“But Grandpa, she is staying over at that Young Master Huo’s place. That place is cursed!”
Li Yiru twisted her hands together. She didn’t want to go and apologize.
Not to mention that she was being forced to go with her dad, she could only imagine how happy Gu Shishi would be when she saw that.
Gu Shishi was nothing but a peasant girl! Why did she need to go and apologize to her?!
Just because she was slightly better looking and somewhat flirty and some guy was interested in her and would stand up for her? Was that the reason?
When Old Mr. Li heard that, his body sunk visibly.
“Oh, right. I didn’t make it to the engagement banquet last time. I’m not getting younger. My memory is starting to go.”
A slight smile started to appear on Li Yiru. As far as she was aware, most of the authoritative elders in the city’s prestigious families did not attend the engagement banquet that day.
They merely sent some insignificant members of the young generations or distant families to attend with fancy gifts.
Huo Sishen was a cursed man; everybody wanted to stay as far away from him as possible.
That also extended to Gu Shishi. Now that her grandpa knew about this, he certainly would not force her to go anymore!
“If I remember correctly, the Huo’s kid had been pretty quiet in recent years. I don’t recall hearing any rumors about him at all?”
Old Mr. Li looked over at his two sons. Quickly, without even a frown, he pointed at his younger son.
“Chengzheng, bring two presents with you tomorrow. You go tomorrow as the older generation and see how the Huo’s kid is doing. Back in the days, I had been pretty close with Old Man Huo too.”
“Grandpa!”Li Yiru cried out in surprise. “Two of his fiancees had been cursed to death in the last few years! I’m not going and Dad can’t go either! What if we got cursed if we go there?”
Old Mr. Li started to talk in a profound way, “If that Gu Shishi is fine, how’d you be cursed? The Li’s... will be done for if you don’t go.”
Li Yiru was stunned.
Li Chengzheng gave her a stare. “Oh, now you are afraid? Then why did you do what you’ve done to her and got us into this kind of trouble? And you worried about curses now?”
Li Yiru was paled as she was dragged upstairs by her mother.
“Stop talking, Xiao Ru. Go to bed. Get some rest so you can go to apologize properly tomorrow.”
Only after they had left did Li Chengzheng looked over at his older brother and smiled bitterly.
“I didn’t do a good job raising her.” Li ChengZheng sighed.
***
The next morning, when Li Chengzheng and his daughter went to visit with the gifts, they were blocked outside of the metal gate.
Nevermind about entering the house, they weren’t even able to enter the front garden!
Li Yiru hadn’t expected that they wouldn’t even let them inside!
The expressionless butler walked out and had no intention of letting them inside.
“Pardon us. We don’t allow visitors inside.”
Li Yiru was about to have a breakdown. “We would like to pay Young Master Huo a visit. And we also have some gifts with us for Miss Gu.”
Butler Lin was unmoved. “Young Master is not home.”
Li Yiru was about to lose control of her expression. “Then Miss Gu...”
“Miss Gu is not home either.” Butler Lin was still unmoved. “Thank you for coming.”
“Well, can’t we go inside even if they are not home?” Li Yiru’s tone was very unpleasant. She had never been treated this way her entire life.
When she went over to her friends, all of the butlers had always been nice to her.
Li Chengzhen stopped his ill-tempered daughter. “Xiao Ru, you stop with that. Can we please leave a message then, Butler Lin? Can you please let them know that the Li’s had been here and whether it is a good time to visit tonight?”
Butler Lin nodded and said, “Alright.”
Li Yiru gritted her teeth.
Gu Shishi received the message from Butler Lin while she was heading into the studio for work.
Miss Li came to visit with her father and even brought gifts with them.
Butler Lin added that he didn’t know the purpose of the visit.
Gu Shishi couldn’t help but think about the wine that she had spilled on her.
Brought her gifts?
Whatever had happened to Miss Li?
She checked the system’s interface and didn’t notice any increase in fondness.
The system has proven to be somewhat useful after all. She didn’t even need to see her face to face to see that this Miss Li’s visit wasn’t all that sincere.
She forgot about this incident immediately.
She spent all day at work, taught three classes, and didn’t have time to relax even after she had gone home.
The first thing she did was to go talk to Mr. Chef in the dining room.
“For medium, 3.5 minutes each side for sirloin and tenderloin. Skirt steak, 4 minutes each side. The meat should feel elastic when you press down on it and still pink in the center... for medium well, 4.5 minutes on each side for sirloin and tenderloin...”
Gu Shishi asked questions and took notes the entire time.
“Mr. Chef, what do you think of this stock that I have made? I followed your instructions to the ‘T’, but I feel that it is still a little bit off.”
She combined that with hands-on learning to bring her level up.
While she was busying herself in the kitchen, the chef continued to point out some of her issues to her.
“The timing of the onion is off. That won’t help in increasing its sweetness...”
After one round, Gu Shishi was already drenched in sweat.
“As much as there was air-conditioning, it was still very hot in the kitchen standing next to the stove.”
“Just following my instructions for the menu next week.” Mr. Chef was a little bit worried as well. “If Mr. Huo doesn’t like it and does not eat a lot, you let me know.”
“Okay.” Gu Shishi, too, was a little bit worried.She acknowledged, but did not slack off. “I will make another pot of stock tonight. We can use them tomorrow.”
Mr. Chef agreed to that right away.
As soon as Gu Shishi picked up the knife and started slicing up the vegetables, she heard Butler Lin’s voice behind her.
“Miss Gu, Mr. Li and Miss Li are here.”
They had said that they would return tonight.
Gu Shishi did not object to it this morning when she received the message from the butler.
Which was why the Li’s father and daughter were brought inside the mansion at night, instead of being blocked on the outside.
Gu Shishi turned around. Sure enough, she saw that red wine girl from the banquet who gave her that fake smile.
She ruined her ball gown that cost over ten thousand yuan and then was stupid enough to follow her out of the club to yell at her.
Seeing her again today, she looked just the same as she did the other day. The smile was so fake that not even her eyes were smiling.
“Niece Gu, you might not know who I am but I have always worked with your dad in business and we had played in the mountains back when we were kids as well.” Li Chengzheng was much more experienced and his smile was very friendly. A few words and he had successfully shorted the distance between them. “You can call me Uncle Li.”
Gu Shishi smiled. Gu Shishi didn’t want to be rude to someone who was friendly.
“Hi, Uncle Li.”
“I brought Xiao Ru here to apologize to you today. I heard that she had given you a hard time at the Chen’s banquet. She is the daughter that my wife and I had when we were up there in age. We have spoiled her too much.”
Li Chengzheng apologized right away and completely put aside his status as the older generation.
“Dad!” Li Yiru cried out; her colors changed.
After they were stopped outside that morning, Li Chengzheng had it figured out. He knew that he needed to apologize carefully tonight. Otherwise, they wouldn’t even have the chance to apologize next time!
Losing a customer like HB, they would be hurting at least for the next three years. The Li’s might even drop off the prestigious family list altogether. That was a loss that they could handle.
Nevermind about having his daughter apologize, even he himself was willing to apologize to make things better.
“Shut up, Li Yiru! If you still don’t know what you have done wrong, I will buy you a plane ticket today so you can go figure it out overseas!”Li Chengzheng scolded her. “We have spoiled you too much at home. Your mom and I had made too many mistakes when it came to raising you.
“You apologize to Miss Gu right now and hand her the gifts.” He was very authoritative when he said that.
When he turned to Gu Shishi, however, he had the resignation of an old father.
“Niece Gu, whether you accept our apologies or not, you must accept these gifts. Xiao Ru’s mother and I had handpicked these for you. Think of them as your Uncle Li trying to make up to you. It was my fault for not having to teach my daughter properly. I am sorry about her rudeness toward you.” Li Chengzheng’s words were proper and respectful.
Anyone who had heard them would be pacified.
Gu Shishi never thought about whether to forgive them or not. She couldn’t even be bothered to learn of Miss Li’s name. If Li Chengzheng didn’t repeat it over and over again today, she really had no idea what her name was.
But his words made her look at Li Yifu with envy.
“You have a good father.”
Gu Shishi was an orphan in her previous life. After she had transmigrated over, she didn’t have much in terms of parental love either. She had always relied on only herself.
Even her master had told her that she had to rely on her own hard work.
Unlike these girls from the prestigious families. So carefree and so happy...
Li Yiru was planning on struggling some but she accidentally caught sight of Gu Shishi’s enchanting look. Her look was a bit pitiful. The yearning and envy was only... too obvious.
Li Yiru was a bit stunned.
Wait, something wasn’t right here. Why was she here again? And why was Gu Shishi looking at her like that?
Yes, she was here to apologize. But she was in the right. She didn’t feel that she had done anything wrong.
She was only doing this today for her family.
But now... why did she feel that she had really bullied Gu Shishi?
As though she was the unreasonable thug and she was about to make this fragile girl cry?!
“Ugh...” said Li Yiru awkwardly.
Did Gu Shishi get the wrong script?
Li Chengzheng, on the other hand, did not miss the look in Gu Shishi’s eyes.
“Poor thing. You had a difficult few years, huh?”
He couldn’t help but sigh.
He has, after all, been in the management of his company for a long, long time, and he had interviewed many individuals.
He knew that the look on Gu Shishi right now was genuine.
She was envious of his daughter; envious that she has a complete family and the paternal love that everybody else had.
Thinking about what had happened to Gu Shishi and imagining that had happened to his own daughter, he could feel a pain in his chest.
He’d go insane if his Xiao Ru was taken away from him for 20 years!
What the heck was that Gu Jiangxin doing?
He had just found his own daughter and he sent her straight to her fiance’s place? The one rumored to bring calamity to anyone near him?
And that Gu Jiangxin even watched his own daughter being bullied at a banquet?
“You can always come to your Uncle Li if you need anything in the future.”
Li Chengzheng let out another sigh.
Nevermind about anything else, if it was his daughter who was splashed with red wine and was called a “peasant girl”, he’d for sure go and have a talk with Gu Jiangxin! He would force the Gu’s daughter’s head down and have her apologize to Xiao Ru.
“Xiao Ru, apologize to Niece Gu.”