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Gu Jiuque: "..."

Bai Yuesheng: "..."

Bai Yuesheng was beside himself with rage. He turned to Gu Jiuque. "Gu Jiuque, are you just going to stand there and watch him bully me? Aren't you going to do anything?"

But Gu Jiuque had not noticed the exchange between Bai Yuesheng and Shen Heng. He had been mulling over what Bai Yuesheng had just said and only belatedly asked, "Why would you ask how the two of us ended up together? Shouldn't you be asking how the two of us met?"

The moment those words came out, even Shen Heng gave Gu Jiuque a surprised look. This Mr. Gu, who looked so shrewd... had an unexpectedly slow reaction.

He couldn't possibly have actually believed that load of nonsense Bai Yuesheng had just spun, could he?!

The smile on Bai Yuesheng's face froze. He immediately said, "That's what I meant! Aren't those two sentences saying the same thing? Gu Jiuque, you're so strange. Since when did you start splitting hairs? Are you deliberately making fun of me? It's not like you don't know that I've never been as good at studying as you."

Bai Yuesheng complained, pouting even more unhappily. "Why have you turned bad too? You're actually ganging up with an outsider to bully me! I know you're still angry with me, but I'm innocent too!"

"You only care that the west wing of your house was burned down. Why don't you think about the fact that I'm a victim too? I almost burned to death in that fire! Even if I hadn't died, if you'd come to save me any later, I might have been disfigured. I might even have become disabled. I'm only eighteen this year. If I'd really ended up disfigured or disabled, what would I do with the rest of my life? I've been terrified these past few days, and you don't even feel sorry for me. You even forced me to compensate your family for the losses right away."

"Aren't you being too heartless?"

Bai Yuesheng acted spoiled toward Gu Jiuque, trying to stir up his pity. But he did not know that his careless attempt at playing the victim had struck directly at Gu Jiuque's sore spot. After all, in his previous life, the one who had been disfigured and crippled in the fire, even losing his family and home, had been Gu Jiuque himself.

"He only lost sixteen million, while you were frightened by the fire!" President Shen continued his summary, then asked with great interest, "And then?"

Bai Yuesheng: "..."

Chapter 18

Bai Yuesheng glared furiously at Shen Heng. Shen Heng's mocking summary had enraged him so much that he nearly stamped his feet, yet he did not dare vent his anger on Shen Heng. He could only turn his attack on Gu Jiuque. "Gu Jiuque, we grew up together. After all these years of friendship, are you really going to drive me to my death over sixteen million?"

Shen Heng snorted. This person truly embodied the phrase "bullying the weak and fearing the strong" to perfection. The only reason Bai Yuesheng dared keep pestering Gu Jiuque despite being in the wrong, even trying to threaten him with reputation and public opinion, was that he believed a gentleman could be exploited through principles.

"Don't—" Before Shen Heng could finish, a soft laugh suddenly sounded beside his ear. He followed the sound and looked toward Gu Jiuque, whose expression was unreadable.

Gu Jiuque examined Bai Yuesheng's face and suddenly found it all unbearably dull. Right in front of Bai Yuesheng, he slowly took out his phone and called Lu Xunmei. "Mom, the Bai family doesn't want to settle. Let's take the legal route directly."

After hanging up, Gu Jiuque faced Bai Yuesheng's disbelieving gaze and said calmly, "You're right. Sixteen million isn't much. But all these years of friendship, together with your one life, still aren't enough to make you willingly pay that sixteen million in compensation."

"Bai Yuesheng, what exactly am I to you?"

Did you know that the future you were frightened by in your own assumptions was precisely the past he had endured for ten years?

When Gu Jiuque said those words, his expression was utterly calm. Calm as a pool of still autumn water. Yet the instant anyone looked at him, they could feel a chill seeping into their bones.

Bai Yuesheng looked at Gu Jiuque in surprise. He still wanted to say something, but Gu Jiuque no longer wished to listen. He gave Bai Yuesheng one final icy glance, and as he turned to leave, he said quietly, "Let's go back."

The restoration technicians who had been foolishly watching the spectacle jolted and hurried after him.

Bai Yuesheng stared blankly at Gu Jiuque's retreating back. He keenly sensed that Gu Jiuque was truly angry. When he had just called Mother Gu and said that the Bai family did not want to settle and that they would pursue legal action, he had not been trying to scare him. He truly intended to do it.

The moment he realized this, Bai Yuesheng suddenly panicked. He had thought he possessed the courage to burn his boats and could use reputation to force the Gu family to compromise. But when Gu Jiuque truly hardened his heart, Bai Yuesheng realized that he had never been prepared to go down together with him.

Everything he had relied on came from the fact that Gu Jiuque still liked him, was willing to give everything for him, could not bear to see him go to prison, or would hesitate to send him to prison for fear of damaging the Gu family's reputation.

But once Gu Jiuque no longer wanted to weigh the pros and cons, Bai Yuesheng realized he no longer had any bargaining chips at all!

The Gu family could abandon their reputation, but he did not want to go to prison!

He was only eighteen. He still had so many wonderful years ahead of him. He knew many secrets, secrets that would be enough for him to amass enormous wealth in the years to come. He still had a bright and brilliant future. How could he possibly go to prison over a mere sixteen million?

Wasn't this too ridiculous? How had things ended up like this?

In a flash, Bai Yuesheng suddenly recalled Shen Heng's words that had stabbed straight into his heart: "Even your biological parents are unwilling to consider things from your perspective..."

That was right. This was all Bai Yanliang and his wife's fault. It was because they were so shortsighted and unwilling to readily pay the sixteen million in compensation that things had turned out this way.

In truth, given the Bai family's resources, they could have produced a little over sixteen million without being seriously hurt. At least, as Bai Yuesheng remembered, the Bai family still had several paintings, calligraphy works, and pieces of jewelry passed down from their ancestors. As long as they were willing to auction them off, any one of them could sell for several million. But given Father and Mother Bai's personalities, they clearly would not pay that money. That was why they had tried so hard to urge Bai Yuesheng to plead with Gu Jiuque.

But now that he thought about it, the Bai couple were unwilling to pay, while Bai Yuesheng himself was the one facing imprisonment. He had listened to his parents' instigation and gone to make trouble for the Gu family, yet he had no way of bearing the consequences of angering them.