Chapter 542: The Gu Father and Son Are Stunned!
by cnwebnovelsChapter 542: The Gu Father and Son Are Stunned!
The frenzy surrounding An Menglan’s confession intensified by the second. Barely a few minutes after Wu Chen had checked his feed, Weibo’s servers buckled once more! Evidently, the platform’s engineers could not expand server capacity fast enough to match the torrential influx of users. Such was the staggering reach of An Menglan’s influence.
Once the platform went dark again, Wu Chen pocketed his phone.
He looked across at the other three men.
Li Maoren had finished reading as well. Stowing his device, he raised his head.
Gu Hongtu and Gu Ruibo followed suit, their gazes sweeping over Wu Chen and Li Maoren. Though they tried their best to conceal their inner thoughts, an affair of this magnitude—entangling such prominent figures in a messy romantic triangle—would make complete indifference look utterly unnatural. Had their expressions remained as blank as if they were checking the weather, it would have seemed blatantly forced.
The father and son were itching for a show; they wanted to see how Li Maoren would react.
Yet Li Maoren offered nothing that could remotely be considered unusual.
He was so tranquil that one might have suspected he was suppressing a vastly more terrifying wrath beneath the surface. In truth… he was genuinely calm!
Having put away his phone, Li Maoren glanced at Wu Chen. Seeing the young man had finished reading as well, he leaned slightly to the side. Wu Chen leaned in to meet him, and the pair exchanged a few whispered words.
“Sort those two out. Don’t let them get in the way of business,” Li Maoren murmured.
“Mm,” Wu Chen acknowledged with a low hum.
Both men straightened in their seats.
Li Maoren flashed an easy smile toward Gu Hongtu and his son. “Hahaha! An Huaiguo’s daughter is no less of a handful than my own… Enough about her. Let us discuss business.” He checked his watch and looked back up. “We’re pressed for time.”
Gu Hongtu and Gu Ruibo froze in unison.
Stunned!
Completely bewildered!
Gu Hongtu was a seasoned veteran; despite the violent waves churning in his chest, he picked up the conversation without missing a beat: “Of course, of course. Let us talk business! Hahaha! It truly is getting late…”
The Gu father and son were thoroughly flabbergasted!
What kind of reaction was that from Li Maoren? Could that even be called a reaction?!
Your prospective son-in-law’s lover just threw down the gauntlet to your daughter in front of the entire country, and you act as though nothing happened? You even lean in to trade quiet whispers with him? Are the two of you truly on such equal footing? Does Wu Chen hold a higher place in your heart than your own flesh and blood?!
They could never comprehend the depth of Li Maoren’s affection for Wu Chen.
It wasn’t merely a matter of Wu Chen’s peerless capabilities.
It was because… someone had finally appeared who could rein in his daughter!
From childhood, Li Ruobing had waged war against the entire world; she dared to slap her elders and curse Old Master Li to his face, bowing to no living soul! Yet Wu Chen had managed to tame her completely!
Whenever that realization crossed Li Maoren’s mind, he couldn’t help savoring the spiteful thrill: You wretched girl, your day has finally come!
It was a source of immense private satisfaction!
Back to business!
The core topic was Wu Chen’s proposal: drawing the An family into their covert alliance!
Shared interests were the glue that bound factions together. This time, those interests revolved around the formidable clan entrenched behind Hezhong Media…
The Yin family!
Yet unlike their previous maneuvers, the Yin family was not a target slated for total destruction.
A coordinated application of pressure, accompanied by tactical concessions and exchanges of benefits, would suffice to force the Yin family to take a calculated loss without causing relations to rupture beyond repair. In the end, they needed only to ensure that the second-generation member of the Yin clan withdrew his backing from Hezhong Media.
Absorbing a Xiangjiang financial dynasty into their inner circle would significantly bolster the leverage they could mobilize when they eventually moved against the Ding family’s faction, while broadening their strategic options against unforeseen crises.
Consequently, neither the Li family nor the Gu family cared about the immediate financial spoils of this venture.
The An family itself was the greatest prize!
To draw the Ans completely into the fold, however, mutual trust had to be forged.
Together, they would dismantle Hezhong Media and carve a path for the An family’s Huaxing Group to expand across the mainland! They would execute a “bad deed” as a unified front, offending an elite dynasty in the process! Once Hezhong Media’s equity changed hands, An Menglan would emerge as its largest shareholder, while a portion of the shares would be allocated to front men representing the other allied families, offering them a taste of the spoils.
Thus, their shared interests would be cemented!
The operational details that followed would naturally be exceedingly intricate. The existence of the alliance had to remain entirely shielded from outside scrutiny; they needed to create the illusion that the An family had paid some price to persuade the Li family to counterbalance the Yin clan.
That was the precise perception they wished to cultivate!
When the dust settled, it would merely appear that An Huaiguo, armed with his formidable network of connections, had somehow secured the intercession of multiple prominent mainland clans! Not just a solitary clan, but powerful families spanning the nation… until the Yin family had no choice but to concede defeat!
There would be no formal alliance!
Merely high-level exchanges of favors and strategic horse-trading!
Complex though the broader machinations sounded, tonight’s mission was straightforward: several heavyweight figures would present themselves before An Huaiguo to lend their full weight to Wu Chen!
They would untie the final knot in An Huaiguo’s mind!
So what if Hezhong Media was a colossus? So what if an elite dynasty shielded it?
The forces Wu Chen could summon could crush them with effortless ease!
Throughout the discussion, Wu Chen barely mentioned An Menglan.
To the onlookers, it seemed that taking An Menglan as his lover was merely an incidental perk; compared to the momentous affairs they were orchestrating, romantic indulgences were strictly secondary!
Wu Chen radiated the aura of a man born to steer grand destinies!
None of them realized that for Wu Chen, the woman was the entire catalyst!
He was willing to stir up catastrophic trouble—trouble vast enough to tear through the heavens—purely for the sake of a woman. It pleased him; it was what he desired!
Once the meeting concluded, the four men descended the stairs together.
It was time to depart.
Elsewhere, inside an upscale private dining suite.
An Huaiguo had been conversing jovially with Tang Jingbin, but after taking a phone call, he checked Weibo and found his face instantly clouding over.
He nearly ground his teeth to dust!
“They’ll be arriving shortly,” Tang Jingbin observed, checking his watch.