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"I'm in excellent health." Gu Haisheng was still smiling. "How much of the family fortune did they give you?"

At the mention of the family fortune, a trace of unease stirred in Gu Bai's heart. At present, nothing mattered more to him than the family fortune.

Gu Bai still answered truthfully, because there was nothing Gu Haisheng, the head of the Gu Family, did not know.

"Eighty million."

Gu Haisheng sighed and asked, "Do you want more?"

Chapter 5

Gu Bai rode back to the Gu residence in Gu Haisheng's car. Theirs was the first car to return, so the people behind them saw Gu Bai getting out.

Gu Haisheng entered the house first, while someone caught hold of Gu Bai behind him.

Only after seeing Gu Haisheng enter the house did Gu Ruilin speak. "How did you end up in Father's car?"

Gu Bai raised his hand and pulled the hand off his arm, saying evenly, "You wouldn't give me a ride, so I could only come back in Father's car."

"Xiao Bai, you didn't get into Ruilin's car? Why didn't you send me a message? I could have told the driver to stop." Gu Jiazi walked over from behind.

Zhao Xinran snorted. "Stop being so kindhearted. He rode back in the family head's car for over an hour. Who knows what he said to him along the way? You didn't see your father's expression when he got out. He might have been speaking ill of you and me."

Gu Bai recalled what his father had just told him in the car. It was better to say nothing for now. Quietly getting rich was quite nice.

Just then, a cry came from inside the house. Barring any surprises, that was the butler's astonishment at seeing the family head return.

The people who had just returned from the cemetery entered the house together. Gu Bai was still alone.

The butler laughed and cried in front of Gu Haisheng, looking more like family than all the wives and children did.

Gu Quan's father had been the previous butler, and he himself had grown up alongside Gu Haisheng. Despite the vast difference in their status, the affection between childhood playmates remained. Gu Quan was happy to see Gu Haisheng return.

Everyone sat in the living room. Seeing the Gu Family looking harmonious and happy again, Gu Quan wiped away a tear. He was just about to tell someone to serve tea when Gu Haisheng interrupted him.

"Don't trouble yourself. I have something important to discuss with them. Clear everyone out."

Gu Quan froze for a moment. The last time there had been such a fuss was when Old Mr. Gu passed away. Then he recalled the attitudes of the young ladies and young masters at the family dinner a few days earlier, and he understood.

In less than a minute, the butler had cleared all the cleaning staff out of the Gu residence.

Seeing this, Zhao Xinran returned to her old routine, walking up to Gu Haisheng in tears. "Haisheng, do you even care about us anymore? Never mind that you went out to sea without a word, but the sea was rough that day. We thought something had happened to you, and the search team couldn't find you either. If you were all right, why didn't you come home?"

"Father, we were very worried about you," Gu Jiazi said, her eyes red.

Gu Haisheng's appearance had caught everyone off guard. On the way back, Zhao Xinran had proposed a temporary truce to Gu Jiazi and Gu Ruilin. Now that the family head had returned, they could not proceed with their plans. The most important thing now was to keep Gu Haisheng from learning what they had done.

From the start, they had intended to appeal to family affection and stage a warm reunion. But Gu Haisheng was not as ignorant as they imagined.

Gu Haisheng looked at Gu Ruilin. "How are things with Golden Grain Group?"

Gu Ruilin had already formed a conjecture. Now, hearing his father ask about the acquisition's progress first thing upon returning, he was almost certain that all these plans had been meant to crack the tough nut that was Golden Grain Group.

"The Guan Family has no funds left to keep things running. Jinhe is as good as ours."

Gu Haisheng did not seem particularly pleased by the news. He picked up the teacup on the table and took a sip. "I've been away for half a month, and even the tea at home tastes different."

As soon as he finished speaking, a trace of panic appeared on everyone's faces.

At that moment, Gu Bai had to admit to himself that the old hands really did know best. Although he had spent a few years as the family head in his previous life, perhaps because of his age, none of his gestures or actions could compare with Gu Haisheng's.

He picked up his teacup and drank some strong tea. It tasted rich and fragrant, the finest of teas.

He did not care about being the family head. What he really cared about was when this meeting would end. He was a little tired after spending the entire day as a backdrop at the cemetery.

Zhao Xinran nudged her younger daughter beside her. "Tell your father how you did on this joint exam."

Gu Yi had always been in awe of her father. She had never been close to him, even as a child. They lacked the affection between fathers and daughters in ordinary families, and their usual conversations went no further than questions about her studies.

She was still young and had yet to fully process everything that had happened today. Even after her mother nudged her, she remained frozen in place, not knowing how to react.

Seeing her so wooden and clueless infuriated Zhao Xinran. "You child..."

Gu Haisheng interrupted her scolding. "Enough. Don't think I don't know what you're scheming."

He then looked at Gu Jiazi and Gu Ruilin. "And you two siblings. Even if something had happened to me, wasn't it a little hasty to divide my fortune before my body was cold-before you'd even found my body or finished holding my funeral?"

With all the tangled interests involved in such a vast fortune, who knew when they could finish dividing it? The only portion that could be fully settled was Gu Bai's eighty million, so he alone had separated himself from this ridiculous division of the inheritance.

Gu Ruilin knew what role Gu Bai had played in this affair. Of course he would not let Gu Bai come out of it blameless.

"Father, we were wrong. We actually had no intention of dividing the family fortune at first. It was our younger brother who threatened us into breaking up the Gu Family quickly, then demanded that we transfer eighty million to him. We didn't have that much money on hand, so we could only turn our thoughts to the family fortune."

Instead of getting angry, Gu Haisheng smiled. "What did he threaten you with?"

After glancing at Gu Jiazi, Gu Ruilin quickly said, "He said that if we didn't give him the money, he would make our entire plan to acquire Jinhe public."

When one corporation acquired another, some underhanded methods were inevitably involved. Once those methods were exposed, the entire corporation's image would suffer, and its stock price could very well be affected.