Chapter 74: Tangtang, You Love Me, Don't You?

Shen Duan was taken aback. "Meng Shutang? You're saying he was calling Meng Shutang?"

Huo Yanchen nodded. "These past few days, he's been going to the hospital often. He couldn't be calling Bai Cixian."

Shen Duan pondered for a moment, then shook his head vigorously. "Impossible. Yunci hasn't called Meng Shutang that in many years. He must have been calling Bai Cixian."

He dialed the phone.

Huo Yanchen: "Hang up right now. Do you realize that if you call Bai Cixian now, you'll only turn everything upside down?"

The call connected. Shen Duan pushed Huo Yanchen's hand away. "Yunci is drunk. He's at the usual place. Come and take him away!"

With that, he hung up directly.

Huo Yanchen, hearing Shen Duan's words, was completely stunned. "You're saying… Yunci gets drunk often?"

Shen Duan looked at him. "Ever since the divorce, he gets drunk from time to time.

Every time he calls out 'Tangtang.' I personally asked Bai Cixian, 'Is your childhood name Tangtang?'

Bai Cixian nodded and said yes, she's called Tangtang, and everyone who knows her well calls her that."

As they spoke, Bai Cixian had already arrived.

It was as if she had been lying in wait nearby all along, knowing that Gu Yunci was here drinking himself senseless, just waiting for him to get drunk so she could take him away.

Watching Bai Cixian and the driver Old Zhang come in, Old Zhang helped Gu Yunci to his feet and led him away.

Huo Yanchen: "If he hasn't let go of Bai Cixian, then why is he pursuing Meng Shutang?"

Shen Duan frowned. "What do you mean?"

Huo Yanchen: "Nothing!" A coldness crept into his eyes. "Some things are better left unspoken. It's better for everyone that way."

Bai Cixian helped Gu Yunci into the car.

The driver Old Zhang, seeing them seated, started the car and headed toward Qian Shui Wan.

But halfway there, Bai Cixian suddenly told him to turn the car around. "Driver Zhang, let's go to Boyue International Hotel."

Old Zhang turned his head. "Miss Bai, President Gu generally doesn't stay out overnight."

Bai Cixian clenched her hands. "Just listen to me."

In the past, whenever Shen Duan called him, she would always take him home.

Thinking about it now, she had been so foolish. What a perfect opportunity—how could she have just sent him back to Qian Shui Wan?

Especially now that Meng Shutang was back and he was entirely devoted to her, she couldn't afford to let another opportunity slip away.

But upon arriving at the entrance of Boyue International Hotel, she asked Old Zhang to help her get Gu Yunci out of the car.

Old Zhang, however, refused. "Miss Bai, I've always taken orders from President Gu. How could I dare take advantage of him being drunk and bring him to a place like this?"

Seeing that he had gotten out of the car, Bai Cixian didn't insist further and told him to close the door.

She intended to get Gu Yunci out of the car herself, but after pulling twice without success, she gave up on the idea of getting out.

She raised her hand to undo the buttons below her collar, hiked her skirt up a bit, and was about to straddle Gu Yunci's lap.

Unexpectedly, Gu Yunci, who had been unconscious the whole time, suddenly slowly sat upright.

Bai Cixian was startled—he had clearly been slumped over just a moment ago… the gentleman crumbled, his shell shattered to pieces.

In the blink of an eye, he had rebuilt his gentlemanly bearing, still that indestructible man.

"You just… clearly… weren't you drunk?"

The man yanked off his tie and hurled it aside. "I'm drunk, not dead."

With that, he seized Bai Cixian by the throat. "I told you, don't come near me. Do you think I'm a very patient person?"

Her throat squeezed tight, Bai Cixian's face went pale in an instant. Tears froze at the corners of her eyes—she could no longer feign the slightest innocence. Only fear and suffocation remained.

"Brother Yunci, I didn't mean… that."

There was not a trace of warmth in Gu Yunci's eyes. "You still have the nerve to say that." He slowly tightened his grip.

Bai Cixian struggled but couldn't move under the man's overwhelming presence.

The man before her—where was the composed, self-possessed gentleman? In this moment, only a ferocious madness born of guarding his purity remained.

He would kill her, just like years ago when a man bullied his cousin and he had him sunk into the river.

She suddenly clutched her lower abdomen. "Brother Yunci… my stomach hurts."

This was her talisman for survival—she had discovered it long ago, and it never failed.

"Ever since the miscarriage last time…"

Before she could finish, Gu Yunci shoved her away. He grabbed a wet wipe to clean his hands and coldly tossed out a single word: "Get lost!"

Bai Cixian scrambled and tumbled out of the car, fleeing in panic.

Gu Yunci sat in the car for a while. Old Zhang approached. "President Gu, are we heading back to Qian Shui Wan or…"

Gu Yunci glanced at the entrance of Boyue International Hotel and knew this was the west side of the city.

"Go to Cangpinge in the west of the city."

On the way, Gu Yunci asked Old Zhang, "Old Zhang, wasn't I at the tavern? How come Bai Cixian was here?"

Old Zhang recounted everything that had just happened. "Over the past four years, the few times you've gotten drunk, it was always Young Master Shen Duan calling Miss Bai to come pick you up.

We've always gone straight back to Qian Shui Wan. I don't know why Miss Bai told me to take you to a hotel this time."

Gu Yunci didn't press further. "From now on, if she comes again, tell her to leave immediately."

Arriving at Cangpinge, looking at the tightly shut doors, the scene Gu Jin Xing had described to him—of colliding with a young Meng Shutang—surfaced in his mind.

For the first time, a sudden thought struck him.

That day, had Meng Shutang seen him too?

After all, he hadn't been standing far from Gu Jin Xing.

Agarwood wreath the beams, antiquities stood in solemn silence—no one answered him.

He called the manager, who had already lain down for the night but got up and came over, thinking it was a surprise inspection. Gu Yunci had him open the door, then told him to stand to the side without saying anything.

On a sandalwood display rack, he inadvertently saw a string of ancient bead necklace; that necklace was ordinary, exactly the same as the one on Meng Shutang's neck.

He had always thought the ancient bead necklace that had made him jealous for so long was one‑of‑a‑kind in the world, a love token between Gu Jin Xing and Meng Shutang.

If it isn't unique, does that mean Meng Shutang's necklace is also very likely not a gift from Gu Jin Xing?

"Director Zhang, are these beads very common?"

Zhang Director smiled faintly, "President Gu hasn't seen this thing before, right? Yes, it's quite common,"

"But this kind of bead is rather old and no longer circulates in the market."

He sobered up a bit, left Cangpinge and went to the old residence, entered Gu Jin Xing's room, and he almost trembled as he pulled open the drawer.

When he saw, in the innermost corner of the drawer filled with Gu Jin Xing's old belongings, there was a string of ancient bead necklace exactly the same,

He sat down to the side, holding his head in regret.

Gu Jin Xing's ancient bead necklace is still here; the one on Meng Shutang's neck is therefore not his.

He immediately left the old residence and went to Qingluju.

The sky had just begun to lighten, and the whole city was still sunk in a light slumber.

He stood by the roadside, waiting for Meng Shutang to come out.

After standing for about two hours, he faintly saw Meng Shutang's silhouette.

Meng Shutang is not working today; she plans to take her grandmother and Xin Xin to the nearby kindergarten to look around and handle Xin Xin's enrollment procedures.

It was also a coincidence; as she turned her head, she saw Gu Yunci by the roadside.

She was frightened and immediately had her grandmother take Xin Xin away.

She then walked over by herself.

The man stood by the roadside, the corners of his eyes reddened from staying up late, still wearing yesterday's shirt, mixed with a faint scent of alcohol.

Such a casual, disheveled appearance was unprecedented for him, yet his noble and elegant bearing remained undiminished.

Gu Yunci felt it strange that she took the initiative to come over; after all, since returning to the country she had been avoiding him, dodging whenever possible, but he was pleased and therefore didn't think too much about it.

"Can you tell me about the ancient bead necklace on your neck?"

Hearing the man ask about the necklace, Meng Shutang clenched the necklace with her fingertips, her slender, thin body also stiffening a bit.

"Seeing this, Gu Yunci suddenly stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, 'Tangtang, you love me, don't you?'"