The Heiress's Game

The weekend golf club was arranged by the Pei family. It was located at the end of a private road leading up the mountain from Deep Water Bay. It was a members-only event, and entry was not permitted without permission.

The lawn was trimmed like a giant green velvet, and the caddies, dressed in matching white uniforms, moved silently across the green. The sea breeze blew in from the valley, carrying the scent of trimmed grass and a faint smell of sea salt.

When Gu Yunjin got out of the car, Wang Manyun was standing at the entrance of the club, exchanging pleasantries with Madam Pei. She glanced at Gu Yunjin out of the corner of her eye and suddenly stopped halfway through her sentence.

He looked her up and down, then gave her a rare, genuine smile: "Yun Jin, you look beautiful today."

Gu Yunjin smiled slightly and said thank you.

Today she was wearing a black lace short-sleeved top with a neckline that was neither too high nor too low, just revealing a bit of her collarbone.

Her lower body was covered by a long black skirt with yellow floral patterns, the hem of which reached her ankles, and the flowers appeared and disappeared with her steps.

Her hair wasn't styled in a bun; it was loosely draped over her shoulders, and she wore a pair of small pearl stud earrings.

Standing under the French archway at the entrance of the club, she looked as classical as a beauty who had stepped out of an old Shanghai calendar poster.

Madam Pei's gaze lingered on her for several seconds before she turned to Wang Manyun and said, "This child is growing more and more beautiful," her satisfaction undisguised.

Gu Zhenxing and Pei Xinzhi were already warming up on the green, each with a club and two caddies beside them.

Pei Yan stood under a parasol not far behind his father, wearing a light blue polo shirt and holding a golf glove.

When he saw Gu Yunjin come in, he paused for a moment, then nodded to her.

Gu Zhenxing saw her from afar and waved: "Yun Jin, why don't you and A Yan go sit over there? Young people shouldn't always hang out with us old men in the sun."

Wang Manyun had already picked up her golf clubs and smiled at Madam Pei, saying, "Come on, let's take a few swings and let the children chat."

Madam Pei understood perfectly and accepted the glove from the caddie. The two walked side by side toward the green, their backs to the ground looking as intimate as longtime best friends.

Gu Yunjin didn't look at Pei Yan. Instead, she went straight to the sunshade in the rest area, sat down, and put on her sunglasses.

The waiter brought over two glasses of sparkling water. She took one, brought the straw to her lips, and watched as Gu Zhenxing swung his club on the green in the distance, the white ball drawing a beautiful arc in the air.

Sunlight filtered through the edge of the parasol, casting dappled shadows on her long dress, where a few yellow flowers bloomed intermittently against the dark hem.

Pei Yan walked over and sat down on the recliner opposite her.

He held a glass of sparkling water in his hand, twirled it around a couple of times, and then said, "I'm really sorry about that day. I received an urgent call that I had to deal with."

As he spoke, he took a dark blue velvet box out of his pocket, placed it on the coffee table in front of her, and pushed it toward her.

"This is an apology. It's nothing expensive, I just thought it suited you well."

Gu Yunjin picked it up, opened it, and took a look. It was a women's watch with a steel band and a white dial. It was simple and clean, not a top luxury brand, but it was tasteful.

She closed the lid, took off her sunglasses and placed them on the coffee table, smiled at him, and said, "Thank you, but you don't have to be so polite."

She didn't say "it's okay," nor did she ask where he went that day or why he was in such a hurry.

She wasn't interested in the content of that phone call at all.

Work or personal matters, none of them matter to her.

Pei Yan seemed relieved by her aloofness, but also vaguely uncomfortable, as if his prepared apology had been taken lightly, leaving him unsure of where to put it.

The two then chatted casually for a while.

He asked her what she had been busy with lately, and she said she was working on an AI project. He immediately showed some interest and asked which area it was. She said it was basic research.

When Pei Yan talked about investing, he was noticeably more relaxed. He spoke slowly but clearly and logically, and occasionally used a precise analogy to explain complex financial logic in a simple and easy-to-understand way. After he finished speaking, he would habitually ask her, "What do you think?"

Every time he asked that question, it wasn't just a perfunctory social maneuver; he genuinely waited for her answer.

Gu Yunjin admitted that chatting with this person wasn't a waste of time. But that was all.

While listening to Pei Yan analyze the recent fluctuations in Hong Kong stocks, she discreetly observed every detail of his day.

He looked better today than the previous two times we met—at least his dark circles weren't as bad, his polo shirt was neatly ironed, and his hair had been trimmed; he had clearly put thought into his appearance before going out.

But when he talks about a certain topic, he will suddenly drift off, his gaze drifting to the distant sea, and then he will quickly look back as if nothing had happened.

Gu Yunjin was all too familiar with this kind of absent-mindedness; it wasn't that she wasn't interested in the content of the conversation, but that she had something else on her mind.

She didn't ask, nor did she need to.

Zhang Zhuoran was dragged here by Bai Tianyi today.

Bai Tianyi flew in from the mainland to discuss a project. After the discussion, he said he wanted to check out the top-notch golf club in Dahai City, so Zhang Zhuoran booked a session.

The two played a few holes. Bai Tianyi's golf skills were mediocre, but he was very quick-witted and mocked Zhang Zhuoran from the swing posture all the way.

"Your swing is like chopping wood. No wonder AI projects burn through money so quickly; it's all because of your chopping."

Bai Tianyi stood on the edge of the green, leaning on his golf club, looking like he was bored out of his mind.

He slung the golf club over his shoulder and squinted as he glanced towards the rest area.

His gaze lingered on the parasol for a moment, then he nudged Zhang Zhuoran with his elbow.

"Hey, who's that lady over there in the long black dress? She looks like an angel."

Zhang Zhuoran looked in the direction he pointed, then put down the golf club and picked up a towel to wipe his hands.

"Come on, let me take you over to say hello."

Bai Tianyi followed him toward the rest area, muttering to himself as they walked:

"You're being way too proactive. I've never seen you this eager with any young lady before. Zhang Zhuoran, something's not right with you. You're definitely interested in her."

Zhang Zhuoran continued walking, his tone indifferent: "You're overthinking it. That's Gu Yunjin."

"Gu Yunjin?" Bai Tianyi searched through the name in his mind but didn't find much useful information.

He certainly knew the Gu family, but he really didn't have much of an impression of this second young lady.

However, based on his understanding of Zhang Zhuoran, the woman who could make this arrogant young master Zhang take the initiative to greet him was definitely not just because her surname was Gu.

The two walked to the parasol, and Zhang Zhuoran nodded naturally to Gu Yunjin: "I didn't expect to run into you here, Yunjin."

He then nodded slightly to Pei Yan, "President Pei."

Pei Yan stood up, shook hands with him, and exchanged a few polite words.

Gu Yunjin took off her sunglasses, her gaze lingered on Zhang Zhuoran's face for a second, and then turned to Bai Tianyi beside him, giving him a polite smile.

Zhang Zhuoran stepped aside and introduced: "This is Bai Tianyi, an old friend of mine, who came from the mainland. This is Gu Yunjin, the second young lady of the Gu family. This is President Pei Yan."

Bai Tianyi shook hands with Pei Yan, then turned to greet Gu Yunjin with a broad and cheerful smile, befitting a typical young master from a prominent northern family.

"Hello, Miss Gu, my name is Bai Tianyi. When I saw you from afar, I thought you were a celebrity playing golf, but when you got closer, I found you were even more handsome than a celebrity."

Bai Tianyi was very outgoing and pulled up a chair to sit down.

As the group started chatting, Bai Tianyi initially thought that a rich girl like Gu Yunjin was just dabbling in investments with her family's money, and that he could find out her background in just a few words.

After less than ten minutes of conversation, he realized he was completely wrong—Gu Yunjin had gone from discussing the computing power deployment of the basic model to the business model of the open-source ecosystem.

From the US chip ban on China to the technological roadmap for domestic alternatives, every topic was discussed in detail, with specific figures, cases, and judgment criteria.

She spoke in a very calm tone, as if she were casually talking about the weather, but every sentence she uttered hit the most crucial point.

Bai Tianyi leaned back in his chair, his expression shifting from nonchalant to serious.

He paused for a few seconds, then suddenly asked a very unprofessional question: "Ms. Gu, if I may ask, how old are you?"

"Twenty-five." Gu Yunjin picked up her sparkling water and took a sip.

"Twenty-five?" Bai Tianyi looked her up and down, his expression as if he had seen something that made him question his existence.

"When you were talking about the AI ​​chip supply chain earlier, you mentioned that you worked on Wall Street for three years—you were managing funds on Wall Street when you were only 22?"

Gu Yunjin put down her cup and, unusually, revealed a slightly sly smile.

That smile was different from the one she had given Pei Yan earlier; it wasn't a cold, social mask.

"Actually, I'm already 250 years old this year."

She said this with a very serious expression, and there was not a trace of joking in her tone.

"Actually, I am a cultivator and have lived for several hundred years."

"I had been practicing seclusion in the deep mountains and forests for a long time, and only in recent years have I come down from the mountain to experience modern life."

Bai Tianyi was stunned for half a second.

"Investing is nothing to me. I started trading silk and porcelain hundreds of years ago. Back then, currency conversion was much more complicated than it is now. We had to weigh them bit by bit with silver ingots."

She continued, "The large AI models you're using now are, in my opinion, no different from alchemy."

They all throw things into a black box and then pray that what comes out isn't poison.

Zhang Zhuoran had already burst out laughing, his shoulders shaking.

Bai Tianyi then realized he'd been tricked and slapped his thigh: "No, you were so serious just now—"

"That's how she is with people she knows," Zhang Zhuoran added from the side.

"They usually act more serious than anyone else, but once you get to know them, they can completely confuse you."

Pei Yan smiled too, but a thin layer of unease lurked beneath that smile.

During the time he knew Gu Yunjin, she was always the proper, quiet, and unassuming second young lady of the Gu family in front of him. Every word she spoke seemed to have been carefully selected, and every expression was perfectly placed.

He thought that was just that kind of person—aloof and distant.

But at this moment, seeing the tone of her voice when she spoke to Zhang Zhuoran, and the smile she gave when joking with Bai Tianyi, he suddenly realized that she wasn't without warmth—she just hadn't opened up to him before.

Bai Tianyi finally recovered from the shock of being tricked, picked up the sparkling water on the table, took a sip, and then looked at Zhang Zhuoran very seriously and said:

"I think she's a true cultivator, otherwise it's impossible to explain how she knows so much at the age of twenty-five."

"Are you sure it's not because you're too ignorant and incompetent?" Zhang Zhuoran said.

"Is this what you say to your brothers?" Bai Tianyi clutched his chest, feigning injury.

"I flew all the way here to play ball with you, and you not only prioritize your girlfriend over your friends, but you also made personal attacks."

Zhang Zhuoran said very calmly, "One should study hard to be a good person."

Bai Tianyi took a deep breath, turned to Gu Yunjin, and said with a very serious expression, "He doesn't usually talk this much, but he performed exceptionally well today. You know what I mean, right?"

Gu Yunjin picked up her sparkling water, took a sip, and glanced at Zhang Zhuoran briefly over the rim of the glass, without responding to Bai Tianyi's words.

A sea breeze swept across the green, and the edges of the parasols swayed gently in the wind, scattering sunlight and shadows onto a few people.