Chapter 16: A Kiss of Stirred Emotions

Chapter 16: The Stirring Moment

After capturing evidence of the two men handing over documents and a USB drive, Zhao Yu suddenly noticed a man in a suit approaching with security guards. He sized up the situation in half a second, then turned and took off running.

"Stop!" the man in the suit shouted. "Grab him!"

The entrance was already blocked. Zhao Yu whipped around and ran further in. Security guards swarmed in from both sides, looking mean, batons in hand, cornering him deeper into the first-floor lobby. He looked around frantically, his feet sliding out from under him as he almost ate it. Scrambling back up on all fours, he dashed into the restroom and locked himself in a stall.

A guard almost grabbed his clothes, but he dodged it by a hair.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

"Open up!"

"Did you hear us? Open the door!"

Several guards pounded on the door panel while the man in the suit barked, "Do you know whose business you're messing with? Hand over your phone now, or you'll rot in a cell!"

Zhao Yu ignored them, sending the photos and videos to Gu Hansheng. But the signal in the bathroom was terrible—the messages kept spinning forever and only half of them went through.

The suit was even more frantic than Zhao Yu. "Climb over the door! Move it!"

The guards hoisted one of their own onto the door panel. Zhao Yu watched anxiously as the video continued sending. He looked up—a guard's baton came jabbing down from over the top of the door.

Holy crap!

Zhao Yu cursed under his breath, ducking just in time. He glared at the ferocious-looking guard. "Why are you breaking your back for this?! Since when is assault legal?"

The guard hesitated, but the man in the suit said, "The company will take full responsibility! You won't be held accountable! Subdue him and grab the phone—everyone gets a 20,000 yuan bonus!"

With that, the guards went at it with renewed gusto, scrambling over. The baton swung right over Zhao Yu's head, aimed dead at his phone.

At that critical moment, the video finally finished sending. He ducked low to dodge the swing, let out a small sigh of relief, and looked up at the guard with a smirk on his face.

"Dude, all the stalls are full—go find another bathroom!"

With that, he stomped onto the toilet, stood up, and shoved the guard perched on the door panel out. All hell broke loose outside.

Gu Hansheng had just left Wan Shaohui when Zhao Yu's messages came in. He opened the video and instantly recognized the spot—the lobby of his third uncle's company. The camera angle was super discreet, but Wang Xiaochen's face was clearly visible.

His heart lurched. He texted back: You're at Rongchuang Center?

Half a minute passed with no reply. He called immediately. The call connected, and he heard banging on doors and shouting.

"Where are you?" Gu Hansheng got in his car, gunned it out of the parking lot, his knuckles white on the steering wheel.

"Brother, I'm at Rongchuang Center... I've already sent the photos to President Gu—grabbing me won't do you any good!"

"You're suspected of filming our company's internal secrets. Come out now, or I'll call the cops and have you arrested!"

"Then call them." Zhao Yu sat on the toilet lid, bracing his foot against the door. "What about the assault? I don't think you own the police station."

The man in the suit kicked the door in a rage, with a loud bang.

Gu Hansheng's face went cold. "Put him on the line. Go somewhere with security cameras and stay put. I'll be there in twenty minutes."

Zhao Yu cracked the door open and handed his phone to the man in the suit. "President Gu wants to talk to you."

The man took the phone with a skeptical look and pressed it to his ear. As he listened to whatever Gu Hansheng said, his face went through every shade of red and white. A few minutes later, he returned the phone to Zhao Yu and waved the guards off.

"So you work for President Gu?" The man in the suit gave Zhao Yu a once-over.

Zhao Yu blew him off, scanning for surveillance cameras as he walked out. The guards hadn't gone far—they all turned to stare at him. One of them, the one he'd shoved off the door who'd gotten hurt, limped toward him looking like he wanted to kill him.

"I said leave—can't you understand?" The man in the suit, face ashen, pointed at the guards and cursed. "Don't make this worse—get out of here!"

"Aren't we supposed to catch him?" the guard asked reluctantly.

"Wrong person. It's a misunderstanding." The man in the suit forced a painfully fake smile at Zhao Yu. "Want to head upstairs and take a seat?"

"No need." Zhao Yu glanced at the surveillance camera by the entrance and sat down on a bench in the lobby.

The man in the suit didn't know whether to stay or leave. He turned toward the tea lounge, drenched in sweat as he ran over to report what happened.

Zhao Yu smoothed his hair against the glass curtain wall, with no idea how big a storm he'd just caused. Meanwhile, at Tuotu Tower, the business department got hit with a sudden audit. Wang Xiaochen's work computer was confiscated, and someone got caught red-handed frantically shoving documents into a shredder.

Across the ocean, his uncle Gu Hui was woken by a phone call in the dead of night. He listened with a grim face, then said, "Wang Xiaochen can't stay. Cut him loose completely."

What should've been a thirty-minute drive took Gu Hansheng just twenty. He strode into Rongchuang Center, and the second he laid eyes on Zhao Yu, his nerves finally settled.

"Brother!" Zhao Yu stood up.

"Did anyone lay a hand on you?" Gu Hansheng tipped his chin up and checked him over.

"They never touched me."

"Who tried?"

"The guards." Zhao Yu glanced at the two men approaching and sidled closer to Gu Hansheng, adding, "That guy in the suit wanted to catch me."

Gu Hansheng turned to look, his expression icy.

Zhang Pan approached all smiles, extending his hand. "President Gu, what brings you here? Come, let's go upstairs for some tea."

Gu Hansheng didn't take his hand. He gave a contemptuous little smile. "You know exactly what you've done. I'm keeping count, one by one. We've got plenty of time. But I'm not in the mood for your bullshit today. Zhang Pan, you tried to grab my guy?"

"No such thing—just wanted to invite your friend upstairs for tea."

Zhao Yu muttered under his breath, calling him out: "They invite me to tea by hitting people?"

Zhang Pan laughed ingratiatingly. "It's a case of family fighting family—we thought he was a suspicious character, didn't know he was President Gu's friend. My assistant doesn't have a clue. Young man, are you alright?"

Gu Hansheng roughly shoved Zhang Pan aside as he leaned toward Zhao Yu, making him stumble and ripping apart any pretense of decency. "Have everyone who touched him come out and apologize."

"President Gu..."

"Or you, Zhang Pan, can bow your head and apologize yourself."

Zhang Pan's fawning smile froze. He knew exactly who Gu Hansheng was. If he didn't do what Gu Hansheng said, Gu Hansheng would never let it drop. He had no choice but to tell his assistant, "Bring them over to apologize."

A few minutes later, the assistant returned with the security team. They lined up one by one like it was a meet-and-greet, each one apologizing to Zhao Yu, drawing stares from everyone passing through the lobby.

"Happy now, President Gu?" Zhang Pan asked.

Gu Hansheng looked at Zhao Yu, waiting to see what he'd say. Zhao Yu said, "Brother, I'm fine, really. They didn't hit me."

"If they'd actually hit you, this wouldn't be over this easily." Gu Hansheng smiled at Zhang Pan, as if letting it go—then suddenly turned on him. "If your assistant's eyesight is that bad, fire him. Today he only messed with me. If he causes bigger trouble for my uncle down the road, Vice President Zhang will have a hard time answering for it. I'll pay the severance myself—and since we've got time right now, let's do it today."

He said it like it was nothing, as if the assistant were his own employee to do whatever he wanted with. Zhang Pan's face went so sour he couldn't hide it. But he knew—if he weren't Gu Hui's right-hand man, he'd be the one getting grilled today. The assistant looked like he'd just swallowed a bug. He shot Zhang Pan a desperate look but got completely ignored.

He was just an ordinary person without power or money, and ordinary people are the easiest to make scapegoats. Zhao Yu hadn't meant to cause such a result, and said to Gu Hansheng, "Bro, let it go."

"Go wait for me outside." Gu Hansheng handed him the car keys.

"Bro..."

"Do as I say."

Zhao Yu was taken aback for a moment. Seeing that Gu Hansheng wasn't taking no for an answer, he had no choice but to take the keys.

The man in the suit was fired. Before long, he came out carrying a box—gone was the cocky look from before. His suit jacket was draped over his arm, his shoulders slumped, and he hailed a taxi on the roadside. As the taxi passed the Maybach, Zhao Yu saw his eyes hollow and dazed.

When Gu Hansheng was good to someone, he gave them everything; when he wasn't, he showed no mercy. Zhao Yu got another glimpse of the coldness at Gu Hansheng's core. This time he was on the receiving end, but that wouldn't always be the case.

What if they found out he wasn't Chen Xitong... He dared not think further.

Zhang Pan bowed and scraped as he escorted the big shot Gu Hansheng out, all the way to his car, and said politely, "Mr. Gu, come by for tea sometime. You're always welcome here."

Gu Hansheng glanced at him with a faint, ambiguous smile. "You'd better be welcoming."

"Of course, of course. Take care on the road."

As the Maybach drove away from Rongchuang Center, the smile on Gu Hansheng's face vanished.

He was still rattled.

From the moment he made the call, hearing the argument and the banging on the door on the other end, he wondered why "Chen Xitong" was there, but he cared more about whether he might get hurt. He did everything he could to keep things under control, make sure he was safe, and then rushed over as fast as possible.

Gu Hansheng hadn't felt this anxious in years. "Chen Xitong" was too naive and too clean, not meant to be dragged into this kind of dirty, dangerous mess. Gu Hansheng didn't want him to see how dark people could be.

Now that they were safe, Gu Hansheng finally felt like asking, "Xitong, how did you end up here?"

Zhao Yu told him everything, step by step, and Gu Hansheng's brows furrowed slightly before slowly relaxing. He was sharper and cooler under pressure than Gu Hansheng had expected—even in a dangerous situation, he had managed to send the evidence he'd captured, ultimately turning danger into safety.

Gu Hansheng suddenly felt he didn't truly understand him. "Chen Xitong" seemed to have two different sides—one in reality, and one in the mirror. When the side in the mirror suddenly made a move completely different from reality, it was like shattering the mirror and stepping from illusion into reality.

Gu Hansheng's gaze followed this illusory shadow, searching for the faint outline, and his heart quietly shifted.

"Bro, what about that Wang Xiaochen? Did you get the documents and the USB drive back?" Zhao Yu asked.

"Even if Zhang Pan gave them to me, they'd most likely be replacements. Wang Xiaochen's clearance isn't high enough to reach core secrets—consider it a gift to him." Gu Hansheng tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. "Don't take such risks again next time. Call me immediately when something happens."

"Okay."

"Xitong."

"Hmm?"

Zhao Yu turned his head and was suddenly pressed by the back of his neck. Gu Hansheng's breath drew close, and a kiss he couldn't hold back landed on his lips. He stared wide-eyed, drawn into the depths of Gu Hansheng's gaze.