Dog Training (1/2)
Su Zesui tilted his head slightly, a look of pure and sincere confusion in his eyes. It didn’t seem like he was pretending to be clueless—he genuinely seemed curious about who the “person” was in the phrase “I just insist on liking someone1.”
Gu Yilan’s gaze darkened slightly. He almost laughed in exasperation, then coldly and nonsensically replied, “It means I like being alone2.”
Su Zesui patted his chest in relief, let out a breath, and opened the online lecture he needed to watch today.
So that’s what it meant.
“You don’t remember what happened last night?” Gu Yilan raised an eyebrow and interrupted his movement.
At his words, Su Zesui froze, then clutched his head in both hands and shook it in distress.
He didn’t remember—nothing at all.
All he recalled was filling his little stomach with red wine until everything felt floaty and ethereal, like he was ascending to the heavens.
“Then let me help jog your memory,” Gu Yilan said calmly, locking eyes with him and speaking each word slowly and clearly. “Last night, you personally deleted that video beyond recovery and promised me that from now on, you’d never watch anything like that again.”
Su Zesui was stunned for a second, then immediately pulled up his materials for the Olympiad science class in a panic to check.
…They were all still there.
“Gong Chuang sent you that video,” Gu Yilan reminded him.
At that, Su Zesui instantly turned to stone. His fingers froze on the tablet screen, and his expression went completely stiff.
Brother Gong Chuang sent him that video, and… Mr. Gu found out? Last night…?
“You watch that stuff a lot? Even ranked them by preference?” Gu Yilan narrowed his eyes, watching him closely.
Su Zesui shook his head frantically like a rattle drum, soft lips parting slightly. “Me and Brother—”
“Hold on.” Seeing that bashful, hard-to-express look on Su Zesui’s face, Gu Yilan immediately knew something outrageous and R-rated was about to come out of his mouth.
The boy had a face as pure as an angel’s, but the things he said could shatter the boundaries of what any normal adult could tolerate. Pure innocence and provocative desire were tangled up in him, and with those little “inappropriate” actions added in, Gu Yilan had no idea how much longer he could keep his composure.
“What kind of person do you like?” Gu Yilan changed the subject.
Without hesitation, Su Zesui answered, “I like you.”
For once, Gu Yilan didn’t fall silent. Instead, he asked in return, “Someone like me?”
Su Zesui blushed and nodded.
“Alright, I’ll introduce you to someone like me,” Gu Yilan raised an eyebrow, though his face stayed expressionless. He listed, “Someone who can help you with homework, likes helping old ladies cross the street, a future great scientist?”
Su Zesui: ???
——Mr. Gu… is introducing someone to him? Weren’t they basically married?
——Do other husbands in this world also introduce boyfriends to their wives?
Weird.
“You go watch your online classes. I’ll do some research and send you their profiles later,” Gu Yilan said as he headed for the meeting room.
Once he watched the man disappear at the door, Su Zesui twiddled his fingers and quietly muttered, “But none of them are you.”
The hangover was giving him a terrible headache. He absentmindedly stared at the online class for a while, when suddenly, a message from a stranger popped up on his phone—
[Private message from “Stranger 。” on Ahoo: What are you doing?]
Su Zesui rubbed his eyes, thinking he might be hallucinating. But when he opened Ahoo and saw their past conversation history, he realized—it really was that metaphysical uncle.
Since he couldn’t concentrate on class anyway, and he was bored, he politely replied.
[User1947296: Studying. Uncle, didn’t you immigrate abroad?]
[。: I came back. Just letting you know.]
Su Zesui didn’t understand why this man suddenly returned to the country, let alone why he felt the need to inform him. But he still tried to stay polite.
[User1947296: It’s only been a week. Did you already move back?]
[。: …]
[。: My job changed again, so I didn’t end up immigrating.]
Su Zesui didn’t know how to respond, so he just sent a sticker of a little white rabbit giving a thumbs-up.
[。: Aren’t you going to ask me why my job changed again?]
Su Zesui obediently asked why.
[。: My boss’s wife had an excessive sex drive. She kept clinging to him, even talked about having sex constantly. Not long after, both of them were completely worn out, and the company went bankrupt. Everyone lost their jobs.]
[User1947296: That’s so tragic. Hug hug. Tomorrow will be better. (Little bunny pats)]
[。: ………]
[。: So what lesson did you learn from this story?]
Su Zesui was stunned.
——Uncle Period… is testing his reading comprehension?
He widened his eyes, trying hard to understand the deeper meaning behind the story, then carefully typed:
[User1947296: When a company goes bankrupt, the employees lose their jobs.]
After that, the other person didn’t reply.
Su Zesui also felt like he had run out of social energy. He closed Ahoo and forced himself to focus on the online lecture.
. . . . .
Meanwhile, after the group meeting ended, only Gu Yilan and Gong Chuang remained in the conference room.
Gong Chuang scratched his head, feeling a little guilty. Still, he tried a desperate excuse, “Brother, I don’t know anything…”
Gu Yilan couldn’t be bothered with the roundabout talk and got straight to the point: “Don’t send him things like that again. He believed it.”
As soon as he heard that, Gong Chuang’s heart skipped a beat—Gu Yilan found out… about that.
It was the most disastrous thing—Gu Yilan found out about it.
“Sorry.” Gong Chuang immediately straightened up, ready to take the hit, and confessed honestly: “He told me you were super gentle with him, so I thought… I thought you two had already, you know…”
Gu Yilan frowned. He usually didn’t like explaining things, but seeing Gong Chuang’s awkward and complicated expression, he said, “That day, he bit me—maybe he thought I was an Omega. He’s missing some basic life knowledge. Don’t mess with him.”
“Sorry, sorry,” Gong Chuang pressed his hands together apologetically. As he apologized, he couldn’t help but admire how fast the boy took action. “My bad, I won’t do it again.”
Gu Yilan looked at him, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly, though there was a sharp glint in his eyes. “If you’re sorry, then do something for me.”
“What is it?”
“Help me find some people from the Materials Department,” Gu Yilan said. “Under 25, kind-hearted, planning to go into scientific research in the future.”
“…What for?” Gong Chuang was baffled. “Is your team lacking good, honest people now?”
Gu Yilan replied casually, “To introduce to him.”
“WHAT?!!” Gong Chuang nearly jumped. His hands trembled as he glanced at Gu Yilan’s head, checking to see if it had suddenly turned green.
But after calming down, he immediately realized what was going on.
Gu Yilan was doing it again—pushing the boy away, just like before. From that vague, emotional post on Moments to now, introducing new potential partners.
Gong Chuang felt conflicted, but Gu Yilan didn’t give him a chance to say anything. Without looking back, he left the meeting room, only tossing out a single sentence: “Don’t forget.”
Gong Chuang scratched his head in frustration—right as his phone buzzed with a message.
Surprisingly, it was from Su Zesui, who almost never messaged him first.
Gong Chuang was caught in a dilemma, but in the end, he still opened the message—
[(o^^o): Brother Gong Chuang, can you send me that video again? The one from last time?]
Who knows what kind of data-shredding method Mr. Gu used, but not only was the video deleted from the cloud storage, even the original file in WeChat couldn’t be opened anymore.
[Brother Gong Chuang: Didn’t your brother say you’re not allowed to watch it? Not listening to your brother now?]
[(o^^o): I’m scared. I want to study.]
Looking at this eager little “student” on his phone, Gong Chuang couldn’t help but start leaning to his side a little.
An innocent, clueless boy, who, after hearing about that bastard’s tragic past, was still willing to bravely barge into a terrifying conference room to confess his feelings for him. And now, despite being afraid, was reaching out again, wanting to “study” those unspeakable things.
What a heart-wrenching love story!
At least, it moved him.
Gong Chuang defected. As he muttered to himself, “Maybe only you can handle him,” he quickly began typing.
[Brother Gong Chuang: Let’s put that old material aside for now. I’ll teach you something more advanced.]
[Brother Gong Chuang: Don’t take your brother’s Moments post to heart. He did it on purpose to scare you. It’s not real. That’s just the kind of person he is—he’d rather hurt himself along with the enemy.]
Su Zesui had been about to explain that his brother just wanted some time alone, but another message came in quickly:
[Brother Gong Chuang: Do you know why everyone else in the lab is so afraid of him?]
Su Zesui was always curious about anything related to Gu Yilan and quickly forgot what he was going to explain.
[(o^^o): I don’t. I want to know.]
[Brother Gong Chuang: Well, aside from the fact that he’s always gloomy and doesn’t talk much, there was also a… special incident.]
[Brother Gong Chuang: There was this company—let’s just call it “Dog Corp.” Dog Corp invested in one of our group’s research projects but suddenly broke the contract and pulled out, which left us without funding and forced us to shut everything down.
But Dog Corp had also invested heavily in other research projects at our university. If we hold them accountable or sue them for breach of contract, it would mean completely falling out with them, and other projects might end up suffering collateral damage. So we had no choice but to swallow the loss in silence.]
[(o^^o): Mmhm. And then?]
[Brother Gong Chuang: And then your brother stepped in. You know, his family’s loaded, and he has major influence in their company. Crushing Dog Corp was no big deal for him.]
[(o^^o): My brother is amazing! [bunny thumbs up.jpg]]
[Brother Gong Chuang: Hold on, don’t praise him just yet. My family’s rich too, you know? So why didn’t I step in? There was a reason for that.]
[(o^^o): Mmhm, what was it?]
When something really piqued his curiosity, even socially anxious little Su Zesui could become a great listener.
[Brother Gong Chuang: The reason was, Dog Corp had terrible judgment and invested in a bunch of hopeless projects. But those projects were still supporting a lot of people. If someone completely destroyed Dog Corp, and they went down swinging, a lot of innocent people would be affected.
If you want to avoid collateral damage and public backlash, the only option is to become their bailout—pick up the slack yourself.
I did the math. It was a guaranteed money-loser, and not a small one. The kind that would get me beaten half to death by my parents.]
[Brother Gong Chuang: So I chose to hold my tongue. But your brother didn’t.
He didn’t even hesitate. Not only did he take over the project Dog Corp abandoned, he also invested in all the other side projects they’d touched. I was shocked. He’s too smart not to see that this was a financial bloodbath.
And once he invested, he started going after Dog Corp. Not just suing them for breach of contract—he used his position in the company to push them into a corner at every turn. He didn’t back down a single step. He’d rather burn himself out than let them off the hook.]
[(o^^o): My brother is amazing!]
Seeing that reply, Gong Chuang couldn’t help but smile.
No wonder he called this boy the chosen one—his mental resilience was solid!