Interstellar president (13): At this time, Zhou Qinghao is still thinking about this matter?

Gu Juntian had no idea what Minister Li was thinking. When he saw so many people online criticizing Zhou Qinghao, he couldn’t help but worry.

Was Zhou Qinghao feeling terrible right now?

Gu Juntian said, “I’ll go back right away.”

Cao Bo said, “Young Master Gu, don’t believe those random things people are saying online…”

After reading the news online for a while, Cao Bo realized that people were saying Zhou Qinghao wanted Gu Juntian’s body.

He didn’t believe it, but he was afraid that Gu Juntian might.

“How could I possibly believe that?” Gu Juntian gave Cao Bo a speechless look and walked out.

Zhou Qinghao did indeed want his body, but only to sleep with him.

Fortunately, he was young—otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to handle it!

Gu Juntian tapped a few times on his communication terminal, and the car Zhou Qinghao had arranged for him automatically arrived at the lab entrance.

Gu Juntian got in and said, “Take me home.”

The car headed home, while Gu Juntian continued reading the online news.

The authorities had yet to release any statements, but internet users had already passed judgment on Zhou Qinghao, claiming he was the mastermind behind the lab and demanding that he be brought to justice.

Although, due to Zhou Jinhai’s interference, the original owner never got close to anyone except Ning Jianuo, he still had classmates and teachers. He also had a social media account.

Now, many of his former classmates were reaching out to him online, concerned for his well-being and warning him to be cautious of Zhou Qinghao.

Gu Juntian had mixed feelings.

He had imagined becoming famous one day, but never expected it would happen this way.

Gu Juntian urged the car to go faster, so it didn’t take long before he got home.

He entered the villa and only saw the butler there. He immediately asked, “Where’s Qinghao? He hasn’t come back yet?”

The butler glanced at Gu Juntian, a bit surprised to see that he had returned alone without anyone accompanying him, and replied, “Young Master is already back—he’s in the bedroom.”

“I’ll go check on him,” Gu Juntian said, then headed upstairs.

The butler wanted to say something but ended up staying silent, quietly watching Gu Juntian go upstairs.

It was four in the afternoon—Zhou Qinghao had just gotten back not long ago.

He was sitting alone on a single-seat sofa in his bedroom, looking at the large bed in his room.

It had already been a month since he brought Gu Juntian home.

This past month felt both long and short to him.

He did want Gu Juntian to stay with him forever, but today, Gu Juntian was probably going to leave.

Early this morning, Zhou Qinghao had gone to the company as usual.

After falling ill, he had delegated many tasks to others and only handled the final reviews himself. In fact, he had already started training suitable people to take over even the review work.

This allowed him to only work in the mornings, and the work wasn’t demanding.

He worked slowly and leisurely while also thinking about the appointment he had with a doctor that afternoon for a full-body treatment.

Since falling ill, he had been taking medication. Although he didn’t feel any major physical discomfort, the condition of his skin had noticeably worsened—there were fine lines at the corners of his eyes, and he had some white hairs.

He wasn’t young to begin with.

Lately, he had started undergoing various treatments to prevent himself from getting uglier over time.

During work, Zhou Qinghao didn’t check online news, so at first, he had no idea that Minister Li had destroyed a private lab.

He finished his morning work early and, seeing it was only around ten, decided to head to the doctor’s office.

He received a call from his assistant while getting his treatment—the assistant told him there were some unfavorable news reports about him online, clearly indicating someone was targeting him.

As soon as he went online, he saw people claiming that he was the one behind that lab.

There were photos of experimental subjects posted online—even though they were blurred, they still looked horrifying and nauseating.

Zhou Qinghao knew very well that the lab had nothing to do with him.

But when the lab was first established, his father had indeed invested money in it.

He had some impression of that laboratory. After his father passed away, some of the researchers from that lab went to other labs, and the lab itself was disbanded. As a result, the Zhou Corporation stopped funding it.

Before it was dissolved, because it was officially registered, it was under government supervision. The Zhou Corporation also regularly sent people to inspect the lab.

At that time, the lab operated very properly.

After its closure, no one knew what happened.

Zhou Qinghao never expected that although the lab had seemingly disbanded, it had continued operating in secret, carrying out such explicitly banned experiments.

What he didn’t expect even more was that the matter would end up implicating him.

However, he trusted the police officers handling the case. He believed they would eventually prove his innocence.

Zhou Qinghao contacted his subordinates and instructed them to release a statement declaring that the lab had no connection with the Zhou Corporation.

But just after the statement was released, the situation escalated.

Someone leaked evidence that he had gene collapse syndrome, claiming that his own genetic instability had driven him to madness, leading him to carry out such experiments.

The incident grew increasingly serious, and Zhou Qinghao noticed that even the doctors and nurses working on his treatments were starting to look at him differently.

He stopped the treatment, left the clinic, and returned to the company.

At the company, people were also looking at him oddly.

What shocked Zhou Qinghao even more was that Gu Juntian had now been dragged into the mess as well.

He had not hidden his relationship with Gu Juntian, but not many people knew about it.

Mainly because Gu Juntian was fully focused on his lab work. He would only come home for dinner, and after dinner, he would spend another hour or more in the study reading research materials.

By the time he finished reading and took a shower, it would already be after 8 PM.

Not wanting to waste their nights together and preferring to sleep early and wake up early, they would spend the rest of the evening in the bedroom.

It had been a month, and Zhou Qinghao hadn’t even taken Gu Juntian out shopping.

And yet, even with all that, Gu Juntian’s existence was still uncovered.

Along with that, Gu Juntian’s physical exam report—showing an extremely high level of genetic stability—was also posted online.

People online were now seriously claiming that Zhou Qinghao planned to leave most of his wealth to Gu Juntian, just so that after swapping bodies with him, he’d still have money to spend.

Zhou Qinghao was now 100% certain that someone was deliberately targeting him.

This person had been watching him closely and had even bought off some of the people around him, fabricating a lot of so-called evidence that painted him in a bad light.

Fortunately, this person didn’t know everything.

For example, while Zhou Qinghao had indeed changed his will, he hadn’t left the majority of his assets directly to Gu Juntian.

He had left most of his wealth to Gu Juntian’s laboratory, with the stipulation that the lab couldn’t use the principal amount—only the monthly dividends.

Gu Juntian burned through money too quickly when doing research, and he had no concept of spending. Zhou Qinghao was afraid that if he didn’t set limits, Gu Juntian would squander the money in no time.

As for money left directly to Gu Juntian himself… he left him the house, and also set up a fund to cover all maintenance and operational costs of the house. He left him some jewelry and other non-liquid assets, but he didn’t give him any cash.

He only arranged for the lab to give Gu Juntian an extra two million per month on top of his salary.

He didn’t want to give Gu Juntian too much money, fearing he would squander it on parties and new lovers.

But he also didn’t want Gu Juntian to live poorly after his death.

He still hoped Gu Juntian would always remember him, and that’s why he made such arrangements.

The person behind all this clearly didn’t know about these details, but given the current situation, even if Zhou Qinghao made all this public, no one online would believe him.

Most importantly, Gu Juntian might not believe him either.

Zhou Qinghao could sense that even the subordinates who had followed him for many years now harbored doubts about him in their hearts.

And Gu Juntian had only known him for a month.

“President Zhou, the public is very emotional right now. Even if we explain, they might not believe us.”

“President Zhou, the company’s stock price keeps dropping.”

“President Zhou, someone dug up that you’ve been spending a lot of money on Gu Juntian recently…”

“President Zhou…”

Zhou Qinghao listened carefully, then asked, “Have we found out who’s behind this?”

One of his assistants said, “President Zhou, Manager Zhou was involved.”

The so-called Manager Zhou referred to Zhou Jinhai.

Zhou Qinghao had always known that his brother didn’t like him, but he never expected Zhou Jinhai to be this ruthless: “That lab is probably connected to him.”

If that lab had nothing to do with Zhou Jinhai, his reaction wouldn’t have been so fast—he wouldn’t have rushed to throw dirt on Zhou Qinghao as soon as the news broke.

But if Zhou Jinhai was involved with the lab, then it would be all the easier for him to mislead others into thinking Zhou Qinghao was the one behind it.

This accusation might be impossible to clear.

Zhou Qinghao was dying.

After learning of his illness, he had come to terms with many things and no longer cared much about how others viewed him.

But he did care about how Gu Juntian saw him.

Because of the association with him, many things about Gu Juntian had been dug up online—like how he had outstanding academic performance during university, and how he once had a boyfriend he was deeply in love with.

Gu Juntian and Ning Jianuo were both very handsome. When they dated on campus, someone had even taken pictures. Now, Zhou Qinghao was seeing those photos.

He hadn’t sent anyone to investigate Gu Juntian, but over the past few weeks, as Ning Jianuo had tried all kinds of ways to get close to Gu Juntian, he had still learned a bit about him.

Gu Juntian must have really loved Ning Jianuo back then. The way he looked at him was full of deep affection.

Gu Juntian treated Zhou Qinghao well and would sometimes look at him that way too, but most of their time had been spent in bed. At those moments, Gu Juntian might have just been influenced by desire.

Now that all this was coming out online, would Gu Juntian misunderstand him?

Zhou Qinghao didn’t know exactly what had happened between Gu Juntian and Ning Jianuo, but he had seen with his own eyes that Gu Juntian now treated Ning Jianuo very coldly. Still, would he treat Zhou Qinghao the same way in the future?

Zhou Qinghao knew that at this point, no matter what he did, it would be wrong. All he could do was wait for the police investigation to conclude and hope they would clear his name.

But it was also possible the police wouldn’t be able to prove his innocence.

After thinking it through, he returned home.

Some people had advised him to hide somewhere else, but he refused.

All of his memories with Gu Juntian were in that house. He wanted to go back.

He also wanted to contact Gu Juntian—but he didn’t dare.

Gu Juntian hadn’t contacted him either. Even Cao Bo hadn’t reached out. Did they know what was going on online? What were they thinking?

Did Gu Juntian ever like him?

Zhou Qinghao couldn’t resist and went online again to search for information about Gu Juntian. And once again, he found more photos of Gu Juntian with Ning Jianuo.

Gu Juntian had only gotten involved with him for the money. He probably didn’t like him at all.

Now that something like this had happened, Gu Juntian would definitely run as far away as he could.

Of course, there was also a chance he wouldn’t run. He might even bring people over to arrest him.

Zhou Qinghao let out a bitter laugh, and then he saw his bedroom door open—Gu Juntian walked in.

Zhou Qinghao instinctively looked behind him.

He did have some connection to the lab that had been shut down. By now, the police should’ve come looking for him.

But there was no one behind Gu Juntian.

“Qinghao, are you alright? I was busy earlier and didn’t see the news online. Were you scared?” Gu Juntian asked.

Zhou Qinghao wondered if he was dreaming. The internet was flooded with people saying he had brought Gu Juntian home because he wanted his body—to experiment on him.

Yet Gu Juntian had actually come to check on him.

“Qinghao, the online crowd has been misled—that’s why they’re saying such horrible things. Don’t take it to heart…” Gu Juntian comforted him.

But before he could finish, Zhou Qinghao pulled him into an embrace—and the next moment, he had pushed Gu Juntian down onto the bed and kissed him.

Gu Juntian froze for a moment, unable to react.

Even at a time like this… Zhou Qinghao was still thinking about doing this?