A President’s Out-of-Body Experience

Chapter 37

Gu Xiaoshan never dared to believe in such a sudden and spectacular love.

He returned to his office. Actually the matter was not very troublesome, and he finished settling it before dawn. Xu Yunyun asked if he wanted to return home, but he said he would just stay and sleep in the company, then Xu Yunyun left for home herself.

The view from the president’s office was always fantastic. His view from the windows were high up above, but not higher than the neon lights from the city. When everything fell silent, the garish and brightly coloured lights all looked very cold and distant. In his lounge, Gu Xiaoshan took out a cigarette and sat by a small round table. On the table was a half-empty glass of liquor, and his phone.

As though he was bored stiff, Gu Xiaoshan picked up his phone. The phone recognised his face, and automatically unlocked the screen. Unconsciously, Gu Xiaoshan opened the social media app, and selected his most recent chat, in it was a whole string of messages from Renzi. Renzi’s words were clumsy, and did not have any order. Gu Xiaoshan rested his chin in his hand, looking at these silly messages, he could not help but laugh. When he laughed, the vibrations affected the burning cigarette dangling between his fingers. The ashes suddenly fell and burnt him slightly. In pain, he curled up his fingers, and became a little more sober, then placed his phone face down on the table.

He looked at the clock on the wall. It was already very late, he should take a rest.

Gu Xiaoshan was a person with great self-discipline. No matter how late he slept, he would be able to wake up on time the next day, then run on the treadmill for thirty minutes, and finishing up with two sets of weight-lifting exercises. He would then shower, have his low fat nutritious breakfast, and read the news. Everything was done systemically, and the steps never changed.

He had never requested the same of others. However, those who had knew him for long all knew, only self-disciplined and sharp people like him would find it easier to be in Gu Xiaoshan’s good graces. As for those who were more lazy and indulgent, they would find it difficult to get Gu Xiaoshan’s recognition. A few days ago, someone even heard Xu Yunyun joke with a new secretary, “Dragging your feet along like this, without any orderliness, and you still want President Gu to like you? You think you’re President Ren?”

This morning, Gu Xiaoshan fell into a trance on the treadmill. Unconsciously, he wanted to text Renzi if he had woken up already, whether he had a headache from last night’s drinking. However, upon picking up his phone, he immediately placed it back face down.

Gu Xiaoshan was sorrowful.

Then, the phone vibrated by itself.

Flipping over the phone, Gu Xiaoshan saw another string of messages.

“Good morning, Brother Xiaoshan.”

“Are you there, Brother Xiaoshan.”

“My head hurts, Brother Xiaoshan.”

In the end, Gu Xiaoshan still could not hold himself back, and sent a reply. “Then why did you wake up so early.”

Renzi’s response came near instantly. “Because I heard you like people who wake up early.”

“Silly.” Gu Xiaoshan then put down his phone again.

Gu Xiaoshan’s heart suddenly sped up, it must be because of his running.

Feeling dizzy, Renzi got up and drank some beer. His brother happened across him, and he nearly got hit. Yu Yuntao scolded, “You’re still drinking!”

“This is a “revival beer”. Drinking it with a hangover, it’ll be like fighting poison with poison.”

Yu Yuntao thought, I’ve been hanging out in bars and clubs since I was fifteen years old, you think I don’t know about it?

Pulling at Renzi, he went to prepare some hot soup for him, and made him drink it down. Seeing his brother glaring fiercely at him, Renzi hurriedly gulped the soup down, nearly scalding himself.

Finally letting him go, Yu Yuntao asked, “You woke up so early?”

Renzi bashfully replied, “I heard that Brother Xiaoshan prefers people who wakes up early, goes to the gym, and strive for all in their lives. He doesn’t like people who sleep in.”

Yu Yuntao stared at Renzi. “What else?”

Renzi was startled. “Huh?”

“What else? Do you know what other type of people he likes? It can’t only be ‘wakes up early, goes to the gym, and strive for all’. If that’s the case, I’ll be his dream lover.”

Renzi was a little depressed. “I’m not sure too. I thought about his exes, and summed up some past experiences…”

“Poo!” Yu Yuntao rejected his strategy. “None of his exes worked out with him. If you’re studying their examples, aren’t you studying examples of failure?”

Renzi was aggrieved. “But up till now, there has been no successful examples.”

Yu Yuntao did not know what he could say, and could only give him some token encouragement, “Ah, then you’ll be the first one.”

Renzi was really encouraged by his words, and was full of hope. “Yes, he replied my texts today. I feel that I have a chance again.”

“So, your strategy now is to harass him with messages everyday, and hope that he won’t blacklist you but fall in love with you instead?”

Renzi paused. “Yes.”

Yu Yuntao shook his head. “This won’t work.”

Renzi thought about it. “Then… Actually, at that time, how did you woo Ah Xuan?”

Yu Yuntao halted, only replying after a moment. “Uh, it was a mutual attraction, it’s not clear exactly who chased after who.”

“Then, how did you chase after him?”

Yu Yuntao thought, and felt that there was nothing to hide. “I secretly followed him home, squatted below his apartment, and when he came back I followed him up to his apartment and slept with him. Then, I straight away moved in and never left.”

Hearing that, Renzi’s brows knitted tightly. “This sounds like…”

Yu Yuntao was quite proud of it. “How? Isn’t this method very effective?”

Renzi pondered over it before replying, “It doesn’t sound very legal…”

Hearing his little brother’s comment, Yu Yuntao was a little embarrassed. He waved his hand and said, “There’s no point for you to ponder over this, you won’t be able to use this method!”

“I won’t be able to use this method?”

“Can you push him down?”

Yu Yuntao’s tone was disdainful, and Renzi objected to it. “Must I depend on strength? I can depend on intelligence too!”

Yu Yuntao kept silent, and just looked at Renzi.

Renzi thought about it, and still lost heart. He gave up hope on using his brother’s “very effective” but “not very legal” method.

Renzi thought about it carefully. Yu Yuntao’s method was “simple and crude”, just like how Yu Yuntao normally dealt with things. When he had just reunited with his long lost elder brother, he had thought that he was a worldly wise person just like Brother Xiaoshan. Only later did he discover, a parent’s genes were too strong, and Yu Yuntao was a rare pioneer of fastballs. This may be the reason why Brother Xiaoshan and Yu Yuntao could never be good friends, as their characters were incompatible. Gu Xiaoshan’s roundabout manner would make Yu Yuntao fed up, thinking, does he have an end to this? Can’t he just go straight to the point?

Whereas Yu Yuntao’s bluntness would make Gu Xiaoshan uncomfortable, thinking, has this person ever gone to school? How come he doesn’t know how the world works?

As for Renzi, he could not find his own position. He was not as fearless as Yu Yuntao, but was also not as cunning as Gu Xiaoshan.

Yu Yuntao was now famous for his fearlessness, and was definitely of Old Mister Yu’s blood. Normally, he would still put on a fake smile and some fake politeness, but once a disagreement occured things would immediately get ugly, and caused people to be put on the spot. Of course, this was also because he was backed with the strength of the Yu family, as well as the gentler personality of Yu Yuntao’s personal assistant Zhi Xuan, who was able to play the role of the mediator. The unrestrained Yu Yuntao then called Zhi Xuan from the back garden of the Yu villa, “You don’t want to see the old man, but I want to see you. Let’s meet in the little clearing at the back of the hill, I really miss you very much.”

Zhi Xuan, famous for his gentle personality, replied, “Forget about it, you just miss my ass right?”

Naturally, Yu Yuntao, who believed that shame did not need to be considered when chasing a man, admitted it, “Yes.”

Zhi Xuan, famous for at the president’s beck and call, shot back. “You’re already so old, don’t you know how to wank?” Done, he hung up.

Yu Yuntao rather missed that twenty years of age, red-blooded, and always ready to be fucked Zhi Xuan1. Now he could only sigh, and when he put his phone away, he turned around to see Renzi standing behind him.

Immediately, Yu Yuntao felt ashamed, thinking that although it was fine for Zhi Xuan to usually treat him like this, but to have someone catch him in this situation, it was pretty shameful. Still Yu Yuntao thought of it in another way. Renzi definitely would not have been able to hear with Zhi Xuan said, and so he calmed down.

Renzi smiled, “Sorry bro, I didn’t disturb anything right?”

Seeing Renzi’s reaction, Yu Yuntao knew that his cover had not been blown. “See, I told you. Only by being shameless, you can then get what you want.”

Renzi nodded. “Yes, yes. Bro, hurry up and go to the back of the hill.”

Yu Yuntao did not know what to do, and so could only force himself to go to the back of the hill and feed mosquitoes for a few hours, so as to prove his own virility.

When it was time for lunch, Old Mister Yu even asked, “Where’s your elder brother?”

Renzi had wanted to cover up for his brother, but in front of Old Mister Yu, he was really unable to hide anything. After a few proddings, he confessed, “He seemed to have arranged to meet Ah Xuan at the clearing behind the hill… Uh, maybe they’re discussing work?”