A President’s Out-of-Body Experience
chapter-48-30041322

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The current Renzi thought the same as well.

Renzi turned his head to look at Gu Xiaoshan’s face. The artificial light of the lift was a hundred times brighter than the natural moonlight then, and the details of Gu Xiaoshan’s face was highlighted — even its flaws could be seen at a glance. Compared to that twenty plus years old Gu Xiaoshan under the moonlight, there were obvious flaws on his face now — he had light wrinkles, his lips were too thin, his cheekbones a little too high, his eyes a little too narrow. But no matter how he nitpicked, when Gu Xiaoshan turned his head over and looked at him, Renzi would immediately lose his soul.

Gu Xiaoshan was a little helpless. “Why do you keep staring at me?”

“Because you’re good looking.” Renzi said confidently.

Gu Xiaoshan paused, then stared at Renzi. Renzi could never hold up against the look in Gu Xiaoshan’s eyes. A girl had once complained to Renzi, “Since Gu Xiaoshan doesn’t like me, why does he always have to look at me so tenderly?”

At that time, Renzi paid some attention, and discovered that when Gu Xiaoshan looked at a person seriously, he really did do that, and it was very “tender”. No one knew how to define “tender”, but Gu Xiaoshan’s focused look was full of affections.

For all they know, Gu Xiaoshan might only be in a daze.

This was probably an appearance that was born to seduce people.

Now, towards Gu Xiaoshan’s gaze, Renzi was unable to withstand it, and tingles ran down his body. “Why… are you staring at me?”

“Because you’re good looking.”

This was too much, Renzi’s heart was about to leap out from his chest.

The door of the lift opened, rescuing Renzi’s heart that was about to explode.

Renzi left the lift as though he was running for his life, and Gu Xiaoshan followed behind him. Renzi looked at Gu Xiaoshan, and kept feeling that something was amiss. “You’re staying on this floor too?”

“Yes.” Gu Xiaoshan looked at the management system on his phone, and confirmed that the room next to Renzi was empty, then pointed at it. “I’m staying here.”

Renzi found it strange, “But when I checked in it didn’t seem like you were here?”

As the hotel’s manager, Gu Xiaoshan comfortably took out his skeleton key and opened the door to the room easily, assuring, “I really am staying here.”

“Oh.” Renzi looked at him doubtfully. “What a coincidence.”

When Gu Xiaoshan pushed the door, he said, “Remember not to go out by yourself.”

“Yes, I know!” Renzi said loudly. “Naggy fellow!”

Gu Xiaoshan choked, thinking, this fool was still running after him a couple of days ago, now that he was a little nicer to him, he thought he was naggy? He really should not encourage him!

Renzi did not notice, and went to shower and change after closing the door. He then called the internal line and asked for someone to pick up this set of clothes belonging to Mr Shu and wash them. The doorbell soon rang, Renzi went to open it, but unexpectedly, it was Gu Xiaoshan.

“Uhh… Why is it you?” Renzi was taken aback, and upset that he had just showered, and had not had time to dry his hair, and he did not look his best.

Gu Xiaoshan was also a little startled. “Hmm? Are you waiting for someone?”

“I’m waiting for your hotel’s staff. Oh god, I still thought that your hotel had a desperate lack of people, and even needed you to come and pick up the laundry.” Renzi laughed, then opened the door wider and invited Gu Xiaoshan in. “Seems like you’re not here to pick up the laundry?”

Gu Xiaoshan shook that box of animal biscuits in his hand. “This is for you.”

Renzi was extremely surprised. “Where did you get this from? How come I couldn’t find it at all?”

“Because you didn’t pay enough attention.” Gu Xiaoshan sat on the sofa. “You didn’t look carefully.”

“But forget about it, I also don’t really feel like eating it.” Renzi casually tossed this hard-earned animal biscuits onto the sofa.

Gu Xiaoshan was stunned, not knowing why he suddenly felt as though his face had been slapped. Renzi still did not notice anything, but he saw that Gu Xiaoshan’s face had changed, and so asked him, “What happened?”

As he took a seat, he accidentally sat on that box of animal biscuits — crunch — was that the sound of the biscuits crushing? Or was it a heart aching cry of the soul of a miserly president?

Gu Xiaoshan exhaled. He thought about the sports cars that Renzi had damaged while driving, the porcelain that he had broke, the golden chalice that he had instantly spoilt once he got his hands on it, and his emotions settled down.

Instead, Renzi was a little guilty. He opened the box, and fished out some biscuit crumbs to eat. Gu Xiaoshan laughed, “It’s just some animal biscuits, it’s already broken, why are you still eating it.”

“It mustn’t have been easy for you to find this biscuit! I have to treasure food!”

As they chatted, the doorbell rang again. This time, it really was the hotel staff, and Renzi passed the clothes to him. Gu Xiaoshan stood by the side, “Those are the clothes President Shu lent you?”

“Yes. I have to return the clothes I borrow, right? I also can’t return them in such a dirty state.”

“That’s right.” Gu Xiaoshan hated this sort of “endless borrowing and dragging out contact”, but he himself forgot how good he was with this method in the past. “I’ll be going to his manor tomorrow for some business discussion. Why don’t I help you return the clothes to him?”

“Of course. But I’ve promised Mr Shu to return them personally.”

Gu Xiaoshan laughed, “Heh heh.”

The staff was holding the clothes, about to leave. Gu Xiaoshan then said, “When they’re done being washed, deliver them to my office.”

The staff of course listened to his boss and nodded, leaving after agreeing. Renzi then told Gu Xiaoshan, “I think I should return it myself! I’ve already promised him.”

Renzi actually did not really want to deliver the clothes over, but he thought that since he had promised him, if there was nothing important, he should not break his promise. Also, he was quite curious about this President Gu, there was still the matter of his age, as well as his promise to roast a rabbit, and make the wine. Thinking about these, Renzi did look forward to them, as these were things that he had never done before.

Gu Xiaoshan was quite unhappy about that, but he still smiled, “It’s just clothes, is there a need to make it like a life contract? Did he promise to take you to do something fun?”

Renzi was taken aback, not expecting that he would be exposed so quickly. “Yes, it seems like he’s quite fun.”

Gu Xiaoshan was still not very happy about it. He felt that this Renzi was just like Ha-cube, just teasing him with something delicious or fun and he would come running to you. He thought for a moment, then said, “Then let’s go together tomorrow.”

Hearing that, Renzi was delighted, thinking that he could both go to Mr Shu’s place to play, and could also spend time with Gu Xiaoshan, and he could not be any happier than that.

Mr Shu’s manor was nearby. They took that Mercedes SUV there, and arrived in less than three hours. Along the way, Renzi fell asleep. Yesterday, there was Shu Jingyi in the car, and so he still knew to use his cap to cover his face. But now that there was only Gu Xiaoshan in the backseat, he just laid back and slept, not caring a bit for his image.

However, Gu Xiaoshan had already seen him like this so many times, there was really no need to talk about his image with him.

When Yu Yunren stepped out of the car, he still looked drowsy. The butler of the manor greeted them, and he only groggily nodded, not hearing a word. However, when he entered the gates of the manor, he immediately became alert. “Oh, this is too pretty! Is it a scene from a movie?”

This manor was a classic english-style manor. There was sprawling grass dotted by flowers and trees that had been meticulously taken care of. Even the walls were covered with plants, and it was a lovely scenery. Any random photograph taken as reference would make a gorgeous oil painting.

Gu Xiaoshan said, “It’s nothing to be surprised about! Not to mention the Gu family, even your Yu family has quite a number of manors. I’ve never seen you getting so excited over them.”Yu Yunren shook his head. “This looks different. You see, just walking through this path, the colours of the flowers by the sides are very elaborate, but also very complementary. It looks like they had carefully considered the colour scheme before planting the flowers.”

The butler nodded. “Yes, just this path alone, the types of plants on both sides add up to more than 30 types. They’re all selected according to their blooming season, the climate, and their colours.”

“Wow, that’s really a lot of effort.” Renzi praised.

Gu Xiaoshan was unconvinced, and silently thought about how he should redo his own family’s garden.

The house of the manor was of a simple and unsophisticated style. From outside, it seemed a little shabby, but upon going in, there were glass tumblers, crystal chandeliers, carved lattices, gold-plated spoons, all very extravagant.

In a fitting western suit, Shu Jingyi stood by the door with a smile and welcomed them in. “President Ren is here too?”

Gu Xiaoshan said, “He insisted on returning the clothes, but actually I feel that President Shu would not care about it. Still, I did ask the driver to pass the clothes to your butler.”

Shu Jingyi raised his brow and smiled, “President Gu is too kind.”

After some meaningless greetings, the three of them sat down and had a simple lunch. The food was all very simple, and even a little plain. The drink was a rough malt liquor, the appetiser spinach drizzled with balsamic vinegar, and the main course was prime rib from a local slaughterhouse. It was grilled a little too hard, and not much seasoning was added to it, just a little rough salt and ground herbs. Other than having no choice but to eat instant noodles when he was taking refuge at Gu Xiaoshan’s place, Renzi enjoyed good food, and he was really quite unused to this meal.

Shu Jingyi could see that Renzi did not like it. “President Ren doesn’t like these flavours, right?”

“It’s fine, still ok. This beef is quite interesting.”

Shu Jingyi was apologetic, “I’ve been inattentive. Actually, I didn’t expect President Ren to come along, if not I’ll have prepared something more exquisite.”

Gu Xiaoshan laughed, “So only President Ren is worthy of eating more exquisite food?”

Shu Jingyi laughed as well, “That’s right, I have to give President Ren more face.”

Renzi laughed too. “Slowly chewing on it is still quite interesting, it’s delicious. I just wasn’t used to it at the start.” Renzi felt that his tongue was about to be filed down to nothingness by the emery-like prime rib, so he drank a mouthful of malt liquor. It was so bitter than he choked, and his burning mouth felt even more painful.

What sort of rubbish food is this? Does Mr Shu usually eat this? Is his mouth made of steel, and his stomach made of iron?

—— Renzi could not help but judge silently.

As a person who could eat a baguette without drinking water, Shu Jingyi really did eat such food normally.

Of course, he also knew that most people would not be used to this. However, he believed that Gu Xiaoshan would not mind it very much, it was just that he had not expected that Renzi would tag along as well. If he knew, he would naturally had made other arrangements.

Gu Xiaoshan really did clean up his plate and finish up the bitter liquor without a change in expression.

Renzi looked at his mostly full glass of deep amber liquor, thinking of that bitter and spicy taste, his head hurt. “What sort of alcohol is this? Is it really beer?”

Shu Jingyi laughed, “It’s really malt liquor. We make it ourselves in the manor, and the potency is higher than normal.”

“And your Yu family even sells alcohol, yet you don’t know about this!” Gu Xiaoshan ridiculed, picking up Renzi’s glass and helping him finish it.