Reluctantly Willing

Chen Chen had been awoken at three o’clock in the morning, but when he heard the matter described to him on the phone, he immediately turned over and got out of bed. He then drove directly to Gu Jun’s villa.

When he arrived, Gu Jun was sitting alone in the living room, drinking.

“If I were to ask him to come back now, do you think he would want to see me?”

“As far as I know, Mr. An is a man of character. He will probably not come back.”

Sigh… “I shouldn’t have let him go, but I had to.” Gu Jun downed the remaining wine. “I regret letting him go. Without him, my heart can never calm down; it’s always racing. No matter what I see these days, my mind is full of him. My heart aches at the thought of him.”

Chen Chen looked at Gu Jun’s pained expression and knew that Gu Jun’s heart must really be aching a lot, as he lost someone he loved dearly. Moreover, it must have taken a lot of courage to let An Xiaoyan go.

“He is really cruel. After I said that I’ve forgiven him, he would not say a word and didn’t look back. He used to say I’m cruel. I think he’s the cruel one.”

“What are you going to do next?”

“I want to win him back at all costs.”

Gu Jun did not remember the gibberish he spouted after that. The alcohol made him fall asleep quickly.

Falling deeply in love and getting hurt in the end…

Now that it was decided, the first thing to do was to determine where An Xiaoyan was. He could not be contacted on his phone; he seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth.

“Now, try every means to find out where he is. You must do it in secret and not let him find out.” Chen Chen went off to work on it immediately.

Just after his mind was made, Gu Jun’s mobile phone rang. It was old Mr. Gu.

“What’s the matter?”

“Do you think you can do whatever you want after becoming chairman? You should count the number of days you haven’t come into the office. Do I have to remind you of everything? Don’t you know that there are a lot of people waiting for you at the company?!!”

“Got it.”

Gu Jun changed his clothes and prepared to go to the office. When he went to the garage to retrieve his car, he saw that the Honda parked deep inside was peeling. It was a car which he had personally bought for An Xiaoyan, but was only used a couple of times.

It was Gu Jun first time coming into the office as the Gu Group’s chairman. As he entered the door, two rows of employees bowed and shouted, “Welcome, Chairman!” What followed next was the Gu Group’s first management meeting.

Many of the top executives who were previously bribed by Gu Jing felt so nervous they broke out in cold sweat. They were afraid to give themselves away.

Sitting in the chairman’s seat right at the front, Gu Jun’s fierce eyes swept across the room. Though seated in a meeting room, his mind was thinking of An Xiaoyan, whom he had abandoned in exchange for this seat. It could be said that An Xiaoyan had given him a push into this seat. Had it not been for An Xiaoyan, he would have ended up in Gu Jing’s current position.

“Now that I’m the chairman, the company’s rules have to be changed. Before, I heard that some people had taken bribes and were promised Gu Group shares once their votes were cast. I want to know when did our shares become so cheap?”

None of the people spoke.

Gu Jun was not in a hurry. He knocked on the table with his pen in hand, and his voice echoed in the meeting room.

“If you don’t want to admit it on your own initiative, sooner or later I will look into it. I haven’t been around lately and the company cannot live without me?”

Still, no one spoke up. Chen Chen, as an assistant, had been typing non-stop on his computer. Gu Jun was in a bad mood today.

“Whether I am in the office or not, you must remember that you work hard for your own sake. If you don’t work hard, your salary will drop!”

After speaking, Gu Jun went left abruptly while Chen Chen packed his things and followed behind.

Many people in the room wiped their sweat and felt more relaxed. “What do you think the chairman meant?”

“What did he mean? As the saying goes, ‘A new broom sweeps clean’; he is trying to remind us to work hard.”

Sigh… “Well, he is after all the chairman of the board and the largest shareholder. We cannot do much. Just work hard.”

Those who were not bribed by Gu Jing had left, leaving the rest of the people behind who had broken out in cold sweat. In ancient times, when you took the side of the wrong prince, you risked getting yourself killed. Their current situation wasn’t too different.

It was the first time Gu Jun entered his chairman’s office. He started smoking as soon as he entered, and the whole office was like a cloud.

“Chen Chen, my thoughts are often far away and I always feel that something is missing. I’m just so lost and down.”

“You don’t have to be too nervous, the company’s business will slowly get on the right track. However, we need to pay some attention to the Sheng Kong group as we have just signed a contract with Stars Entertainment Company.”

“Okay, I’ll attend to it within the next few days. And… Any news on An Xiaoyan?”

Chen Chen answered honestly, “There is no news and no record of the use of Mr. An’s identity card. Either he has been staying in A City, or he has already left by coach.”

Not surprisingly, if An Xiaoyan wanted to leave, he would leave completely. He would not leave behind any trace as he was very meticulous.

“Continue looking into it and update me once there’s any news.” As Gu Jun put out the cigarette in the ashtray, the Secretary reminded him that a lady outside was looking for him, saying that it was an important matter.

“I’ll leave you be. I’ll try my best to find out about An Xiaoyan.”

Xiu Yijian walked in and the smell of her perfume was overwhelming. Gu Jun subconsciously held his breath as he was very much not a fan of ladies’ perfume. Even when the scent was not too strong, he could not stand it. No one had a scent like An Xiaoyan.

“I hear you’ve been looking for An Xiaoyan recently. He’s gone.”

“You don’t need to meddle in this. Just worry about your own life.”

“Gu Jun, you’ve liked him for a long time, right? But you have never told him about it, otherwise he would not have denied it.”

Gu Jun sneered. “Why do you need to meddle in my household matters as an outsider? There is no place for you to talk about it here!”

Xiu Yijian was stung by Gu Jun’s mockery. He’d been like this since they first met. “What if I tell where An Xiaoyan is?”

“Do you really know?!”

“I know which coach he got into, at least.”

This was a clue. There were many people in the bus station, and the ticket sales worked in a haphazard fashion. It was impossible to investigate where An Xiaoyan went.

“What do you want?” Gu Jun’s tone eased slightly.

“You should know the quota for that international design competition.”

“I can make a recommendation to the committee, but the choice is theirs. It’s naive of you to think that just my word will make you place.”

When Xiu Yijian heard the word “recommendation”, she felt so excited. “I just need that recommendation, and I will prove myself for the rest of it.”

Xiu Yijian knew where An Xiaoyan went because she happened to run into Gao Shan driving madly on the road that day. She heard a little about what had happened to Gu Jing. In business, many cheat or outwit the other. In fact, she was glad that Gu Jun was elected as the new chairman. It was better than Gu Jing being elected, someone whom she was not familiar with. She took a little notice and finally found that An Xiaoyan got on a coach and left.

“Tell me, where is he? I’ll give you what you want.”

“He went to B City, but I’m not sure if he’s still there.”

B City was not far from A City. It was slightly south, not as economically developed as A City. As far as he knew, An Xiaoyan had no one to rely on there. Why would he go there?

No, he does have people to depend on. Maybe Liu Cheng told him to come over? Maybe a classmate is there?

Ten thousand possibilities surfaced in Gu Jun’s mind, with each situation full of unknown factors. It felt as if An Xiaoyan could elope with someone else in the next second.

“Tomorrow you can go to the design department. I’ll inform them in advance. And you are not allowed to tell anyone about it.”

Xiu Yijian left right away to achieve her goal. Gu Jun was ready to go straight to B City, along with Chen Chen.

When they reached B City, they got out of the car and the air felt a little humid. How could they find An Xiaoyan in such a big city?

“Let’s go to the Public Security Bureau first and ask someone to see if An Xiaoyan has ever been here. We’ll write down all the information about the people around him and verify our clues one by one.”

After Chen Chen wrote it all down, he could not understand why Gu Jun was so anxious to come to B City. In fact, it would make no difference had he just waited at home.

Gu Jun answered, “Every time I come to a place where An Xiaoyan has been, I feel closer to him.”

Spring in the south was warmer. The fragrance of flowers on all sides infused the air. Gu Jun lay in the hotel room, waiting for the news of An Xiaoyan.

A day without his news… He would wait for another day. A week without his news, he would wait for another week. One day, he will find An Xiaoyan.

…

“Brother, you’re leaving so soon. You’ve only been here for two days!” Dong Zi said as he pouted.

“I’ve troubled the two of you long enough. You are a couple now; the two of you should lead a good life together,” said An Xiaoyan as he put his clothes back into a big bag, hugging Wonton in his arms.

After resting for only two days, they had to be on the road again. Wonton was tired out and rested its head on An Xiaoyan’s arm, dozing off for a nap.

“Brother, if you really want to go, we will not stop you, but you must accept this little token of ours.” Ye Qing stuffed a small paper parcel in An Xiaoyan’s bag. From the outline of it, it looked like a bag of money.

“What are you doing!” An Xiaoyan had one hand holding Wonton and the other hand rejecting their charity. Wonton changed its posture and meowed to express its dissatisfaction.

“Brother, you need some money with you when you are out alone.”

An Xiaoyan insisted on rejecting their money, “The two of you are going to buy a house soon. You should save this money and not spend it indiscriminately.”

“Think of it as your commission as a matchmaker. Brother, if I hadn’t known you, I wouldn’t have met Ye Qing and we would have never been together.” Dong Zi stuffed the money into An Xiaoyan’s bag. He knew that An Xiaoyan had no money on him and he wanted to help An Xiaoyan out as much as he could.

“Now you can’t go anywhere without money. Take it, Brother. You don’t have to worry about your livelihood if you have some money with you.”

It was all about money. As the saying goes, “Men die in pursuit of wealth; birds die in pursuit of food”; having no money would likely mean that he might starve someday in the future.

An Xiaoyan took a deep breath and hugged them. “Alright, thank you. I’ll come back to visit the two of you when I have time.”

Before, he always thought it would be good to own a small house of his own somewhere and spend his life peacefully, but now, he just wanted to wander away from the world.

He had no skills and no plans for his future. Thus, he could only live a day at a time.