Chapter 168 — Dominance Unleashed [6th Update, Begging for Monthly Tickets]

"Oh?" Gu Pengzhan started slightly, surprised that Wei Zhao would speak up for Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu.

Gu Mengyao also looked up in astonishment at Wei Zhao. In her memory, even if Wei Zhao did not kick her while she was down, he would never say a kind word for her. After all, her attitude toward him today had been truly terrible.

"There is something odd about what happened today, Uncle Chu. Why don't we talk in my room?" Wei Zhao did not want Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu to know too much. It would do them no good, only add worries for nothing.

Gu Pengzhan nodded and glanced at Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu. "Yaoyao, Xiao Shu, go upstairs and rest. Let today's matter end here. I need to talk something over with Xiao Yi."

"Oh..." Gu Mengyao was not an unreasonable girl. From Wei Zhao's tone she knew he must have discovered something later at the bar, likely tied to her father's business rivals. Thinking back on his strange behavior there, she understood now that the man who had gone after her and Xiao Shu might have acted deliberately.

Gu Mengyao led Shen Yushu upstairs, and Wei Zhao sat down on the sofa where Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu had been sitting.

"Xiao Yi, say whatever you have to say." Gu Pengzhan gestured for Wei Zhao to speak.

"Uncle Chu, have you ever heard of a man called Li Cihua?" Between Wei Zhao and Gu Pengzhan there was no need to beat around the bush. He could say exactly what he thought.

"Li Cihua..." Gu Pengzhan frowned. "I know him. Red Flower Real Estate is one of the Gu Group's main rivals in Songshan."

"Heh, he was behind that bank kidnapping," Wei Zhao said.

"Him?" Shock spread across Gu Pengzhan's face. "Though our two families are competitors, we both have connections in the city, and projects are usually split about half and half. Kidnapping Yaoyao would serve him no purpose."

"Heh, by his own account, there is someone behind him, and he is only one of the interested parties. There should be other partners as well," Wei Zhao said.

Gu Pengzhan had also heard the claim that someone stood behind Li Cihua, though just who that person was he did not know. A released convict who in barely a dozen years had risen with the wind, building the Red Flower Land Group from nothing, with several hotels, bars, entertainment clubs and other properties beneath it. An empire of that scale could never be won by fighting spirit alone.

Had he started years earlier, gone into business in the eighties and caught the great tide of private enterprise, such a scale might have been possible. But Li Cihua was not released until the late nineties and only entered real estate in 2000. Without a powerful backer and support, he could never have become what he is today.

"How did you find all this out?" Gu Pengzhan sank into thought. What Wei Zhao had said today shocked him deeply. He had assumed the kidnapping of Gu Mengyao was the work of one of the shareholders inside the company, and he already had a suspect in mind. But now it seemed there was something more hidden behind it.

"Li Cihua told me himself," Wei Zhao said.

"He told you himself?" Gu Pengzhan found it almost unbelievable.

"He wanted to recruit me, to work for him, or to plant me beside Miss Gu as a mole and play out a game of 'Infernal Affairs'," Wei Zhao said.

Gu Pengzhan nodded and did not ask whether Wei Zhao had accepted Li Cihua's offer, for the very fact that Wei Zhao was telling him about it proved that Wei Zhao had refused.

"I never thought he had his eyes on the Gu Group too..." Gu Pengzhan sighed deeply. "I thought it was only conflict inside the group, and out of respect for my father I never cleaned house... But some people have actually begun colluding with outsiders to strike at the group... I never imagined it had grown this complicated..."

As he said this, Gu Pengzhan looked helpless, and deeply desolate.

Wei Zhao could feel it and understood his mood. He had been told before that most of the company's shareholders were the sons and nephews of the right-hand men who had fought alongside Old Master Chu to build the empire.

"Is there anything you need me to do?" Wei Zhao looked up at Gu Pengzhan.

"Li Cihua is a man with a complicated background, drifting between black and white. Unless I must, I do not want to make an open enemy of him," Gu Pengzhan said helplessly. "It seems I can only start from inside the company. Xiao Yi, just keep Yaoyao and Xiao Shu safe. Leave these matters to me."

"Uncle Chu, I can actually share some of the burden," Wei Zhao said with a smile. "Even if we leave Li Cihua alone, he will still come looking for trouble. Just after I turned down his offer, he sent two skilled men to hunt me down."

"What? Li Cihua sent men to hunt you down?" Gu Pengzhan started and stared at Wei Zhao in shock. He had not expected Li Cihua to strike back so quickly. Though Li Cihua struck others as domineering, Gu Pengzhan had little contact with him. Gu Pengzhan was a legitimate businessman and almost never touched anything crooked.

"Yes, two Yellow Rank experts." Wei Zhao did not know whether Gu Pengzhan understood the ranks of power, but from his expression, he likely did not. A flicker of feeling crossed Uncle Qing's face, though, gone in an instant. Had one not been watching for it, it would have been impossible to catch.

After saying this, Wei Zhao kept watching the expressions of Gu Pengzhan and Uncle Qing. Seeing Uncle Qing's reaction, he knew the old man certainly understood something about the power ranks, but at this moment he asked no more.

"Then did you shake them off?" Gu Pengzhan looked at Wei Zhao with concern.

"I lured them onto the national highway and used a little trick. They fell for it without thinking and drove straight into the ravine," Wei Zhao said with a shrug. "It was their own bad luck."

"Dead?" Gu Pengzhan's eyes widened. Though struggles in high society were no strangers to killing, Gu Pengzhan rarely did anything against his principles. Hearing that Wei Zhao had lured two skilled men who meant to kill him into plunging down a ravine still shocked him.

"I am afraid they could not have survived," Wei Zhao said with a bitter smile. "Uncle Chu, this will not bring you any trouble, will it?"

"Trouble? No, not at all." Gu Pengzhan was startled for only a moment before returning to normal. Wei Zhao had gotten into this trouble because of his family's affairs. Not to mention that those two men had meant to kill Wei Zhao before Wei Zhao tricked them into the gully, even if Wei Zhao had killed them outright with his own hands, he should still find a way to clear Wei Zhao's name. "Without evidence, who can prove you did it? Hmph, in Songshan City, anyone who wants to move against me, Gu Pengzhan, will not find it so easy."

In that moment, Gu Pengzhan's dominance finally showed itself. Before Wei Zhao and Gu Mengyao, he had always worn the gentle, kindly air of an elder, and he had never been so enraged.