Chapter 160

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Protagonist:

Shen Yao

December 15th, merely twenty days after Gu Jingxing's wedding ended, the maternal cousin from a different branch, Gu Mingyue, married out from the Old House, forming a marriage alliance with the Cao Family.

The Cao Family isn't considered top-tier in Yingzhong, but on paper their strength can rank in the upper-middle.

Moreover, the Cao Family built their fortune on electronics, and they still have some competitive relationship with the Gu Group.

Gu Mingyue's marriage this time not only adds cooperation opportunities between the Gu Group and the Cao Group, but also causes the status of Gu Mengqing's family in the Old House to surge.

Of course, by next year when Gu Jingzhe welcomes the Liu Family's Eldest Daughter as his bride, the paper strength displayed will be even stronger.

"However, these are merely how they look; no one knows whether a financial consortium marriage alliance is good or bad."

Because a person is a contradictory combination; sometimes their behavior style is unfathomable.

What one thinks are in-laws helping each other, in reality is stabbing knives in the back, a fight to the death.

Such things are not unheard of in financial consortium circles; anyway, a married daughter is like spilled water — useful times she's a family member, useless times they don't even look at her.

Thinking a marriage alliance is very reliable? After all, it's the combination of two surnames, involving interests; who dares guarantee it will definitely be a certain way.

"Regardless of future good or bad, right now Second Uncle's family is indeed riding the spring wind in triumph."

Gu Jingrun tilted his head back and drained the wine in his cup, smiling as he watched the wedding guests currently greeting arrivals.

Although today's protagonist is the marrying-out Gu Mingyue, the true core is still Gu Mengqing and Gu Jingzhe, father and son.

Even the Liu Family's Eldest Daughter, Liu Zhenyuan, is present, standing right beside Gu Jingzhe; the two occasionally exchange glances, displaying affection and sweetness to the fullest.

"Second Uncle's family has been waiting for this day for a long time, haven't they."

Shen Yao's tone was playful; she thought to herself that Gu Mengqing had always been suppressed by Gu Mengyan, and the younger generation's children had also been outshone by Gu Jingxing and the others.

Now Gu Jingxing and Gu Jingzhi have gone crazy one after another, Gu Jingmu is still too young to shoulder matters for the time being, and although Gu Jingrun shows improvement, he also struggles alone.

A Main Branch in this state is, to a certain extent, very surprising to Gu Mengqing.

Isn't that exactly the logic.

Ask a person who has been suppressed long-term; one day they finally get to hold their head high — what would the first thing they go do be?

Settle accounts!

"This account of the family, it should be properly settled with Eldest Brother and them.

Whether it was the Old Master originally yielding the position to Eldest Brother, or our son spending many years in the Gu Group until today before having any rise.

Father and Mother are truly biased; Elder Brother and I differ in age by merely five years, yet one step behind, step by step behind, to the point that later wanting to catch up, we couldn't catch up at all."

On the wedding banquet day he drank a bit too much; Gu Mengqing's own behavior showed some tipsiness.

Casually tugging at his collar, Gu Mengqing sat on the sofa, his gaze lightly sweeping over Qin Kelan lying unconscious by the bedside, and instantly even his desire to speak lessened by several degrees.

He married Qin Kelan valuing precisely the benefits the Qin Family could bring him.

He has not a shred of feeling for Qin Kelan; even daily companionship feels disgusting to him.

Qin Kelan acts crudely without sense of propriety, but fortunately she is obedient and easy to control.

If not for the majority of the Qin Family's assets being in his hands, and Jingzhe and Mingyue the two children also being not bad, Gu Mengqing would have long wanted to kick Qin Kelan out.

Rising from the sofa, Gu Mengqing picked up his phone with a cold expression and turned to walk out the door.

The room door closed with a muffled thud, and likewise 'startled awake' the person on the bed.

Qin Kelan propped herself on the bed and slowly sat up; her face no longer held a trace of her earlier drunken state.

Gu Mengqing dislikes Qin Kelan; Qin Kelan, for her part, when has she ever liked Gu Mengqing.

The essence of a political marriage alliance is coexistence for interests.

Back then the Qin Family was not weak, and Qin Kelan was furthermore the Qin Family's only daughter.

Pity, the Qin Family's older generation's vision wasn't great; that pile of maternal cousins all couldn't stand firm.

After Qin Kelan married into the Gu Family, she extremely rarely touched the Qin Family industries.

By the time she successively gave birth to Gu Jingzhe and Gu Mingyue, the Qin Family had already gone downhill.

As for why more than half of the Qin Family's industries are in Gu Mengqing's hands, it was also Qin Kelan seeing the situation was hopeless, powerless to reverse it, forced by necessity.

Qin Kelan's hope is to wait for Gu Jingzhe to grow up, then inherit the Qin Family industries back fair and square.

"Mother, this isn't realistic; the things held in Father's hands we temporarily can't pry loose.

Moreover, Father's illegitimate son is older than me; Father has already sent him into the company.

Not only the Qin Family industries, even the Gu Group industries Father currently holds, I'm not certain I can get all of them either."

Qin Kelan gripped her phone; from the other end came Gu Jingzhe's slightly distorted voice.

"Even if not all can be gotten, the Qin Family industries absolutely cannot benefit outsiders."

That is hers; it is the private property belonging to the two siblings, Gu Jingzhe and Gu Mingyue.

"Mother, the illegitimate son matter — how do you want to handle it? It can't be dragged on."

Gu Jingzhe's voice sounded somewhat irritable; even with someone persuading, it couldn't block his anger.

Qin Kelan's voice was cold and sharp, "Afraid of what? It's already a twenty-plus-year-old old matter; can your father still make him acknowledge ancestors and return to the clan? He's not the Old Master."

Gu Bingcheng has so many illegitimate children; in the end, the only one acknowledged back was Gu Mengbai alone.

Even so, back then the Old Madam was still able to pressure Gu Mengbai into exile abroad for over a decade.

Gu Mengqing is the Old Madam's biological son; at that time she only needs to go cry before the Old Madam, and can drag out another stretch of time.

"The Old Madam dislikes these illegitimate children the most; even if your father is her biological son."

Why did the Old Master back then hand the Head of the Family position to Gu Mengyan instead of Gu Mengqing? Truly think Gu Mengyan's strength completely crushes? Isn't it because Gu Mengqing couldn't control his lower body, the matter was stabbed to the Old Master and Old Madam, making the two feel it was too disgraceful.

Don't think your private life has no impact at all; when your capability is strong enough, these are indeed trivial matters, but when capabilities are comparable and there's still room for contention, these small things can also produce a big impact.

Qin Kelan's words made Gu Jingzhe on the other end of the phone slowly calm down.

Realizing belatedly that his reaction had been too big, Gu Jingzhe's tone carried some irritation and gloom.

Qin Kelan: ……

Qin Kelan closed her eyes, silently chanting in her heart that this was her own flesh and blood, she only had one son, and if he was ruined there would be no one else to use.

Forcefully suppressing the anger in her heart, Qin Kelan told Gu Jingzhe to work properly at the company.

"The matter of the illegitimate child doesn't need to be overthought; once this matter breaks out, Mother will handle it.

Right, you found someone to tail your father; are they reliable? Don't bring the fire onto yourself and get yourself implicated."

After Qin Kelan finished speaking, she saw that Gu Jingzhe on the other end of the phone indicated the people doing the tailing were all Liu Clan's elite paparazzi, so Gu Mengqing couldn't possibly discover them.

"You and Zhenyuan are a married couple who will build a family together in the future; don't learn from your father and make this kind of mistake."

Qin Kelan warned Gu Jingzhe — not because she thought her son producing an illegitimate child was a big deal, but because she was worried it would invite trouble.

Gu Jingzhe guaranteed he wouldn't do that kind of thing; besides, the Liu Clan specializes in this, if he messed around, Liu Zhenyuan would be able to show up with photos the next day.

Turning hostile before interests have even merged — that's not Gu Jingzhe's style.

The mother and son didn't chat too much; after the call ended, Qin Kelan rubbed her face and simply washed up and went to sleep.

As for Gu Mengqing who had left the house, who cared which pleasure nest he went to.

……

Shen Yao and Gu Jingrun's wedding was set for May; although the timing was a bit rushed, the Gu Family valued it highly, so things like wedding arrangements had already been arranged in advance.

Shen Yao was relatively less picky about this aspect; after all, she was busy expanding her commercial territory.

Regardless of the city's size, in her eyes they were all treasure lands that could explode with gold coins.

Furthermore, Shen Yao never felt that a niche city was unsuitable for development.

On the contrary, precisely because the commercial scale of niche cities hasn't taken off yet, it's exactly the perfect opportunity to seize the chance for investment and construction.

Whether it's cheap labor or cheap land, both are far more reasonable than choosing some developed cities.

And she can equally use the original ecology to build her own corporate culture.

After all, she's in the beauty business; everyone dares to put a knife to their face, yet naively hopes it will be safe and without Wei Xian.

What can Shen Yao do? The customer is God, so naturally she must satisfy God.

Applying a thick layer of pure natural packaging under a tech-filled exterior — anyway, everyone believes it very much.

"President Shen, this is last quarter's report," compared to the same time last year the growth trend is gratifying.

The person reporting had a face full of joy, because this not only meant the company's development was good, but also represented that they could get high bonuses.

To make a donkey turn the millstone, you always have to dangle a carrot in front of it.

Shen Yao nodded in satisfaction, telling him to go directly to Finance; she had already arranged it properly.

'What's given out is only one percent of the profit, but what's harvested is doubled efficiency.'

If it's this kind of money-making business in the future, just thinking about it makes one excited.

The System reminded Shen Yao to keep a low profile, be careful that extreme joy begets sorrow and brings trouble upon herself.

Shen Yao: ……

Shen Yao felt the System's words were really a buzzkill, but she was happy now and completely didn't mind.

'Once or twice is fine, not a third time; System, don't rely on our good relationship to do it again and again.'

System: ……

The System meekly shut its mouth directly; it didn't dare, it still hoped the Host would complete missions for it.

Shen Yao closed the delivered financial report, and followed by standing up and walking to the window side to gaze into the distance.

Down below the street was bustling with traffic; huge posters were hung high up.

In a pink dress, the lovely-looking Qiao Xiyue held Perfect Company's first released product in her hand, smiling confidently.

Seeing this, Shen Yao raised an eyebrow, thinking to herself that Qiao Xiyue had been living quite comfortably recently.

However, her pregnancy probably can't be hidden anymore, right.

Tsk, no wonder; wanting to marry into a financial consortium, nothing more than using those few tricks.

The phone kicked into her pocket rang; it was Gu Jingrun coming over to pick her up for a meal.

Shen Yao smiled and gave a time to come downstairs, then turned around, put on her coat, and left.

Passing by the office, she just happened to hear someone leaking that a big star had entered the hospital.

"Hey hey hey, it's still our company's spokesperson; they say she's pregnant."

"Then, could it really be true? Simply flying onto a branch to become a phoenix, but it's a real financial consortium."

"Shh, stop talking quickly, boss boss"

"……"

Shen Yao's appearance caused a moment of panic among the crowd, but more than that, the fire of gossip had already been lit and couldn't be extinguished.

Ding—

Taking the elevator straight down to the ground floor, Shen Yao nodded and smiled all the way as she arrived at the company doorway.

She saw Gu Jingrun sitting right there on the sofa looking at a magazine casually placed there.

Hearing the approaching footsteps, Gu Jingrun looked up, "President Shen is truly a busy person."

Shen Yao smiled and waved her hand, "Can't compare to President Gu's busy official business.

Heard you have to go on a business trip again? Allow me to remind President Gu, there's less than a month left until the wedding."

Gu Jingrun: ……

Gu Jingrun curved his hand by his lips and smiled, "President Shen is reluctant to part? Willing to invite President Shen to go on official business together."

Shen Yao:...

Shen Yao shot Gu Jingrun a glare. "Stop fooling around." Her hand unconsciously hooked around his arm, and the two of them walked toward the door in unison.

The car was parked in the spot nearby — the new model Gu Jingrun had recently taken a liking to, also the best-selling model from Gu Group.

"General Manager Gu really works hard, personally hitting the floor to sell goods — a very qualified CEO."

The teasing words slipped out unbidden; after so many years together, Shen Yao and Gu Jingrun had long since worn their habits smooth against each other.

Gu Jingrun sighed helplessly. "Even with a big family and great business, you still have to make money to support the household."

As for the CEO personally livestreaming sales — that was a trick he learned from Shen Yao.

After all, she was the one who started the trend; even the engagement banquet could be used for hype. Truly worthy of the woman he liked and admired.

"When I just went out, the company people were all discussing Miss Qiao being photographed at the hospital. Second Young Master should know the news by now."

Shen Yao turned her head to admire Gu Jingrun, while also wanting to see if this person would change expression.

"Same trick — do you think Second Young Master will agree?"

Gu Jingzhi hasn't had a good time at Gu Group these past half year; he's only slightly better off than Gu Jingxing.

"Probably. After all, it's the woman he likes — people are sentimental, you know."

Gu Jingzhi and Qiao Xiyue have been entangled this long — neither really wants it to come to the final step. The two of them wouldn't have deadlocked to this point otherwise.

As for giving Qiao Xiyue the chance to use schemes — that was also on the premise that Gu Jingzhi never explicitly refused.

Otherwise, no matter how many tricks Qiao Xiyue had up her sleeve, if Gu Jingzhi didn't play along it wouldn't work — it's not something one person can pull off alone.

But speaking of it this way, both of Gu Jingrun's elder brothers are cut from the same cloth — both tripped up over the matter of children.

With a meaningful sigh, Shen Yao maliciously reminded Gu Jingrun to be careful.

Gu Jingrun:...

Gu Jingrun was perfectly serious. "I'm not them, and you're not them."

The two of them would never do that kind of thing either. From the start of their companionship, their goals were aligned.

In other words, before achieving the final goal they set, they fundamentally had no mood to care about anything else.

"General Manager Gu, how boring," Shen Yao leaned her head against the car seat, expression coquettish.

Gu Jingrun raised an eyebrow. "Listen to some music for a bit — we're almost at that restaurant you love most."

Shen Yao hummed twice at those words, turned on the car music, and closed her eyes to rest.

Here the two of them enjoyed peaceful years, tender and intimate; the other party's principals faced a stiff atmosphere, swords drawn and bows bent.

Qiao Xiyue had no choice — her age wasn't small, and in the entertainment industry she would ultimately be replaced by younger fresh flowers.

What she could do was seize someone to rely on before being replaced, so her latter half of life would have a landing place.

Gu Jingzhi originally wasn't within Qiao Xiyue's scope of consideration.

Gu Group was too big, Gu Family too strong — Qiao Xiyue knew her own weight. She was greedy yet also afraid.

But Gu Jingzhi's years of indulgence and entanglement still let Qiao Xiyue fall in.

Now Qiao Xiyue was staking her reputation and persona in the entertainment industry, wanting to give it one all-out effort — not without a gambler's mindset.

Pity Gu Jingzhi isn't Gu Jingxing — a single light sentence with no room to maneuver directly broke Qiao Xiyue's defenses.