The rainstorm outside the car window was still raging, but the temperature inside the car was gradually warming up. Li Zhou looked at Gu Yuxiao's profile and suddenly realized——
This game has just begun.
Li Zhou sat in Gu Yuxiao's private office, the city lights shimmering outside the floor-to-ceiling windows. The night sky after the rainstorm was exceptionally clear, and the neon lights cast mottled shadows on the glass, like some kind of secret code.
Gu Yuxiao stood in front of the holographic projection screen, his fingertips running across the equity structure chart of Xinghui Group, and the red laser pen circled several key names.
His movements were precise and graceful, as if he was not analyzing data but playing a game of chess that had been planned for years.
"Zhou Hui is just a puppet on the stage." Gu Yuxiao's voice was calm and sharp, like a sword drawn from its sheath. "There are people behind him."
Li Zhou frowned, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the armrest of the sofa: "Who?"
Gu Yuxiao did not answer immediately, but called up an encrypted file, and a complex financial network diagram appeared on the projection screen.
The names of dozens of shell companies are intertwined like a spider web, and finally converge into a code name - "Night Owl".
"I'm not sure yet." Gu Yuxiao turned around, his dark eyes as deep as the abyss, "But one thing is certain - they targeted you, it's not a coincidence."
Li Zhou's fingertips tightened slightly. Three years ago, his father, an investigative journalist, had died in an "accidental car accident," and Zhou Hui's name had appeared in the police investigation files.
Gu Yuxiao walked up to him and looked down at him, his bone ring gleaming coldly under the light. "I've looked into your father's case."
Li Zhou looked up suddenly, his heart suddenly tightening.
"It wasn't an accident." Gu Yuxiao said calmly, his tone almost cruel. "It was murder."
The air froze for a moment.
Li Zhou's knuckles turned white, and his voice was hoarse: "...Why are you telling me now?"
Gu Yuxiao lowered his eyes, tapping the tabletop with his fingertips, his rhythm slow and steady: "Because there is not enough evidence."
He paused, his eyes sharp as a knife, "But now, we have a breakthrough."
He pressed the remote control and the screen switched - a blurry surveillance screenshot, showing Zhou Hui and a man in a baseball cap handing over documents at the dock late at night.
The picture zoomed in, and a black tattoo was faintly visible on the wrist of the man in the baseball cap - a night owl with its wings spread.
"Xinghui Group is engaged in real estate on the surface, but secretly..." Gu Yuxiao sneered, a trace of cruelty flashing in his eyes, "smuggling, money laundering, and even drug involvement."
Li Zhou stared at the photo, his throat tightening. "So, they want to get rid of me because of something my father found out?"
"No." Gu Yuxiao's eyes were as sharp as a knife. "It's because you have what they want."
Li Zhou was startled: "What is that?"
Gu Yuxiao slowly uttered two words: "U disk."
Three years ago, when Gu Yuxiao just took over Gu’s company, he noticed the abnormality of Xinghui Group.
On the surface, Zhou Hui is a successful businessman, but Gu's undercover investigation shows that Xinghui's capital flow is extremely unusual - a large amount of funds are laundered through offshore accounts and eventually flow into an account code-named "Night Owl".
Gu Yuxiao did not alert the enemy, but made plans secretly.
He first had Gu's venture capital company "accidentally" invest in several of Xinghui's projects in order to plant spies.
Later, he found out the truth about Li Zhou's father's death through the underground intelligence network - the car accident was caused by people sent by Zhou Hui, and the mastermind behind the scenes was "Night Owl".
But Gu Yuxiao didn't act immediately. He was waiting for an opportunity, a chance for Night Owl to surface on its own.
Until Li Zhou was forced into a desperate situation.
"The USB drive your father left behind is the key."
Gu Yuxiao pulled up an encrypted file, and a police report from three years ago appeared on the projection screen. "There was a black USB drive mentioned in the police records at the accident scene, but it was never brought into the evidence room."
Li Zhou's breathing paused slightly: "...What's in the USB drive?"
"Evidence sufficient to destroy Night Owl." Gu Yuxiao lit a cigarette, his silhouette appearing particularly stern in the smoke. "And your father hid it somewhere only you know."
Li Zhou tried hard to recall, and suddenly his pupils shrank: "...the attic of the old house."
Gu Yuxiao curled his lips, a hint of approval flashing in his eyes: "Smart."
After a long while, Li Zhou finally spoke: "You have changed a lot."
Gu Yuxiao glanced at him sideways: "What's changed?"
"Four years ago, you wouldn't be so..." Li Zhou chose his words carefully, "so at ease."
Gu Yuxiao chuckled, a hint of darkness flashing in his eyes: "People always change."
Li Zhou didn't say anything else.
Gu Yuxiao suddenly asked: "Do you remember the first time we met?"
Li Zhou was stunned, and his memory was pulled back to his high school days six years ago.
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