At a business dinner in Country F, Gu Zhi held a glass of red wine, chatted briefly with a few of the European investors surrounding him, then turned and sat alone on a couch in the corner.
“What’s wrong with you? Why do you look so gloomy?”
A peach-eyed man with his collar open sauntered over with a female companion.
“Family stuff.” Gu Zhi clinked his glass against the man’s from across the gap, without bringing it to his lips.
The man understood at once and patted the gorgeously dressed woman beside him. “Baby, go grab me a bottle of Romanee.”
Once she’d been sent off, Gu Zhi said coldly, “Guan Wangjin, can you not go a single day without a woman?”
Guan Wangjin chuckled, not particularly bothered by the jab, and sat down with an easy sprawl. “Your brother here just has good luck with women, can’t help it — not like a virgin like you. What’s actually bothering you? Your nephew again?”
Gu Zhi couldn’t be bothered trading barbs with him. “No. My sister.”
Guan Wangjin choked on his wine, coughing twice. “Cough… seriously? Yuqin’s obedient as a porcelain doll, what could possibly be troubling her?”
“She had an asthma attack a while back. Miss Li — Ji Jiayu’s girlfriend — happened to be visiting the house at the time. Turned out she had asthma medicine on her, saved her life. Now Yuqin insists on hiring her as a caretaker.”
Guan Wangjin’s smile faded. “Yuqin had an asthma attack? Why didn’t you tell me?”
The way he said it was odd. Gu Zhi glanced at him sideways. “You’ve been abroad this whole year. What good would telling you have done? She’s stable now, being discharged next week.”
Guan Wangjin gripped his wineglass tighter, then slipped back into his careless demeanor. “Then just go along with what she wants. She just got a second chance at life, don’t cross her.”
Gu Zhi took a sip of wine. “No.”
“Why not?” Guan Wangjin suddenly remembered. “Oh right, I recall your nephew’s girlfriend was some kind of hostess or something? A bit dirty, not really suitable.”
As a playboy, Guan Wangjin had one principle — he never messed around in filthy, disreputable establishments.
Most of the women he dated came from clean backgrounds, relationships entered into willingly by both sides, with no money-for-companionship arrangement involved.
And his breakup gifts were always generous, earning him a reputation as a young master who spent freely, so his standing wasn’t bad.
Plenty of women came after him purely for his money and name, and Guan Wangjin always gave face — even if she’d only been on his arm briefly during the relationship, he’d still send a satisfying gift when they parted ways.
Gu Zhi despised those in that line of work more than anyone, yet hearing Guan Wangjin talk about Li Tangli that way stirred an unexpected irritation in him. His tone stayed flat. “It’s not a matter of character. She’s only ever cared for family, she has no professional nursing experience.”
The first time Gu Yuqin proposed hiring Li Tangli, no one agreed. But she pleaded so insistently, bringing it up to whoever she saw every day, until the family couldn’t ignore it any longer.
So Gu Zhi had someone thoroughly investigate Li Tangli. Unlike the shallow personal file from before, this time Gu Zhi turned this girl who’d recently been appearing so often right under his nose completely inside out.
The facts proved that the real Li Tangli differed quite a bit from what they’d assumed.
She’d worked at the club for two months total, and aside from Ji Jiayu, hadn’t been involved with any other man during that time.
She’d quit not long after, hadn’t lied that day at the old family estate, and currently worked at a buffet restaurant.
She came from a single-parent household, mother and daughter living in an old residential complex. What neighbors said about her all leaned positive.
They said she worked from dawn to dusk, sent all her earnings to the hospital for her mother’s treatment, and was often seen in the mornings walking with her mother around the neighborhood. The investigation results and photos were brought before Gu Zhi, and the Gu siblings held a small meeting to discuss it. He picked up the stack of photos and flipped through them one by one — all shots of Li Tangli’s daily life.
Gu Shufeng sighed with feeling: “Look at this, isn’t this so much better than that short skirt and makeup from before? She strayed once, but now she’s left that filthy place behind — turned back before it was too late, really. Her character isn’t bad.”
There were two photos where Gu Zhi paused for a couple of seconds before flipping past.
One showed her at the back door of the restaurant, straining to drag a trash bin that came up to her chest. · B L A C K L O T U S Novel Site | BLACK LOTUS NOVEL
The other was at a bookstore, her leaning against the wall, absorbed in reading. The line of her neck was slender and clean, disappearing into her collar, and her knees still showed faint bruising.
Back in the present, hearing Gu Zhi say this, Guan Wangjin raised an eyebrow, sharply catching the note of protectiveness toward that Miss Li in his words, and felt a flicker of surprise.
Last time Gu Zhi mentioned this girl, his attitude had been thoroughly dismissive and contemptuous. But watching him now, he seemed entirely composed, showing nothing out of the ordinary.
Then again, it made sense — after all, she’d saved Yuqin, and was in every sense a benefactor to the Gu family.
Guan Wangjin said, “Yuqin just doesn’t have friends, she wants company. From what you’re saying, if the girl’s decent enough, you could have her over now and then.”
Gu Zhi nodded. “Right, that’s the plan for now.”
He stood, set his glass down on the table, and ended the conversation. “I’ve got a flight to catch. I’ll head out first.”
Gu Zhi, in his overcoat, cut a tall, straight silhouette as he walked away. His companion’s eyes were full of admiration as she watched him leave the venue, then turned to quietly ask Guan Wangjin, “Who was that?”
Guan Wangjin laughed, though his words carried a clear warning. “Don’t get any ideas about him. None of your girlfriends could handle that one.”
His companion pouted and leaned against his shoulder.
But he couldn’t summon any real interest. He pulled up his phone contacts, his finger hovering over “Yuqin” for a few seconds, but in the end he didn’t press it.
In case she was resting, better not to disturb her. He’d be back home soon enough anyway.
After the flight landed, Gu Zhi went home to sleep off the jet lag.
Halfway through a hazy sleep, he heard noise downstairs, but was too tired to deal with it. By the time he opened his eyes again, it was already dark out.
The living room was empty, in complete disarray, broken glass scattered across the floor, the air thick with the smell of alcohol, as if someone had smashed a wine bottle.
Gu Zhi could’ve guessed with his eyes closed — this had to be Ji Jiayu and that pack of good-for-nothing, over-privileged friends of his, up to no good again!
Through the glass, he made out a figure slumped by the pool outside, the shape somehow familiar.
The weather had turned cold recently, temperatures dropping sharply after dark — who in their right mind would be out at the pool?
Hearing footsteps behind her, Li Tangli turned, startled, and found it was none other than Ji Jiayu’s uncle, whom she’d met a few times before — Gu Zhi.
He wore black sleepwear, his hair not slicked neatly back like usual. Slightly long bangs fell over his forehead, half-covering his brows, making him look several years younger.
“Miss Li,” Gu Zhi said, looking around, brow furrowing. “What are you doing soaking in there? Where’s Ji Jiayu and the others?”
Li Tangli’s face was pale, her voice trembling. “They… they might have gone out. Jiayu told me to just stay here…”
Gu Zhi was sharp enough to see straight through her hesitant cover-up.
He cut straight to it: “Did Ji Jiayu tell you to stay in the pool and not come out until he said so?”
After a moment, Li Tangli let out a soft “mm,” so quiet it was almost inaudible.
She wasn’t even sure how things had ended up this way.
Ever since she’d saved Gu Yuqin, Ji Jiayu’s attitude toward her had shifted somewhat — occasionally, when he was in a good mood, he’d even reply to her messages.
The mood had been good that night, everyone laughing and chatting, until some brainless idiot blurted out without thinking, sighing, “Man, Yu-ge, I really envy you. Uncle Gu’s never getting married or having kids anyway, so the Gu family’s basically yours down the line, right?”
Ji Jiayu’s expression changed instantly.
The statement wasn’t wrong, actually — Gu Zhi remained unmarried and childless to this day, and the reason the outside world called Ji Jiayu the young lord of Rongxing was precisely because it was widely assumed he’d most likely inherit the Gu Corporation in the future. | Black Lotus Novel Archive | BlackLotusNovel
But clearly, the young lord himself didn’t like it — in fact, he actively avoided the topic.
He snatched up the wine bottle on the table and hurled it to the ground, fast and vicious.
There was a crash, the bottle shattering precisely at the guy’s feet, glass shards spraying everywhere, slicing across his arm and neck, cutting several bleeding gashes into his skin. The pain jolted his drunken mind instantly sober.
This guy had called in several favors, pulling every string he could just to squeeze into this inner circle. Seeing that he’d angered Ji Jiayu, cold sweat broke out on him immediately.
No amount of groveling apology helped at that point. Ji Jiayu told him to get lost immediately, and the man left with a face as gray as death.
Everyone knew he’d never show up around Ji Jiayu again.
But Li Tangli didn’t know the reason behind any of it, and the book hadn’t covered this part either.
Confused, she followed the furious Ji Jiayu from the open-air courtyard back inside, and before she’d even managed a few words of comfort, Ji Jiayu suddenly stopped and turned to her. “Didn’t I just say no one’s supposed to bring that up around me again?”
“I’m sorry.” Li Tangli panicked, reaching out to placate him, but he yanked his arm away.
Ji Jiayu’s expression turned even colder. “You actually think you’re my girlfriend?”
As if suddenly jolted awake, he looked her up and down — this ordinary, unremarkable woman — and the more he looked, the more he doubted himself. Aside from that one particular angle, what did she even have in common with senior sister?
Had he really dated a woman this far beneath him for this long, just to spite his family?
Recognizing this mistake he should have corrected long ago, Ji Jiayu tossed out a final notice: “This ends here.”
“Wait,” Li Tangli chased after him, throat tight as if stuffed with cotton, clumsily begging him: “I was wrong, can we not break up, please?”
His last shred of patience worn away, Ji Jiayu pointed toward the pool outside, face blank. “Not break up? Fine. Jump in right now. You come out when I tell you to. Are you jumping or not?”
Li Tangli’s face went white. She stared at him quietly for a moment.
Something indescribable welled up in Ji Jiayu’s chest, a tightness in it.
She spoke a few words, pained: “Does it really have to be like this?”
Ji Jiayu turned his back, not wanting to look at her anymore. “Yes.”
In the end, Li Tangli walked into the pool.
Less than five minutes later, the roar of a sports car came from the garage — Ji Jiayu, restless and irritated, had left with the others.
And Li Tangli stayed there obediently in the pool, waiting for Ji Jiayu, who might come back any moment, or might never come back at all tonight.
Gu Zhi said nothing. The silence further ate away at what little dignity she had left.
The two of them stood a step apart. Perhaps it was the cold water — her two pale arms, glinting faintly, gripped the pool’s edge, fingertips already soaked white.
Her black hair hung wet against her thin shoulders, and so were her eyes.
The corners of the girl’s eyes drooped slightly, giving her that same look of pitiful innocence no matter who looked at her.
Anyone she looked at like that would easily feel a fierce urge to dominate her — was she genuinely begging him to show mercy and save her, or secretly craving something heavier, something crueler?
Gu Zhi wasn’t sure either.
For the first time, he said her name: “Li Tangli.”
He lowered his eyes, gaze like a stretch of deep gray sea, calmly reflecting back all her disheveled misery: “Do you ever say no to anyone?”
Tears spilled from Li Tangli’s eyes all at once.
Seeing her humiliated tears, Gu Zhi didn’t step back — instead, he took another step forward.
But Li Tangli had nowhere left to retreat. She instinctively tried to pull her arms back, but her whole body was swallowed by the icy pool water again.
So she had no choice but to freeze in place, powerless as he encroached between her arms.
Until the tip of the man’s shoe met the pool’s edge, only the rippling water between them, almost pressed against her chest.
Li Tangli’s eyes reddened, tears welling and spilling without end, like a string of beads coming undone, tracing down her jaw and falling into the water.
Gu Zhi said quietly, “Why is it that every time I see you, you’re always in such a state?”
