Chapter 266 — Plotting Again

Jin Maosheng's face was now just as hideous to look at, and a bandage was wrapped around the back of his head as well—the work of Zhang Yuzhou's leather shoe...

Jin Maosheng was full of regret; he had been far too *** earlier. If he had not, in a moment of hot-headedness, dreamed up such a brainless scheme, he would never have sunk to this wretched state.

Jin Maosheng's plan, taken as a whole, had still been feasible—he had simply chosen the wrong place and the wrong target! Had Gu Mengyao been alone, his plan might well have succeeded, for Gu Mengyao's courage was nowhere near Shen Yushu's.

But he had insisted on striking when Gu Mengyao was with Shen Yushu and Wei Zhao, which cut the plan's effectiveness in half... and the most ill-timed thing of all was that he had chosen the wrong place!

Dressing up as a ghost in a haunted house—scary as the act was, a haunted house by its very nature planted a suggestion in the minds of everyone who entered: this is a haunted house, the ghosts and monsters inside are all fake! Had Jin Maosheng gone ghosting on a deserted night to frighten Gu Mengyao, he might very well have scared her to death! Man scaring man to death—that saying is no empty talk!

There was precedent for such things. The newspapers had once carried a story about a psychologically unhinged high schooler who liked to go out at night dressed as a ghost to frighten people—and he really had scared several to death!

Ordinarily, after thinking up such a scheme, Jin Maosheng would have carefully weighed its feasibility, for he was a cautious man. But today, pressed for time and egged on by Zhang Yuzhou's enthusiastic support, Jin Maosheng had committed this grave error.

Hot heads are dangerous enough; what is worse is when a hot head has another hot head beside him cheering him on. Under such circumstances, even the cleverest of men will make mistakes.

Many criminals do things they regret for the rest of their lives only because a partner egged them on and their blood ran hot for a moment! Did they not know the consequences of crime? Of course they did!

And so it was with today's affair: this plan, which seemed reasonable but was in fact unreasonable, had been pushed through and carried out only with Zhang Yuzhou's support and approval.

What Zhang Yuzhou had in mind was to settle Gu Mengyao quickly, throw Gu Pengzhan into disarray, and then present Young Master Bing with a grand gift. He was desperate to make his mark, and so his blood had run hot.

And Jin Maosheng—he too had wanted to settle Gu Mengyao quickly so that his own family could take over the Gu Group. Time waits for no one, and so he too had let his blood run hot.

Now that they had cooled down, Jin Maosheng and Zhang Yuzhou realized just how laughable and full of holes their earlier plan had been. They had taken a story straight out of the newspapers and used it for themselves, and the result was that they lost the hen while trying to steal the chicken, lifted a rock only to crush their own feet, and got themselves beaten black and blue...

"Jin-ge, they're going bungee jumping. What do we do?" Zhang Yuzhou put down the phone and turned to look at Jin Maosheng.

"This time, we must think of a way to hit the mark in a single blow. We cannot act rashly again! We were far too careless just now!" Jin Maosheng said with venom in his voice.

"Come on, Jin-ge, I bear some of the blame for this too!" Zhang Yuzhou waved a hand. "Back in the Three Kingdoms period, Guan Yu of the Five Tiger Generals—what a formidable figure he was—still lost Jingzhou through carelessness. What about the two of us? We underestimated our enemy!"

"Mm, there is something in what you say!" After hearing Zhang Yuzhou's words, Jin Maosheng's mood improved considerably. Indeed—even Guan Yu could lose Jingzhou through carelessness, so what did one misstep on his part amount to?

"Jin-ge, I think the bungee jump is our golden chance to do away with Gu Mengyao!" Zhang Yuzhou gave a low chuckle and lowered his voice. Before, doing away with Gu Mengyao had been purely to get his hands on the Gu Group's real estate company and curry favor with Young Master Bing; now, however, he was driven by resentment and rage! If not for Gu Mengyao, would his guts have nearly been stomped out of him?

Zhang Yuzhou could not swallow this insult without taking revenge!

"Oh? How so?" This time Jin Maosheng did not dare to make a decision lightly; he needed to think it through carefully before judging the plan's feasibility.

"Jin-ge, if something goes wrong during the bungee jump—say the rope snaps... heh heh—then no one will think it was deliberate murder, and it's relatively easy to pull off, isn't it?" Zhang Yuzhou chuckled and laid out his plan.

"Mm, a snapped rope during a bungee jump—that is indeed a way!" Jin Maosheng nodded. He had to admit that Zhang Yuzhou's suggestion was quite constructive. If an accident happened during a bungee jump, the likelihood of anyone suspecting foul play was relatively small; at the very least, even if they suspected, the evidence would be hard to find. So long as it was handled properly, much of the evidence could be disposed of, and the worst consequence would be that the amusement park's bungee jumping operation would be shut down for rectification—an impact on the group that could be called negligible. Jin Maosheng did not care in the slightest.

"Exactly. We only need to find out when Gu Mengyao is going to jump, then give her a rope that has been tampered with in advance. Below the valley is the sea—once she falls, the waves will carry her away. If we can delay the rescue a little longer, Gu Mengyao is as good as dead!" Zhang Yuzhou said. "This would be relatively low-risk to carry out, and easier too."

"Mm... bungee jumping. Right—I'll call Manager Zhang at the amusement park again and have him coordinate directly with Xiao Ma. The two of us won't show our faces!" With the bandage wrapped around his head, Jin Maosheng was not too keen on going out and losing face again.

In fact, his present appearance was simply too eye-catching. If he went out, he would inevitably draw a great many stares, and he feared Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu's suspicions. So he did not dare go out at will.

Although Jin Maosheng had not had many chances to meet Gu Mengyao, he had nonetheless seen her a few times at banquets, and he was afraid she might recognize him.

Jin Maosheng phoned Manager Zhang at the amusement park. Zhang had arranged the haunted house business before as well, so he asked no questions; he simply got in touch with Xiao Ma and began preparing the next step of the plan.

Manager Zhang was a direct retainer of the Jin family. Sheltered by Jin Gubang's influence within the company, he had pocketed a great deal of money from the amusement park; most of it, to be sure, had flowed into the Jin family's coffers, but Zhang had taken no small share for himself. If this ever came to light, he was a dead man. So when Jin Maosheng told him to do something, he did not dare breathe a word of refusal.

Thus, when Xiao Ma laid out Zhang Yuzhou's plan to Manager Zhang, Zhang agreed without a moment's hesitation and took Xiao Ma straight to the bungee-jump office...

And so, after changing into a work uniform, Xiao Ma became, as smoothly as could be, one of the bungee-jump instructors and supervisors. The man he replaced was Manager Zhang's nephew, so no one paid it any particular attention.

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