Gu Chengyu finished speaking and turned to leave.
"Chengyu!" Madam Gu called out to stop him.
Gu Chengyu halted his steps but did not turn around.
Madam Gu looked at his tall, straight back, took a deep breath, and spoke in a complex tone, "Since you like her so much now and are determined to protect her, then you must think more for her and be more attentive."
She took a document from the tea table drawer and gently placed it on the table.
"How long can a man's affection last? Who can guarantee it will never change?"
Madam Gu's voice carried a note of emotion, "You like her now, dote on her, think she's perfect in every way, but what about later?"
"What if one day your feelings fade, or she no longer suits your fancy as she does now? What will happen to her, an orphan girl with no one to rely on?"
She paused, looking at her son's slightly tense back, and continued, "You can't guarantee you'll like her for a lifetime, so while you still do, sincerely plan for her future. Pave a smooth path for her, so that even without you in the future, she can stand firm and won't be trampled upon."
"Otherwise, a casual move from me or your father could dictate the rest of her life."
Gu Chengyu slowly turned around, looked at his mother, and then his gaze fell on the document on the tea table.
On the cover was: Artist Management Contract.
He walked over, picked up the contract, and quickly flipped through it.
The more he read, the darker his expression became, the atmosphere around him growing heavier.
This was nothing but an extremely exploitative, unequal treaty!
"What is this?" He snapped the contract shut, his voice icy cold.
His first thought was, had his mother interfered?
Madam Gu met his questioning gaze and shook her head, "I didn't make her sign it."
"This is the original copy I obtained from the Shen Group after I had someone investigate Su Qianqian and saw the electronic version."
"She signed this contract after she had already met you, right?"
"What, you still don't know about it until now? It seems she doesn't trust you enough yet..."
She looked at her son's increasingly grim expression with some satisfaction, a small revenge for his earlier distrust.
Madam Gu didn't spare her son another glance, turned, and elegantly went upstairs, thinking to herself that in this regard, he was far inferior to his father, Gu Zhenting.
After all, back when Gu Zhenting stood by his father's side and did those outrageous things, he had already prepared a way out for her.
Although she didn't receive any shares in the Gu Corporation, the monthly cash flow she could access far exceeded outsiders' imagination.
After Madam Gu went upstairs, Gu Chengyu stood alone in the living room, clutching the contract tightly in his hand, his knuckles white.
Rage churned in his chest.
He wasn't angry at his mother, but at himself! Furious that he had been so negligent! She had been with him for so long, and he had never once cared about what contract she had signed.
What made him even angrier was, who? Who dared to make her sign something like this?
He took out his phone and dialed his assistant Zhao, "Investigate this immediately! Qianqian signed an artist contract. Who drafted it initially? Who persuaded her to sign it? Who were all the people involved?"
After hanging up, he walked straight out of the Gu residence.
He had only one thought at that moment: He needed to go back and ask that young woman why she signed something like this? Why did she endure such unfair treatment without telling him?
Did she really think he was so unreliable in her heart?
