That afternoon, Gu Shao had Xu Fei brought Lin Xi from his apartment to NTN Technology Center.

When Lin Xi arrived, Gu Shao had just gotten out of a production discussion.

“Let’s go.” Gu Shao took her downstairs when he saw Lin Xi.

Go? Go where?

Lin Xi was stupefied.

She, nonetheless, followed closely behind Gu Shao to the parking lot and into the car.

Gu Shao wasn’t planning on selling her, was he?

Lin Xi grumbled to herself.

Looking at the prize amount, Gu Nian’s eyes widened and her jaw almost fell off. She rubbed her eyes and counted the number of zeroes again. She was right, 1,000,000 yuan.

A million-yuan prize money for one competition? That was too good to be true, right?

Lin Xi couldn't help but grumbled to herself.

With this amount of money, it would not only last her through her studies. If she could save enough of it, she and her father just might have enough to support themselves for the rest of their lives should Gu Shao truly go bankrupt because of Lin Yize.

Lin Xi was already daydreaming about her wonderful life after winning the prize money and how to spend it.

Looking at the prize amount, Gu Nian’s eyes widened and her jaw almost fell off. She rubbed her eyes and counted the number of zeroes again. She was right, 1,000,000 yuan.

A million-yuan prize money for one competition? That was too good to be true, right?

Lin Xi couldn't help but grumbled to herself.

With this amount of money, it would not only last her through her studies. If she could save enough of it, she and her father just might have enough to support themselves for the rest of their lives should Gu Shao truly go bankrupt because of Lin Yize.

Lin Xi was already daydreaming about her wonderful life after winning the prize money and how to spend it.

“Nothing.” Drawing blank, Lin Xi made up something casually. “I forgot to wash my hands earlier.”

Truth was, she had never made a formal dinner like this before and everything was new to her. She had accidentally burned herself. Not knowing where there was a first-aid kit in this house, she had no choice but to apply some toothpaste for the time being.

“… …” Gu Shao didn’t move. Looking at the house that had obviously been cleaned and the table full of food in front of him, Gu Shao was finally aware of a problem: These chores, including housework and cooking, should not be Lin Xi’s responsibilities.

“You don’t need to do these,” said Gu Shao in a deep voice.

She was at the age to be taken care of.

“It’s nothing. They are all very easy tasks. They can cancel out part of my expenses.”

At the university.

The arrival of Gu Shao stirred up those on the office building floor.

A few younger female professors couldn't help but started gossiping stealthily after they saw the lunchbox that Gu Shao brought with him.

“Did Professor Gu bring lunch with him?”

“I think so. I have one that looks just like it.”

“That’s incredible.” Gu Shao didn’t come to the university very often and it was definitely the first time he came with a lunchbox.

“Did he get married?”

“Was he single before?”

“I think so.”

Lin Xi had gone through great difficulty squeezing this money out from the Lin family. She had to hide it in the between the sleeves of her luggage bag in order to sneak it past Zhang Cui and the others’ inspections in order to bring them with her.

She finally pulled this money out when she was organizing her luggage.

Seeing how Lin Xi looked nervous as though she worried that he would not accept it, Gu Shao’s eyes and frown deepened.

“I said I will support you till you are of age and I will keep to my words. As a minor, you will not need to worry about your expenses during this period of time,” said Gu Shao, his tone non-negotiable.

She wasn’t sure whether it was because he found her too rowdy, he had Xu Fei took her back to pack up her stuff.

Returning back to the temporary apartment that she had been staying at the last two days, Lin Xi packed up her belongings and text books back into her luggage bag with alacrity.

***

By the time Lin Xi returned to Gu Shao’s office, he was reading some research reports. Seeing that, Lin Xi decided to wait quietly on the couch.

Gu Shao attended another meeting after dinner.

He finally finished his work by 9 PM that night.

Lin Xi was still looking at him excitedly with her big eyes then.

The actual test performed and the details were not meaningful. As such, Gu Shao flipped straight to the last page and read the conclusion that was bolded.

Lin Xi walked over and reached her neck as far as she could, wanting to see the conclusion.

Unfortunately, Gu Shao had already closed up the report and placed it aside. His expressionless look gave away nothing.

Looking over at Lin Xi, Gu Shao’s look deepened.

Lin Xi was very confident just a second ago but now she started feeling anxious from the way that Gu Shao was looking at her.

“So, I…” am your real child, right?

Luo Xiu was waiting to go with Gu Shao to have a paternity test done but she didn’t think that they would be doing that right here at the NTN Technology Center. They didn’t even need to leave the building to have it done.

Lin Xi followed Gu Shao to the 9th floor.

Different from the office building on the top, this floor was filled with all sorts of electronic technologies and research and development departments.

Lin Xi was dazzled by all of them.

See that Lin Xi was still processing the information, Xu Fei added, “Boss Gu. He’s back. He will be arriving this afternoon.”

“Really?!” Lin Xi paused for a little bit and then there was joy in her eyes.

Didn’t they say 2.5 days? Seemed it had only been 2 days?

“Yes, really. It sounded like they were done over there so boss decided to just head back to City B,” explained Xu Fei.

As for the details, he would have to start from this morning.

In the NTN apartment.

As Xu Fei had told her to not wander around, Lin Xi decided to stay in the apartment for the entire day so as to not cause him any trouble. And she spent the day staring at her email inbox.

Finally, Lin Xi saw the notification of a new email on the lower right-hand corner on the monitor.

It was from one of the training institutions that she had sent her curricular vitae to previously.

The content of the email was very simple. It started with some official thank you wordings followed by a link.

It was a link to a test.

Gu Shao’s men found out the details of what happened that night at Imperial Court Hotel.

As it turned out, while the Fourth Gu was having their wedding there that day, over on another floor of the hotel, the presidents and upper management of a few well-known companies in City B also had a gathering there that day.

During the gathering, Lin Yize had with him Song Kexin, who was his lover and secretary. Someone suggested for Song Kexin to dance for them but she refused. That angered Lin Yize and, for that, he had offered up Song Kexin as a toy for the others.

Lin Yize left with another woman that was offered up to him and Song Kexin was forced to drink a glass of “wine” by the others.

Xu Fei switched between lamenting and sighing on his face and Lin Xi was totally baffled, having no idea what was going through Xu Fei’s mind.

But, what’s with that sudden sympathy coming from him?

“Don’t worry. Your dad will return soon.” Xu Fei comforted her.

Lin Xi nodded, still baffled.

***

After Xu Fei had taken off, Lin Xi walked inside the room and checked out this temporary apartment.

The room wasn’t very big, about the size of a normal hotel room but without the complicated décor. The entire room looked simple and warm.

On this end, Lin Xi still had no idea that after experiencing being sent away, even her household register was about to be moved out in a package deal.

After she had changed into a set of clean clothes, Lin Xi returned to the little conference room and waited without worries.

While waiting, Lin Xi pulled out a book from her backpack and started reading.

It was very quiet in the conference room with nobody there to disturb her.

Xu Fei, after taking care of a few documents and walking out of his office, overheard a few female employees chitchatting in a low voice in the break room of 27thfloor and the topic seemed to be surrounding between the girl and their boss.

Chen Zhiyang’s eyes widened when he saw Gu Shao sunk into deep thoughts. He seemed to have figured something out: Perhaps, much like Xu Fei had said, the professor really had some “romantic past”.

“Professor, would you like to arrange for paternity test?” Chen Zhiyang, doing this best to suppress the shock that he was experiencing, asked tentatively as he tried to maintain a normal look.

Gu Shao didn’t say a word but his look became more solemn.

Ignoring Chen Zhiyang, Gu Shao pulled out his phone and placed a call.

The other end picked up the call quickly.

Xu Fei returned to the little conference room after Gu Shao had left.

Lin Xi was still standing where she was a while ago. Her head lowered, her fingers twisted together, the disappointment on her was a stark contrast to her shamelessness from earlier.

She looked pitiful.

This girl was certainly suspicious looking. But she also didn’t look like some technological spy sent from some special organization.

Xu Fei walked over to her and asked her gently, “Do you have family?”

Seeing that “your Boss Gu is my family” was about to come out of Lin Xi the very next second, Xu Fei quickly emphasized, “Family other than Boss Gu. Where are they? Do you have their contact information? Or perhaps… the way to get in touch with your mother?”

Over on this side, seeing that Gu Shao had a surprised look that crossed his face and then returned back to his cold self and was difficult to read, Lin Xi became nervous. Biting on her lip, Lin Xi said to him, “I am not here to blackmail you.”

But, girl, your behavior right now certainly looks a lot like it…

Thought Xu Fei to himself.

Gu Nian continued to look at Lin Xi coldly, “So what do you call this?”

“I, I just hope that you can raise me.” Having said that, Lin Xi quickly elaborated, “It won’t be long. Just till I am of age.

As soon as Lin Xi turned her head, she saw a man walked into the small conference room.

He was very tall. Much taller than he looked in his pictures in the articles and much taller than Lin Xi had imagined.

He looked very young as well. Lin Xi remembered she had read that Gu Shao was just 37 years old this year.

Gu Shao looked cold but it was a different kind of cold than the creepy coldness coming from Lin Yize. The coldness from this man standing in front of her resembled more the kind coming from someone of a high status. He exuded cold and domineering aura.

As though one only needed standing in front of him to want to lower one’s head.

The Zhang’s place was only a few hours from City B and the trip was uneventful.

Lin Xi sat in the car quietly and listened to the driver sharing with her occasionally what’s hip in City B and where to go for food and fun.

Even though she had been up all night, Lin Xi did not feel tired at all.

By the time they got close to NTN Technology Center, the driver stopped and explained to Lin Xi, “This is as far as I can go. I am going to have to let you out here.”

Lin Xi nodded, expressed that that would be fine, thanked him, and got out of the car.

The Zhang’s place was only a few hours from City B and the trip was uneventful.

Lin Xi sat in the car quietly and listened to the driver sharing with her occasionally what’s hip in City B and where to go for food and fun.

Even though she had been up all night, Lin Xi did not feel tired at all.

By the time they got close to NTN Technology Center, the driver stopped and explained to Lin Xi, “This is as far as I can go. I am going to have to let you out here.”

Lin Xi nodded, expressed that that would be fine, thanked him, and got out of the car.