At the sight of her, Gu Nianbin was stunned. Besides the name, the girl also looked like Xia Xiaowan.
However, she was more gentle and quiet, and spoke to him softly. In a long light orange T shirt and a tight-fitting wine red coat, she looked decent and low-key and smiled a lot. When lifting her coffee cup, her little finger rose slightly. In the soft light of wall lamps, her well-trimmed fingernails were glistening without any nail polish on them.
The girl was an accountant. Although she was very young, she already made herself a chief financial officer. Gu Nianbin talked with her about some financial affairs. If it had been someone else, she would have tried her best to show off her professional knowledge. But the girl in front of him spoke very skillfully. Her words were sincere, appropriate, and well-paced, making Gu Nianbin comfortable and at ease.
Gu Nianbin couldn’t find any fault with her, even if he wanted to. The girl was perfectly in conformity with his standards for choosing a spouse. Actually, his ideal wife was Xia Xiaowan. The girl he met today was simply a copy of Xia Xiaowan. Gu Nianbin couldn’t dislike her.
Perhaps the secretary had told her that Gu Nianbin could only spare an hour to meet her. So when the time was up, she stood up, shook hand, and said goodbye to Gu Nianbin.
Then she turned around without any hesitation or reluctance, which was different from all the other women he dated before. Gu Nianbin nodded his head slightly. Without Xia Xiaowan, she would have been a good choice. At least she was reasonable and not clingy, and also seemed smart. Such a wife would take good care of his family.
"Miss Xia," he called her. "Do you have time for dinner?"
Xia Xiaowan turned to him with a smile and a slight nod. "Of course, I would love to, if Mr. Gu hasn’t found me talkative."
"Good. It’s settled then. I’ll ask my secretary to contact you." Gu Nianbin thought for a while and said, "Or how about I drive you back?"
"No, thank you. I have my own car," Xia Xiaowan said to him politely. She walked out of the coffee shop, took out a car key and pressed it, and then the lights of a white Buick flashed. She was born into a rich family, and worked as an executive in a foreign company. A rich girl like her deserved a BMW or Audi. Gu Nianbin did not expect that she drove a Buick Regal. Her low-profile style added to his impression of her.
Xia Xiaowan got into the car, waved farewell to him, and then turned the steering wheel. The Buick Regal slowly merged into traffic.
Xiaoding opened the door, but Gu Nianbin was still standing there in a daze. He called, "Master."
Gu Nianbin recovered himself. He got into the car, leaned against the seat, and rubbed the area between his eyebrows. In the morning, he had counted how many days left in the five-year commitment between him and Xia Xiaowan. Until now, she had been gone for 3 years, 8 months and 8 days, so there were only 1 year, 3 months and 22 days left. If Xia Xiaowan didn’t come back, he would forget her completely, and marry one of the girls his family introduced to him.
He did not remember how long he had been in love with Xiaowan. Ten years? Or twenty years? It seemed that she was the only one he ever loved from his puberty on. When he was younger, he was headstrong and persistent regardless of the worries of his parents and the advice from his friends. But now, he was too old to wait longer. He needed someone to share the heavy burden on him.
The Gu family was among the richest ones in City G and had engaged in trade for generations. They had an ancestral three-yard house outside the city. Born into such a rich and large family, younger Gus, in large numbers, had led an extravagant and idle life. When it came to Gu Nianbin’s grandfather, the Gu family was just an empty shell. And his granduncle, who was then obsessed with an opera performer, stayed in the theater all day and disregarded business deals. Afterwards, he even voluntarily gave up his right of inheritance.His grandfather struggled to support the family business and passed on it to his father. At that time, it happened to be the peak period of domestic investment. Thanks to the good foundation, the Gu’s company grasped the opportunity and rose gradually. At one time, it even matched the Jiang’s company—the leader in City G.However, the Gu family was different from the Jiang family which had definite successor with only one heir for t
But how could a girl run faster than a car? When the car drove past her, Gu Nianbin looked back at her through the window. The little girl stood blankly at the roadside, and she was chewing her fingers! She was too old to do such a thing! What a freak!Xiaoding was quite puzzled. "It was a strange thing. Why did she run away?"Gu Nianbin didn't speak, but he caressed his forehead and smiled. Seeing the smile from the rear-view mirror, Xiaoding was startled. The young master rarely smiled. What happened today? Maybe the blind date was a success?Gu Shanshan bounced out of the house and said, "Thank God, you're finally back. Mom has been nagging all afternoon.""You deserve that. You were away from home too often these days." Gu Nianbin mounted the steps leisurely."Come on! She was nagging at you." Gu Shanshan took Gu Nianbin's arm and walked alongside him into the house. "What concerns her most is whether your blind da
After dinner, Gu Nianbin felt it was too stuffy in the house, so he went for a walk in the front yard. After walking down the steps, he saw the little girl, who happened to straighten up. The girl looked up and was shocked at the sight of Gu Nianbin. Dragging the broom, she ran away again. Gu Nianbin raised his hand and called out, "Hey!" However, the little girl ran as fast as a bunny, probably not hearing him. Gu Nianbin dropped his hand, not knowing why he wanted to stop her.It was in early autumn. Although it was past 7 pm, but instead of getting dark, the sky was reddish, like the color of the sunset's afterglow. He lit a cigarette and looked quietly at the tall plane tree. It seemed as if a young girl was standing under the tree with her head tilted. Then she smiled at him and said, "Brother Bin…"At that time, she was just a 16-year-old girl who started to yearn for love. One day, she came to tell him her little secret. "Brother Bin, I have a crush
As the night grew darker, everything became blurry shadows before his eyes. The plane tree swayed in the wind and shed its leaves. The next morning, leaves would pile up on the ground. Somehow, Gu Nianbin thought of the lean and small figure of the girl who dashed away from him. Then he couldn't help smiling. It seemed that she would be very busy tomorrow morning.Gu Shanshan came out of the house and asked, "Brother, why are you standing here blankly ? What are you thinking about?"Gu Nianbin took his last puff of the cigarette and flicked it far away. The butt flew across the sky in an arc and then landed on the patterned tiles.Getting no response from him, Gu Shanshan went on to ask, "Are you thinking about Xiaowan?"Gu Nianbin shook his head and asked, "What's the name of the new girl?""Du Xiaoxian." Gu Shanshan became a little curious. "Why do you care about her?""Nothing. She seems to fear me and
It was on the night of the Lantern Festival. All his family members were invited to the Xia's to celebrate the festival. After dinner, Gu Nianbin, Su Chen, Xia Xiaowan and Gu Shanshan sat together chatting. It seemed that Xia Xiaowan mentioned there were shows of festive lanterns and dragon and lion dances outside. They all heard about the lively scene, but never saw it before. As soon as Xia Xiaowan mentioned it, Gu Shanshan suggested that they should go out to have a look.However, their parents didn't allow them to go to such crowded places. Gu Shanshan was frustrated but she didn't give up. Among all the kids, she was the youngest but bravest one. She said that they could sneak out to have a look when their parents were playing cards. Nobody would discover it as long as they came back quickly.Gu Nianbin was then 18 years old and could be counted as an adult. However, he acquiesced their adventure as he saw the eagerness in Xia Xiaowan's eyes. They snea
Gu Nianbin started to read a book on bed after entering the room. He was quiet in nature and reading was his way to relax after a busy day working in the company. He read for pleasure and thus was not very picky with what he was reading. He was even fond of novels that Shao Boqing despised most. After a while, he got up to get some water, only to discover that his cupboard was empty. No one was allowed to enter his room while he was away, so nobody filled the cupboard for him. He had no choice but to go to the kitchen downstairs. When walking by the dining room, he heard a sound from the side door, very slight but quite clear on such a silent night. He roughly knew who it was and thus ran after to check it out. As expected, the figure of a little girl flashed by under the dim moonlight, as fast as the wind. What was left was only a faint fragrance, which smelled like shampoo. It was faint but pleasant, lingering around him.He stood still for a while. It s
Yes, that was what Gu Nianbin felt exactly. She enjoyed sweeping the ground.With her eyes looking down, she was at ease without fear or panic. The scene looked quite pleasant as if she was dancing instead of sweeping the ground.In fact, Gu Nianbin could not see her expression. He even had no chance to look at her face carefully because she always ran away at the sight of him, or lowered her head like now. He could only see the top of her head, which was shimmering under the golden sunlight.Suddenly, she straightened up. Gu Nianbin dodged behind the curtains. Seeing her remove the leave on her hair, Gu Nianbin smiled silently. She finally came to realize that. But he didn't know why he had hidden himself. He was the young master. Why had he hidden from a maid?After getting changed, he went downstairs for jogging on the lawn. When going out, he coughed deliberately. As expected, he heard a train of footsteps. With a snicker, he d
"Don't be afraid of others. Everyone is equal. Although we are domestic servants, we make money honestly rather than steal anything or rob anyone. We are not inferior to others. What’s there to be afraid of?"Was that so? Du Xiaoxian was a little confused because her words were different from what her second aunt had said. According to her second aunt, people were divided into different social classes. The upper class was born to lead a rich life, while the lowest class had to suffer from cold and hunger and even sleep on the street or under a tree. Therefore, she needed to do better so that she would be born into a rich family in the next life.Ah Ling saw that Xiaoxian was in a daze and even forgot to eat the buns, so she patted her hand, only to find it as cold as ice. She then pulled her and walked her out. "Don't stay here. You need to bask in the sunlight. Your hands are too cold."When they came out, Gu Nianbin was still jogging there. D