“Mr. Gao, hello.”
Mo Hua saw Gao Shi and straightened up.
“Hello.”
The children flocked like a group of happy birds to the car’s trunk to choose their favorite gifts.
Mo Hua wasn’t good with words. After a long while, he only said, “Thank you.”
Gao Shi smiled, “Thank me for what?”
“Come on, help the children carry some things.”
Gao Shi took the lead in shouldering an extremely heavy suitcase, while Mo Hua quickly followed with another one. The two walked toward the courtyard, one behind the other.
Mo Hua had grown up in the orphanage since childhood.
After the Gao family took over the orphanage, conditions there improved significantly. After he showed exceptional athletic talent, he also received sponsorship money from the Gao family, allowing him to attend university and study sports like children from ordinary families.
When he received his acceptance letter, the supplies sponsored by the Gao family were also sent to him.
New phone, laptop, suitcase, new clothes, new bedding… All the supplies that parents prepare for new students, the Gao family had prepared for him too. Sometimes, Mo Hua would have strange thoughts, wondering if the Gao family sponsor also had a child going to university, which would explain why all the supplies were so perfectly suitable and comprehensive.
He hadn’t expected it to actually be true.
Even more unexpected was that the sponsor’s child was his own friend.
Gao Shi played with the children for a while before he had to return to the Anomaly Management Bureau. Before leaving, he said to Mo Hua:
“You don’t need to feel like you owe the Gao family anything. The Gao family’s charitable foundation provides funding every year, but only sufficiently excellent children can secure more resources. Everything you have, you earned yourself.”
“Lele doesn’t know this orphanage is under the Gao family’s name.”
“I’m very happy that he has friends like you all.”
A smile appeared on Mo Hua’s normally stern face. He didn’t smile often, but when he did, it was very attractive—like the first ray of morning sun falling on black rock, giving even the cold, hard stone some warmth.
“I know.”
“Whether or not Xiao Sheng is from the Gao family, he will be my most important friend for life.”
That was enough.
…
Gao Shi always acted decisively. Within a week, Bai Mingyue had returned to the country.
Gao Shi’s subordinate disguised an approach as small talk and put strong sleeping pills in his coffee cup. He was already exhausted from his family’s troubles and surviving on coffee alone—even the Grim Reaper would praise his constitution. So after drinking the coffee, he simply collapsed and slept like the dead at his desk, which wasn’t anything unusual.
Gao Shi’s subordinate pretended to panic and rushed him to the hospital, then paid a medical bill and left, very much giving the impression of someone fleeing to avoid trouble.
The hospital detected strong sleeping pills in his blood tests, and naturally also discovered that his health wasn’t very good.
Since the subordinate had given quite a lot of money—enough for Bai Mingyue to have a complete comprehensive examination plus three days of hospitalization—the hospital simply ran every possible test on Bai Mingyue. So when he woke up, he discovered his body was riddled with problems, especially his eyes and kidneys—one had corneal degeneration, the other had uremia.
Upon learning this news, Bai Mingyue froze on the hospital bed.
Then, even worse news came from the Bai family—their situation had deteriorated further, constantly teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. This was because Gao Shi had instructed the Gao family’s overseas operations to pressure the Bai family.
The overseas manager, receiving instructions from the young master, was completely baffled but still perfectly executed Gao Shi’s orders. Now the Bai family was like riding a roller coaster without safety belts—it was all about the thrill.
Just at this moment, the young man in the neighboring hospital bed cheered while watching a car race—”Blazing Flame! Long live!”
His companion also let out a scream, then said regretfully, “Too bad Moonlight didn’t compete this time. Feels like it’s been ages since we’ve seen Moonlight.”
When Bai Mingyue left the hospital, “Blazing Flame” had won this race beautifully. That long-distance drift at the end had people screaming their throats raw.
Cheers from internet cafes, whispered conversations at bookstore entrances, the excited, flushed faces of passersby.
Everyone was telling him just how glorious “Blazing Flame” was.
The study light stayed on all night. The next day, Bai Mingyue returned to the country.
Gao Shi never learned what Bai Mingyue’s psychological state was, but the outcome was no different from the dream.
The day after Bai Mingyue returned, Gao Shi discovered he had sent people to investigate Gui Yan’s whereabouts. Then one morning, Bai Mingyue, dressed in white and driving a snow-white sports car, swept past Gui Yan’s window.
In that instant, Gui Yan happened to pull open his curtains. The first ray of morning light was breaking through the dark sky, falling on Bai Mingyue’s car.
That white phantom, treading the boundary between night and dawn, was the moment when an ephemeral flower bloomed and withered—the moonlight about to disappear.
Gui Yan froze at the window like a statue that had stood since ancient times.
Suddenly, the statue came alive. Gui Yan jumped from the second-floor window like a madman, his feet covered in mud, but he had no time to care. He ran toward where the phantom had disappeared, screaming heart-rendingly the name he had kissed day and night in his heart—
“Mingyue——!!!”
…
The distraught Gui Yan naturally didn’t catch his moonlight.
However, at a banquet three days later, he learned of Bai Mingyue’s return to the country.
…
Gao Shi flipped through their daily interactions with little interest, then destroyed the pile of materials.
Good. May this pair last long and not harm his Lele. How they got along from now on was none of his business.
Besides this, Gao Shi’s decisive efficiency was also reflected in another matter.
Under Gao Shi’s persistent bombardment of one phone call per day, one day, Kongmiao’s phone finally connected.
As soon as the call connected, Gao Shi heard intense game commentary.
【Begin retreat】
【Protect our defense tower】
“Hey, old man…”
“Don’t talk, little Gao Shi, this old Daoist is in team battle!”
【Launch attack!】
“No, I think you should be more cautious right now.”
“Real men must bravely face adversity!”
【Request assembly】
【Launch attack!】
【Begin retreat! Begin retreat!】
【Let Daji see your heart~】
【Been played to death…】
Gao Shi: …I thought you sounded so resolute and had the courage for a 1v5, figured you were at least playing a top laner.
【Protect our Daji】
【Protect our Daji】
【Our crystal is under attack】
【Daji, I’m your dad! Daji, I’m your son!】
Gao Shi: Look how you’ve upset this kid—gained a son out of nowhere.
【Defeat!】
Gao Shi: “Finished playing?”
Daoist Kongmiao: “…Finished.”
Daoist Kongmiao’s sorrowful voice came through the receiver: “This old Daoist has already dropped to Silver III.”
Gao Shi rubbed his temples, “Come over. After you arrive, I’ll have the brothers in the department boost you.”
Kongmiao was delighted, “Really? Ahem… no, I mean, my disciple has been down the mountain for so long, as his master I should come check on him.”
Gao Shi casually unwrapped a lollipop, “What happened to you recently? I was thinking of having a helicopter fish you out of the mountains, but I was worried about disturbing your recovery, so I didn’t act.”
Mm, grape flavor.
Kongmiao sighed, “Don’t mention it.”
“Before my disciple left, this old Daoist cast a divination. The hexagram said he must descend the mountain alone. This old Daoist didn’t believe in fate and made thorough preparations, planning to forcibly follow him down the mountain.”
“Didn’t expect to be struck by ghostly energy that very night.”
Gao Shi’s expression became serious, “Ghostly energy?”
Kongmiao nodded, “Indeed! Eerie ghostly energy that has probably existed for over a thousand years.”
Gao Shi became anxious, “Then you?”
Although Gao Shi couldn’t see him, Kongmiao still waved his hand, “This old Daoist is fine. By rights, such powerful ghostly energy should have long since been… ahem, anyway, it should have stopped existing long ago, but somehow it still exists in this world.”
“Speaking of which, it’s strange. Though this ghostly energy is powerful, its aura is very mixed and impure, and it has no consciousness either—it’s precisely because of this that this old Daoist could fight it to a 60-40 split.”
Gao Shi crunched his lollipop loudly, “You got 40, it got 60?”
Daoist Kongmiao snorted in refutation, “Of course not! Naturally this old Daoist got 60, it got 40!”
Gao Shi: Oh, I get it. You got 40, it got 60.
Daoist Kongmiao continued, “This old Daoist was injured, but it didn’t get away unscathed either. Its body shrank by a third, and it won’t emerge to harm the human world again for decades.”
“Originally, this injury wasn’t too serious, but unexpectedly, a gu took advantage of my weakness and burrowed into this old Daoist’s body. These past two months, this old Daoist has been fighting this gu.”
Gao Shi was stunned, “Gu? You mean like in those storybooks—the gu that the Miao borderlands raise?”
Kongmiao hummed in acknowledgment, “Gathering several types of poisonous insects in a jar, burying it in the earth, making them fight each other. After several days, take it out—the surviving insect is called gu.”
“This is just how outsiders explain gu. In reality, not just insects—even dead objects like bamboo strips and stones can be refined into gu. True gu are far more troublesome than the rumors suggest.”
“The Miao borderland’s gu are indeed famous, but in the past, when Miao women married into the outside world, they brought their gu with them. Over time, gu were no longer exclusive to the Miao borderlands. However, later, as the outside environment changed drastically, the gu arts in the outside world gradually became lost.”
Kongmiao shook his head, “But it seems they weren’t entirely lost, or this old Daoist wouldn’t have fallen into their trap.”
Gao Shi frowned and pressed further, “Old man, how are you now? Have you extracted the gu?”
Kongmiao replied triumphantly, “Of course! Who do you think this old Daoist is?”
Hearing his vigorous tone, Gao Shi secretly breathed a sigh of relief and casually asked, “What kind of gu was it? To give you trouble for two whole months?”
Silence from Kongmiao’s end.
Gao Shi had asked casually, but now he was intrigued, “What was it? Don’t tell me it was one that made you lose games?”
Kongmiao exploded in anger, “Nonsense! It was a love gu! A love gu!”
“Love gu is very troublesome. Whoever you use a love gu on will fall madly in love with you. This old Daoist was afflicted with love gu—losing integrity would be a small matter, but being used to do bad things would be troublesome.”
Gao Shi couldn’t help but frown, “Old man, where did you pick up this romantic debt? Sounds quite troublesome.”
Kongmiao exploded in anger again, “How can little Gao Shi slander my innocence out of thin air! This old Daoist has lived a pure life—how could I possibly philander!”
Gao Shi tossed the bare candy stick into the trash bin and said, “Old man, you haven’t philandered, but I have some grass I want to dig up and take home to nurture.”
“I think I’ve fallen for your disciple.”
Gao Shi had made a decisive, object-less confession.
***
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