When they returned to the office, Gu Nianbin took the bag that Du Xiaoxian had been carrying and put it on the table. He pulled her to the sofa to sit and pointed at the pile of snacks that Zhou Ting bought, "You must be hungry. Eat something first to stave off hunger. I still have something to do, so we'll go back home later."
"Young master," Du Xiaoxian took a look of the snacks and was about to stand up, "Shall I go back first? I have to sweep the courtyard."
Gu Nianbin stopped her, "It doesn't matter. Today is your first day of school. Forget about the chore. Leave it tomorrow."
Du Xiaoxian had no choice but to stay. Gu Nianbin opened a chocolate bar for her and asked about her day at school. Du Xiaoxian blushed and said slowly, " Young master, I...I can't understand in class."
Gu Nianbin stroked her hair with a smile, "Don't worry. Take your time. You'll understand gradually."
"OK." Du Xiaoxian nodded, " I will study hard."
"How were your teachers and classmates?"
"Good." Du Xiaoxian whispered, "I will be brave and make friends, Young master."
Gu Nianbin was amused, "So it means that you haven't made any friends yet?"
A flurry of anxiety was stirred in her as expected, "I... I will."
"Alright, no hurry. It takes time to make friends." Gu Nianbin smiled, "You have to sharpen your eyes to choose friends. Make friends with those who are worthy of. Get it?"
"I see." She was chewing on the chocolate and blew out a strong fragrance of chocolate as she spoke.
Gu Nianbin stared at her for a while and asked, "Did anyone compliment you on your beauty today?"
She thought for a moment with her head tilting and then nodded. This was out of his expectation as he didn't ask purposely. He narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice, "Who?"
"The driver Xiaoding." Du Xiaoxian said, "But I don't think he's a bad man. He just talks too much."
"Did he talk much to you?"
Du Xiaoxian then told him how Xiaoding spoke to her endlessly on the way here. Finally, she added, "Xiaoding said he would help me clean the courtyard. He is a good guy."
Gu Nianbin was speechless. Everyone tended to wear a mask in such a complicated society. How could she believe in others easily just because of some petty favors? He stroked his forehead. The little girl was truly simple and silly...
Du Xiaoxian became nervous with a blush after finishing the chocolate. She mumbled, "Sir, I want to go to the toilet."
Gu Nianbin showed her the direction, "There it is. Go ahead."
Du Xiaoxian knew where the toilet was, but this time she had to take a dump. Gu Nianbin was sitting just outside. What if he smelled or heard anything? Du Xiaoxian blushed even worse when thinking about the awkward possibilities.
She shook her head, "I...I cannot use this..." Gu Nianbin seemed to understand her and thus asked Zhou Ting to escort her to another restroom outside.
Shao Boqing entered the room right after Du Xiaoxian left. He studied the expression of Gu Nianbin and then slowly sat in the chair in front of him.
"What is it?" Gu Nianbin raised his head and asked. His face was calm as usual. Shao Boqing felt relieved and raised his eyebrows, preparing to get back at him. He was quite hurt being fiercely glared by Gu Nianbin for no reason. How an old friend you had known for dozens of years be no match for a little maid?
"You glared at me just now." He complained with grievance.
"You scared my guest." Gu Nianbin said leisurely.
"Guest? Isn't she just a maid?" Shao Boqing said crossly.
"She did a great favor to my family."
"Don't be ridiculous," said Shao Boqing, "Could your father be killed by Gu Niannan if she didn't stand up?"
With a dark face, Gu Nianbin looked at the business sheets at hand without responding.
Shao Boqing regretted his improper words and thus softened his tone to make up, "Forget it. I won't fuss about it. Well, I have things to do. See you."
He moved slowly, but Gu Nianbin didn't stop him before he counted to ten. He sighed heavily and walked out quickly. Standing outside the office, he laughed. Was he striving for favor with a little maid?
He was about to leave when Zhou Ting brought Du Xiaoxian back. Shao Boqing raised his eyebrows shortly and beamed a standard smile as he greeted her, "Miss Du, I'm sorry for scaring you just now." He stopped to keep a two-step space between them and bowed politely to Du Xiaoxian.
He became quite courteous, a far cry from the frivolous behavior right now. Du Xiaoxian was bewildered. Did this President Shao turn over a new leaf during the time she went to toilet?
Shao Boqing found that she was not that afraid of him as before and thus stretched out his hand slowly, "Please allow me to introduce myself to you formally. My name is Shao Boqing, the general manager of Gu's Company and a friend of Gu Nianbin."
Since he was the young master's friend who was so polite to her, Du Xiaoxian stretched out her hand boldly. Shao Boqing, however, stepped back abruptly before she touched him by fingertips. She looked up and found that the young master was standing behind Shao Boqing. He grabbed him by his collar sternly and said coldly, "Didn't you say you were leaving? Why are you still here?"
Shao Boqing freed himself from Gu Nianbin's hand, tidied up his clothes and threw a glare at him, "I'm leaving now. Satisfied?" He angrily strode away as saying this.
Du Xiaoxian stayed still quietly with her head down. The young master's stern expression was terrifying. And... why was Mr. Shao angry?
Before she could figure it out, Gu Nianbin had already dragged her into the office. This time, even Zhou Ting was startled. She could tell that Mr. Shao was pretending to be angry when leaving. But her boss' anger seemed to be real. Was he really angry at Mr. Shao? Why? Secretary Zhou felt she was not smart enough to understand all these things.
Gu Nianbin closed the door and dragged Du Xiaoxian onto the sofa, "Didn't I tell you to sharpen your eyes when making friends? How could you shake hands with him when you have no idea of him? You might be sold by him unconsciously!"
Du Xiaoxian shrank away and quivered slightly. It seemed that the young master was cross with her.
Noticing her frightened look, Gu Nianbin realized he was too harsh to her and thus softened his voice, "Don't be afraid. I'm not scolding you. You must know that the society is complicated. You cannot be too cautious in order not to be deceived."
Du Xiaoxian raised her head with tears in her eyes, "I made you angry. I deserved the curse."
"I'm not angry." Gu Nianbin scratched his eyebrows, "Am I?"
He looked so frightening when he was not angry. How would he be when he actually was? Du Xiaoxian couldn't imagine it. Now that the young master wasn't angry, she was relieved. She rubbed her fingers and said softly, "Mr. Shao is not a bad guy. He is your friend."
"He could be a bad guy although a friend of mine." Then he realized it was not the truth. Shao Boqing was a playboy, but certainly not a bad guy. He thought twice and said, "He is not a bad guy, but he is not good either. From now on, stay away from him."
Du Xiaoxian nodded, but pondered inside, how could a person be neither good nor bad?
"Do you have any homework?" Gu Nianbin changed the topic.
"Yes." Du Xiaoxian opened her schoolbag and took out her homework. If Gu Nianbin didn't ask, she would be too shy to bring it up because she didn't know how to do the homework.
Gu Nianbin flipped through her science homework and then put it aside, "Forget it. This is too difficult for you and is of not much use. You need not learn it anymore. "
To whatever he said, the only response of Du Xiaoxian was nodding. She pointed at her arts homework, "What about these?"
"These aren't difficult. I can help you."
In this way, President Gu threw aside the marketing reports for tomorrow's meeting and helped Du Xiaoxian with her homework attentively. Du Xiaoxian had been to school for several years. She could read and was quite clever to comprehend new knowledge by analog. Gu Nianbin patted her head with satisfaction, "You are a quick learner. Not bad."
She raised her face and asked, "Sir, I can understand what you said, but I cannot understand the teacher in class. Why?"
He looked at her and pondered, "Why not teach her myself…"
Zhou Ting knocked on the door and came in, "President, I come to take the marketing reports."
Gu Nianbin looked at the thick stack of files on his desk and gave up on that thought. "I haven't finished yet. I'll send it to you later. I'm afraid you have to work overtime to process the statistics."
"Yes, President." Zhou Ting took a glimpse of the homework on the coffee table and felt her temples were throbbing. She didn't expect that the boss could leave his work undone to help a little girl with her homework.
After Du Xiaoxian finished her homework, Gu Nianbin started his laptop and instructed her to watch movie on PPS. He then went back to his desk to review the reports. After reviewing all the statistics, he rubbed the tiresome eyes and looked up at the thin figure sitting on the sofa. Du Xiaoxian held her chin and was obsessed with the video on his laptop.
She was indulged in the video. The screen light reflected in her eyes glimmered like twinkling stars. The corners of her mouth curled up and her delicate nose shrugged slightly. She sometimes frowned and sometimes smiled. Her ponytail hung loosely to one side. When she laughed, the tips of her hair shook gently. Anyhow, she was still a kid.
This was the first time Gu Nianbin had seen her face so smooth with relaxation. Pure and innocent. She was still skinny as before, but looked no longer that weak and pitiful but unusually vigorous and alive. Fascinated by the glamour in her eyes, he stood up and walked around to the back of the sofa quietly. To his surprise, she was actually watching "Boonie Bears."
"Interesting?" He leaned on the backrest of the sofa and asked rather abruptly.
"Yes. I had watched it at my aunt's home. It's very interesting." Her voice was very pleasing and melodious, different from the timid tone before. "Look..." She suddenly stopped, turned back and took a look at Gu Nianbin. The smile was still on her face but now distorted. She asked softly, "Have you finished your work, Young master?"
At this moment, Gu Nianbin felt regretful. Why did he come over to disturb her?
"I have to go out for a while. Go on watching."
Du Xiaoxian said yes and returned to her cartoon.
Gu Nianbin opened the door and stepped out. To his surprise, Zhou Ting was still at her desk. "Why are you still at work?"
Zhou Ting wanted to roll her eyes at him. How could a secretary go off work before the boss? However, what she said was, "I've just finished work on hand and was about to leave. President, are you still working?"
"Yes," Gu Nianbin nodded, "I'll leave later. I've emailed the marketing reports to you. You can process them at home."
Zhou Ting was going to say that she was fine working overtime here, but she read out an implicit meaning under the boss' words. He wanted her to leave. Therefore, she immediately answered yes and cleared her desk.
Gu Nianbin walked to the end of the corridor and stood in front of a window. The afterglow of the setting sun dyed the window crimson. Gu Nianbin did not walk into the light but leaned against the wall in darkness and lit a cigarette. He didn't smoke but watched it slowly burn out between his fingers...
From that day on, Du Xiaoxian's life had undergone tremendous changes.Every day, she left home early and returned late, getting familiar with the scenery on streets of G City and environment of the school.Sitting in the car, she tried to memorize the route back to home and the route to the Gu’s Company.She concentrated on classes and never allowed her mind to stray away. Gradually, she was able to understand them. As for classes in sciences, the young master said that she did not need to learn them and she did not understand anything either. Therefore, during sciences classes, she just lowered her head and drew on the notebook.She had always liked drawing. Back when she got bored at her hometown, she would pick up a twig and sat in the courtyard drawing randomly to kill time for the whole morning. She drew flowers, dragonflies, trees and grass as well as chickens, ducks, fish, pigs, sheep, dogs, cats…everything around her.
Just as Xia Xiaowan had expected, the news of her accompanying Gu Nianbin to the banquet made the headline in the entertainment section of Morning Post the next day.In the published picture, she smiled sweetly and gracefully, looking even more gorgeous than usual.Gu Nianbin beside her was also smiling gently and elegantly. He looked extremely handsome with deep eyes, a Roman nose, thin lips, and a firm chin slightly hold up.Xia Xiaowan took a sip of coffee. She spread the newspaper on the dining table and pondered over the picture in the newspaper.Du Xiaoxian also saw the picture.Standing in the corridor outside the dining room, she beheld her ladyship, with the newspaper in her hands, cheerfully talking with the master about the perfect match of their son and Miss Xia. She couldn't understand why the young master and Miss Xia were reported by the newspaper. When the master and lady went upstairs, she slipped into
Sitting in the car, Gu Nianbin asked seriously, "Now tell me. Why did you walk away alone?"Du Xiaoxian lowered her head and bit her lips. Blood seeped from the cut lips into her mouth. It tasted sweet.She didn't expect that she caused so much trouble for the young master and even bothered the police.She didn't expect the young master was so angry either. She was a fool. No wonder no one liked her. No wonder she had no friends.Now even the young master wouldn't like her. She was a nit, simply mindless. If she told the young master or Xiaoding beforehand, things would not be like this.So many people, including the headmaster, were bothered to look for her. How could she have the nerve to go to school tomorrow? The young master used his connections to send her to school, but...look at what she had done.Du Xiaoxian felt so guilty that even her guts were twisted and her body further shrank."
Du Xiaoxian felt something wrong when entering the classroom, as almost everyone was looking at her.Contempt and disdain were all over their faces, which Du Xiaoxian had been used to since childhood. She didn't care much about it and sat on her seat quietly.She assumed that they looked at her this way because of the incident yesterday. Even the headmaster was bothered after all.Yang Liying was not in her seat. She was chattering in a low voice with some girls. She snorted contemptuously at Du Xiaoxian and asked a girl in whisper, "Are you sure about what you saw yesterday?""Of course. She got on a bus and sat by the window and then got off and walked. I followed her all the way. Nobody came to pick her up.""What happened afterwards?""She was on foot while I rode in a car. It's hard to follow, so I left then.""What a pity," said Yang Liying, "If you followed her home, you would find out
It was already dark when Gu Nianbin returned home.He looked through the car window as the iron gate slowly opened, but the lawn was empty with nobody there.The path had been cleaned up, however, and in the grass, there were few leaves, which probably had just fallen.The car stopped under the tree. A gust of wind swept over, and palm-sized leaves started falling, some yellow and some yellow and green, all wilted and lifeless in the dusk. Gu Nianbin picked up a fallen leaf on top of the car and looked up at the tall phoenix tree. For the first time, he felt annoyed about the falling leaves.Some branches, bare with no leaves, were swaying in the wind like tentacles of a monster.He gazed at it for a while, and then threw the leaf and entered the house.Fang Yaru was glad to see him back, "It's just time for dinner. Perfect timing."Gu Nianbin smiled, "There is a boring business dinner. Baiqin
Gu Nianbin called Xia Xiaowan before leaving the office and said he would pick her up later.Xia Xiaowan held breath for two seconds and then answered readily, "OK."There was no reason to decline. Things would be much different if she went to his home by herself.Did this mean that they got closer to each other?Gu Nianbin showed up at the office building of Xia Xiaowan's company on time. He was handsome with an imposing appearance, like a shining star in the bustling crowd.Soon he became the object of many admiring sights.Xia Xiaowan came out along with the crowd and spotted him immediately.There were quite a few rich guys waiting for their lovers in luxury cars. But Gu Nianbin was undoubtedly the most outstanding one, overshadowing all the others."Look! It's President Gu. Why is he here?" A girl who often read financial news exclaimed with surprise.Office buil
Du Xiaoxian didn't move at the master's instruction. She was waiting for Gu Nianbin's order.The young master was good to her. How could she hurt his girlfriend? She didn't mean it. But things did happen.Butler Xiao gave her the chance to work in the living room and she decided to give her best shot. However, she screwed it all.She was all fingers and thumbs and got stumble all of a sudden. Was it because she was too nervous? She would get nervous in front of a pretty noble lady. This time, she got even more nervous when serving the young master's girlfriend.She wanted to do a good job but things turned out differently.The young master kept silent, which vexed her the most. He didn't yell at her like the lady. Actually, if he did so, she would feel better."Why are you still here? Go off!"Fang Yaru raised her voice as irritated by seeing her standing still.They were getting
The next day, Du Xiaoxian got up at daybreak, put on her uniform and took a broom to clean the front yard.The sky was milky white with a faint rosy horizon. The morning breeze was cool and moist, refreshing the body and mind of Du Xiaoxian after she took a deep breath. She stretched herself and turned around to look at the window on the second floor. It was tightly closed. Her view was completely blocked by the beige curtains. Du Xiaoxian rubbed her nose and thought, "Maybe the young master hasn’t gotten up yet."After cleaning up the front yard, she picked up the withered leaves in the bushes and then walked towards the gate along the tiled driveway. The road wasn't dirty so it didn't take much effort to clean it. When she reached the iron gate, she gathered the leaves on the ground and put them into a basket with a small shovel. Only when she finished all the work did she stand up straight and take a rest. The leaves on the ground were clea