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After the incident, Grandpa Gu insisted that the item he had set his sights on at the auction was definitely genuine. Yet by the time it had been shipped back from the auction house overseas, it had become a counterfeit. The item had remained with the client the entire time, surrounded by more than a dozen bodyguards. There had been no opportunity whatsoever to switch it. Thus, the client's first reaction was that Grandpa Gu had made a mistake.

This accusation immediately spread throughout the domestic collecting circle. As the news circulated, it somehow turned into Grandpa Gu colluding with the seller to cheat the client out of money. Reporters discovered that the seller of the counterfeit was actually Grandpa Gu's fellow disciple. However, the man had moved overseas decades ago, and the two had not been in contact since.

Once this lead came to light, public opinion immediately shifted to claims that Grandpa Gu desperately needed money and had conspired with his junior fellow disciple to swindle people. All manner of gossip and speculation flooded in. Grandpa Gu could not defend himself, and in his desperation, he wanted to refund the client's money. Yet in others' eyes, this attempt to smooth things over became irrefutable proof that Grandpa Gu had a guilty conscience and was admitting it.

In his previous life, a long time had already passed by the time Gu Jiuque began investigating this matter. The Jin family had long since cleaned up all loose ends, and Grandpa Gu had already died with bitter resentment. The entire Gu family had been reduced to Gu Jiuque alone, a disfigured, mute cripple barely clinging to life. Neither Jin Weixie nor the Jin family had regarded Gu Jiuque as a threat.

Gu Jiuque spent a great deal of time and money investigating, starting with the client who had approached them, then the High-End Auction House, then the source of those rumors. He missed not a single clue, and finally uncovered the connections between the buyer, the seller, the High-End Auction House, and the Jin family.

—While tracing the source of the rumors, Gu Jiuque inadvertently discovered that many troll accounts which had viciously attacked Fang Zhimiao and the others online had also participated in spreading rumors about Grandpa Gu. After that, many of those accounts would either praise themselves or attack competitors in service of the High-End Auction House's interests.

It was through these traces that Gu Jiuque gradually uncovered the Jin family and Jin Weixie lurking beneath the surface.

The rumors that had driven Grandpa Gu to his death claimed that, for money, he had joined forces with a fellow disciple he had not seen in decades to deceive people. Yet they never mentioned that the behind-the-scenes owner of the High-End Auction House—Jin Weixie's grandfather, the Jin family patriarch Jin Daliang—was also Grandpa Gu's senior fellow disciple.

Even more thought-provoking was the fact that the investor in the first round of angel funding for the company owned by the client who had initially come to ask Grandpa Gu to return to work was actually a student Jin Daliang had sponsored!

Following this connection, Gu Jiuque found even more evidence and ultimately confirmed that Grandpa Gu's death had been a conspiracy orchestrated entirely by the Jin family. Unfortunately, despite all his precautions, he had not guarded against Bai Yuesheng.

After learning the truth, Bai Yuesheng actually went to confront Jin Weixie, only to be threatened into marrying him. The reason was that Jin Weixie would only clear Grandpa Gu's name if Bai Yuesheng accepted his proposal. The result was that one of Bai Yuesheng's most extreme admirers was so provoked that, on Bai Yuesheng and Jin Weixie's wedding day, he came to the Gu Family Ancestral Residence and burned Gu Jiuque to death.

At that time, Gu Jiuque had already been preparing to hold a press conference and expose the Jin family's conspiracy.

In this life, Gu Jiuque, having prepared himself in advance, would certainly not allow the Jin family's schemes to proceed unchecked. Not only that, he would make every one of the Jin family's plans come to nothing.

The young restorers scrambling to read through the West Wing reconstruction notes did not notice Gu Jiuque's somber mood. They eagerly invited him, "Master Gu, do you want to join us in the Antique Appraisal Tournament? You're so amazing—you'll definitely take first place."

"The champion's prize is one million!"

Gu Jiuque came back to himself and smiled gently. "I'll think about it."

Fang Zhimiao could not help complaining, "What's there to think about? You don't have anything to do over summer break anyway. If you win the Antique Appraisal Tournament, that's a million for free!"

Gu Jiuque merely smiled without speaking.

Of course he needed to consider whether to defeat Jin Weixie with his own genuine ability—or use Jade Celestial Pivot's power to utterly crush that pack of filthy rats who only knew how to hide in the gutters and play dirty tricks!

That very afternoon, while Gu Jiuque led a group of young restorers in surveying the Gu Family Ancestral Residence, Grandpa Gu and Grandma Gu, with the help of the Cultural Heritage Administration's team leader, also completed an inventory of the damaged furniture, ornaments, curtains and bedding, brushes, ink, paper, inkstones, and everyday items in the West Wing. Combined with Gu Jiuque's preliminary survey and cost estimate for the West Wing reconstruction plan, which he had completed independently, they arrived at a total restoration cost of 16,825,321.22 yuan.

Of that, the West Wing reconstruction project alone required a budget of 4,563,821.13 yuan. The total value of the furniture, ornaments, and other items destroyed in the fire and requiring compensation was 12,261,500.09 yuan.

Lu Xunmei had Gu Yugui calculate the compensation list to two decimal places, and Gu Yugui, the devoted husband he was, carried out her instructions without compromise.

When the compensation list was delivered to the Bai family, Bai Yanliang immediately exploded.

"Extortion! This is extortion! Our Bai family will never pay this money!"

"16,825,321.22 yuan? You even calculated it down to the last cent! Who calculates compensation like that? Your Gu family did this on purpose, didn't you?"

They certainly had!

Gu Yugui smiled leisurely. "You don't want to pay compensation? Fine! Your son got drunk, caused trouble, and deliberately set the fire, causing our family such severe financial losses. Out of consideration for being neighbors for decades, we didn't want to pursue Bai Yuesheng's responsibility. But since you, his parents, have no intention of settling, then let Bai Yuesheng go straight to prison!"

"You—" Bai Yanliang was instantly left speechless. Of course, he could not simply watch his son go to prison over something so minor, but he also did not want to compensate the Gu family more than sixteen million yuan.

"Since you don't want to pursue Shengsheng's responsibility, then don't make Shengsheng pay compensation! Your family has money anyway—this amount isn't even enough for your old man to acquire a single good piece. You want to force an eighteen-year-old child into prison over this little money? Shengsheng is someone you watched grow up. Can you really bear to be so heartless?"