Chapter 24: Laughing Until He Fell Ill
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Li Shaojue stared at the director for three seconds.
The director tactfully left the conference room and thoughtfully closed the door behind him.
That breathtakingly beautiful young woman inside must have caught President Li’s eye!
Nothing connected to the entertainment industry could escape President Li’s notice.
If she wanted to stay in show business, even behind the scenes, she would have to keep President Li happy.
The director sighed.
If he were a woman, and possessed such a devastatingly beautiful face, he would have become an empress long ago!
Su Ruanruan was still somewhat nervous facing Li Shaojue, but unlike last time, she was not frightened into tears.
Li Shaojue sat across from her. His brow bones were deep and sharply defined, yet his voice held a trace of gentleness.
“I thought about this for several days. Although I rejected your advances, I never did anything to hurt you. Why are you so hostile toward me, and why are you so afraid of me?”
Because you are a kidney-harvesting psychopath!
Su Ruanruan’s sparkling eyes shimmered with moisture—not from fear, but from fury.
“I’m not afraid of you. Which of your eyes saw me being afraid of you?”
Her soft, gentle voice carried the faintly arrogant force of a kitten. It did not sound like a scolding so much as a spoiled complaint.
Li Shaojue chuckled, softening the severity of his brows. Gentleness and depth emerged in his features. Without a doubt, he was a man of considerable charm and substance.
“Su Ruanruan, you should go home. Your parents, brothers, and sisters are all extremely worried about you.”
Oh.
So he had come to force her back to the Su family.
That would make it easier to harvest her kidneys.
Li Shaojue was truly devious and calculating!
Su Ruanruan let out a cold, mocking laugh. “What position are you in to advise me to go home?”
Su Lan’er must have instructed Li Shaojue to do something, which was why he was pressuring her to return to the Su family.
Who knew what he was trying so hard to gain by fawning over her?
A bootlicker who licked to the very end would end up with nothing.
Li Shaojue pondered for several seconds before asking in his low, cold voice, with the faintest trace of concern, “Is it because you suffered grievances at the Su family that you refuse to go home?”
Su Ruanruan said, “That has nothing to do with you.”
In truth, it had everything to do with Li Shaojue!
The greatest grievance she had suffered at the Su family was that Li Shaojue had taken both her kidneys and left her to die on a freezing operating table.
She could not think about it anymore. She could not shed tears or show weakness in front of Li Shaojue.
Su Ruanruan turned her tear-reddened eyes away. Her lashes, beaded with tears, fluttered weakly. Her small, fair, rosy face was breathtakingly delicate and alluring.
Li Shaojue handed her a tissue.
Su Ruanruan’s pampered young-lady temper flared. She crumpled the tissue into a ball and hurled it at his face before hurrying out of the conference room.
If she had known Dragon Soar Entertainment belonged to Li Shaojue, she would never have come, even at gunpoint.
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The driver did not know why the young miss was crying, so without waiting for her to say anything, he drove her to the Gu Group.
Gu Jinzhou, Rong Xiu, and several friends were chatting idly.
She pushed open the door, accompanied by a delicate sob. Her fine, scattered tears had soaked her clean, tender cheeks.
Gu Jinzhou hurried over and pulled her into his arms, gently patting her back in comfort.
“That’s enough for today. Go on, get back to work.”
The men left, with the sole exception of Rong Xiu, who remained seated on the sofa.
Rong Xiu asked, “What happened? Ruanruan, say something. Jinzhou is practically frantic.”
Su Ruanruan’s tears streamed down relentlessly. She wanted to stop crying, but her tear ducts refused to cooperate.
“I—I’m fine. I just remembered those days when I was abused by the Su family.”
Gu Jinzhou stroked her little head, his eyes deep and somber, his thoughts impossible to read.
Rong Xiu spat viciously, “The Su family are absolute bastards. They actually abused you!”
Using her tears and emotions as cover, Su Ruanruan became like a beautiful doll gone out of control, shrieking wildly.
“Yes! Yes! Brother Rong, you’ve finally said something right!”
“Mr. and Mrs. Su are awful people!”
“My eldest brother is no better!”
“And Su Lan’er is even more deceitful!”
When Su Ruanruan mentioned Su Lan’er, she deliberately studied Rong Xiu’s expression, but detected nothing suspicious.
Rong Xiu said, “The situation today was all caused by the Su couple. You and Su Lan’er are both victims.”
Su Ruanruan fell silent.
What?
Why had he exposed himself?
It seemed Rong Xiu was already involved with Su Lan’er. He could not stand anyone insulting her, so he had immediately spoken up to defend her.
Having obtained her answer, Su Ruanruan stopped looking at Rong Xiu and buried her face in Gu Jinzhou’s arms, sobbing.
Gu Jinzhou said, “Go out. I’ll comfort her properly.”
Rong Xiu left the office.
Before Gu Jinzhou could question her, Su Ruanruan confessed the entire sequence of events herself. Naturally, she could not mention the kidney harvesting; she only said that Li Shaojue had threatened her into returning to the Su family.
Gu Jinzhou’s gaze darkened. The gloomy, domineering man had long been troubled by this matter, but he still patiently lowered his voice to soothe her.
“Don’t go to Dragon Soar Entertainment again. If you like working as a choreographer, go to Radiant Leaf Media. I own all of it.”
Su Ruanruan wiped her tears on his expensive white shirt and agreed with a series of sniffles.
“You should have told me sooner. Then I wouldn’t have had to go cause trouble at Li Shaojue’s company.”
Gu Jinzhou laughed in exasperation. “If I had arranged for you to join my company from the beginning, wouldn’t you have accused me of acting like the head of the household and running a one-man show? Wouldn’t you have called me a chauvinist with a strong controlling streak? Weren’t those the very reasons you cursed me for being controlling and left me for the Su family?”
Feeling guilty, Su Ruanruan wrapped her arms around his neck and chattered incoherently, though it was impossible to tell whether she was praising him or cursing him.
Either way, he only had to endure it all.
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Not long afterward, Li Shaojue called Gu Jinzhou.
He explained at length, then finally invited Gu Jinzhou and Su Ruanruan to dinner as an apology.
A chill glinted in the depths of Gu Jinzhou’s eyes.
“No need.”
Li Shaojue had his own pride. Since the other party refused his sincerity, there was nothing left to discuss.
On the sofa some distance away, Su Ruanruan listened to music through her headphones. She searched for “Su Lan’er” on Weibo and discovered that the actress had gained ten million followers after only a year in the industry.
She had neither exceptional acting skills nor peerless beauty. She relied entirely on the novel’s favoritism toward its heroine. Before long, Su Lan’er would become one of the entertainment industry’s biggest stars, commanding countless devoted fans.
At the same time, Li Shaojue, Rong Xiu, and a whole host of other bootlickers would fight openly and covertly to win Su Lan’er’s affections. In the end, when Su Lan’er needed a kidney transplant, they would make peace and join forces to remove Su Ruanruan’s healthy kidney and give it to Su Lan’er.
Ha.
In this lifetime, anyone who wanted to take her kidney would have to get past Gu Jinzhou—and he would make sure they never returned.
Su Ruanruan knew her own limitations. There was no way she could change her fate alone. She had to cling tightly to Gu Jinzhou’s coattails.
That said, clinging to his coattails was one thing, and bullying him was another. He seemed to enjoy being trampled beneath her feet. She truly had no idea what kind of strange preference that was.
Ding, ding, ding—
The WeChat notification sounded.
Mu Xin’er: Aaaaah! Save me!
Su Ruanruan immediately typed back: What happened??
Mu Xin’er: I’m writing my thesis at Gu Fengyan’s residence [Peeking.jpg]. He called me stupid!
Su Ruanruan: Really? Third Brother has such a good temper. I’ve never seen him scold anyone.
Mu Xin’er: He didn’t call me stupid with his mouth. He called me stupid with his eyes! Suddenly I’m under so much pressure. Maybe I should go to the hospital and get an abortion! Ruanruan, you have to tell me, “Princess, please get an abortion!”
Su Ruanruan: …Pah! Apart from using his eyes to call you stupid, Third Brother hasn’t done anything else, has he?
Mu Xin’er: No. In fact, I got so angry that I bit his shoulder—or maybe his chest muscles… He left the study. I don’t know where he went. Do you think he’s looking for a kitchen knife so he can chop me up? [Save me.jpg]
Suddenly, Mu Xin’er sent a voice message.
Su Ruanruan tapped it open.
Gu Fengyan’s mild, calm voice came through.
“Ruanruan, it’s me. I didn’t go to the kitchen for a knife. I only cut a plate of fruit for her. I’m going to confiscate Miss Mu’s phone for a while so she can concentrate on her thesis. You can talk later.”
Su Ruanruan laughed until she began coughing.
Gu Jinzhou came over and touched her forehead.
“You seem a little feverish.”
“…I just choked on my saliva.”
What did it feel like to grow up together from childhood? Probably this: when your childhood companion said you were sick, you were very likely sick indeed.
That evening, Su Ruanruan developed a slight fever.
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