Lying in bed that night, Zhao Wanling tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Her mind was filled with everything she had heard in Gu Zhiyue's thoughts. Her brother-in-law and his family really would be visiting in three days, but how to bring it up with Gu Jiangfeng was a difficult question.
Zhao Wanling reached for the phone on her nightstand and sent Gu Jiangfeng a few messages, then drifted off without realizing it.
The next morning, when it was fully light, the automatic curtains detected the natural light outside and opened, letting sunlight stream through the glass into the room.
Wearing a plain black T-shirt, knee-length shorts, and slippers, Gu Zhiyue went downstairs. Gu Shuoyan waved him over. "Come have breakfast."
Gu Zhiyue asked, "Where are Mom and Dad?"
"Dad was at the office all day yesterday and still hasn't come home. Mom's still in her room, but she'll probably be down soon. Little brother, do you have any plans today?"
Gu Zhiyue shook his head. "No. Do you have something to do today, Shuoyan?"
Gu Shuoyan smiled. "Nope. Since you're free too, how about I take you out for a drive later?"
"Sure!"
"Then let's go this afternoon, after lunch. Come to the garage with me. We'll take whichever car you like."
Gu Zhiyue froze for a moment. "Huh? Right now?"
Gu Shuoyan nodded. "After we pick a car, we still have to change and get ready. That takes a lot of time. Come on, let's go look in the garage."
"Okay, okay. Don't rush. Stop pushing me."
The two took the elevator straight down to the basement garage. It was spacious and tidy, with white lights illuminating every corner and parking spaces marked with yellow lines arranged in neat rows.
Gu Shuoyan draped an arm around Gu Zhiyue's shoulders. "Once you get your license, I'll give you two cars. It's fine if you don't like any of these. I'll buy you new ones!"
Looking at the rows of cars in different colors, makes, and models, Gu Zhiyue seemed a little surprised. "Are all these cars yours?"
"Of course not. A few belong to Mom, Dad, and our two older brothers, but most are mine! I'm a sports car collector."
Gu Zhiyue nodded, then called Xiao Jiu. [When the Gu Family was framed and went bankrupt later, why didn't they sell the cars for money? Couldn't they have made a comeback that way?]
Xiao Jiu said, [Host, who wouldn't think of that? They just didn't have any cars left to sell by then. Never mind cars, there was nothing left in the house.]
[Why?]
[Gu Jiangli's family had pocketed everything, of course. Gu Jiangli refused to put up any money to save your family, too. By then, everything your family owned had become your eldest uncle's family's property.]
Gu Zhiyue sighed. [Dad trusts people too much. But if it were me, I might trust him without any reservations too. After all, how many people would imagine their own brother intended to hurt them?]
As Gu Shuoyan listened, the hand hanging at his side unconsciously clenched into a fist.
Gu Jiangli, his wonderful eldest uncle, who had taken him out to play when he was little, given him pocket money, and bought him toys. The wonderful eldest uncle who had later put up half his savings to support his parents when they started their business.
Now he was actually working with outsiders, even the Gu Family's rivals, to seize their family's assets. What a wonderful older brother, a wonderful eldest uncle.
Seeing Gu Shuoyan lost in thought, Gu Zhiyue waved a hand in front of his eyes. "Shuoyan? What's wrong?"
Gu Shuoyan came back to himself. "Nothing. I was just thinking about where to take you for a drive."
Gu Zhiyue smiled. "Why not just go to the places you usually visit?"
Gu Shuoyan smiled and hummed in agreement. "All right, I'll take you to the places I usually hang out. Have you picked one? Which do you like?"
"That one. I think the color looks nice." Gu Zhiyue pointed at the Glacier Silver Bentley Continental. "It seems like it'd be pretty good."
"Oh! You know how to pick them. That was one of my favorites out of all the cars I chose from back then. I had the color changed afterward. Your brother has good taste, doesn't he?"
"It really is nice."
Gu Shuoyan stretched. "Come on, let's go back and pick our clothes."
With Gu Shuoyan's arm around him, Gu Zhiyue walked toward the elevator. "Is there such a rush? Can't we pick them after lunch?"
"You have to put some thought into your outfit when you go out for a drive, too. Picking something that matches the car takes a lot of time, and we still have to get styled. What if we don't prepare ahead of time and end up getting delayed?"
"Well... all right. You have a point."
Gu Jiangfeng returned looking exhausted, and Zhao Wanling brewed him some herbal wellness tea. "Did you pull another all-nighter?"
Gu Jiangfeng took the cup. "The proposal for next week's bid is at the final decision stage. I'll probably be working through quite a few nights for a while. Where are our two youngest?"
Zhao Wanling smiled. "Xiao Shuo took Xiao Yue to look at the cars in the garage. He said he'd take him out for a drive later."
Gu Jiangfeng set down his cup. "It's good that he's taking his little brother out, but remind him to be careful. It's fine when he runs wild on his own, but our youngest is still young. Safety comes first."
"Don't worry. Xiao Shuo may like having fun, but he's reliable when it matters. I trust him to take good care of Xiao Yue."
The elevator beside the stairs in the main living room chimed, and the two emerged. Gu Shuoyan said, "Dad, you're finally home. Has work been busy lately?"
Gu Jiangfeng said, "The bidding date is coming up. It really has been busy lately."
Gu Zhiyue asked, [Xiao Jiu, when's the bidding date?]
Xiao Jiu said, [Next Thursday, starting at two in the afternoon.]
Gu Zhiyue clicked his tongue. [Uncle's coming to fish for information the day after tomorrow, and bidding starts next Thursday. Just six days between them. You have to admit, he's really proactive. Can you think of any way to let Dad know his older brother is coming to pry information out of him?]
Xiao Jiu thought for a long while. [Host, I can't think of anything right now, but... maybe... you could give him an indirect hint?]
Gu Jiangfeng's hand stopped with his tea at his lips. He looked around, thinking he was so tired he had started hallucinating.
Zhao Wanling and Gu Shuoyan exchanged a glance. That confirmed it: her husband-his father-could hear the thoughts too.
Zhao Wanling brought it up as if in passing. "Your older brother and his family are visiting the day after tomorrow, aren't they? Don't spend that whole day busy at the office again and neglect our guests."
Gu Jiangfeng followed her lead. "I've already arranged everything for that day in advance, unless something unexpected comes up."
"Your older brother seems to know about your bid too?"
"I mentioned some of it to him before. He seemed quite interested and asked me about the bidding details several times."
Gu Zhiyue grumbled inwardly, [He's just waiting to use this bid to cost our family five hundred million for starters. Of course he's interested.]
Gu Jiangfeng's hand trembled, but he calmly continued talking to Zhao Wanling. "Maybe he wants to participate too. That's probably why he came to ask me about it. But his questions were a little strange. They were all about our company's bidding details: the price, our objectives, and the contents of the bid document."
Zhao Wanling asked, "You didn't tell him what was in the bid document, did you?"
"No. The bid document is sealed. No one can know what's inside before the bids are opened."
Gu Zhiyue also sighed in relief. [Dad was cautious enough not to tell anyone outright, but that won't really help. When Uncle couldn't get the bidding details out of him, he bribed one of the employees involved in this bid. Tonight, that employee will sneak into the office and switch the bid document, and Dad knows nothing about it.]
[When the bid document is submitted on the bidding day, you can imagine the result. After the agreement to cooperate is reached, the swapped bid document will be opened on the spot. Its contents will turn out to be a discarded draft, and the Gu Family will lose five hundred million outright.]
With a crash, the cup fell from Gu Jiangfeng's hand. The water splashed all over the floor, and the cup lay there in fragments.
Gu Zhiyue jumped. "What happened?"
Gu Jiangfeng coughed twice. "Nothing... my hand just slipped."
Zhao Wanling found an excuse to have Gu Shuoyan take Gu Zhiyue out of the living room first. Once the two opened the door and left, she hurriedly took Gu Jiangfeng's hand. "Jiangfeng, you can hear Xiao Yue's thoughts too, can't you?"
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