Dealing with the Rumormonger

In the CEO's office on the top floor of Cen Group headquarters, the atmosphere was stifling and oppressive. Cen Muxiao leaned back in his chair with one leg crossed over the other, his cold gaze fixed on the trembling man kneeling before him.

The man was around thirty. Several bald scars stood out on the crown of his lowered head. His face was drenched in sweat, yet terror kept him from daring to raise a hand and wipe it away.

Several uniformed bodyguards stood solemnly behind him, awaiting Cen Muxiao's orders. To them, the man on the floor was like a lamb awaiting slaughter—at a single command, he could vanish from this world.

Secretary Wu Tong reported, "President Cen, this is Hu Bin. He's the one who has been spreading rumors everywhere these past few days, saying that your public coming-out angered the old chairman so badly that he was hospitalized. He also claimed that you disregarded the old chairman's objections, refused to marry a daughter of the Guo Family, and chose to marry a man instead.

"Then he said that since you married a man, you couldn't possibly continue the family line, meaning you had no right to be Cen Group's legitimate heir and should step down as CEO as soon as possible."

As he spoke, he shot Hu Bin a vicious glare. "He had been itching to make a move ever since you began preparing for the wedding. Even after it ended, he showed no restraint and began fabricating all sorts of rumors about you. After spreading them wildly for several days, he suddenly disappeared. We found him at the international airport, where he was about to board a flight and flee overseas, hoping to get away with it."

At Wu Tong's words, the man who had kept his head down abruptly looked up in panic and began defending himself. "President Cen! It wasn't like he said! You've misunderstood, President Cen! I don't even know what Mr. Wu means by spreading rumors! How could I possibly make up rumors about you? Wouldn't that be suicide?"

Wu Tong snorted and exposed him further. "Hu Bin, before you deny it, remember to clean up after yourself. You may deny it, but can you explain the sudden extra two hundred thousand in your account? You were so busy getting rich that you forgot to clean the money. You left us a trail after all!"

Wu Tong turned to Cen Muxiao and continued his report. "President Cen, we have identified the source of the funds in his account. They came from a newly opened account. We investigated it, and the account holder was Chen Lei, the young assistant by Second Young Master's side."

Cen Muxiao's eyes flickered slightly after hearing this. Then he asked in a low voice, "Are you certain?"

Wu Tong naturally understood what he meant and immediately bowed. "It has been confirmed. Although he was disguised at the time, we verified it against his financial transactions and Second Young Master's cash flow. Everything matched perfectly. We have also traced where the money went—it was transferred into Hu Bin's account. Frankly, Second Young Master's method wasn't very clever. As long as we investigated carefully, it would have been difficult not to find the loopholes."

Wu Tong wanted to say that their Second Young Master's actions had not merely been unwise—they had been downright idiotic. Such a large transfer of funds was glaring evidence. It would have been hard to pretend not to see it.

Cen Muxiao was not particularly surprised. The corner of his lips curved into a mocking smile. "Given his intelligence, it's already impressive that he managed this much."

The Cen family had always been one of Imperial Capital's prominent old families. Not only did the family excel in business, but it had also cultivated considerable influence in both military and political circles. As such, it had long occupied an important place among Imperial Capital's elite families.

However, before Cen Muxiao took over the company, Cen Corporation's operations had already reached a developmental bottleneck. After struggling for years, it remained stuck in an awkward middle ground, unable to achieve the breakthrough it needed to reach new heights.

There were no more than two reasons for this. First, the head of the family, old chairman Cen Weifeng, was already past seventy, and his health had worsened with each passing year. His ability to manage the group and the family's influence was far inferior to what it had once been.

Second, competition among the Cen family's second generation had never ceased. Although old chairman Cen had carefully raised and trained his three sons, every child was different, and their abilities naturally varied.

In the end, however, none of them truly satisfied old chairman Cen enough for him to confidently hand the entire Cen family over to any one of them.

Forget about further development—he feared they might not even be able to maintain the status quo and would instead lead Cen Corporation into complete decline.

Cen Group was the old man's life's work. Naturally, he would rather have no successor than choose an unworthy one.

Thus, the three Cen brothers of the second generation were swiftly eliminated from consideration as successors.

His sons' lack of promise did not discourage old chairman Cen, because several outstanding young men had emerged among the Cen family's grandchildren. As he decisively extinguished his three sons' ambitions, he began testing his grandsons.

The old chairman's eldest son, Cen Mingde, had two sons and a daughter. Among them, Cen Muhui performed exceptionally well. As the eldest son's eldest son, he had been especially valued by the old man over the years and was often kept by his side for personal instruction.

As a result, he was also among the first of the grandchildren to be directly assigned to Cen Group to take charge of affairs after reaching adulthood.

Cen Muhui was steady and deeply calculating, with outstanding abilities. He had been the most favored candidate in the early competition and was once widely considered the old man's chosen successor.

However, he made a strategic error during the later expansion into overseas markets, leaving the project in an awkward deadlock. In the end, Cen Muxiao came up with a solution, allowing Cen Corporation to avoid massive losses while successfully entering the Country D market and opening up a new path for the company's development.

It was precisely through that attempt that the previously inconspicuous Cen Muxiao stood out and was directly listed by the old chairman as a key candidate for cultivation.

Later events proved that Cen Muxiao either remained silent or stunned everyone when he spoke. After successfully making a name for himself, he no longer deliberately hid his talents. At many critical moments, he offered constructive suggestions that pointed Cen Group toward a successful breakthrough from its bottleneck.

Later, under Cen Weifeng's direction, Cen Muxiao entered Cen Group's core team directly and gained the chance to compete fairly with Cen Muhui.

The two outstanding men competed openly and in secret, while two somewhat inferior brothers also searched in the shadows for opportunities to turn their fortunes around.

In particular, Cen Muyun from Cen Muxiao's second uncle's branch was the second among the Cen brothers. His abilities were unremarkable, yet he was the most troublesome and active of them all.

The Second Young Master Wu Tong referred to was Cen Muyun, one of Cen Muxiao's cousins. Even after Cen Muxiao formally took power, he had remained deeply dissatisfied. If not for old chairman Cen's sake, Cen Muxiao would likely have thrown him out long ago.

Cen Muxiao did not care much about Cen Muyun's malicious slander. Spreading rumors was far from the only petty trick he had pulled. If Cen Muxiao truly held every one of them against him, Cen Muyun would have long since lost the right to call himself Second Young Master.

Now, he was still acting so restlessly, thinking that he could casually criticize Cen Muxiao's marriage through someone else's mouth. That only proved how profoundly stupid he was.

After all, whether Cen Muxiao's marriage partner was male or female, it had been approved by his grandfather. Yet Cen Muyun had badmouthed him behind his back and tried to incite members of the board to speak out and remove him from the CEO position. He truly had no brain!

Wu Tong then asked for instructions. "President Cen, how would you like Hu Bin dealt with?"

The moment those words fell, Hu Bin's heart nearly leaped out of his throat. Dealt with? Why did that sound so terrifyingly like being executed?

He abruptly threw himself to the floor and began banging his head against it. "Spare me, President Cen! I only took money to do someone else's bidding. I had no malicious intentions! Please, just treat me like a fart and let me go! I promise I'll disappear from now on and never offend your eyes again! Please!"

Cen Muxiao ignored the sight of him cracking his head open in an instant. He merely glanced at Wu Tong and said lightly, "Since nothing good comes out of his mouth, there's no need to let him speak again. Take him away."

Wu Tong immediately understood. He signaled the bodyguards, and before Hu Bin could react, his mouth and nose were covered and he was dragged out. He did not even get another chance to defend himself.

Wu Tong was about to follow them out when Cen Muxiao stopped him. "Since my second brother has so much spare money, stop his monthly allowance. Go."

He could casually hand out two hundred thousand just to have someone spread rumors. He clearly had too much money to burn—and had burned his brain along with it!