Chapter 104 — The Regret of Chasing After His Wife

Gu Beicheng, Mu Ran, Shen Mubai, and the others fell into thought.

Although Gu Xiao had delicate, almost androgynous features, he was usually a very normal man.

None of the brothers had ever seen him in overly intimate contact with any man.

Could it be that Gu Xiao really was not gay?

“Can you all stop making wild guesses? I was busy handling something back then and didn’t have time to explain things to that male actor. Who would have thought he’d decide I was trying to exploit him for my own gain?”

Gu Xiao scratched his head. His originally neat gray-blue hair had been completely tousled by him and now looked like a bird’s nest.

“It was just a misunderstanding, Xiao. But from now on, if you do a good deed, you really should leave your name. Otherwise people will keep misunderstanding you. Your reputation is already terrible, and everyone has a biased view of you to begin with.”

Shen Mubai chuckled and moved closer to the frustrated Gu Xiao, patting his shoulder as he said in a bright, hearty voice, “When did you dye your hair? It actually suits you.”

Gu Beicheng glanced at Gu Xiao’s hair and said coolly, “Your sweat is dyed.”

After just sending a message to An Lan to ask about the situation, Mu Ran sat back down beside Gu Beicheng and leaned against him like a docile little bird.

Following Gu Beicheng’s gaze, she looked over as well. Then she gave a soft laugh, her narrowed beautiful eyes flickering with amusement. Lazily lifting her hand, she pointed at Gu Xiao’s white shirt.

Gu Xiao sprang to his feet and twisted his neck to look himself over, wiping the sweat from his forehead with his hand.

He lowered his hand and held it out in front of him. His sweat really was gray-blue.

“What brand of cheap hair dye is Director Gu using?”

Mu Ran’s tone was full of laughter, showing Gu Xiao, who looked utterly disheveled, no mercy at all.

“Xiao, go upstairs and change your clothes. Your back is covered in blue.”

Gu Xiao had been born with blond hair, which made him highly recognizable, but it also brought him plenty of trouble.

What annoyed him most was that everyone on set, actors and staff alike, joked that he was the blond-haired director.

So...

He had thought he might as well try another hair color.

“Unlucky! I never should’ve come today. Oh right, Miss Mu, I just heard that Qin Ranran, the third young lady recently found by the Qin family, has been running around bad-mouthing you.”

Gu Xiao wore a wicked smile, but his current state could hardly be called wicked. “Disheveled” was more accurate.

“Oh? What did she say?”

Mu Ran raised an eyebrow and lifted her chin slightly toward Gu Xiao, catching the malicious gleam in his eyes.

“Oh, you know, the usual. Saying everything you have comes from Gu Beicheng, saying you wouldn’t even donate your bone marrow to her, saying you’re just a wild girl with a mother but no one to raise you.”

Mu Ran smiled lightly, utterly unmoved. She lowered her eyes and gently patted Gu Beicheng’s tightly clenched hand, still tense with anger. “Are you sure those weren’t your own words?”

“Of course not. I’d never say such inhuman things!”

Gu Xiao waved a hand carelessly. He had heard An Lan mention Mu Ran’s past from time to time, and Mu Ran’s life had indeed been far more miserable than his.

He had also vaguely heard about Qin family’s second son forcing Mu Ran to donate bone marrow, but that had nothing to do with him.

Gu Xiao only wanted to watch the show, especially a show that could infuriate Gu Beicheng!

He picked up the suit jacket from the sofa and slipped it on before turning to leave.

He paid no mind to Gu Beicheng’s darkening expression after what he had just said.

“Go back and dye your hair back. Are you not afraid of getting cancer?”

Gu Xiao, just as he was about to leave, froze at the remark and snorted haughtily at Gu Beicheng.

“None of your business!”

“Hey, Xiao, you took my jacket. What am I supposed to wear?”

Shen Mubai shifted and called after Gu Xiao.

Gu Xiao turned back, gave a low laugh, and waggled his brows at him. “Don’t you love showing off at the company?”

Shen Mubai gave an awkward laugh and waved him off, signaling for him to hurry up and go.

“Mubai? I didn’t think you were just sly about it in private. You’re openly flirting at Chengxing now!”

Mu Lang patted Shen Mubai’s shoulder, his eyes filled with teasing and meaning.

“No, no, that’s not it. I’m very proper at the company. Don’t go making things up.”

Shen Mubai’s gaze drifted around, too afraid to meet Gu Beicheng’s eyes.

Chengxing Group’s business stretched across many fields.

Chengxing Pictures was one of Chengxing Group’s subsidiaries.

Ever since Chengxing Pictures was founded, Shen Mubai had been dragged over by Gu Beicheng to serve as its president.

If not for his brotherly bond with that gloomy, cold man, who would give up a family business to be president of a film company?

And then have to obey that man’s every command.

“From now on, he won’t dare show off. He’s been dumped.”

Gu Beicheng smiled faintly and dropped the bombshell in one sentence.

The three Mu brothers all turned at once, eyes wide with disbelief. “What? You actually broke up with the daughter of the broadcasting bureau director?”

Shen Mubai radiated resentment. He shot a glare at Gu Beicheng, that smug man holding beauty in his arms, and inwardly cursed him for having such a loose mouth. How could he blurt out everything?

He was still trying hard to get her back; it didn’t count as a complete breakup yet!

The three Mu brothers looked at Shen Mubai’s regretful, miserable expression, and not a shred of sympathy stirred in them.

Shen Mubai’s ex-girlfriend, Li Li, had been the campus beauty at Imperial Capital University. They got together near the end of college.

That girl had been nothing but wholehearted and kind to Shen Mubai.

But Shen Mubai simply didn’t appreciate it. Drinking parties by day, nightclubs by night, never once caring about Li Li’s feelings.

More than once, the girl’s calls had come through to the brothers’ phones, tearful as she asked where Shen Mubai was.

The brothers had also advised Shen Mubai, that shameless scoundrel, that if he didn’t like the girl, he should let her go.

But despite how easy-going and cheerful Shen Mubai seemed on the surface, he was actually a heartless bastard.

“Scoundrel.”

A cool female voice, calm but laced with cold mockery, rang out.

Gu Beicheng kneaded Mu Ran’s small hand, his smiling eyes overflowing with tenderness.

He completely agreed with Mu Ran’s assessment of Shen Mubai.

“I... I’m not... Fine, I admit I really wasn’t human back then, but now I—”

Shen Mubai tried to say something, but his nose felt as if it were packed with blood; he was miserable and could not get a single word out.

Bitter, regretful—his friends were right to call him a scoundrel.

He owed Li Li.

“She’s here. In the piano room on the second floor.”

Mu Ran gave Shen Mubai a cool look. She truly did not understand what Li Li saw in this man.

If it were her, she would have wanted to torment Shen Mubai to death.

What a fickle, rotten scoundrel.

But in her previous life, Li Li and Shen Mubai’s ending had been good.

At least before Mu Ran died, the two of them had remained a happy, loving couple.

No matter how much Shen Mubai had hurt Li Li before, Li Li still chose to forgive him.

Fortunately, in the end, Shen Mubai had turned back from his wandering ways.

“She’s here? You invited her?”

Shen Mubai jerked upright, his pupils trembling as he walked to Mu Ran and asked in a low voice.

“Mm. I paid a high price to invite her. After all, the fee for the most beautiful pianist in the capital isn’t a small amount.”

Mu Ran didn’t look at him. Her eyelids remained half-lowered as she toyed with her phone.

Shen Mubai’s hands trembled, gratitude filling his eyes.

“Mu Ran! Thank you.”

Li Li had not answered his calls for an entire month.

No matter how he looked for her, she avoided him.

He missed her.

He loved Li Li deeply.

“Just saying thank you isn’t enough. Show some sincerity.”

Mu Ran curved her lips, her tone lazy, a sly glint flashing in her eyes.

Shen Mubai looked helplessly at Gu Beicheng, wanting to ask what his girlfriend meant.

Unfortunately, Gu Beicheng didn’t even spare him a glance.

Shen Mubai was also a shrewd man. “Send me the payment code. I’ll transfer ten times the appearance fee.”

Mu Ran’s smile deepened. “Now that’s more like it.”

The three Mu brothers, watching from the side, shook their heads in unison and sincerely admired the fact that Gu Beicheng and his wife were truly ruthless when it came to making money.

“Payment received: 1,000,000 yuan.”

After Shen Mubai transferred the money and learned Li Li’s room number from Mu Ran, he left at once.

“Li Li’s appearance fee is that high?”

Mu Jingrong could not help but marvel. For a second-tier celebrity in the industry, the usual appearance fee was about that amount.

“Is ten thousand considered high? Senior Li Li even gave me a discount.”

Mu Jingcheng raised an eyebrow. “Senior?”

“Xiao Ran, how did you and Li Li meet?”

Mu Ran lowered her head and fiddled with her phone. She opened the payment app and transferred the million she had just received to a high-end piano seller.

The piano in the cruise ship’s music room had once been the piano in the Imperial Capital University music studio, and it could also be considered Shen Mubai and Li Li’s token of love.

In her previous life, while catching up and shopping with Li Li, Mu Ran had accidentally seen that piano in a secondhand piano shop.

Li Li had become sentimental at the sight of it and told Mu Ran about everything that had happened between her and Shen Mubai over the years.

So in this life, Mu Ran bought the piano back and used it to help the two of them untie the knots in their hearts.

“She was my senior. We met in the Imperial Capital University modeling team.”

Mu Ran kept her answer brief.

Mu Jingcheng went on, “It couldn’t have just been a matter of paying to invite Li Li, could it?”

Everyone knew that Li Li had a good family background and was highly intelligent in every way.

Her only flaw was that she was hopelessly love-struck, unwilling to let go of Shen Mubai.

Now that she had finally managed to bring up a breakup, how could she possibly show up at a banquet Shen Mubai was attending just for a few tens of thousands?

“I bought a piano and gave it to her.”

Mu Ran lifted her brows, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

Gu Beicheng turned his eyes and carefully traced the delicate lines of the woman beside him with his gaze. His voice was hoarse and low. “One million?”

“Yes. I said it was a gift from Shen Mubai. And it’s true—Shen Mubai really did spend one million to buy it.”

Mu Lang clapped, shaking his head as he praised her. “Xiao Ran, you’re too smart. No wonder you’re my god-sister.”

Mu Jingrong and Mu Jingcheng smiled at the same time, fully agreeing with their youngest brother.

“Are they really suited for each other?”

Gu Beicheng thought back to the past, when Li Li had once come crying to Chengxing to ask where Shen Mubai really was.

Though he felt nothing for that woman and knew little about her, he still hadn’t told her that Shen Mubai was out drinking with another woman.

Even if Shen Mubai had not cheated physically, he was unforgivable in spirit.

Gu Beicheng and his brothers all scorned Shen Mubai’s conduct.

But they had no right to interfere.

“Ranran, you—”

Gu Beicheng did not want Mu Ran to get involved in those two people’s affairs.

When it came to matters of the heart, forcing things together usually had the opposite effect.

“It won’t be. Shen Mubai isn’t as bad as you think. There are reasons for everything. In the end, they’ll get married.”

The men exchanged glances. What did Mu Ran mean by that?

Did she know Shen Mubai better than they did?

What reason could there possibly have been for the way he had treated Li Li?

Did that man have some kind of hardship of his own?

“I believe you, Ranran.”

Mu Ran curled the corners of her lips and looked at the man calmly.

Her eyes were drawn into his deep, unfathomable gaze.

In those eyes, she saw loyalty and trust.

“Oh, by the way, who said I’m your god-sister?”