Chapter 1804 — Total Loss

"How should I put this..." An Mingyue seemed to be trying with all his might to talk Gu Pengzhan out of it, yet could not find the words. At last, after hesitating again and again, he said, "Well, then—Brother Pengzhan, you and I are both businessmen, and even brothers keep clear accounts. Write me a letter of authorization: whatever problems arise from the withdrawal, our side bears no responsibility..."

"Fine, no problem." Gu Pengzhan did not think twice about it; with the hypnotist's suggestion working on him, he drew up the authorization without a moment's hesitation.

Once the document was in his hand, An Mingyue did not linger. He took the hypnotist with him and went straight back to the company—though on the way he could barely keep from laughing up at the heavens. What a stroke of fortune this was!

An Mingyue and An Jianwen had handled the whole affair with the greatest care, keeping the phone recordings precisely because they feared Gu Mengyao would grow suspicious once she learned the outcome and set Wei Zhao on them. But now the Gu family's only pillar of support, Wei Zhao, had actually been crippled by qi deviation—it was as though Heaven itself were aiding the An family!

That billion, An Mingyue certainly would not return; and not only that billion—not a single cent of the money already sunk would go back to Gu Pengzhan.

Originally, An Jianwen and An Mingyue had meant to cook up a fake loss on one of the long or short runs. The only difficulty was this: the financial genius had been making money all along—how could he suddenly lose it all, clean to the bone?

The futures market was capricious, true, but even so it would not quite add up, and people would grow suspicious. Now, however, that problem had vanished. An Mingyue could simply plead that Gu Pengzhan had insisted on withdrawing his capital, forcing the traders to abandon their original plan, so that a blunder occurred—and not only did the money fail to come out, but the whole position was wrecked, and every last cent was lost.

When the news reached him, An Jianwen was overjoyed as well. Wei Zhao had actually suffered qi deviation? Heaven had opened its eyes! The greatest obstacle before them was gone; from now on, what could they not do as they pleased?

At that thought, An Jianwen and An Mingyue put the scheme into action without the slightest scruple. And when Gu Pengzhan received An Mingyue's reply, it struck him like a thunderbolt from a clear sky. Phone in hand, he sat frozen in his office, unable to speak a word...

Lost? All of it? How could that be? Simply because he wanted to withdraw his capital early, the entire plan had been thrown into disarray, and everything was gone? Gu Pengzhan's expression was dazed; staring at the familiar office, he felt a bitter ache twist through him...

All the striving of how many years—gone in an instant? Yet for all his grief, Gu Pengzhan did not forget what mattered most. After An Mingyue gave him the news, he forced down his sorrow and said, "Brother Mingyue, could you lend me a billion first? This money means everything to me—I swear I'll repay you double in the future!"

"Brother Pengzhan, it's not a question of my lending you a billion now. Most of the money you lost was put up by our An family in the first place. Right now my elder brother and the old master are both pressing me to take over the Gu Group..." An Mingyue said with a bitter smile. "Brother Pengzhan, you know as well as I do that our family poured most of its funds into lending to you. Where would we find money now?"

"What?" Gu Pengzhan was dumbstruck. The company too—was that gone as well? When he had pledged the company's shares and his industrial properties as collateral, he had never once imagined he might lose; yet under the hypnotist's suggestion he had gambled everything in a frenzy.

Even now he could scarcely believe that he had lost it all. How was that possible? The thing was supposed to make money!

"Brother Pengzhan, to be honest, our An family has taken a grievous loss this time as well. We didn't want to go on, but you insisted on one more big play, and when the funds fell short our family put in more—and now it's all gone..." An Mingyue said. "Well, Brother Pengzhan, tomorrow my elder brother will come to take over the company and those industrial holdings... I hope you'll cooperate."

"..." Gu Pengzhan's heart was filled with bitterness, his thoughts in utter chaos. He wanted to say something more, but to his surprise An Mingyue had already hung up.

To the very end, Gu Pengzhan never once suspected that An Mingyue had set him up—which shows just how formidable that hypnotist was, and how powerful the psychological suggestion planted in Gu Pengzhan had been.

Be that as it may, Gu Pengzhan first dialed Gu Mengyao's number. He had promised her he would call as soon as there was news, and now... whatever the case, he had to tell her something.

He wanted desperately to help, but there was nothing he could do. Though he sat in his office, he was in truth a man with nothing left.

"Daddy, how did it go?" Gu Mengyao had been waiting for Gu Pengzhan's call, but a whole day and night had passed with no word, which left her very anxious.

"Yaoyao... I can't free up the funds on my end for the moment..." Gu Pengzhan hesitated, and did not tell her the truth. Yaoyao was already worried sick over Wei Zhao; if she learned that he himself had lost everything, she would only fret the more.

"What?" Gu Mengyao was stunned by her father's words.

"All of Daddy's money is tied up in that big project, so..." Gu Pengzhan said against his conscience. "I'm sorry... Yaoyao, let Daddy think of something else..."

"Daddy... but Wei Zhao's condition won't wait!" Gu Mengyao grew agitated. "If we don't buy the spirit medicine, he... he could be in mortal danger..."

"Daddy will find another way. Yaoyao, don't panic yet..." Gu Pengzhan's voice was full of bitterness. "I..."

"Daddy, then let me think of something..." Gu Mengyao knew her father must truly be in a tight spot; otherwise he would have been even more worried about Xiaoyi than she was—his attitude the last time Xiaoyi was hurt had shown that plainly. At that thought, she could not bring herself to press him further.

She hung up, her face dark. Tang Yun and Xiaoshu had both heard her conversation with Gu Pengzhan and understood her difficulty—but what was to be done about Wei Zhao?

"How about I ask Fatty Lai? See if he has any way?" At her wit's end, Tang Yun could think of no one else but Fatty Lai.

"All right, let's see whether he has money," Gu Mengyao said, her eyes lighting up as she spoke quickly.

But how could they know that Fatty Lai's days were desperate indeed? Every bit of cash on hand had gone to pay the workers' wages, and even so he could not hold out much longer. The Liu family had no money left either; the dealers who had not received their refunds had banded together and were preparing to go to the Liu household and to Fatty Lai's place to demand their debts.

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