From Childhood Friends to Lovers

Seeing Liu Mingrui's pitiful expression, Gu Chenan felt somewhat guilty.

In the novel world, he had never shown concern for Liu Mingrui, and after returning to reality, he treated her even worse by making her nothing more than a kitchen maid. Liu Mingrui did nothing but cook all day.

Compared to the other female leads, Liu Mingrui really had it rough.

"Mingrui."

Gu Chenan sat down beside Liu Mingrui and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Tomorrow, shall I start spending time with you?"

Liu Mingrui twisted away, shrugging off his hand, and said, "I'm wondering if only crying children get candy?"

"To you, Kannon is like a child who never grows up, so you're always concerned about her and keeping her company. But because I don't cause trouble, you don't care about me at all?"

She continued, her lips quivering, "Should I go out tomorrow and cause some trouble too? Would that make you start caring about me?"

Though Liu Mingrui's words were spoken in anger, they held some truth.

The reason Gu Chenan spent every day with Hoshino Kannon was because he worried she might cause more trouble. He felt completely at ease with Liu Mingrui, which was why he didn't treat her the same way he treated Hoshino Kannon.

"Mingrui, I... I really haven't been paying attention to you lately. That's my fault..."

Gu Chenan faltered for a moment, then placed his hand back on her shoulder.

"But trust me, I'll be more mindful from now on."

Liu Mingrui turned around and gave Gu Chenan a withering look, her face still full of resentment. "But tomorrow someone else will come, and won't you have to keep them company?"

"Uh..."

Gu Chenan scratched the back of his head and said, "Yes, I'll need to keep them company, but I definitely won't neglect you."

Hearing this, Liu Mingrui's expression improved slightly, though she still pouted and said, "If you break your promise, I'll do just like Kannon..."

At this point, Liu Mingrui emphasized each word: "And! Run! Away! From! Home!"

Seeing Liu Mingrui's serious demeanor, Gu Chenan was momentarily stunned before bursting into laughter.

Liu Mingrui frowned: "I'm serious! Don't think I'm joking!"

"I know, I know," Gu Chenan laughed. "I just think you look so cute right now."

"Huh?"

Liu Mingrui paused, her cheeks turning red as she muttered, "You're crazy."

Looking at her blushing cheeks, Gu Chenan let out a long sigh and leaned back on the sofa. "Say, want to sleep with me tonight?"

"Why?"

Liu Mingrui turned her head, looking curious.

"Don't you want to?"

Gu Chenan smiled. "You've tried to seduce me several times before, you know."

"W-what do you mean seduce? I was just joking!" Liu Mingrui said awkwardly.

Previously in the novel world, when Gu Chenan had just accepted Su Qianmo's feelings, Liu Mingrui had mentioned several times that she wanted to try things with him.

However, for some reason, the current Liu Mingrui couldn't bring herself to say it.

Neither of them had explicitly expressed their feelings, so technically they were still just childhood friends.

It was this relationship status that made things awkward between them when they were together.

Gu Chenan noticed this and smiled, "I'm not joking now. I'm serious. It's time we changed our relationship."

"Huh?"

Liu Mingrui was stunned. "Change our relationship? Change it to what?"

Without saying a word, Gu Chenan stepped forward and picked up Liu Mingrui in a princess carry, then said, "From childhood friends to lovers, of course."

"You... you..."

Liu Mingrui struggled briefly, then, as if making a decision, suddenly wrapped her arms around Gu Chenan's neck and closed her eyes as she kissed him.

After a long moment, their lips parted.

Liu Mingrui, her face full of shyness, nodded slightly: "Okay."

......

The next day.

Liu Mingrui emerged wobbling, supporting herself against the wall.

Gu Chenan had planned to take her out for some fun today, but Liu Mingrui went straight back to her room to catch up on sleep.

This left Gu Chenan alone in the room, awkwardly unsure of what to do.

He had thought about looking for Kannon, but perhaps because of last night's events, Kannon had said she would accompany Su Qianmo to work and had left early.

It was as if they were giving Gu Chenan and Liu Mingrui some time alone together.

Looking at the empty room, the already bored Gu Chenan became even more bored.

With Su Qianmo and Kannon gone, and Liu Mingrui back in bed, he really didn't know what to do by himself.

Meanwhile, at Caiying.

When Su Qianmo arrived at the company chatting and laughing with Hoshino Kannon, it shocked everyone.

In the eyes of Caiying's employees, Hoshino Kannon was Gu Chenan's mistress, who had inserted herself between Su Qianmo and Gu Chenan under the guise of being his sister.

However, not only was Su Qianmo not upset as expected, but she was actually laughing and chatting with this supposed mistress as they came to the company?

This was absolutely unbelievable.

The entire Caiying company was in an uproar.

Every department was condemning Gu Chenan as a scoundrel and lamenting the fate of Su Qianmo, their foolish beautiful CEO who was being kept in the dark.

"Damn, what's going on? This is too blatant!"

"Is Mr. Gu trying to make this young girl become besties with CEO Su so they can have a threesome?"

"God, what a scumbag!"

"Seriously, doesn't CEO Su notice anything? Can't she see something's fishy between this girl and Mr. Gu?"

"CEO Su might be brilliant in business, but she's absolutely clueless when it comes to relationships!"

"Exactly! We tried to warn CEO Su before, but she just dismissed what we said!"

"Doesn't Mr. Gu feel any guilt doing this?"

"As employees of Caiying, we can't let CEO Su remain in the dark!"

"Right, we must expose that scumbag Mr. Gu's true nature!"

"Even though Mr. Gu's background is mysterious, that's no excuse for deceiving CEO Su!"

"Exactly!"

Su Qianmo and Hoshino Kannon were completely unaware of their employees' discussions.

The two of them sat together, looking as harmonious as sisters.

"Kannon, why did you want to come to work with me today?" Su Qianmo asked curiously.

These past few days, except for when she ran away from home, Kannon had been constantly by Gu Chenan's side. Today was strange - Kannon had gotten up early specifically to accompany her to the company.

This left Su Qianmo very puzzled.

Hoshino Kannon took a sip of tea and said casually, "Last night when Chenan and I came back, Sister Mingrui was waiting for him on the sofa."

"Though I don't know what they talked about, I could hear sounds coming from Chenan's room late at night..."

"Plus, Chenan has been with me these past few days and hasn't had time to talk with Sister Mingrui, so I thought I'd give them some time alone together."

She touched her cheek and said, "Chenan doesn't belong to just me, I can't be too selfish."

Hearing this, Su Qianmo was stunned.

She had always thought Kannon was selfish when it came to Chenan, but she never expected Kannon to have this side to her.

"You've changed so much," Su Qianmo said approvingly.