When they returned to the mansion, Gu Shishi got out of the car, turned around, and saw that the man sitting inside of the car had already returned to his usual, cool self.
The smile in the car seemed to just have been her imagination.
“Young Master, Miss Gu.”
Butler Lin was waiting for them outside.
Gu Shishi nodded slightly and walked inside of the mansion.
He didn’t talk to anyone but his walked onto the stairs with in slender, long legs.
Gu Shishi pursed her lips. Was he still in a bad mood?
And she had spent so much time wooing him in the car.
She even had to pull out her big ball-gambling move that she had saved for days.
It was her backup move to woo this overly sensitive man should any misfortune happened to Huo ChuChu or herself when they were around him.
And that, too, had failed?
Gu Shishi puffed up her cheeks.
She thought about it long and hard and felt that it was a very good idea. Was that still not able to cancel out the effect from Luo Pingting?
That was… so demoralizing.
While she was deep in thought, she reflexively looked on the ground.
She felt like a child who went home happily looking forward to compliments from her family after scoring 100 points on a test only to found out that nobody cared about it at all and it was all for naught.
Huo Sishen turned back around after taking two steps on the stairs.
And that was the expression that he saw…
She looked distressed and feeling unjust like a child who failed to get candies.
Her delicate red lips sticking out and her butterfly-like eyelashes fluttered and casted a shadow on her fair skin.
Huo Sishen’s lips curved reflexively.
He just wanted to go change first to get rid of the stinking perfume smell before he came back downstairs to talk to her.
She was following him like his tail and was do distressed when he just let her alone for a little while.
He lifted his hand slightly and frowned.
The smell of Luo Pingting on him reeked!
“Go wait in the dining room.”
Siyi had the butler prepared for lunch while they were on their way.
“I’ll be down in a bit.”
Gu Shishi blinked.
She was still counting the tiles on the floor and trying to figure out what else she could do if none of the 1,000 lotteries ticket won anything.
While she was wrecking her brain trying to come up with ideas, she suddenly heard a melodious sound.
[Beep! Fondness from Huo Sishen increased!]
Then she heard the man’s hoarse voice.
She looked up and noticed that in his profound black eyes and peculiar look, there seemed to have a hidden hint of a smile.
Gu Shishi, “?”
The boss was smiling!
What was that look?
Was he laughing at her?
“Oh.”
She put her hand over her little heart whose beats had just picked up a notch. Looking at the back of the man who had now turned around, she let out a large sigh of relief.
Not too long after she had docilely gone inside of the dining room, a sneak silhouette appeared by the entrance.
“Siyi?”
“Miss Gu.”
Siyi gave her an awkward smile and pointed at her cellphone.
That was when Gu Shishi looked down at it.
She had two unread messages.
[Siyi: The boss hadn’t eaten anything during lunch.]
[Siyi: Baiweijuis part of the boss’s properties. That server who screwed up…. you get it.]
Two simple sentences and all of her negative emotions were nowhere to be found. All of her unhappiness from today was wiped clean!
So the incident was arranged by the boss?
He intentionally wanted Luo Pingting to be afraid? Because he knew that she and her didn’t get along?
He was revenging for her?!
Gu Shishi felt her head growing in size all of again.
No! Better watch that ego of hers!
Seeing that Miss Gu had a difficult time hiding the happiness on her, Siyi quickly put his cellphone away and ran off.
Boss, I’ve done all I could to help.
Hmm. He needed to tell this fresh-off-the-press story to Sier right away!
___
When Huo Sishen came back downstairs, he saw Gu Shishi sitting there docilely, deep in thought.
She looked visibly much happier than she was earlier.
Her red lips were curving upward and her limpid eyes spry.
She seemed to be a completely different person from the dispirited and down person from earlier.
She was happy just because he was going to dine with her?
He narrowed his eyes and the unpleasant feelings in his chest seemed to have dissipated a little.
He was just about to say something when he saw Gu Shishi suddenly lifted up her little face that was pink and delicate like a flower bud. Her red lips parted a little as though she had made a great determination to share something with him.
“Mr. Huo, truth was, Luo Pingting wasn’t even a fraction as unfortunate as me.
“I was switched at birth. I was only born into a rich family but never had the luck to enjoy being born rich.
“My parents who raised me didn’t care much about me. I didn’t grow up properly then they learned that I wasn’t their real daughter. We have only been engaged for a few days when they asked me for 100,000 yuan. And that was the only contact I received from them.”
If she didn’t take this opportunity to completely rid Boss Huo of his mental issues, returning to this subject in the future would be too deliberate.
At the very minimum, she hoped that he’d at least look at her normally. There was no way she could ensure that she would never catch a cold or a fever living under the same roof as him.
All of her work would be in vain if the boss attributed those to himself then.
She wanted him to know that each person has their own fate and that was not easily influenced by so-called “curse”.
“The Gu’s… didn’t care much about me either.
“They want to send me away in an alliance marriage and to keep Gu Wushuang in the Gu’s.”
Truth was, the original owner was probably one of the most unfortunate persons in the book.
Also switched at birth, Gu Wushuang was much more fortunate.
In the end, she went over and had a surgery overseas and that helped with her condition a lot. She was not completely cured but she could basically live out her normal lifespan.
She had further overcome all obstacles with the male lead and the two lived happily ever after.
The original owner, on the other hand, died some unknown death and was never loved or cared for by anyone.
Even Gu Shishi felt bad for her thinking about it.
As she spoke, she glanced over at Huo Sishen.
“Truth was, death is not scary. It is just the matter of a fraction of a second.
“Being alive though, there are sufferings to be had. Well exceeded that of the moment of death.”
They all said that he had cursed his father.
Had Father Huo survived that day, who knew what other accidents he would have ran into?
If there was such a thing as fate, then everything had been predetermined. If there wasn’t such thing as fate, then the whole concept of a curse was ludicrous.
Gu Shishi grumbled.
Huo Sishen, on the other hand, frowned immediately.
There was unseen solemness and gloominess on his handsome face.
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
He scolded her!
“What kind of random thoughts do you have going through that head of yours all day long??”
Was she saying that she wished to be dead?
That living was too difficult and she preferred to be dead?
She wished to take her own life?
He recalled Qin Ruhai mentioning suicidal thoughts as one of the symptoms of depression. One would want to end one’s own life in order to escape problems that they were not able to resolve.
His eyes turned cold and his raised his volume half a notch.
“What has been bothering you lately?”
No friends? Hasn’t she already made friends with the Qin’s sisters?
Was she said because they were loved by their parents and she wasn’t?
Or that Chen Kexin ditching her earlier had brought back unhappy memories from the past?
Huo Sishen’s hand tightened around the fork.
What did he need to do to alleviate the symptoms? How to talk to her to make her feel better? What was the best course of treatment?
He looked at that pink and soft face in front of him with his black eyes and, for the very first time, regretted not paying more attention to Qin Ruhai when he talked.
He would always send him on his always after he had said just a couple of sentences.
Thinking of that, Huo Sishen frowned and waved at Butler Lin who was waiting just outside. “Get Qin Ruhai to come over.”
Gu Shishi was still thinking about what else to say and how to wrap up the conversation in order to get to what she was trying to get at.
But she was stunned by his scolding and summoning of Qin Ruhai.
“Why do we need Dr. Qin here?”
She looked up with her limpid eyes.
That’s when she saw that in the cold and black eyes of the man in front of her a rare mixture of anxiety, nervousness, and worry could be seen.
A man who was normally domineering seemed helplessly nervous.
Huo Sishen’s chin was taut.
To check up on you, of course.
But he held it back. He couldn’t say that out loud.
Many people could not accept the fact that they were mentally ill.
And she was so young.
Right at the age when she would be her happy self.
With an illness like that, all the more the Gu’s would not dote on her and her adopted parents would want to avoid her even more.
Even the friends that she had just made would want to stay clear of her.
Huo Sishen’s dark eyes deepened again.
His long and slender fingers drummed on the table.
“He’s here to check on me.”
Gu Shishi continued to look at him. “I thought Dr. Qin was on an out-of-town business trip?”
Huo Sishen narrowed his eyes. “Then we can do a video chat first.”
Gu Shishi frowned.
After they had digressed so far, it was now difficult for her to loop the subject back to what she had intended to say.
But her heart dropped.
He was feeling ill again?
She gritted her teeth and spilled out the conclusion with all her ramblings from earlier.
“What I am trying to say, Mr. Huo, is that my luck has changed ever since I have came to your place.”
“I feel that… we make a good couple together.”
Having said that, she blushed fiercely.
How shameless was that!
Gu Shishi!
Well, the early birds get the worms!
She met the world’s best man, one of spaceship caliber; was she supposed to stand by and watch someone else steal him away from her?
What did she have to worry about with the system that she has?
What was wrong with her flirting with him? She was his fiancée, right?
Thinking of that, she lifted her little face.
And closed her limpid eyes tightly.
Her cheeks resembled that of blooming peach-colored flower bud but her look was one of heroism.
Huo Sishen lifted his brows.
He looked straight at her decisive look.
She really wanted to die…
No wonder she was the only one staying with him when everybody else was afraid of his curse.
Others wanted to stay as far away from him as possible but she asked him to send her gifts every day.
She wanted to die so badly…
Suddenly, the pain in his chest worsened.
He looked at her the entire time over dinner.
She looked like she was eating happily but she kept sneaking looks at him…
He couldn’t help but lowered his eyes and clenched his fists tightly.
After dinner, Gu Shishi was still mulling over whether what she had said had any positive influence on the boss.
Huo Sishen had already returned to his study with a heavy look.
He took over the video chat call that Siyi had already connected for him.
Qin Ruhai’s big smile quickly appeared on the screen.
“Oh mi, you reaching out to me voluntarily? What is wrong with that picture?
“Do you miss me already?”
Huo Sishen’s look was deep like water.
He didn’t care about the rubbish chitchat coming from the other end.
And cut straight to the chase.
“What do I do when someone is determined to die?”