Gu Shufeng sat down, slapping her thigh in frustration: “What do you mean ‘dating’? This is cheating, messing around with women!”
Gu Zhi walked behind his elder sister and kneaded her shoulders, his voice betraying nothing unusual: “He shouldn’t have. Hasn’t he broken up with that Miss Li yet?”
Gu Shufeng said angrily, “That girl was just a guest at our house not long ago. Even if he found a new one after breaking up with her, the timing’s way too tight—a kid who hasn’t even finished growing up, and he’s already got two boats going at once? And last night he went out to eat with Miss Li, didn’t look like a breakup at all.”
Going out to eat alone at night?
“Why’d you stop? Hey, my right shoulder’s a little sore, hit it right there…”
Good thing Gu Shufeng couldn’t see his face—Gu Zhi’s voice came from above her, heavier now: “If that’s the case, Miss Li might still be kept in the dark right now.”
“Definitely.” A mother’s long sigh. “What am I supposed to do with this kid, ugh…”
Gu Zhi walked over and sat by the tea table, turning to the side to pour a cup of tea, which he pushed toward the worried-faced Gu Shufeng. “Have some tea, don’t worry so much.”
Gu Shufeng glanced sideways at him, some of her irritation spilling onto her younger brother too: “You’re his uncle and you’re not even the least bit worried?”
Gu Zhi gave a muffled laugh: “Sis, I’ve done everything that should and shouldn’t be done—what more can I do?”
That line was actually a quiet jab at himself, though Gu Shufeng couldn’t tell.
His sister had told him to go catch them at the hotel, and he had. His nephew had talked back, so he’d cut off his cards. Beatings and scoldings both—but the harder they hit, the more Ji Jiayu’s rebellious streak hardened, and he kept bringing Li Tangli home again and again, out of spite.
Having seen his girlfriend so many times, not only had he failed to break them up, he’d gotten himself tangled in too, a crooked branch sprouting sideways out of nowhere.
Now he was hanging there, neither up nor down—not quite a nephew, not quite an uncle. The person Gu Zhi despised most right now was, in fact, himself.
Gu Shufeng cradled her teacup, murmuring absently: “Who wasn’t that age once? How come when you were eighteen you were already…” So sensible?
She cut herself off abruptly halfway through, realizing she’d misspoken.
Gu Zhi’s expression stayed flat, and he let the topic drop there.
The siblings sat in silence for a while. Suddenly, thunder cracked outside, and a heavy rain began, cold wind sweeping rain in sideways.
The uneasy quiet was broken by the sudden downpour. Gu Shufeng gasped and jumped up: “Oh no, I just carried those pots of flowers out this morning!”
After she left, Gu Zhi walked to the dim terrace. The grayish-blue sky pressed heavily down onto the eaves, rain crackling against the ground, a damp, earthy smell rising up from the soil.
The dampness was like a small knife, slowly cutting open his old, healed wound. His wrist ached faintly, as if he were back on that rainy day of the car accident.
Over the following half month, Gu Zhi buried himself in the company again. — black lotus Novel Translation — Black Lotus Novel
In truth, the all-important cross-border merger and acquisition had officially entered the integration and handover phase, and the busiest stretch could have wound down for a while.
The group’s day-to-day management didn’t require Gu Zhi’s personal involvement in everything—he had every reason to take some time to rest.
So it was deliberate. He was trying to use a packed work schedule to occupy every corner of his mind, so he wouldn’t have to dwell too much on people or things he shouldn’t be thinking about.
Out early, home late, every day, his schedule packed so tight not even a needle could slip in.
One day, right after signing a contract that had been sent up, his assistant pushed open the door: “Mr. Gu, Miss Gu just called for you.”
Gu Zhi set down his pen and rubbed his brow: “Yuqin? What does she want?”
The assistant hesitated: “She said she sent Ball Ball to the pet groomer’s this morning, and wants you to go pick him up and bring him home right now.”
Ball Ball was the family cat’s name.
Lacking companionship, Gu Yuqin had asked to keep a pet a couple of years back to ease her loneliness.
Although her asthma wasn’t triggered by cat hair, out of caution, Ball Ball was still kept in a separate room managed by the housekeeper. Every few days he’d be brought over for Gu Yuqin to play with a bit—safer that way, all things considered.
Did the cat’s bath really need a special trip to the pet store? And she’d specifically said he had to pick it up himself?
“…She wants me to personally go deliver her cat?”
The request was absurd enough that Gu Zhi wasn’t even annoyed—he was just trying to guess what she was up to.
Since she’d already called, and he’d been busy with work all this time and should check in at home anyway, Gu Zhi simply went along with it.
He made a detour to the pet store, picked up the cat, and got home—but didn’t see Gu Yuqin. The housekeeper said she’d just gone out for a walk and it would take a while.
That was when Gu Zhi actually laughed out of sheer exasperation—was she deliberately messing with him for no reason?
He carried the cat, strode up to the study with his long legs, and tossed out a cold line: “Tell her to come find me in the study!”
Ball Ball was very affectionate, circling his feet the whole way, tail wagging, rubbing against his calves. Annoyed by the clinginess, Gu Zhi bent down and set Ball Ball on his lap, freeing up one hand to expertly scratch under its chin.
Footsteps finally arrived, unhurried. Gu Yuqin knocked twice on the door for show, not the least bit polite about it, and pushed the door straight open: “Bro, did you get Ball Ball back?”
Gu Zhi smirked coldly, about to demand what exactly she was playing at today, when he caught sight of someone standing behind Gu Yuqin.
His gaze froze. The words caught in his throat.
What met his eyes first was a slightly worn denim skirt, a fair, clean face, an expression shy and reserved, lips pressed together out of habit, hovering timidly behind Yuqin.
It was Li Tangli, whom he hadn’t seen in days.
Li Tangli’s head was spinning. She had the day off today. Gu Yuqin had invited her over twice before on her days off, and both times she’d politely declined. When the invitation came a third time, she was too thin-skinned to keep making excuses, so she’d obediently come along.
Unlike the previous two times, she only saw Gu Yuqin, and since it was a weekday, she’d assumed without thinking that no one else would be home.
They wandered around aimlessly for a while, and then Gu Yuqin glanced at her phone and suddenly said the cat had been brought home, pulling her along back to the villa.
But when the study door opened, the cat was indeed there—along with an extra man.
Gu Zhi was in a black long-sleeved turtleneck, fitted to his frame, showing off his broad shoulders and narrow waist. His laptop sat off to the side, the cat sprawled on his lap, getting absent, intermittent pets.
Seeing her, Gu Zhi seemed to freeze for a moment too.
His hand pressed down harder without meaning to; Ball Ball squirmed in displeasure, hopped off his lap, and scampered straight over to Gu Yuqin.
“Mr. Gu, what a coincidence.” Recalling their slightly awkward exchange last time, Li Tangli greeted him with some discomfort.
Gu Zhi lowered his eyes without changing expression, smoothed out the wrinkles the cat had rubbed into his pants, and gave a low acknowledgment.
Gu Yuqin crouched on the floor, scrubbing the cat’s head enthusiastically, cooing in a pinched voice, calling it a good kitty, good Ball Ball, over and over. BLACK LOTUS NOVEL Novel Chapters | BlackLotusNovel
Hearing their two awkward greetings, she let out a snort of laughter: “Sit down, don’t just stand there like you’re being punished.”
The study had a vintage feel, the floor laid with a thick carpet. In front of the shutters sat a long, dark brown carved wooden desk—this was usually where Gu Zhi handled work and discussions.
To the right of the desk were two semicircular reddish-brown single sofas, with a small square glass table between them, convenient for setting down books.
Both the left and right walls were lined floor to ceiling with custom bookshelves, running the length of the room north to south, packed full with all kinds of books.
They hadn’t chatted for more than a couple of minutes before Li Tangli felt a prickling sense of being watched, without knowing where the feeling was coming from. She turned her head toward the desk and could only make out the smooth, sharp line of Gu Zhi’s profile.
A little uneasy, she leaned close to Gu Yuqin’s ear and said quietly, “Will us being here bother his work?”
The implication being—should they leave?
“You think so?” Gu Yuqin understood perfectly, but pretended not to.
She lowered her head with a smile, pinching one of Ball Ball’s paws: “Tangli, you’re right—let’s read for a while instead, how about that?”
Fine. Li Tangli didn’t dare voice her real thoughts and had no choice but to give in, feeling awkward about it.
Though reading actually suited her just fine—browsing bookstores was one of the few leisure activities she indulged in.
Gu Yuqin wanted to read a novel she hadn’t finished before. Too lazy to get up herself, she told Li Tangli the title and author, pointed roughly to where it was, and asked her to grab it.
Li Tangli scanned the shelves row by row, and picked out a biography that caught her interest along the way. As for the novel Gu Yuqin wanted, she searched that spot for a good while before finally spotting it up near the top.
She stood on her toes, reaching up, arm fully extended, just barely brushing the bottom of the book.
So close. …
She was gearing up to jump for it when suddenly her vision darkened—a shadow fell over her, and a low, faint voice sounded by her ear: “Don’t move your skirt around.”
“Wh-what?”
Startled, she turned her face and found Gu Zhi standing right beside her—the very person who should have been sitting focused at his desk! When had he come over? How did he walk without making a sound?
At his warning, she quickly turned to look behind her, and her face flushed instantly red—
He was holding up a book, shielding it behind her. The fabric of her skirt, stiffened from repeated washing, had flared up slightly from her large movements; his hand kept a gentlemanly distance, only the book he held brushing lightly against the edge of the hem.
He hadn’t actually touched anything at all, and yet Li Tangli’s heart was pounding like a drum. She hastily reached one hand back and smoothed the flared hem down.
It was a classic case of drawing attention to something that would’ve gone unnoticed—if she’d simply lowered her heels, the skirt would have settled back into place on its own, nothing exposed at all.
But she just had to smooth it down, as if trying to make up for her earlier carelessness and slow reaction.
She bit her lip, her face flushed pink, and shot a quick glance toward Gu Yuqin, whose back was turned to them on the sofa.
Gu Zhi looked away from her, returned the book he’d pulled out at random to its place, and asked casually, as if nothing had happened: “Which book did you want?”
“Maugham’s The Painted Veil.”
He was tall; reaching up, he easily pulled down the book responsible for the girl’s embarrassment.
Li Tangli took it, eyes lowered, not looking at him: “Thank you.”
Gu Zhi asked, “Do you like this book?”
“It’s the one Yuqin wanted to read. I haven’t read it yet.”
“Oh.” · B L A C K L O T U S Novel Translation | Black Lotus Novel
Shadows fell across the bookshelves, their elongated shadows still, part of them merging together reluctantly before pulling apart again the next instant.
Gu Zhi said abruptly, “Be more careful next time.”
He turned and walked away from the shelf.
Gu Yuqin looked up at the book Li Tangli had set on the round table, a little surprised: “Found it that fast? I wasn’t even sure it was still up there.”
Li Tangli made a small sound of agreement, distracted, forcing a bit of a smile: “It was a few rows up, pretty easy to find. I just couldn’t reach it—Mr. Gu helped me get it down.”
Gu Yuqin glanced over toward the desk and saw her brother sitting perfectly upright, giving nothing away.
Fascinating, truly.
She opened the book. Right on the first page was a scene of a wife and her lover nearly caught in the act by her husband.
Her eyes drifted, unnoticed, over to Li Tangli.
She wasn’t exactly pretty, slender build, both hands holding the book. It was clear she was making a real effort to focus, but her eyes kept drifting after only a few lines.
Gu Yuqin was genuinely curious too. Last time she’d only had her suspicions, not daring to draw conclusions.
Today’s little test had given her the answer—real or not.
Normally, if she dared to mess with Gu Zhi like this, she’d get an earful at the very least—and if she pushed the joke too far, she might even find herself confined to her room.
But the moment Li Tangli walked into the study, most of her brother’s simmering irritation had drained right out of him. He hadn’t even asked what she was up to—he’d just settled back into his seat as if this were the default state of things.
That wasn’t normal.
The three of them sat there, each harboring their own thoughts, and the study fell quiet, broken only by the occasional click of keys and the rustle of turning pages.
As her nerves gradually settled, Li Tangli finally forced herself to actually focus.
Just as her finger slipped between the corner of page twenty, Gu Yuqin beside her suddenly coughed, her expression turning sour.
