Chapter 159: Su Jin × Gu Chen Working Together

Su Jin felt her state of mind was a bit strange.

After learning that the young girl was Gu Chen's sister, she felt as if she had uncontrollably developed a bit of a delusion.

This wouldn't do; she had to recognize her own status.

The heir to the Gu Group and a small reporter like her were worlds apart.

Besides, after the injury on his arm healed, the two of them would have no reason to meet again.

This kind of secret crush from one's youth should remain hidden in one's heart forever.

Su Jin put away her wild thoughts and pushed open the door to the conference room; many colleagues had already taken their seats, whispering to each other about something.

She sat down beside Xiao Xu, and as soon as she did, the other person leaned over and said excitedly, "I heard our newspaper office got the annual in-depth reporting authorization for the Gu Group, a full year of follow-up access!"

Su Jin's hand paused.

The other person continued, "I reckon today's meeting is to talk about this; I wonder who the editor-in-chief will let follow it. Hey, I think it's very likely to be you—"

Before the words were finished, the editor-in-chief pushed the door open and entered; Xiao Xu immediately stopped talking and sat up straight.

Su Jin lowered her eyes, concealing the ripples in her gaze.

The editor-in-chief announced exactly what Xiao Xu had said: "... From strategic layout to daily operations, we will record the entire transformation process of this giant enterprise in all aspects. The project requires an on-site reporter."

Everyone was restless; such a good opportunity, everyone wanted it.

Only Su Jin kept her head down, sitting quietly, with no way to tell what she was actually thinking.

Of course, she was interested in this project, but being an on-site reporter meant she would always have times when she ran into Gu Chen...

"Su Jin, you have covered interviews with the Gu Group and have experience coordinating with them. This project will be handled by you," the editor-in-chief's gaze looked over, and he said gently.

A few gasps of envy sounded in the conference room, and Xiao Xu had an expression that said, "I guessed it."

Su Jin's fingers holding her pen tightened slightly; she opened her mouth, wanting to say to choose someone else, but when the words reached her lips, they turned into one word: "Okay."

The matter was settled just like that, and the editor-in-chief told her she had to start at the Gu Group tomorrow.

Su Jin let out a deep sigh, only hoping she wouldn't lose her composure.

——

Early the next morning, Su Jin resigned herself to her fate and went to the Gu Corporation Building.

After picking up her work badge at the front desk, the security guard pointed toward the elevators. The elevator door opened, and it was empty inside. She stepped in, and just as she turned around, a hand blocked the door.

Su Jin looked up and saw Gu Chen standing at the elevator entrance, wearing a dark gray suit, with a coat draped over his arm.

His gaze paused for a moment, then he walked in and pressed the close button.

Su Jin sighed in her heart; she had thought she would run into him, but she hadn't expected to run into him the moment she arrived.

"Morning," he spoke first.

"Morning, President Gu." Su Jin's voice sounded steady enough.

Gu Chen looked at the young woman who seemed to want to stay 100 meters away from him, and the corners of his mouth curled up.

"Thank you for your care the other day, and thank you for the soup your mother made."

Su Jin's eyelashes trembled, and she kept her tone strictly professional: "You're welcome, I will pass on your gratitude to her."

Gu Chen raised an eyebrow, finding her reaction quite interesting.

He paused and said with a smile, "Passing it on seems a bit insincere; how about I go pay a visit and thank her in person?"

Su Jin looked up in astonishment, and only when she saw the playfulness in his eyes did she realize he was deliberately teasing her.

"Finally willing to look at me?" He stepped closer, and the distance between the two of them suddenly narrowed.

Su Jin had always been thin-skinned, and being teased like this, her face turned red again: "President Gu is joking..."

As she spoke, she moved to the side without a sound. But the elevator space was only so big, and moving back any further meant she leaned directly against the wall.

Gu Chen laughed again, this time a genuine laugh, the sound rumbling from his chest.

Su Jin's face turned even redder.

Fortunately, the other party restrained himself at this point and stopped teasing her.

The elevator stopped steadily at the twenty-eighth floor, and as soon as the door opened, Su Jin prepared to leave. She had only taken two steps when her wrist was grabbed, and then she was pulled back into the elevator.

The door closed again.

Su Jin was confused: "President Gu..."

Her words were drowned out by the coat covering her.

Her vision was completely blocked by the coat; she was stunned for a few seconds, then hurriedly pulled the coat down to reveal her head.

Gu Chen looked at the cowlick sticking up on the top of her head and reached out to press it down. Then, he withdrew his hand and put it back in his pocket, saying indifferently, "Put it on, the button on the back of your collar fell off."

Su Jin hurriedly reached out to touch it; it had indeed fallen off.

Without the button, a large patch of skin on her back was exposed. He must have seen it all...

Her skin turned bright red in an instant; it wasn't just her face, her whole body was red.

She couldn't care about much else, so she draped the coat over her shoulders, not daring to look him in the eye: "Thank you, President Gu."

"Mm."

Gu Chen gave an "mm," and pressed the open button. The elevator door opened again, and he strode out.

Su Jin bit her lip and followed.

Several young women in the hallway were talking and turned their heads when they heard movement. Seeing the two of them come out of the elevator, and then seeing the coat on her shoulders that clearly didn't belong to her, their expressions changed subtly for a moment.

Su Jin's face was burning hot; she gripped the collar of the coat tightly, pretending she hadn't seen those gazes.

Gu Chen was naturally even more composed, so composed that he suddenly stopped in his tracks and called to her in a leisurely manner.

"Reporter Su."

Su Jin feigned calmness: "President Gu, is there anything else?"

Gu Chen stood with his hands in his pockets, a smile in his eyes: "The office is the first one on the left." He paused, then continued, "Opposite my office."

"... Understood, thank you, President Gu."

She practically fled into the office.

The door closed, and she leaned against the door panel, letting out a deep breath. Su Jin, oh Su Jin, can you not be a little more composed!

After taking several deep breaths in a row, she finally suppressed the heat on her face.

Unexpectedly, just as she had calmed down, the door was suddenly knocked on.

Su Jin's heart tightened; she carefully pulled the door open, and seeing Gu Chen's assistant outside, she let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

"Reporter Su, these are the recent project materials; please familiarize yourself with them first." The other party smiled and handed over a folder.

Su Jin accepted it and agreed.

Immediately after, the other party handed over a bag; the logo on it was not unfamiliar—it was a certain light luxury clothing brand.

Seeing that Su Jin didn't take it, he added: "President Gu instructed me to have this delivered."

Su Jin had no choice but to take it: "Thank you."

After the assistant left, she stared at the bag, and her heart, which had just calmed down, was in turmoil again.

A sentence she had once seen suddenly popped into her mind: A man gives a woman clothes just so he can take them off with his own hands.

"..."

Su Jin couldn't help but knock on her own head; this thought was simply blaspheming Gu Chen.

He was excellent and gentlemanly; how could he be such a person?

It was clearly her—if this went on, she wouldn't be able to hold herself back...

——

The project was more complex than Su Jin had imagined.

The Gu Corporation was undergoing drastic transformations this year, crossing over from traditional manufacturing to the technology sector; every decision tugged at the nerves of the entire industry.

She needed to follow up on every meeting, interview every key figure, and organize massive amounts of data. Arriving at the company at eight in the morning and leaving at ten at night was the norm.

And the opportunities for her to see Gu Chen were also far more frequent than she had imagined.

She had never known that a company's person in power had so many meetings to attend. He needed to attend strategic meetings to listen to reports on project situations from various departments. He also had to attend technical seminars to discuss future research and development directions with the technical team.

He didn't smile much during meetings, and there was a kind of calm focus between his brows that made people afraid to disturb him easily.

As for Su Jin, she generally sat in the back row, listening quietly.

When her gaze inadvertently swept over the healed scar on his forearm, it would pause for a few moments before moving away.

On Friday evening, when Su Jin finished organizing the final interview draft and came out of the office, the corridor was already empty, and the entire floor was so quiet that only the humming of the air conditioning remained.

She walked toward the pantry, and when she passed Gu Chen's office, the door was open, and the lights were on inside.

He was sitting behind his desk with a document spread out in front of him; his tie was loosened, and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. Hearing footsteps, he looked up.

"Haven't left yet?"

Su Jin raised the cup in her hand: "Finished overtime, just pouring a glass of water before I go."

She walked into the pantry, poured a cup of hot water, and leaned against the counter, drinking slowly.

Outside the window, the city lights were brilliant, guiding the way home for those returning late. She watched them for a while, lost in thought, until she heard footsteps behind her.

Gu Chen walked in, also poured a cup of water, and stood side-by-side with her in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.

Su Jin turned her head to look at him, and her heartbeat began its useless acceleration again.

The more they were in contact, the more she felt this man was damnably more charming.

"Did today's interview go smoothly?" he suddenly asked.

Su Jin was stunned for a moment, not expecting him to ask this: "It was okay, President Wang from the technical department was quite cooperative, it's just that there were some technical terms I need to go back and look up."

"Which ones?"

She mentioned a few technical terms she hadn't quite understood. After listening, he explained them briefly in a way she could understand.

Su Jin suddenly understood and couldn't help but ask a few more questions, from technical paths to application scenarios, and from application scenarios to market judgment.

Gu Chen looked at her earnest expression and her gradually relaxing posture, and the corners of his mouth curled up.

"You learn things very quickly," he praised without hesitation.

Su Jin waved her hand: "As journalists, we have to know a little bit about everything, but we aren't experts in anything."

"Whether you're an expert or not isn't important," he looked at her, "Being able to grasp the essence is more useful than a pile of jargon."

Su Jin's heartbeat, which had finally calmed down, showed signs of jumping around again; she hurriedly lowered her head to take a sip of water to steady herself and casually changed the subject: "Did you also often work overtime this late in the past?"

Gu Chen raised his eyes to look at the street scene outside the window: "About the same; the daytime is too noisy, and the night is quiet, which is suitable for thinking about things."

Su Jin was startled, her mouth faster than her brain: "Thinking about what?"

Gu Chen's gaze fell back onto her: "Thinking about everything; sometimes it's some very specific problems. For example, that proposal from this afternoon—I always felt something was wrong, but I couldn't put my finger on it for a moment."

Su Jin thought for a moment and spoke hesitantly: "I do have a feeling, though I don't know if it's right."

"Tell me."

"The proposal from this afternoon—the data is very pretty, and the logic is fine, but I always feel... it's too perfect." She weighed her words, "Perfect to the point that it doesn't seem real."

Gu Chen's eyes held a smile, signaling her to continue.

"I don't know much about the industry you're in. But when doing news, things that are too perfect often have problems. Either something is being hidden, or something is being beautified."

Su Jin's tone was actually still a bit uncertain; she was practically showing off before an expert in front of the person in power of a group company.

Just as she was feeling uneasy, the man in front of her laughed.

He raised the cup in his hand: "Great minds think alike."

Su Jin's face was uncontrollably stained with a layer of light red again.

Gu Chen's eyes deepened, his fingertips rubbing against the glass. After a long while, he put it down, lifted his chin, and said: "Let's go, I'll drive you home."

——

Gu Chen parked the car downstairs at Su Jin's building and glanced over to see the young woman in the passenger seat already asleep with her head tilted to one side.

He killed the engine and subconsciously took out a pack of cigarettes, pulled one out, then paused, stuffed the cigarette back into the pack, and tossed it into the storage compartment.

He leaned back against the seat, watching the sleeping Su Jin.

Her breathing was light and steady, and her eyelashes cast a small shadow on her face; she looked more relaxed and at ease than when she was awake.

He wondered what kind of image he held in her heart; whenever she saw him, she always seemed a bit tense and not entirely natural.

Gu Chen thought of her bright, crystal-clear eyes, like a little deer, and let out a low, soft chuckle.

Su Jin suddenly furrowed her brows and tilted her face to the other side.

Gu Chen followed her movement to look at the side of her neck; it turned out the seatbelt, due to her tilting her head, had left a faint red mark against her skin.

He unbuckled his own seatbelt, turned his body, braced one hand on the back of her seat, and reached over with the other to touch the seatbelt buckle.

A faint scent of citrus flooded his nose, and his hand paused.

And it was in that very moment of hesitation that Su Jin woke up.

She opened her eyes in a daze, meeting a pair of ink-colored eyes just inches away.

So close that she could see her own reflection in his eyes, so close that his breath fell against her lips.

What is going on?

Su Jin was very confused and blinked her eyes.

Gu Chen looked at her, his hand already touching the seatbelt buckle, and with a "click," the restraint was released.

Su Jin snapped back to reality and sat up abruptly.

Gu Chen couldn't dodge in time, and their foreheads collided solidly.

Su Jin gasped in pain, tears almost springing to her eyes. She reached out to touch her forehead, but a pair of hands was faster than hers.

"Are you alright?" Gu Chen's warm palm landed on her forehead, rubbing it gently, his low voice sounding in her ear.

Su Jin was in pain and embarrassed, so mortified she wished she could crawl into a crack in the ground.

"I'm fine..." She shrank back against the seat.

Gu Chen's hand paused, and he retreated to his own seat: "It looks a bit red; remember to apply an ice pack when you get back."

Su Jin covered her forehead and agreed.

"Um... thank you for driving me back, I'm going up now." She hurriedly opened the car door, and before getting out, she couldn't help but turn back and whisper, "Your forehead... should also be iced."

Gu Chen smiled: "Mm, go ahead."

Su Jin bit her lip and got out of the car. She looked calm on the surface, but inside, she was already wailing.

Such a stupid blunder, Gu Chen must think she's a fool...

It's hopeless.

Su Jin sighed and walked toward the building entrance, feeling like life was meaningless.

Just as she reached the entrance, the door was pushed open from the inside. As luck would have it, Mother Su walked out carrying a trash bag and froze when she saw her.

"You're back?"

"Mm." Su Jin replied with a guilty conscience and quickened her pace to head inside.

Mother Su didn't move, her gaze passing over her to land on the car that hadn't driven away yet: "Whose car is that?"

"A colleague, we worked too late, so they gave me a ride back," Su Jin said quickly.

Mother Su asked suspiciously: "A man or a woman?"

Su Jin was helpless: "What difference does it make?"

"An excellent male colleague is someone you could develop a relationship with, you know." Mother Su's eyes were still glancing over there.

Su Jin was scared to death and hurriedly pulled her mother upstairs: "Stop trying to play matchmaker, I already told you last time what kind of person I like."

Mother Su: "..."

She paused, then paused again, and tentatively said: "A-Jin, you don't happen to like women, do you?"