The man who suddenly rushed out caught everyone off guard, including Jian Shiwu. He was seated in the middle of the gazebo, looking at Gu Duan standing beside him. He thought he might not meet him again, but this sudden unguarded encounter in such a place was touching enough even though he was scolded on sight .
Donald was also surprised by the man’s arrival: "Rui'er, I'm talking to my invited guest, you..."
Guduan's tone was unpleasant: "You don't talk shit!"
The vulgarity of his words was not befitting for the elegant old man.
Sure enough, Donald's face turned a little worse, but Gu Duan didn't care at all: "Business matters are settled in business, what are you doing involving innocent people in this?"
"Rui'er." Donald was more solemn: "This is a matter of great importance, you can't fool around."
Gu Duan snorted, "Because of Charles?"
The two of them were talking in a dumb riddles, and Jian was in a daze, but all he could do was watch from the side-lines.
Then Donald took a deep breath: "Rui'er, Charles is also your brother."
Gu Tuan had a sarcastic look on his face, "I don't know him well."
It was common knowledge that before Gu Duan was adopted at the age of 20, the youngest son in the Tang family was known as Charles, and even when he was adopted, many people thought that Gu Duan was an illegitimate son, but only Gu Duan himself understood that the real illegitimate son was actually Charles.
Donald obviously understood the incompatibility between the two children. He said to the bodyguard next to him, "Show Mr Jian around the estate first."
Jian Shiwu still wanted to listen for a while, but the bodyguard had already walked over. It looked as if he was invited to get up, but in fact there was no discussion at all.
Gu Duan glanced at Jian Shiwu: "No need, he stays right here."
The atmosphere in the pavilion froze again.
Donald's hand tightened, but he finally said, "Xiao Rui, you can't ignore your brother life or death."
Gu Duan's lips opened, indifferent: "Shen Cheng has already released him."
"But the 20 per cent of the shares still haven't been returned." Donald looked up at Gu Duan, his hypocritical face finally broke a little: "Do you understand what this means!"
Gu Duan was silent.
Donald looked at his son's cold face and said with a sigh, "Xiao Rui, I told you a long time ago that I would give you a high position like Charles as long as you wanted it, but you disagreed and insisted on running off to China to become the director of some project team."
Gu Duan snorted, "What, you're angry that it didn't work out for you?"
"Charles lost a leg over there." Donald said in a light voice.
Gu Duan's eyes widened in some surprise.
Donald seemed to have suddenly aged a lot as he looked at Gu Duan and said, "Xiao Rui, Shen Cheng is not as simple as you think."
Then Donald gave Jian Shiwu a sideways glance and said, "Knowing that this is your friend, I am certainly not prepared to do anything to him, I just want to keep him here for two days, and when Charles comes back, I will send him away."
Gu Duan paused.
The man seemed to have really fallen into thought as he hesitated slightly and looked at Jian Shiwu next to him.
Jian Shiwu's brows were furrowed, and the whole person was in a tense state, with reluctance written all over his face. Why let him go when Charles comes back? What about Lui Heng, how could he be willing to stay here?
Gu Duan said in a low voice: "You ......"
Jian Shiwu gently shook his head at him, and made it clear that he didn't want to stay here, he wanted to go out, and he didn't want to be a burden to Shen Cheng. He knew that he shouldn't have such hopes for Gu Duan, but he didn't know why, At this moment, he still begged Gu Duan like this, begging him to help him.
......
The air was silent for a moment.
Gu Duan turned his face to Donald, "It's okay to keep him, but you can't hurt him."
Donald smiled and nodded, "Of course, after all, I don't want to become enemies with Shen Cheng either."
In these words, Jian Shiwu’s fate was now decided.
The glow of hope gradually dissipated under his eyes, it was impossible to say whether it was considered a disappointment or not, except that Gu Duan had weighed the pros and cons and sided with his own family in the end, thinking that it was just as well, their friendship was not deep, to be able to do so was already considered kind.
Jian Shiwu slowly calmed down, and met Gu Duan's eyes unexpectedly. The man was also looking at him. From his eyes, he actually saw a guilty conscience and because of this, Jian Shiwu slowly smiled at him, a relieved, polite and grateful smile, without any blame.
But strangely, because of this lack of blame, Gu Duan's heart was smothered, as if from this moment on, they had something that could never be turned back.
......
After a brief negotiation, Jian Shiwu was arranged to live in the manor.
The manor was really big, and he was placed in a room with a number of bodyguards outside. No one came to confiscate his mobile phone or personal belongings, as if they were certain that he would not be able to use them even if he had them.
There was no torture, and even a fine dinner was served at dinner time, but when faced with the table of soup and water, Jian Shiwu had no appetite at all, and as the night wore on, he huddled down in a chair in his room and watched the electronic watch on his wrist turn.
"Boom!"
There was a sudden flash of lightning outside.
He looked back at the window behind him with some fear and saw the wind blowing outside, the sky was overcast, a precursor to the coming storm, such weather would make him most nervous and scared.
Crouching against the wall, he forced himself to calm down and not to think about anything else, but even when he covered his ears, the sound of thunder and lightning was as loud as if it could shatter one's soul.
The rain was falling fast and the wind and rain were shifting outside.
He didn't dare to eat Donald's food, but his stomach was throbbing and his head was a little foggy from the low blood sugar.
In the space without any signal, though the scratch of thunder, the electronic watch lit up, illuminating the room in the night.
Jian’s eyes widened, like a man in distress clutching at straws, and he put the watch to his ear with some excitement, tentatively lowering his voice to ask, "Shen...Cheng?"
There was a few "zipping" sounds of electricity. Then, there was a familiar male voice: "It's me."
When one is in a situation of extreme insecurity, once one encounters a straw that reassures one, one's psychological defences will instantly collapse.
The man's voice contained a rare note of obvious worry and anxiety: "Are you hurt?"
Jian Shiwu bit his lips tightly.
Shen Cheng continued, "Did they bully you?"
"It was a thunderstorm today, and they locked you up." Shen Cheng's voice came clearly into his ears, "Wouldn't it be scary."
At this point, the string that was still taut in Jian’s head really snapped, as if his defences had been broken, his nose sank and he said in a resigned voice, "No."
"Don't you worry, I'm fine." Jian’s voice was a little hoarse: "I'm not scared at all."
There was silence on the other end of the line. The more understanding Jian Shiwu was, the more it made the man on the other end heartbroken and depressed.
After this suspicious silence, the electronic watch did not have any other sound coming out. Jian Shiwu was being tough, saying he wasn't scared, but when the watch really fell silent, and another bolt of lightning struck down, he shivered and covered his ears again.
In the darkened room, by the window, his whole body shrank into a ball.
"Click."
The clasp of the window was picked open noiselessly.
Then, a figure jumped nimbly into the room, and while Jian Shiwu was still immersed in the pressure of his heart that his body could not control, his cold hand was held by a somewhat warm palm, and looking up with some shock, he met a pair of familiar black eyes, and Shen Cheng's face was reflected in his eyes, which made him surprised and happy.
Jian Shiwu: "You ......"
Shen Cheng pulled the person into his arms, after a long time of hugging, the man's strength was great, clasping his waist tightly, even breathing a little heavy. Without any words, he could feel Shen Cheng's somewhat suppressed emotions. Such a tight hug made Jian Shiwu have the illusion that he seemed to be melting into the other side.
Jian Shiwu spoke with some difficulty: "Shen Cheng, it hurts ......"
As if waking up from a dream, Shen Cheng immediately let go of the person, his eyes roaming over him like a hawk: "Hurt?"
At this moment, he seemed to see a murderous aura visible to the naked eye in the man's body.
Jian Shiwu hurriedly shook her head and said, "No, no, it's just that you just strangled me a little bit."
"......"
Shen Cheng paused, then soothingly pinched Jian Shiwu's face.
Jian Shiwu looked towards the door with some caution and whispered, "How did you get here, there are many people outside, it would be dangerous if you were found out. They all said they would let me go in a couple of days. Donald wouldn't dare to do anything to me, he is so hostile to you, how did you really come over here, you ..."
He rambled on and on, Shen Cheng just looked at him quietly, seeing how energetic the person was, the corners of his mouth even curled up into a faint smile.
Then, only after Jian Shiwu finished, Shen Cheng took his hand, his voice low and husky: "It's raining today, you’d be scared if you were alone."
Jian Shiwu froze. He just looked at Shen Cheng dumbly, but the tip of his heart was unusually hot, his nose was sour, but his heart was sweet.
Shen Cheng wiped his face and then said, "Are you hungry?"
Jian Shiwu hesitated for half a second, then gently nodded his head.
"I'll take you to dinner."
In Jian Shiwu's somewhat shocked gaze, Shen Cheng took his hand and stood up, and just as the two were about to move, the door to the room outside was also opened from the outside.
The bodyguards broke through the door and Donald stood in the doorway, looking at Shen Cheng with a smile and said, "Good evening."
Shen Cheng patted Jian Shiwu's hand with a comforting glance and nodded to Donald, looking very polite: "Uncle Tang."
"Xiao Cheng."
Donald said with a smile, "I didn't know that you were already so nonchalant now, coming over as a guest and not even saying hello, what, do you think that my place is your own back garden?"
Shen Cheng did not panic: "Uncle Tang invited my little friend to be a guest, did he say hello?"
It dawned on Donald, "That's uncle's rudeness."
"How about this ......"
The gentlemanly man said, " After taking 20% of my shares, uncle has to show something, you two have finally come to be guests, why don't you just stay, how about I treat you well?"
The atmosphere was about to explode.
The outside was full of Donald's bodyguards, and according to reason, this should be the Tang family's turf, but Shen Cheng stood there, calm as if idle, and just as Jian Shiwu was getting nervous, there were suddenly a few discordant noises from outside, and then a bodyguard walked in.
Donald said unhappily, "What is it?"
The bouncer gasped, "Sir, the Kettles are here, they say their young master's lover came over for a visit today but hasn't returned yet and came to ask."
“...”
What the hell.
The Kettles were a very prominent family in the country, the business in the undercurrents was their territory. No matter how big a business was, they had to be courteous in front of the Kettles, generally they were not easily offended, and they were not likely to be messed with.
Donald was unhappy: "What lover, there is a mistake, I have no enmity with their family, I have no grievances with their family. Who from Kettle family has come to trouble me?"
"The Eagle Hall group, and the young master, Qiao An Kettle."