Reluctantly Willing

“Mr. Gu.”

Gu Jun ignored him and went straight into the hotel lobby, then to the room that had already been prepared.

“What’s the matter?”

The driver didn’t know what had happened. He simply described everything he knew. After Chen Chen heard everything, he knew it would not be so simple. “What happened at Mr. An’s house?”

“I don’t know. I’m only responsible for driving. I’m not there for the rest of the time. Mr. Gu won’t let me go with him.”

After a while, Gu Jun came out and lit a cigarette, then asked the driver to send the young master back to the villa. His child had a hard time during the journey back and he did not have the energy to take care of a child.

Chen Chen followed Gu Jun to the room. The door to the bathroom was opened. An Xiaoyan lay in the bathtub, eyes closed, hands on both sides of the bathtub, pale and lifeless.

“Did everything go well?”

Gu Jun sat down on the sofa and said with a serious tone, “I seem to have done something wrong.”

Chen Chen did not know what he was talking about. He started narrating all the recent events that happened in A City, one at a time. “Old Mr. Gu announced that he would elect the next chairman of the Gu family in a year’s time. Either you or Mr. Gu Jing would be elected.”

“Hmm,” Gu Jun gave an absent reply.

“People from the Finance Department have already made a calculation on this matter. If Gu Jing is elected, it will do a lot of harm to our company. Our company recently collaborated with Stars Entertainment Company. If we want to have a share in the entertainment industry, this collaboration project will be affected by the choice of heir.”

Sheng Kong Group, a company founded by Gu Jun, was a personal property separated from his family. Now the power of the Gu family’s businesses still remained in the hands of Old Mr. Gu. The heir who ruled had always been the one who had founded his own company and survived under the oppression of other powerful families.

“What has Gu Jing been up to recently?”

“Gu Jing approached the Gao family recently. I bet he still bears a grudge that we seized the land from Southern Real Estate. Now he is trying to please the people from the Gao family, probably plotting to give us a heavy blow in the real estate industry.”

Gu Jun despised people who formed an alliance through marriage. What’s the use of depending on women?

After Chen Chen was done speaking, he passed by the bathroom when he was about to leave. When he saw the person lying inside, he pretended not to see anything. Gu Jun stopped him with a sentence.

“Do you think I’m cruel?”

“Mr. Gu, you have only done what you feel you should do. There is nothing cruel and heartless about it. There is something that I don’t know whether to say or not. I don’t think Mr. An should bear so much harm.”

“If he doesn’t suffer, who should suffer? Do you know how much I have lost?”

“Sorry, I overstepped.” Chen Chen bowed before he retreated. As an outsider, he had no rights to comment.

After a day’s rest in the hotel, Gu Jun rushed back to the company. It was time for the closing of the year. Many things could not be delayed.

After getting off the plane, An Xiaoyan still did not wake up. He relied on a drip for two days to stay alive and looked pale. Chen Chen felt that he was carrying cotton on his back. Never had he seen a man so light.

“Take him back to the villa.”

Chen Chen was stunned for a moment. Gu Jun never allowed outsiders into the villa. Inside the villa lived the young master and several servants. Gu Jun would usually stay outside for entertainment purposes.

As soon as Chen Chen put An Xiaoyan on the bed, An Xiaoyan woke up and looked at the ceiling in a daze.

“You are awake. I’m going to order some food. You haven’t eaten in two days.”

“Where is this?” A hoarse voice asked. Chen Chen poured a glass of water and handed it over.

“This is Mr. Gu’s villa.”

It was Gu Jun again. Why did these two words always appear in his life? Since Gu Jun hated him so much, why must he bring him back? Gu Jun should have thrown him directly at the roadside. To him, it was better to be eaten by wolves than to suffer here.

Chen Chen sat by for a while, he could feel that An Xiaoyan seemed different from before. He could not explain the feeling. An Xiaoyan somehow looked more melancholy.

“You should be happy that you got to go home.” Chen Chen randomly changed a topic. The sadness in An Xiaoyan’s eyes made him feel as if he had said something wrong.

“Do you know how it feels to have every pillar collapse?”

Chen Chen didn’t know the meaning behind this. Everyone living in the world needed support. Sometimes the support was their loved ones, sometimes family members or friends. In short, there must be something good worthwhile for them to live on.

“Then build a new pillar.”

No, there won’t be any new pillars. There will never be any.”

“I want to eat apples. Can you peel an apple for me?”

Chen Chen went to the living room. There was a fruit platter on the table. It seemed that the cleaning aunty came by every day. He took one apple in his hand and took a knife from the cabinet, then went back to the room to peel it.

“Well, I’m not very skilled. Please bear with me.” Chen Chen’s impression of An Xiaoyan was good. Indeed, An Xiaoyan did something wrong, but he had already been punished. From a fair perspective, he still found this person likeable.

“Nevermind. I don’t need it to look that good either. Do you know what he meant by bringing me back?”

“I really don’t know. Don’t think too much about it. Although Mr. Gu is obstinate and violent, he always acts calmly and decisively. Mr. Gu is the most powerful person in the industry.”

“Hmm…” An Xiaoyan never believed that Gu Jun was a calm person. If he were calm, he would not ignore An Xiaoyan’s feelings and allow those things to happen in front of An Xiaoyan’s parents. If he were calm, he would let An Xiaoyan go. No, what right do I have to order Gu Jun? I have been a clown all this time. I do what Gu Jun says, just like in a circus.

Chen Chen had planned to accompany An Xiaoyan until Gu Jun returned. However, when the meal arrived, the company called to say that something had cropped up and that he had to rush back to attend to it. “I can’t accompany you for dinner. Something came up at the company. I have peeled the apple. Remember to eat it.”

“Thank you.”

After Chen Chen left, An Xiaoyan kept staring at the knife on the table, an ordinary fruit knife, with a brand-new shiny face.

An Xiaoyan held up the fruit knife on the table and ran his index finger across the blade. It was a very sharp knife with a sharp edge. If handled carelessly, one would definitely get hurt and bleed.

From the moment he left the An family’s home, An Xiaoyan had nothing left to be nostalgic about. Gu Jun not only destroyed the only pillar of strength in his life, but also took Liu Cheng away. As for Ye Qing, he had entrusted her to Dong Zi. He was sure Dong Zi would take good care of her. After much deliberation, the most pathetic one was his ginger cat, Wonton. He only managed to spend half a month with it, and it was disposed of even before they could establish a relationship.

The moment the knife touched his wrist, he shrank back in fear. In the past, his teacher said that this type of wrist cutting was painful. One had to cut his wrist deep enough to die. Sometimes, even if the cut was deep enough, the person might not even die. And, the person had to endure the extreme pain and cold from losing blood before dying. He could not withstand this type of pain and fear.

After hesitating for a long time, An Xiaoyan put down the knife and put it under the bedstead.

Gu Jun jumped in excitement at the thought of An Xiaoyan’s desperate expression. He finally had his revenge and made An Xiaoyan’s life worse than death.

Back at the villa, when Gu Jun saw An Xiaoyan, a sudden image of An Xiaoyan’s silhouette under the sun flashed in his mind.

He pressed An Xiaoyan’s head and kissed him roughly. Before his tongue reached into An Xiaoyan’s mouth, he was kicked in his stomach.

“Is it not disgusting enough?”

Disgusting, An Xiaoyan had no right to say that he was disgusting!

Gu Jun strangled An Xiaoyan’s neck and shouted, “You feel disgusted?!”

“Everything is disgusting. Your expression, your body, your touch makes me disgusted. Since you don’t like men, why torture each other?”

Gu Jun felt as if he was drenched with a bucket of cold water. “I’m disgusting, right? Do you want me to show you what is really disgusting?”

Giving no chance to An Xiaoyan to reply, he dragged An Xiaoyan into the car and pushed him in, then drove him to a place where nightmares were real

Stopping at the door of Night Charm Luxurious Clubhouse, Gu Jun pulled An Xiaoyan out of the car. An Xiaoyan grabbed the handle of the car and did not want to get out. This place was the beginning of his nightmare; he would never want to go back again. He knew very clearly what Gu Jun was capable of doing to him. If Gu Jun were to throw him back into the clubhouse out of anger, his desire to live on would disappear again.

“Come down!”

“Are you going to throw me here again?” An Xiaoyan shouted.

“Oh, you think too much. I only want to take you to meet a person, an old flame of yours.”

An Xiaoyan did not know what Gu Jun meant. He never had an old flame.

He dragged and pulled An Xiaoyan into Night Charm Luxurious Clubhouse. Everyone knew Gu Jun in the clubhouse. Seeing that Gu Jun had brought someone with him, everyone made way for him. An Xiaoyan was unable to break free.

“Get in.” Gu Jun pushed him into the elevator and pressed down the button for basement third floor. “Today you will see what disgusting really is and how many clean people there are in the world!”