Chapter 1236 - 1238
After seeing off Cao Na and Chu Ling along the way, Gong Ruini had a head full of worries.
She couldn’t talk to her big brother or her parents about this yet, and as for Gong Ruzhi, that was even more out of the question.
She could only go to Zhao Xuran to talk it over and hear his opinion first.
Zhao Xuran was all kinds of excited that his girlfriend had come to see him.
What could he do? His girlfriend was a super busy person, and chances for her to come find him were really not many. Sometimes the new female employees would keep throwing flirty looks at him, to the point he honestly felt he couldn’t handle it.
Luckily, his girlfriend was here. "Um, you sit down first."
Hey, his girlfriend was here—shouldn’t a boyfriend keep her company? Unfortunately, one look at the work in his hands and he could only helplessly give up that idea.
"Let me finish my work first."
"Right, let’s go out for dinner together later. I know a Sichuan restaurant that’s pretty good."
Ever since Cantonese cuisine blew up in Beijing, all kinds of other regional cuisines had landed there one after another. There were already plenty of options, and now there were even more—so many that people didn’t even know how to choose.
Zhao Xuran didn’t really care. If a new restaurant opened, then they’d just go eat there. What they worried about wasn’t money, it was time.
Both of them were all kinds of busy, and with their departure date for going abroad getting closer, there really were so many things that they just couldn’t juggle.
"Okay, whatever you like." After an entire afternoon of afternoon tea, Gong Ruini honestly wasn’t hungry.
"Got something on your mind?" Only now did Zhao Xuran notice that something was off with Gong Ruini.
Normally if they were going for Sichuan, shouldn’t she be asking things like whether it’s spicy or not? How come she could be this quiet today? It really wasn’t normal at all.
Gong Ruini didn’t feel it was strange that Zhao Xuran noticed she was off. She gave a little "mm," and said, "Yeah, a lot on my mind."
Gong Ruini sighed. On the way here she’d been thinking that maybe this thing had gotten a bit too big.
Especially since Cai Meina had mentioned before that the Chu Family’s social standing was quite high. Now if Chu Ling were to come out and start her own translation agency, she really didn’t know what her own mother would think.
If Chu Ling let it slip that this had Gong Ruini’s approval, Gong Ruini could already picture her mom’s ugly expression. The old lady would definitely not let her off.
What to do? Gong Ruini was so worried she almost wanted to yank all her hair out.
"Don’t sigh."
"Don’t you know sighing makes you age?" There was a mountain of official work to deal with, but no matter how important work was, it was still not as important as his wife-to-be.
Zhao Xuran shoved the documents aside, walked over, and sat down next to Gong Ruini.
"Go on, what’s up?"
"No matter how big the problem is, we’ll think it through together and we’ll figure it out."
"If it can’t be solved, then it’s not a problem, it’s a fact."
This was exactly the line Gong Ruini had been waiting for, so she told him all about what Chu Ling had just said.
When he heard that Chu Ling wanted to open a translation agency, Zhao Xuran was startled. There really had been no warning at all. But as for how strange it was—he actually didn’t think it was that strange.
"I think Chu Ling is probably worried too."
Worried? Gong Ruini didn’t understand why Zhao Xuran would put it that way. Her big brother was so honest, he would never do anything to let Chu Ling down.
Not to mention he was just a low-level staffer with no backing. Who would even look twice at him? Inside the system, there were plenty of people with better prospects than him.
If anyone needed to be worried, Gong Ruini felt it should be her instead. After all, Zhao Xuran’s future was even brighter.
"You haven’t checked in on your brother for ages, have you?" Seeing the blank look on Gong Ruini’s face, Zhao Xuran knew she’d been so busy that she’d had no time to pay attention to Gong Ruwen.
Good thing she hadn’t bluntly shown that in front of Gong Ruwen, otherwise he honestly worried her brother might be heartbroken.
As if she had the time to care about all that. "It’s not like you don’t know how busy my brother is. He’s already as busy as my dad."
Gong Ruini really wanted to complain. For that little salary, her big brother threw himself into the job with ridiculous dedication.
"Your brother’s doing great, and sales have gone way up."
Sales went up? Gong Ruini’s first reaction was to wonder if Zhao Xuran had helped from behind the scenes.
"It’s all your brother’s own hard work paying off." Zhao Xuran really was all kinds of amazed.
"Honestly, I’d already decided I was going to step in and take care of him a bit, but your brother actually handled all of it quietly on his own—in fact, he did an even better job than I’d expected."
No way. Listening to Zhao Xuran describe how much effort Gong Ruwen had put in, Gong Ruini was stunned. She really hadn’t expected her big brother to push himself that hard.
After the surprise came deep regret. "Tell me, if my brother had stayed in the factory, how much business would have increased?"
Gong Ruini was really, truly regretful. Her brother had gone into politics so the family wouldn’t be completely powerless if something happened someday.
But losing such an outstanding employee who wasn’t working for the family factory—she honestly felt like crying.
"My dad must be really torn up about it."
"Uncle Gong already regrets it, but regret is useless now." Last time he’d run into Uncle Gong, the man had pulled him aside and nagged non-stop.
Alas, this topic really couldn’t be brought up again. If it came up any more, Gong Ruini honestly worried her old man would have a breakdown.
"Mm, exactly, so don’t say it in front of my dad." Knowing how close Gong Tao was to falling apart over it, everyone tacitly avoided the subject.
"So I think that’s why Chu Ling is this on edge." After all, the better Gong Ruwen performed, the more people’s eyes would be on him.
Even though everyone knew he and Chu Ling of the Chu Family were boyfriend and girlfriend, so what? No matter how formidable the Chu Family was, their power was in the military. They basically had no way to reach into this area.
"Don’t tell me they’re thinking of poaching him?" Gong Ruini really didn’t know how to complain about this. Was her big brother someone who changed his mind that easily?
People might think he was easygoing, but he really wasn’t easy to sway at all. Once he’d made up his mind about something, he absolutely wouldn’t budge.
"Of course they are. Some families that consider themselves fairly high-status have been trying to arrange ’coincidental meetings’ between their single young women and your brother."
No way. Gong Ruini was stunned. She really didn’t know how to even comment. "Aren’t they worried that if word gets out, they’ll lose face?"
Where in the world are there that many ’coincidences’? Not to mention her big brother’s eyesight was really bad.
Counting on him to have a good impression of the girl? The difficulty level was off the charts. "If Chu Ling hadn’t taken the initiative back then, my brother would probably still be single now."
He clearly grew up together with Zhao Guangran, their relationship was so good, so how come he never picked up any of Guang Ran’s smooth-talking skills?
If he could have learned even a little bit, Gong Ruini really wouldn’t be worried about her big brother.
"The problem is, people don’t know that." There was no way Chu Ling could go around telling people she was the one who’d taken the initiative to chase Gong Ruwen.
Gong Ruwen was a man; of course he had his pride to think about, so he’d definitely tell it as if he was the active one.
"So with them working off the wrong intel, the only way they’d succeed would be if something went wrong." Gong Ruini laughed happily, really looking forward to how stupid all those contrived ’coincidences’ would look.
Unfortunately, to avoid suspicion, she couldn’t go watch. Otherwise, if any of those girls took a liking to her, who knew what they’d rope her into.
Like saying that Gong Ruini liked some family’s daughter or something—that wouldn’t exactly be impossible.
"I think I should be careful myself lately too." Being a future sister-in-law was no easy job. Gong Ruini felt like crying. She just wanted to quietly stand on the sidelines and watch her big brother and little brother each find a partner they were happy with and get married.
It was just that, judging by the current situation, that mission was a bit daunting.
Gong Ruini was honestly all kinds of anxious. "My brother’s bad at sweet talk, and that worries me."
"Xiao Zhi’s mouth is way too slick, and that worries me too." Worries everywhere.