Tan Guiren looked down to take out her phone and hesitated for a second before unlocking it and finding Gu Nianzhi’s phone number. She had never called Gu Nianzhi before, but this time she had no choice but to make an exception.
…
Gu Nianzhi was reading information at her desk. There was an entire floor of office space in the Secretariat of the Senate building. Interns and junior secretaries were all in the lobby, while senior secretaries and above had their own individual offices.
Gu Nianzhi hadn’t sat down for long before she heard her phone ring. Picking up her phone to glance at it, she saw that it was a foreign number. Gu Nianzhi instantly laughed. The person she waited for had finally come.
However, she didn’t pick up the call right away. Instead, she leisurely shut down her computer and put on her backpack before leaving the office area. Then she went to the break room to take the phone call.
Tan Guiren made a total of two phone calls before Gu Nianzhi finally picked up. “Hello, may I ask who this is?” Gu Nianzhi asked directly.
Tan Guiren was a bit flustered as she said, “I am Tan Guiren. Miss Gu, do you have a moment? I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Miss Tan Guiren? What can I help you with? You can tell me over the phone.” Gu Nianzhi purposely acted nonchalantly and didn’t instantly agree to Tan Guiren’s request—although that was her true motive. If Tan Guiren still hadn’t called her today or come to find her, then she had planned to take the initiative to go speak with Tan Guiren.
As expected, Tan Guiren became even more anxious. “Miss Gu, I’m truly here to apologize. When will you be free? I can wait for you.”
Gu Nianzhi pretended to look at her phone. “If that’s the case, I’ll take a look at my daily work schedule.” Why would an intern have any daily work schedule? Her words could only fool a sheltered wallflower like Tan Guiren.
But Tan Guiren still believed her completely and immediately said, “Ok, you can check, and I’ll wait.”
Gu Nianzhi then waited another five minutes before telling Tan Guiren over the phone, “I have a half an hour lunch break around 11am. Can you wait until then?” There was still an hour before 11am.
Tan Guiren quickly nodded. “No problem. So where should we meet?”
Gu Nianzhi glanced at her phone. There was a restaurant and café in the Senate building. She didn’t want to have this conversation outside because she was worried that she couldn’t control the hidden ears in the walls.
The Senate building was a different story. It was safe, and the surveillance was limited to only the working areas. Places like the café and restaurant weren’t considered work areas, so there was no surveillance.
“How about this? You can come in through the back door around 11am, and I’ll have the guard at the back door open it for you.” As Gu Nianzhi spoke, she sent an email to the guard at the building’s back door to ask him to let Tan Guiren inside when the time came.
After making the arrangements, Gu Nianzhi set down her phone and wrote a few summaries. Soon, it was already 11am. She stood up and put on her backpack before going downstairs to arrive at the café below.
It was still early in the day before lunch time, but all the breakfast items had already sold out. The entire seating area was quiet. Gu Nianzhi sat by the window of the café and soon afterwards, she saw Tan Guiren walk inside.
Pulling out a chair and sitting across from Gu Nianzhi, Tan Guiren asked apologetically, “Did you wait for a long time?”
Gu Nianzhi deeply loathed such idiotic greetings, but she never acted cruelly to kind people. Also, she needed to glean information from Tan Guiren, so she couldn’t yell at her as soon as she was displeased with what she said. Gu Nianzhi shook her head with a smile. “We made plans for 11am, so I just came down here.”
Tan Guiren looked at her with admiration and said, “Being timely is the virtue of a king. You are very punctual.”
Although Gu Nianzhi knew Tan Guiren didn’t really have any ill intentions, she still thought she deserved a beating for saying such a thing. Miss Guiren, what do you mean by, “I’m very punctual?!” Didn’t you ask to meet me!? Didn’t we make plans to meet at 11am at the café!? Dare I ask if I was the only one abiding by these words!? Gu Nianzhi suppressed herself before picking up the milk and angel food cake she had ordered for Tan Guiren.
When the items were served, Tan Guiren was very shocked. “Miss Gu, how did you know I was hungry?” She then asked, “Where’s yours?”
Gu Nianzhi was speechless. She hadn’t known but had merely made an inference using common sense. It was almost time for lunch, and even if Tan Guiren had breakfast before coming over, she should be hungry by now.
Tan Guiren hadn’t even had breakfast today, anyway. So Tan Guiren didn’t hesitate to pick up the cutlery and drink the milk as she ate the angel food cake.
Gu Nianzhi chatted randomly with her until she finished her milk and cake. Gu Nianzhi then asked, “Miss Tan, why did you ask to meet?”
Tan Guiren nodded. “It’s nothing important, I just wanted to apologize to you.”
“Apologize?” Gu Nianzhi raised a brow. “Why are you apologizing to me?”
“Well the thing is, you were accidentally injured yesterday, and I’m very sorry about that. I’m truly very sorry.” Tan Guiren stood up to bow in apology to Gu Nianzhi.
Gu Nianzhi waved her hand gesturing for Tan Guiren to sit. Above the face mask, one could only see the bright and alluring eyes curving into two crescents. “You weren’t the one who did it, so you don’t need to apologize.” She paused, then continued, “But I can’t be beaten for nothing.”
Tan Guiren’s heart wrenched once again. Setting both hands in her lap, she nearly twisted them into a ball before murmuring, “But I believe that Mr. Cao didn’t do it on purpose. Can you be gracious enough to let this incident go?”
Mr. Cao was one of the three troublemakers from the PR Department of the Office of the Prime Minister. He had originally been passed off to the police station by Huo Shaoheng, but was bailed out by personnel sent from the Office of the Prime Minister this morning.
“You believe he didn’t do it on purpose, but I don’t believe that. Tan Guiren, if you went through what I went through, then you’d know that a verbal apology is the most useless thing.” Gu Nianzhi touched her face mask. “I was a normal person and was nearly disfigured by him. Tell me how I can swallow that indignation!?”
Tan Guiren widened her large eyes to stare at Gu Nianzhi, then quickly replied, “I know you are very sad and in a lot of pain, but all of that is in the past now. Even if you make him go to jail, you can’t possibly return the slap he gave you?!”
Gu Nianzhi cocked her head and looked at Tan Guiren. She explained it in legal terms. “Justice will come sooner or later, but will never be absent. The justice I want is according to legal regulations. Those who should be jailed will be jailed. Those who should be fined will be fined. Those who should be executed will be executed. I don’t mean anything else.”
Tan Guiren became even more anxious. She bit her lip and thought about it for a while before saying, “Then you should only sue Mr. Cao. Why do you have to drag my daddy and mommy into this? They didn’t beat you.”
