LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 34 - The day the story begins
Gu Xianting spent three days calming his emotions. Now, he could manage not to be easily provoked when Wen Zhao and the butler appeared together.
The private detective had sent the details about Su Mengyao to his email. Looking at the compressed file in front of him, he felt an intense apprehension and an urge to close the window without opening it.
His breathing became heavier, and he took a deep breath before clicking open the email.
When he opened the compressed file and clicked on the photos, he saw that they were taken secretly, but they were clear enough for him to see that the woman in the arms of a tall and handsome man was indeed Su Mengyao.
“Shen Han Feng!” He gritted his teeth and uttered the name.
He had always known of his existence. He was merely an illegitimate child of the Shen family but had audaciously tried to compete with him for Su Mengyao!
His gaze slowly moved to Su Mengyao’s image. The photo only captured her profile, nestled in the man’s embrace, appearing very comfortable and wholly dependent on him.
Jealousy and resentment overwhelmed him instantly, and he felt a surge of rage.
While he was enduring hardships and struggling with demons, she was with someone else?
No, no, no, it couldn’t be hee fault. She loved him deeply. She risked everything to save him on the island, and at the press conference, her eyes were full of affection.
It must be that she was angry with him. After all, he had hurt her.
He needed to change his current state!
His gaze fell on his own legs.
“Xianting.” Wen Zhao’s voice came from behind.
He quickly closed the laptop resting on his knees, his heart pounding wildly. He forced a smile and looked up. “ZhaoZhao, what’s the matter?”
Wen Zhao’s gaze shifted from the closed laptop to his face. “What were you doing?”
“I… I was just browsing the internet. With everything that’s happened, I wanted to see how the public opinion is now.” he quickly fabricated a plausible excuse.
“Oh? How is it now?” Wen Zhao walked over to him.
His body tensed up instantly, and sweat broke out on his back. Wen Zhao’s hand rested on the laptop, as if about to open it.
His heart was in his throat, and he struggled to swallow. “It’s… not getting as much attention now.”
“Is that so?” Wen Zhao smiled slightly, and her hand slowly opened the laptop halfway. She could see the sweat on his forehead.
“Yes,” his voice was tight with stress.
She closed the laptop again. “That’s good.”
Gu Xianting felt a sudden release of tension, as if he had stepped back onto solid ground from a deep abyss. He had no idea how she would react if she had seen the photos of Su Mengyao.
“By the way, there’s a business gala tonight. Let’s go together,” Wen Zhao suddenly said.
Gu Xianting looked up, his heart racing. In just a few minutes, his emotions were tossed up and down, like being repeatedly lifted and dropped.
“You want me to accompany you?” he could hardly believe what he had heard!
He looked at her face, feeling dazed and hesitant. “Aren’t you going with… the butler?”
She smiled gently. “You’re my husband; he’s just a butler, isn’t he?”
At that moment, Gu Xianting felt like he had walked through a desert for days, reaching the brink of exhaustion, only to find an oasis and a lake just a meter away.
His eyes reddened, tears quickly gathering. “ZhaoZhao.”
“What’s wrong? Don’t you want to go?” Wen Zhao asked.
“No, I’ll go. I’ll definitely go,” his mind was like a burst of fireworks.
“Good, then we’ll leave later,” she said, leaning over and kissing his cheek. He stood there in shock, she slowly walked out.
He touched his cheek. Had she just kissed him?
His heart was beating wildly, and he felt an overwhelming urge to cry. His mind was a blur, only aware of his strong emotions.
As Wen Zhao walked out, the butler stood outside the door, leaning against the wall.
She took a few steps forward when her arm was suddenly grabbed. The next moment, she was pinned against the wall, the butler’s gray eyes fixed intensely on her lips.
“Angry?” she looked at him with a half-smile.
He lifted his hand and roughly wiped his thumb across her lips.
“Jealous?” she laughed, gently patting his face. “Have you forgotten that you’re just my butler now?”
“Really?” he suddenly lowered his head and bit her lip. “I don’t believe it.”
She winced and tried to push him away. “Are you a dog or something?”
“If the boss wants me to be a dog, I can be,” he said, holding her hand against his chest, his eyes filled with ambiguity.
Wen Zhao sneered. “Aren’t you loyal to someone else? Don’t you have a beloved girlfriend?”
“Oh, that’s only because you’ve given me too much,” the butler said, glancing at his watch. “Sometimes, I’m not so motivated.”
He then lowered his head and kissed her.
She pushed him away, giving him a cold glance before walking straight ahead.
He leaned against the wall, his head down, wiping his lips, and then straightened up and followed her.
At the evening’s business gala, Wen Zhao was preparing, with her styling team arriving an hour early.
The butler stood behind the chair, watching her through the mirror.
Under the stylist’s skilled hands, her beauty became even more stunning. The butler thought, how could anyone not love her?
As this thought surfaced, a sharp alarm rang in his mind.
【I’m detecting abnormal heart rates. Are you falling for her?!】
He did not respond, continuing to stare at her in the mirror.
She casually met his gaze in the reflection, the invasive light in his eyes unmistakably reaching her through his long bangs.
【No!!!】
“All done.” The stylist, satisfied with her work, said. “No matter how many times, Ms. Wen, you always amaze me.”
“Thank you for the compliment.” Wen Zhao shifted her gaze to her reflection in the mirror.
The stylist and her assistants left in an orderly manner.
“Tonight, aren’t you really taking me?” the butler asked.
“You should remember your role,” she said, leaving.
He watched her leave.
【I warn you!!! Have you forgotten our agreement?】
“Let’s be reasonable,” the butler said slowly with unmistakable malice. “From the beginning, since you entered my world until now, have I ever violated the agreement?”
The system thought carefully and came to a rather embarrassing conclusion: no!
“What was our agreement? Do you still remember?” he asked lazily. “I should be asking you if you’ve forgotten our agreement.”
The butler—
No, it should be, the twenty-year-old Gu Xianting, who was supposed to disappear, had never actively violated the agreement.
Although, from the start, he never intended to follow it.
The system hesitated and then recalled the first meeting with the butler.
It was after countless loops stuck at the beginning of the story, when the world consciousness of this small world had become extremely weak.
The day the plot began was actually just an ordinary day.
It was sunny during the day, but as evening came, heavy rain started.
Gu Xianting had promised to pick up Wen Zhao from school, and they were going to have French cuisine together.
However, once the car was on the road, Gu Xianting felt something was wrong. Although he should have been heading directly to the school, no matter how much he reminded the driver, the driver seemed to ignore him and insisted on taking another route.
The driver drove very slowly, and there weren’t many people on the road.
“I said, speed up!” he was already very displeased.
“Mr. Gu, it’s not safe to drive in the rain,” the driver kept saying irrelevant things, like a pre-programmed AI robot.
He glanced at the time. There were only a few minutes left until Wen Zhao’s class ended. If he didn’t hurry, he would be late!
In such heavy rain, he couldn’t let her wait in the corridor.
He impatiently moved from the back seat to the front, and the car was going so slowly that even grabbing the steering wheel did not cause much shaking.
The driver, seemingly waking up from his previous state, looked horrified as Gu Xianting pushed him to the passenger seat. “Mr. Gu, I… I didn’t know. I’m so sorry.”
“Alright.” Gu Xianting’s ingrained refinement prevented him from saying anything too harsh, especially since the driver had indeed been acting strangely.
He immediately sped up the car, planning to make a U-turn at the next intersection.
However, with only a few hundred meters to go, he suddenly felt a strong impulse to slow down. He frowned, struggling against this inexplicable emotion, and during the struggle, his body seemed to gain
a mind of its own, turning to look at the roadside.
On the roadside stood a girl drenched in rain, looking about sixteen or seventeen. Her appearance was ordinary, but he felt a strange, overwhelming emotion rise within him!
It was as if a voice was saying, this is the person I love.
His eyes turned icy, and he felt like a sharp sword!
Something was off, and he was struggling with this impulse. As he got closer, the car slowed down, and he saw the girl’s startled expression. His heart raced faster, and the impulse grew stronger.
As if he existed in this world only for this girl.
His gaze grew colder and colder, and then—
He suddenly pressed the accelerator, driving straight toward the girl who was already displaying a range of surprised and confused expressions.
There was a loud crash.
The girl was flung through the air and fell hard onto the ground in the pouring rain.
Her white dress was stained with blood, and though her eyes were still open, filled with disbelief, her breathing had ceased.