Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The next day, the internal line rang to tell me someone was downstairs asking for me.

I set down the documents in my hands and hurried down, only to find it was Gu Jinzhi’s mother.

She was dressed in an indigo suit, seated on the sofa, occasionally touching the Mikimoto by her ear. She looked rather impatient.

The moment I came into view, she frowned as if she had seen something terribly improper. “What took you so long?”

As expected, she got straight to the point and brought up the wedding.

“What exactly is going on with you? Back then, Jinzhi told the family that once he’d met your parents, he’d come back and set the wedding date. It’s been three months, and there’s still been no word.”

Then she drew out that exclusive wealthy-matron tone of hers. “Don’t tell me your family has some objection to ours?”

I shifted my chair back a little and smiled faintly.

“Jinzhi is handling all of that. I don’t ask.”

She rolled her eyes in what she clearly believed was an elegant manner and curled her lip.

“Old Gu even said Jinzhi would be blessed to marry you. The way I see it, he’d be better off finding some virtuous, family-minded girl without such wild ambitions, someone who could take care of him. With you, who knows if you’ll even help ease his burdens at all.”

I merely kept smiling politely and gave a small nod without answering.

Finding that boring, she got up and left without so much as a goodbye.

Gu Jinzhi used to talk about marriage all the time.

At first, Mrs. Gu had been unhappy, saying her son had been blinded, that after picking through so many girls, he had somehow chosen wrong in the end.

Later, something went wrong with Gu Corporation’s newly launched AI business right before it went live.

Partly to help Gu Corporation out of trouble, and partly to give my students an impressive project on their résumés before graduation, I brought them to Gu Group’s building and worked through the night, solving Old Chairman Gu’s urgent problem.

After that, perhaps because Old Chairman Gu had warned her, no matter how dissatisfied she was, she never dared come out and interfere.

Now, seeing that her son, who had once been enthusiastically preparing for the wedding, had suddenly gone silent, she must have decided the problem was on my end and rushed over to demand an explanation.

It had been three months since he met my parents.

Gu Jinzhi had not mentioned marriage again even once.

The wedding planner who used to diligently send me proposals had fallen silent in my WeChat chat window.

The million-yuan wedding dress Gu Jinzhi had promised was nowhere to be seen either.

I thought three months was just about enough.

Sheng Zhuoran’s concern over the changes in Gu Jinzhi was absurdly intense.

Thanks to his overwhelming desire to share, I knew Gu Jinzhi’s schedule inside and out during this period.

He took his clingy, coquettish childhood sweetheart to drinking parties.

During Truth or Dare, two pairs of red lips kissed as if they couldn’t bear to part.

And at the end, he even added, “Now that’s the kind of woman who has flavor.”

I remembered how he once pleaded with me, asking if I could rely on him a little more, if I could stop making him feel like he didn’t matter.

But I couldn’t do it.

A person’s past shapes who they are now. The dependence I once avoided like a viper and finally managed to break free from-how could I, how would I dare, just casually pick it up again?

He also lingered in nightclubs with that blonde from last time.

Sometimes she was smooth and socially adept; sometimes her eyes were soft and seductive. When Gu Jinzhi flew into a rage, she would coax him in a gentle voice.

“Yu Buxun, can’t you just give in to me for once?”

We once had a fight because I was always working overtime. Even after he laid out the pros and cons, I still went my own way.

Three days later, he showed up at the entrance of the research institute, dark circles under his eyes and stubble on his chin, blocking my path with a face full of resentment.

Yet in the next second, he still thoughtfully took my bag and opened the car door for me.

At the time, we had only just confirmed our relationship, and our feelings were at their most intense.

He sighed, as if resigning himself to fate.

“Yu Buxun, in this life, I’m destined to be your dog.”