Chapter 26: A Call to the Rival, a Visit from the Sugar Daddy, and an Ex’s Persistent Call

“Hello?”

Zhou Ruoyu stepped out of the office, holding her phone, and found a secluded corner to make her call. On the other end, a familiar voice chimed, Gu Jiachen’s tone laced with a gentle, soft greeting.

Despite Gu Jiachen’s gentle demeanor, the thought of calling her sworn rival—and for help, no less—made Zhou Ruoyu’s voice tremble. After a long pause, she stammered, “Hello, CEO Gu, I’m Zhou Ruoyu. Do… do you still remember me?”

Just in case, the young woman asked this first. Cough, cough… primarily, she was worried that Gu Jiachen kept too many girls. They had only met once, so he might not even remember her face.

As it turned out, Zhou Ruoyu’s fears were clearly unfounded. Hearing her speak as if she were an old flame he owed, Gu Jiachen set down the documents in his hand and chuckled.

“Of course I remember, little rabbit~ Why would you ask that? Pfft… Could it be you’re upset I didn’t get to see you this week? My apologies, work has been too hectic. Did my little rabbit miss me?”

‘Well…’

Gu Jiachen thought to himself, ‘Perhaps the little rabbit misses not me, but the carrots I feed her, or perhaps the information I possess~’

‘A cute little spy, unable to find an opportunity to act, is starting to get anxious?’

Gu Jiachen couldn’t help but smile. ‘It seems my ‘neglect play’ is quite successful. Without a fishing rod, even the desperate fish will leap out of the river themselves.’

Cough, cough, though in truth, he genuinely hadn’t had time to proactively chat with his ‘little rabbit’ because he was so busy.

“Uh… No, no, I didn’t!”

Hearing the teasing voice from the phone, Zhou Ruoyu’s face flushed instantly. She shook her head vigorously, even through the phone, and quickly stammered an explanation for herself.

“I… I… I’ve just run into a bit of trouble, so I wanted to ask CEO Gu… for your help… Can… can you?”

‘Oh dear…’

To be honest, asking her sworn rival for help was a serious blow to her pride. If not for the lingering ache from the bump on Zhou Ruoyu’s head, which made her grit her teeth every time she touched it, she truly wouldn’t have sought out Gu Jiachen.

Yet, at this moment, Zhou Ruoyu’s greater concern was, ‘What if Gu Jiachen refuses me? Uh… After all, I’m just a canary he keeps. If I run into trouble at work, will… will he really care?’

“You’ve run into some trouble… What kind of trouble? Has someone bullied you?”

To Zhou Ruoyu’s surprise, even though she conveyed only a hint of grievance in her tone, her ‘sugar daddy’ immediately grew serious. Gu Jiachen frowned, mentally sifting through possibilities. Zhou Ruoyu had just started working at Longyu a few days ago, under his arrangement. If she was upset, could it be work-related trouble?

“Uh, it’s just… a small issue. I recently found a new customer service job, and… because my communication skills aren’t great, my performance is terrible, and my team leader yelled at me…”

Zhou Ruoyu didn’t dare to elaborate, fearing Gu Jiachen would discover her working at Longyu and grow suspicious. After all, Longyu and Chensi were major business rivals. If her identity as a Longyu employee were exposed, Gu Jiachen might become more wary of her, which wouldn’t be good for her attempts to steal commercial intelligence.

Moreover, Gu Jiachen was merely the boss of Chensi; he couldn’t offer any management assistance, so telling him too much would be pointless.

Who would have thought that upon hearing this, Gu Jiachen immediately frowned and asked, “What happened? What’s the name of the team leader who yelled at you? And who is the manager?”

“Uh… this…”

Zhou Ruoyu fell silent for a moment. After a pause, Gu Jiachen also realized. He coughed softly twice, then said, “My apologies, I forgot I didn’t hire you back then. I thought my little rabbit was working at Chensi, cough, cough…”

‘Oh dear… and you have the nerve to say that…’

Zhou Ruoyu wiped the sweat from her forehead. If he had just hired her directly back then, would any of this be happening now?

‘Well…’ Complaining about it now was pointless. Zhou Ruoyu sighed, then said, “CEO Gu, I’m asking for your help simply because I want you to practice my communication skills with me, to help boost my performance and show up that awful team leader…”

“Hmm… alright. It’s almost the weekend anyway. Let’s set a time. How about tomorrow morning at nine, I come to your place?”

Gu Jiachen wasn’t in a hurry. As the boss of Longyu, it would be easy for him to find out who had bullied his ‘little rabbit.’ Instead, he cherished this hard-won opportunity for a date.

Upon hearing Gu Jiachen’s request, Zhou Ruoyu gasped. ‘H-how did this escalate so quickly to him coming to my house?’

‘Ugh…’

‘Fine, fine, whatever. Anyway, I’ll be teased no matter where we are. At least at my own place, I know where the kitchen knife for self-defense is.’

‘Looks like I need to do a thorough cleaning when I get home today.’

Zhou Ruoyu closed her eyes, then meekly nodded and agreed, “Understood, CEO Gu. You know my house number, right?”

“I remember it~ Pfft, well, little rabbit, make sure to dress up nicely tomorrow to welcome your sugar daddy. And no more of that yellow dress; I’m tired of seeing it~”

****

‘Damn it!’

Zhou Ruoyu hung up the phone, mentally cursing. ‘This obnoxious dog, why does he have so many demands?!’

‘Bloody hell…’

‘If I don’t wear this long skirt, what… what else can I wear?’

‘Ugh, something even more girlish would mean only short skirts, wouldn’t it?’

As Zhou Ruoyu felt her masculinity slowly dissipating, her phone screen suddenly lit up with an incoming call.

Zhou Ruoyu quickly picked it up, thinking she had angered her ‘sugar daddy’ by hanging up on Gu Jiachen earlier, and he was calling back to demand an explanation. She had just formulated an apology when she saw the caller ID and froze.

[Gu Xue]

Indeed, the caller was her ex-girlfriend, Gu Xue.

Zhou Ruoyu hesitated for a moment. After a brief pause, she suddenly shook her head, realizing. ‘This isn’t right. In my current state, I can’t answer Gu Xue’s call. I haven’t even learned how to fake my voice yet.’

Moreover, Zhou Ruoyu took a deep breath. Since she had already decided to break completely with her, why bother answering?

Zhou Ruoyu pressed the red reject button. However, to her surprise, no sooner had she rejected the call than Gu Xue called back immediately. Reject, call back; reject, call back. After several repetitions, Zhou Ruoyu frowned, about to block the number, when she received a text message instead.

[Gu Xue: Ruoyu, why aren’t you answering my calls?]