Lin Xiamian’s next step is.”

He thought from another perspective: if someone didn’t know the plot of the original world line, their instinctive reaction after seeing this chat record would definitely be…

To call Lin Xiamian for confirmation.

Ten minutes later.

Lin Xiamian, who was staring fixedly at his phone and waiting anxiously, saw the caller ID and answered almost instantly: “Hello, Brother, you saw the email?”

“Mm,” on the other end of the phone, the youth’s voice sounded a bit hoarse. “Xiamian, are these chat records real?”

“How could I lie to you?” Lin Xiamian’s heart tightened, but his tone was incredibly urgent and sincere. “If you don’t believe it, Brother, you can go to the location sent in the last chat record and check it out. Gu Xi must be waiting for me there!”

At the end of the long image, the time was about half an hour ago today, and “Gu Xi” had sent a location. Lin Xiaodong saw it too. He didn’t know if Lin Xiamian did it on purpose, but that place happened to be the hotel where he and Guangtou went to collect the debt from Qi Huaishui.

“…Alright, I’ll go take a look.”

Lin Xiamian hesitated for a few seconds, still a bit worried.

He was confident his lie wouldn’t be exposed, but he also couldn’t rule out that Lin Xiaodong would rush over and confront Gu Xi directly. He said tactfully: “Brother, are you alright? Don’t be too angry first. Maybe President Gu doesn’t feel that way toward me… anyway, it’s not what you think. Whatever you do, don’t go picking a fight with him for my sake.”

“I know, I won’t be that stupid.”

Lin Xiaodong knew full well the little schemes in this kid’s heart. He smiled and gave an “early off today” gesture to the other colleagues in the work area, which immediately drew a round of cheers. Amidst Lin Xiamian’s puzzled questioning, he perfunctorily said “a colleague is getting married” and walked into the elevator, casually hanging up the phone.

“Suspicion is the most intolerable thing in a relationship,” he said. “Lin Xiamian’s move is clever—planting a seed of doubt in one party’s heart while making the other party think he’s doing it for their own good by proactively keeping the secret. Even if he’s really found out, he can just insist he was also fooled and then walk away unscathed… Tsk tsk, I’d like to call him the strongest ‘Green Tea’ (manipulative person).”

System: “No matter how much of a Green Tea he is, it’s useless; he didn’t fool you.”

“That’s because I’m clever and witty, of course,” Lin Xiaodong said narcissistically. “And with a similarly clever and witty system helping, don’t you agree?”

System: “…………”

System: “Correct.”