Chapter 1780 — Putting on a Show

"I see..." An Mingyue mused for a moment, then said, "I could discuss it with my family, but Brother Pengzhan, I still advise you to be careful. After all... to put it bluntly, if—and I'm only saying if—you lose the money, what becomes of the business? Do I take it or not? If I take it, I'd feel uneasy and sorry toward you; if I don't, my family would never let it pass. So..."

"Brother Mingyue, since it's collateral, if the money's gone, the business naturally goes to you. What is there to hesitate about?" Gu Pengzhan cut him off with a trace of impatience. "Say no more. It's settled. Why have you turned so wishy-washy, Brother Mingyue?"

"Ah, all right then. I'll discuss it with my elder brother and give you a definite answer afterward..." An Mingyue said.

In truth, the An family enterprise was indeed managed by the two brothers, An Mingyue and An Mingri, with their father, Old Master An, as the largest shareholder. But this time An Mingyue's sole intent was to swindle Gu Pengzhan, so the so-called discussion was nothing more than a show put on to fool him.

Of course, the money would flow into the An family business. An Mingyue did this to earn a little credit in the old man's eyes, and to pave the way for An Jianwen to succeed as head of the An family in the future.

Still, after hanging up, An Mingyue dialed his elder brother An Mingri's number and, over the phone, made a great show of discussing the matter with him.

All of An Mingyue's calls were recorded. He did this purely to stage a performance: his son had set his heart on Gu Mengyao, and once the An family swallowed the Gu family's assets, some "evidence" proving the An family's innocence would be needed so that Gu Mengyao would not harbor a grudge. The recordings of his call with Gu Pengzhan and of his discussion with his brother about the collateral loan would serve as the most damning proof.

If Gu Mengyao ever grew suspicious, he need only play the recordings to prove the An family's innocence—that the whole affair had nothing to do with them, that Gu Pengzhan had acted alone in a fit of rashness, and that he himself had tried several times to talk him out of it, all to no avail. It was not An Mingyue who had deliberately set a trap.

After the performance with An Mingri, the latter was in no hurry to reply to Gu Pengzhan. Instead he turned to An Jianwen beside him and asked, "Jianwen, this time we've swindled Gu Pengzhan out of everything he owns. You don't think he'll take it so hard he'll kill himself?"

"And if he does?" An Jianwen said dismissively.

"If he kills himself, won't our An family become indirect culprits? And the matter between you and Yaoyao..." An Mingyue said with some worry.

"Heh. Once Gu Pengzhan is dead, Gu Mengyao will have no one to rely on. That's when I appear, and it will be all the easier to win her heart. On the contrary, if he doesn't die, I'll be worried he'll meddle," An Jianwen said. "The Fire Wolf Gang's hypnotist is formidable, and Gu Pengzhan shouldn't be able to see through the trick—but one can never be too careful. So his death would set my mind at ease."

"So that's how it is. Hearing you say that, I'm relieved. Then we can act without restraint..." An Mingyue nodded, picked up the phone, and dialed Gu Pengzhan's number.

Meanwhile, in an abandoned underground factory in Songshan City sat a young man with a cold, stern face. His features were steeped in a savage violence—unwillingness, fury, and a trace of regret and remorse.

"Brother De, that An Jianwen is nothing but a reckless fool who dares do anything, and that's how he won the Fire Wolf Gang's support. A man with brains like you, cautious in everything he does, fares worse in the gang than he does. It's really unfair!" This was Brother De's chief strategist, known as Cao Zhuge—a name meaning "surpassing Zhuge Liang."

And this Brother De was An Jiande, An Jianwen's elder cousin! The illegal kidney-selling ring in Songshan City had been under his control; he had run it for years without a single mishap. But the moment An Jianwen arrived, that money-making channel was cut off. Though he had to admit An Jianwen had raked in more in one month than he had in several years, it was a one-shot deal—it could never be done again.

Watching his reckless younger cousin win the Fire Wolf Gang's favor, An Jiande truly felt a pang of resentment. In cunning and intellect he was no less than An Jianwen, and in conduct he was far more steady. Yet simply because he had not pulled in as much money as An Jianwen, he had never received the gang's attention.

Look at the men around him—the strongest was merely a Yellow-rank expert. An Jianwen, by contrast, had a Mystic-rank expert, Dr. Yin, and that formidable hypnotist. So An Jiande was unwilling to accept it. After weighing the pros and cons, he decided to try his hand at the crooked trades too, and start raking in money.

Of course, every illegal venture Songshan City had to offer had already been exhausted by An Jianwen—that was what galled An Jiande most. But he did not want to go to another city. Songshan City was, after all, his old base; he knew every aspect of it well and enjoyed the advantage of terrain.

So after considering various crooked industries, An Jiande set his sights on thievery—because he had discovered, to his astonishment, that the several thief gangs formerly in Songshan City seemed to have vanished without a trace! After all, An Jiande had run an illegal organ trade here for years, and everyone in the underworld knew him. So when he found the thief gangs gone, he decided to take their place, form a gang of thieves, and begin stealing.

After all, An Jian**the only thing left untouched was theft—and done well, theft was no small profit! At present An Jiande was only testing the waters, so naturally he did not go all out. He merely recruited some hands and trained some orphans to pick pockets at supermarkets, train stations, and the like. If all went smoothly, he would add more skilled work—picking locks and slipping bolts—to steal from companies.

Of course, such a crowd appearing suddenly in Songshan City would surely draw the attention of the observant, and if trouble arose then, it would be hard to handle. So to cover it up, An Jiande deliberately had his few Yellow-rank experts take the orphans and set up a stage on the night-market street, putting on acrobatic performances and claiming outwardly to be a circus—that way, no one would dare to investigate them.

For the fastest updates, ad-free reading, please visit.