Gu Huaizhi covered his lips, his ears surprisingly turning a little red. Shen Mianyin’s words sounded almost like a confession to him.
Zhang Qiyuan glared at Shen Mianyin, furious. "Didn't I tell you to go to Zhilian?"
"Whoever's client it is, that's whose responsibility it is. Zhilian isn’t my client," Shen Mianyin replied. "Anyway, I’m only responsible for President Gu here."
"If something goes wrong with Zhilian's business, can you take responsibility for it?" Zhou Jicai pointed at Shen Mianyin.
Gu Huaizhi suddenly turned his head, coldly looking at Zhou Jicai. "It seems your company is internally divided."
"No, no, absolutely not," Zhang Qiyuan hurriedly replied.
Shen Mianyin smiled sweetly and said, "Well, I don’t have to take responsibility. Zhilian is General Manager Zhou's client. If anything goes wrong with the collaboration, it’s General Manager Zhou who needs to explain it to the President, not me."
"Especially since General Manager Zhou gave up on Zhilian for President Gu. I wonder what Zhilian will think if they find out?" Shen Mianyin said slowly.
Zhou Jicai’s expression changed, and without caring about anything else, he quickly turned and walked away, dialing the driver.
"Prepare the car, go to Zhilian."
"Director Shen, do you have any other work to attend to? I’d like to discuss the collaboration with you," Gu Huaizhi asked, his eyes filled with a smile.
"No, I’m done," Shen Mianyin replied.
Gu Huaizhi nodded. "Let’s discuss it over dinner then. Sorry for the sudden visit today."
"No need to apologize, President Gu. You’re welcome anytime, I’m always ready to host," Shen Mianyin replied, both of them chatting and laughing as they left.
Due to her ankle injury, Shen Mianyin walked slowly, so Gu Huaizhi adjusted his pace to match hers.
Just like that, Shen Mianyin openly followed Gu Huaizhi out of the company and, under everyone’s gaze, got into his car.
As Shen Mianyin fastened her seatbelt, she couldn’t help but admire, "So this is the method you used when you said you wouldn’t make things difficult for me."
Gu Huaizhi pressed the ignition button while turning his head, the corner of his eye seeming to flicker with a hint of something deeper as he replied, "I never do things sneakily."
"Do you want to eat first, or go look at the house?" Gu Huaizhi asked, stepping on the gas as he drove.
Shen Mianyin asked, "Are you hungry?"
"Not really," Gu Huaizhi replied with a slight smile. "Then let’s look at the house first."
Shen Mianyin was a little eager. The neighborhood where Gu Huaizhi lived was undoubtedly exceptional. If the price was right, she would move in immediately.
The two of them arrived at Lijing Garden and took the elevator directly to the apartment on the floor above Gu Huaizhi’s.
The owners of the place must have been waiting for them, greeting them with great politeness as soon as they arrived.
How could they not be polite? Gu Huaizhi had just introduced them to a major business deal.
With Gu Huaizhi as the middleman, as long as the client didn’t cause any trouble, all future business would be entrusted to him.
This was a lifetime opportunity. Not only was it fine to let Shen Mianyin have the house, but even offering it for free for her to live in wouldn’t be an issue.
The landlord was indeed curious about who could make Gu Huaizhi go to such lengths.
When they finally saw Shen Mianyin, the landlord thought to themselves that the rumors about Gu Huaizhi weren’t entirely true.
Unaware that this was merely a formality, Shen Mianyin quickly reached an agreement with the landlord.
The rent was also quite reasonable for her. The landlord even took out the rental contract on the spot.
After Shen Mianyin reviewed the contract, she saw no issues.
The landlord thought to themselves, "How could there be a problem? This contract was personally drafted by the legal department of the Gu Corporation."
A rental agreement that had even involved the Gu Corporation’s legal team seemed to carry an extra layer of assurance.
"Miss Shen can move in at any time," the landlord said. "In fact, we've already moved out. The apartment has been vacant, but we have a maid come in daily to clean, so Miss Shen can move in directly."
The landlord provided Shen Mianyin with the building and apartment lock codes before leaving.
"I really didn’t expect it to go so smoothly," Shen Mianyin said.
What was originally just a visit to look at the apartment turned into her renting it right away, and the contract was already signed.
The landlord was an easygoing person, as if nothing mattered to them. The rent was, in fact, quite cheap considering the caliber of Lijing Garden.
"President Gu, I really can't thank you enough for this," Shen Mianyin said gratefully. "Otherwise, I don’t know when I would have found a suitable place."
Gu Huaizhi didn’t correct her title but instead asked, "Is there anything you want to eat? The restaurants around here are all good, but they don’t offer delivery, so if you live here in the future, ordering takeout might be inconvenient."
"It’s fine, I don’t usually eat takeout unless it's a special situation," Shen Mianyin replied with a smile.
So, Gu Huaizhi took her to a nearby restaurant for dinner.
"The freshly arrived hairy crabs are excellent today. They’re from the core area of Yangcheng Lake, and there are very few of them. Our restaurant only has four left, and they're perfectly balanced—two male crabs and two female crabs," the waiter recommended.
"Then we’ll have all four," Gu Huaizhi nodded, adding a few more dishes to the order.
It didn’t take long for the dishes to arrive. The waiter also brought over the special tools for cracking the crabs, neatly placing them on the right side of the plate.
Shen Mianyin first took the scissors and cut off the crab legs.
Then, using the thinner part of the crab leg, she inserted it into the thicker end of the leg and pushed, causing half of the crab meat to pop out.
She didn’t remove the entire leg but instead held it, dipping the exposed crab meat into some crab vinegar before sucking the whole piece of crab meat into her mouth.
After finishing the crab legs, the body of the crab was still warm but not too hot to handle.
Shen Mianyin began with the male crab. She carefully cleaned the crab shell, scraping off the crab oil from the edges and leaving it in the shell.
Then, she used a small spoon to scoop out the white crab roe stuck to the crab body and placed it into the shell.
Finally, she drizzled a bit of crab vinegar over it and mixed it together before savoring it with delight.
Gu Huaizhi watched her skillful movements, a smile involuntarily spreading across his face.
Certainly! Here’s the revised translation:
It wasn’t until he saw a small bit of white crab paste on Shen Mianyin's lips that Gu Huaizhi’s gaze sharpened, his breath catching slightly.
"Shen Mianyin," he called her name softly.
Shen Mianyin didn’t understand why his voice had suddenly become huskier, looking at him in confusion.
Gu Huaizhi raised his hand and pointed to the area on his own lips. "You have some crab paste on your lips."
Shen Mianyin was still scraping the crab meat into the shell, holding the crab body in one hand and a small knife in the other.
She was too lazy to reach for a napkin, so she simply extended her tongue to lick the spot on her lips where Gu Huaizhi had pointed.
Most of it was swept into her mouth, leaving only a small bit near the peak of her lips.
"Is there more?" Shen Mianyin asked.
Gu Huaizhi paused for a moment before suddenly standing up. He leaned across the table toward her.
Shen Mianyin was stunned, completely forgetting all her movements in that moment as she just stared at Gu Huaizhi blankly.
It wasn’t until he gently wiped her lip with a napkin that she snapped back to reality.
Even through the napkin, Shen Mianyin could clearly feel the warmth of Gu Huaizhi’s finger.
Her entire face flushed with embarrassment, and even after Gu Huaizhi sat back down, she remained frozen, still unable to react.
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