“Mr. Gu, I’m someone who enjoys a simple life. As for money, I’ve always believed that enough is enough, and the good thing is…” Zhou Xuan said to Gu Jiangang with a faint smile, “The good thing is that I have enough money on my own, so I never get involved in complicated life. I’m afraid I can’t accept Mr. Gu’s offer of shares, but I can pass that on to Brother Hong. Whether he accepts it or not, I can’t guarantee. I can only thank you for your kindness, Mr. Gu!”
Gu Jiangang was taken aback. He could tell that Zhou Xuan didn't think the shares were worth too little; he genuinely didn't care. This left him speechless.
Just as Gu Jiangang was hesitating, the door to the small living room was suddenly pushed open, and a person stumbled in.
Zhou Xuan and Gu Jiangang were both taken aback. Because Zhou Xuan hadn't used his ice energy, he hadn't noticed anyone outside the door. The person who rushed in was wearing a pink dress, with half-curled wavy hair, a pretty face, and pink fingers, looking charming and radiant. It was Gu Ailin. Judging from the expression on the face guard's face, Chang Ran had been eavesdropping outside the door, but he was leaning against the door with a bit of force, and the soundproofing in the room was so good that she could only vaguely hear a little bit. When she couldn't help but push, the door was pushed open, and she rushed into the room.
Gu Jiangang was taken aback for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "Eileen, what are you doing? This is ridiculous! Get out of here right now, I'm talking to a guest!"
After saying that, Gu Jiangang smiled wryly at Zhou Xuan and said, "Mr. Zhou, please don't take offense. This is my granddaughter, Ailin. She's the only girl among my two sons, so she's been spoiled a bit since she was little. She's quite mischievous."
When Gu Jiangang said this, his smile was bitter, but his face clearly showed his doting affection, obviously showing his great love for Gu Ailin.
Gu Ailin stood up casually, then took Gu Jiangang's arm and said in a coquettish tone, "Grandpa, what are you talking about? I heard you're going to give this guy surnamed Zhou some shares? Grandpa, don't fall for his tricks. He's just a gigolo who preys on girls. You know Mingyue, right? Mingyue was fooled by this guy!"
Zhou Xuan really hadn't expected Gu Ailin to be so arrogant. He chuckled and didn't say anything, just looked at the grandfather and granddaughter.
Gu Jiangang was truly stunned. He looked at Zhou Xuan and Gu Ailin, not quite understanding what was going on. But Gu Ailin's expression didn't seem like she was just being coy; there was a serious element to it.
Gu Jiangang looked at Zhou Xuan's indifferent expression and suddenly felt something was wrong. He immediately shouted, "Nonsense! Get out of here!"
Gu Ailin was known for being spoiled and willful. Because she didn't work in the family company and was the only girl in the Gu family, the whole family indulged her. Gu Jiangang, in particular, never said a word against his granddaughter. A girl is young, and no matter how mischievous she is, she can't be as outrageous as a boy. Moreover, although Gu Ailin was spoiled and willful, she was quite filial to her grandfather and elders. She would never forget to bring small gifts for her elders wherever she went, so Gu Jiangang also doted on her.
But now Gu Jiancai's tone was clearly harsher. Gu Ailin was stunned. Her grandfather would never speak to her in such a harsh tone, especially since it was because of Zhou Xuan, whom she disliked so much. After a moment of stunned silence, she immediately retorted angrily, "Grandpa, are you confused? This man is a liar! Mingyue was deceived by him and completely devoted to him! Grandpa, if it involves money, you must be careful! Don't let him deceive you!"
Gu Jiangang could no longer hold back and slapped Gu Ailin across the face. With a crisp "smack," he angrily said, "Get out! What a disgrace to our family! I've been spoiling her so much, how did she turn into such a thing!"
Gu Ailin was stunned by the sudden slap from her grandfather, because she had never expected it. Her grandfather had always doted on her since she was a child, so her parents and uncles had never hit her. In this small family, she was a treasure, the princess of the family. But her grandfather had just slapped her for a liar. How could this be?
Gu Ailin was stunned, forgetting her crying and fussing. She covered her face for a long time before she finally understood what was happening. Then she burst into tears, stood up straight, stomped her feet, and cried, "Grandpa, you...you...you hit me?"
Zhou Xuan shook his head dismissively. This Gu Ailin was spoiled rotten. Was this how all girls from wealthy families behaved? But he immediately dismissed the thought. His Yingying was also from a wealthy family. Yingying was not like Gu Ailin!
Gu Jiangang was trembling with anger. He pointed at Gu Ailin and shouted, "You...you really lack discipline! Get out! Get out of here!"
Seeing that her grandfather was truly angry and didn't want to listen to her anymore, Gu Ailin covered her face in anger and left, her sobbing gradually fading into the distance.
Gu Jiangang, having been interrupted by Gu Ailin's outburst, had completely forgotten what had just happened and his interest waned. He awkwardly said to Zhou Xuan, "Mr. Zhou, I'm truly sorry. My daughter is rather unruly. Please forgive her for any offense she may have caused!"
Zhou Xuan said calmly, "Mr. Gu, there's no need to say more. There's nothing to say about such trivial matters, and I naturally won't take it to heart. To be honest, I still don't understand where I offended Miss Gu. I remember the first time I met Miss Gu was a few days ago on the plane to Hong Kong. I was with Brother Hong, and Miss Gu was with Shangguan Mingyue. It was the first time I met Miss Gu, and we didn't even exchange three sentences. I really don't understand."
"Could it be?" Zhou Xuan suddenly remembered that he had bumped into Gu Ailin in the living room earlier, and the red wine in the wine glass had spilled on her, staining her dress. Could it be because of this?
Zhou Xuan pondered for a moment and then told Gu Jiangang about it. Gu Jiangang shook his head upon hearing it and said, "It can't be that!"
.
Volume 1, Chapter 295: Rheumatism
After hearing Zhou Fu's account, Ma Bu immediately refuted Zhou Xiao's guess, shaking his head dramatically. "That can't be the reason, Mr. Zhou. My granddaughter is just a bit spoiled. She's not a bad person. You spilled wine on her, and she's annoyed, but she would never call you a liar."
After a moment's hesitation, she continued, "I think that's probably what she means. My granddaughter and Mingyue from the Shangguan family have been close friends since childhood, but I've heard that Mingyue has never been involved in any romantic relationships. She's probably proud and arrogant, and ordinary men don't catch her eye. If Shangguan Mingyue has fallen for Zhou, I suspect that's where the problem lies. My granddaughter and Mingyue are like sisters. If Shangguan Mingyue has someone she likes, Ailin will definitely find fault with her. Perhaps it's this superficial impression that makes her dissatisfied with Mr. Zhou, and thus she feels that Mr. Zhou has deceived Mingyue's feelings."
Gu Jiangang thought for a moment and then said these words. Zhou Xuan thought about it and realized it made perfect sense; this was very likely the reason. That day on the plane, wasn't Gu Ailin constantly criticizing herself? She was basically saying how Shangguan Mingyue had such poor judgment. Now I understand!
Zhou Xuan smiled and shook his head, saying, "Old Gu, I'm past the age of childish daydreaming and acting like a spoiled child. Don't let these things bother you. Today is Old Gu's birthday, so cheer up. Sister Gu is just like a little girl. She's thinking of her friends, which is a good thing. I won't take it to heart!"
Gu Jiangang was overjoyed and laughed, "That's good, that's good, Xiao Zhou. I, this old man, apologize to you on behalf of my granddaughter. I'm a few years older than you, but I'm not as thoughtful as you, little brother. Hehe, let's not talk about that. Today is my 90th birthday. I'll have someone set up a table for us to have a drink and chat. We hit it off immediately today, hehe, let's have a proper chat."
"Well," Zhou Xuan thought, seeing Old Man Gu's enthusiasm, "I don't have anything else to do anyway. Gu Yuan brought him here just to let him eat and drink, right? Now, with the head of the Gu family personally hosting him, this meal is going to be a feast!"
Gu Jiangang pressed a small button on the table, and a maid entered in less than ten seconds. Gu Jiangang waved his hand and instructed her to have the kitchen prepare a fine dish, and also to have the maid fetch his prized wine from the wine cellar and deliver it to the small living room.
Zhou Xuan didn't know what kind of wine Gu Jiankan treasured. He didn't know much about wine either. Although he was now rich, his knowledge was still based on his past as a country bumpkin. As for wine, he hadn't drunk many fine or famous wines. Although he had drunk quite a bit the last few times, it was all done with ice, so he had consumed a lot of wine but hadn't even tasted it.
If I had to say I really knew about it, it would be the kind of corn liquor from the countryside that cost two yuan a pound. I drank quite a bit of it when I was a kid. It tasted a bit bitter and made you feel hot after drinking it. When the maid came in again, she was carrying a beautifully packaged cardboard box. She placed it on the table, opened the box, and took out a black ceramic bottle. The liquor was unopened, but the packaging alone showed that it was quite high-quality.
The cardboard box had the words "Maotai" on it. Zhou Xuan recognized the words, but while Maotai was a fine liquor, it wasn't something he could afford. He guessed in his mind that since Old Man Gu's liquor was a treasured item, it probably wouldn't be too cheap, maybe a few thousand or even over ten thousand.
Gu Jiangang waved to the maid to have the kitchen send over the vegetables. He took the porcelain bottle, picked up a small fruit knife from the table, and gently peeled off the sealant from the bottle. As soon as he opened the lid, an indescribable fragrance filled the room.
"It smells so good." Zhou Xuan couldn't help but praise it. Before even tasting the wine, he smelled it first. Just based on the aroma, Zhou Xuan felt that this was definitely a good product, far better than the wines he had drunk with Li Wei in hotels or nightclubs before. The most expensive wines he had ever seen before were probably the Hennessy bottles he had consumed in nightclubs, but those were only worth a few thousand yuan. For Old Man Gu, they were everywhere, hardly considered collectibles.
Sure enough, after Gu Jiangang opened the lid, he pulled over a set of wine utensils from the table and took out two small cups. These cups were also made in the cellar. As soon as Zhou Xuan saw these things, he couldn't help but use his ice energy to test them.
These wine vessels were clearly no ordinary items. The bottle of Moutai in Gu Jiangang's hand was a 44-year-old Qingzhou cellar liquor, and the small wine cups on the table were even more extraordinary. They were actually from the official cellar of Jingdezhen, a full 170 years old. Look at the eight small porcelain cups on the plate—just this plate of wine cups alone is worth quite a bit of money!
Gu Jiangang carefully tilted the porcelain bottle and poured about half a cup of wine into the glass, then poured another cup. Actually, the glass was less than five qian (a unit of weight), and the large porcelain bottle in his hand looked like it contained no more than three jin (a unit of weight) of wine.
Because of his leg injury, Gu Jiangang poured the wine, smiled slightly at Zhou Xuan, and said, "Little Zhou, give it a try. See how this wine is?"
Zhou Xuan didn't stand on ceremony. He reached out and picked up a glass, brought it to his lips, smelled the aroma, and said with a smile, "Old Gu, to be honest, I don't know much about wine, but this smells really good. Just smelling it makes me feel comfortable."
"Hehe, of course! This wine of mine is forty-one years old. I bought it at an auction in Hong Kong last year. There were three bottles in total, one thirty-one years old and one twenty-one years old." Gu Jiangang said with a smile, a hint of pride showing on his face. "Little Zhou, why don't you guess how much each of these three bottles cost?"
Seeing the smug look on Old Man Gu's face, Zhou Xuan smiled slightly. This old man is something else. He has such a huge fortune, but in his old age he is obsessed with these things. It seems that he has become a child again. The old man brought back three bottles of wine. He also mentioned that the bottle he just poured was 41 years old. It seems that he got the best bottle.
He chuckled and said, "Mr. Gu, I don't know much about wine, but this aroma is truly delightful. If you want me to guess, then let's take a guess. Let's start with the 21-year-old one!"
Zhou Xuan glanced at Gu Jiangang, pondered for a moment, and then said, "Old Gu, if I were to guess randomly, based on my previous thoughts, haha, I would guess 18,000 for 21 years, 38,000 for 31 years, and 68,000 for 41 years!"
Gu Jiangang smiled and shrugged, saying, "You said it yourself, that was your old thinking. What's different now?"
Zhou Xuan chuckled. To be honest, he didn't know much about alcohol. In his mind, a bottle would just turn into urine anyway, and he wouldn't spend tens of thousands of yuan on a single bottle. However, just a few days ago, he happened to see an auction on CCTV where a 30-year-old Wuliangye sold for 790,000 yuan. And this guy had also auctioned several bottles, some for over 300,000 yuan, with the highest price being 1.26 million yuan!
Zhou Xuan was still surprised that a bottle of liquor had fetched such a high price. It wasn't an antique, just a bottle of liquor. But because of this experience, Zhou Xuan didn't think these bottles of Moutai would be cheap.
"Right now, I'd estimate that a 21-year-old Moutai would cost 380,000, a 31-year-old would cost 680,000, and a 41-year-old would cost 1,080,000," Zhou Xuan estimated before answering Gu Jiangang.