Chapter 309: A Letter
This dispute even escalated into the public eye.
For a time, nearly every prestigious family in Hong Kong City knew about it.
Everyone originally thought that the Gu family of Hong Kong City would have to compensate, but to their surprise, they immediately produced a video from the day of the auction showing the handover of the auction item.
The video was extremely high resolution, so clear that every ice crack line on the Ru ware’s sky-blue glaze was visible. According to their evidence, the Ru ware piece was in perfect condition at the time of handover.
Since every Ru ware porcelain piece has unique crack patterns, they are very difficult to replicate. Even the Gu siblings couldn’t use a counterfeit to claim damages from the Hong Kong City Gu family.
Unable to blame the handover process, they had to find another excuse.
“It must be a problem with your shipping box!” Gu Fengchuan accused.
The Hong Kong City Gu family responded firmly, “Why is it that none of the other porcelain buyers encountered this issue, but you did?”
Gu Fengchuan was momentarily speechless. Worse, after consulting several experts to examine the shipping box, all the evaluations confirmed that the box was functioning properly and had no defects.
Every excuse Gu Fengchuan tried to use was refuted one by one. In the end, he had to swallow the loss of over 700 million yuan.
Meanwhile, in the Fang family, Old Master Fang, who had strongly opposed Fang Qianqian’s resistance to this arranged marriage, sighed deeply after the Ru ware dispute was settled. He said, “I’ll arrange another marriage for you. Make sure to part amicably with Gu Fengchuan.”
Fang Qianqian was secretly delighted when she heard this. That very day, she broke up with Gu Fengchuan using “unwillingness to marry far away” as an excuse.
Having just lost over 700 million and now being dumped by his fiancée, Gu Fengchuan was surrounded by a cloud of gloom. He threw a massive tantrum in the hotel, and besides Gu Xueying, no one dared approach him.
“Brother, what’s most important now is to find a way to fix things…” Gu Xueying advised gently.
Gu Fengchuan shook his head. “With such a huge financial gap, how can we fix it?”
Gu Xueying proactively offered her personal savings. “I still have twenty million in savings. Take it for emergency use, big brother.”
Gu Fengchuan was touched but still shook his head. “The Red Dragon King won’t even look at porcelain worth less than three hundred million. Your money won’t even make a dent in this loss.”
Gu Xueying sighed and said, “If only Xu Youyou hadn’t meddled… We wouldn’t have had to pay such a heavy price and fall into those people’s trap. Big brother, could it be that the Hong Kong City Gu family and Xu Youyou colluded to set us up?”
Gu Fengchuan found her words very reasonable. “Yes, that must be it!”
“Brother, it was a planned trap. The Hong Kong City Gu family has old grudges with Dad. If he knows the whole story, he won’t blame you.” Gu Xueying comforted.
But Gu Fengchuan wasn’t as optimistic. After multiple failures, his father had grown more and more disappointed with him, relying on others both at home and in the company. He lived in constant fear.
Sure enough, after Gu Jianming received the news, he immediately called and berated his eldest son mercilessly.
“I trusted you to handle things in Hong Kong City! Yet you couldn’t even get one thing done! The Fang family has a low opinion of you. If I had known this, I wouldn’t have let Yujing donate his bone marrow to you back then! Useless garbage like you might as well be dead!”
Listening to his father’s stream of insults, Gu Fengchuan felt utterly crushed, like a frostbitten eggplant.
The only slightly comforting thought was that no one was currently competing with him for the heir’s position.
Among the four Gu siblings, their father had never considered letting Gu Xueying, the adopted daughter, inherit the family assets.
His second brother was rooted in the entertainment industry and showed no intention of returning home anytime soon.
As for his third brother, he was still abroad painting and seemingly had no interest in business. In fact, during the Gu family’s earlier crisis, it was his third brother who had saved the day.
In Gu Fengchuan’s eyes, having three siblings who didn’t compete for inheritance was his greatest blessing.
Even though he was now sidelined in the company, he still had Xiao Gu, a subordinate he had personally recruited and promoted, holding a key position in the group, occasionally passing him inside information so he wasn’t completely in the dark.
Just then, the hotel room doorbell rang.
Gu Xueying was about to open the door when she saw someone slip an envelope through the door gap. When she opened the door, the corridor was empty.
“What’s this?”
Gu Xueying was about to pick it up when Gu Fengchuan stopped her.
“Don’t touch strange things so carelessly!”
After stopping his sister, Gu Fengchuan put on gloves and opened the envelope.
Inside were two sets of documents.
After opening the first one, he glanced at Gu Xueying in surprise.
“Brother, what does the letter say?” Gu Xueying asked.
Gu Fengchuan shook his head and casually put the first document away.
When he looked at the second document, he suddenly slammed the table in anger, his eyes burning with rage.
“Brother?” Gu Xueying grew even more curious about the contents.
“It’s about the company. It doesn’t concern you.” Gu Fengchuan replied.
He never expected that the important talent he had personally recruited and painstakingly promoted was actually a wolf in sheep’s clothing!
That so-called Xiao Gu turned out to be their father’s illegitimate son, and it was he who had paved the way for him into the company!
No wonder their father was so fond of Xiao Gu — who wouldn’t love a capable biological son?
Gu Fengchuan couldn’t stay in Hong Kong City a moment longer. He turned to his sister and said, “Pack your things. We’re going back to Shanghai.”
Just as Gu Xueying agreed, her phone rang.
The moment she saw the caller ID, her eyes darkened.
“I know you’re in Hong Kong City. Find an excuse to ditch your brother. I’ll meet you tomorrow.” Gu Yujing’s voice came through the phone.
Gu Xueying turned to Gu Fengchuan and said, “Brother, a good friend of mine is coming to Hong Kong for a visit. She asked me to accompany her. I can’t go back to Shanghai with you.”
Although Gu Fengchuan didn’t hear the full conversation, he had caught a glimpse of the caller’s number. Even without a name saved, he recognized it as Gu Yujing’s number.
Seeing Gu Xueying’s shifty gaze and recalling the contents of the first document in the envelope, he couldn’t help but feel a bit pained and asked, “Are you accompanying this friend willingly?”
Gu Xueying felt that her brother’s words seemed to imply something, but she didn’t have time to think about it deeply. “O-of course it’s voluntary… Brother, who would dare force me?”
