Chapter 75 — Gu Pengzhan's Analysis (Please Recommend, Please Bookmark, Please Give All Kinds of Support)

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Wei Zhao had at first meant to step into the restroom and drag the man straight to Gu Pengzhan's office, but then he thought better of it. Anyone able to work on the top floor of the Group was either a shareholder of vice-chairman rank or a general manager or executive vice president or the like, and not one of them was a small player. Quite apart from whether the man would admit anything once hauled before Gu Pengzhan, what Wei Zhao feared was that this man was not acting alone, but as part of a gang.

Judging from the phone call he had made, he had a great many accomplices. Dragging him out into the open would not necessarily expose those accomplices, and besides, at the level of vice president and above, a few words from Gu Pengzhan would not be enough to deal with them. Once a group grew to a certain size, factions were bound to form within it. Gu Pengzhan was the largest shareholder, yet he could not simply move against the men of the other shareholders, and it was even possible that the man on the phone was himself one of those other shareholders.

It was precisely because this thought struck him that Wei Zhao made a split-second decision. To avoid alerting the enemy, he disguised himself as a visitor who had come to the Group on business and taken the wrong floor, so that the man in the restroom would suspect nothing.

When he reached the door of Gu Pengzhan's office, Wei Zhao saw that it stood open, with Uncle Qing standing beside Gu Pengzhan reporting something to him. Gu Pengzhan kept nodding, a pleased smile on his face, and when he saw Wei Zhao appear in the doorway he looked up with a smile. "Xiao Yi, you are here. Come in and sit down."

"Uncle Chu." As Wei Zhao came in he closed the office door behind him, for he wanted to talk with Gu Pengzhan about what he had overheard in the restroom.

"Xiao Yi, I hear that yesterday you clashed with some thugs from the underworld?" Once Wei Zhao was seated on the sofa in front of the desk, Gu Pengzhan asked him straight out.

Wei Zhao could see that Gu Pengzhan asked this not in a tone of accusation, but with deep concern, and it moved him greatly. He was only a live-in companion hired to study and live alongside his daughter, yet he cared for him so much, which was rare indeed.

Still, Wei Zhao was a little puzzled. If it had been anyone else, the first order of business would probably have been to dismiss him, lest his daughter be dragged into trouble.

"Yes, the man was brought in against me by a classmate named Zhong Yongliang." Wei Zhao hid nothing and told Gu Pengzhan the plain truth. "But I figure that Black Panther will take the whole thing on himself at the police station, so it will not touch Zhong Yongliang."

"Oh? Zhong Yongliang? Do you have a grudge against him?" Gu Pengzhan was even more puzzled. Wei Zhao had only been at school a few days, so how had he made such an enemy? And by the look of it the man Zhong Yongliang had found was a desperate criminal, gun and all.

"Heh—" Wei Zhao gave a wry smile. "This affair is my fault, in a way..."

"Mr. Gu, let me explain." Seeing that Wei Zhao had said nothing about Gu Mengyao, Uncle Qing knew he meant well, but as Gu Pengzhan's trusted man he kept nothing back from him, and he told things exactly as they were.

"Oh? You know about it?" Gu Pengzhan was taken aback, not expecting Uncle Qing to know about the clash between Wei Zhao and Zhong Yongliang.

"Mr. Gu, it happened like this..." Uncle Qing nodded with a wry smile. "That day Miss had just met Mr. Lin and was not pleased about having him as her shield, so she proposed a test. That Zhong Yongliang happened to be one of Miss's suitors and had been pestering her, so Miss told Mr. Lin to get rid of Zhong Yongliang..."

"All right, no need to go on. I think I understand." Hearing Uncle Qing's account, Gu Pengzhan shook his head with a wry smile. At bottom, this whole affair had been stirred up by his precious daughter. "Xiao Yi, Yaoyao loves to make mischief. Do not indulge her. She needs someone to keep her in line. Do not go along with her games next time. This time it nearly caused a disaster. If you had not been so skilled, who knows what might have happened."

"Hehe, Uncle Chu, I am fine," Wei Zhao said, and it was the truth. He had never taken Black Panther seriously. Small fry like that, put on the front line, would be nothing but cannon fodder, utterly useless.

"As for this Zhong Yongliang, I think I will have to speak to Principal Ding Binggong. A student of such character should not be kept in the school." Gu Pengzhan was furious with Zhong Yongliang.

"Mr. Gu, this Zhong Yongliang is Director Jin's nephew..." Uncle Qing kept records of all such trifling details, so he at once put in a reminder.

"Oh?" Gu Pengzhan frowned, not expecting Zhong Yongliang to have such a connection. Although Gu Pengzhan was chairman of the Gu Group and its largest shareholder, there were many other shareholders on the board. Though none held as many shares as Gu Pengzhan, they still carried considerable weight. So Gu Pengzhan could hardly offend another director over such a small matter.

The Gu Group was one of the shareholders of First High School, so Director Jin had naturally become one of its shareholders as well. That being so, Ding Binggong would indeed be in a difficult position. Gu Pengzhan thought it over. Graduation was not far off in any case, so he gave up the idea of having Zhong Yongliang removed.

"Uncle Chu, you need not trouble yourself. After this affair, Zhong Yongliang will keep his tail between his legs at school from now on." Wei Zhao had never taken him seriously in the first place.

"Mm, Xiao Yi, I am truly sorry about this... Though I steer a whole group, there are many matters in which I can do little," Gu Pengzhan sighed.

"Uncle Chu, that is just what I wanted to talk to you about." Seeing that Gu Pengzhan had steered the talk toward the running of the company, Wei Zhao needed no further pretext and said directly, "Uncle Chu, have you found out what that bank robbery the other day was really about?"

"So far we only suspect that something about it was out of the ordinary, but we have not yet sorted out the threads." Gu Pengzhan hid nothing. "One thing is confirmed. Their people were after Yaoyao. The bank robbery was only a pretext. They did not move against Yaoyao sooner or later, but chose the very time when I was away in another city on business. That motive is worth suspecting."

Wei Zhao inwardly applauded. Gu Pengzhan was indeed the helmsman of a great group, to have reasoned this much from such scattered clues. It was well done. His suspicion was very close to the truth of the matter.

"My first reaction was that someone meant to extort money from me, but then I felt something was wrong. Thinking of the other side's strange attitude when I was away negotiating business, I faintly feel that this affair has something to do with them." Gu Pengzhan kept nothing from Wei Zhao. After all, Wei Zhao was now the man at his daughter's side, and telling him his suspicions would let him prepare in advance, just in case.

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