Chapter 335 — A Bolt from the Blue: Just as Jin Gubang Was Racked with Doubt, Gu Pengzhan Spoke Up, "All right, everyone, quiet down. We are about to convene an emergency shareholders' meeting!"

"Chairman Chu, this doesn't follow the rules, does it? Mr. Xie Guangbo, the company's third-largest shareholder, is not present at this moment!" Jin Gubang spoke up at once against Gu Pengzhan's proposal. "Even if he has health problems, he ought to have sent a representative! I suspect you deliberately bypassed Mr. Xie in order to convene this shareholders' meeting!"

Jin Gubang's attack might have seemed a touch hasty, but he had already resolved to tear every shred of pretense from his dealings with Gu Pengzhan, so he had nothing left to fear. Hasty be damned — better hasty than sitting idle while Gu Pengzhan hatched some scheme or other.

"Heh heh, Deputy Chairman Jin, pray calm yourself. The purpose of my convening this emergency shareholders' meeting is precisely to speak of certain matters concerning Mr. Xie Guangbo." Gu Pengzhan took no offense whatever. He glanced at Jin Gubang, then nodded to him calmly.

Jin Gubang felt the helplessness of striking cotton with all his strength. He had assumed Gu Pengzhan would dodge his question with all his might, leaving him an opening to seize upon Xie Guangbo's absence from the meeting and hold fast to it, so that Gu Pengzhan could not convene today's meeting smoothly!

Yet Gu Pengzhan had met his question head-on, casually, and made it perfectly clear besides: the purpose of convening the shareholders' meeting was to discuss Xie Guangbo.

"Very well, then. I am all ears." Since it had come to this, Jin Gubang could only swallow his resentment whole; there was no venting it. Having said that tepid sentence, he closed his mouth — but he meant to see exactly what tricks Gu Pengzhan could produce.

Surely Gu Pengzhan would not claim that Xie Guangbo had given advance notice and entrusted him with full authority to act as his proxy? That was impossible too; Gu Pengzhan would never stoop to such a crude and childish device.

"Mr. Wei Zhao, please take a seat." On formal occasions, and above all at a shareholders' meeting, Gu Pengzhan would not address Wei Zhao as "Little Yi"; he must use Wei Zhao's full name, for Wei Zhao was now a shareholder of the company. In private, any form of address would do, but before others, he could not allow Wei Zhao to appear here in the guise of a junior.

The seat Gu Pengzhan indicated was the one Xie Guangbo customarily occupied. Wei Zhao nodded and was about to sit down, but Jin Gubang would have none of it!

"Wait! Boy, don't you sit down yet!" Seeing that Wei Zhao meant to take Xie Guangbo's seat, Jin Gubang objected at once. "Chairman Chu, what is the meaning of this? Are you saying this boy can represent Director Xie? But as I recall, he seems to be your daughter's bodyguard?"

The moment Jin Gubang uttered these words, the company's other directors all turned to look at Wei Zhao, unsure whether what he said was true or false.

"Bodyguard?" Gu Pengzhan chuckled. "Wei Zhao is indeed a good friend of my daughter Mengyao. Still, there is no harm in calling him a bodyguard! A knight in shining armor!"

With that explanation, every shareholder present understood: what Gu Pengzhan meant was that the young man was his daughter's boyfriend. And if one called him a bodyguard, that was not wrong either — a knight in shining armor is a bodyguard.

"A knight in shining armor?" Jin Gubang snorted coldly, unimpressed. "Bodyguard or knight in shining armor, I care nothing for what he does. What I wish to ask Chairman Chu is this: why is he attending this shareholders' meeting? And why is he sitting in Director Xie's seat? Is Chairman Chu trying to tell me that this is Director Xie's wish? Or is someone using public business for private ends?"

"Are you brain-dead? You must have swallowed too many brain-dead pills, just like that fool Xie Guangbo!" Before Gu Pengzhan could open his mouth, Wei Zhao cut in. "You ask me why I'm sitting here? I'd like to ask you why you're sitting here. What are you, anyway? Director Xie's wish? Does that fool Xie Guangbo have the right to appoint me? What is he? He's only a hair better than you..."

"I... I... I am a shareholder of the group, and one of its three largest shareholders. Why can't I sit here?" Jin Gubang was smoking with rage at Wei Zhao's words. When had anyone ever called him brain-dead? And Wei Zhao had cursed him in front of so many people, leaving him utterly humiliated. In an instant Jin Gubang grew frantic with fury: "Chairman Chu, I want to ask you — can a person like this attend a shareholders' meeting? What qualifications does he have? And he dares insult a shareholder! Security — where is security? Throw him out!"

The other shareholders, too, looked at Wei Zhao in bewilderment, thinking: even if you are Gu Pengzhan's future son-in-law, you can't be this arrogant, surely? Jin Gubang is the great shareholder second only to Gu Pengzhan; within the company, only Gu Pengzhan and Xie Guangbo dare oppose him so openly. The minor shareholders have no such standing!

But you are merely Gu Pengzhan's son-in-law, not Gu Pengzhan himself. Isn't it going too far to insult a shareholder like that? If you dare curse the company's second-largest shareholder, then we minor shareholders will simply be yours to trample on.

Just as these people were despising Wei Zhao for trading on another's authority, Gu Pengzhan spoke: "Deputy Chairman Jin, Mr. Wei Zhao is now a newly seated shareholder of the company — and, apart from you and me, the largest shareholder of all!"

At these words, the entire room erupted. Everyone stared at Wei Zhao in disbelief. Was not the company's third-largest shareholder Xie Guangbo? How had he become Wei Zhao?

Jin Gubang was struck dumb. He looked at Gu Pengzhan in disbelief, then at Wei Zhao. "How could this be? This is impossible! Gu Pengzhan, what game are you playing?"

This time Jin Gubang was thoroughly frantic; he simply refused to believe Gu Pengzhan's words, for they were far too incredible. The company's third-largest shareholder was plainly Xie Guangbo — how could it be Wei Zhao?

"I've no time to waste words on you. Here is the share transfer document — read it yourself." Wei Zhao tossed out a document: the share transfer agreement signed by Xie Guangbo.

Jin Gubang snatched up the transfer document and read it through. When he had finished, he glared at Gu Pengzhan with a hideous face. "Impossible! I don't believe it — this must be a forgery you two cooked up! How could Xie Guangbo transfer his shares to you? And as an outright gift? Is he brain-dead?"

In his rage, Jin Gubang too had seized upon the phrase "brain-dead."

"Brain-dead or not, make a phone call and you'll know soon enough!" Wei Zhao curled his lip, gazing at the frantic Jin Gubang as though at a fool.

Jin Gubang was by nature a steady man, but what had happened today had repeatedly slipped beyond his control, and so he could not calm himself. Everything before his eyes seemed to him absolutely impossible — it simply defied all common sense.

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