Chapter 11

Downstairs at Aoyi Entertainment—

Tian Wu went to retrieve the car they had arrived in, while Tian Qi got into Gu Lizhou’s car and became their driver.

It was a burgundy Maserati. Its sleek, dynamic lines were elegant and flawless, beautiful in much the same way Gu Lizhou herself was.

“Teacher Bai, Sister Xu still hasn’t replied to me…”

Li Xiaoqi put away her phone and spoke hesitantly.

Bai Qingyan understood.

By now, everyone in the company probably knew about her contract termination. Naturally, Xu Hui would no longer pay attention to them either.

Lowering her eyes slightly, she said, “It’s fine. She’s on Fang Zhi’s side. From now on, everyone can simply go their separate ways.”

Li Xiaoqi sighed inwardly and nodded.

“All right. I understand.”

“Are you talking about your manager?”

Gu Lizhou rested one hand on her knee and lightly tapped her fingers.

Her hand was pale and slender, with distinct knuckles, making it unusually eye-catching.

Bai Qingyan remembered the warmth and delicacy of that hand when they had held hands before.

She curled her fingers and lightly rubbed her fingertips together before calmly nodding.

“Mm.”

Gu Lizhou stopped tapping her fingers.

“She isn’t your manager anymore. From now on, Yu Xiao will be your manager.”

Bai Qingyan’s eyelashes trembled slightly, but she did not respond.

She knew Yu Xiao.

He had stopped taking on new artists a long time ago.

If he had suddenly agreed to manage her, it was probably because of Gu Lizhou.

Perhaps he had been unwilling but had no choice but to accept.

That seemed a little too forceful.

“Really? Gold-medal manager Yu Xiao?! My God, he’s my idol! He’s handsome and incredibly capable. Every artist he manages becomes hugely popular. They’re all Best Actors and Best Actresses. He—”

Halfway through speaking, Li Xiaoqi suddenly realized something was wrong.

“Wait. Doesn’t he only manage You Ji now? He absolutely refuses to make exceptions. H-How did he suddenly compromise?”

Could President Gu have threatened him?

Most of Bai Qingyan’s face was hidden behind her hair, but Gu Lizhou could still see her lips pressed slightly together and the faint stiffness in her profile.

Gu Lizhou sighed softly.

“He volunteered.”

Bai Qingyan’s eyes shifted slightly.

Then she heard Gu Lizhou continue.

“But he had two conditions.”

“The first is that You Ji’s contract and benefits must be upgraded to the same level as Yanyan’s. He wants equal treatment.”

“The second is that You Ji and Yanyan cannot deliberately create dating rumors, especially anything involving those ‘Yan Listens and Ji Obeys’ CP fans. There is absolutely no need to encourage that ship.”

“He was actually the one who approached me about this.”

“After all, he’s a professional manager. He has his own standards for judging these things, and he has always been serious and responsible about his work, so I agreed.”

Someone as proud as Yu Xiao naturally would not allow his You Ji to be treated as inferior.

Yes.

The important part was—

His You Ji.

If Gu Lizhou had not accidentally walked in on the two of them doing something inappropriate in the parking garage, she really would never have known they had that kind of relationship.

Yu Xiao looked refined and scholarly, but unexpectedly, he was quite the well-dressed beast.

That guy had pinned You Ji against the wall and kissed him so fiercely that even his lips had been rubbed raw.

Those two were also ridiculously bold.

Broad daylight, clear skies, and they were still doing that without worrying that someone might catch them.

As a single woman, Gu Lizhou had been caught in an awkward position.

She could neither enter nor retreat.

So she had ended up witnessing the entire thing.

Then all three of them had faced one another in excruciating embarrassment.

Perhaps because he had a guilty conscience, Yu Xiao approached her the next day to discuss matters.

Somehow, during the conversation, he had even volunteered to become Yanyan’s manager.

Gu Lizhou was very satisfied with how things had developed.

Even though, technically, she had not done anything.

“I did make some effort, but that’s only what I should do.”

“You chose Tianyue. You chose to trust me.”

“So I shouldn’t disappoint you, right?”

Listening to Gu Lizhou’s words, happiness gradually entered Bai Qingyan’s lowered eyes.

For so many years, no one had ever cared about her expectations.

Not until Gu Lizhou appeared.

It was as though all the tangled knots inside her heart had slowly been untied.

Bai Qingyan raised her head and looked through the car window, her gaze falling somewhere unknown.

“I believe you won’t disappoint me.”

Gu Lizhou blanked for a moment.

Because Bai Qingyan had smiled.

Not the usual slight curve of her lips.

Not a faint polite smile.

This was genuine happiness from the bottom of her heart.

Even her eyes and brows seemed vivid and alive.

She looked beautiful, sincere, and breathtakingly moving.

“Mm.”

After a long while, Gu Lizhou could only squeeze out that single word.

She moved the hand resting on her knee to her side and quietly clenched it.

Inside her heart, however, she was already screaming like a groundhog at the devastating beauty before her.

Li Xiaoqi, who had been secretly observing from the passenger seat, looked completely confused.

What happened now?!

The atmosphere had suddenly changed.

This, this, this…

Was she really the only one who felt the car had suddenly become unusually quiet?

Li Xiaoqi couldn’t help glancing several times at Tian Qi, who was driving beside her.

Sensing the faint glances from the passenger seat, Tian Qi became confused.

Did she think he was driving too recklessly?

But he was already restraining himself.

With Miss in the car, of course he was driving extremely steadily.

Still, he secretly glanced at the speedometer.

Immediately gaining confidence, he tilted his head slightly toward the passenger seat.

“What’s wrong? I’m not speeding.”

Li Xiaoqi: “……”

She forced a smile.

“Nothing. My eyes are a little sore. I’m just exercising them.”

So she really was the only one who felt it.

Tian Qi: “…Oh.”

After arriving at Tianyue, Gu Lizhou brought Bai Qingyan into her office.

Outside the door—

Lin Lin: “They really have a good relationship. Boss became this familiar with her in such a short amount of time. Her ability to make friends is amazing.”

Li Xiaoqi: “Exactly.”

This is love.

Tian Qi took a sip of coffee.

“There’s a little too much sugar in this coffee. It’s kind of sweet.”

Lin Lin & Li Xiaoqi: “……”

Inside the office, Gu Lizhou crouched in front of the sofa with her head lowered.

Her smooth black hair concealed nearly half her face, giving her an indescribably gentle appearance.

She leaned forward slightly, intending to help Bai Qingyan remove her high heels.

Bai Qingyan’s heart trembled.

Her left leg instinctively drew back slightly.

“I can do it myself,” she whispered.

Gu Lizhou did not insist and simply watched her movements.

Bai Qingyan had an excellent figure.

Her upper body was slender and upright, while her legs were long and shapely.

Today, she wore a white velvet dress.

Her exposed legs were pale, long, and straight. Their lines were smooth and beautifully proportioned, seemingly sculpted by nature itself.

And her ankles—

They were incredibly delicate and beautiful, making it difficult to look away.

Bai Qingyan noticed Gu Lizhou’s gaze lingering on her ankle.

Her face grew faintly warm.

Without showing anything outwardly, she raised a hand and let the hair tucked behind her ear fall loose again.

Gu Lizhou returned to her senses and released a breath inwardly.

Then she reached out and gently caught Bai Qingyan’s bare foot after she removed her heel.

“If it hurts, tell me.”

Gu Lizhou had noticed the wounds on Bai Qingyan’s ankle long ago.

That was why she had messaged Lin Lin and asked her to prepare ointment.

Up close, however, the injuries looked slightly worse than she had expected.

The cuts were small, but they were not shallow.

Gu Lizhou twisted open the lid.

Inside was a milky-white ointment carrying a faint medicinal scent.

She dabbed a little onto her fingertip and applied it carefully to the wounds, rubbing in gentle circles with just the right amount of pressure.

Her expression was serious.

It was as though she were handling a fragile treasure.

Bai Qingyan’s heart softened.

She had to admit that Gu Lizhou truly treated her with great tenderness.

Her gaze unconsciously followed the movement of Gu Lizhou’s fingers.

The room was so quiet that Bai Qingyan could even hear her own heartbeat.

Only now did Gu Lizhou discover that apparently, she might also have a thing for feet!

She was merely applying medicine properly, yet her gaze kept uncontrollably returning to Bai Qingyan’s feet.

They looked pale and clean, with slender arches and pearly toes tinted a healthy pink.

The five little toes looked inexplicably adorable, almost tempting someone to reach out and touch them.

Gu Lizhou could only distract herself by talking.

“Yanyan, why didn’t you call me when you went to terminate your contract this morning?”

“Fang Zhi and those people are terrible. You even went there alone.”

“I also wanted to do something myself about terminating my contract.”

Bai Qingyan paused.

“I can’t trouble you with everything.”

Hearing this, Gu Lizhou fell silent.

She put away the ointment, wiped her hands clean with a wet tissue from the table, then sat beside Bai Qingyan.

“Did you ever think about what would happen if they did something reckless?”

“Like this morning. They trapped you inside and refused to let you leave.”

“Mm. I did think about it.”

“Gong Tiancheng messaged me and asked whether I could have dinner with him this afternoon after he returned from his business trip. That’s why I went to Aoyi this morning to terminate my contract.”

“With him gone, there would be much less trouble.”

Bai Qingyan saw Gu Lizhou’s lips curve slightly and continued.

“I know the two men your bodyguards knocked down outside Fang Zhi’s office.”

“I helped them before at the company.”

“If I had tried to leave, they would only have pretended to stop me. They wouldn’t truly have prevented me from going.”

“But since you arrived later, they were spared from having to put on an act for Fang Zhi.”

Gu Lizhou nodded with an expression of agreement.

“So it seems nothing would have happened even if I hadn’t gone.”

“But…”

She paused there, and her gaze became more serious.

Bai Qingyan looked at her.

“Mm?”

“But I don’t think anything involving you is troublesome at all.”

Gu Lizhou smiled.

Afraid that Bai Qingyan might misunderstand, she continued.

“Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not trying to take over everything for you.”

“I just want to share some of the burden.”

“I’m different from Fang Zhi and the others. I respect your wishes and your thoughts.”

“But when something bad happens, will you let me face it together with you?”

Her tone and expression were completely sincere.

After hearing her words, Bai Qingyan froze.

Her body even straightened.

Her light-brown eyes seemed to hold faint bewilderment.

Gu Lizhou’s heart clenched.

In the novel, Yanyan’s parents had died in a car accident shortly after she entered her second year of high school.

Almost overnight, her relatives began avoiding her as though she were something dangerous.

At such a young age, she was forced to begin living entirely on her own.

The author who wrote this novel was truly heartless.

What kind of awful person would give her fairy such a cruel background?

A perfectly good child had been forced to experience the coldness and warmth of human relationships far too early.

A home once filled with laughter had suddenly become empty.

Afterward, she had to handle life and school alone, surrounded by silence, with no warmth or joy beside her…

Gu Lizhou closed her eyes briefly.

Then she suddenly reached out, grasped Bai Qingyan’s wrist, and pulled her into her arms.

Her other arm circled Bai Qingyan’s waist and held her tightly.

The person in her embrace was slender, soft, and gracefully curved.

Bai Qingyan was slightly flustered by Gu Lizhou’s sudden movement.

However, she did not push her away.

After concealing her emotions, she asked, “What’s wrong?”

Gu Lizhou whispered, “I feel a little sad.”

My heart aches for you.

Bai Qingyan froze again.

She remained silent for a long moment, listening to the faint breathing beside her ear.

Eventually, she slowly raised her arms and embraced Gu Lizhou in return.

“All right.”

“From now on, we’ll face things together.”

“Don’t be sad anymore.”