Fortunately, Gu Xuehan really didn’t intend to dwell on the Gu Yan topic. She quickly steered back on subject, giving a brief review of Qi Xi’s work performance since joining, pointing out a few small things to watch for, and encouraging her to keep it up.
Even though the conversation had lasted only half an hour, walking out of Gu Xuehan’s office, Qi Xi felt like a released convict who’d successfully reformed — clear skies ahead from here on, all she had to do now was be a decent person.
Gu Xuehan wasn’t going to keep pressing on the graduation-speech matter, and the sense of being caught in a pincer had eased considerably. Now all she needed to do was work hard on building solid, comradely rapport with Gu Yan — win him over, and as long as he didn’t expose her and report her, she’d remain, in Gu Xuehan’s eyes, an upstanding, promising young lawyer.
Qi Xi’s mood improved instantly. That day during lunch break, she was settling in to study some expert commentary on the Civil Code when her father’s call came through.
Ever since Qi Ruiming had refused to pay for her studies and living expenses in America, Qi Xi had been in a cold war with him. Fueled by that same stubbornness, she’d moved out of the house and taken the job at the firm. Seeing her father’s call now, she couldn’t pretend she wasn’t a little pleased — father and daughter, after all, and grudges don’t last overnight. Surely her father would eventually come around, understand her, and respect her career choice.
“Xixi, are you swamped now that you’re at the firm? Are you free tonight?”
Hearing her father sound concerned, Qi Xi softened. “I’m free tonight. Things are going okay overall — I just started, so there’s a lot I haven’t gotten the hang of yet. Honestly I have plenty of free time, lots of it goes to self-study…”
As a trainee lawyer just making the transition from student to attorney, Qi Xi actually had a lot of thoughts she wanted to share with Qi Ruiming, but he seemed to be in a hurry. “Dad’s got a meeting to run to in a bit. Let’s grab dinner tonight — I’ll send you the address and time.”
Though a little deflated, Qi Xi still felt a flicker of anticipation. Sure, the firm her father had founded was a small one, but he was still a partner — he had to be busy. The fact that he could still carve out an evening to talk face-to-face showed he still cared about her.
Qi Ruiming soon sent over the dinner details — a rather famous two-Michelin-star restaurant. Whatever lingering annoyance Qi Xi had felt evaporated completely. A place like that meant her father really was making an effort. Now that she was a lawyer herself too, she felt they’d have even more in common to talk about — surely tonight they’d have a great, healing conversation.
**
At every family dinner in the past, Qi Ruiming had always been the one rushing in late. So Qi Xi hadn’t expected that, by the time she got off work and hurried to the restaurant, her father would already be there waiting.
But before she could even feel touched by that, she noticed Qi Ruiming had brought along a middle-aged man about his own age, plus a young man around Qi Xi’s age.
“Xixi, come meet Uncle Li, and his son, Li Chenxin. You two are about the same age — I figured since you just started work and aren’t too busy, it’d be good for you to make some friends your own age, so I set up dinner together.”
Qi Ruiming beamed. “Uncle Li’s one of Dad’s big clients — we’re close, the two of us. This time our families are getting to know each other. Next time, you two can just go out on your own. Us older folks and you young people care about totally different things anyway, we can’t keep up with your interests — all we know how to talk about is work, ha ha ha. You two will have plenty to talk about. Chenxin just got back from Australia, sharp guy — whatever questions you have, feel free to ask him.”
Qi Ruiming was clearly in high spirits. Qi Xi’s mood was the exact opposite.
Even someone far less sharp than her would have picked up on it — tonight had nothing to do with her father wanting to catch up on her work and studies. Qi Ruiming had no patience at all to actually listen to her reflections on work or life.
At the end of the day, her father’s mind was still stuck in that same old outdated mindset — women didn’t need careers, the proper path was to find a good match early, marry, and have kids.
She’d only just graduated, and her father was already arranging blind dates for her!
Sure enough, after only a few minutes of small talk, Qi Ruiming and the so-called “Uncle Li” made excuses about work and slipped away early, leaving just Qi Xi and Li Chenxin alone in the private room.
Honestly, Li Chenxin wasn’t bad-looking, and he was quite outgoing, chatty enough to keep the conversation from lagging, but…
“Have you been abroad? No? Oh, that’s a bit of a pity — I travel abroad every year. Just got back from Alaska last month, and I flew back from LA just a few days ago. Shame I didn’t meet you sooner, I could’ve brought you back a gift from over there — a Chanel bag or something. Do you have a brand you like?”
“I’ve been looking into cars lately — took my friend’s Ferrari for a test drive the other day, but I thought the engine was too loud, so I’m holding off on buying one for now.”
…
Qi Xi had zero interest in anything this man was into. She kept up a strained, polite smile, occasionally murmuring agreement, while he rambled on endlessly, barely giving her a chance to speak — and looking thoroughly pleased with her, practically already casting himself as her boyfriend in the way he talked.
The moment she finally got a word in, Qi Xi’s survival instincts kicked in hard. “Sorry, I’m going to step out to the restroom for a moment.”
The second she was out of the private room, she ducked into the bathroom and called Zhao Yiran for help: “Call me back in five minutes!”
Zhao Yiran went along with it. Qi Xi tidied herself up and returned to the room; five minutes later, right on cue, her phone rang.
Qi Xi put on an expression of tender affection and launched into her one-woman show on the phone: “Huh? You’re coming to pick me up? Okay, I’ll wait for you.”
She hung up and looked apologetically at Li Chenxin. “Sorry, my boyfriend’s on his way to get me — something’s come up, so I should head out.”
For most people, that would’ve been more than enough of a clear signal to back off gracefully, letting this awkward mismatched date end politely.
Unfortunately, Li Chenxin was not most people. After Qi Xi hung up, he didn’t let her leave — instead, he blocked the doorway of the private room, dangling his sports car key with an air of total confidence and self-satisfaction. “Did you just step out to have a friend call you to fake it? I know there’s a bit of a gap between our families — different social tiers, sure — but you don’t need to test me like this, and there’s no need to feel insecure about it. Don’t worry, I’m always good to my girlfriends, I don’t care whether you’re marrying up or not. So there’s no need to fake having a boyfriend to provoke me. In relationships, I’m always the one who calls the shots — I hate it when other people try to set the rules or the pace for me.”
“…”
She’d met plenty of people full of themselves before, but never quite like this.
With no other options, Qi Xi secretly texted Zhao Yiran again for help: “Do you have any guy friends around? Can you get one to pretend to be my boyfriend and come pick me up? I need this guy to give up for good! I can’t take much more of this!”
Unfortunately, Zhao Yiran couldn’t help this time: “The only guy I know well, you already know — my little brother. He’s thirteen. Even for an age-gap romance, that’s a bit much…”
Undeterred, Qi Xi ran through a few more male classmates she was on decent terms with, but they were either out of town on business or tied up with something else.
She scrolled through her contacts, and just as she was about to give up hope entirely, it suddenly hit her.
Wait — there was Gu Yan!
If she remembered right, he had a contract that needed urgent last-minute revisions tonight, which meant he was probably still at the firm — and it wasn’t far from this restaurant!
Though she wasn’t holding out much hope, she figured it was worth a shot, so she once again claimed she needed the restroom, slipped out of the room, and called Gu Yan—
“Gu Yan…”
Before Qi Xi could even get her request out, Gu Yan’s refusal came first: “Not eating durian tonight.” As if terrified she might go spend money on his behalf, he quickly added, “I already ate.”
This man’s love for durian had gone way too far! Why did everything have to circle back to durian?!
That wasn’t even what she was calling about!
Qi Xi cleared her throat. “Fine, fine, no durian tonight, we’ll do it tomorrow. I actually need a favor from you tonight.”
Gu Yan’s voice turned businesslike again. “What is it?”
Embarrassing as it was, Qi Xi gave him a quick rundown of her predicament, then made her request: “Could you come pretend to be my boyfriend and save me?”
The request was apparently strange enough that Gu Yan’s voice on the other end sounded distinctly displeased. “So you’re on a blind date?”
“If it’s not convenient, never mind…”
“It’s convenient.”
Just as Qi Xi was starting to think her rescue call was a lost cause, Gu Yan agreed to help. He moved fast and decisively. “Send me the address.”
The firm wasn’t far from the restaurant, but the route had plenty of traffic lights, and it was rush hour — by any reasonable estimate, it should’ve taken Gu Yan at least twenty minutes to get there. Yet ten minutes later, Qi Xi got his call.
“I’m here. Come out.”
Qi Xi felt practically overwhelmed with gratitude. She turned to Li Chenxin, who was still busy boasting about himself. “Sorry, my boyfriend’s here to pick me up. We already have plans to catch a movie together, so I’ll head off now — really nice meeting you tonight.”
Reiterating that she had a boyfriend again directly clearly wasn’t the right move — Li Chenxin had already made it clear he didn’t buy her story. If she pushed the point further, he might not only think she had no proof, but also that she was being overly dramatic. This way, letting the truth come out naturally — that she wasn’t single, and her actual boyfriend had come to pick her up — didn’t embarrass him too badly, spared his feelings somewhat, and would genuinely convince him. Couldn’t have played it better.
Hearing that Qi Xi’s boyfriend had come to get her, Li Chenxin did pause, visibly caught off guard — but he was sharp enough to catch on quickly. “Your dad doesn’t know?”
“Nope.” Qi Xi smiled and lied smoothly. “Haven’t told my dad yet. We just started seeing each other.”
“Well, if it’s that new, it can’t run that deep yet. Why don’t you break it off and go with me instead?”
Before Qi Xi could get out a polite refusal, a cold, hard male voice answered for her—
“We won’t be breaking up.”
Qi Xi turned around and saw Gu Yan’s face.
His voice still carried a hint of breathlessness, as if he’d just been running, but it was unexpectedly quite attractive.
The man was tall, long-legged, still in the suit he’d changed into for accompanying Gu Xuehan to court that day — it made him look sharp and thoroughly elite. The only shame was that this elite-looking man’s expression was rather dark, cold and forbidding, keeping the world at arm’s length.
Wow! Gu Yan was really coming through! And getting into character this fast! Qi Xi practically wanted to applaud him.
Since Gu Yan was being this loyal, naturally Qi Xi played along smoothly too. She gave a shy little smile, then bounced over to Gu Yan’s side, looping her arm through his, and turned an apologetic look on Li Chenxin: “Sorry if this caused you any trouble — let me cover the bill for this meal.”
Li Chenxin shot Gu Yan a hostile look, then glanced at Qi Xi. “No need — I’ll pay. This place is expensive for ordinary salaried folks, but it’s nothing to me.”
Gu Yan cut off Li Chenxin’s boasting, expression flat. “I’ve already paid.”
Li Chenxin was clearly displeased. He stepped in front of Qi Xi again, his smile not quite reaching his eyes. “It’s hard to get a cab this time of night. I drove — let me give you two a ride.”
Gu Yan didn’t back down in the slightest, saying coolly, “No need. I have a car too.”
With that, Gu Yan glanced at Qi Xi. “Let’s go. No point wasting time here.”