Cinderella Innocent and Boss Charming - Chapter 213

Chapter 213 Proposal
Although the loudspeaker was still repeating the news, Du Xiaoxian could no longer pay attention to it. All she could feel was her pounding heartbeat. She doubted if she was dazzled, so she rubbed her eyes and looked again. Then she found that it was indeed her illusion because she didn’t find Gu Nianbin. She looked around and couldn’t find him anywhere. He didn’t know when and where the painting exhibition would be held. Even if he knew, he wouldn’t come. He was happily living with Xia Xiaowan now and wouldn’t remember her anymore.

Du Xiaoxian calmed down and slowly walked to the sign-in reception desk. Du Huayue looked at her confusedly, “What happened to you? One of your paintings was successfully sold. Why are you unhappy?”

“I’m very happy,” said Du Xiaoxian.

Du Huayue sized her up theatrically, “You don’t look happy at all. Don’t tell me that you are unhappy about the price.”

“No, that’s not what I mean. I think the price is already high enough.” Du Xiaoxian hurriedly waved her hand, “More than 2,800 RMB is really a high price for me!”

“You are really stupid enough.” Du Huayue said with a smile, “Everybody wants his products to be sold at a high price. Last time, you stopped me from buying you a phone. But now, you have earned money yourself. Are you going to buy a new phone?”

“Yes,” said Du Xiaoxian. “I don’t want to always bother Mrs. Qin. How about we treat Mrs. Qin a dinner some other day to thank her for helping us so much?”

“Alright, it’s up to you.” Du Huayue placed his hands on Du Xiaoxian’s shoulders and his eyes lit up. “Xiaoxian, I never expect that your paintings would be so profitable and be sold at more than 2,000 yuan. If we could close 5 to 6 deals one day, we would earn ten thousand yuan per day and that equals several hundreds of thousands per month. Xiaoxian, you are going to make a big fortune!”

“Several hundreds of thousands per month?” Du Xiaoxian was obviously shocked by this number. She blinked her eyes at a loss and said, “That’s much too impossible. How come it’s even faster than printing banknotes!”

They were foolishly dreaming of making a fortune when He Sen walked over and said, “Xiaoxian, why are you staying here all the time? Come inside and take a look. Let’s listen to people’s comments. I just walked around and found people tend to give a positive judgment over your paintings. You must have heard that one of your paintings was already sold. As the saying goes, a good beginning is half the battle.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the loudspeaker started broadcasting again, “An anonymous gentleman bought the four small flower-themed paintings at the price of 6,680 yuan. Congratulations to him!”

“Wow!” Du Huayue patted Du Xiaoxian excitedly, “It was sold at more than 6,000 RMB. That means the total sales revenue is almost 10,000 yuan!” Then, he turned to ask He Sen, “Mr. He, how much can Xiaoxian get from that?”

“Brother Yue, you are really…” Du Xiaoxian glanced at Du Huayue with a reproachful gaze and a red face.

He Sen said, “Excluding the cost of holding this exhibition, our gallery and the painter would get 30% and 70% of income respectively. That is to say, Xiaoxian will get 70% of the income.”

Du Xiaoxian let out a cry and showed a surprising look.

“What’s up? Are you expecting a higher share? It took me a hard time to get this result.” He Sen said, “Some galleries accept only 50% to 50% or 40% to 60% of share allocation plan.”

“No,” Du Xiaoxian said, “I think 50% to 50% of share allocation plan is fine. How about giving Mr. He another 20% of my share?”

“No way.” He Sen refused while shaking his head, “I’m already satisfied that you can hold your own painting exhibition. To be honest, your exhibition makes me feel happier than my own exhibition.”

Du Xiaoxian was deeply moved. She felt that she was very lucky to have met such a group of good people, such as Mr. He, Boss Zhou, Sister Ah Ling, Secretary Zhou, Sister Nina, and so on. But she would always remember the person who treated her best. She kept repeating his name in her heart, Gu Nianbin.

She really wanted to share such a happy moment with him. Without him, she could never have today’s achievement!

However, no matter how much she missed him, what she could do was only regret. They had become strangers and would never develop any relationship again.

The happier she was, the more she would remember the sadness at the bottom of her heart. For fear that He Sen and Du Huayue would find something wrong, Du Xiaoxian left with a random excuse. She kept walking slowly through the crowd and looked up at her paintings like everyone else.

But she could always find something wrong as if a pair of eyes were staring at her. But when she turned around, nothing really happened. She felt that she must be suffering from lovesickness because she was missing Gu Nianbin very much. She took a few steps forward and found a themed painting, where the girl in the picture was only presented through a silhouette, holding a string in her hand. The girl in the picture kept running while looking at the kite in the sky. Butterflies were dancing beside her and flowers were blooming under her feet. Birds were flying in the sky with white clouds. Though the painting had many elements, the whole layout didn’t look messy. Instead, the overall painting conveyed abundant factors and looked dimensional, bringing people a pleasant feeling. Many people gathered around to appreciate and discuss the painting.

Standing at the back of the crowd, Du Xiaoxian carefully listened to people’s comments. However, she caught a glimpse of a person through the corners of her eyes. When she turned around, she found Gu Nianbin again. She believed that there must be something wrong with her. So she rubbed her eyes and looked again. This time, Gu Nianbin was still there. He was just standing there, looking at her without saying a word. His gaze was deep and meaningful, which looked unfathomable. The lights were bright. He seemed to be covered by a halo, making him look a bit unreal.

Two to three people walked past between both of them. Du Xiaoxian stared at Gu Nianbin in a daze, as if she had even forgotten to breathe.

She felt that she was about to suffocate when her heart was pounding as loudly as thunder. Her palms were full of sweat. Was this really him? After a few days, he looked thinner and his face became more dimensional. But his lips were tightly closed and his chin formed a tense curve. She felt he was angry, or perhaps not. She was so scared that she wanted to escape hurriedly.

“Du Xiaoxian!” The man’s voice wasn’t loud but powerful. People around them became quiet. Everyone looked at her. They knew that this was her own painting exhibition, but few people knew her. So upon hearing the name, everybody started to look at her at the same time.

Du Xiaoxian stood in front of the painting, in the middle of the spotlight, as if she was standing on the stage and became the focal point. But her face showed a frightened look in all aspects.

Du Xiaoxian became frozen at the same point, looking straight at the man walking towards her in a daze.

“Do you still want to escape?” Gu Nianbin asked her.

She argued with a low and soft voice, “I never escaped.”

The man stopped talking and looked deeply into her eyes. Du Xiaoxian became panicked and said hurriedly, “I’m very glad that you have come. But how do you know that I’m holding a painting exhibition here at the moment? Ah, Mr. He must have told you. Do you know that someone has bought my painting? I’m rich now. Which painting do you like? I’d like to give it to you for free. In fact, you don’t have to come. It’s fine. But I’m really glad that you came. I…”

She was not talkative at all. But she couldn’t stop talking at this moment. Because once she stopped talking, she would burst into tears. She was really useless that she could only cry when she ran into any trouble.

Gu Nianbin did not say anything. He kept listening to her quietly, looking at her when she was trying her best to endure the surge of emotion. He found her eyes were turning red and were covered by a layer of tears.

He suddenly reached out his hand and pulled her into his arms. Du Xiaoxian was suddenly caught without any guard and even the slightest bit of resistance. He kissed her in public when she was completely at a loss. She only felt as if she had fallen into a dream, where she couldn’t see or listen. Everything turned out to be a black and white silent film. Only the man beside her was real. His embrace was as warm as before, and his aura was so familiar to her. Du Xiaoxian hugged him tightly. She had been missing him very much, even in her dreams. If this was a dream, she would rather never wake up.

When Du Huayue suddenly heard a loud noise in the hall, he was quite curious. When he walked into the crowd, he became so angry that his face turned pale. When he was about to rush over, someone stopped him. He turned around and found the one stopping him was He Sen. The latter shook his head and signaled Du Huayue not to go over.

“Mr. He, you don’t know that the guy named after Gu is not a good person.”

“I know. Let’s wait and see. Today is a good day for Xiaoxian. Don’t embarrass her.” He Sen said, “It’s her own business. We’d better not interfere.”

Although Du Huayue was indignant, he could only hold back for the time being. He blamed Du Xiaoxian in his mind for her lack of independence, and that she couldn’t remain calm as soon as she saw this man.

The crowd was surprised and all of them became dumbfounded.

When Chen Guohua found it from afar, he said to Zhou Xuan, “Is this also a part of your plan? In order to boost popularity and attract people’s attention, you even came up with such a plan. No wonder I found so many journalists here.”

Looking at the totally immersed couple, Zhou Xuan burst into laughter, “It’s said that the President of Gu Corporation is a cold-hearted person. I never expected he would be so passionate that he would directly kiss her the moment he saw her. This must be today’s headline news!”

Chen Guohua was so shocked that he stuck his head out to look at the ongoing situation, “Is that Gu Nianbin, the President of Gu Corporation? How come you invited him to come here?” But after some careful thinking, Chen Guohua felt something wrong, and he said, “He is such an important figure that will never accept your invitation. No wonder you are willing to invest so much money to hold a painting exhibition for Du Xiaoxian. You are actually trying to please President Gu!”

“You become skeptical again.” Zhou Xuan said, “I don’t need to please him since I have no business relationship with Gu Corporation.”

Everyone remained silent at the very beginning. But later, an unknown person took the lead to applaud. Then almost everyone immediately responded and followed the applause. The warm and heated applause finally brought Du Xiaoxian back to reality. She started to struggle slightly. Gu Nianbin let her go and kept looking at her with a tender gaze. His mouth corners curled into a bright smile. Du Xiaoxian’s face turned red and she was so shy that she really wanted to hide in a dark corner. She was totally at a loss when many people were watching them kissing and were even shooting with their phones and cameras. She was completely dumbfounded. She had no idea what she was doing and how to end this up.

Just as she was at a loss, Gu Nianbin suddenly got down with one knee, holding a ring in his hand as if it was a magic trick. That was a big diamond ring, which was delicately cut with a perfect shape. The ring was shining so brightly that many people took a cold breath at the same time. Such a beautiful diamond must be priceless.

“I don’t know which type of ring you like, so I’ve decided to follow the popular concept and have bought the most expensive one.” Said Gu Nianbin. He raised his head and kept looking at her sincerely, “Xian, marry me. From now on, I’ll love and care about you only. I’ll never cheat you and fulfill every promise I made for you. Every word I say to you is my heartfelt confession. I’ll never bully you, nor scold you. I’ll always believe in you. I’ll help you as soon as possible if anyone dares to bully you. When you are happy, I’ll become happy together with you. When you are unhappy, I’ll coax you until you become happy. I’ll always regard you as the most beautiful woman in the world. I will even dream of you. You are the only one in my heart!”

Tears instantly covered Du Xiaoxian’s eyes. Gu Nianbin’s sudden appearance had already shocked her very much. But his proposal was totally out of her wildest expectations. Moreover, she was surprised that he even memorized such a long script. She used to believe that she had long forgotten that script and never expected that he would always remember it in his heart.

But how could this be? Wasn’t he in love with Xia Xiaowan? Weren’t they staying together? He had left her, but why did he turn out to propose to her? She couldn’t figure out what was going on. She looked at him with tearful eyes and slowly retreated while shaking her head.