Chapter 7: Ruan Ruan’s Stomach Ache, Gu Jinzhou’s Eyes Turned Red

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Fei Rong was barely considered one of Gu Jinzhou’s trusted confidantes. Every time Su Ruanruan came to the company, Fei Rong was exceptionally warm toward her. Su Ruanruan could easily distinguish between insincere and genuine warmth. Once, when Fei Rong’s daughter held a concert, she had given Su Ruanruan two tickets. If Fei Rong’s warmth had been fake, she would never have allowed Su Ruanruan into her personal life.

It had only been half a year since they last met—why was Fei Rong’s hostility toward her so intense? If Fei Rong were a young and pretty girl, Su Ruanruan could understand that perhaps Fei Rong liked Gu Jinzhou and thus resented her. But the key point was that Fei Rong had been married with children for twenty years!

Su Ruanruan pondered—could this be the novel’s plot at work? Using public opinion pressure to make her feel unworthy of Gu Jinzhou, forcing her to leave him and return to the Su family? If so, then the novel’s self-correcting mechanism was truly disgusting!

At that moment, Secretary Yang approached.
“Miss Ruanruan, what are you hiding here for? President Gu is looking for you.”
“Oh.” Su Ruanruan replied as she walked, “I haven’t been to the company in a long time, so I wanted to order some afternoon tea for headquarters.”
Secretary Yang said, “Alright, I’ll have someone prepare it immediately.”

This was no small expense; ordinarily, one would report to President Gu and the financial director, but given how doting President Gu was toward Miss Ruanruan, he would probably consider it unnecessary to report such trivial matters.

Su Ruanruan added, “By the way, Sister Rong is allergic to hazelnut cake, so please don’t send her any hazelnut cake. Her daughter likes mango cake, so order an eight-inch mango cake for her. If it can’t be finished, she can keep it in the fridge and take it home for her family in the evening.” She hoped Fei Rong would understand that they had no conflicting interests and not be manipulated by the novel’s storyline.

Secretary Yang smiled, “Miss Ruanruan, you’re very thoughtful.”

Miss Ruanruan’s personality was too soft; she never fought back when bullied. Fortunately, President Gu was decisive and protective of her.

That afternoon, everyone received afternoon tea.

HR walked into Fei Rong’s office.
“Sister Rong, have you finished the cake?”
Fei Rong replied, “Not yet, the cake is too big. I only ate a piece and plan to take the rest home to my daughter after work.”
HR said, “Everyone else got a four-inch hazelnut cake, but Miss Ruanruan said you were allergic to hazelnuts and that your daughter liked mango cake, so she specially ordered an eight-inch mango cake for you.”

Fei Rong understood HR’s intention, beaming as she said, “I’m going to send a thank-you message to Miss Ruanruan right now.”
HR replied, “No need. The company will compensate you with a 2n+1 package. Sister Rong, it might be time to look for new opportunities.”

Fei Rong trembled with anger, “I’ve served the company for ten years! What did I do wrong that they want to lay me off?”
HR said, “Don’t you know what you said yourself?”

HR was baffled by Fei Rong’s behavior. Rising from a frontline employee to management, such a shrewd woman shockingly spoke ill of Miss Ruanruan in public.

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Someone in the company dared to speak ill of President Gu behind his back, but who dared to speak ill of Miss Ruanruan? Fei Rong must have lost her mind!

After HR left, Fei Rong was unable to compose herself for a long time. She covered her face and wept before calling her husband.
“Honey, what’s wrong? Is someone bullying you?”
Fei Rong sobbed, “I… I was laid off.”
“What? You’ve been with the company for so long!”
Fei Rong choked on her words, “Don’t be upset. It’s not the company’s fault; it’s all because of my mouth. When I woke up today, I already felt something was wrong. When I saw Miss Ruanruan at the company, I suddenly hated her so much.”
“What? Why would you hate her?”
Fei Rong replied, “I don’t know! There’s a voice in my head telling me to hate Miss Ruanruan. I really don’t understand what’s happening. I regret saying those things about whether she’s delicate, or if she’s worthy of President Gu. What does any of that have to do with me? Honey… I feel like something dirty has latched onto me, and my mind is out of control. What should I do?”

“Don’t worry. After work, I’ll pick you up. We’ll go to a temple and find a master to take a look.”

—

In the CEO’s office.

Gu Jinzhou disliked eating cake. After lunch break, Su Ruanruan lazily nestled in his arms, feeding him strawberries.

Secretary Yang really knew how to treat the boss—he had picked strawberries the size of a palm!

Su Ruanruan held a strawberry up to Gu Jinzhou’s lips. She carefully broke the plump, milky-sweet strawberry in half and, with her slender fingers glistening with dew, fed the pieces to him.
“Very sweet strawberries. Try some.”
“Hm.” Gu Jinzhou parted his thin lips with a hoarse voice, “How do you know they’re sweet when you haven’t tasted them yourself?”
Su Ruanruan smiled, “They look sweet just by looking!”

Gu Jinzhou chewed the strawberry several times, his fiery tongue savoring it. His eyes darkened with depth.
“Indeed, very sweet. I haven’t tasted sweet strawberries in a long time.”

Tsk, tsk.

The mighty president of the Gu Corporation sounded so pitiful!

Su Ruanruan encouraged him, “Eat without worry! Eat boldly! I have plenty more!”

She picked up another palm-sized strawberry, about to bite into it, but Gu Jinzhou stopped her.
“I’ll eat these strawberries. Darling, you eat something else.”
“Oh.”

Su Ruanruan reluctantly sucked the juice from her fingertips—sweet and fragrant—the reason Gu Jinzhou guarded the strawberries so fiercely.

Her stomach wasn’t hungry at all. Full of energy, she changed into her dance attire and practiced at the barre with light, precise taps.

Her youthful figure was graceful and slender, her fair skin almost translucent under the sunlight. Her cheeks flushed with a rosy glow from her hard work, like a ripe, juicy peach.

The refined and elegant man glanced at her a few times, then calmly returned to his work. His long, pale fingers holding a pen resembled finely tuned metallic instruments.

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Su Ruanruan glanced at the stoic and cool Gu Jinzhou, feeling a deep sense of security because she knew he would never be unprofessional during work.

The moment she looked away, the man’s scarlet tongue licked his dry, burning lips.

At 5:30 p.m., Gu Jinzhou finished work.

He said, “Tonight, I’ll take you to the night market.”

Happiness came so suddenly that tears welled up at the corners of Su Ruanruan’s eyes—not out of sorrow, but tears of joy.

...

Throughout the years, Ruanruan had only been to the night market once.

She had heard from friends about how lively and bustling the Xiangjiang night market was and longed to visit. But the night market was crowded and chaotic; no one dared to take little Ruanruan there. What if they lost Gu Jinzhou’s precious treasure?

Gu Jinzhou had self-studied business administration in high school. Even while studying domestically, he was extremely busy—not only with academics but also managing the family business entrusted to him. His leisure activities consisted solely of practicing equestrian skills and obtaining a pilot’s license…

This wasn’t because the Gu family was strict with him, but because Gu Jinzhou was strict with himself. He wanted to give Ruanruan the best, and to do so, he had to stand at the pinnacle.

Ruanruan once thought that Brother Jinzhou didn’t need to sleep. Later, understanding his hard work and ambition, she rarely troubled him with matters. But even if she didn’t say anything, Gu Jinzhou knew what she wanted. So he set aside an entire evening to take her to the night market.

Neither of them had experience with night markets, but fortunately, Gu Jinzhou had prepared a plan in advance. Ruanruan enjoyed herself thoroughly, eating to her heart’s content.

That night, however, she was unlucky. Having always been cared for by a personal nutritionist, she had never eaten street food before. Her delicate stomach rebelled, causing intense cramps.

Strangely, the pampered little Ruanruan didn’t cry when hospitalized. Instead, Gu Jinzhou’s eyes reddened. The usually calm and composed young man was teary-eyed—this sight shocked the Gu family.

Everyone hurried to comfort him, saying Ruanruan only had a stomach upset, not a terminal illness, and told him not to worry so much.

Gu Jinzhou cared about Su Ruanruan’s health more than she did herself.

If she fell ill, suffered, or cried, he felt it was all his fault for not taking better care of her.

Ruanruan said, “It’s not Brother Jinzhou’s fault; it’s just that I was being greedy. Brother Jinzhou, don’t cry.”

Gu Jinzhou said firmly, “You’re never allowed to go to the night market again. No one is permitted to take you there.”

Even the little Ruanruan, who hadn’t cried despite the stomach pain, couldn’t hold back her tears.

She still wanted to visit the night market.

...

The Maybach stopped by the roadside. Gu Jinzhou held Su Ruanruan’s hand as they walked into the lively, bustling night market.

The strong atmosphere of everyday life stirred many memories in Su Ruanruan, and tears sparkled in her eyes.

When she had her first kidney removed, she was too weak to get out of bed, trapped in a small room. She missed Gu Jinzhou terribly and wrote a diary every day.

In her diary, she told Gu Jinzhou that if she could visit the night market again, she could only imagine what a sunny and cheerful little girl she would be.