Chapter 75: A meticulously woven...
When Xie Tang got home, she first took a long shower in the bathroom.
After taking a shower, I changed into loose pajamas, my wet hair loosely draped over my shoulders.
Aunt Yu came over and handed her a cardboard box that was neither too big nor too small.
Xie Tang took it, and the sender's name was clearly written as: Gu Chang.
Didn't he go abroad? What will he send her?
She used a utility knife to cut open the tape, revealing a more beautifully packaged gift box with a small card attached: "Happy 27th Birthday. —Gu Chang."
Just as she was about to close the box, she caught a glimpse of an inconspicuous black USB drive lying at the bottom of the box out of the corner of her eye.
There are no labels or descriptions.
Xie Tang picked up the cold USB drive, and for some reason, an ominous premonition quietly rose within her.
She went to the study, turned on the computer, and plugged in the USB drive.
There is only one video file inside, and its name is a string of meaningless characters.
She took a deep breath and pressed play.
The image quality is so-so; it seems to have been taken secretly with a mobile phone, and the angle is a bit off.
The ambiance resembles the terrace of a suite in a high-end hotel.
The silhouettes of two men were clearly visible—they were Chu Song and Chu Li.
Chu Li's voice was filled with obvious anxiety and dissatisfaction: "...Ah Song! You two finally got back together, don't make another mistake..."
Chu Song had his back to the camera, so only his straight back and the hand holding the wine glass could be seen.
His voice carried on the night wind, unusually clear, and unusually cold: "Brother, you don't understand. If you tell her now, she'll just turn around and leave. She can't tolerate any injustice..."
He paused, took a sip of his drink, and said with an almost obsessive certainty, “Everything I’ve done, including…the necessary concealment, is for her own good, to keep her by my side, nothing more.”
"Keep her by your side? Use deception and scheming to keep her here? Ah Song, wake up! This isn't love, it's control! It's kidnapping! Aren't you afraid she'll hate you after she finds out the truth?"
Chu Song slowly turned around, revealing his handsome face, which was shrouded in gloom.
His eyes were unfathomable in the dim light. He chuckled softly, "What I want, I will get. I just want her to stay by my side. There may be deception in the process, but the result is what matters. She will understand my good intentions and forgive me."
He swirled the amber liquid in his glass, his gaze fixed on the distant, glittering city lights, as if declaring, or perhaps speaking to himself: "As for Cisco... she's now just a bargaining chip to keep her from leaving me easily. With this chip, she'll be forever bound to the Chu family, and to me."
“She will understand that I am her strongest support, and only by my side can she get everything she wants, including… protecting her grandfather’s Cisco.”
Chu Li's expression shifted from anger to utter disappointment: "You're insane! Ah Song, to get what you want, you've resorted to scheming, deception, and even exploiting what she cherishes most... Don't you still know what's truly important to you?"
The video ends abruptly here.
The screen went dark.
The entire study was deathly silent.
She suddenly remembered that agreement!
That "protection" agreement she signed, in which Chu Song gifted her 10% of his personal assets!
At that moment, she was touched by Chu Song's words, "I'll give you a sense of security" and "I'll walk a long road with you," and was immersed in a kind of illusory joy of being cherished and promised a future. She was also urged on by the words "So beautiful"...
She quickly glanced at the main terms, confirmed the amount and the nature of the gift, and signed her name under the watchful gaze of his deep eyes!
An overwhelming fear gripped her.
She frantically threw her phone aside, rushed into the bedroom, and stumbled around frantically searching for it.
Where did she put that agreement?
Bedside table!
right!
She just casually stuffed it into the bedside table drawer!
Her fingers were cold and trembling, barely able to grip the drawer handle.
With a clatter, the drawer was pulled open, and the neatly bound agreement document lay there quietly.
Xie Tang grabbed it out, his heart pounding so hard it felt like his ribs were about to shatter.
She forced herself to calm down, her hands trembling, and flipped directly to the last few pages of the agreement—those densely packed additional clauses and appendices that she hadn't looked at carefully before!
Her gaze swept quickly across the obscure legal provisions until a bold headline pierced her eyes:
Appendix Three: Equity Swap and Entrusted Management Agreement
Xie Tang's breathing suddenly stopped!
She forced herself to read on; each word felt like an icicle, piercing her nerves.
Given that Party A (Chu Song) has gratuitously donated assets worth approximately 500 million RMB to Party B (Xie Tang) (see Appendix 1 for a detailed list)...
Party B voluntarily agrees to exchange its 43% equity interest in Cisco Systems (hereinafter referred to as the "Target Equity") for an equivalent amount...
Party B agrees that, effective from the date of this Agreement, it irrevocably entrusts all voting rights and management rights of the target equity held in its name to Party A...
Term of entrustment: From the effective date of this agreement until the duration of the marriage between the two parties...
A thunderbolt exploded in Xie Tang's mind!
Everything before my eyes instantly lost its color, leaving only cold, glaring words spinning around!
Replacement! Entrustment! Perpetual management rights!
What she signed was hardly a "guarantee agreement"!
This is nothing more than a sweet-cloaked contract that uses a 10% "gift" as bait to completely and permanently plunder her most core, 43% control of the Cisco Group, a stake far more valuable than she could have imagined, from her past indenture!
She actually... she actually fell into Chu Song's gentle trap and sweet words and handed over the only talisman and weapon that her grandfather had left her, and even signed a contract to entrust its management to him indefinitely!
"ah!"
A shrill scream, so piercing it was inhuman, burst forth from deep within Xie Tang's throat!
She slammed the agreement to the ground, scattering the papers everywhere.
The overwhelming sense of deception and shame of being fooled completely overwhelmed her!
Xie Tang sat stiffly in the chair, his blood seemingly freezing in an instant, then completely frozen by a chill that surged up from the depths of hell.
She couldn't feel her breath, couldn't feel her heartbeat. The only thing left in the world was the all-consuming darkness on the computer screen, and Chu Song's cold, calculating, and arrogant words, which pierced her eardrums, her mind, and her heart again and again!
"Stay by my side."
"The process may be deceptive, but the result is what matters."
"Cisco... is the key that makes her unable to leave me."
"Only by my side... can she protect her grandfather's Cisco."
I see……
I see! ! !
All the tenderness, all the generous gifts, all the heartfelt promises... were nothing but a meticulously crafted, calculated deception!
He married her not because of who she was!
He kept her by his side, never because of love!
Everything he did was to use her grandfather's life's work—Cisco Group—as a chain to bind her! As a bargaining chip for Chu Song to control everything!
The so-called marriage alliance, the so-called arrangement by Old Master Chu... it was probably all a scheme set up by Chu Song from the very beginning to control the Cisco shares that were about to belong to her!
Qin Ruhai's desperate situation and the Chu family's "help" were all part of the plan!
"Cough..." A suppressed whimper, like that of a dying animal, squeezed out of Xie Tang's throat.
She suddenly covered her mouth, her body trembling uncontrollably.
A chill even deeper than when she learned that Qin Ruhai had angered her grandfather to death and altered his will instantly swept over her entire body.
That was the most trusted, the closest, even... person she was ready to entrust her life to, who stabbed her in the back in the most cruel way, a heart-wrenching betrayal and despair!
She thought Chu Song was the one who gave her warmth and support in her cold world, but she never expected that he was the hunter who dug the deepest trap under her feet and pushed her into an abyss of no return!
The overwhelming sense of deception overwhelmed her like a tsunami, a hundred times worse than Qin Ruhai's betrayal!
The pain in her heart made her vision blur and she almost suffocated.
Her stomach churned violently, and a strong feeling of nausea made her push back her chair and rush into the bathroom next door. She gagged violently into the toilet, but nothing came out; only bitter bile burned her throat.
She leaned against the cold washbasin, looked up, and saw her reflection in the mirror: her face was deathly pale, her wet hair clung messily to her face, her eyes were empty and broken, filled with unbelievable shock and despair after being utterly destroyed.
The tears had long since dried up, leaving only boundless coldness and hatred.
It turns out that from beginning to end, she was just a pawn that was coveted, used, and schemed against.
The 43% equity left to her by her grandfather was not a talisman, but bait that attracted wolves and the heaviest shackle around her neck!
Chu Song's kindness to her, every single moment, was imbued with his ambition for Cisco!
"Heh...hehe..." Xie Tang looked at her disheveled self in the mirror and let out a series of broken and desolate laughs. The laughter grew louder and louder, echoing in the empty bathroom, filled with self-mockery and the madness of destroying everything.
She staggered back to the study, reached out, and grabbed the phone from the table.
The screen lit up, and the lock screen photo was a picture of her and Chu Song. In the photo, Chu Song was holding her, his smile gentle and doting.
The scenes that once warmed her heart now felt like the most heartbreaking irony, piercing her eyes with pain.
Xie Tang stared intently at Chu Song's handsome face on the screen. A tremendous sense of humiliation and anger at being deceived surged within her completely frozen heart like volcanic lava, searching for an outlet to erupt.
She needs answers.
A bloody answer that he himself spat out!
No matter what abyss this answer will push her into!
-----------------
Just then, Xie Tang's phone started vibrating wildly.
The name that was flashing on the screen was the one she hated most at that moment—Chu Song.
Xie Tang stared at that name, his eyes burning with a deep-seated hatred and a madness that wanted to destroy everything.
She reached out with trembling hands and swiped to answer the call, but couldn't utter a single word; only her rapid, broken breathing came through the receiver.
"A-Tang?" Chu Song's deep, pleasant voice came from inside. "I just finished work. Should I come pick you up? Or take you to get something to eat? I know a new place that just opened..."
"Chu, Song." Xie Tang finally found her voice, "...Romanée? Or...that Italian restaurant with the river view that you like?"
The name she gave was that of the terrace restaurant where he and Chu Li were talking in the video.
There was an instant silence on the other end of the phone.
Even the sound of breathing disappeared.
The deathly silence, like a final verdict, definitively confirmed the authenticity of the video and his crime!
"Heh..." Xie Tang let out a cold laugh, filled with endless mockery and hatred. "What? Did I hit the nail on the head? Afraid to say a word?"
"Ah Tang, where are you? I'm coming right now!" Chu Song's voice was tinged with panic; he clearly hadn't expected her to already know about Romani.
“Okay.” Xie Tang’s voice was unusually calm, eerily calm. “Let’s go to that Italian restaurant you mentioned where you can see the ‘weights’. I’ll be waiting for you.”
She deliberately emphasized the word "weight".
Before Chu Song could say anything more, she hung up the phone.
Half an hour later, in the most private room of that Italian restaurant, famous for its luxurious river views and top-notch service.
Chu Song was already sitting inside, with a glass of water in front of him.
He still looked handsome and noble, but a lingering gloom hung between his brows, and his eyes were as deep as an icy pool, tightly locked at the door.
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