Chapter 68 - There Could Be No Better Time Than This

Gu Nianbin’s heart skipped a beat, as if someone had rubbed his heart, and then smoothed it away with an iron. With every wrinkle stretching out, he felt indescribably comfort. He hugged her so tightly as if he wanted to embed her in his body. He lowered his head to look for her lips. Her lips were incredibly soft, and her breathing was faintly sweet.

Gu Nianbin kissed her like crazy, feeling extremely overjoyed in his heart…

At this very moment, the door was pushed open which killed the mood. Hearing the sound, Du Xiaoxian was so scared that she wanted to hide. But she failed to break away from Gu Nianbin’s arms, which were like iron claws clenching her so tightly. She was eager to say something but couldn’t finish a complete sentence.

Shao Boqing didn’t expect that he would bump into this. He was also stunned for a moment. Poker Face Gu looked very affectionate when kissing someone…

“President, it’s office time, don’t be overeager!” Shao Boqing’s words were half teasing yet half reminding, telling him not to burn himself when there was no way to put out the fire.

Gu Nianbin let go of Du Xiaoxian and gave a low roar, “Get out!”

Instead of going out, Shao Boqing walked towards them, “I have a matter to discuss with you!”

“Get out!” Gu Nianbin raised his voice. His little girl was already trembling with fear, so he didn’t want to hear anything now.

Shao Boqing rolled his eyes and went out helplessly. Zhou Ting laughed at him gloatingly, “President Shao, I told you not to go in, but you wouldn’t listen. Well, got scolded?”

Shao Boqing raised his eyebrows and pretended to be mysterious as moving closer to her, “Your boss was doing something bad inside when I walked in, so he became angry out of shame!”

Zhou Ting didn’t buy it and curled her lips, “President Shao must be talking about yourself. My boss is gentleman, not like you.”

“Not like me? What do you mean by that?” Shao Boqing said angrily, “I didn’t kiss a little girl during working hours.”

Zhou Ting immediately opened her eyes wide and asked in a low voice, “Really?”

“Of course,” Poker Face Gu turned his back on Shao Boqing, so he wouldn’t keep the secret for him, “It’s a pity that you haven’t peeked through his door after such a long performance.”

Zhou Ting really felt pitiful. Although she didn’t like prying into others’ privacy, she was still quite curious about her own boss, because the contrast was so great. What would a cold-faced boss look like when he was gentle? She had always wanted to know!

At this time, the light of the inside line turned on, Zhou Ting hurriedly picked up the phone, “Boss, yes, yes, okay.”

After hanging up, Zhou Ting said, “President Shao, the boss wants you in.”

Shao Boqing rolled his eyes again, “A second ago he wanted me out, now he wanted me in. Am I that easy to be bossed around?”

Zhou Ting covered her mouth and laughed, “One who was one grade higher could overwhelm the other. Well, what can you do? He is the president.”

Shao Boqing snorted, raised his head and pushed the door open. Zhou Ting giggled from behind.

Gu Nianbin was the only one in the room. Shao Boqing looked around and asked curiously, “Where did you hide the little girl?”

“What was the matter?” Gu Nianbin lit a cigarette and raised his eyes to look at him.

Shao Boqing still poked his head around and said, “In the bathroom? Why are you hiding her? There is no need. Call her out. It’s uncomfortable to be there!”

Gu Nianbin took a deep puff from his cigarette and breathed a mouthful of thick smoke. This time, he didn’t even look at Shao Boqing, “Get lost if you have no damn thing!” He was a man of good breeding and self-restraint. There was no one else who could make him curse like this other than Shao Boqing.

Shao Boqing knew when to stop despite the teasing. He bent down, picked up Gu Nianbin’s cigarette case from the table and lit one before sitting down, “Two things. The first is about the cooperation with Chenguang. The market reaction is very good. I want to make some further investment.”

Gu Nianbin flicked away some cigarette ashes and said, “Alright, have the Additional Investment Plan written and I’ll sign it.”

“The second is,” Shao Boqing said, “I found out there are 28 companies bidding for the Eco-Park project.”

“So many?” Gu Nianbin frowned slightly. There were many wealthy people in G City, but few had the ability to nail the Eco-Park project.

“It seems that there are even foreign companies participating. The province and the city have always been keen to attract foreign investments, hoping to create different ecological parks with advanced foreign ideas. After all, there are more successful examples abroad than in China.”

“Aren’t they afraid of luring wolves into home? This isn’t any ordinary project.”

“Insider information,” Shao Boqing said with his legs crossed, “The province doesn’t want the ecological park to become the backyard of a local rich family, so this time there would be two winners, local and foreign. It will be safe to have the two parties suppress each other to achieve balance.”

Gu Nianbin took another puff from his cigarette and asked, “Any news from the Jiang’s Company?”

“They didn’t use Shen Li’s connections,” Shao Boqing said, “Shen Li said that the Jiang’s Company wanted to compete fairly this time. It was probably Jiang Kaiwei’s intention.”

The corners of Gu Nianbin’s mouth curved, as if he was smiling, “He lost two projects to me in a row. Starting to run out of patience, huh?”

“Jiang Kaiwei is just immature like a child. Don’t take it too seriously.” Shao Boqing said, “Even Shen Li is annoyed by him sometimes.”

Gu Nianbin looked up at him and said, “You and Shen Li have been quite close recently!”

Shao Boqing chuckled and said, “We share the same love for drinks and beauties. I can also help you get some information by the way.”

“In return, give him some of my information by the way, right?” Gu Nianbin squinted at him.

Shao Boqing was frank actually, “Of course! To be honest, if it weren’t for my help to keep the balance between you and Shen Li for the past few years, you two would have destroyed each other already!” Then Shao Boqing frowned and added, “But then again, I know why you keep battling with Jiang Kaiwei, why wouldn’t he let you go? Are you still have secrets that I don’t know of?”

“There are no secrets between us.” Gu Nianbin put out his cigarette, “Now it’s just a habit after so many fights!”

Shao Boqing laughed, “Shen Li said that Jiang Kaiwei is tired of fighting with you in business, so he has been looking for some new things to compete with you. Just in time, your little girl came out of nowhere, so he has his eyes on her.”

“Naive!” Gu Nianbin also laughed.

“Knowing that this is naive, why are you still playing with him?” Shao Boqing said, “If I hadn’t known you for so many years, I would have felt that you are very naive now!”

In Shao Boqing’s opinion, Gu Nianbin had indeed changed a lot recently. He had more smiles and more expressions, even the number of times he cursed Shao Boqing increased. The credit of all these changes belongs to Du Xiaoxian. In private, he told Zhou Ting that once a man who hadn’t been with anyone for more than ten years fell in love, his feelings would be extremely strong like a flood. Therefore, they shouldn’t be surprised if anything unbelievable happened.

But today, he was still shocked. The well-dressed Gu Nianbin had turned into a beast clothed in human skin. And later on, he would show his nature as a beast, right? Thinking about Du Xiaoxian’s thin and weak body, Shao Boqing shook his head and couldn’t help but say to his old friend, “You should be more restrained. After all, she is still young. Didn’t she say that she hasn’t reached eighteen yet?”

“Get lost!” Gu Nianbin threw a pen at him.

Shao Boqing dodged, and the pen dropped on the floor. He picked it up and threw it on the table before looking at the bathroom door, “She has been inside for long enough. Let her out. I won’t laugh at her!”

“Fuck off!” The pen that he had just picked up was thrown at him again. This time, Shao Boqing was prepared. He grabbed the pen with his big hand and firmly clenched it, laughing, “Confiscate your weapon!”

Shao Boqing went out and threw the pen on Zhou Ting’s desk, “This is for you.”

Zhou Ting glanced at him and said, “President Shao, even if you really want to give me a gift, you can take something from your own office. What’s the point of giving away gifts using others’ things?”

“Well well, you little girl, if you continue to be so sharp-tongued, be careful that you won’t find a boyfriend!”

Zhou Ting smiled and said, “Don’t worry about me. Save it for Nina.”

“What happened to Nina?”

“Didn’t you know? She just broke up with her boyfriend and is suffering from it.”

“Was Nina in a relationship?” Shao Boqing’s eyes widened.

Zhou Ting also widened her eyes, “Oh my God, how could you be a boss like that? Nina had been in and out of a relationship already, but you actually don’t know anything about it? Well, now that you know, shouldn’t you express some…you know?”

“What do you mean?” Shao Boqing asked.

“Treat her to a dinner!” Zhou Ting said, “When girls are in a bad mood, they will either need to go shopping or eat like crazy. I feel that going shopping will cost you too much money, so it’s better to treat her to a meal. What do you think, President Shao?”

Shao Boqing looked at her suspiciously, “Really?”

“Of course,” Zhou Ting said with a serious expression, “If you don’t believe me, go back and ask her, but don’t say that I told you.”

Shao Boqing laughed and said, “I will not be fooled by you.” Then he turned around and left.

Zhou Ting tiptoed to the door and saw that he was indeed heading in the direction of the office. She hurriedly went back and called Nina, “I’m done here. Now it’s your turn.”

“What do you want to eat this time?” Nina asked on the phone.

Zhou Ting couldn’t think of anything at the moment, “Check online to find something that we haven’t eaten before, and expensive. Anyway, President Shao isn’t stingy.”

Nina said, “Every time it was my boss to be swindled, when is your boss’s turn?”

Zhou Ting said, “Forget it. What level is my boss? What level is yours? Even if you lend me ten more guts, I’m afraid I won’t be able to open my mouth.”

Nina sighed, “I felt sorry seeing my boss to be swindled every time!”

“Come on, you came up with this idea.” Zhou Ting reminded her, “It was you who said that your boss invited this beauty to dinner today and bought a purse for that beauty tomorrow. All the benefits belonged to other women, why couldn’t we have some?”

Nina laughed loudly on the phone, “Alright, alright, stop talking. He should be back soon.”

Zhou Ting hung up the phone and quietly walked to the door to look. There was no one in the room. Zhou Ting’s scalp went numb. Were they really doing bad things like Shao Boqing said? She knew that there was a lounge behind the office, in which there was a big bed. It was soft and comfortable. She had personally picked it out back then. But she never thought that one day, her boss would do it in that bed during working hours! (Secretary Zhou, which of your eyes saw them doing it?)

Actually, Gu Nianbin and Du Xiaoxian were really in the lounge, but they weren’t doing it. Instead, they were playing Chinese checkers. Gu Nianbin did not know that there were checkers in the room. Du Xiaoxian found it but she didn’t know how to play, so Gu Nianbin taught her. They sat on the wide bay window with a cushion for each. In the middle was a chessboard, on which round glass pinballs shone under the sunlight.

Outside the window was the blue autumn sky which was high and far, while white clouds floating on it like cotton candies. The little girl sitting opposite him opened her big clear eyes and looked at him with a smile. Gu Nianbin suddenly felt that there could be no better time than this.

For all these years, he had been lingering in the midst of wrong and drunken dreams, wasting time. All of a sudden, he found that spring was almost over and forced himself to climb the mountains to appreciate the sceneries. When he was touring a temple, he talked with a monk in the courtyard full of bamboos, snatching half a day’s leisure to get away from hustling daily life.