Chapter 1830 — An Explanation

Gu Mengyao turned and walked back toward the living room, while Shen Yushu studied An Jianwen with an odd, appraising look that sent a chill crawling over his skin. What scheme was this little minx cooking up now? He had already fallen for her tricks more than once.

In truth, Shen Yushu had no intention of setting a trap for him—she was simply wondering privately whether this whole business was as clean as it appeared, or whether the innocence was all a performance.

"All right. Whatever you have to say, say it now," Gu Mengyao told An Jianwen.

"Yaoyao, you may believe in your heart that Uncle Chu's bankruptcy—and his suicide by car when he had nowhere left to turn—was our family's doing. But how unjustly have the Ans been treated? My father lent Uncle Chu money, and for that my grandfather gave him a thorough dressing-down!" An Jianwen smiled bitterly. "If Grandfather weren't so fond of me, I expect even this villa of yours wouldn't be safe—it would surely have been taken back!"

"The businesses have all ended up under your family's name. What more could you possibly want?" Gu Mengyao countered.

"Uncle Chu's businesses and the Gu Group shares did indeed come into our family's hands. But have you considered, Yaoyao, that what my father lent your father was three billion in cash? Reckon it up—the Gu Group shares and those properties, added together, do they come to three billion? Even if they exceed it, what our family put out was cash, and what we bought back were shares and property. Invisibly, that means a heavy loss!" An Jianwen explained. "After all, property isn't money until it's sold, and shares won't return their value unless the company is run. But our family no longer has that three billion, and even our own company's operations have suffered for it. All told, we're victims too!"

"You're saying the three billion you lent my father was lost as well—it never went into your pockets?" Naturally Gu Mengyao did not believe him.

"Yaoyao, to be honest, it was indeed my father who pulled your Uncle Chu into this project in the beginning. Perhaps that is what made you misunderstand." An Jianwen went on: "But in the later stages, my father kept urging Uncle Chu to pull out, and Uncle Chu was like a man possessed—nothing my father said would get through to him. Out of regard for an old friend of many years, my father couldn't refuse him, and so he took the risk of lending him the money..."

"Daddy is lying in the hospital, unconscious, and only now do you say all this. How am I supposed to believe you?" Gu Mengyao said, not the least bit moved.

"Ah, I knew you wouldn't believe me..." An Jianwen shook his head helplessly. "But it doesn't matter, Yaoyao. Our company records all its phone calls. If you truly don't believe me, I'll have someone pull up the recordings from back then, and you can listen for yourself!"

"Recordings? Really?" Hearing this, Gu Mengyao grew uncertain again. Could it really be that her father had ignored all advice and clung stubbornly to his course? When she had called him back then, he had seemed so frenzied, and when Qing-bo tried to counsel him, he hadn't seemed to care at all...

"Our company is not like your father's. Three people have the final say—my grandfather, my uncle, and my father. So when a decision goes wrong, someone has to be held accountable for it, and one must know who made the call. To keep anyone from denying it later for lack of evidence, all calls are recorded..." An Jianwen was plainly starting to talk nonsense now; in the An family business, at present only Old Master An and An Mingyue had the final say—and even An Jianwen himself carried considerable weight.

"Then... bring it up and let me hear it..." Gu Mengyao hesitated. Asking to hear another company's recordings was a rather rude thing to do, but she didn't quite believe An Jianwen really had them, and so she had to confirm it for herself.

"Fine, I'll speak to my father now..." An Jianwen did not stall; he took out his phone and dialed An Mingyue's number...

After An Mingyue finished his call, even Gu Mengyao felt a little uncertain. Could the Ans truly be innocent? Otherwise, why would An Jianwen be so confident?

Of course, suspicious as the Ans were, it couldn't be ruled out that they truly were innocent.

"Then why is it that they made money before, and afterward lost everything, down to the last cent?" Gu Mengyao asked.

"Ah, well, there shouldn't have been any loss at all—but for some reason, Uncle Chu suddenly wanted to withdraw a billion. That threw off the groundwork laid earlier and wrecked the whole operation. So not only did the billion never come back, everything was lost outright..." An Jianwen spread his hands, full of regret.

"What? It was because of the withdrawal... that everything was lost?" Gu Mengyao was stunned. Never had she imagined that the root cause of her father's bankruptcy would be his own wish to withdraw funds! Though An Jianwen's words could not be trusted now, she still sank into deep self-reproach.

Was it because of her? If she hadn't called her father asking for a billion, would he have withdrawn the money so suddenly? Was all of it her doing?

Earlier, Qing-bo had skipped over all this because he feared it would hurt Gu Mengyao—and at the time he had been convinced the Ans were behind it anyway, that losing money through a withdrawal was only a pretext, so he had left these details out.

But An Jianwen was intent on making Gu Mengyao resent Wei Zhao, and so he said deliberately: "Yes—in financial speculation, nothing is more taboo than pulling out after the groundwork is laid. It throws the whole plan into disarray at once..."

"Is that so..." Gu Mengyao lowered her head, her spirits sinking.

Seeing that Gu Mengyao did not blame Wei Zhao, An Jianwen was slightly disappointed, but he could say no more. Say too much, and she would surely grow suspicious; Gu Mengyao was no fool. He had gone to great pains to bring her to half-belief, and he would not ruin such a fine situation.

Presently, several messages arrived on An Jianwen's phone. He glanced at them, then said to Gu Mengyao: "They've sent it over. Let me play it for you."

"All right," Gu Mengyao nodded without hesitation.

"Brother Pengzhan, why are you calling again? Didn't we just speak a moment ago? I've sent the current profits to your email—see if you've received them..." The recording began to play slowly from An Jianwen's phone...

At first it was only ordinary conversation, but as it went on, Gu Mengyao's expression shifted ever so slightly.

"Brother Pengzhan, as an old neighbor, let me advise you—futures carry risk. It's not the sure thing you imagine, where you can't lose. When you profit, someone else loses; that's only natural. So enough is enough—pull out, why don't you?"

What followed was Gu Pengzhan's request to withdraw the funds. An Mingyue had warned him then that withdrawing carried risk, but Gu Pengzhan insisted on withdrawing anyway, and Gu Mengyao's face fell... Thinking that her father had done it for her sake, tears welled up and spilled from her eyes...

These few recordings were enough to prove the Ans' innocence, and only now did Gu Mengyao believe it—that this was entirely an accident. Faced with such evidence, she could hardly argue; even if the Ans had played some trick in it, to put it bluntly, Gu Pengzhan had brought it on himself.

They had warned you again and again, and still you wouldn't listen—so when you lost the money, whose fault was that?

"Yaoyao, now do you understand what our family has suffered?" An Jianwen smiled bitterly. "In all this, the Ans gained no advantage at all. It amounts to our having bought these shares and properties with that money."

"Could you send me these recordings?" Gu Mengyao asked, drawing a deep breath. Qing-bo knew nothing of these matters, and the Ans had never explained any of it to him.