The alloy door of the third underground floor slid open silently under the action of the hydraulic system. Gu Yuxiao sat in a customized medical wheelchair and was pushed by Ying into the circular conference room.
The cold light embedded in the ceiling automatically adjusted to a color temperature of 6000K, illuminating his paper-pale face. The blood stains oozing from the collar of his shirt had solidified into a dark brown color, and the newly formed blood scabs between the gaps in the bandage on his right temple were like spider webs.
Only those gray-black eyes were as sharp as a cold blade drawn from its sheath. When they swept across the twelve curved screens surrounding the wall, all the core members of the Gu family who were whispering to each other fell silent instantly.
"Mr. Gu?!" The rosewood cane in the hands of the great elder on the main screen fell to the ground with a clang, and ninety-nine beeswax beads rolled on the ground.
"You...your vital signs monitor shows that you are still in a deep coma..." The old man's hand, covered with age spots, trembled as he pointed at the medical data in the corner of the screen.
Gu Yuxiao did not answer, his eyes fixed on the split screen in the upper right corner of the screen - his second uncle Gu Yumou was covering half of his face with a bone china teacup, the jade ring on his left ring finger glowed faint green under the light, but the knuckles were white due to the force.
When their eyes met, a trace of panic flashed across the other person's eyes. He then drank the Pu'er tea in the cup in one gulp, not even noticing the tea stains sliding down the corners of his mouth: "Yuxiao, why did you get up? The doctor said you need to rest for at least ten days..."
"Ten days?" Gu Yuxiao turned his wheelchair closer to the conference table, and the titanium alloy wheels made a slight metallic sound as they rubbed against the ground.
"Isn't that enough for someone to exchange the Gu family's land deeds for Chao Zhenshan's cigars?" He raised his hand to signal Ying, who immediately pushed an encrypted terminal to the center of the table.
The holographic projection suddenly lit up - the three-dimensional model showed the equity change trajectory of the oil field in Area A of the Gujia Overseas Energy Project.
The red arrow finally pointed to a shell company registered in Panama. The information of its actual controller slowly rotated in the projection, and it was the name of Chao Zhenshan's illegitimate son.
"False accusation!" The Great Elder stood up suddenly, his gold-rimmed glasses sliding down his nose. "That was a personal investment by a distant relative of the Third House!"
"Personal investment?" Gu Yuxiao pressed the terminal button, and the interrogation video of Zhang Kui appeared on all screens.
The man in the video was pinned to a custom-made interrogation chair, blood dripping from his forehead onto the plaque on his chest that read "Gu Family Security Director." "...Gu Yumou gave me 30 million to modify the thermal imaging data on the third underground floor... He said that if Mr. Gu died 'accidentally,' he'd promote me to Security Director..."
The video switched to a Macau casino surveillance video. Zhang Kui's son was pinned down on the gambling table by a burly man, his tibia cracking with a distinct sound. In the background, the lender's shouting could be heard: "Second Master Gu said this is a down payment for your father!"
Gu Yumou's split screen suddenly flashed with snowflakes, obviously the communication was forcibly cut off.
But on other screens, several elders from the collateral branches had already shrank back, and one young director even knocked over the coffee cup in front of him, and the brown liquid spread on the expensive Persian carpet like fresh bloodstains.
"Is there anyone else who wants to 'temporarily' take over as the head of the family?" Gu Yuxiao's voice spread across every split screen through the microphone. His voice trembled slightly due to the injury on his chest, but it carried an unquestionable pressure.
He raised his hand and pressed his right shoulder. The dressing under his cashmere sweater oozed more obvious bloodstains. The heart rate monitor's alarm sounded from the micro device on the armrest of the wheelchair. The "beeping" sound dragged like a death notice in the silent conference room.
The great elder on the main screen was slumped in a carved chair, his Adam's apple rolling but unable to utter a word.
Gu Yuxiao stopped looking at him and gave Ying an order: "Activate the 'Black Sea' special operations team and block the biometric information of all people involved in the case."
"Notify the Ministry of Justice to prosecute Gu Yumou and his accomplices for 'treason and collaboration with the enemy' and freeze their secret accounts at the Union Bank of Switzerland."
"Mr. Gu," an old director with white hair and beard said in a trembling voice, "considering that Gu Yumou is your second uncle..."
"Second uncle?" Gu Yuxiao turned his wheelchair to face the director, and his sleeves slipped down to reveal the surgical scar on his wrist.
"When he used the Gu family's EMP pulser to buy my life, did he ever think about our blood relationship?" He gestured to the shadow to turn off the projection. The conference room fell into pitch darkness, with only the screen backlight illuminating the cold light in his eyes.
"From today on, all decisions of the Gu family will be approved by me personally. Whoever dares to take another wrong step--" The wheelchair turned in the direction of Zhang Kui's video in the dark.
"The interrogation chair on the fifth underground floor will always be reserved for him."
When the lights came back on, Gu Yuxiao had been pushed out of the conference room. The emergency light at the end of the corridor cast a narrow shadow behind him, like a sharp knife piercing the heart of the Gu family.
He took out his encrypted phone, and the screen showed missed calls from Chao Youye and Ye Qingliu. His fingertips paused for a moment on the message "The Black Sea Fleet is in place" before he finally replied: "Three o'clock sharp, simultaneous closing in."
——————(time dividing line)
In the crystal dome conference room on the top floor of the Ye Group’s headquarters, twelve Swarovski chandeliers illuminate the space in every detail.
The crystal cut into thousands of facets reflected a cold and hard light, falling on Ye Qingliu's pale profile at the end of the long table - he was leaning on the carved leather chair in the main seat, and the medical elastic bandage wrapped around his left shoulder was bleeding a faint red through his silk shirt.
Every breath he took tugged at the wound on his chest, but it didn't stop his fingertips from beating out a regular rhythm on the diamond-encrusted conference table, like the drumbeat of death.
"...In view of Qingliu's serious injury, I propose that I temporarily take over the position of head of the family!" Ye Linyuan stood at the other end of the long table, and the sandalwood folder in his hand knocked against the table, making a "dong dong" sound.
The three elders behind him nodded at the same time, and one of them, a fat, middle-aged man, had already taken out the ink box.
The golden ring dazzled people under the light, but a look of deep sorrow hung on his face: "Yes, yes, Qingliu is a child who works too hard. As elders, we should share the burden."
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