Campus Ace Girl-Chapter 532 - 533: Gu Mingzhu’s Background

He lightly closed his eyes. "The Gu family is teetering on the brink, and I, who have spent a lifetime predicting others’ fates, never foresaw such an ending for myself."

At this, the secretary-general chuckled. "Mr. Gu, there’s no need to be such a pessimist. Most things in life don’t go as planned. Today might seem terrible, but perhaps tomorrow will be even worse. Then, looking back, today wouldn’t seem so bad after all. Wouldn’t you agree, Mr. Gu?"

The words concealed a deeper meaning, one that Gu Yuanshan did not understand.

At that moment, Gu Yuanshan was solely focused on resolving their current predicament, so he again pressed the secretary-general for genuine advice.

The secretary-general, looking at the metaphorical green cloud hovering over Gu Yuanshan’s head, felt quite sympathetic and thus offered some genuine advice. "This matter cannot be rushed. You must wait."

Gu Yuanshan’s mouth hung open like a catfish. "Wait?"

He anxiously pressed the secretary-general for guidance. "What kind of waiting?"

The secretary-general laughed again. "Eat when you should eat, do what you should do... The best thing would be to figure out where you went wrong, what Mr. Gu should do, and what Miss Gu should do."

He seemed ready to speak his mind fully. "I’ve also seen the photos. I was in the car at the time! If these things had really happened, given Mr. Wang’s status, would he have allowed himself to be photographed? Think about it carefully—it doesn’t make sense, does it?"

Gu Yuanshan repeatedly agreed, cold sweat beginning to break out on his back.

The secretary-general chuckled again. "Brother Yuanshan, you and your wife are too biased. Anxi didn’t grow up with you, and now she’s merely returned to Beicheng without burdening you. So why this hostile prejudice against her? Outsiders truly don’t understand this reasoning. Besides, not trusting your own daughter and instead believing idle gossip... It’s truly as if she weren’t raised by your side."

Gu Yuanshan was speechless.

The secretary-general felt he had pressed him enough. "Let’s leave it at that. Old brother, for the next couple of days, you absolutely must not appear before Mr. Wang. He’s about to celebrate his birthday, and we can’t have his mood affected, can we?"

Gu Yuanshan agreed repeatedly. "Yes, yes, that’s right."

The secretary-general gave a mysterious smile and slowly went upstairs.

He was King Jingyao’s confidant, so Gu Yuanshan naturally found his words convincing.

On the drive back, Gu Yuanshan was in a somber mood, feeling as if disaster was imminent. He remained silent, and Gu Mingzhu dared not speak either.

As they neared the Gu residence, Gu Yuanshan finally spoke, his tone severe. "Mingzhu, you don’t have to consider Anxi your sister, but you cannot harm her."

He owed that child and should have compensated her. He never imagined that in the end, it would be his own little daughter, doted on for twenty years, who would harm that child.

Gu Yuanshan was torn, on one hand, by the fate of the Gu family, and on the other, by his guilt.

When he had seen Anxi earlier, he had indeed felt too ashamed to face her.

Gu Mingzhu remained silent, but inwardly she was indignant. It was clearly Gu Anxi who was in the wrong, Gu Anxi who was so promiscuous! If she could act that way, why couldn’t others talk about it? Was it just because King Jingyao protected her?

When father and daughter returned home, their moods were grim. Tang Yuan, upon learning that King Jingyao refused to see Gu Yuanshan, felt a mixture of disappointment and anxiety.

That evening, she went out, wanting to meet that person, but when she arrived, he flatly refused to see her.

He had a wife, a descendant of a prestigious family. He cherished his family and, after their fleeting affair, refused to meet her again. Even though she had given birth to Mingzhu, that man had never acknowledged the child.

Sitting in the car, Tang Yuan gently closed her eyes, not daring to imagine what would happen to her next. If Mingzhu’s true parentage was exposed, it would all be over.

Her car remained parked there for a full hour. A fine rain began to fall from the sky, the drops glistening in the dim light... yet they felt like countless, dense needles piercing her heart.

At this moment, the villa’s main gate slowly opened, and a figure holding an umbrella gradually approached. Tang Yuan immediately opened the car door, rushing out to greet them with joyful surprise. "Mr. Min..."

But as the figure drew closer, she saw it wasn’t him. It was Min Xin’s wife, a woman of noble birth, the very woman Min Xin often described as exceedingly proper and stern.

This woman was noble and beautiful. She disliked social engagements and preferred to stay secluded at home, so few among Beicheng’s high society had ever seen her.

This was Tang Yuan’s second time seeing this woman. The first time had been many, many years ago; back then, this woman had been even more beautiful, even colder.

Before this woman, Tang Yuan felt a sense of inferiority, a feeling that stemmed from the other’s noble background.

Her own body was being drenched by the rain, while the other woman wore a comfortable woolen dress, her tea-colored, long, curled hair impeccably arranged over her shoulders. She was beautiful and exquisite. Compared to twenty years ago, she hadn’t diminished in the slightest.

Tang Yuan’s lips trembled. "I want to see Mr. Min. I don’t mean anything by it, I just want to discuss with him..."

The woman’s delicate eyebrows knitted slightly. She said in a faint voice, "He asked me to tell you he will not see you."

Tang Yuan was stunned. "But..."

"There is no ’but.’ Clean up your own mess," the woman said faintly, then turned and walked towards the villa, calm and composed, just like her temperament.

Tang Yuan knew. This woman didn’t love Min Xin, not one bit. But it was precisely this lack of love that allowed her to remain Mrs. Min so composedly for so many years. Min Xin, she knew, had many women, but there would only ever be one Mrs. Min.

Tang Yuan suddenly felt a surge of jealousy towards this woman. "You don’t love him, why don’t you divorce him?"

The woman paused. Her silhouette, holding the umbrella, was like a rose in the rainy night, or a dynamic painting. She lowered her eyes and smiled faintly. "You don’t love Gu Yuanshan, so why don’t you divorce him?" After speaking, the woman slowly walked into the house that Tang Yuan and women like her could never enter.

No one knew why Min Xin, despite not loving his wife, kept her hidden away for decades, not even willing to let her have a child. At forty, she was still maintained like a young girl. And Min Xin’s turbulent affairs outside never affected her.

It was true that she didn’t love Min Xin.

It was rumored that Mrs. Min had a congenital heart condition. Min Xin had married her partly because she was beautiful, but more importantly, because of her family’s background.

However, no matter how much Min Xin relied on the great mountain that was his wife’s family, it still couldn’t provide the same conveniences as King Jingyao’s inherently superior birthright.

A wife’s natal family was, after all, different from one’s own parents’ family.

Tang Yuan still stood silently in the rain, all her dignity gone before Min Xin’s wife. The last time, it had also been this woman who had come out to dismiss her, giving her five million and telling her to abort the child, warning that Min Xin would not acknowledge it otherwise.

Tang Yuan smiled bitterly, knowing that no matter what, she wouldn’t be able to get him to see her.

She understood. Relationships like this were common in their circle; no one took them seriously. But now, she truly had no other options; she had to beg him for help...

Tang Yuan had no choice but to leave. As she sat in the car, her clothes completely soaked, she no longer cared—

Just as she was about to start the car, she suddenly remembered something Gu Yuanshan had told her during his furious outburst the last time...