Old Master Lu had a total of seven children, but only two were legitimate: Lu Zhentong’s grandfather and Lu Jiuxiao’s mother.
Aside from his good looks, Lu Zhentong’s grandfather was honestly a failure in every respect. How unreliable was he? Even his own mother utterly despised him, grabbing Old Master Lu’s hand and begging him to give up on this son and instead focus on cultivating his grandson.
Old Master Lu agreed, so Lu Zhentong’s grandfather became a father himself at the age of nineteen.
His eldest son—Lu Zhentong’s father—was much better than Lu Zhentong’s grandfather, but still didn’t quite match up to Old Master Lu’s expectations for an heir.
Resigned to his fate, Lu Zhentong’s father also chose to quickly have a son, who became Lu Zhentong.
It must be said, Old Master Lu did have true feelings for his first wife. He promised that unless absolutely necessary, he would never hand over the family business—specifically, the Lu Corporation—to any of his illegitimate children.
Lu Zhentong and Old Master Lu’s youngest daughter’s child, Lu Jiuxiao, showed promise from a young age. Pleased, Old Master Lu gave large sums of money to his illegitimate children and their mothers, with the exception of the most important company shares.
These illegitimate children and their mothers were genuinely a bit disappointed, but Old Master Lu knew how to handle things, and the sum he gave was more than generous. So, they took the money and went their separate ways, and nothing dramatic or disruptive ever came of it.
And since the family assets had in a sense already been divided up ahead of time, the process was quite harmonious. Only Lu Zhentong’s grandfather still wouldn’t spare a glance for his half-siblings, but Lu Zhentong’s father and Lu Zhentong himself got along reasonably well with these relatives. They kept in touch regularly throughout the year, not just on holidays. For instance, that cousin of Lu Zhentong’s—the one involved with Gu Su’s stepmother—had always stayed in contact with Lu Zhentong. That’s right, Lu Zhentong knew from the start that his cousin was Gu Su’s biological younger brother’s father, but never shared it with his lover Gu Su.
Lu Zhentong’s reasoning was that even between lovers, some things should be kept back. He didn’t want Gu Su to think he would just submit and give in to anything.
Even now, with a child between them, Lu Zhentong would inexplicably not want Gu Su to feel too smug about it. It wasn’t that he didn’t love Gu Su, but he’d always felt there was something a bit uncanny about him.
It was hard to describe his feelings. Clearly, getting rid of Lu Jiuxiao was a good thing for both him and Gu Su. Yet, when Gu Su hinted that Lu Jiuxiao had to go, he suddenly just wanted to watch the drama unfold…
To be honest, when Lu Jiuxiao was burned, Gu Su had already shown signs of wanting to just finish things off, but after much thought, he decided to spare Lu Jiuxiao. Looking back, he still didn’t regret his decision. On the other hand, if he really were to kill Lu Jiuxiao, the now highly skilled Cheng Jingzhou would never have spared him.
All things considered, Lu Zhentong weighed his options for an entire night before contacting that cousin now settled in South America: best to leave this matter to one master. He kept repeating to his cousin, “Sixth brother, Lu Jiuxiao has gone back to his father, and now Cheng Jingzhou is not what he used to be. If you send people against him, you must be extra careful. If you need to bring in Extraordinaries, I’ll make sure everything’s covered.”
This cousin, living in South America, was known as Lu Liu, sixth in this generation.
Lu Liu fell silent for a while, then asked seriously, “Zhentong, are you saying Cheng Jingzhou has an Extraordinary inheritance, and Lu Jiuxiao himself likely has some innate talent? And if we get the inheritance, we split it fifty-fifty? Is that what you mean?”
Lu Zhentong agreed, but he had to make his warning clear. “Cheng Jingzhou is already a registered Gu martial master in Hua Country. Don’t underestimate him, or you’ll end up with me cleaning up your corpse.”
“Alright, alright,” Lu Liu chuckled. “I’m not going to act recklessly. I know Cheng Jingzhou is something else. I’m perfectly willing to officially invite experts.”
Lu Zhentong probed, “Looking forward to working together?”
Lu Liu replied, “Looking forward to it, once again. Let’s discuss more when I’m back in the country.”
After hanging up, Lu Zhentong ignored the time difference and began giving orders to his confidants, telling them to gather more evidence, especially on those two questionable real estate projects. He wanted to see what decisions Lu Jiuxiao had made regarding those while working at the company.
It had to be said that even with his reservations towards Gu Su, when it came to dealing with Lu Jiuxiao, the two of them showed rare unity.
Gu Su, too, was reaching out to Lu Jiuxiao’s assistant—or more accurately, his former assistant—pressing for every decision and contract signed during Lu Jiuxiao’s tenure.
This assistant had fallen for Gu Su at first sight. Add to that a wisp of gray mist Gu Su tossed over, and he had no hesitation in betraying Lu Jiuxiao, stabbing his boss in the back. Yet, as much as he was obsessed with Gu Su, after Lu Jiuxiao resigned, he posted his equity transfer certificate online, and for a moment, his brain buzzed. He finally remembered how he ought to conduct himself!
Who cared if his boss would take him along or not? Not even notifying him about the resignation… losing Lu Jiuxiao’s trust and relying on the soon-to-be-divorced “boss’s wife” Gu Su, he found the whole thing more ludicrous the more he thought about it.
Just when he felt anxious and lost, Gu Su contacted him.
Suddenly, he remembered that besides Gu Su, he could also seek out another Young Master Lu—Lu Zhentong! But to try and get on his good side, it was better if he didn’t let him know he’d ever had feelings for Gu Su…
So, when Gu Su asked to meet, he declined and sent over the requested information instead.
Gu Su wanted to meet not just for the information, but also to harvest some accumulated negative emotions! Lu Jiuxiao’s clean break from Old Master Lu and the Lu Corporation had likely scared this guy badly!
It didn’t take much effort to guess what he was thinking. “You’re afraid that if things go wrong, Lu Jiuxiao will retaliate against you, and now you’re desperate for self-preservation?”
There was no point denying it anymore. The assistant admitted honestly, “I can’t withstand an audit—there are plenty of issues.”
So, there had definitely been embezzlement and misappropriation.
Gu Su sighed. If the egg wasn’t cracked, the gray mist wouldn’t easily seep in. On second thought, though, Lu Jiuxiao wanted to divorce her anyway, so why not use that as an excuse to have this assistant meet him one last time, harvest some more negative emotions, and give another solid push. Plus, she was genuinely curious about Lu Jiuxiao’s face... Had Cheng Jingzhou really managed to heal it in just ten days?
Although she had caught a distant glimpse of him outside the Lu Corporation building, in a world where Gu martial masters existed, it was possible to craft masks indistinguishable from real features.
So a closer examination was necessary. If Lu Jiuxiao’s face was really healed, she’d have to reassess Cheng Jingzhou’s abilities. Couldn’t let Lu Zhentong benefit for nothing.
Eventually, the assistant was persuaded by Gu Su—at least to meet with Lu Jiuxiao once more, hoping to gain forgiveness if possible.
Speaking of which, after using Qin Jingzhou’s special facial mask, Lu Jiuxiao had become especially sleepy. After being princess-carried by Qin Jingzhou, he had kind of let go, or maybe let himself relax for once. He didn’t insist on hugs every day, but he definitely had started to act a bit spoiled in a quiet way.
After his afternoon nap, he woke up to dozens of messages from Gu Su and immediately perked up. “Gu Su wants to see me, but won’t mention anything about the divorce. You,” he looked up at Qin Jingzhou, who was still reading over medical records, “could you come with me?”
Qin Jingzhou didn’t even look up. “Bring your Uncle Lin along.”
Lu Jiuxiao nodded slowly. “Okay. I have a feeling Gu Su might also have an inheritance, just not from any orthodox school. I don’t want to meet her alone. I want you to go with me.”
Even Qin Er and the others, knowing the whole story, thought that Lu Jiuxiao had changed too quickly. But then, they understood—if your own dad named the company after his own title 'Shenshao' and even invented a handy waist patch, you would probably become a “dad’s boy” overnight too.
So, Gu Su and the assistant met up in a famous teahouse in Capital City—the same teahouse Gu Su and Lu Jiuxiao used to frequent when their relationship was at its best. There, she encountered not just Lu Jiuxiao but also saw Qin Jingzhou and Lin Baiming with him.
This disappointed Gu Su a little. With two Gu martial masters present, she dared to provoke Lu Jiuxiao’s emotions a bit, but didn’t dare to directly harvest his negative energy, since that could cause quite a stir.
Still, satisfaction matters—if she could stir up some emotions, have him dwell on it and accumulate more negative feelings later, it was still a reliable investment.
Qin Jingzhou deliberately let his silly son practice his “gray mist resistance,” chatting and smoking with Lin Baiming out on the balcony, leaving the silly son and Gu Su alone. As for the assistant... he was just an XP bag, not worth worrying about.
Gu Su started by reminiscing about the good old days, but her mind was busy thinking: Lu Jiuxiao’s face… really didn’t look like a mask at all, but his artificial eye, if you looked carefully, you could definitely tell.
At first, Lu Jiuxiao leaned back in his chair, then propped up his chin with one hand. After that… he closed his eyes. As Gu Su continued her emotional speech, with teary eyes, he… fell sound asleep…
Gu Su: …Seriously? There’s so much gray mist churning in your mind, and you can still manage to fall asleep?!