288: The Gu Family

Yu Jing happened to come to the area for dinner today, accompanied by the big star Sun Chu. She’d also just happened to see Wang Ning’an walk into the restaurant from nearby. After hesitating for a while, she finally couldn't help but knock on the door to his box.

Yu Jing had not been having a good time recently. Ever since Yu Hongming brought that illegitimate mother and son back to the Yu house, their house was only full of arguments every day. In order to retaliate against Yu Hongming and his mistress, Li Xin used her parents' power to oppose Shenghui Pharmaceutical. As a result, Yu Hongming, who had gotten into some beef with Wang Ning'an, had to ask for his service once more.

Yu Jing’s feelings were quite complicated when it came to Wang Ning'an. She hated him for putting her little brother in jail and causing her family to fall apart. When she looked at the increasingly outstanding Wang Ning'an, she felt quite unhappy. However, deep down in her heart, she was still reluctant to give him up, maybe due to her high self-esteem.

Yu Jing finally made up her mind and dismissed Sun Chu before going to find Wang Ning'an. She wanted to take this opportunity to make things clear with him. However, the door opened, only for her to see the person who was responsible for this mess.

"Oh, so it is Miss Yu. Did you need something?"

Wang Cheng didn't completely open the box door, but his voice already informed Wang Ning'an and Chu Yifeng of who the visitor was.

Yu Jing’s expression didn’t look too good as she stood in front of Wang Cheng. "I'm looking for Wang Ning'an."

Wang Cheng didn't intend to loosen his defense, and said straightforwardly: "You’re looking for him for something? Tell it to me, then I can repeat it to him."

Yu Jing gritted her teeth, "It's about work."

Wang Cheng raised his wrist and looked at his watch, before smiling faintly: “Sorry, it's after work hours, please ask questions relating to work within work hours. We still have to eat. If you have nothing else to do, walk slowly*."

[T/N: *meaning: goodbye and stay safe, because I won’t be seeing you out]

Yu Jing's teeth itched with anger when she saw that he was so insufferable.

"Isn't this the eldest miss of the Yu family?" The door of the adjacent box suddenly opened, and three people walked out. The man in front happened to recognize Yu Jing.

When Wang Cheng saw this man, his eyes couldn't help but narrow. Although they had only met once, he recognized the other party at a glance. That man was Shen Yuan’s relative, Gu Ping. They’d been talking about him earlier that day, and now he appeared right in front of them. He might be one of the people acting behind the scenes.

After Gu Ping saw Yu Jing, he immediately noticed Wang Cheng’s presence. It was only when he saw Wang Cheng from the front angle that he recognized him. He immediately walked over, before humbly stretching out his hand and saying with a smile, "It turns out to be Mr. Zhou. We meet again. I'm Gu Ping, do you remember me?"

Wang Cheng glanced at his hand and said, with a slight smile, "How could I forget Mr. Gu?”

Gu Ping felt that his smile was a bit off, but he was pretty sure that he and Wang Cheng had never met, besides at the The Consort Bar. So, he couldn’t possibly have formed too bad of an impression. Just as he was about to speak, a man suddenly walked out from behind the door. Gu Ping's pupils shrank upon seeing him; it turned out to be Chu Yifeng, the person he most wanted to get along with at the party.

"What’s taking so long?" Chu Yifeng frowned, clearly conveying that he was in a very unhappy mood now.

Gu Ping was someone who could observe the situation, and immediately said: "Oh, so Mr. Chu is also here. Then we will not continue to disturb your dinner, goodbye." After saying this, he left with his two companions. Yu Jing did not get to see Wang Ning'an. However, after witnessing this battle, she left, no matter how unwillingly.

Back in the box, the three of them swept the cold food clean. Wang Ning’an elegantly dabbed the corner of his mouth with a tissue before asking about the jade pendant.

"Elder brother, Chu Yifeng found the origin of the jade pendant. I wonder if you’ve heard of the Gu Group?" Wang Cheng directly asked.

Wang Ning'an nodded. In his line of work, of course he’d heard of the Gu family. The Gu Group was the hidden leader in the biomedical industry - even Shenghui Group couldn’t compare. However, they were relatively low-key. Only people who were really involved in this industry knew that their business was not as simple as selling medicine. Apparently, their research in technology for biomedicine was very mature, and they’d established a professional research team many years ago that specialized in cutting-edge biotech. Many people in the field wanted to join their team, and it was rumored that the team held geniuses from all over the world.

Wang Cheng took out the jade pendant he had brought and said, "We suspect that the chairman of the Gu family is likely to be our father's father. The character "shou" engraved on this jade pendant is part of Chairman Gu’s name. It is said that each of the four brothers of the Gu family have a piece of jade."

Wang Ning'an was slightly surprised, "If this is the case, then I might know why the other party wants to get this jade pendant."

"Why?" Wang Cheng said, stunned.

Chu Yifeng said: "It's because of the Gu family’s separation that happened decades ago, isn’t it?"

Wang Ning'an nodded and said, "Yes. The history of the Gu family is no secret. As far as I know, decades ago, the four brothers of the Gu family had fought endlessly over the family property. In the end, the patriarch of the Gu family divided the family property into four equal parts, for each of the four brothers to have a share. Three brothers failed to keep the family property, and by the time it was passed down to the third generation, everything was either lost, or the business had shrunk. In the end, that previous business could only be reduced to a second-rate small company. The only one who made any achievements was the third eldest son, Gu Shouzhuo, the chairman of the Gu Group. He is quite a genius and had made many shocking discoveries when he was younger."

"And then what?"

"Rumor has it that Gu Shouzhuo has had two wives. However, he never officially got married to his first wife, she was still his fiancée. They were about to get married, when something happened that caused them to separate. The Gu family searched for his fiancée for a couple of years before they gave up, presuming her dead. They let Gu Shouzhuo marry another woman, who gave birth to a son after a few years. However, the son died in a plane crash when he was in his twenties."

“Gu Shouzhuo’s bloodline didn’t go extinct, did it?" Wang Cheng quipped.

Chu Yifeng suddenly rubbed his hair into a mess, "Are you saying your father is extinct?"

Wang Cheng patted his hand, "Get off, go, go, you can't even take a joke."

Wang Ning’an shook his head helplessly. However, he was also a little surprised by the way the two of them got along. Although it was not his first time interacting with Chu Yifeng, he had felt that his presence was quite intimidating. Chu Yifeng didn’t seem like the kind of person who would joke around with others.

"His only son had died. Gu Shouzhuo lost not only his son, but also his heir. Does this mean there was no one left to inherit the business, in the large Gu family? Or did he have another heir later?"

Wang Ning'an was left dumbfounded by his remarks. "Gu Shouzhuo was already quite old when he married his second wife. By the time his son died, he was almost sixty years old. How could he still have another son? He is also different from other wealthy people, apparently, he has never cheated and still remains faithful to his wife."

"It seems that our father's father is a good man." Wang Cheng teased.

"What a pity that this good man is facing the extinction of his bloodline; the company that he worked so hard to build has no one left to inherit it," Chu Yifeng responded.

Wang Cheng wondered: "Isn't that Gu Ping from the Gu family? Shen Yuan seemed to act as if he was the heir of the Gu family…"

Chu Yifeng said: "Gu Ping is the grandson of the second son of the Gu family. Since Gu Shouzhuo has no heirs to inherit the Gu Group, he must choose from the descendants of his brothers. However, those are just the family’s intentions. In fact, things haven’t been determined yet. It’s not only the second son’s family that are possible heirs of the Gu Group, the first and fourth brothers’ families also covet Gu Shouzhuo's property."

"Mr. Chu is right. The Gu family is currently fighting fiercely to inherit Gu Shouzhuo's company. Gu Ping is only one of the many, and the others won’t be willing to just stand by and watch him make a name for himself."

"Now that you say it like that, I think I understand what’s going on." Wang Cheng rubbed his chin and analyzed: "The reason why the juniors of the Gu family have this opportunity is because Gu Shouzhuo has no descendants. If he did have one, the Gu family would not be able to inherit shares of the company. And although Gu Shouzhuo's fiancée had disappeared for a while, she was still pregnant. There should’ve been one or two people who hadn’t given up searching for her, as there wasn’t proof that she and the unborn child had died. Those people in the Gu family might have learned about my father’s identity from such a source. That's why they want to get the jade pendant, because it is something that can prove my father's identity. Without the jade pendant, we might not be able to find the Gu family."

"Is that all?"

"Well..." Wang Cheng suddenly became speechless, "Are the people in the Gu family repeatedly taking shots at the jade pendant, just in case we couldn’t tell that there was something special about it? Or are they being a little stupid?"

"Even if they didn’t do this, we would’ve still investigated things as soon as we found out about the jade pendant," Chu Yifeng said as he crossed his legs. However, he still added a sentence to leave Wang Cheng face, "However, the behind-the-scenes instigators are indeed being too impatient, which only serves to motivate us to investigate the secrets of the jade pendant more urgently."

Wang Cheng gave him a look as if to say ‘you know me well’, before turning to Wang Ning'an. "Big brother, what are you planning to do next? Now that you know that the jade pendant is from the Gu family."

Wang Ning'an frowned, "Since someone in the Gu family knows about our father’s existence, do you think Gu Shouzhuo knows about it?"

"Gu Shouzhuo had the ability to develop the Gu Group to where it is now. It would just be a little unreasonable if he didn’t know about this." Wang Cheng added thoughtfully: "Gu Shouzhuo is definitely the most likely person in the Gu family to find information about our father and our grandmother. As for his three brothers’ families, they’d probably hope never to find his relatives. How could they actively search for them, let alone find them faster than Gu Shouzhuo can? I don't think they have the ability to do so."

Chu Yifeng and Wang Ning'an both stared at him.

Wang Cheng was given strange looks by both of them. He carefully recalled what he had just said, and nothing was amiss. He asked, "Why are you two looking at me like that?"

Chu Yifeng smiled: "No, it’s just that your analysis was very reasonable."

It was indeed very reasonable.

***

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