Chapter 60
In Gu Hezhu’s private villa, no one had anticipated that the birthday banquet would turn into a crime scene.
After clearing the venue, Gu Hezhu kept Gu Yuetong at her private villa. She had people check all the surveillance footage but couldn’t find any trace of Wang Lin. It was only then that she noticed that the assistant who had been following Gu Yuetong around recently, Li Yi, was missing.
Guessing that Gu Yuetong had arranged it all beforehand, Gu Hezhu was furious and ordered her men to go after them immediately.
Gu Yuetong sat calmly on the sofa, crossing her legs and swinging them slightly. She sneered, “Forget it. I’m guessing the police haven’t gone far. At your age, are you planning to join Huo Bu in the detention center?”
“Are you insane!” Gu Hezhu laughed in anger, her hand trembling as she pointed at Gu Yuetong. “Do you have any idea that you’ll ruin Gu Corporation!”
“So I should just watch you ruin me?” Gu Yuetong was not afraid in the slightest, meeting Gu Hezhu’s gaze. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re plotting. You want to sacrifice me first to stabilize Huo Bu. Am I your toy?”
Gu Hezhu froze, clearly embarrassed at having her thoughts exposed. She forced a retort, “You’re still young, you don’t know what it means to prioritize the bigger picture… In any case, you can’t just publicize something as private as your sexual orientation!”
“That’s you. To me, it’s not private.” Gu Yuetong pressed on, her eyes shifting to Doctor Cen, who was coming down the stairs. “Besides, you’re the one who can’t keep up with the times. The environment now is very open-minded. Let alone having dated Wang Lin, so what if I marry a woman?”
“A love that has to be hidden away will have regrets even in old age.”
“I must have done something terrible in a past life to have agreed to give birth to you!”
“Well, I’ve already been born!” Gu Yuetong sneered and stood up. “It’s a pity about Doctor Cen’s age. Even if she were willing to bear another puppet for you, it would be too late.”
Upon hearing this, the faces of everyone present changed, especially Gu Hezhu’s. She thought she had hidden it so well. How did Gu Yuetong find out?
“What nonsense are you talking about!”
“Everyone has eyes. We all know in our hearts whether I’m talking nonsense or not. Even I can see it, do you think others are fools?”
She didn’t want to continue clashing with Gu Hezhu; it was meaningless and a waste of energy. Right now, she just wanted to go back to East Mountain Manor to see Qi Baizi and hug her. She missed her so much. She should have been there when she won this battle.
After she said those words, the air seemed to freeze. After a few seconds of silence, she turned to walk past Gu Hezhu and Doctor Cen, intending to go upstairs to get her things, but was stopped by a bodyguard who suddenly appeared.
She frowned and looked back. “What is the meaning of this?”
Gu Hezhu said, “From now on, you are not to take a single step out of here without my permission. I’d like to see who will be the most anxious when you disappear.”
As she spoke, a glint of triumph flashed in her eyes, along with a hint of probing.
Gu Yuetong instantly understood her meaning, knowing that her purpose for making such a big scene had been exposed. Her expression changed.
“After all these years, your suspicious nature hasn’t changed a bit. It reminds me of when you used to torture me.” Gu Yuetong narrowed her eyes, which were similar to Gu Hezhu’s, and lifted her chin. “Then I can at least go back to my bedroom, right?”
Gu Hezhu gave the two bodyguards a look. “You two, follow her upstairs.”
Doctor Cen then stepped in to smooth things over. “Forget it, I’ll escort Yuetong upstairs.”
Gu Hezhu didn’t say anything, which was taken as tacit approval.
Doctor Cen followed Gu Yuetong up the stairs, step by step. Gu Yuetong’s face was expressionless until just before entering the room, when she turned and gave Doctor Cen a deep look.
Doctor Cen immediately grabbed her arm and said the words she had been holding back for a long time. “Today is her birthday, you shouldn’t have argued with her. No matter what, you are still mother and daughter…”
Gu Yuetong paused, then let out a silent sneer. After a half-second pause, she said, “You love her very much. Unfortunately, I also have someone I love.”
“But you shouldn’t have chosen today.” Doctor Cen’s voice was not loud, but it was very serious. Gu Yuetong stared at her face and couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
“I’m sorry, not everyone is willing to be hidden away like you,” Gu Yuetong said, enunciating each word. “What I want is to be open and honest.”
Doctor Cen was rebuffed. After she went downstairs, the irrelevant personnel had already been dismissed. Gu Hezhu was clutching her chest, sitting on the sofa.
Doctor Cen sat down beside her, restrainedly taking her hand, while her other hand went behind her back to help soothe her.
She glanced sideways at Doctor Cen. “Got shot down, did you? I told you she’s impossible to reason with, just like the person who gave birth to her!”
“Yes.” Doctor Cen paused, then tried to comfort her. “You can’t force it. Maybe there’s just a generation gap.”
“You want to ease our relationship, but she looks down on us with naked contempt. She wants her love to be known by the whole world. She doesn’t understand what that means at all!”
As Gu Hezhu spoke, she sighed again. Doctor Cen paused, then looked up. “But what we did was indeed excessive, wasn’t it?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Yuetong is grown up now. She’s not anyone’s toy. You want her to be with Huo Bu…” Doctor Cen tried to persuade her. “Perhaps what we should be doing is helping her clear the obstacles, not adding pressure…”
“You don’t understand…” Gu Hezhu subconsciously wanted to retort, but at that moment, Gu Yuetong’s roar suddenly came from upstairs, followed by the sound of a key locking a door. Then, two bodyguards came downstairs.
Gu Yuetong’s phone was placed squarely in front of Gu Hezhu. Doctor Cen wanted to say something but held back, watching helplessly as Gu Hezhu unlocked Gu Yuetong’s phone.
“Beibei’s birthday. She still hasn’t let it go after all these years. You should know how much she hates me.” Gu Hezhu said, glancing at Doctor Cen as if to prove her point, then skillfully opened the commonly used chat app.
At the top was a work group with only shareholders. Scrolling down, there were some business collaboration groups for art exhibitions. The most frequent contacts were Auntie Qin and Li Yi. Opening the chat history, there were only a few brief messages, all related to work.
Doctor Cen said, “You see, Yuetong is very sensible…”
“You don’t understand. The cleaner it is, the more something is wrong.” Gu Hezhu interrupted, tapping on the contacts list and scrolling down to find the chat with Qi Baizi.
It was completely blank.
Gu Hezhu paused. She had heard that Qi Baizi was unwilling to continue working for Gu Yuetong after being injured at the press conference. Not only that, but she had also sued Han Zhiyu, and Gu Yuetong had arranged another job for her as compensation.
But how could all of this be so strange?
Qi Baizi had confronted her multiple times for Gu Yuetong’s sake. Did she suddenly resign just because she felt a little wronged?
Besides, in Gu Hezhu’s eyes, Qi Baizi had brought it upon herself. Not holding her responsible was already good enough. What grievance was there to speak of?
Doctor Cen saw the page freeze and gently squeezed Gu Hezhu’s finger. Gu Hezhu came back to her senses, then tapped on Qi Baizi’s profile picture. It was fine before she tapped, but once she did, she suddenly noticed that there seemed to be a cat in the background of Qi Baizi’s profile picture.
Then she remembered that Gu Yuetong’s new profile picture was also a cat. Gu Hezhu hesitated for a moment, then sent a message to Qi Baizi using Gu Yuetong’s phone: a smiling emoji.
On the other end of the screen, Qi Baizi fell silent, staring at her phone.
Li Yi had just sent a message to tip her off, saying she was on her way to take Wang Lin to the airport, but Gu Yuetong had been detained. For Gu Yuetong to suddenly send a message at this time, Qi Baizi couldn’t figure out the intention behind it.
After hesitating for a few minutes, Qi Baizi replied with a question mark.
Online, Gu Yuetong was always concise, whether it was for work or flirting. Superfluous, meaningless emojis were neither in character for her nor a cost-effective way to communicate.
A suspicion began to grow in Qi Baizi’s heart. Sure enough, another emoji came back from the other side… it was a hug emoji.
Qi Baizi fell silent again.
She was certain this wasn’t Gu Yuetong.
Then it could only be Gu Hezhu or one of her subordinates.
In other words, Gu Yuetong was being held.
The unease in her heart magnified infinitely. Although she knew they were mother and daughter, related by blood, she couldn’t help but speculate. Gu Hezhu was ruthless and had no bottom line. What if she did something to Gu Yuetong—
Auntie Qin’s timely appearance interrupted her wild thoughts. A plate of fruit was placed on the coffee table.
“Don’t worry, Yuetong promised to have dinner together tonight.”
Qi Baizi grabbed onto the phone like a lifeline and showed it to Auntie Qin. Auntie Qin hesitated for a moment, then also became serious.
“Will President Gu be safe?”
“…” Perhaps having witnessed Gu Yuetong’s miserable state after being tormented by Gu Hezhu too many times, Auntie Qin didn’t dare to say for sure. She could only try to comfort Qi Baizi first. “After all, Gu Corporation still depends on Yuetong. She probably won’t go too far…”
“But the public opinion online is now polarized. The supporters and opponents are evenly split. Is this good or bad for Gu Corporation?”
A wealthy heiress from a prestigious family, an art graduate entering the business world, and a lesbian. To some people, it was like a triple buff. After some supportive comments championing freedom, the acidic voices of condemnation grew louder and louder.
Auntie Qin didn’t know how to answer Qi Baizi, but she guessed what she was thinking of doing. “Don’t be rash. Maybe Gu Hezhu is just waiting for you to fall into her trap.”
“I know.”
Qi Baizi became agitated. It was precisely because she didn’t dare to act rashly that she felt even more anxious, being unable to do anything.
In her hesitation, her phone suddenly vibrated. The call was from Store Manager Pei Ran.
After answering, Pei Ran’s voice was frighteningly loud, shouting into the phone, “Are you busy? If not, get back to work!”
Qi Baizi frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know which customer god wrote a feature article about our store. We’ve become an internet-famous spot. The threshold is about to be worn down. Both stores are short-staffed, I don’t even have time to drink water!”
“A feature article?” Qi Baizi paused, then an idea came to her. “Do you have the link to that article?”
Pei Ran said, “I do. I’ll send it to you. When are you coming to help?”
“I’m not coming. You got this.” Qi Baizi ignored Pei Ran’s outburst, hung up the phone directly, and clicked on the link to the article.
It was a blogger with 200,000 followers. Not a huge blogger, but still influential.
Coincidentally, this blogger’s previous few articles had only received triple-digit likes. But her feature on their fried chicken shop had received a strong response and was even tagged as a hot topic by the platform.
Qi Baizi hesitated for a moment, organized her words, and directly added the business WeChat that the blogger had posted.
She was accepted quickly. The other party probably thought a big deal had come their way and seemed quite enthusiastic.
But Qi Baizi said: I have a story to leak.
The other party sent a question mark.
Qi Baizi said: The fried chicken shop you wrote about, the capital behind it is the currently trending Gu Yuetong. I’m not here to give you money, but if you ride this wave of popularity and continue to post, I guarantee your follower count will double.
The other party hesitated: Why should I believe you?
Qi Baizi said: I’m an employee at the fried chicken shop. You have the right to sue me for slander and fraud.
The other party: Is there anything more, more detailed?
Qi Baizi typed and sent: Not only does she love to eat this fried chicken, but she also paid to build a break room for the employees… and, I also know some other things.