A glimmer of hope suddenly rose in his heart. He rushed over to grab Du Xiaoxian’s arm and said eagerly, “Look at my eyes. You can’t fool me. You never tell lies. Look at me!”

In the end, he was almost roaring. Du Xiaoxian slowly raised her head and frowned slightly. He grabbed her so tightly that she felt very painful. But the expression in her eyes was very calm. She did not avert her gaze. Her big eyes were still as clear as a stream.

She slowly said, “You know I won’t tell lies, and I won’t lie to you. I can’t fool you either. I’m serious. I really don’t want to go on like this. Even if the Gu Group could pull through this difficult time, your family still won’t let us be together. Are you going to enrage the old master again?”

“You say this because you have scruples about them, right? You don’t want to make things difficult for me, do you?” Gu Nianbin gasped for breath, and his breath, hot as fire, fell on her face.

“No, I just don’t like complicated things.” Du Xiaoxian tried her best to endure the pain in her arm. “As long as I’m with you, there will always be persons coming to me to look for trouble, like Xia Manyin and Xia Xiaowan. Maybe there will be others in the future. There is also your family. So I really can’t deal with them. I just want to live a simple life, even if I will be as lonely as before. I’m unable to adapt myself to your world, so…”

“So you want to leave me, don’t you?” Gu Nianbin gritted his teeth. “You still can’t face them bravely, can you? You want to abandon me and run away when you encounter trouble, don’t you? You are a coward! When Gu Shanshan went to see you, you immediately surrendered. When my mother went to see you, you also surrendered. You never thought of me. You always said that you liked me and wanted to be brave for me. It turned out to be a lie!”

“Sorry.” Du Xiaoxian lowered her voice. “I didn’t want to lie to you. I tried my best, but I couldn’t make it. I really couldn’t make it. I’m just an ordinary girl. I shouldn’t set my feet in your world, so I’m sorry. I made a mistake…”

Gu Nianbin slowly let go of her and fell back on the carpet. His fingers trembled as he picked up the cigarette box on the table. He took out a cigarette and held it in his mouth. But he did not light it. His face was blank and helpless as if he was a child who had been abandoned.

Du Xiaoxian kept biting her lips and clenched her fists tightly. Her nails were deep in her skin, but she did not feel any pain. This was because there was a place that was even more painful. The place was so bloody and shocking that even she could not bear to look straight at it. Her back was covered in sweat, and drops of sweat with cold and bone-piercing pain ran down the back one after another and fell directly to the most painful place, making it badly mangled.

Tears kept trembling at the bottom of her eyes, but she held them back again and again. She could not cry. She must not cry. She couldn’t be weak. It was not over yet. For him and her, she must not cry!

She slowly put the test report into her bag, but the man cast a cold glace at her and said, “Leave it. I will verify it. If I find out that you lie to me,” He squeezed out every word through his teeth. “Du Xiaoxian, you will get into trouble!”

Then, Du Xiaoxian put the test report back on the coffee table and said calmly, “You know that I never tell lies. You’d better not verify it, lest you feel uncomfortable again.” She stood up. “That’s all I want to say and I will take my leave.”

Gu Nianbin also stood up with his hands on the ground and watched her walk slowly towards the door. She was so thin and weak that it made him pity her.

“Xian’er,” He stopped her, and there were still hints of attachment clearly seen in his sad eyes. “If what you said is true, then, as long as you are willing to stay, I will handle all the problems,” His voice trembled, “I will handle them, okay?”

He abandoned his dignity and almost forced himself into a desperate situation, just to beg Du Xiaoxian not to leave.

Du Xiaoxian stood there, and her expression was calm. In fact, she almost maintained a calm expression all along. She didn’t shed a single drop of tear. Gu Nianbin knew that something was wrong. This Du Xiaoxian was almost a stranger. She was not his little girl.

Sure enough, Du Xiaoxian shook her head. “Do you still not know? He didn’t force me, I did it of my own accord. When I am with him, everything is simple. But when I am with you, everything gets troublesome. I just like to live a simple life.”

“Then,” Gu Nianbin’s voice was hoarse, “what about our relationship?”

“I still like you.” Du Xiaoxian shook her head sadly. “But I like him too. I like anyone good to me. You should forget about me.” She turned around resolutely, opened the door, and walked out.

The door slowly closed like a slow-motion shot in a movie. He could see Zhou Ting, who was sitting outside, having a slightly surprised expression as she raised her head. Then, the thin figure walked out lightly and gradually disappeared in the narrow light. The door finally closed.

Gu Nianbin stood there in a daze. He was just confused about what exactly happened. The sun was shining brightly outside the window, but he only felt a bit chill as if he was in a world of ice and snow. He looked around and found something white on the ground. He picked it up and realized that it was the cigarette he had held in his mouth. He didn’t know when it had fallen to the ground. He held it in his mouth again but could not find the lighter. He searched on the table, in the drawer and the cabinet, on the shelf, and under the coffee table but could not find it…

Zhou Ting craned her head at the door and looked at him in panic. “Boss, what are you looking for?”

He looked up blankly from his search and suddenly saw that the room was in a mess. He didn’t know when everything had fallen to the ground. The drawer and cabinet door was open. He stood in the middle of the mess. His eyes were dull, and his voice was hoarse. He said, “Do you have a lighter? I can’t find mine.”

Zhou Ting walked in. She picked up the silver lighter from the ground and handed it to him.

“Thank you,” He thanked her politely and lowered his head to light the cigarette, but he choked by smoke and coughed.

Zhou Ting hastily handed him a cup of tea. Gu Nianbin took it and had a sip of it. He suppressed his coughing and said again, “Thank you.”

Zhou Ting did not dare to make a sound and silently squatted down to clean up the room. When Du Xiaoxian walked out, she knew that something was wrong. The little girl had never come out of the room with that kind of expression. Gu Nianbin stood inside the room, and his eyes were full of pain and despair. At that moment, she was anxious. Her boss was always superior and would remain unruffled even if Mount Tai collapsed in front of him. How could he be in despair? For a moment, she suspected that she mistook him.

But she heard noisy sounds coming out of the room. It sounded like Gu Nianbin was breaking things. It made her tremble with fear. When the room fell silent, she ventured to pull the door open and looked inside. Sure enough, the room was as chaotic as if there had just been a battle. The boss she admired the most was standing in the middle of the room with a blank and helpless look on his face. She immediately felt sad.

“Stop tidying up those things. Get out.” Gu Nianbin took a few puffs and seemed to come back to his senses. He suddenly turned around and walked to the window.

Downstairs, Du Xiaoxian’s thin body cast a long shadow under the sun. Du Huayue, who was waiting by the side of the road, quickly moved toward her. Du Xiaoxian naturally leaned in his arms. Her move was so natural just like how she did to Gu Nianbin.

She really liked him. Gu Nianbin frowned. He held the cigarette in his mouth and punched the glass. Zhou Ting, who was about to go out, covered her chest with hands with an opened mouth as she was shocked. Fortunately, it was a type of double-layered tempered glass. Otherwise, the punch would have broken it.

Zhou Ting suddenly had an intuition that something must have happened between Gu Nianbin and Du Xiaoxian, which was more serious than the company’s crisis. Otherwise, her boss would not have an appearance as if the sky was falling down. She quietly left and ran to the window of her office to take a look.

She was so shocked by what she saw that she almost screamed. Du Xiaoxian was being held by a man, and they were walking to a bus stop by the side of the street.

This… She publicly… What happened? Zhou Ting could not believe what she saw. Du Xiaoxian abandoned Gu Nianbin and had a relationship with another man?

She had thought about various possibilities for Gu Nianbin and Du Xiaoxian, but she had never thought they would end up like this. In her opinion, Du Xiaoxian was the weaker one, who might be abandoned or forced to break up with Gu Nianbin. She had never expected that Du Xiaoxian would abandon Gu Nianbin first. Moreover, when the company faced the most difficult times, the most innocent and kind little girl had actually done such a shocking thing. It was simply inconceivable!

No wonder Gu Nianbin was so desperate. He loved her whole-heartedly. He loved her to the bones, and this love had melted into his blood. He loved her so much that all of the other women were envious of her. However, in the end, it was all in vain…

Zhou Ting was very sad and angrily cursed Du Xiaoxian in her heart. She thought Du Xiaoxian was an ungrateful, blind, heartless, and shameless person… After using all the derogatory terms that she could think of, she felt a little better. Although she gave vent to her anger, she became even more worried. What about her boss? What should her noble and matchless boss do?

She was so angry that she started to use the words she had just thought of to curse Du Xiaoxian again: the ungrateful, blind, heartless, and shameless person…

Gu Nianbin punched the window with his fist. The glass did not break, but his hand hurt. It turned out that what the ancient people said about how nerves of the fingertips were linked with the heart was true. The pain spread along his meridians all the way to his heart. It was also as if there was a sharp sword that had cut his entire body open. He watched helplessly as his heart was cut in half and was dripping with blood. He only felt pain. It was so painful that he could not breathe and almost suffocated.

He never felt weak, but now, his legs were weak and his head was dizzy. He held the window frame with his hand but his eyes were fixed on the two figures. If his eyes could spit out a fire, he would burn them to death a hundred times, even a thousand times, ten thousand times…

Even ten thousand times would not be enough to extinguish the anger in his heart! She said that she wanted to go out for a while so that he could focus on the company’s matters. She said that she would keep herself well somewhere and wait for the news of his victory. It was all said by her, but when he racked his brains to bring about an upswing to the company, and wanted to end the battle early to bring her back, she slept on someone else’s bed! What a joke, what a big joke. The love that he, Gu Nianbin, had painstakingly protected was just a joke!

He was really weak and could no longer hold on. He slowly slid down the wall and sat down on the ground.

The corner of his mouth felt slightly hot. It turned out that the cigarette was about to burn to the end. He saw that the cigarette box was not far away, so he leaned over and took it. He pulled out one and held it in his mouth. But where was the lighter? Why did the lighter disappear again?

He began to search. He lay prone on the ground and looked around. Finally, he found it under the table. It was a golden one, not the one he used a moment ago. But it could also be used. It was good that it could be used. He was somewhat gratified. It spat out a small blue flame as he pressed it with his thumb. The flame flickered as if it was dancing. He looked at it for a long time before lighting the cigarette and smoked gloomily.