After the rain, the wind stopped in front of the river. - Chapter 5

Lin Yuluo is Furious

“What’s the matter that can’t wait until I finish training?” Lin Shuxue, being protected by Lin Yuluo, got down from the anti-gravity hammock, her back feeling very comfortable, Lin Yuluo’s guidance was very precise.

Gu Junchuan flashed a mischievous smile at Lin Yuluo, then said to Lin Shuxue, “I’m out of money. Can you give me some?”

“How much?” Lin Shuxue asked.

“Five hundred thousand,” Gu Junchuan replied.

“I’ll transfer it to you after I finish training,” Lin Shuxue said.

“I want it now,” Gu Junchuan said.

Lin Yuluo had never seen anyone so shameless. She had thought Gu Junchuan came to confess, but instead, he came to ask for money. He had given her sister two hundred thousand to renew her membership, and now he wanted five hundred thousand in a flash. 

Lin Yuluo had witnessed his ‘business acumen.’ What angered her most was that Gu Junchuan was so brazen and fearless.

Gu Junchuan walked out of the yoga room and sat on a chair outside, his laptop on his lap, looking at the latest store display plans, occasionally glancing at the young coach Lin Yuluo. 

From the moment he left the yoga room, she hadn’t smiled once, her face tight with anger, she was genuinely upset. Anyone with half a brain would wonder why he dared act like that, but this young coach didn’t seem to get it, ready to take the first path that came to mind.

Gu Junchuan didn’t understand how someone like her survived in society. He even thought, with her personality, she must have suffered countless losses. Su Jingqiu invited him to drink, but he didn’t want to go, replying, “I told you I’m playing with cats.”

“But if you don’t come, you won’t see my crush,” Su Jingqiu said.

During the day, Su Jingqiu ran a healthy light-food restaurant, and at night, a bar. In his own words, he hedged his bets, making money from both the light and dark sides. He and Gu Junchuan were schoolmates who met in the Go club. They joined for the same reason, they liked playing with people who had brains.

Su Jingqiu changed girlfriends frequently, one after another, but this year he suddenly took a liking to a girl who came to his light-food restaurant, a coder. His crush was far more attractive than those ‘quick-fling’ girls.

Gu Junchuan closed his laptop and headed out. When he parked, he saw that Su Jingqiu was up to some marketing gimmick again. The sign at the entrance read, “Summer 2017, bring your lover for a drink.” Gu Junchuan scoffed.

Inside the noisy bar, he glanced at the items on the tables and said to Su Jingqiu, who came to greet him, “Your sign should read, ‘Summer 2017, bring your lover to drink urine.’”

“Shut up!” Su Jingqiu burst out laughing.

“If it’s true love, drink two more glasses of urine,” Gu Junchuan added. “You’re advertising like this, morally coercing all men and women. If you don’t drink urine with me, you don’t love me.”

“Gu Junchuan, enough!” Su Jingqiu laughed so hard he almost died. “You know nothing!”

They talked while walking in and saw a few girls sitting against the wall, dressed neatly. One of them wore black-framed glasses and had her hair tied back.

“That one with the black glasses?” Gu Junchuan asked.

“Yes,” Su Jingqiu pressed him into the chair across from them. “You sit here.”

“I need to go say hi,” Gu Junchuan teased.

“No need. She’ll think I’m not a good person if you do.”

“You weren’t a good person to begin with,” Gu Junchuan retorted.

He sipped his lemonade, watching Su Jingqiu on his phone, realizing he intended to play hard to get with long-line baiting, but the girl didn’t even glance at him. The other girls at the table occasionally looked their way. Gu Junchuan was used to such glances but had already started mourning Su Jingqiu’s hopeless crush.

“Why are these girls at the bar?” he asked Su Jingqiu.

“They’re on a company team-building trip.”

“Then why are they at your bar?”

“They were at the restaurant during the day, chatting while eating. I gave them my card and invited them over,” Su Jingqiu said. “The girl with the black-framed glasses is called Zheng Liang.”

“That name is even more masculine than yours,” Gu Junchuan said.

Su Jingqiu glanced at Zheng Liang. She clearly wasn’t used to the lively bar atmosphere, her hands folded on her knees as if ready to bolt at any moment. Su Jingqiu remembered the first girl he had ever liked, she was academically excellent and, like Zheng Liang, wore black-framed glasses. He had never met anyone so smart: she ranked first in every subject, refused the school’s recommendation for direct admission, and insisted on taking the exams herself, saying she wanted a real challenge. That girl later went into physics research and married someone equally intelligent.

Gu Junchuan knew Su Jingqiu’s story, so he roughly understood why Su Jingqiu “liked” this coding girl. Some people’s true preferences are hard to change. Su Jingqiu liked smart people but couldn’t handle them; to him, that first girl was like the moon in the sky, beautiful but out of reach. Yet this girl in front of him, he clearly wanted to give it a try.

“Finished looking? Any more plans? If not, I’m going home.” Gu Junchuan finished the rest of his lemonade and, as he looked up, noticed the girls at the table stealing glances at him. He returned a friendly smile.

“Why are you in such a hurry?”

“My mom. I feel something’s off.”

“What’s off?”

“Can’t explain.”

Gu Junchuan knew Lin Shuxue well, her calmness often meant she was planning something big. Recently, she had heard someone say that in Italy, they had seen her father with a young woman and a child, yet she seemed even calmer. That marriage had lasted decades, relying entirely on Gu Xiling’s smooth tongue. Lin Shuxue, too lazy to deal with a messy divorce, had chosen to turn a blind eye.

“I don’t think your aunt is someone who can’t let go,” Gu Junchuan remarked.

“My mom is very easygoing, she wants to find me a stepdad younger than me.” He finished with a self-mocking laugh. “I actually hope she does it soon, otherwise I’ll have wasted too much in life.”

“You and your mom really are ahead of your time.”

Gu Junchuan shrugged, stood up, and left the bar under everyone’s watchful eyes.

The night was muggy. Small groups of people strolled along the streets, including Lin Yuluo. She saw Gu Junchuan coming out of the bar and quickened her pace, wanting to avoid any interaction with him.

“You just said Lan Jie has a gigolo? Is that gigolo trying to scam her?” On the phone, Zoey asked.

“Yes, he’s cheating her out of money and causing trouble outside. I wanted to tell Lan Jie today, but I wasn’t sure how to start.”

“What’s the gigolo’s name? Maybe I’ve seen him before.”

“Gu Junchuan,” Lin Yuluo said.

Zoey was silent for a moment, then suddenly burst into laughter.

“What’s so funny?”

“Gu Junchuan is Lan Jie’s son.”

“What?” Lin Yuluo thought she had misheard and confirmed again with Zoey.

“Gu Junchuan is Lan Jie’s son. I’ve seen him once, he came to deliver something to Lan Jie, and she introduced him.”

Lin Yuluo recalled all of Gu Junchuan’s behavior and suddenly realized she had been played. She looked across the street, Gu Junchuan had already opened the car door and gotten in. So his arrogance was real arrogance. Lin Yuluo felt utterly foolish; she hadn’t noticed a thing.

“Probably just a harmless joke he was playing on you,” Zoey said.

But this “joke” had gone on far too long.

Lin Yuluo hung up the phone, feeling very uncomfortable. She felt like a little kitten or puppy. No wonder Fang Liu had told her to learn to read people’s expressions and to always smile around clients’ dogs, it all made sense now.

She took a deep breath and tried to reason with herself. Who told you to be so clueless? Someone else would have seen it immediately. 

Somehow, this self-admonishment worked. Still, she couldn’t deny it, Gu Junchuan was a complete jerk, and she truly disliked him now.

A few days later, when she saw Gu Junchuan return from his business trip, she merely smiled at him. What Sister Fang taught her, play dumb, don’t bring it up, kept things from being awkward. But Gu Junchuan, irritating as ever, casually asked, “Did you tell Lan Jie about my cheating?”

Lin Yuluo cast him a faint glance. “No.” Then she looked toward the floor-to-ceiling windows, not wanting to say more, afraid of offending him, and afraid of looking even more foolish.

“Why not tell her? What about your sense of justice?” Gu Junchuan continued to tease. “Are you okay with your conscience?”

Lin Yuluo’s brows twitched. She clenched her hands to resist the urge to strangle him, cursing him silently as a stupid pig and trash, which helped dissipate some of her anger. When Lin Yuluo had worked as a beautician, the boss trained them daily on how to make clients happy, clients were gods; technique was secondary, charm was key. 

At the same time, the right mindset was crucial. She hadn’t learned it then, but now, she has.

In a gentle voice, she said to Gu Junchuan, “I thought about it. Both of us have it hard. Cutting off someone’s money is like taking their life, something immoral I can’t do.”

“And besides, I’m grateful for the last time you helped Lan Jie renew her membership. Coincidentally, the store has a promotion now, recharge over 400,000 and you could win a Hermes. Do you want to renew her card again?” Lin Yuluo smiled slightly, subtly setting a trap for Gu Junchuan while mentally cursing him. What a scoundrel!

“Sure, I can do that. But I have one condition.” Gu Junchuan’s gaze swept over Lin Yuluo, his eyes narrowing. “I get to… make use of your good body.”