Gossip about Gu Jiangli's Family

After Gu Jiangfeng arrived at the company, he went to the company archives alone without letting anyone follow him. He found the previously scrapped bid document among the discarded files, swapped out the bid document in the cabinet, and left the office again.

Once he had done all that, Gu Jiangfeng called his assistant and told him to switch off the motion alarm in the archives while keeping the surveillance room operating normally. He also told him to let word spread among the company staff that the archives' surveillance system had malfunctioned and that anyone entering the archives had to report to him first.

His assistant asked, "Boss, why are we suddenly doing this?"

"Just do as I say. Also, there's nothing much going on today. Let everyone get off work an hour early so they can go home and rest."

"Yes, boss," the assistant agreed, and the call ended.

Gu Jiangfeng made a round of the company, then left.

Gu Shuoyan and Gu Zhiyue were on their way home and had just reached the foot of the mountain. Gu Shuoyan grinned. "I didn't expect you to be so good at driving already. You won't have many classes at university. Why don't you go to driving school once the semester starts? I'll go with you, too."

Gu Zhiyue nodded. "Sure. If I can get my license within these next two or three months, I'll be able to drive out and have fun during the holidays."

Gu Zhiyue yawned. His phone vibrated twice. His second brother, Gu Shen Ci, had sent a picture to the family group chat, a costume portrait from a production.

In the picture, Gu Yan Ci wore a red fantasy costume, its skirts fluttering. Two red ribbons hung down from the middle of the hair at the back of his head. Gu Shen Ci stood sideways with his back to the camera, his head turned and slightly lowered, his gaze slanting toward the lens.

The lighting, angle, and composition were all beautifully balanced.

Gu Shuoyan teased, "Second Brother's posting pictures from work in the group again."

Gu Zhiyue couldn't help clicking his tongue. "They've made him look like a celestial fairy. Does Second Brother have a ton of fans? Can he even get home without trouble?"

"It's better now. The year your second brother first got really popular, you couldn't even imagine how crazy those fans were. They came in groups to stand outside our gates, holding signs and declaring their love. They could shout from morning till night. When he walked down the street, they'd crowd around him until he couldn't move. There were even strangers who somehow got his phone number, and he'd get dozens of calls from unknown numbers every day. None of us wanted to go out with him during that time."

Gu Zhiyue sucked in a breath. "That scary?! How did you solve it?"

Gu Shuoyan smiled. "Dad was sick of it, too, so he hired several bodyguards to patrol outside the estate to stop obsessive fans from sneaking in again. Second Brother also separated his phone numbers, keeping all his work and personal numbers apart. Whenever he went out, bodyguards protected him from the shadows. It took half a year of that before things gradually settled down."

"I guess that's what happens when something goes too far. The trouble that comes with being too famous isn't easy to solve. Luckily, our family had the means to deal with it."

"Oh, right, do you like going to concerts? Second Brother's preparing for one. It'll be in the next city over in three months."

Gu Zhiyue thought for a moment. "If I'm free then, I'll definitely go."

"We've heard enough of him. We hear him every day. I don't know how those fans manage to stay so obsessed. They've been looking at that face for years, yet they still aren't tired of it. They even get so enthusiastic about calling him 'darling' and 'hubby' every day."

Gu Zhiyue wagged a finger. "Third Brother, you just don't understand how fans feel. If you replaced Second Brother with a one-of-a-kind limited-edition sports car with the best performance, most beautiful exterior, finest craftsmanship, and most luxurious interior in the world, you'd be screaming even louder than those fans."

Gu Shuoyan scratched his head and smiled. "I guess you're right."

The two returned to the estate. Gu Zhiyue got out first, while Gu Shuoyan drove into the garage to park.

Gu Zhiyue opened the door and went inside. Seeing him return, Zhao Wanling beckoned him over. "Did you have fun?"

Gu Zhiyue accepted the warm water Aunt Sun poured for him. "Thank you, Aunt Sun. I had a great time. Third Brother even let me practice driving for a while. I'm planning to get my license once the semester starts."

Gu Jiangfeng said, "Perfect. I'll let the driving school know. Whenever you want to go, you can take the test."

"Our family even owns a driving school?"

Zhao Wanling smiled and nodded. "Yes, it's in your third brother's name. He likes cars, so he opened a driving school himself. He personally handpicked every instructor there, and they're all top-notch."

Gu Shuoyan stepped out of the elevator. "Mom, are you praising me?"

Zhao Wanling said, "You heard wrong."

"Don't be like that. I wanted to hear a little more."

"I'm afraid it'll go to your head."

Gu Jiangfeng poured himself a cup of tea, lifted it, and took a small sip. "For next Thursday's bidding, we'll still go as a family. Other than your eldest brother, who can't make it back, and your second brother, who won't have time because of work, you two, Third and Fourth, are coming along."

Gu Shuoyan leaned back against the sofa and spread his hands. "We have to go again? It's so boring. All we do is watch a bunch of people outbid each other. There's nothing fun about it."

Gu Jiangfeng's tone was firm. "You have to go, whether you want to or not."

Gu Shuoyan waved a hand. "Got it, got it."

Gu Zhiyue picked up a grape from the coffee table, peeled it, and popped it into his mouth. [Now that I suddenly have nothing to do, I'm feeling a little bored. Xiao Jiu, find something exciting to tell me.]

[All right, host. Searching... Found something! In an hour, that mole will sneak into the company archives and successfully steal the bid document. But I detected that Gu Jiangfeng has already swapped it out. Looks like Gu Jiangfeng knew there was a mole in the company long ago.]

[As expected of the big boss who runs a massive corporation and plans every move. He's got everything under control.]

Gu Jiangfeng raised his teacup to hide the slight upward curve of his lips. It was all thanks to this inner voice. Otherwise, when the day of the bidding came, he really would have been at a loss.

All three tacitly fell silent, waiting for Gu Zhiyue to say more to that system called Xiao Jiu.

Gu Zhiyue peeled yet another grape, having lost count. [Then this is halfway resolved, right? We don't need to worry about it anymore. Anything else?]

Xiao Jiu giggled. [Host, do you want to hear some gossip?]

[Gossip? You can do that, too?]

[Of course. Besides searching in advance for dangers that are about to happen, I can also look up gossip in my spare time to keep you entertained, host.]

Gu Zhiyue pulled out a tissue and wiped the juice off his hands. [All right. What gossip have you got?]

[Host, would you like to hear about the past or the future?]

[The future. I can't see anything from the past anymore, so there's no fun in hearing about it. Let's hear about the future. Maybe I can find a chance to go watch the fun.]

Xiao Jiu sounded quite cheerful. [At next Thursday's bidding, the Gu family's rival company will draw up a new bid document based on the fake one they stole, then put up nearly half the company's investment assets to win an island. But the contents of that bid document were scrapped and noncompliant, so the company will suffer a serious blow and come within a hair of bankruptcy.]

Gu Zhiyue couldn't help commenting, [Just how much do they trust their enemy? They steal something and don't even look it over?]

[Maybe because the Gu family is just too authoritative. They'll only change the company's key information and seal, without changing a single word of the rest of the bid.]

[This seems... not quite like gossip. Find something more exciting.]

Xiao Jiu's tone turned teasing. [Host, want to hear some gossip about Gu Jiangli's family?]

Gu Zhiyue's eyes lit up. [Yes, yes! Let me hear what earth-shattering gossip that family traitor has.]

Xiao Jiu said, [Gu Jiangli's son isn't his biological child. He's his wife and her first love's child.]

[Wow! That's explosive! What exactly happened?]

[Gu Jiangli's wife is called He Zhiwei. She didn't like Gu Jiangli to begin with. She and her first love had been in love for four or five years, had conceived a child together, and were planning their wedding. Gu Jiangli also liked He Zhiwei, and his family was several times better off than her first love's.]

[After pursuing He Zhiwei for some time without success, Gu Jiangli used certain means to force her into marrying him. When they married, He Zhiwei was already a little over a month pregnant with her first love's child. That was why Gu Jiangli didn't suspect anything after the child was born. He Zhiwei wasn't in very good health, so giving birth a month early was normal.]

Gu Zhiyue rubbed his chin. [Then wouldn't they have hurt the baby when they did it? And how did Eldest Aunt get past all those eyes in Gu Jiangli's household?]

Xiao Jiu said, [Maybe the child's genes were just too strong. I can't explain that, either.]

[So Gu Jiangli's been raising someone else's child all along? Serves him right for stealing someone else's love. Tell me more about the child.]

[He Zhiwei gave birth to a boy and named him Gu Jinghuan, with "huan" meaning "return."]

Gu Zhiyue sighed. [Eldest Aunt had it rough. But she didn't take part in harming our family, did she?]

[No. After your family was destroyed and its members killed, He Zhiwei was the one who found people to collect your eldest brother's, second brother's, and the others' bodies, so they wouldn't become wandering ghosts.]

Aunt Sun came over. "Sir, madam, it's time for dinner."