Chapter 300: It Really Looks Like

Gu Yinxue entered the room, and the slow, dragging steps she had just been taking returned to normal.

Lin Shutong was surprised: "Yin Xue, why are you…"

"Lin Shutong." Gu Yinxue's face darkened slightly, "Tell me honestly, have you contracted an infectious disease?"

Lin Shutong's complexion turned deathly pale, staring at Gu Yinxue in shock, followed by panic.

"You, where did you hear this nonsense?"

"Xie Yongsi." Gu Yinxue stared tightly at her face, "You know how credible something is when it comes from Xie Yongsi's mouth. Shen Xun—because you are already ill, right? Otherwise he wouldn't refuse to spend a single cent for you."

"You once bore his child; the child is absent because he has none, and even the chance of future pregnancy is very low. For this level of bodily injury, Shen Xun should feel guilty and compensate you, but he hasn't."

Gu Yinxue stepped closer to her, inch by inch.

Lin Shutong retreated step by step, truly realizing that Gu Zhiyan, the petite sister, was not as kind and easygoing as she seemed.

She also hadn't expected Shen Xun to tell Xie Yongsi about this, and that Xie Yongsi would actually spread it!

Gu Yinxue halted: "Lin Shutong, regardless of your past romantic entanglements, my support for you being with my brother stems from personal reasons, mainly to make my brother happy, but if you are infected, you'll harm my brother's health!"

She added, her tone deepening.

"I will not let you harm my brother's health."

Lin Shutong quickly called out to her: "What are you going to do? Tell your brother? My brother and I have just gotten together, and it was his choice; I only said we could try. If I go tell him this now, have I not considered his feelings? Moreover, my brother and I haven't been intimate; we only held hands, which is no problem. I'm undergoing treatment, and medication can cure it."

Only the antibody remains constantly positive.

After speaking, she saw Gu Yinxue's expression soften a bit and continued to coax her: "Did you forget? Jiang Lai is our common enemy; we are on the same side."

"Are you sure that before you're cured you only held hands with my brother?" Gu Yinxue saw through her thoughts, pretending to go along.

Lin Shutong nodded: "I'm sure."

Gu Yinxue surveyed her from head to toe, then said after deliberation: "Every so often I find a way to take my brother for a medical exam; if his report shows any issue, the fact that you are infected—everything I see or hear in court—I will tell my brother."

In just a few words she had Lin Shutong under control.

Lin Shutong was a bit angry; she knew that Gu Yinxue, having been to court, would become a big threat to her.

Yet she could only swallow her resentment.

"I'll agree to you, but you must also agree to me: as long as your brother's health is fine, you cannot reveal what you know."

Gu Yinxue's lips curled slightly, then vanished in an instant.

"That's natural."

……

Director Tang returned carrying a bag of bread, told Jiang Lai about the bread and about Gu Sen, and couldn't help but add a couple more remarks.

"My mother back then greatly admired Mr. Gu—young, in a high post, with achievements, affable, more beloved than Secretary Zhao. It's just a pity he left officialdom then; otherwise by now he would surely be even more formidable than the Zhao of those days."

"Although the Zhao of those years is no longer in G Province, having been transferred to another province, he is already the top provincial leader."

Director Tang would always sigh whenever he thought of it.

Ke Zhongyu, still unable to grasp why Gu Sen would rather defy ancestral rules to abandon politics for business, asked another question: "Director Tang, do you know what happened back then when Uncle Gu abandoned politics for business?"

"From business?" Director Tang was surprised. "Mr. Gu doesn't seem much like a businessman; of course, it's probably my stereotypical view of merchants."

In fact, in her eyes Ke Zhongyu also had a merchant's nature, but his noble bearing concealed it.

"I don't know why he abandoned politics for business." Director Tang's knowledge all came from his mother, who was just a small Fuli Yuan director—how much could she really know?

She thought again: "My mother did say that Mr. Gu married early, yet his children came late—almost thirty before having kids. Perhaps because of family? But family and official career rarely clash."

Ke Zhongyu nodded: "When Gu Zhiyan was born, Uncle Gu was twenty‑nine; when Gu Yinxue was born, Uncle Gu was thirty‑one."

Director Tang: "In that era, having children at that age was indeed quite late."

"So…" Jiang Lai said timely, recalling the refined and modest Uncle Gu she had met, "Uncle Gu is already almost sixty."

Ke Zhongyu: "He's celebrating his sixtieth birthday this year."

Jiang Lai was slightly stunned: "I thought he was at most fifty."

Ke Zhongyu said calmly: "Gu Zhiyan's mother, Ms. Song, is fifty‑four this year, looking very youthful; Uncle Gu also takes care of himself."

Ms. Nian is forty‑nine this year, also well‑maintained; sometimes when she goes out with Ke Zhongying, people say they're twin sisters.

Ms. Song and Gu Yinxue are the same.

However, no one thinks Ms. Song resembles Gu Yinxue.

Ke Zhongyu felt something was off.

It seemed as if something lay in the mist, and if you reached out to clear it, you could glimpse what was hidden.

But he had no way to reach out.

Everyone stopped discussing it further, after all it was someone else's family matter.

According to Jiang Lai's plan, this afternoon was scheduled to take Director Tang and Ping'an to the botanical and zoological garden.

It was originally intended to go to an amusement park, but Ping'an has autism and doesn't like crowded noisy places, so they opted for the botanical and zoological garden, which is quieter.

Jiang Lai had already booked the tickets, but not Ke Zhongyu's.

Jiang Lai planned to check the tickets on the spot, but Ke Zhongyu pulled a ticket out of his pocket.

The moment Jiang Lai's itinerary was obtained, the secretary team had already arranged everything for him.

On the way to the botanical and zoological garden after lunch, Jiang Lai caught Director Tang frequently replying to messages.

"Is there something at the institute?"

Director Tang looked up: "Don't worry, it's not all that; Mr. Gu is reminiscing about the past with me, and also asked about our Fuli Yuan's situation; Mr. Gu is still, as twenty years ago, very concerned about social welfare systems."

Jiang Lai nodded, didn't ask further, kept looking ahead, occasionally turned back to speak to Ping'an in the back seat, introducing the kinds of plants and animals they might see at the garden.

Director Tang heard, and from time to time also looked at the brother‑sister pair.

Jiang Lai lifted her hand and gently pushed the glasses on the bridge of her nose.

That very gesture suddenly made Director Tang recall the scene when she first met Gu Secretary back then.

「Dean Tang, this is the precious daughter you always mention, right? 」 Gu Secretary said with a smile, and at that time also adjusted the glasses on the bridge of the nose.

After Mother said with a smile, they watched Gu Secretary leave.

Because it was too brief, the memory became fuzzy.

But this morning seeing Mr. Gu, and now seeing Jiang Lai's gesture of adjusting her glasses, somehow the two were linked together, and she suddenly realized that Jiang Lai resembles the young Gu Secretary a bit.

I don't know if it's just my own preconception, but after making that association, the more I look, the more they seem alike.

Dean Tang murmured softly: "Really alike......"

"Huh?" Jiang Lai asked doubtfully, "Like what?"