After Transmigrating as the Northeast CEO's Pampered Little Husband - Chapter 16

After changing clothes, Dai Gucan led Gu Jiaoyang back to the car park. The driver was still playing on his phone but quickly opened the car door when he saw Mr. Dai approaching.

The new suit fit perfectly; even though it was tailoring, it wasn’t overly restrictive. Gu Jiaoyang sat in the back, leaning bonelessly against Mr. Dai, spiritual energy swirling around his fingertips.

Although the curse placed on He Shengxuan’s back ensured bad luck followed him, because it was crafted from pure, refined spiritual essence, it was potent. The moment it adhered to He Shengxuan’s back, it had instantly chased away the “bad luck” that was already clinging to him.

Gu Jiaoyang fiddled with the lingqi in his hand, his expression unreadable, but his mind filled with confusion.

According to the Observation System, this world shouldn’t contain elements from the cultivation world. Yet, the engraved symbols he saw on the Dai house’s stair railing, and the “bad luck” he felt on He Shengxuan’s back today, were clearly the result of a cultivator’s deliberate actions.

“Little Zhi? Are all your observation systems as dim-witted as you?” Gu Jiaoyang couldn’t understand. If all systems were as easily fooled as the one he encountered, this world would have been played with and ruined long ago.

Unable to connect to other Observation Systems temporarily. Little Zhi will truthfully record and report the issue raised by the User.

“Your response… sounds exactly like the template for a mechanical customer service agent when I report a bad teammate.” Gu Jiaoyang was amused by the solemn yet confused Observation System and rubbed his head against Mr. Dai’s shoulder again.

The Time-Space Administration probably doesn’t take its job seriously at all, he thought. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have sent such a naive system to monitor him.

Unbeknownst to him, the Observation System, which had already been labelled “dumb and sweet” by its user, was very seriously recording the event in Gu Jiaoyang’s spiritual platform and planned to report the issue to the Main System.

As a newly created System, Little Zhi was still very inexperienced in its job. Beyond truthfully recording and reporting, it couldn’t think of any other method.

Gu Jiaoyang didn’t press the issue. The stupider the Observation System was, the better for him.

Dai Gucan was leaning steadily against the seat back, but Gu Jiaoyang’s movement caused him to shift. He couldn’t push him away, nor could he comfortably pull him closer, so he was forced to remain in an awkward posture, letting Gu Jiaoyang rest on his shoulder, while he turned his face away to look out the window.

They had signed an agreement, but the engagement ceremony hadn’t taken place. There was no need to be this intimate.

Moreover, their engagement was just a formality.

Thinking this, a surge of melancholy rose in Dai Gucan’s heart. He couldn’t quite define the feeling. He even suspected he must have been possessed to suddenly bring this young man home, agreement and all. Yet, since bringing him home, the boy had proven to be maddeningly clingy, soft, and squishy. He was like a naughty kitten when plotting something, and a docile little lamb when sitting quietly.

If Gu Jiaoyang could read Dai Gucan’s mind, he would probably inform him that this was the “irresistible force” of the established plot of the novel world. Even if this world had developed its own internal logic, some plot threads would be clumsily and forcefully woven back in by the world itself.

But this world was strange in too many places, and Gu Jiaoyang couldn’t be sure what the world was truly trying to achieve.

The car pulled up at Dujiang Bieyuan, surrounded by artificially planted trees. Because property prices in Changjing were exorbitant and there were building restrictions, the greenery in front of Changjing, no matter how good, couldn’t compare to the open green spaces around the Dai estate in the back of Changjing.

The car park was underground. Mr. Dai led Gu Jiaoyang up to a private room on the fourth floor.

The entire décor of Dujiang Bieyuan was Southern Chinese in style. Although the external greenery was minimal, the interior was uniquely designed, replicating about sixty or seventy percent of the tender, romantic atmosphere of a Jiangnan water-town balcony, truly invoking a sense of misty, intimate romance.

The stairs were made of glass. Although they were carpeted, Mr. Dai still took the young man’s hand; afraid he might trip and fall into the water when distracted by looking around.

Due to his cultivation, Gu Jiaoyang’s body temperature was naturally warmer in winter and cooler in summer. His palms, however, never sweated, making his hand soft, dry, and squishy, like touching a piece of jelly wrapped in delicate skin.

Mr. Dai couldn’t resist giving it a little squeeze, feeling the pleasant, springy rebound under his fingertips.

This was an apparently impolite gesture.

Dai Gucan quickly tapped his right heel against his left, making the movement quick and subtle so it didn’t look like he had stumbled.

Gu Jiaoyang was still focused on the koi in the pool beneath the stairs, thinking how the red koi in his previous world’s spiritual pond would be a rare delicacy when deep-fried, bones and all. But his Master’s pond only had a few fish, not enough for him to eat regularly.

Seeing that the young man was still staring at the fish and hadn’t noticed his action, Dai Gucan breathed a sigh of relief, though there was a strange pang of disappointment.

As they walked, two other men who were arriving for dinner saw Dai Gucan holding the young man’s hand on the stairs and nearly screamed. They covered their mouths, hiding behind a doorway, looking at Dai Gucan as if he were an endangered species.

I’m blind. Crikey, Liu Liu, is that… is that Big Boss Dai? The man in the floral shirt pulled down his pink sunglasses and perched them on the bridge of his nose. His pale eyes stared at the figure on the stairs, doubting his sanity.

The man next to him, Liu Liu, a crew-cut type, who had been dragged behind and looked helpless, glanced at their clasped hands. He then reached out and pinched the floral-shirted man’s face. After receiving a yelp, he calmly withdrew his hand and shoved it into his trouser pocket.

“You’re not dreaming. It’s real.” The crew-cut man looked up, seeing that Dai Gucan was already out of sight, and was equally surprised.

“Why did you pinch me?! That hurt, you know!” The floral-shirted man rubbed his face and glared back fiercely, then turned his head again, only to find Big Boss Dai and the young man he was holding were already gone.

“Come on, let’s go up and see. What kind of little goblin has managed to tame Big Boss Dai, that ferocious Northeast Tiger?”

“What Big Northeast Tiger? Where do you pick up all these ridiculous words?” The crew-cut man followed the floral-shirted man, frowning.

“What do you mean, ridiculous? Don’t use that word lightly! I learned it from my nephew. Don’t you think it sounds fierce and cute?” The floral-shirted man took off his sunglasses and tucked them into his shirt collar, giving the bland-looking crew-cut man a look. “You stinking men, stuck in the military for so long, can’t you have any bright, sweet, cute things in your head besides fighting?”

“…Cute without a brain?” The crew-cut man was stumped for a moment, then chimed in.

“If you don’t understand, just admit it. Why do you have to bring up horror? ‘Without a brain’? I think you’re the one without a brain, you stinking straight man.” The floral-shirted man scoffed, his white trainer kicking out as he took off in a long stride, completely ignoring the slightly embarrassed crew-cut man behind him.

“Mr. Dai, who are we meeting?” Even the usually slow-witted Gu Jiaoyang realised this wasn’t just a simple meal. First, he was taken shopping for clothes, and now they were heading to a private room in a clearly expensive place. Based on the floor numbers, the higher they went, the bigger the rooms would be. Seeing Mr. Dai bypass the small private dining floors and head straight up, it would be strange if he didn’t guess something was up.

“Hmm, I’m meeting some friends.” Dai Gucan was still holding Gu Jiaoyang’s hand. Because the texture felt so nice and he was deep in thought, he completely forgot to let go for the time being. This stretch of the journey was no longer the glass staircase, and there was no fish pond to watch.

Gu Jiaoyang was taken aback. He subtly glanced at Dai Gucan, whose expression was serious it didn’t look like a joke.

They’d only known each other for a few days and had just reached the stage of wearing each other’s clothes. Why was he meeting his friends already?

Gu Jiaoyang’s surprise was justified. In the original novel, because Dai Gucan had suffered the loss of blood relatives early in life, his friends were practically the only people who had any real influence over him. So, Mr. Dai bringing his “partner” to meet his friends was essentially the same as meeting the family it meant accepting him into his inner circle.

The protagonist uke was only brought to meet his friends after several plot arcs. Why was it so straight to the point with him?

Gu Jiaoyang couldn’t directly ask, so he just shyly leaned closer to Mr. Dai, his large eyes shimmering under the indoor lighting.

“Thank you for valuing me so much, Mr. Dai. I’m very happy.”

Dai Gucan was momentarily stunned by Gu Jiaoyang’s small expression. The explanation he had prepared that he just wanted to introduce the young man to his friends so they wouldn’t accidentally interfere with his plans later suddenly got tangled up and swallowed.

“Mhm. We’re getting engaged anyway, so it’s best to meet them in advance. Don’t be shy; they’re alright.” The arm Gu Jiaoyang was leaning on was a little stiff, but this time there was no awkward heel-tapping incident. Mr. Dai calmly led the young man to the reserved private room.

The large private room on the 4th floor had a modest floor-to-ceiling window. As it mimicked classical architecture, the interior was decorated entirely with wood. In the centre stood a hollowed-out wooden screen carved with cranes. Dai Gucan led Gu Jiaoyang inside and introduced him to the two men already seated there, who looked normal on the surface.

“…My young man, Gu Jiaoyang. My fiancé. I told you about him.” After speaking, Dai Gucan pulled Gu Jiaoyang down to sit, then stared expressionlessly at the two men opposite him.

The two men across the table immediately stopped their gossiping when Dai Gucan entered. They craned their necks to peek at the young man through the screen, but the moment Dai Gucan actually brought the boy in, they quickly straightened up. Like truly privileged young gentlemen, they held cups of tea, staring intensely at Dai Gucan’s hand resting on the boy’s shoulder as he spoke.

God knows the water in their teacups was still boiling hot, and their other hands were playing rock-paper-scissors under the table.

Finally, the man who lost spoke first: “Hello, Yangyang. Since you’re with Big Boss Dai I mean, Gucan you’re one of us. We didn’t know what you’d like, so we just bought a few bits and bobs. There’s too much to bring up, but when you get home, open them and see if you like them.”

The moment the man opened his mouth and said “Yangyang,” Dai Gucan frowned. The other man, who had won the rock-paper-scissors, saw this and immediately slapped the speaker’s thigh under the table.

“Ahem, Yang… Young Gu? Nephew Gu? Ah, stop hitting me! I’ve never met such a young boy before; how was I supposed to know what to call him! We can’t just call him ‘sister-in-law’ right off the bat, can we? That’d be embarrassing if they don’t go through with it!” The man was annoyed by his friend’s covert actions and blurted out the unfiltered thought. After speaking, he belatedly shut his mouth, staring at his friend with a foolish, innocent expression.

“Pfft… ha ha ha ha ha…” Gu Jiaoyang, who had been listening to the increasingly awkward exchange, burst into laughter. His soft laughter echoed in the private room, making Mr. Dai’s face grow darker and the faces of the two men opposite even more mortified.

He hadn’t expected Mr. Dai, who looked so wise and powerful, to have such wonderfully silly, clumsy friends.

Gu Jiaoyang laughed happily, but he didn’t get too carried away. He leaned closer to Mr. Dai and placed his small hand on Mr. Dai’s thigh under the table.

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