The Young man in Online Romance (21): 

Gu Juntian and Zhou Qinghao looked at each other in silence.

It was Zhou Qinghao who reacted faster. He reached out to shake hands with Gu Juntian first. “President Gu, I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Gu Juntian took Zhou Qinghao’s hand, suppressing the stormy waves in his heart. “President Zhou, hello.”

The two bodyguards behind Gu Juntian had already been seated in the second row by the staff, right behind Gu Juntian and Zhou Qinghao.

Still in a bit of a daze, Gu Juntian sat down in his own seat, but he couldn’t help turning his head to glance at Zhou Qinghao.

Zhou Qinghao was even more handsome than he had imagined. When he first saw Zhou Qinghao just now, he had been not only shocked, but his heart had also skipped a beat.

No wonder he was his boyfriend—he was really good-looking!

But wait, wasn’t he supposed to be just a simple college student? How did he suddenly become the general manager of Qida Technology?

Gu Juntian suddenly remembered that Zhou Qinghao had once told him there was something he had hidden from him.

So this must have been what Zhou Qinghao was hiding?

He had quite a few collaborations with Qida Technology. As its general manager, Zhou Qinghao couldn’t possibly not know who he was, so Zhou Qinghao must be aware of his background.

Thinking about how he had once proudly told Zhou Qinghao about his collaboration with Qida Technology, and even asked President Wang to send the payment directly to Zhou Qinghao, Gu Juntian felt a little embarrassed.

He had wanted to fill the hole left by the original owner, but never expected that the person he brought in to help fill it would turn out to be connected to Zhou Qinghao.

Still, how could Zhou Qinghao, already in the position of general manager, be such a love-struck fool?

Even if he wasn’t a college student, he still seemed too naïve.

As Gu Juntian was thinking this, President Wang, sitting on Zhou Qinghao’s other side, spoke to him over Zhou Qinghao. “President Gu, you should have a good chat with Xiao Zhou. He’s always held you in high regard. Your collaborations with Qida were all thanks to him.”

Hearing this, Gu Juntian felt something was off.

Hadn’t all his dealings with Qida been through President Wang?

Knowing that it wouldn’t be long before the truth came out, Zhou Qinghao opened his phone, pulled up his chat app, and showed Gu Juntian the conversation history where he had been talking to him while using President Wang’s identity.

Gu Juntian looked at the avatar for “President Wang” on the phone, then back at Zhou Qinghao.

Silence. More silence.

Zhou Qinghao, however, smiled and quietly called out, “Tian-ge.”

When they had first started dating, he hadn’t believed that Gu Juntian truly liked him. But later, seeing all that Gu Juntian had done for him, he had come to believe it.

Now, seeing Gu Juntian in person, he was more certain than ever.

For Gu Juntian to change so much for him, he must genuinely care.

If that was the case, there was no need to fear Gu Juntian’s anger.

And besides, if we’re being honest, Gu Juntian had deceived him first!

Gu Juntian wasn’t angry at all—in fact, he felt a little guilty.

Zhou Qinghao now knew that everything he had said before had been a lie!

But even after being deceived, Zhou Qinghao was still calling him “Tian-ge.” Didn’t that mean Zhou Qinghao liked him a lot?

Gu Juntian suddenly became cheerful. “Call me that again.”

Zhou Qinghao coughed lightly. “It’s ten o’clock. The event’s about to start.”

They were speaking softly, and the venue itself was noisy.

No one around them could hear what they were saying, let alone the people watching the livestream.

The audience could only see two handsome men whispering to each other.

“My god, Emperor Tian wasn’t lying—he really looks just like his in-game character.”

“He’s so handsome! I knew the person in that old photo wasn’t him.”

“Well, not necessarily. His eyebrows and eyes look similar to the guy in the photo—maybe he just lost weight.”

“Are you sure it’s weight loss and not plastic surgery?”

“If surgery could do this, everyone would be getting it.”

“No wonder President Zhou likes him. Who wouldn’t like a man this handsome?”

…

The people on the forum were talking about Gu Juntian, and so were the people at the venue.

Two people next to Little Sheep were whispering, “Didn’t expect Emperor Tian to be this good-looking!”

“Being rich and skilled is one thing, but to also be this handsome…”

Little Sheep couldn’t resist saying, “Didn’t people online say he has no money and spends what Zhou Qinghao gives him?”

When Little Sheep used to stream, he would wear makeup, use beauty filters, and even cross-dress.

Today, he had only done minimal grooming, so the two didn’t recognize him. They just said, “People online also said he was ugly. This is ugly? Total nonsense.”

“Exactly. Just look at his demeanor—you can tell he’s not an ordinary person.”

Little Sheep’s lips twitched nervously.

With his memories from his past life, he was convinced Emperor Tian was a big liar.

But… could it be that wasn’t the truth?

In his past life, Zhou Qinghao had developed Qida Technology into a huge success. He didn’t look like someone who’d be duped in both love and money.

Meanwhile, Capricorn Wushuang was completely dumbfounded.

Tian had told him before that the photo was real, so he had been scanning the crowd for a fat man.

And it turned out that Tian had secretly slimmed down without telling him?

If Tian could become this handsome after losing weight, maybe he could also look better if he slimmed down?

Among everyone present, the most upset was Zhou Lin.

How had Emperor Tian ended up looking like this?

He had wanted to use paid posters to stir up rumors online about Zhou Qinghao embezzling funds, but just then, he noticed that all the posts about Gu Juntian he had recently put up had been deleted!

After making the posts, he had kept watching Zhou Qinghao. Zhou Qinghao hadn’t been using his phone much, nor had he made any calls or sent messages. So who deleted them?

Could it be that Gu Juntian was actually capable?

At that moment, Qida Technology’s official account posted on the Xiuxian game forum, announcing that they had a partnership with Jintian Technology and that there was no such thing as their president embezzling funds to keep Jintian’s CEO.

Before, Zhou Lin had assumed his grandfather was just biased, so he hadn’t thought much of it. But now, replaying everything in his head, he suddenly felt clear-minded.

Zhou Qinghao was cunning—there was no way he was just a love-struck fool.

And his grandfather was an old fox.

That day, when he had mentioned Gu Juntian’s name, his grandfather’s attitude had changed instantly. This meant Gu Juntian must be truly capable.

He had indeed investigated Gu Juntian, but learned only that he had dropped out after middle school and stayed at home for over a decade. He had no idea what Gu Juntian had been doing in that time.

For all he knew, Gu Juntian could have been self-teaching programming and become a famous programmer.

As these thoughts flashed through Zhou Lin’s mind, the Xiuxian event continued.

During the event, Zhou Qinghao took the stage to talk about Qida Technology’s achievements over the past two years, as well as Xiuxian’s data over the same period.

He also revealed details about the new Immortal Realm expansion, and mentioned that the game would be improved in many ways with this update.

Finally, he thanked Gu Juntian for providing technical support.

Meanwhile, the Xiuxian game had finished updating.

Players logging in found the overall game to feel more realistic, with a better experience.

Qida Technology hadn’t been lying.

According to their announcement, this was possible because of Gu Juntian’s technical support.

“Those people on the forum were just talking nonsense.”

“They even claimed Zhou Qinghao was giving Gu Juntian money to keep him… when it’s clearly a collaboration.”

“I always thought that didn’t make sense. Who embezzles funds by directly transferring money from the company account to their lover?”

“Qida Technology is a big company. They have rules!”

…

Before long, the old CP fans popped back up. “Emperor Tian and Qing Tian Bai Ri are such a shippable pair.”

“Two handsome guys! So nice to look at!”

“They’ve been whispering to each other this whole time!”

…

Gu Juntian had no idea about any of this.

Zhou Lin, however, had been keeping an eye on things. He couldn’t resist sending Little Sheep a message: “Didn’t you say Gu Juntian can’t do anything? This Xiuxian update is supposedly led by him!”

Little Sheep also realized something was wrong.

Emperor Tian wasn’t quite what he had imagined.

In the previous life, could it be that Emperor Tian had quit the game not because his true identity had been exposed, but because he was fed up with them?

Maybe he had pretended to be poor on purpose, borrowed money from people, then left when he realized no one in the game truly cared about him.

Back then, Little Sheep had dumped him immediately upon learning he had no money.

If he hadn’t done that, could he have become the boyfriend of a CEO, living in luxury?

The more Little Sheep thought about it, the more he regretted it. At that moment, Zhou Lin got a call from his grandfather.

The old man called him out and gave him a severe scolding.

Gu Juntian was now a national treasure. If not for Zhou Qinghao’s ability to make him deeply attached, Gu Juntian wouldn’t have attended such an event for them.

And Zhou Lin had the nerve to stir up trouble at a time like this—it made him furious!

Especially since he hadn’t known about this at first—it was someone from the government who had discovered it and contacted him, making him rush to clean up the mess…

“You don’t have even a tenth of Qinghao’s ability!” the old man said.

He knew Zhou Qinghao had deceived Gu Juntian and had been worried that Gu Juntian would be angry upon learning the truth.

But after seeing Zhou Qinghao, Gu Juntian hadn’t been angry at all—his gaze had never once strayed from him.

That second grandson of his really had skills!

From his grandfather’s words, Zhou Lin picked up on something different.

His grandfather valued Gu Juntian highly—he was even more capable than Zhou Lin had thought.

Whether it was genuine ability or an extraordinary background, Zhou Qinghao must have known about it from the start.

No wonder Zhou Qinghao had suddenly started an online romance—there had to be another motive!

After thinking it over, Zhou Lin sent Gu Juntian a text message: “Do you really think Zhou Qinghao truly likes you? He knew your identity in advance and approached you on purpose. He doesn’t like you at all—he’s just using you to seize the Zhou family inheritance!”

Gu Juntian: “???” What was there to use about the original fat liar?