Chapter 3: CEO, Should You See a Urologist?

Meng Shutang looked at that familiar tie, and her chest suddenly seized.

But she didn't let it show on her face. "Given your relationship, there's no need for me to pass it along for you."

Bai Cixian smiled. "I'm taking a flight to Shencheng for a business trip shortly and won't be back for two days, so I still have to trouble you. Yunci really likes this style of tie." Saying that, she pressed it into Meng Shutang's hand.

Her gaze seemed to casually catch sight of the documents Meng Shutang was holding, and she reached out to take them.

Meng Shutang turned sideways directly, shielding the document folder in her arms, and took a step back to avoid her.

These were confidential documents.

Compared to this pointless provocation, completing the Gu Clan's design work on time and to a high standard was the only thing she cared about right now and for the next forty-eight days.

"You brought it over here, so you meant to show me," Bai Cixian said with a gentle smile.

Meng Shutang was taken aback.

Bai Cixian continued, "The person who was coordinating the work before was a Miss Chen, right? She didn't mention me to you?"

Meng Shutang recalled that Chen Man had mentioned the Gu Clan's cultural tourism department had parachuted in a supervisor—young and beautiful—and had even said she looked like her.

With so many personnel changes in the Gu Clan, Meng Shutang had never thought in that direction.

While she was still thinking, Bai Cixian directly took her documents and began flipping through them casually.

"Miss Meng, I hear you're a veteran in the industry, apprenticed under some master craftsman, but this proposal is far too mismatched with our cultural tourism department's positioning.

What we want isn't 'restoration,' but 'selling points.'"

She tossed the documents back to Meng Shutang.

"Next time we meet, I expect to see a new version. Otherwise, this collaboration really has no need to continue."

With that, she tossed her hair and turned to leave.

Meng Shutang watched the proposal she had worked so hard to create get dismissed in a few words by Bai Cixian, her heart aching as if bleeding.

But what could she do? Bai Cixian was the client's representative, after all.

Meng Shutang lowered her eyes to the documents in her arms, pondered for a moment, and turned to leave. What came into view was the transparent elevator several meters away, carrying Bai Cixian gracefully descending.

It paused midway as a group of employees got on. A male employee tried to stand on Bai Cixian's side, and Gu Yunci, standing nearby, saw this and walked directly over, positioning himself in front of Bai Cixian.

The two stood very close together.

Petite as she was, she looked like a delicate white camellia, poised and graceful yet trembling shyly beneath Gu Yunci's protection.

The man stood before the glass with one hand in his pocket, broad shoulders and narrow waist, his waistline sharp as if carved by a knife, his entire being exuding an aristocratic coldness.

Meng Shutang glanced only once before looking away.

Her heart had calmed considerably, no longer surging and turbulent like that rainy night.

Returning to her studio, Meng Shutang scrapped the existing proposal and rewrote it from scratch.

But after writing several openings, she was unsatisfied with all of them.

When quitting time arrived, Ruan An couldn't wait any longer and called out to her before leaving. She kept writing, on into the late night.

Once done, she took a sip of water to moisten her throat and dialed a number. "The museum's cultural creative department has a 'New Life for Cultural Relics' product line. Our Fanxing Pavilion wants to produce it too. I'll design it first, and in half a month, I'll bring the design drafts over to you."

The other end went silent for a long moment. "Shutang, are you short on money?"

"I... no," Meng Shutang bit her lip.

The other end was cool. "Last time a cultural creative team came to you, you refused without a second thought.

Now, what made you think of doing this again?"

"If I go back on my word this time, I will never see you again."

The other end said nothing. After a pause, the line was hung up.

Meng Shutang knew this meant he agreed.

She smiled faintly.

Meng Shutang turned her gaze to the window.

Not a wisp of cloud lingered in the night sky, the ink-black canopy like an overturned inkstone.

Scattered stars dotted across it, flickering in and out, winding into a brilliant river of stars.

It looked exactly like the patterns on the ancient star-motif beads sitting on her desk.

Meng Shutang's eyes suddenly lit up.

Stars and ancient beads were corresponding images engraved in the old shadows of time to begin with.

"Millennium Starlight..." she murmured the four words. "The proposal will revolve around this!"

The town the Gu Clan's cultural tourism division wanted to develop was a cultural ancient town with a thousand-year history. Using this as the theme couldn't be more fitting.

After thinking it through, she opened her laptop and refined the completed proposal.

She was so absorbed in writing that she didn't even notice Qin Zheng appear before her. "Young Madam, I've come to take you back."

Meng Shutang rose, about to say she wasn't going back.

But remembering she still had to give the tie to Gu Yunci, she got up and retrieved it from the drawer.

Qin Zheng was sharp-eyed and immediately understood what was going on.

What he shouldn't ask and what he shouldn't say—he wouldn't breathe half a word of it. He turned and left.

A Rolls-Royce was parked in the shade of an old banyan tree by the roadside. The window lowered an inch, revealing Gu Yunci's cold, hard profile.

His well-defined fingertips held a cigarette, wisps of smoke curling upward, as he gazed without emotion at the convenience store not far away.

When Meng Shutang walked over, she carried the chill of late autumn.

She walked to the other side, opened the door, and got in. The lingering warmth of that night's intimacy still remained in the cabin, mingling with the cold aura unique to him, feeling especially ironic at this moment.

Meng Shutang didn't look at him. She gently placed the tie beside her, where he could see it from the corner of his eye. "Your new love asked me to give this to you."

Her voice was very soft, yet inexplicably carried a chill.

The man's gaze fell on the tie. The cigarette between his fingertips paused slightly, his eyes darkened, and he said nothing.

He picked up a wet wipe from the side, twisted it, and tossed it straight out.

The trash can by the roadside, like a monster with gaping jaws, swallowed the tie.

"Grandma's back. She wants us to go to the old residence for dinner."

He said this in a strictly businesslike tone and flicked the cigarette butt out along with it.

Meng Shutang sat there quietly, saying nothing.

The car drove fast and soon arrived at the Gu family's old residence.

The Chinese-style courtyard in the Suzhou garden style already had two hundred years of history.

Meng Shutang was not very familiar with this place; she had only been here a few times.

If a pyramid were used to describe Jiangcheng's hierarchy, then the Gu family would be the very tip of the pyramid's apex.

It was only to be expected that Gu Yeheng did not like her.

Chairman Gu, who had been waiting here for a long time, did not exchange pleasantries when he saw them approach. "While the old lady doesn't know, find time to hurry to the civil affairs bureau and get the paperwork done. Finish it early and be done with it early.

Gu Yunci, I'm warning you — don't let an outsider hold up your future."

Gu Yunci's brow furrowed tight in an instant. "My affairs are none of your concern."

Gu Yeheng gave a cold snort, the look he cast at Meng Shutang laden with chill, and said no more.

As the three of them entered the door, Meng Shutang saw a pair of eyes narrowed into creases from smiling.

"Tangtang's here. Grandma missed you to death.

In this whole big family, you're the one after my own heart."

The old lady took Meng Shutang's hand, lowered her eyes to look at her belly, and seeing her lower abdomen flat, expressed dissatisfaction with Gu Yunci. "Eldest grandson, is it that you can't perform? It's been three years and Tangtang's belly still hasn't rounded out. Do you need to see an andrologist?"

Gu Yunci: "Grandma, I'm not sick. Shutang knows it. Ask her if you don't believe me."

Meng Shutang's oval face flushed crimson. She kept her head down, curling her toes against the floor in embarrassment.

The old lady: "Prove to me you're not sick, starting tonight. The room has already been prepared for you two. If you don't conceive a child, you're not allowed to go back to your own villa to sleep."