A President’s Out-of-Body Experience

How could Old Mister Gu not have noticed that Old Mister Yu was gnashing his teeth?

In fact, Old Mister Yu’s reaction made Old Mister Gu’s concern grow. His intention in coming here was to test Old Mister Yu’s attitude towards Gu Xiaoshan’s and Renzi’s relationship. Naturally, he had wished that Old Mister Yu would be like him, taking it as though their two children were only fooling around, and was waiting for them to break up. Looking at it now, it was clear that his expectations were the opposite of Old Mister Gu.

Old Mister Gu said, “Luckily, they’re just messing around, and haven’t created any trouble. If not, what should I do about Mu Chutong?”

Old Mister Yu asked, “What tong?”

“Mu Chutong!”

“Mu what tong?”

Old Mister Gu sighed, and explained, “Mu Chutong! That ‘Chutong’, the ‘first harvest of the Tung tree that is in full swing’.”

“Don’t recite poetry to me! Who is this person?” Old Mister Yu was not in a good mood. He was a little irritated by Old Mister Gu, and deliberately jabbed at him, “That name’s so poetic, and even has a classical allusion. You’re even so clear about it. Why, is he your illegitimate son?”

Old Mister Gu choked, but thinking about how Old Mister Yu was angry, it was expected that his words would be ugly. For him to not be waving his cane at him, it was probably due to their years of friendship. Old Mister Gu then smiled and explained further, “He’s not my illegitimate child, but the Shu family’s illegitimate child. He can be considered Shu Jingyi’s younger brother.”

Old Mister Yu could care less. “What does the Shu family matters have to do with you? After arranging a blind date for your son with the elder brother, are you planning on arranging another one with the younger brother? How much money has the Shu family given you? I’ll give you double the amount!”

Yu Yunren too was stunned after learning about this. He had heard that as an illegitimate child, Mu Chutong had been framed by an elder brother of his family. His company was in debt, and he nearly had to go to jail, this elder brother was Shu Jingyi? How was that possible? Renzi thought, Mr Shu was such a good man, how could he ever frame his own younger brother?

Old Mister Gu continued, “I don’t mean it like this! This Mu Chutong and our Xiaoshan go all the way back. Then, Xiaoshan had fell out with the family for his university classmate, and even moved out. In the end, I sent that person overseas, remember?”

“Mn, I remember.” Old Mister Yu’s tone was very stiff. “At that time, this incident had blew up, how could I not remember? I don’t have dementia!”

Old Mister Gu too did not care that there were barbs in Old Mister Yu’s words. He only said, “This classmate is Mu Chutong.”

“Huh?” Old Mister Yu frowned, “What exactly are you trying to say? Can you get straight to the point?! Beating around the bush, even if I don’t have dementia, I’ll get dementia listening to you!”

Old Mister Gu smiled slightly, “Now that I think about it, Chutong and Xiaoshan then had a strong friendship between students, their feelings profound, and they were like-minded. They really made a very good pair. It was my fault for not being able to accept that Xiaoshan likes men, and even tore them apart. Seeing how Xiaoshan has been playing around now, never settling down, I’m also quite regretful about it. At that time when I gave Mu Chutong the money, I also promised him that if he could return with accomplishments, I would let him enter the Gu home. With my reputation and honour, I can’t go back on my words, right?”

To Renzi, this was earth-shattering news!

Old Mister Yu was filled with anger. “Then let him enter! Inviting him as a guest to your house, isn’t he ‘entering’? Call our Renzi along to receive him, and tell him ‘for those who leave, yesterday is already history’! — Hmph, you think you’re the only who knows how to recite poetry?”

Old Mister Gu laughed, “Are you joking with me again? I’ve really made a promise to Mu Chutong, and Xiaoshan was there to hear it as well. He was so upset then, they really were a couple deeply in love.”

Old Mister Yu snorted, “Deeply in love? Then Xiaoshan would have allowed you to force him away without a word? Did he just happen to have a sore throat?”

Old Mister Gu thought, this Old Mister Yu’s words were too impressive. He even said that he had “dementia”? The mouths of ten young people would not have been able to argue against him!

Actually, Old Mister Yu could not be bothered to express his opinion about this to Old Mister Gu. He had wanted to just gloss over it with, “Just leave the young people to handle their matters alone, why should old folks like us care so much?” However, he was thinking about how Renzi was eavesdropping. Who knew how much that silly child had understood? He must be very upset now. Like this, he definitely had to speak up!

Old Mister Gu then said, “At that time, Xiaoshan had nothing. No matter how much he liked Chutong, what could he say? He’s never been the type of person to do something fruitless. If you say that he never truly liked Chutong, that’s too unfair.”

“How do you know so much? As though you were watching them as they were dating.” Old Mister Yu spoke, “Then, I feel that it’s unfair for you to say that Xiaoshan doesn’t truly like Renzi! They’re about to live together! Have you ever seen Xiaoshan living together with anyone before?”

Hearing this, Renzi cheered up a little.

Old Mister Gu chuckled. “This? Even before Xiaoshan and Renzi started dating, weren’t they occasionally living together anyway? Is there anything special about this?” Old Mister Gu’s words pushed Renzi’s recovering mood back down.

This was true. Renzi used to always run over to Gu Xiaoshan’s apartment and stay there. Sometimes, he even brought Ha-cube along with him.

Old Mister Yu did not speak anymore. It was not that he did not have anything to say, but that the things he was thinking about was a little more crude. For example, “were they playing with each other’s backsides when they were living together in the past?” This sort of thing was completely not suitable to be mentioned out loud in public, and so Old Mister Yu chose to remain silent.

Old Mister Gu thought that he had gained the advantage in this conversation, and so pressed on eagerly. “Also, so what if they’re living together? At that time, I had such strong objections against Chutong and Xiaoshan, expending all my efforts to break them apart, it was because they had the intention of getting married overseas.”

This time, Old Mister Yu really had been checkmated. He nearly could not bring his jaw back up. “You, you’re telling the truth? How come I’ve never heard you mention this before?”

“We can’t air our dirty laundry.” Old Mister Gu sighed, “It was because of that, that’s why I made the promise with Mu Chutong. When he proved himself, I’ll agree to their marriage. If not, you think I’ll let him enter the family with no reason? Can I be pulling this out from thin air?”

“Uh…” Old Mister Yu was really stumped for words. This news was too mindblowing.

“So, in my opinion, why Xiaoshan has not settled down over the years, could it be because he’s also waiting for Chutong?”

“Then in my opinion that’s not the case,” Old Mister Yu said. “It’s probably because he hasn’t played enough.”

“Then if he hasn’t played enough, does he think that with Renzi, he’s done playing? If it’s because of Mu Chutong, then, to Renzi, this is also unfair. I feel that…”

“I feel that,” Old Mister Yu interrupted. “We should just let them settle this themselves. What’s the point of us old people talking about this? It’s all up to them to choose who and what they want to do.”

Old Mister Gu laughed, “That’s correct, but in the end, Renzi and Xiaoshan are different. That’s why I came over, I’ll like to get your agreement — if Chutong and Xiaoshan really want to fulfil their original promise, I think you wouldn’t object?”

Old Mister Yu pounded the table. “Fuck, I object, of course I’ll object!”

Old Mister Gu smiled, “But didn’t you just say that they should be left to do whatever they want to do, and us old people shouldn’t care?”

“Bah!” Old Mister Yu gnashed his teeth, and no longer tried to reason with him. He pointed at Old Mister Gu, “Don’t think that I can’t tell what you’re trying to do! You have a belly full of wicked ideas! You can mess with me, but don’t mess with my son! If not, our years of friendship can go into the thrash!” Old Mister Yu stood up, calling to the butler, “Send the guest out!”

Old Mister Gu was sent away. Old Mister Yu then walked towards the ink painting screen, about to knock on it and say, “Silly child, come out, stop hiding.” However, he vaguely heard soft whimpers coming from behind the screen. Old Mister Yu’s hand froze, and he sighed before leaving.

Over on Mu Chutong’s side, he completely had no idea that he had been designated as the Gu family’s son-in-law already, and was still running around in hopes to save his company. Everyone had said there was no hope, but he refused to give up.

He received a sudden call from Heizi, saying that he had good news for him. Mu Chutong laughed, “Is is that you’re considering working with me?”

Heizi thought, Shu Jingyi has already set a ban on you, no way am I going to step into this mess. However, he said, “Mn, I’m looking forward to being able to do so! It’s just that we already have someone we’re working with.”

As his expression could not be sent through a phone conversation, Mu Chutong rolled his eyes, “Mn, too bad then. I’ll look forward to it as well.”

“But you’re in luck. A few days ago, Yu Yunren called me to ask about you!”

“Fuck, how is this considered lucky?” Mu Chutong’s scalp tingled, “Don’t tell me he asked you how I ended up looking for Gu Xiaoshan?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what he asked!” Heizi laughed.

Mu Chutong really wanted to slam his head into the wall and die. He had thought he had managed to hide himself quite well in the car park, knowing how to avoid him, but he did not think that he had still been found out by Second Young Master Yu. He sighed, “So what did you tell him?”

“I told him the truth, that your company is about to die, so you’re looking for help everywhere.”

“Mn…” Mu Chutong replied indifferently, “How is this good news?”

“It really is good news. Yu Yunren says he has a project on hand that your company can work with, and wants to call you over to discuss it. After gaining an understanding about the project, you can prepare a proposal for him, and he’ll pass it to his brother.”

Hearing this, it was as though a pie had flew into Mu Chutong’s face. “You’re serious?”

“I am!” Heizi replied, “Could I be lying about this?”

Mu Chutong shook his head. “He, he knows that in the past, Gu Xiaoshan and — and I…”

“He knows.”

Mu Chutong was instead a little doubtful. “Then he’s still so kind-hearted, and willing to help me out?”

Heizi laughed. “I don’t dare to say it about others, but Yu Yunren is really that kind-hearted.”

Mu Chutong hung up, feeling very unstable. He had met Gu Xiaoshan in university. During those years, Gu Xiaoshan was in a different place from Yu Yunren, so Mu Chutong was not familiar with Yu Yunren, and only knew that he was Gu Xiaoshan’s friend. He really was not sure what sort of person Yu Yunren was.

Still, his company was about to die. As President Mu, he had already been running around and begging for help like a dog. Even if the water was poisoned, he should also drink it. What other choices were there for him?