I was exposed for adding my female boss to my group of female friends.

“Ms. Gu, no matter how troublesome Aihua Company is, it is now under your control and has nothing to do with the Lu family. What business path you want to take and how you manage the overall situation are all up to you. Whether it makes a profit or a loss is also your responsibility, and it has nothing to do with us.”

"Of course." Gu Yuqing snorted.

Grandma Yu added, "We didn't originally plan to invite you, but since you've come to Grandpa Lu's birthday banquet today, let's talk about happy things on this auspicious and peaceful day."

Lu Qingxuan listened from the side and couldn't help but secretly admire him, after all, experience counts.

These words were a combination of soft and hard tactics, seemingly gentle but actually barbed. On the one hand, they both dismissed and resolved the issues surrounding Aihua Company, throwing the blame back at Gu Yuqing intact. On the other hand, they subtly labeled her as someone who "caused trouble at the birthday banquet."

If Lu Qingxuan were in charge, she definitely wouldn't have handled it this well.

But Gu Yuqing seemed completely oblivious to the fact that she had been outmatched, tossing her long hair back as she did so.

"I'm not here primarily to attend the birthday banquet; attending the banquet is just a side event."

Great-Grandma's expression changed. If they could have managed to resolve the business dispute before, Gu Yuqing's words now completely lost the dignity of a prestigious family and amounted to a complete breakdown in relations.

"I'm here at Chen Ya's invitation to attend his aunt's wedding. By the way, where is the bride? I want to go see her."

Chen Ya? The bride?

Great-grandmother and Committee Member Gao looked at each other in bewilderment.

It took them a long time to realize what Gu Yuqing was saying.

It wasn't because they didn't remember Chen Ya; they simply couldn't understand how Chen Ya could still know Gu Yuqing.

Hearing Gu Yuqing's words, Qin Yun Chu, fearing she might reveal some more secrets, quickly stood up and said:

"Yes, I also want to go see Chen Ya's aunt and see the bride."

Gu Yuqing took Qin Yunchu's hand and turned to Xia You, asking, "Xiao You, are you going or not?"

Xia You silently stood up, lifted her dress which was a bit too long for her, and took Gu Yuqing's hand.

Lu Qingxuan pushed back her chair and said, "I'll take you there. I've already been there."

"Okay, lead the way!"

And so, the three of them drifted away in full view of everyone.

Grandma Yu stood there, stunned, for a long time. Only after the three figures had completely disappeared from the entrance of the main hall did she laugh self-deprecatingly and say, "I really can't understand how the world has changed."

After saying that, she tapped the ground with her cane, as if trying to summon the local earth god to ask what was going on.

Unfortunately, all of this was in vain. Her cane could not elicit the truth, but only revealed the helplessness of this elderly woman in her seventies.

Committee Member Gao frowned, glanced at Lu Shuying beside him, then at Lu Qianzi, and said:

"What's going on here? Chen Ya? Why is Chen Ya involved again?"

Lu Shuying hadn't overheard their conversation and was completely baffled. Lu Qianzi knew part of the truth but didn't dare to answer.

For a moment, this corner of the main hall was completely silent, and no one dared to make a sound.

Both Great-Grandma and Committee Member Gao were in a state of confusion, their minds a jumbled mess.

When Gu Yuqing suddenly said she was coming, I thought she meant to reconcile, but after her long-winded speech, she was practically ready to flip the table.

If they're not here to reconcile, then why come at all? Is it simply for the sake of the Luo Lu family's reputation?

Moreover, how did she find out that the Lu family was having a wedding today? And how did she meet Chen Ya?

In Gao's mind, he didn't take Gu Yuqing's words seriously at all; he thought they were just a woman's angry words.

Little did he know that Gu Yuqing was a genuine person who only knew how to be real, and that she really was just there to attend Old Master Lu's birthday banquet on a whim.

She's been incredibly busy with Aihua Company lately. If it weren't for someone insisting that she come and support her aunt, she wouldn't have taken a two-hour flight to Beijing. Isn't she tired?

Committee Member Gao was completely baffled, his eyes darting around as he repeatedly asked:

"Where is Chen Ya? Where did Chen Ya go?"

No one answered him. Great-Grandma suddenly remembered that Lu Qingxuan had told her earlier that Chen Ya hadn't come, but she hadn't taken it seriously at the time.

"We need to bring Chen Ya here immediately and have him tell me in person what happened."

Great-Grandma tapped her cane on the ground, then turned to look at Lu Qianzi: "Lu Ruixiang's daughter, are you looking for Chen Ya?"

Lu Qianzi had never directly spoken to someone of her great-grandmother's level before, and her face flushed slightly as she stammered:

"I... I can't find him either."

"You live in the same house, don't you know where he went?" Old Mrs. Yu said with some displeasure.

Lu Qianzi said nervously, "He hasn't been home lately, I... I don't know what he's doing."

Grandma Yu frowned even more deeply.

Realizing his sister couldn't handle the situation, Chen Hai cleared his throat and said:

“Great-grandmother, Gu Yuqing just told us that she and Chen Ya are lovers.”

"A romantic relationship?" Old Mrs. Yu was both amused and exasperated upon hearing this.

She was older, but not old-fashioned. She had encountered this kind of thing before, but she still felt disdain and asked in a stern voice, "Then why has he never mentioned it? This Chen Ya is very low-key."

"You can't help but keep a low profile when it comes to this kind of thing," Chen Hai casually remarked.

“No,” Liu Ruying, who was sitting to the side, suddenly spoke up, “There aren’t many companies in China that can rival Yunshan Group and be considered its competitors.”

The Witch Lord raised his head, remaining silent for a long time. After watching the commotion from the sidelines, he finally found an opening to speak: "You mean, Chen Ya, he could be..."

“Only Beichen has the qualifications,” Liu Ruying blurted out.

Chen Hai, standing to the side, looked at her with surprise, then turned and exchanged a glance with his great-grandmother, their eyes filled with "What is she talking about?"

Lu Qianzi held her breath, reached out and tugged at Chen Hai's sleeve, and whispered, "Brother, shouldn't we go and see Aunt too?"

"Go see what?" Chen Hai was still a bit confused.

“Yes, you two go and take a look,” Great-Grandma said to the two of them, stretching out her cane, then lowered her voice, “go and see what they really mean.”

Lu Qianzi pulled Chen Hai, who was still confused about the situation, and walked towards the corridor outside. Wang Shao, who had been fiddling with his phone the whole time, threw down his phone, turned around and asked, "So, who is this Chen Ya?"

Wu Zun shook his head and said, "Does Liu Xiaohua mean that he is... some mysterious shareholder of Beichen?"

"Shareholders?" Wang Shaoxian shrugged and said casually, "I don't know if Beichen has any mysterious shareholders. I've never met this Chen Ya you're talking about. All I know is that he's Qin Yun Chu from the Qin family, Gu Yu Qing from the Gu family, and Xia Long Ju's daughter. All three of them ran to the side hall because of a single sentence from Chen Ya."

"Then I listened to all that you guys just said, and you didn't even know his identity... Are you guys kidding me?"

Chapter 287 You've come to see Chen Ya too?

Wang Shaoxian is a high-profile person with high public profile and a rather flamboyant personality.

Logically speaking, someone with his personality should have made a huge blunder long ago and disappeared from the public eye.

The reason he has been able to jump around for so many years without ever getting into trouble is that he knows who he can directly confront and who he absolutely must not mess with.

He has never offended those he couldn't afford to offend.

Although he didn't know Chen Ya, he knew after sitting there and listening for a short while that Chen Ya was definitely someone he couldn't afford to offend.

From his perspective, these people around him seemed completely oblivious, still bringing up things like "lovers" and "shareholders"... Is that really the point?

The Witch Lord opened his eyes wide and whispered, "Young Master Wang, what do you mean..."

Wang Shaoxian glared at him and counted on his fingers, saying, "I don't know anything about this person in your impressions, and I won't comment on him. I'll just point out a few things. Look, Qin, Gu, and Xia, three of the four great families, treat him differently. What do you think his status should be?"

The Witch Master remained silent for a moment, then nodded. Young Master Wang's logic in judging people was simple—if someone more powerful than me is praising another person, then how powerful must that person be?

Chen Hai isn't here now. If he were, he would definitely explain to Young Master Wang with a smile:

“Young Master Wang, you’re overthinking it. Chen Ya is my brother. He grew up in the countryside and dropped out of junior high school to work. He might not be as capable as you think.”

The prejudice that "Chen Ya came from a bad background" was deeply ingrained in Chen Hai's mind.

After all, it was Chen Hai who risked his life and racked his brains to secure the opportunity to come to the capital with his father.

When Chen Sheng announced to his family that he was going to work hard in the capital, Chen Ya was fast asleep at night, but he was so engrossed in stargazing that he didn't fall asleep for a single second.

The next day, he cried his eyes out, wanting to go to the capital with his father. Others thought he was just being overly loving towards his father, but in reality, he had been making plans all night.

Later, his father wanted to go back to his hometown to divorce his mother and wanted to take him with him, but he refused to get on the bus no matter what. He clung to the bed leg and wouldn't let go no matter how much the father hit and kicked him.

Because he was afraid. He was afraid that if he returned to the village, his father would abandon him in the countryside and not take him back to the capital.

After all, for a man who wants to get married, not having children obviously presents less of a hurdle.

So no matter what, he refused to leave the capital. He was like a lump of mud; even if he were crushed into pieces, he would still cover the land of the capital, making it impossible for anyone to pick it up.

He would rather never see his mother and sister one last time, never return to his hometown, than leave the capital and stay in the countryside.

These two choices played a crucial role in his life, and it can be said that they changed the trajectory of his life.

If, many years later, he achieves great success and sees his older brother still farming in the countryside, he will be very generous, his eyes will well up with tears, and he will use all his compassion and affection to support Chen Ya.

But if he were told that Chen Ya had already made something of himself, was doing better than him, had a higher status, and earned more money, he would find it completely unacceptable. He would rather jump off this 85-story building than accept it.

This is human nature.

The Witch Lord crossed his arms, frowned and thought for a moment, then said, "Well, after thinking about it carefully, I realized that this Chen Ya is indeed not simple."

"Based on my limited understanding, he came to the city to work after graduating from junior high school. Five years ago, he went to Peking University Library to work as a librarian."

"When he was at Peking University, he wrote more than a dozen outstanding poems and articles, some of which became very popular, but the author himself was unknown."

"Later, he started publishing papers, and the professors at the university all praised him. Then... he became the mistress of the current female president of Haiya Company. That female president is Japanese, so he's been to Japan?"

Liu Ruying added, "He also started a company, Jiang Lizhi, and rented jewelry to the Queen of Britain, who loved it dearly."

These were all areas where Wang Shao was unfamiliar with the subject, and he was dumbfounded as he listened, asking, "And then he slept with Gu Yuqing? And they became competitors of Yunshan Group?"

"That's all the information we have right now." Liu Ruying nodded, then suddenly added, "Oh, by the way, do you know Pei Hu?"

“I know Pei Hu, he’s a tough guy. What happened to him?” Young Master Wang asked.

"Pei Hu used to be Chen Ya's driver."

After Liu Ruying finished speaking, both Wang Shao and Wu Zun fell silent.

After a long pause, Wang Shao finally asked with difficulty, "Are you sure that Pei Hu is his driver, and not that he is Pei Hu's driver?"

Liu Ruying did not answer, but said, "Last time, he called Pei Hu over in front of me, and Pei Hu offered to drive him. He even said that he had found the feeling he used to have."

"..."

Another silence followed.

"His life trajectory is very complicated," Wang Shao said, scratching his head after a while. "In other words, he rose to prominence and achieved a very high status in just five years, but his identity remains a mystery, right?"

"Yes, I just feel like there's something fishy about this!"

"How come even his family doesn't know?" Wang Shao's curiosity was completely piqued. He put his phone down on the table, stopped playing with his online game, and humbly asked Wu Zun about gossip.

"His main identity is a bit awkward; his family is considered a branch of the Lu family..."

Wang Shao and Wu Zun chatted casually, while Liu Ruying remained silent, gazing in the direction Chen Ya had left.

Actually, when Gu Yuqing said that they were friends with benefits, her heart had been numb for a long time, and it still is now.

She had previously held onto the hope that Old Master Lu would once again display his stubbornness and forcefully arrange for Chen Ya to be with her, so that Chen Ya would have no choice but to marry her...

Now it seems that this hope is becoming increasingly slim.

Gu Yuqing kept a close eye on Chen Ya. She wasn't afraid of Old Master Lu at all. Even if Old Master Lu lost his temper, she wouldn't tolerate that outcome.

Liu Ruying sighed.

Perhaps, in the end, my plans are destined to fail.

Not far away, an elderly man with gray hair and a thin face strode into the hall.

Liu Ruying stood up instinctively: "Principal Yang..."

Great-grandmother and Committee Member Gao quickly went to greet her. The gloom that Gu Yuqing had brought to Old Madam Yu's face earlier was completely gone.

"Old Yang, why did you come in such a hurry without even informing me beforehand..."

Yang Changshuo stood with his hands behind his back, his expression as inscrutable as ever, and turned his head slightly to say, "I'm sorry, but I don't know if the host family is not welcoming me."

"How could I not welcome you? I feel honored that you could come..."

Although Yang Changshuo was old, he was still in good health and walked with a brisk pace. As he passed through the main hall, the people around him looked at him with a hint of awe.

As the president of Peking University, Yang Changshuo was highly respected in academia. He gave the impression of being a wise and dignified scholar, with an air of authority that commanded respect without anger.