Kong Liu took out his phone and glanced at it. Mother Gu had sent a few more messages asking whether Gu Chenxi had invited him to the family home for her birthday tonight. The messages had been sent an hour ago, but since he was busy fighting at the time, he hadn't checked his phone. He immediately replied: "I'm coming. She asked me to wait for her at the school gate this evening."
After a moment, Mother Gu replied: "Alright then."
The message also included a smiley face emoji.
Chen Zhirui walked over, holding Kong Liu's delivery box, and said, "Brother Kong, I grabbed your package for you."
Given how urgent things were at the time, Kong Liu hadn't had a spare second to think; he simply dropped his package and rushed forward to stop Qin Zizhuo's violent assault. Thankfully, the observant Chen Zhirui had picked up the package for him, otherwise it would have been lost long ago.
Kong Liu gladly took the package and smiled, saying, "Thanks, little Chen."
"We're brothers, Brother Kong. Saying thanks is much too formal," Chen Zhirui said, waving a hand as he turned and walked back to his seat.
Come to think of it, if not for this cross-border delivery, Kong Liu wouldn't have run into so much trouble this morning.
Kong Liu pulled a small pocketknife from his drawer, wanting to open the package and see what was inside, when a message popped up on his phone from 【Xixi】.
She sent a long stream of texts, telling Kong Liu everything that had happened this morning.
Busy replying to messages, Kong Liu didn't have time to open the package, so he simply shoved it casually into the backpack at his feet.
Kong Liu had already guessed that Gu Chenxi would come to him to vent, so he had figured out how to answer well in advance. Chatting with her came naturally to him—the only awkward part was having to constantly send the word "Bao Bao".
When he pictured Gu Chenxi's stern face, using a pet name like "Bao Bao" seemed entirely unfitting.
To Kong Liu's surprise, Gu Chenxi had broken with precedent today by praising that "hated male classmate" right in front of him, her "boyfriend".
She said: "Bao Bao, you know what? The most unexpected thing is that the classmate who's always talking trash about me actually brought his whole dorm over at a critical moment to stick up for me... He might not be such a bad guy after all!"
Seeing this, the corners of Kong Liu's mouth twitched upward in a smile, and he quickly replied: "Perhaps there was some misunderstanding between you before. If you talk it through, you might just become good friends."
Gu Chenxi fired back: "Bones and bullshit! That guy was insulting me just last night. Even if he helped me, I don't want to be friends with him!"
Looking at Gu Chenxi's message, Kong Liu's upward-curving smile instantly dropped—just as he expected, real life never featured cliché plots where heroes rescued damsels in distress. While Gu Chenxi's view of him had shifted, it only went as far as her finding him slightly less objectionable.
Seeing that Gu Chenxi wasn't pleased, Kong Liu decided not to press the topic. He typed out: "Is today your birthday?"
Since she had already told him—her boyfriend—about Qin Zizhuo showing up with flowers and a cake to confess his feelings on her birthday, asking this wouldn't seem abrupt.
Gu Chenxi quickly replied: "That's right!"
"Bao Bao, are you going to give me a birthday gift?"
"Why don't you come to my birthday banquet too!"
"I'm the birthday girl today, so won't you agree to see me?"
Faced with this barrage of messages from Gu Chenxi, Kong Liu felt a slight headache coming on. After thinking it over, he replied: "We'll definitely get a chance to meet, and I will certainly give you your birthday gift!"
Kong Liu's message sounded rather like making empty promises.
Yet a few hours later, Gu Chenxi received a delivery call. The courier brought a LinaBell plush doll and a single rose. When the plush doll had first been released, it retailed for two hundred yuan, but subsequent hype and speculation had driven the price up to several thousand. Now, the price had dropped back down to three or four hundred.
Kong Liu had spent five hundred yuan that afternoon hiring a runner to go personally to Shanghai Disneyland to buy the doll, and he'd had the runner pick up the rose at the same time. Knowing that Gu Chenxi disliked overly flashy things, he only had them buy a single flower, but it was wrapped very prettily into an exquisite little hand-held bouquet.
The gift and the errand fee totaled around a thousand yuan, which amounted to half a month's living expenses for an ordinary student.
Gu Chenxi was utterly delighted upon receiving the gift, and the two of them chatted on their phones for a long time. Worried that she might have caused her "boyfriend" to spend too much, Gu Chenxi tried transferring a red envelope to Kong Liu, but he refused to accept it, nor would he ever.
Seeing that it was getting late, Kong Liu took the initiative to end the chat with Gu Chenxi, grabbed his clothes, headed to the bathroom to take a shower, changed into a fresh outfit, shouldered the backpack on the floor, and left the dorm.
As he walked out, the three fellows in the dorm kept catcalling and jeering.
Wang Qi patted his chest and said, "Old Liu, go ahead and have a carefree night. If the dorm supervisor comes by for bed check, I'll cover for you."
Chen Zhirui asked with utmost consideration, "Brother Kong, do you have enough cash? Do you need to borrow some from me?"
Of course, when it came to true consideration, none could beat that scoundrel Du Hongyuan. He pulled a box of ultra-thin condoms straight from his drawer, handed them to Kong Liu, and declared, "You've got to seal the deal!"
"What kind of nonsense is this!"
With a dark face, Kong Liu shoved the item back into Du Hongyuan's hands and snapped at the three of them, "I'm just going to her house for dinner. Her parents are both home, and there are other guests there too. What on earth are you guys imagining!"
"Tch~~~!"
Hearing that, the three instantly lost interest, turned around, and went back to what they were doing.
"……"
Kong Liu found his three good buddies' reactions both exasperating and amusing.
Chapter 9: The Center of Attention
Kong Liu had been waiting at the school gate for about ten minutes when a sudden roar echoed from behind him.
Looking back, Gu Chenxi had arrived at the school gate driving her pink Porsche.
The roar of the engine and the Porsche's eye-catching exterior drew the gazes of numerous students.
Gu Chenxi was like a woman carrying her own protagonist halo; wherever she went, she drew countless stares.
Yet the low-profile Kong Liu now had to endure the gazes of this crowd, get into Gu Chenxi's luxury car, and leave the school alongside the campus belle of JiaoDa.
"Get in!" Gu Chenxi lowered the car window, looked at Kong Liu standing frozen in place, and said, "What are you daydreaming for?"
Hearing this, Kong Liu didn't waste words; he immediately pulled open the car door, bent down, and slid inside.
Seeing this scene, quite a few surrounding students pulled out their phones and began taking pictures. Whispers erupted everywhere, and many started gossiping again about what had happened this morning at the girls' dorm. Rumors of all kinds were flying across campus about Gu Chenxi and Kong Liu dating.
Of course, Kong Liu could no longer hear their chatter, because the Porsche had already sped away, leaving behind only a trail of exhaust.
Luxury cars had very low chassis, and the seating comfort was mediocre at best. Kong Liu didn't much care for this riding experience; compared to this car, he much preferred the Cullinan in his own garage—the seating comfort of that vehicle was far higher than this.
Once inside the car, Kong Liu stared silently out the window. Gu Chenxi neither knew nor cared what he was thinking; she simply focused on driving her car.
The LinaBell doll and fresh flowers that Kong Liu had hired a runner to deliver that afternoon were neatly arranged on the unusable back seat. Humming a little tune, she drove at breakneck speed; it was clear her mood tonight was excellent.
Kong Liu, who had been spacing out, was forcefully pulled back to reality by her rather wild driving speed. By the time he recovered his senses, Gu Chenxi's singing drifted into his ears.
Her voice was lovely, though her usual icy tone made it easy for people to overlook just how sweet and melodious it truly was.
Listening to her voice, Kong Liu couldn't help but map it onto 【Xixi】, imagining the scene of her using this voice to call him "Bao Bao"… Kong Liu suddenly felt his composure slipping.
Noticing Kong Liu's bizarre expression, Gu Chenxi assumed he had been scared witless by her driving speed. She stopped humming her tune and said in a teasing tone, "Why does your face look so terrible? Don't tell me you're car sick! Just don't throw up in my car!"
"I'm not."
Kong Liu didn't look at her; he simply shook his head.
Seeing Kong Liu not dare to look at her, Gu Chenxi became even more certain that he had been frightened. She thought to herself: *His face is scared white, yet he's still trying to act cool—he's just afraid I'll laugh at him!*
Whether due to some unknown reason or perhaps because of the morning's events, Gu Chenxi didn't use this opportunity to continue mocking Kong Liu, nor did she speed up to scare him further. Instead, she slowed the car down.
To this, Kong Liu was somewhat surprised.
The car soon drove into the courtyard of the Gu family's detached villa.
The villa's underground garage seemed completely full of cars, and numerous vehicles were parked in the front yard as well. Gu Chenxi parked her car in the courtyard too, and led Kong Liu inside the house.
Walking alongside Gu Chenxi and observing the luxury cars parked all along the roadside, Kong Liu couldn't help asking, "You have quite a few guests attending your birthday banquet, don't you?"
"So what if there are many? There are hardly any people I actually know among them."
A fleeting look of loneliness suddenly appeared on Gu Chenxi's cold face as she said, "In the eyes of the elders, all these banquets are merely their business networking mixers. As for me, I'm nothing more than a master of ceremonies who walks up on stage to say a few words before the reception starts... Who actually cares whether it's truly my birthday or not?"
Saying this, Gu Chenxi paused, lifted the LinaBell doll in her hand, fiddled with it, and a smile devoid of any clear joy or sorrow touched the corners of her lips as she continued, "Forget it, telling you this, you wouldn't understand anyway."
"……"
Kong Liu glanced at Gu Chenxi without speaking. In truth, he could completely empathize, because weren't his own family banquets always the same?
After leading Kong Liu into the villa, Gu Chenxi needed to go to her room to change into her formal gown. She told him to go wait in her younger sister Gu Chenxuan's room for a while; since he didn't really know anyone at the banquet, staying in the main hall would be quite boring.
Kong Liu acknowledged her instructions, but instead of heading to Gu Chenxuan's room, he began wandering around the main hall.
Everyone attending Gu Chenxi's birthday banquet was a prominent figure in Zhonghai City's business circles. Ordinarily, they might rarely interact due to various reasons or have no professional overlap whatsoever, but taking advantage of this banquet, they were gathered together—and naturally, they wouldn't let slip an opportunity to cultivate relationships and build connections.
The business world was precisely a circle built upon networking connections. You had to first be capable of touching this circle before you had a chance to forge connections, and only by making connections could conducting business become convenient.
If you carefully noted down the important points from casual chats among industry bigwigs during dinner, who was to say you couldn't follow in the footsteps of those titans and lap up a bowl of meat broth?
This was precisely why people constantly racked their brains—even bribing security guards—to gain entry into high-end cocktail parties hosted by the wealthy. The proportion of women attending such events was sometimes even higher than that of men, and their motives were naturally self-evident.
Kong Liu had originally assumed that his simple attire and casual dress wouldn't attract the attention of the business elites present.
Yet reality proved to be the exact opposite. Everyone else was dressed in lavish formalwear and tailored suits; a shabbily dressed student carrying a backpack stood out glaringly in the crowd, and quite a few people noticed him.
Still, Kong Liu had seen every kind of storm and stress; he couldn't care less about the gazes of those around him. He simply picked up a glass of juice from the buffet table and strolled toward a sofa in the corner.
"Where are the security guards? Where did security go? Are just any stray cats and dogs allowed to sneak into a place like this?"
At that moment, an untimely voice rang out, drawing the attention of everyone present. Kong Liu also looked toward the direction from which the voice came.
Not far away, an arrogant middle-aged man was walking toward him while pointing a finger directly at him, shouting loudly for security.
Kong Liu frowned slightly as he looked at the middle-aged man, his gaze shifting to Qin Zizhuo standing right behind him. Qin Zizhuo was wearing a mocking expression, clearly eager to watch him make a fool of himself.
This middle-aged man was Qin Zizhuo's father, Qin Dahai.
Today's stunt where Qin Zizhuo confessed his feelings to Gu Chenxi with flowers and cake had been his father Qin Dahai's idea. Qin Dahai had originally figured that if the plan succeeded, the Qin family would successfully climb onto the Gu family's coattails, ensuring that the Qin family could rise to even greater heights in the future.
Yet his son had told him that success was only half achieved: Gu Chenxi had come downstairs, only for a punk named "Kong Liu" to burst out of nowhere and disrupt everything—though Qin Zizhuo's ability to turn black into white was quite strong.
The two of them had been chatting when they spotted Kong Liu walking past them, leading directly to the present scene.
"What's wrong? What's going on here!"
The security arrangements for the venue were exceptionally thorough; there was a guard every meter or two. Seeing trouble break out here, three or four tall, robust security guards immediately strode over.
Seeing Kong Liu's expressionless face, Qin Zizhuo assumed Kong Liu had already been scared silly, so he immediately adopted an aggressive tone and said to the security guards: "All the cheap stall-bought rags this bumpkin has on him don't add up to even a hundred yuan! Who let a guy like this in? What if he has sticky fingers and steals someone's things—can any of you take responsibility? The wages you cheap guards make working ten lifetimes wouldn't be enough to pay for it!"
Hearing Qin Zizhuo's words, a surge of anger rose in the chests of the security guards, but constrained by their jobs, none of them dared show displeasure; they could only nod and force smiles.
One guard walked up to Kong Liu and said, "Sir, please show your invitation letter."
Kong Liu shook his head and said, "I was invited verbally. I don't have an invitation letter."
"Make it up! Keep making stuff up!"
Seeing that Kong Liu couldn't produce an invitation letter, Qin Zizhuo immediately rushed forward, pointed at Kong Liu, and yelled, "I knew you were just some stinky beggar who sneaked in for a free meal and drinks! Scamming people at school is one thing, but how dare you come to a place like this to pull stunts? You must have a death wish for a prison cell!"
Watching Qin Zizhuo's unhinged behavior, Kong Liu gave a cool, calm curse: "Moron!"
"Bastard, what did you just say?!" Hearing this, Qin Zizhuo flew into a rage, raised his hand, and went to slap Kong Liu across the face.
Just as he had done earlier in the day, Kong Liu caught Qin Zizhuo's wrist in a firm grip and squeezed hard, instantly stripping him of all combat capability.
"Didn't beat you into submission this morning, huh?" Kong Liu sneered as he watched Qin Zizhuo, continuing to speak right by his ear: "You must have been there this morning, right? I'd think you remember that Gu Chenxi invited me here, or perhaps... you should remember it even better than I do!"
"So what if she did? Gu Chenxi is probably busy right now anyway, and she doesn't have time to deal with a punk like you!" Qin Zizhuo said with a dark face, trying to yank his hand back, but unable to muster the slightest bit of strength.
"Oh, really? Doesn't matter. I can handle you and your old man—two pieces of trash—all by myself."
With that, Kong Liu released Qin Zizhuo's hand and backhanded him across the face with a slap.
"Slap—!"
That single slap resounded sharply through the entire main hall.
Seeing this, Qin Dahai immediately roared at the security guards nearby, "What are you idiots doing? This little hoodlum is starting a fight and causing trouble here, and you're just standing there watching?"
Seeing Qin Dahai draped in gold and jade and looking immensely wealthy and influential, the security guards didn't dare slack off and immediately moved to block Kong Liu.
"Stop!"
At that very moment, an icy voice rang out.
Chapter 10: Escorting the Guests Out
The gazes of everyone present followed the direction from which the voice originated.
Dressed in a flowing white gown, Gu Chenxi cut a graceful figure as she walked toward Kong Liu, escorted by several attendants. Every step she took swayed with fluid elegance.
Under the brilliant lights, the white gown reflected a dazzling, multicolored radiance, and Gu Chenxi's stunning face appeared even more exquisite against the backdrop of the gorgeous dress. The aloof, unapproachable aura of noble pride she carried was likewise displayed to its fullest extent.
The guests attending the birthday banquet, seeing that the night's central figure was so breathtakingly lovely, broke into immediate praise and discussion.
"So this is the Gu family's daughter—to think she's so extraordinarily beautiful!"
"I'd long heard that the Gu family girl was a stunner, but seeing her once is truly worth a hundred hearings."
"I originally wanted to talk to President Gu about a marital alliance tonight, but seeing this now, my useless, good-for-nothing son is clearly unworthy of catching the eye of the Gu family's young miss..."
Father and son Qin Dahai and Qin Zizhuo were also slightly stunned the moment they saw Gu Chenxi, their eyes flashing with brilliance.
Qin Dahai immediately stepped forward and said to Gu Chenxi, "Hello, Miss Gu. I am Qin Dahai of Qin's Catering Company. You may not know me, but my unworthy son Qin Zizhuo is a classmate of yours, so you should be familiar with him."
"Qin Zizhuo?"
Gu Chenxi glanced sideways at Qin Zizhuo standing behind Qin Dahai, a flash of disgust crossing her eyes.
Hit by that frigid gaze, Qin Zizhuo felt entirely uncomfortable all over.
She let out a cold snort and demanded, "What were you people just doing?"
Seeing Gu Chenxi arrive, Qin Zizhuo panicked inwardly. Of course he knew Kong Liu had been personally invited by Gu Chenxi to attend her birthday; the only reason he had dared egg his father on to mess with Kong Liu was that he had bet the Gu family members were all busy and certainly wouldn't have time to deal with this punk. Yet Gu Chenxi had shown up at this critical moment.
Qin Zizhuo initially wanted to pull back his father's sleeve, but Qin Dahai hurried forward instead and blurted out a reply: "We noticed this fellow acting all sneaky, with no clue what he was up to, and his attire simply didn't fit a distinguished banquet like this. It was obvious he had sneaked in with the intent to steal something, so we immediately called for security to have this fellow thrown out."
Gu Chenxi asked coldly, "So, just because my friend is dressed ordinarily, you assumed he was a thief?"
Hearing this, Qin Dahai instantly realized something was amiss, and for a moment he had no idea how to respond.
Realizing he no longer had any retreat, Qin Zizhuo could only grit his teeth and press on: "He doesn't even have an invitation letter! He definitely sneaked in!"
"Qin Zizhuo, are you incapable of understanding human speech?!" Gu Chenxi glared at Qin Zizhuo with a gloomy expression and said, "Kong Liu is my friend, and I brought him in. Could it be that my friend needs an invitation letter just to attend my own birthday banquet?"
Qin Dahai also hastily yanked his son's sleeve, signaling him to stop talking nonsense.
Qin Zizhuo's face turned alternately green and white with embarrassment; he wished he could find a crack in the floor to crawl into right then and there. At that moment, his resentment toward Kong Liu deepened even further.