Chapter 53
Fate brings people together across a thousand miles; without fate, even neighbors remain strangers.
Those words rang truer than ever.
After leaving the school, he returned to his current residence—a standalone townhouse within the second ring road that his parents had left him after their divorce.
He opened an exquisite journal on his desk. Inside was a yellowed, blurred group photo. Circled in red at the edge was a little girl with two bright patches of windburn on her cheeks.
She seemed scared of the camera. Her brow was deeply furrowed, standing out among a crowd of smiling children with a particularly intense, sour expression.
"Found you."
He smiled, scanned the photo, cropped the little girl's image, and made it his Weibo and WeChat profile picture. Then, with great stealth, he sent Lian Xia a friend request.
To be fair, it was Ava who'd given him Lian Xia's WeChat.
Ava was utterly devastated by her failure to outshine a girl from the middle of nowhere. When Gu Xichen left, she'd rushed up and asked for his WeChat—only for him to deftly spin the conversation and walk away with Lian Xia's contact info instead.
He wasn't stupid. With so many people trying to ride his coattails, one more didn't make a difference.
Less than a minute later, she rejected his friend request: "You've got the wrong person."
Ha.
As if I'd believe that.
He called Ava. She answered instantly, her voice pitched into a delicate coo: "Hello? Mr. Gu?"
"Is Lian Xia in the dorm?"
Beep.
She hung up on him.
Gu Xichen smiled and texted: "Help me get her to come out. If you succeed, I'll send you a bag."
Less than half a minute later, she called back, her voice much bolder: "Mr. Gu is too kind! It's the least I can do—Xia and I are besties, after all."
Then Ava raised her voice: "Lian Xia, are you going out to eat today?"
"No."
That cool, distant little voice tickled his heart like a soft brush.
"Stop eating that plain noodles stuff. Come on, dinner's on me tonight—we're going out for a real meal!"
Whatever the response was, Ava cupped the phone and whispered: "Mr. Gu, make it a black label—that's the entry-level one, right? I'll handle this beautifully, with flair!"
"Deal."
...
...
Before the dinner date, Gu Xichen made a point of showering and changing outfits several times before settling on an understated combo of jeans and a T-shirt. His assistant-cum-driver Xiao Dong couldn't help but exclaim.
"Mr. Gu looks so energetic today."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I almost mistook you for a college student!"
No praise could have been more fitting—or more pleasing to Gu Xichen.
After all, he was nearly six years older than Lian Xia.
He gave a light cough, settled into the passenger seat, and adjusted his fresh, tousled hair in the mirror: "I'm increasing your salary this month—conservatively, five percent."
"Really?"
Good news puts everyone in high spirits—not just yourself, but the subordinates too.
Meanwhile, Ava had finally managed to lure Lian Xia out, but Lian Xia insisted on splitting the bill. Ava had to pick a Western restaurant with a per-person average under a hundred, which completely killed her plan to fleece Gu Xichen with an extravagant meal.
Fortunately, the food was decent, and the Instagram-worthy décor was pleasant enough.
The group gathered in a private room. Food was already on the table, but Ava kept shushing everyone.
"Who else are we waiting for?"
"Yeah, look at this chicken—it won't be good cold..."
Ava slapped away the reaching chopsticks: "Just wait! You're not going to starve!"
The loser of that exchange looked thoroughly wronged, but Ava ruled the dorm with an iron fist, so nobody dared protest.
Just then, the door that had been left slightly ajar swung open, and a pair of long legs stepped through.
Fresh, slightly tousled hair. A high-bridged nose. A clean white T-shirt that made the man look even more youthful and refined—especially those beautifully shaped eyes, deep and compelling, growing more intriguing the longer you looked.
A collective gasp went up, followed by sharp intakes of breath.
No wonder—Gu Xichen's game was hot, and he himself was even hotter. With his face trending on Weibo every other day, it was impossible not to recognize him...
"Mr. Gu, please sit!"
Ava was overjoyed to see the main character arrive. She rose from beside Lian Xia and offered her seat, gesturing obsequiously for Gu Xichen to take it.
Poor Lian Xia was wedged into the corner, unable to escape even if she wanted to.
Gu Xichen took his seat, politely greeting the girls before settling right next to her.
"Hello, Mr. Gu."
"Hello, Teacher Gu."
Lian Xia was stunned.
Wait, what was happening?
She runs, he chases—there's no escape?
Seeing her head nearly buried in her bowl, Gu Xichen started serving her food.
"Eat."
"Look how thin you are."
"Have some chicken. And some fish."
The other two roommates: ...
Why eat at all—the dog food was already filling enough!
Chapter 54
The dinner was a rollercoaster of every flavor imaginable.
Fortunately, Ava knew how to work the room. Seeing they'd eaten most of the food, she rallied the others to a second venue, practically dragging the two of them out of the private room.
Lian Xia saw her opening and tried to leave too.
But the catch was already at his doorstep—Gu Xichen wasn't about to let her slip away again.
He reached out and grabbed her. She tried to dodge but stumbled, ending up on his lap.
Lian Xia: ...
This plot is way too cheesy-cute. I reject it.
So she slowly stood up and slowly took the seat beside him: "If you have something to say, just say it. Don't get handsy."
Then she flicked her hair and put on an air of lofty righteousness.
Gu Xichen smiled wryly at her accusations: "I'm sorry it took me this long to find you."
"I've been painstakingly piecing together fragments from the dream every day. For over half a year I've been trying every way to get more information about you..."
Lian Xia kept her head down: "I went to find you. I kept the promise I made to you."
"But you didn't recognize me, and you'd started a new life."
"I'm sorry."
"...Mm."
With that, she gathered her bag and stood to leave. But before she'd taken more than a few steps, he wrapped his arms around her from behind.
"I'm so pathetic. My liver hurts every night, my rib is still not fully healed."
He stood a full head taller than her, his arms encircling her completely, trapping her in his embrace like a giant puppy whining for attention.
"Look at my dark circles. I'm in such agony I can't sleep at night—don't you feel bad for me at all?"
Where he couldn't see, Lian Xia's eyes had reddened too.
How could she not miss him?
She'd checked his Weibo nearly eight hundred times a day. Every post, every comment—she knew them by heart, could recite the publish dates from memory.
But her meager life couldn't sustain this kind of fanatic devotion, and she feared he couldn't give her the same in return. Every day and night was spent tormenting herself with doubt.
Such an ordinary me, such a dazzling you.
Her life was illuminated by his presence, but his life might be tarnished by hers.
"I... I was already about to give up." The girl confessed softly in his arms: "I just thought you were so outstanding that you'd probably find someone better someday. Someone like my roommate—beautiful, with family money..."
He turned her around, his voice solemn: "There are many beautiful girls in the world, but there's only one Lian Xia."
With those words, it was as if her entire emotional defense crumbled. All the hardship and heartache of the past half year seemed redeemed at once. Through blurred vision, the man held her close, his tone gentle.
"Let me look at you properly."
"So cute."
"You've gotten even thinner."
"You must have suffered so much..."
It hadn't really been that much suffering. For this moment, everything was worth it.
"The dream was so fragmented. I almost forgot your face. For a while I thought you must have been disappointed in me and that's why you didn't come. I was so scared I couldn't sleep..."
It was her first time learning that even the formidable Gu Xichen could nervously ramble. She burst out laughing through her tears.
"Okay, I know."
He shook her gently: "So you're not leaving?"
"...Mm."
The joy in his heart seemed ready to overflow from his throat. Afraid of startling her, he only lowered his head and pressed a restrained kiss to her forehead.
"Come home with me, okay?"
Chapter 55
Leaving the restaurant, Lian Xia allowed herself to be guided into Gu Xichen's car.
To avoid awkwardness, the driver who'd brought him had been dismissed earlier.
Surprisingly, the car was quite understated—a coffee-brown, slightly used Buick SUV. Not that she knew much about cars, but she sat stiffly in the passenger seat, looking very well-behaved.
Gu Xichen drove one-handed while boasting: "I specifically borrowed my aunt's grocery car—under 300,000. Pretty low-key, right?"
Your family does groceries with a car that costs nearly 300,000?