Chapter 16: ‘Treat you well’ (6)
The punishment from Gu Yu Sheng was a little too rough, leaving Qin Zhi Ai incapable of getting out of bed for the next few days.
Luckily, there isn’t much work scheduled for Liang Dou Kou in this period, allowing her to properly recuperate at home. However, by the time she recovered from that horrifying experience, a full week had flown by.
In this one week, as usual, Gu Yu Sheng did not come home.
The land line in the house is only known by Gu Yu Sheng himself, except for the people from the main mansion. Ever since Qin Zhi Ai moved in, Gu Yu Sheng had acted as if this home did not exist, never phoning the house even once. Therefore, this land line telephone, other than being used for receiving calls from the main mansion, is nothing more than a decoration.
Yet, this afternoon, the phone suddenly rang. The housekeeper is busy in the kitchen making fruit tea so Qin Zhi Ai who is coincidentally sitting on the couch, watching television, offhandedly picked it up without looking at the Caller ID, thinking it is a call from the main household.
The receiver had not even reached her ear when a succinct voice sounded, “Tell her to get prepared, I’ll go fetch her tonight at 6pm.”
It’s Gu Yu Sheng’s voice… The hand that is raising the receiver brusquely stopped.
He must have misunderstood the receiver to be the housekeeper, right? The ‘her’ he is referring to must be her, right?
Qin Zhi Ai fell into a dilemma of whether to answer an ‘Oh’ herself or bringing the phone to the housekeeper to reply ‘Oh’. The Gu Yu Sheng on the other end, as if sensing that strange atmosphere, suddenly fumed, the temperature in his voice obviously lower, “Why is it you who’ve picked up the phone?”
Without giving her a chance to reply, he hastily added, “Grandfather’s orders. You need to attend the charity ball organised at BeiJing hotel tonight!”, specially emphasising on the word ‘grandfather’.
Although no other words was uttered beside the basic instructions, Qin Zhi Ai could still sense the undertones in his words.
He must have a.s.sumed that she had pester grandfather to get him to bring her to the charity ball…
As if validating her speculation, Gu Yu Sheng’s deep-set voice rung, “You have such good timing, the moment I’m back from my business trip, grandfather called… Ke…”
He chuckled mid-sentence. Despite it being brief, Qin Zhi Ai managed to detect the loaded mockery in it.
Finis.h.i.+ng his sentence, the call was cut off at lightning speed by him.
So that’s why the week had been so peaceful without even a call from the main mansion. Gu Yu Sheng was gone on a business trip…
But now that he’s back, grandfather is wasting no time to bring her and him together.
Qin Zhi Ai knows grandfather just means her well. But… it is because of these acts of kindness from grandfather that constantly lands her in those distressed situations.
The nightmare from a week ago is still fresh in her mind. If she goes along with meeting Gu Yu Sheng tonight, she cannot imagine what kind of agony she will be put through later on.
The previous two times had happened too suddenly without giving her any chance to evade. This time is different… She cannot send herself into the tiger’s den, knowing the dreadful consequences.
Qin Zhi Ai c.o.c.ked her head in contemplation, calmly staring at the afternoon sunlight outside. At the spur of the moment, the words ‘business trip’ Gu Yu Sheng just mentioned appeared in her mind. As if being inspired by the words, she grabbed the telephone and dialed a number.