The auction had already ended, but no one at the venue had left yet.
Qin Mei looked at Old Gu worriedly. “Mr. Gu, this auction doesn’t seem to allow cancellations. Wasn’t it too hasty to put up ten million yuan just like that?”
Old Gu shook his head. “Those two houses were originally compensation the state gave me for development. Now I’m giving the money back to the country!”
The villain’s lackey cursed angrily, “You old bastard! How dare you cut off my source of profit? Just you wait!”
The host hurriedly ordered the bodyguards to throw him out.
Then he went over to Old Gu and said, “Thank you, Mr. Gu! Thank you for protecting this piece of Chinese dragon-vein raw stone! You’ve also protected the fortunes of the Chinese people!”
Several other young people nearby came over to praise him as well. “Mr. Gu, when I look at you, I can truly see the integrity of the older generation!”
Old Gu’s eyes reddened. He shook his head. “It’s nothing. At my age, I’m satisfied just to be able to do something worthwhile.”
—
Behind the small building.
Yu Xiaxing and Yu Zheng had already climbed out.
The two of them checked the video, and the footage was exceptionally clear. To capture everyone’s faces properly, Yu Xiaxing had even pushed her phone through the grille and filmed from the side for half a minute. Every person could be seen clearly.
After checking it, Yu Xiaxing forwarded the video to Yu Zheng. “Send it to Yu Zhining.”
Yu Zheng glanced at her. “Why don’t you tell him yourself? Are you doing another good deed without taking credit?”
Yu Xiaxing casually replied, “I’m afraid he’ll get the wrong idea.”
Yu Zheng said, “You’re worried Yu Zhining will think you sent this because you’re setting him up? But he doesn’t seem like the overly suspicious type.”
“He’s very sensitive,” Yu Xiaxing said with a soft laugh. Then she added, “You send it. I haven’t even added him as a friend.”
“Why not?”
Yu Xiaxing lowered her head and stared at her phone without answering.
Yu Zheng leaned closer and looked up at her face from below. He felt that he had never seen her so troubled before.
The relationship between the two of them was truly strange. When they were together, his sister would make sarcastic remarks about Yu Zhining, making it seem as if there was nothing between them. Yet in private, they didn’t even keep in touch?
Yu Xiaxing suddenly looked up at him. “You don’t have to send it if you don’t want to. I need to find Professor Zhong for a signature and stamp. After that, I’m going home to sleep.”
Yu Zheng had no choice but to stop asking. “All right, all right. I’ll send it now.”
He lowered his head and forwarded the video to Yu Zhining with the message: “Your client was exploited as a patriotic sucker.”
After sending it, he said to Yu Xiaxing, “Let’s go find Professor Zhong for the stamp.”
Yu Xiaxing asked, “Still can’t get through to him?”
Yu Zheng dialed Professor Zhong’s number again, but it was still switched off. “Yep. Looks like the tour group still hasn’t returned their phones.”
Yu Xiaxing looked toward the main building of the resort in the distance. “Then we’ll have to go to the accommodations. We can ask the front desk to call his room and say we have something important to discuss. Maybe we’ll be able to see him.”
Yu Zheng nodded, and the two of them headed toward the accommodations.
After walking for a few minutes, Yu Xiaxing suddenly asked, “Has Yu Zhining replied to you?”
Yu Zheng took out his phone and glanced at it. “Not yet. He’s probably busy.”
Yu Xiaxing hummed and continued walking.
A few minutes later, she asked again, “He still hasn’t replied?”
Yu Zheng laughed. “He probably saw it but couldn’t be bothered to respond. He does that all the time when I message him. If you’re worried about him, we can go find him directly.”
“There’s no need. Let’s take care of my business first.”
Fair enough. The matter between the two of them was rather urgent as well, so they quickly made their way to the accommodations.
—
The accommodations.
Qin Mei was a regular here and knew the layout well, so it only took her a few minutes to bring Mr. Gu back.
She walked him to the door of the lounge. Her eyes were full of admiration as she said, “Mr. Gu, what you did today truly impressed me. Not everyone can still show such a sense of responsibility at your age.”
Mr. Gu’s eyes lit up.
He had indeed only paid a one-million-yuan deposit just now. The bank had restricted the rest of the transfer.
He was spending his own money, yet the bank wouldn’t even let him transfer too much in a single day, claiming they were worried he was being scammed! Didn’t he know himself whether he had been scammed or not?!
The dragon-vein raw stone had not yet been delivered to him. Once he transferred the rest of the money at the bank tomorrow, it would be his.
His eyes reddened with pride. “I was only doing what any Chinese person ought to do! Don’t worry, I’ll go to the bank tomorrow and continue transferring the money!”
Qin Mei smiled and nodded. “All right. Get some rest.”
The door closed.
Qin Mei went to another floor and headed toward her room.
When she pushed open the door, she saw Huo Mian lying facedown on the bed, crying, her shoulders trembling.
Qin Mei closed the door. As she changed her shoes, she glanced toward the bed. “What’s wrong?”
Huo Mian lifted her tear-streaked face and looked over. “Mom, A-Ning came today and tried to make me leave the center! I tried to use everything Dad did for him in the past against him, but he said he could help me find a job and give me a career to rely on, but he couldn’t take care of me for the rest of my life! He wants to cast me aside!”
Qin Mei let out a laugh. “What’s the big deal? …Where is he now?”
Huo Mian sniffed. “He went to the Corridor of Life.”
Qin Mei nodded and asked softly, “Do you remember what I taught you when you were little?”
Huo Mian blinked. Her mother had taught her too many things, and she couldn’t immediately tell which lesson she meant.
“If you can’t reach someone, destroy him. Drag him down, then save him.”
“There are many ways to destroy a person. You can make him go bankrupt, deliberately cause an accident that disfigures him, or give him medication over a long period of time to ruin his health… All of these are possible.”
“But Yu Zhining is a highly educated doctor, so those things would be very difficult to carry out against him.”
“The simplest way is to target his personality.”
“He’s clear-headed and restrained. He likes to use reason to conceal his emotions. Ever since I met him, I’ve never seen him show any particularly strong emotional fluctuations.”
“He and his sister, Yu Lingyi, truly are siblings. Their personalities are very similar. Both of them are extremely good at controlling themselves, although his sister occasionally shows some emotion. He, however, possesses an almost inhuman level of rationality.”
“So we can use his reason and self-control to make them turn against him.”
“Make him feel guilty and loathe himself.”
“Once a person believes he is guilty, he will instinctively distance himself from the source of his guilt and seek forgiveness.”
“When that happens, you won’t have to do anything. You only need to become the person who forgives him.”
“So… we can repeat what we did to him more than ten years ago. Now that he’s an adult, the damage will be even greater.”
After hearing her mother’s words, anticipation slowly appeared in Huo Mian’s eyes.
The things they had done back then had indeed produced excellent results.
