"Let him in." Chang Yu had guessed early on that Gu Hongzhuo would come looking for him.
Yan Junye hid behind Chang Yu.
With Gu Hongzhuo showing up out of nowhere, he thought the man was very likely here to exploit him, a dog providing free labor.
But the first thing Gu Hongzhuo said upon entering was an accusation directed at Chang Yu. "I don't know how I've offended you, Mr. Chang, for you to target me like this."
"How am I targeting you?" Chang Yu couldn't even be bothered to raise his head, his attention still on his computer.
Gu Hongzhuo gritted his teeth. "If you're not targeting me, why did you help Yan Junye find a lawyer?"
Liao Mei had also said she wouldn't continue working with him. Although he had no evidence, he kept feeling that Chang Yu had stirred things up behind the scenes.
"If you need a lawyer, I can find one for you too." Chang Yu asked him, "Do you?"
Gu Hongzhuo: "..." With Chang Yu's people on both sides, he might as well pay compensation without even waiting for the hearing.
But he couldn't understand how someone from a wealthy family like Chang Yu's could possibly have any dealings with Yan Junye.
Even Yan Junye himself couldn't remember having any sort of relationship with Chang Yu. Perhaps they had met at the counseling office before?
Liao Mei used to visit often, and he, a corporate slave, also spent long hours at the company.
-Had Chang Yu and I really met before?
-Then he fell in love with me at first sight? Couldn't forget me? Would settle for no one but me? Pledged his love to me for life?
-How else could I explain Chang Yu being so thoughtful and helping me?
Wisdom gleamed in his doggy eyes. Yan Junye thought it was very possible.
Along the way, he also imagined a scene from a domineering CEO novel where the male lead rescued the damsel in distress, and how the male lead remained devoted until death.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt that Chang Yu's face was simply a perfect match for a novel's male lead.
Listening to Yan Junye's thoughts, Chang Yu was momentarily speechless.
Wasn't his imagination a little too good?
He had never even met Yan Junye, all right? How could there have been love at first sight?
Still, this saved him the trouble of explaining things to Xiaotu.
Otherwise, if Xiaotu grew suspicious, he wouldn't be able to keep his ability to hear Xiaotu's thoughts a secret.
He couldn't be bothered to explain things to Gu Hongzhuo in front of him either. "Don't disturb me unless there's a problem. I'm very busy."
Seeing that Chang Yu wouldn't back down, Gu Hongzhuo stopped putting on a fawning act.
"I've already been very lenient by not suing Yan Junye for the money his disruption of my company's project schedule cost me."
"He's not dead, and he wants me to pay workers' compensation? He can dream on!"
Chang Yu ignored the legally illiterate Gu Hongzhuo and had his assistant "politely" escort him out.
Only after the man left did Yan Junye emerge from behind the chair with his head held high.
Chang Yu felt that even the way this dog looked at him had changed.
Before, he had merely put on a fake show of cuteness when looking at him. Now his doggy eyes were full of sympathy and exasperation at his failure to do better.
Chang Yu: "..." He was tired.
-If you liked me before, why didn't you know to say so sooner?
-Look at you now. You've lost an unforgettable romance, and I've lost glittering riches. Neither of us got anything.
With Chang Yu's money, why would Yan Junye have kept working himself to death? He would have long since lain flat and given up trying.
-Looks like there was a reason I transmigrated into this golden retriever after all. Our fated bond must not have faded yet, so heaven sent me back to you to pick up where we left off.
-So stop being so stingy! Get me big gold chains, hot pot, grilled fish, and all that every day!
In the end, he was still after Chang Yu's money.
Chang Yu heard that too. He bent down and smiled with a look of regret. "When it comes to scum like Gu Hongzhuo, I don't want to let him earn a single cent."
"Money is the last thing your owner lacks. Unfortunately, what use does a big dog like you have for money? You don't even have anywhere to put it."
In his anxiety, Yan Junye wanted to rear up on his front paws again. How could it be useless?!
Although he was a dog now, he could still go out and buy tasty food.
Chang Yu told him that he had all three of his daily meals covered, so he didn't need to go out and spend money buying food himself.
Yan Junye left the conference room in a huff.
-Sure enough, there was a reason I didn't fall in love with you at first sight back then!
Chang Yu thought that even if he had fallen in love at first sight, it wouldn't have helped. He still had no plans to date.
He stood and walked to the window, his slender fingers wrapped around a cup of coffee. Looking down, he saw Gu Hongzhuo being stopped by someone in a Daoist robe.
Gu Hongzhuo accepted the free protective talisman without hesitation, then sneered, "You might be able to fool a three-year-old, but if you want to fool me, try again in your next life."
With that, Gu Hongzhuo scanned a shared bike, and his phone kept ringing as he rode.
He happened to reach a red light and answered a call from the lawyer he had hired. "Hello, we've decided not to take your case."
"What?!" With the hearing about to begin, Gu Hongzhuo grew a little panicked. "Why? I can pay more."
The voice on the other end was indifferent.
"Because you're too inhuman."
Gu Hongzhuo: "..." What the hell?
He was just about to unleash a torrent of abuse when the other person hung up and blocked him.
He put his phone away, planning to find another law firm. There were five seconds left on the green light, and he should be able to make it across on his bike.
Just as the green light turned red, when he was only two meters from the other side, a car came driving toward him as though blind.
It wasn't going fast, but it was enough to send him to the hospital for a cast and a few days of recuperation.
The driver took him to the hospital. Half an hour into his stay, he noticed something was wrong. Yan Junye seemed to be staying right next door!
Then he successfully got himself beaten up by Yan Junye's family, and a dog even bit him.
With his luck this bad, Gu Hongzhuo suddenly came to his senses and remembered what that master had told him that afternoon.
"The one bound to you by ill fate still has his body, but his soul has long since drifted away. He harbors resentment toward you and is destined to come haunt you."
Pressed for time and still in a wheelchair, Gu Hongzhuo hurried back to the foot of the Evergreen Company building, wishing he could prostrate himself on the ground.
"Please guide me, Master!"
The master fingered his Buddhist beads and replied, "Repent sincerely before the Buddha. Only then can you attain fulfillment."
He didn't even have to spend money to ward off disaster, and it sounded somewhat credible. Gu Hongzhuo immediately wheeled himself off to a temple.
Once he was gone, the master took off his robe and entered the Evergreen Company building.
After hearing the report, Chang Yu smiled and shook his head. Gu Hongzhuo really was a stingy boss who grasped at petty bargains. His employees were truly unlucky.
The hearing for Gu Hongzhuo and Yan Junye's case was that afternoon. Chang Yu spent the entire morning and noon concentrating on work, leaving him in the rare mood to attend the hearing that afternoon.
He headed downstairs and called without looking back, "Xiaotu, let's go. I'll take you to watch a show."
Yan Junye immediately followed behind Chang Yu without prompting.