Chapter 5

Chapter 5

What truly began to shake my resolve was the realization that Gu Yanzhou wasn’t just protecting me.

He understood me.

Before my father passed away, he left behind a notebook. Inside were the core structural models he had accumulated during his time working on the Old City Restoration Project. Originally, it was meant to be a keepsake for me, but I later learned that once those models were converted into patent licenses, they were valuable enough to make several companies fight tooth and nail over them.

Gu Zeqian hadn’t pursued me just because he thought I was easy to manipulate.

He had set his sights on that notebook long ago.

Gu Yanzhou was the one who personally exposed this to me.

One night, I returned home after working late to find him waiting for me in the study. The documents spread across the desk were more damning with every page. From valuation firms to bank transfer records, and even photos of Gu Zeqian’s assistant meeting privately with intermediaries, the chain of evidence was so complete it made my heart turn cold.

“He approached you from the very beginning specifically for that notebook.”

Gu Yanzhou’s voice was steady. “The loans for your studio and your mother’s medical consultations-those were all leverage he used to force you into submission.”

I stared at the pages, my vision going dark.

I had thought I simply loved the wrong person.

As it turned out, from start to finish, I hadn’t even been loved at all.

“You knew all along?” my voice rasped.

“I knew part of it.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me?”

Gu Yanzhou fell silent for a moment.

“I tried to warn you.”

It hit me then.

At an industry forum two years ago, he had stopped me and asked if I trusted Gu Zeqian too much. At the time, I thought he was just trying to drive a wedge between us, and I hadn’t given him a single kind word in return.

My eyes welled up instantly.

Gu Yanzhou pushed a recording pen toward me.

“Whether you want to listen or not is up to you.”

I pressed play anyway.

In the recording, Gu Zeqian’s voice sounded so familiar it made me feel sick.

“She can’t leave me. Her mother still needs treatment, and her studio needs to survive. When she can’t hold out any longer, she’ll naturally hand over the notebook.”

“Her type is the easiest to fool. Give her a little sweetness and she’ll be yours heart and soul.”

As the last sentence faded, my fingers were trembling.

I didn’t want to cry.

But the tears simply wouldn’t stop.

Gu Yanzhou walked around the desk to stand in front of me. He looked down at me for a while, then suddenly leaned over, cupped the back of my head with one hand, and pulled me directly into his chest.

It wasn’t a gesture that asked for permission.

It was the kind of posture that said, “You aren’t allowed to force yourself to be strong anymore.”

I froze for a second, and then the tears fell even harder.

Gu Yanzhou’s shirt was cool, but his embrace was burning hot.

He stroked my back rhythmically, his voice low and deep.

“Just cry.”

I clutched his shirt, weeping pathetically, and cursed under my breath with a nasal voice.

“How could I have been so blind?”

Gu Yanzhou held me, his grip tightening slightly.

“It wasn’t that you were blind.”

His chin brushed against the top of my head, his voice heavy with a sharp edge.

“It’s that he deserves to die.”

Those words made my heart tremble violently.

Because I could tell he wasn’t just comforting me.

He truly wanted to destroy Gu Zeqian.

After that night, I took the initiative to participate in Gu Yanzhou’s plans for the first time.

We began investigating the Old City Project together.

During the day, we handled our own affairs, but at night, we would cross-reference data in the study. Gu Yanzhou was incredibly focused when he worked, so calm he was almost devoid of emotion. Yet, every time I stared at the data until my head ached, he would always push a glass of warm milk to my hand and gently rub away the tension between my furrowed brows.

“Don’t bite your lip,” he said.

“You do that whenever you’re nervous. It’s a bad habit.”

I felt stubborn and deliberately bit down again.

Gu Yanzhou looked at me for two seconds before suddenly reaching out. His thumb pressed against my lip, physically forcing me to stop.

“Still biting?”

His gaze darkened intensely.

My heart fluttered under his stare, and I immediately behaved myself.

Only then did Gu Yanzhou withdraw his hand, returning to the documents as if nothing had happened.

But for the next ten minutes, I couldn’t process a single word.