Addicted: Book Two – Chapter 13

The Battle Intensifies!

Translate: Nancy | Edit: Sae

Just as Gu Hai walked out of the office building and headed toward the parking lot, he suddenly caught a glimpse of Bai Luoyin’s car. As expected, he was unable to remain calm…

Even though a touch of self-satisfaction welled up in Gu Hai’s heart, the expression on his face did not reveal anything. He maintained a withdrawn facade of a President and walked expressionlessly over to Bai Luoyin.

As a result, the next scene caused his face to become completely paralyzed.

This was happening in front of his company; a place where rigorous rules and regulation were implemented yet his own staff was not trying to avoid any arousing suspicious at all as she openly flirted with a man. But this was not even the main point—the point was, this man was Bai Luoyin, and this staff was the person rumored to be dating a few days ago.

Gu Hai made his way towards them, causing the conversation between the two to end.

When Di Shuang turned around to look at Gu Hai, not only was she not panic-stricken, she excitedly faced him and said” “Gu-zong, this is my boyfriend, Bai Luoyin. There’s no need for me to introduce him, right? He is the person in charge of the project that our company is currently collaborating with. It shouldn’t be considered breaking protocol if I date him, right?”

During the entire time, Gu Hai’s gaze was glued on Bai Luoyin—the hidden energy that beneath this piercing gaze was more than enough to level the entire office building to the ground.  

“Is what she said true?”

“What do you think?” Bai Luoyin’s gloomy eyes shot back at Gu Hai, “Have I, Bai Luoyin, ever said anything irresponsible?”

In the blink of an eye, Gu Hai took a step forward and plastered his entire body just centimeters away from Bai Luoyin. That ruthless glare was like a sharp blade carving into Bai Luoyin’s face before Gu Hai rigidly extruded three words from the tight spaces between his teeth.

“You – Are – Dead!”

Unperturbed, both of Bai Luoyin’s hands shot out and pressed hard onto Gu Hai’s shoulders, controlling the distance between them before he revealed a malicious smile.

“Aren’t I just being considerate for your sake? As my little brother, I’m saving you the trouble of worrying about me all day long. It’s all good now. I’m not a bachelor anymore so you don’t need to trouble yourself with helping me learn about your company anymore. I’ve discovered that your company is a truly rich and resourceful place. Aside from President and Vice President, the rest of the staffs are all rather suitable for me.”

That being said, he pulled Di Shuang’s hand over and dragged it in front of Gu Hai.

“From now on, she is your sister-in-law. I’ll be depending on you to look after her at work.”

Di Shuang blushed as she gave Gu Hai a glance, “Gu-zong, I’m a bit embarrassed.”

Gu Hai stubbornly forced their interlocked hands apart, but to say it more precisely, he sternly cleaved it apart with much force, causing Di Shuang to grimace with pain and provoked Bai Luoyin’s expression to immediately change.

“Gu Hai, you need to take responsibilities for your words and actions!”

With darkened face, Gu Hai spoke with a pause between each word, “I don’t know what responsibilitiesmean, I only know what heartless means!”[1]

Bai Luoyin smiled bitterly, “Heartless? Is it even appropriate to use this word between the two of us? Gu-zong, did you wander back to the past? Turn around and have a good look at where you’re standing when you are saying that. You’re already a person of status, soon to be someone’s husband and some kid’s father. You’ve lost the right to say these words to me a long time ago!!”

Filled with raging anger and resentment, Gu Hai suddenly pressed Bai Luoyin’s head on the roof of the car.

“Bai Luoyin, you’re a motherfucking bastard, a heartless inconsiderate bastard!!”

All of a sudden, Bai Luoyin exerted his strength and shoved Gu Hai over onto the body of the car. “I am a bastard! You’ve already called me a bastard over the eight years. I don’t give a shit if you call me that for a few more years!!”

The result was as expected. The two began to wage a battle in front of the company’s main entranceway. The only thing was that this time an extra woman was participating. On one side was her boyfriend and on the other side was the boss who she had once been secretly in love with. Without any hesitation, Di Shuang chose the former, but the thing was her strength was too weak. So, as soon as she moved in closer, without standing firm enough, she was thrown over three meters away.

Once he heard the sound of Di Shuang’s weeping, Bai Luoyin ceased fire and walked over to help her into the car. Then under Gu Hai’s watchful glare, he immediately sped away.

Heartache and sorrow followed behind the car while dejection was coiled around the wheel, and forcefully dragged along.

The next day, as soon as Di Shuang arrived at the company, she made a beeline toward Gu Hai’s office. Meanwhile, her coworkers waited to see her get humiliated.

“Gu-zong.”

Gu Hai picked up his head and cast Di Shuang a glance. Surprisingly, this glance was not different from any other days. “What is it?”

With tears welling at the rims of her eyes, Di Shuang handed Gu Hai a resignation letter. “I already know that there is no longer a need for me to stay. Rather than waiting for you to fire me, it’s better for me to leave first. Gu-zong, thank you for your generous support during the last two years. Although I have learned a lot in this company, I am very sorry that I cannot give up my relationship in order to keep my position. I truly hope you can understand.”

“Who said I was going to fire you?” Gu Hai said as he picked up his eyes.

Hearing that, Di Shuang was immediately dumbfounded. “…What happened yesterday was a complete mess. Don’t tell me you’d still allow me to stay?”

“You’re my sister-in-law. Even if I get rid of everyone, I will definitely let you stay!”

Gu Hai acted completely out of the norm as he spoke with an amazingly calm tone.

“Those are two separate issues, let’s not mix feelings and work together. I had a look at your performance over the past two years and it’s pretty good. Vice-President has some family matter to attend to, so she won’t be returning for a while. You can take over her work for the time being.”

Di Shuang was completely blown away with Gu Hai’s manner and heartfelt words. He was truly a godlike man, worthy to have been her secret love!

“Okay. You can go pack your belongings and move over here.”

Di Shuang looked at Gu Hai, feeling overwhelmed and extremely flattered by this unexpected favour, “Move…move to where?”

“Actually, don’t move into Vice President Yan’s office. If in case she returns earlier, you will have to pack again. You might as well move in here instead since my office is large enough. I’ll get someone to order a desk for you. Moving forward, you can sit and work directly opposite to me.”

Di Shuang opened her mouth wide in astonishment, “No way?…then, wouldn’t I be—”

Wouldn’t I become the number one public enemy in this company?

“What’s wrong? Are you not satisfied?” Gu Hai sneered coldly, “If you’re not satisfied, I can clear out the bedroom on the other side and give you half of it.”

“No, no, no… I’m already very satisfied.”

Di Shuang walked out of Gu Hai’s office, feeling as though she was in paradise, gracefully dancing on the clouds. Did the good fortunes come too quickly? First, she picked up an invincibly handsome officer without any problems, and now for some strange combination of circumstances, she was promoted. By now, even she was a bit jealous of herself.

This news spread throughout the entire company very quickly and the person who had the biggest reaction was—of course, Xiao Tao.

Just a day ago, she had secretly giggled beneath her blanket.

You got busted, didn’t you? Just wait until you get fired!

The next day, in front of Xiao Tao’s hopeful eyes, Di Shuang walked dispiritedly into Gu Hai’s office yet when she walked out, she was beaming with smiles instead. Not only was her anticipation for Di Shuang to get fire shattered, her chances of moving into Gu Hai’s office as to enjoy an unprecedented treatment and gain the attention she had previously received was completely snatched away.

For the past few days, Gu Hai had given Di Shang a considerable amount of face.

First, he made arrangements for her to work in his own office which tantamounted to being on the same footing as the higher management. Then, whenever he headed out for a meeting, he would take her with him as if she was his personal secretary. Finally, he would always be together with her for dinner and any free time she had. The two came to work together and finished work together. And Gu Hai’s chauffeur was responsible for picking her up and dropping her off at work.

“Hey…can you all tell me what’s so good about Di Shuang? How did she even get selected?”

“How would I know? I thought she moved on and fell in love with somebody else, so I ended up asking her about it the other day. She said that she is still dating that Major.”

“No way?” The woman said stunned, “She has her hands on two men?”

“I hate women like that, so slutty.”

“Shhhhhhh…”

Under countless jealous and hate-filled glares, Di Shuang simply walked into the office.

Nearly two weeks had passed, and for the last two days, Di Shuang’s egotism had been completely satisfied. After that, everything became a very long and torturous process. The pressure that contrived from her colleagues’ opinions were all trivial matters, but the most insufferable pressure came from the excess of workload and a lifestyle that was constantly under surveillance.

Since she was given such an important position from Gu Hai, she never dared to slack even the slightest. Every day, in Gu Hai’s presence, she performed her duties with utmost effort and had never taken advantage of working hours to contact Bai Luoyin.

Therefore, in the wake of excess workload and responsibilities, her spare time had significantly decreased next to none. By the time she returned home every night, she was completely burnt out. Even the thought of wanting to get in touch with Bai Luoyin for just a while was out of the question since she would fall fast asleep the moment her head touched the pillow.

As a result, one day when she was no longer able to bear the heavy burden, Di Shuang finally cracked and messaged Bai Luoyin during a bathroom break, crying out for help.

On that same evening, a phone call reached Gu Hai.

“Give your sister-in-law a day off!” Bai Luoyin said with a rather demanding tone.

Gu Hai responded indifferently, “It’s because she is my sister-in-law that I cannot favor her. What you said that day deeply touched me. I can’t let my emotions get the best of me and act out impulsively. I have to be fair and treat issues separately so that you won’t look down on me!”

After throwing down the phone, Bai Luoyin bit his own lips so hard that it almost bled.

Gu Hai, on the other hand, happily went to the bathroom for a nice and cold shower.

The next morning, Di Shuang came to work with an exceptionally refreshing and glamorous allure rather than her usual impecunious and modest appearance. She walked into the office brimming from ear to ear as if happiness had been written all over her face.

When Gu Hai looked up, he was met with a dazzling necklace hanging off of Di Shuang’s neck.

With just one look at the style and design, Gu Hai knew straight-away who it was from.

After so many years, Bai Luoyin’s taste never changed.

When Di Shuang saw Gu Hai staring her necklace, a blush lightly ran up her cheeks before she spoke in a soft voice. “This is from your brother.”

Gu Hai sneered with a laugh, “When did you see him?”

“I didn’t see him. He heard I wasn’t in a good mood yesterday so that night he sent someone to deliver the necklace to my mailbox. I was shocked when I opened it early this morning. Who would have known even a soldier knows how to be romantic…” Di Shuang blushed again as she spoke, unable to prevent the happiness that played out on her face to flow into her words…

Like a sharp arrow, Gu Hai’s glare aimed at Di Shuang’s face. “Year-end is fast approaching and there has been a lot of work for the past few days. I’ve already stayed overnight in the office for two days in a row and honestly it been a bit unbearable. How about this, from today on, you can also stay over in the office to help take some responsibilities off my shoulders, what do you think?”

The color of Di Shuang’s face changed instantly when she looked nervously at Gu Hai. She had been holding back some words, and she felt it was finally time to lay it out in the open.

“Gu-zong, I admit, I had feelings for you in the past, but that was in the past. Now I only love boyfriend with all my heart. Isn’t there a saying that goes like this? ‘You should not covet your brother’s wife.’ Gu-zong, I can see that you are good to me. However, I’m truly sorry but I already have someone in my heart. You should stop before you take it too far…enough is enough…”

Gu Hai, “…”

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[1] Heart (負心) means to fail to be loyal to one’s love but ‘heartless’ is shorter to write XD