Back Then, I Adored You

“I’ll be too busy, probably not able to spare any time,” Qin Zhi’ai said.

“You’re right. Can you write down the steps for me? I’ll follow your recipe to make it for Mr. Gu. If you have time, you can make it, too,” the housekeeper joked with a smile. “Mr. Gu must like your cooking more.”

Qin Zhi’ai curled her mouth up, but she didn’t say anything back. Instead, she immediately looked down to hide her sadness, then she turned around and walked out of the dining room.

The day before, Gu Yusheng had slept soundly at the Four Seasons Hotel. He was woken up by the landline phone in the room.

Actually, he hadn’t slept that long, but he felt like it had been more than a century. When he woke up, he wasn’t sure what day it was.

The phone kept ringing, so he frowned and picked it up. It wasn’t the hotel staff. Instead, tt was his driver, Xiaowang. He sounded worried when he said, “Master Gu, it’s me, Xiaowang.”

Gu Yusheng sounded a little grumpy and sleepy at first, since he had been woken up by the call. “What’s going on?” Gu Yusheng asked.

“Something happened at the Shanghai office. They need someone from headquarters to help them. Master Gu, who do you think we should send there—” Gu Yusheng interrupted without evening asking what was wrong with the Shanghai branch. “Book a plane ticket for me. I’ll go there.”

Xiaowang seemed to be shocked by Gu Yusheng’s decision. He had been so mad the previous day and smashed his whole office. He was shocked for a second before he responded to Gu Yusheng, “Yes, Master Gu.”

“I’ll be waiting for you outside of the Four Seasons Hotel in half an hour. On the way, can you stop by a mall and buy me a new cell phone?” After pausing for a second, Gu Yusheng gave more instructions to Xiaowang. “There are clean clothes in my room at the office. Can you bring two outfits for me?”

After they hung up the phone, Gu Yusheng leaned back on the headboard of the bed. He lit a cigarette and held it between his fingers, taking the time to smoke it. After he finished the cigarette, he flipped the blankets open and got out of bed. He walked to the bay window and opened the curtain to see how beautiful the night view of the city was.

Gu Yusheng stared at the view outside the window for a long time until his eyes became sore. He looked at the watch on his wrist, anticipating when Xiaowang would come so that he could put on his clothes and walk downstairs.

On the way to the airport, Xiaowang remembered he hadn’t booked a return ticket for Gu Yusheng. He asked, “Master Gu, it’s not a serious issue at the Shanghai branch. I think things will be settled by tomorrow morning. Should I book a ticket back to Beijing for tomorrow afternoon?”

Gu Yusheng watched the street lights pass by outside the window. He looked like he was lost in thought. After a long time, he responded affirmatively to Xiaowang. He turned around and took a look at Xiaowang, saying calmly, “No rush. You can book it for later.”

The reason he was going to Shanghai was to go to a different place and relax a bit.

Thinking of this, Gu Yusheng said, “Didn’t the Shanghai Finance channel ask me to do an interview with them a couple times before? Contact them to see when they would be free to interview me in the next few days.”

“Yes, Master Gu.” Xiaowang had worked for Gu Yusheng for many years. He might not have understood every thought in Gu Yusheng’s mind, but he could at least guess at most of them. He had never seen Gu Yusheng expose himself to the media. If he wanted to do an interview, he was merely looking for excuses to not go back to Beijing.