Chapter 117
Lin Yuewei glanced at the kitchen door. Ran Qingqing had turned down everyone’s help and was busy in the kitchen by herself, preparing dinner.
“Is my mom really okay?” Lin Yuewei asked worriedly.
After her dad left in defeat, Ran Qingqing had sat in her seat crying for a very long time, harder than Lin Yuewei had ever seen her cry before. Lin Yuewei hadn’t even dared to hand her tissues, just waited quietly until she was done and then went home with her.
On the way, they’d stopped at a supermarket. Ran Qingqing had insisted on getting out of the car, then bought a huge load of groceries. And after that, it had become what it was now.
She’d already been in the kitchen for an hour, moving around nonstop, handling ingredients, frying, stir-frying, boiling, and steaming.
Lin Yuewei had secretly slipped over and cracked the door open a little, sticking an ear in to listen. She heard her mother humming inside; the tune was “Today is a good day, all the things you want to happen will come true.”
But no matter how Lin Yuewei looked at it, this did not seem like a good day.
“She’s not over-stimulated or something, is she?” Lin Yuewei said.
Gu Yanqiu picked up the stock transfer agreement from the coffee table and flipped through it page by page in her hands. Being immersed in the business world had made her develop a habit: whenever she saw documents or contracts, she couldn’t help but go through them carefully.
The share transfer had already been signed, but it hadn’t yet been filed with the relevant department for the change to be reported, and of course it hadn’t been made public either. It was already year-end; the plan was to wait until the New Year passed and handle it slowly then.
“Are you worrying too much?” Gu Yanqiu paused mid-page and looked up at her helplessly. “Auntie is twice your age. If she could make up her mind to divorce even after your dad tried that hard to win her back, then letting go is only a matter of time. You can’t expect her to be exactly the same the moment she gets divorced. Even a god couldn’t do that.”
“That’s true, but I just can’t stop worrying.” Lin Yuewei sat uneasily in place, ready to head for the kitchen at any moment.
“Worry about yourself instead,” Gu Yanqiu said. She could tell that if she didn’t distract Lin Yuewei, this was never going to end.
Lin Yuewei looked at her in surprise. “What’s there to worry about with me?”
Gu Yanqiu lifted the share transfer agreement in her hand. “From now on, you’re the company’s legal representative and chairman.”
Lin Yuewei stared blankly. “Huh?”
A few seconds later, she finally reacted. “Fuck?”
“Don’t swear.”
Lin Yuewei swore again anyway, and Gu Yanqiu laughed and shook her head. “You didn’t think about that from the start, did you?”
Lin Yuewei really hadn’t.
She had gone to great lengths to set up a simple, ordinary image for herself. When she wasn’t popular, she didn’t even dare wear expensive clothes outside. But once she inherited her family’s shares, that would be different. The company’s legal representative and the share-change announcement would make her own information show up on public platforms, and anyone who looked would find her right away. Wouldn’t that be exposing her background completely?
“Mom, let me tell you something.” Lin Yuewei slipped into the kitchen and blinked at her mother.
Ran Qingqing was singing, “Good luck is coming to wish you good luck, you say, good luck brings joy and love, good luck is coming, we’re all coming into good luck..."
Lin Yuewei said, “I can’t inherit the company shares.”
Ran Qingqing: “...Go to hell.”
Lin Yuewei looked at her.
“You don’t want the shares anymore?” If there hadn’t been something in the pan, Ran Qingqing would have already snatched up the frying pan and cracked it on her forehead. She said fiercely, “I worked my ass off to build this for you, and now you want to hand it back to your dad?”
Lin Yuewei’s heart gave an astonished little “hey.” She thought: Did you build this?
She explained, “I’m not handing it back to him.”
Ran Qingqing glared. “Then what do you want?”
Lin Yuewei said, “I don’t have time.”
Ran Qingqing said, “Just be a figurehead. What time issue could there be? We can even appoint a chairman now. Anyway, our family’s shares take up such a big portion; the other shareholders won’t have much room to object.”
Lin Yuewei said, “But there still has to be a shareholders’ meeting, right? I can’t just never show up. Where would I find the time to hold all those meetings? And besides, wouldn’t that expose my identity?”
“What identity?”
“Rich second generation.”
“There are plenty of rich second gens in this circle. It’s not like we’re short on one more,” Ran Qingqing said, waving her off. “Get out of here. Don’t distract me from cooking.”
“Wasn’t it you and Dad who said I couldn’t use my family background to get by in the entertainment industry?”
“Isn’t the situation different now?” Ran Qingqing sprinkled a bit of salt into the pan and stirred it evenly before picking up a chopstickful and blowing on it. “I don’t care what identity you use to make a living.” In less than a year, too many things had happened to the Lin family. Now that Ran Qingqing had divorced Lin Bai, and Gu Yanqiu could help manage the business, Lin Yuewei’s insistence on staying in the entertainment industry and refusing to come back and inherit the family business was no longer such an urgent matter.
“Even if you agree, I still don’t agree. A promise is a promise. I said I wouldn’t rely on the family, so I won’t rely on the family.”
Ran Qingqing looked at Lin Yuewei.
Lin Yuewei stood tall, chin up, her attitude unshakable.
Ran Qingqing fed the winter bamboo shoots on the chopsticks into her mouth. “We’ll talk about this slowly. We still have time. Is it salty?”
“Just right.”
“Go wait outside.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Gu Yanqiu set down the agreement she’d already flipped through twice and lifted her smiling eyes. She leaned over and pulled Lin Yuewei into her lap. Her long hair slid forward from her slender neck to her chest as she said, “How did the conversation go?”
“I made my position clear to her.” Lin Yuewei dodged the hand reaching towards her and sat down beside her. Raising an eyebrow, she said, “What are you doing? Trying to take advantage of me?”
Gu Yanqiu said, “Does that count as taking advantage?”
“Of course it does.” Lin Yuewei reached out and pinched her earlobe, smiling. “If I say it counts, then it counts.”
Gu Yanqiu leaned in quickly and brushed a kiss over her lips. “Then what’s this?”
Lin Yuewei smiled. “That’s love.” Then she added, “Aren’t you embarrassed?”
“No.” Gu Yanqiu laughed too. “What’s there to be embarrassed about with your own... whatever this is?” She put a hand on top of Lin Yuewei’s head and ruffled her hair.
She’d recently gotten a little addicted to that move.
Lin Yuewei knew she still couldn’t quite let go, even though the servants in the living room couldn’t hear the volume of their conversation at all. So she deliberately teased her: “Your own... whatever?”
“You know.”
“I don’t.”
Gu Yanqiu was silent for two seconds, then mumbled a few words under her breath.
Lin Yuewei cupped a hand over her ear and leaned closer. “What did you say? Say it louder.”
“My own wife.”
“Haven’t heard it.” Lin Yuewei was still saying it, but her eyes were already smiling into crescents.
“My own wife.”
“Still haven’t heard it. Louder. What are you afraid of?”
It was obvious she just wanted to hear something nice. Gu Yanqiu decided to go all in. She wrapped an arm around her and shouted in her ear, “Wife!”
Lin Yuewei nearly burst out laughing. She had always been bolder than the reserved Gu Yanqiu. And this was her own home, so she immediately pressed both hands to Gu Yanqiu’s shoulders and pushed her down onto the sofa before sealing her lips over the woman’s red mouth.
Lin Yuewei used a lot of force. Gu Yanqiu couldn’t push her away, and she was afraid of hurting her, so she could only take it passively. The back of the sofa blocked them from view, so even if someone looked over, they probably wouldn’t see much. She simply looped her arms around Lin Yuewei’s neck and kissed back.
The two of them were locked in a hot, feverish kiss on the sofa; the corgi in its cage stared wide-eyed, feeling like it had been blinded.
When they finally parted, Lin Yuewei panted in Gu Yanqiu’s ear, her fingers gently combing through Gu Yanqiu’s hair in a soft, teasing motion as she said meaningfully, “Let me have my way tonight?”
Gu Yanqiu opened her dazed eyes. “Didn’t I already let you have your way once? Today is Friday.”
Ever since the two of them had used rock-paper-scissors to decide their first time, neither of them wanted to rely on such a purely luck-based method again. So Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays were Gu Yanqiu’s; Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays were Lin Yuewei’s; Sundays were decided by rock-paper-scissors or a fight.
But there was a problem: Lin Yuewei’s work schedule was unstable, so she couldn’t arrange her time on her own. After finally managing to come home and sleep there for once, it just happened to be Friday.
Lin Yuewei sprawled over Gu Yanqiu shamelessly, acting like a giant dog as she rubbed against her, one hand still gripping Gu Yanqiu’s arm and shaking it back and forth. “I only get to come home once in a long while; just let me have this one, okay? Please?”
Gu Yanqiu pushed up the nonexistent glasses on the bridge of her nose and said righteously, “Since the rules were set, we have to follow them.”
“Let me have this one, please, please, please...” Lin Yuewei chanted in her ear like sutras.
“No. Really, no.”
“I’ll give you one back the next time I’m off.”
“Next time you’ll say the same thing.”
“Gu Yanqiu!”
“Present.” Gu Yanqiu was being shaken nearly apart by her, but still answered with a smile.
“Are you going to agree or not?”
“No.” Gu Yanqiu refused with great principle.
Lin Yuewei changed her expression in one second flat and went looking for Schrödinger, who was curled up upstairs. Gu Yanqiu had been living in the Lin house for this period of time, so Schrödinger naturally stayed there too. The Lin residence was larger than the place Lin Yuewei had lived in before, and the scenery was much better. Schrödinger had also developed a new hobby: looking out the window from the bay seat in its own room. To cater to that hobby, Ran Qingqing had specially installed a cat bed on the bay window so it could see the view as soon as it woke up.
Gu Yanqiu straightened her rumpled clothes and watched Lin Yuewei storm upstairs with an exasperated smile.
Ran Qingqing came out to get something and saw that there was only Gu Yanqiu left on the sofa. She asked, “Where’s your unlucky wife?”
Gu Yanqiu was in a good mood and, without thinking, followed her lead. “My unlucky wife went upstairs.”
Ran Qingqing: “Hahahahaha, I’m going to tell Lin Yuewei that you called her an unlucky wife.”
Gu Yanqiu: “...”
After teasing her enough, Ran Qingqing said, “Since she’s not here, there’s something I want to tell you.”
“Go ahead, Auntie.”
Ran Qingqing called her into the kitchen and closed the door to talk.
“You know what our family situation is like. I’m just a housewife, and I never studied business. As for Yuewei, she’s all in on her own career. We’ve taken back the shares, but there isn’t a suitable person to manage them.” Ran Qingqing looked at Gu Yanqiu. “So I thought of you. Would you be willing to take over and manage the Lin family company?”
Knowing she was asking a lot of her, Ran Qingqing rubbed her hands together awkwardly.
Gu Yanqiu: “...”
Lin Yuewei had never told her that Ran Qingqing planned to ask for the shares. Gu Yanqiu had learned about it only today when she went there in person. Just now, while she was flipping through the agreement, she had thought about this issue too, but she hadn’t considered the burden falling on herself. She had assumed the board would elect someone else whom Ran Qingqing trusted.
“Auntie,” Gu Yanqiu said, eyeing her, “did you already have this planned out?” Thinking of her various previous behaviors, Gu Yanqiu couldn’t help but suspect it.
Being exposed, Ran Qingqing was a little embarrassed. “Well, I...”
“Does Yuewei know your plan?”
Only then did Ran Qingqing realize what she was thinking, and immediately made her stance clear, distancing Lin Yuewei from it. “She doesn’t know. She never knew. She was actually annoyed with me for trying to set you two up back then. It was only after she found out about her dad’s affair that I told her. Don’t blame Auntie; I was just trying to find Yuewei a support.”
“She doesn’t need support.” Gu Yanqiu’s expression turned serious.
“I know, but as a mother, I just can’t help worrying.” Ran Qingqing sighed.
Gu Yanqiu paused, then said, “I can take over Lin Group, but I’ll need some time. There are still some things I need to handle with my own company, and Lin Group is so large that it’ll take time to understand it too.”
Ran Qingqing let out a breath of relief and hurriedly said, “It’s fine as long as you agree. No rush on the timing, take it slow...” She had said that too confidently, and then asked, “How long will you need?” If it took a year or two, where was she supposed to get that much leeway?
“Depending on when things finish on my side, probably within the next two months.”
Ran Qingqing didn’t know what she was referring to, but judging by her expression, it must be something very important, probably involving Tianrui’s future. She tactfully shut her mouth and didn’t ask any further.
***
Gu residence.
He Songjun gently kicked her son, who was sitting on the sofa with one leg crossed over the other, and gave him a meaningful look.
Gu Feiquan pretended not to see it, holding the remote and pressing buttons at the television. He stopped on a traditional opera channel, where a singing voice was warbling away. It was the classic “The Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai Eighteen Bids Farewell.” He paused and glanced at it a couple of times, then was about to change it when Gu Huai said, “Leave it on this one.”
So Gu Feiquan stopped.
He Songjun typed to her son: [Put your leg down.]
Gu Feiquan gave the phone screen a sideways look. After reading it, he crossed his legs even higher. Not only that, he even lay down directly, spreading his big 6-foot-plus frame out over the two-seater sofa.
He Songjun was furious. If Gu Huai hadn’t been there, she would have started cursing out loud already.
She secretly watched Gu Huai’s expression and found that Gu Huai showed no dissatisfaction at all. Whenever his gaze drifted toward Gu Feiquan, it was all indulgence and affection; there was helplessness too, but that helplessness carried a fatherly warmth.
He Songjun thought: How strange. Isn’t Gu Huai supposed to like everything proper and orderly? Could it be that... his love for his biological son has already surpassed all those rules?
A burst of delight swept through He Songjun. If that was true, wouldn’t taking over the Gu family be just around the corner?
So the way she looked at Gu Feiquan instantly changed. She had no idea what kind of secret work her son had done behind the scenes, but to make Gu Huai indulge him to this extent...
Come to think of it...
“Has Yanqiu not been home for a long time?” He Songjun brought it up as if casually, making it sound especially abrupt in the quiet living room.
Gu Huai said, “It’s been two weeks.”
He Songjun said, “I heard she’s been living at the Lin family place lately?”
“Where did you hear that?” Two voices sounded from both sides, belonging to different people, but with the same serious expression. One was Gu Huai; the other was Gu Feiquan.
He Songjun was startled. Gu Huai aside, what was Gu Feiquan doing?
Gu Feiquan lowered his head and rubbed his nose, thinking he should probably hide it a little. But after a moment’s thought, he couldn’t be bothered to hide anything. His sharp gaze shot toward his mother as he pressed, “Who told you that?”
He only found out that she had been staying at the Lin house when he called Gu Yanqiu the other day. How had his mother, a woman who barely stepped out of the door in winter, come to know about it? Unless...
His gaze turned suddenly piercing.
He Songjun was nearly furious under his stare, but with a big Buddha like Gu Huai sitting beside her, she could only endure it. Gu Huai’s attitude was comparatively gentle. “Answer Feiquan’s question.”
He Songjun’s eyes darted around. “The last time I got in touch with her, I asked her to come home for dinner, and she said it herself.”
Gu Feiquan relentlessly tore down his mother’s cover story. “Other than when you’re with Dad, have you even called Gu Yanqiu?”
He Songjun: “...”
What a useless brat!
Gu Huai said, “Mm?”
He Songjun said, “I really think it was her who told me. If not on the phone, then in a dream. It must be because I’ve been thinking about her coming back too much lately, so I had a dream about it.”
Gu Feiquan: “...”
That was the kind of lie you told to ghosts; no, even ghosts wouldn’t believe it.
He Songjun added, “Also, last time I was chatting with the other ladies, I heard that the Lin family was in the middle of a divorce fuss, so I figured she might have been affected by that recently. You think by day, you dream by night.”
Gu Huai let out a soft “Mm,” dropped his gaze back to the television, and looked as though he had really believed it.
Gu Feiquan covered his eyes with one hand, narrowly avoiding the glare He Songjun threw at him.
***
“Following her? I didn’t sense anything like that,” Gu Yanqiu said softly, one hand holding her phone while the other pressed down on the head of Lin Yuewei, who was burrowing and wriggling all over her. “Don’t move.”
On the other end of the call, Gu Feiquan said, “I’m not moving.”
Gu Yanqiu said, “I’m not talking about you.”
Gu Feiquan understood at once and clutched at his chest. “I feel hurt.”
Gu Yanqiu said coolly, “Then find yourself a girlfriend.”
Gu Feiquan said, “Do you think a partner falls from the sky?”
Gu Yanqiu said, “Or find a boyfriend? There’s a little gay in your department who seems pretty interested in you.”
Gu Feiquan said in horror, “You actually pay attention to this stuff? I didn’t even know.”
Gu Yanqiu smiled faintly. “I made that up. Besides, shouldn’t you have denied first that you’re straight? Why did your focus shift?”
Gu Feiquan laughed. “Hey, you’re the one who led me off track; how are you blaming me?”
“About this... hiss...” Gu Yanqiu drew in a cold breath as she rescued her hair from Lin Yuewei’s fingers. Lin Yuewei, glaring at her with fierce eyes, said in a low voice, “Why are you still chatting?”
Gu Yanqiu moved away from the topic of Gu Feiquan’s orientation and said, “You said someone was following me earlier?”
“I’m not sure. I just thought my mom seemed kind of strange.”
“How strange?”
“Tonight after dinner, the three of us—me, Dad, and Mom—were watching TV, and my mom suddenly brought you up. She said you hadn’t been home for a long time, and that she knew you were at the Lin family house, saying that when she contacted you, you told her yourself.”
Gu Yanqiu was rather speechless. “How could I possibly tell her something like that? Besides, doesn’t she only ever put on a show when my dad is around?”
Lin Yuewei brought over a pair of headphones. She and Gu Yanqiu each put on one side, then plugged them into the phone jack.
“That’s what I thought too, so I got a little worried. Since she knows your whereabouts so clearly, I wondered if she’d secretly sent someone to follow you.”
“I’ll have two bodyguards with me these next few days, just in case.”
“That was my idea too. Ever since my mom slipped up, she probably knows I’m the kind of son who turns his elbow outward. If I go ask her about current matters now, she doesn’t even tell me the truth anymore.”
“Won’t that... affect your relationship with your mom?” Gu Yanqiu felt bad about it.
“It won’t. I’m her only son. Forget turning my elbow outward; even if I turned my whole leg outward, she’d still have to side with me. Once this is settled, I’ll slowly coax her back.” Gu Feiquan seemed not to care at all, speaking with a carefree laugh.
“That’s good.” Gu Yanqiu tightened her arms slightly and glared at Lin Yuewei. Lin Yuewei fell backward and played dead, as if the person who had been tickling her just now wasn’t her at all.
Gu Yanqiu asked, “Anything else?”
“If there’s nothing else, can’t I just talk to you for a bit?” Gu Feiquan said.
Lin Yuewei came back to life. She lifted both hands and pressed them to Gu Yanqiu’s neck, with the clear threat that if she kept being distracted, she’d use force. Gu Yanqiu had no choice but to end the call with, “I still have some things to do.”
This time, Lin Yuewei couldn’t be blamed for being jealous. She had worn Gu Yanqiu down for a long time before Gu Yanqiu finally gave her one concession in what should have been her own home game. Then, just as she inserted the key and started the car, it broke down. Who wouldn’t be furious?
Lin Yuewei gave the car a slight repair and was about to get it back on the road when she discovered the engine wouldn’t start.
When she looked up, Gu Yanqiu was staring absentmindedly at the ceiling.
“Can you focus a little?” Lin Yuewei took her hand and bit her finger.
Gu Yanqiu pulled her attention back and concentrated on feeling it.
Lin Yuewei kept kissing her, then suddenly stopped and belatedly asked, “Ever since my mom slipped up... what did He Songjun slip up about?”
“Just what you said before: you suspected that my mom and her mom not only knew each other but were also in contact. Gu Feiquan dug it out of her.”
“How did he dig it out? What did she say?”
“It was from a while back. You were busy with work, and Gu Feiquan and I arranged to meet. He said that in the early years, my mom had secretly given He Songjun money to support their mother-and-son lives.” Gu Yanqiu lowered her head, her chin against her collarbone, and looked at her.
“Huh?”
Gu Yanqiu looked at the car going stop and start, yet somehow still not moving anywhere after all this time, and simply hooked both arms under Lin Yuewei’s armpits to lift her up.
“Hey?”
After Gu Yanqiu finished talking through the matter from beginning to end with her, Lin Yuewei finally let out the first exclamation of the night. “What kind of relationship is this?”
“We’ll know what kind of relationship it is very soon. By the way,” now that they had gotten this far, Gu Yanqiu simply sat up and pulled out the tablet from the drawer. “I have some photos here that Mr. Liu gave me. There are only a little over ten people left, and my mom’s ex-girlfriend is among them.”
Lin Yuewei looked very interested. “Let me see.”
Gu Yanqiu flipped through them one by one. She had already memorized the information on these people backward and forward, and introduced them each in turn. When she reached the person framed with a black border, she tapped it and said, “This one, surnamed Fang, died in a car accident thirty years ago. I think she’s the most likely.”
“Mhm,” Lin Yuewei said, her finger sliding across the page until it reached the last photo, also framed in black. “This one died too?”
Gu Yanqiu answered, “Yes. She passed away the year before last.”
Lin Yuewei looked at it a couple more times, then suddenly took the tablet and enlarged the photo again and again, focusing on the person’s left wrist. She was wearing a loose sleeve, with only a bit of the wrist exposed; on it was a small blur of shadow.
Lin Yuewei frowned uncertainly. “Is that a Buddhist prayer bead bracelet?”
Author’s Note:
Miss Lin: I have special photo-observation skills.jpg
That last time, the home address was also spotted by Miss Lin herself, with her built-in eight-power zoom.
Go, Lin top!
TL Note:
Injected with chicken blood (打鸡血) means someone is really fired up
Turning one's elbow outward (胳膊肘往外拐) means like siding with outsiders instead of your own family.