Chapter 79: A Business Trip (Part 8)

The happiest thing in the world is none other than a secret crush turning into a first love, and a first love lasting forever...

However, in this world, how many people can actually upgrade from a secret crush to a first love, and finally make it to forever?

Forever is too far, and the road of life is too long. No one can predict who will walk ahead of whom.

The person whose hand you are holding today might, on some day in the future, be holding someone else's hand as they pass by you.

This is the variety of life; the impermanence of worldly affairs is actually as common as a daily meal, and change always walks ahead of plans...

After coming out of the elevator, Zhou Ding clearly sensed that Zhou Xiaoru's mood was somewhat low.

Because of Gu Liyan, they used to see each other often at school before they graduated.

Regarding the sushi he made for Gu Liyan all those years, which ended up being eaten by him, he felt deeply guilty.

Although he did not approve of Gu Liyan's actions at the time, now that the seas have changed, when love has become a thing of the past, saying anything more is of no use.

It was just that he hadn't expected that the relationship between Gu Liyan and this guy seemed to be a bit different.

Thinking that he would tease Gu Liyan well once he saw him in a moment.

When they arrived outside the Presidential Suite, Zhou Xiaoru took out her room card from her bag.

With a "beep," the door opened...

The lights in the room were all on; Zhou Xiaoru first peered around for a while, but did not see Gu Liyan.

In this Presidential Suite, there was a spacious living room near the door, and both bedrooms were on the opposite side of the living room.

Both rooms also had independent bathrooms.

Zhou Xiaoru thought that Gu Liyan must be in one of the rooms.

She intended to go to the room where she had left her luggage at noon, take her things, and leave.

Zhou Ding looked at the empty living room and asked.

"Has Liyan not returned yet?"

Zhou Xiaoru did not speak, walking further inside, right to the door of the room where she had left her luggage.

There lay two pairs of shoes!

Zhou Ding, who followed behind, followed the line of sight that Zhou Xiaoru was staring at and also saw the two pairs of shoes placed at the doorway.

One pair was black, shiny leather shoes, which were undoubtedly Gu Liyan's.

And the other pair...

Was a pair of thin, high-heeled red women's shoes!

Seeing this, Zhou Xiaoru couldn't help but sneer in her heart!

Thinking of what the front desk had just told her, about waiting for her to return to order food and eat?

Now it seemed that all of this was truly as ironic as a joke!

Was this guy Gu Liyan trying to learn from the ancients and hide a beauty in a golden house?

After looking for a while, she turned around and said to the person behind her.

"Zhou Ding, I have something I'd like your help with, even if it's just for the sake of all that sushi you ate of mine."

Zhou Ding paused for a moment, then hurriedly replied.

"What is it? Tell me!"

Upon hearing the word "sushi," Zhou Ding's resolve had already softened.

At this moment, Zhou Xiaoru was expressionless, as if she were talking about someone else's business.

"My suitcase is in this room. You can see it now, your good friend is likely busy inside. I won't go in. Please, could you help me take my luggage to the Love Hotel Room you booked? If that's inconvenient, then please just send me a message, and I'll come back to get it myself, okay!"

"Uh..."

Zhou Ding was stunned for a moment, not knowing how to respond.

He thought that if Gu Liyan had any feelings for Zhou Xiaoru, it would be absolutely impossible for him to do anything messy.

He dared to vouch for Gu Liyan's character.

Yet, facing this pair of women's high heels and the tightly shut door, he had no way to refute it on behalf of his good brother.

Zhou Ding even wondered, they had been talking for a while now, hadn't the people inside heard them?

After hesitating for ten seconds or so, he had no choice but to agree and gave the Love Hotel Room card to Zhou Xiaoru.

Zhou Xiaoru took the room card, said thank you, and left directly without looking back.

Zhou Ding looked in the direction she left, and after turning his head back, he shook his head repeatedly.

It seemed he could only sit outside and wait for now.

After sitting in the living room for a few minutes, Zhou Ding felt it was somewhat inappropriate.

Perhaps he felt sorry for the sushi he had eaten back then, or perhaps he simply didn't believe Gu Liyan was that kind of person.

After thinking about it, he took out his phone, intending to call the person in the room.

Not long after the call went through, it was answered.

"Hello?"

Zhou Ding asked directly, "Where are you now?"

"I'm away on a business trip, what's wrong?"

"I'm asking you, are you in the room right now?"

The man on the other end of the phone heard this, and his eyebrows furrowed together; he hadn't even answered the question yet.

Zhou Ding then asked a second question, "Who else is in your room?"

Gu Liyan was already increasingly confused upon hearing this.

"How do you know?"

Zhou Ding was on the verge of running over to kick the door down, and urged anxiously.

"How would I know? You have a pair of women's high heels sitting at your door. Not only did I see them, but Zhou Xiaoru saw them too..."

Just as he finished speaking, the person on the other end of the phone hung up, and then the door across the living room opened.

There stood our handsome Gu Liyan, walking out in a white bathrobe with his hair still a bit damp.

As soon as Zhou Ding saw him like this, his heart skipped a beat; the image of this guy in his mind instantly collapsed.

Could it be that he had thought too highly of this guy, assuming he was a saint who championed Platonic love?

Back in college, he felt that Gu Liyan had a somewhat ethereal, otherworldly quality.

He never expected that after entering society, he too would become tainted by the mortal world.

Come to think of it, he was a normal man after all, and naturally had certain needs.

And upon seeing the person who had suddenly appeared in his room, Gu Liyan was equally astonished.

"Why are you in my room?" Privately, he had already contacted Zhou Ding and knew he would also be attending this bidding.

He just didn't know he would also be coming to this hotel.

After looking around the living room and not seeing a trace of Zhou Xiaoru, he asked again.

"Where is Zhou Xiaoru!"

Zhou Ding first shook his head, then shook the room card in his hand and said.

"I just ran into her in the lobby downstairs; she was negotiating with the front desk to change rooms. So, I opened a room for her to stay in. I came up with her, and she was planning to come get her luggage, but then she saw..."

Before he could finish, another person walked out of the room slowly, a woman crying like a ghost.

If Zhou Ding didn't know her, he would have surely thought he had seen a ghost.

The person who came out was Fang Qingkong, wearing a sexy, form-fitting purple lace dress.

At this moment, because she had been crying in the room, her face, with its exquisite makeup, was a mess of black and white streaks.

Her eyes looked as if someone had punched them twice, so black that only the whites of her eyes remained.

Just like that, the once-sexy beauty now looked like a drowned rat, a miserable sight.

By now, Gu Liyan had already returned to the room and slammed the door shut with a bang.

Seeing this, Zhou Ding couldn't help but pat his own chest; looking at it this way, nothing should have happened.

Gu Liyan's arch of chastity was still intact.

A few minutes later, the door that had just been closed opened again.

The person who came out had already quickly put on his clothes and asked Zhou Ding while putting on his shoes.

"What floor is the room you opened on, and what is the room number?"

Zhou Ding blinked twice and blankly replied with three words.

"I don't know..."

As the words fell, the man opposite him almost came over to strangle him.

Zhou Ding instinctively shrank his neck; he really hadn't paid attention.

He had been chatting with Zhou Xiaoru the whole way up; how could he have cared to look at the room number of that Love Hotel Room?

Love Hotel Room!

Zhou Ding suddenly thought of something and said.

"I remember, the Love Hotel Room seems to be on the ninth floor. How about I call the front desk and ask for the room number?"

And upon hearing the words "Love Hotel Room," the gentleman's face froze into an ice cube!

"What did you say? Love Hotel Room!"

Zhou Ding felt something was wrong again; it seemed this guy's feelings for Zhou Xiaoru were not simple!

He then explained, "The rooms here were all full, only the Love Hotel Room was left. She wanted to switch rooms with me, and I had no choice."

He really felt wronged.

Under Gu Liyan's angry glare, Zhou Ding called the front desk and asked for his room number.

And after getting the room number, Gu Liyan intended to go find her directly.

But no sooner had he left than Fang Qingkong followed him barefoot, hugging the man from behind as he was about to leave.

She cried out, "Liyan, don't go, don't go find her, okay! What's so good about her? She's not as pretty as me, not as capable as me, and doesn't understand you as well as I do..."

"Fang Qingkong!"

The gentleman's roar directly interrupted what she was about to say.

"I've said it before, don't make things so embarrassing! I'll tell you clearly now: in my heart, in my eyes, and in my mind, there is only one woman, and her name is Zhou Xiaoru! Please don't disparage the woman I care about just to elevate your own worth! From now on, let's try to avoid meeting! I don't want Xiaoru to have any more misunderstandings! And please, have some self-respect!"

As he spoke, he had already forcefully pulled down the arms that were hugging his waist.

Zhou Ding, standing to the side, was somewhat embarrassed and was quietly taking steps to retreat to the side.

Although this wasn't the first time he had seen such a large-scale love triangle, it was the first time he had encountered it involving Gu Liyan.

If he told the other person from their old dormitory, Yu Li, what he was seeing now.

He definitely wouldn't believe it!

Gu Liyan had fallen for Zhou Xiaoru?! This was simply an incredible thing!

But life is just full of accidents and the incredible.

If one had to say, Su Poyang had the sharper eye; when Zhou Xiaoru was interviewing, he saw at a glance that Zhou Xiaoru was Gu Liyan's type!

People often can't put down things that have been fermented by time.

In Zhou Ding's view, this Zhou Xiaoru was like a cured ham; before it becomes a finished product, it has to endure all kinds of polishing, and even complex procedures.

Finally waiting for the sedimentation and baptism of time.

Now, she had fermented into the shape that the gentleman liked...

Facing Fang Qingkong's tearful, bitter pleas, nothing could ultimately move Gu Liyan.

If one were to ask who Gu Liyan thought of the most over these past two years.

It was not Fang Qingkong, but Zhou Xiaoru.

Although they had already broken up two years ago, after Gu Liyan went abroad, he would often think of that girl who was always shy when she saw him, and who was always so cautious when she spent time with him.

Zhou Xiaoru had always existed in the depths of his heart, in different forms.

Now, this girl from the past had not only walked back into his line of sight, but had also, once again, truly walked into his heart...