n

n

nNames mentioned in this chapter :

n-蘇芮 (sù ruì) – Su Rui, our female protagonist

n-顧煜城 (gù yù chéng)- Gu Yu Cheng, the male lead

n-顧安安(gù ān’ān)- Gu An An, Gu Yan Rui’s nickname.

n-白欣雨(bái xīn yù)- Bai Xin Yu, aka Siria

n–王洲(wáng zhōu) – Wang Zhou, Gu Yu Cheng’s assistant

n-唐笑(táng xiào) – Tang Xiao, Su Rui’s friend and daughter of the chairman of Tang Jing Group

n-周小糰子(zhōu xiǎo tuánzi)- Zhou Little Dumpling, the nickname of Tang Xiao’s daughter

nUnedited

nWhen Gu An An was ten years old, he disappeared for exactly a week.

nRecently, “running away from home” was a popular activity among his friends.

nAt first, Su Rui thought this guy was angry and ran away from home after being lectured by his father for beating up two boys in Tang Xiao’s daughter’s class.

nIn the end, Su Rui asked Gu An An’s grandparents, Tang Xiao and Tang Jun, his friends and even his classmates and teachers, and she did not manage to find Gu An An. Su Rui was so anxious that she was going crazy.

nThe next few days, they used almost all of their abilities and clues to find Gu An An.

nSu Rui was worried if Gu An An was kidnapped. But a week had passed, and they hadn’t even received a ransom call from the kidnappers.

nIt was true that Gu An An was not kidnapped, but he somehow went to another world.

nGu An An did not know what was happening. Yesterday, he was helping Zhou Dumpling play games of ‘King’1 in his room then went to bed.

nBut when he woke up, he was actually standing in the middle of the street, wearing the cartoon pyjamas his mother forced him to buy.

n“You are a man. Be calm,” Gu An An silently said to himself in his heart.

nHe borrowed a passerby’s handphone and called Uncle Liu, his father’s driver and bodyguard, who was in charge of sending and fetching him.

nIt was unreachable.

nThen, he called Su Rui, and he couldn’t get through.

nAfter Gu An An dialled the Su family residence’s telephone number, his maternal grandmother seemed like she didn’t know him at all and treated him as a phone scammer. Gu An An finally realised what was wrong.

nThe female undergraduate, who lent Gu An An her mobile phone, asked, “Child, have you finished using the phone? Is there something wrong?”

nHe could memorise only a few numbers.

nNo, there is one more.

n“Sorry, big sister. Please let me call another number.”

nAlthough he didn’t want to reconcile with the man surnamed Gu so quickly because of last night’s matter, the incident at hand was too odd, and Gu An An couldn’t care less.

nHe abandoned his “manly dignity” and finally dialled Gu Yu Cheng’s phone number.

nThis time, the call went through.

n“Who is this?”

nThe moment he heard his father’s voice, Gu An An was actually a little excited.

n“Dad, where are you?”

n“Wrong number.” Gu Yu Cheng just coldly said these words on the other end of the phone and immediately hung up.

n“How dare he hang up on me!”

n“Child, did you manage to contact your parents?”

n“Mm. I did.”

n“Then, would they be fetching you?”

n“He’s not coming over. I will go there instead.”

nHe had an impression of this road. It was near Gu Company’s building, and it shouldn’t be too far to walk there.

nOn the other end, Gu Yu Cheng did not put much thought into it after receiving a ‘flagged as a phone scammer’ and the other person calling him dad on the phone.

nIt wasn’t until later in the evening that Assistant Wang led a dirty boy in pyjamas with two magazines wrapped around his feet to the office.

nWang Zhou met Gu An An in the lift lobby.

nGu Company has restrictions on entry and exiting. A work ID, fingerprints, face card, or passcode.

nHe wondered how this child, who looked like he ran away from a tattered place, had gotten in here.

nIn the end, the first thing the child said when he saw him was, “Uncle Wang, is my dad upstairs?”

n“Your dad?”

nGu An An added after seeing Wang Zhou’s dumbfounded expression, “Your Chairman Gu, Gu Yu Cheng. Is he in the office?”

nAfter questioning a few questions, Wang Zhou felt so confused. So he simply checked that the child did not bring a sharp instrument or listening device and then brought him to their chairman.

nThis child of unknown origin was too strange.

nIt was clear that Wang Zhou felt that this was impossible. But the things he said were as if it was true.

nMoreover, throughout the way to the chairman’s office upstairs, this child seems to be more familiar with this place than him, who has been an assistant for more than ten years.

nMost importantly, this child looks very much like their chairman. Even his attitude, expressions and manner of speech were extremely similar.

nIt can’t be that this is the boss’ son, right?

nIllegitimate child?

n“Dad, do you not know me either?” Throughout the journey here, Gu An An spotted some issues.

nThis was a place he was familiar with. Yet, it seemed to have many subtle differences from the place he was really familiar with.

nFor example, his maternal grandparents and Gu Company’s staff do not know him.

nThis guy in front of him is indeed his father.

nBut it felt as if he was also a little different. He appeared a lot meaner than the dad he remembers.

n“I don’t have a child.” Gu Yu Cheng was very sure about this.

nGu Yu Cheng’s cold attitude irritated Gu An An. Gu An An frowned deeply.

nGu An An said, “Even if you don’t know me anymore, you are still my father. I am your son! That’s a fact.”

nWang Zhou, who was standing at a distance and was trying to reduce his presence, couldn’t help but click his tongue when he heard what Gu An An said.

nIn this day and age, would anyone act so justified while scamming2 others?

nThe next second, he heard Gu An An spoke, “Your personal identity card number is 11…23. Your handphone number is… It’s the number I just called. Also, your personal phone number is 139^99, right? Oh right, our Gu family has a safe deposit box in S Bank. The verification password is 6294648!”

nThis latter password was told to him by his dad.

nAs for the previous information, Su Rui asked him to learn by heart his parent’s identification information, phone numbers and home address when Gu An An was four years old and about to attend kindergarten.

nThe intention was to provide useful family information when it came to finding help from policemen.

nPresently, Gu An An’s hands were still wearing a wristband.

nThis was given to him by his father. It was said to have a positioning function. His mother also processed the wristband by adding the following words on top of it, ‘My father is quite wealthy. If you have any difficulties, call him. He can certainly help you. So don’t remove the tag.”

nA string of mobile phone numbers followed behind it.

nSo far, he has not used this wristband before.

n“Wang Zhou.”

n“Chairman.”

n“Go find a set of clothes that he can wear and then go to the Public Security Bureau to make a record registration.” Gu Yu Cheng said.

n“No! We can’t go to the Public Security Bureau.”

nGu An An still hadn’t figured out if he was in a situation similar to transmigration novels, where Zhou Little Dumpling recently got hooked on and was sent to another world.

nIf the police were reported, wouldn’t he become an illegal resident and be arrested by the police?

n“Chairman, this… “

n“Find a set of clothes first.”

n“Okay.”

nWithout any information of the identity of this child, Gu Yu Cheng had to take this child, who claimed to be his “son”, with him for the time being.

nAlthough the whole situation was temporarily difficult to explain, Gu Yu Cheng subconsciously believes in what Gu An An said.

nThe reason for this was probably the feeling that this child gave him.

nGu Yu Cheng does not like children. However, as he looked at this child in front of him, he felt inexplicably pleased, and he even felt a sense of familiarity.

nMoreover, Gu Yu Cheng saw a lot of his influence in Gu An An.

nIn the car, Gu Yu Cheng asked, “What’s… your name?”

n“Gu Yan Rui. My nickname is An An. My name was named by you. My nickname was given to me by my mother.”

n“Who is your mother?” As far as he could remember, he never had a relationship with any female.

n“My mum is your wife! Wait, it can’t be that you are not married now, right?” If not, why did this guy say he doesn’t have any children?

n“I’m married.” It’s just that his marriage was nothing more than a matter of each taking what they want and dealing with Ms Yu Jing. It is impossible to have a child.

n“Is it my mother?”

n“I don’t know.” I don’t even know who your mother is.

nUpon hearing Gu Yu Cheng’s words, Gu An An pouted his lips. He kind of missed Su Rui.

n“Hold on. Are we going to One Residence?”

nWhen he heard Gu An An’s words, Gu Yu Cheng froze for a moment and replied, “Yes”.

n“Why are you still living over here? Aren’t we going to Wolong Estate?”

nAfter their child got older, it was not very convenient to live in One Residence. Therefore, Su Rui and Gu Yu Cheng renovated the house in Wolong Estate and moved there after Gu An An started elementary school.

n“The house in Wolong Estate is not furnished.” Gu Yu Cheng looked at Gu An An and asked, “If you want to go, I can also leave you there.”

n“Forget it then. How about we go to the main residence?”

n“Gu family’s main residence? Are you sure you want to go there?” That place is something even he is not willing to go to.

n“Yes! I want to eat my paternal grandma’s meat bun.”

nAfter looking at Gu An An, Gu Yu Cheng simply instructed the driver in front of them to go to the main residence.

n1 It’s referring to the game, Honor of Kings.

n2 碰瓷(pèngcí)-Staged act

/to scam somebody by setting up an “accident” in which one appears to have sustained damage or injury caused by the scam victim, then demanding compensation. The variation of these incidents include putting “expensive” porcelain in a place where it is likely to be knocked over by passers-by, and stepping into the path of a slow-moving car. Thus, it sort of relates to its literal translation of the words ‘touching or bumping(碰) porcelain(瓷)’.

n