Chapter 90: Open and Unashamed

Gu Bai reached for a cigarette, but Fu Wenzhou extended a hand and pinched it out at once. “My girlfriend can’t stand the smell of smoke or liquor.”

Gu Bai said, “...Then why the hell are you still smoking?”

Fu Wenzhou gave a cold laugh. “Have you ever seen me smoke in front of her?”

Gu Bai fell silent, because he truly had not.

Xu Zezhan could not help but chuckle. “I say, Gu Bai, why provoke him for no reason? Aren’t you just asking to be scolded?”

“Who wanted to provoke him?” Gu Bai huffed, then turned to Song Qingyou. “Sorry, little sister-in-law. I forgot you’re not feeling well.”

At the address, Song Qingyou’s ears warmed faintly. She gave a small nod. “It’s all right.”

The others followed suit and changed how they addressed her. Fu Wenzhou was actually the youngest in their circle, while Song Qingyou was a year older than Gu Bai and Xu Zezhan. Now that she was with Fu Wenzhou, she had become the younger generation instead.

Song Qingyou’s feelings were complicated. She was already ill at ease in a place like this, and yet she was also moved by Fu Wenzhou’s words about carrying her in on grand wedding chairs and taking her home with a proper marriage.

She understood his intention, really. She only felt that she was not worthy of him going this far for her.

But who could refuse a dog’s loyalty and affection?

Lowering her gaze, Song Qingyou looked at the pair of tightly interlaced hands beneath the edge of the table, and the corners of her lips slowly curved.

Madam Chu glanced at Song Qingyou, then said to Chu Fan, “Husband, let’s change seats.”

Chu Fan had always obeyed his wife without question, so at once he stood and switched seats with Gu Ruo.

Gu Ruo sat beside Song Qingyou and said gently, “Hello, my name is Gu Ruo.”

Song Qingyou lifted her eyelids slightly. “Song Qingyou.”

“They’re talking business. I’m not interested at all, but Chu Fan insisted on bringing me along.” Gu Ruo’s personality was not as gentle as she looked. Though her tone sounded complaining, her expression was one of happiness. There was a gossipy light in her eyes. “I’m almost bored to death. Keep me company and chat with me.”

Song Qingyou was rather cool by temperament, and she did not often encounter such an outgoing, familiar sort of person. Since childhood, she had had only one friend, Yan Miao.

Faced with Gu Ruo’s warmth, she was somewhat awkward for once. “Chat about... what?”

Gu Ruo blinked. “You.”

“Me?” Song Qingyou was baffled. What was there to chat about?

Gu Ruo said, “Yes. Do you know what I thought you looked like when you came in just now?”

“Like what?”

“Like an immortal in exile,” Gu Ruo said. “The kind of little deity who doesn’t belong to the mortal world, a far-off peak in the clouds. You look nothing like someone who would ever be moved by earthly desire.”

Song Qingyou said, “...Really?”

“Really.” Gu Ruo nodded, speaking earnestly. “I guessed that the two of you must have been him chasing after you.”

Song Qingyou gave a slight nod.

Gu Ruo wore the expression of someone who had known it all along. “Over all these years, there have been plenty of women around Fu Wenzhou, but he has never been swayed. So everyone was curious what kind of person he would end up choosing, or what kind of person would ever deserve him.”

Fu Wenzhou returned to the country at eighteen and, within two years, completely reshuffled the scattered Fu family empire, even building it to a scale greater than it had been under Old Master Fu himself. Ability, talent, looks, methods, every one of them first-rate.

Among their circle of friends, who would be the one to finally fall into the hands of such a man had long been a frequent topic of conversation.

Once, someone had even joked about the little immortal of the capital and the mad dog being paired together, but since the little immortal had married too early and was several years older than Fu Wenzhou, everyone had treated it as nothing more than a joke.

Now, unexpectedly, the joke had come true.

“I never expected it to be you in the end.” Gu Ruo was genuinely curious. Their backgrounds, ages, and personalities were all so different. How had the two of them ever come together?

Song Qingyou was quiet for a few seconds, then smiled and said, “Some people come together because they are suited to each other. Some stay together because they love each other. And some people can, because of love, make themselves fit another person.”

She used words Fu Wenzhou often said himself. “He and I are a match made in heaven.”

Gu Ruo froze, as though she had not expected the cool, reserved Song Qingyou to say such a thing.

After a moment, she felt comforted. “Just now I thought Fu Wenzhou loved you more. Now I think your love for him is no less than his for you.”

Only one was passionate, the other subtle; one was blatant, the other hidden deep within the heart.

Song Qingyou smiled. “Thank you.”

Gu Ruo did not continue the topic and instead pulled Song Qingyou into conversation about other things.

At the table, Fu Wenzhou and Shen Guannan were talking about how the real estate industry had recently contracted and the pharmaceutical sector had exploded, with import and export drug prices rising sharply over the past few years and the outlook being quite promising.

While speaking, he also carefully picked the fish bones from Song Qingyou’s fish, handling both at once without missing a beat.

Seeing him take all the tastiest parts from the fish, Gu Bai said sourly, “Why don’t you eat the tail too?”

Fu Wenzhou lifted his eyelids. “Is that any of your business? I ordered the fish. If you want some, order your own.”

Gu Bai had nothing to say.

There really was nothing to say when one encountered a brother who valued romance over friendship.

Xu Zezhan glanced at Fu Wenzhou, legs crossed and body leaning back slightly. “You searched for the sacred mountain for two nights and climbed more than two thousand steps to win back your girlfriend. Of course you have to spoil her properly.”

Fu Wenzhou frowned. “Xu Zezhan, why are you so talkative?”

Xu Zezhan snorted coldly and could not be bothered to deal with this lovesick fool.

He had done so much for a woman and still refused to say it aloud, all because he was afraid she would be heartbroken if she knew.

No wonder people said that if two people could stay together forever, one of them had to be a love idiot. So the love idiot had turned out to be their own brother.

Song Qingyou’s expression changed slightly. “What sacred mountain?”

“It’s nothing—”

Fu Wenzhou had not even finished when Gu Bai cut in. “You don’t know? During that time, when you were unconscious, he was so desperate he had no other choice. He turned to gods and buddhas, ran out into the wild mountains and insisted on finding some so-called sacred mountain. In heavy snow and more than ten degrees below zero, he climbed over two thousand steps on three kneelings and nine prostrations to ask for a peace charm for you. When he came back, his body was severely hypothermic, and he nearly didn’t make it.”

Even now, Gu Bai still felt lingering fear when he thought of it. Human hypothermia that severe—who knew how he had managed to survive the journey back? If it had been anyone else, they would probably have frozen to death in those mountains long ago.

Song Qingyou’s breath caught, and for a long moment she said nothing.

Shen Guannan raised his brows. “There was such a thing? Why didn’t we hear about it?”

“He wouldn’t let us say anything,” Gu Bai said.

Liang Muchuan tightened his fingers slightly around the wine glass and remarked, “A hopeless romantic.”

Chu Fan was also somewhat surprised, and looked at Song Qingyou anew.

Gu Ruo was even more stunned. When she had nearly died giving birth and Chu Fan, with his noble and proud bearing, knelt outside the operating room and prayed to the heavens for her safety, she had thought that was already deep enough love. She had not expected there to be greater heights beyond the sky and stronger men among men.

Fu Wenzhou placed the carefully deboned fish in front of Song Qingyou and said lazily, as though it meant nothing at all, “Don’t listen to their nonsense. Eat.”

Song Qingyou slowly lifted her eyelids to look at him, and Fu Wenzhou happened to meet her gaze. His heart gave a sudden jolt.

That was bad.