Chapter 336 — Hope Shattered in an Instant

And by any normal reckoning, Gu Pengzhan would never resort to this sort of forgery either, because it served no purpose whatsoever. Even if he gained the upper hand at a single shareholders' meeting, the moment Xie Guangbo appeared, the scheme would collapse of its own accord, and Gu Pengzhan would moreover earn himself the reputation of a faithless swindler of shareholders — a clear case of losing far more than he gained.

But to Jin Gubang's mind, Xie Guangbo gifting his shares to Wei Zhao outright was even more impossible. Had Xie Guangbo taken leave of his senses? His son was still in the hands of a foreign gang; his son owed enormous loan-shark debts, and if they went unpaid, it was death and nothing else.

So Xie Guangbo's only recourse was to hold on to the shares in his hands, for only then could he cooperate with Jin Gubang — that was his one way out. If he handed his shares to Wei Zhao at a time like this, what would he have left to cooperate with?

He dialed Xie Guangbo's cell phone, only to find it switched off. Jin Gubang thought nothing of it, though, because these past two days Xie Guangbo had been laid up sick at home and had kept his phone off the whole time. Jin Gubang dialed again, this time the landline at Xie Guangbo's villa.

After a wait, the call was picked up — but not by Xie Guangbo. It was the voice of a strange man: "Hello, who are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for Mr. Xie Guangbo. Is he there, please?" Jin Gubang asked.

"Oh, you're looking for my dad. Hold on a moment, I'll go get him..." The phone had been answered by Xie Jinbiao. Xie Guangbo was overjoyed today — his son had come home — and so he meant to cook with his own hands a few dishes the boy had loved as a child.

In truth, although all of Xie Guangbo's shares had gone to Wei Zhao, he still had some real estate — more than ten residences in Songshan City alone — plus a collection of antiques and jewelry. Sell it all off and he could recoup tens of millions in capital, more than enough to start a little business; he had nothing to worry about. With the shares given to Wei Zhao, he actually felt light and easy. The days ahead, building a business together with his son — those would be the happiest of all.

"W-wait a moment — Xie Guangbo is your father? Who... who are you?" A look of sheer shock came over Jin Gubang's face.

"I'm his son, Xie Jinbiao. What of it? And who might you be?" Xie Jinbiao thought to himself, Is this fellow an idiot? I call him Dad, so who else could I be?

"You... weren't you taken captive by that foreign gang? How are you at home?" Jin Gubang asked, unable to believe it.

"Who are you? How do you know about my being captured?" Xie Jinbiao frowned. "Are you calling just to make trouble?"

"No... I'm a colleague of your father's..." The more Jin Gubang thought, the more wrong the whole thing felt. Why were there so many strange happenings today? Xie Guangbo's son had come home safe and sound, and yet Xie Guangbo's shares had ended up in Wei Zhao's hands.

"My dad's here. Talk to him yourself." Hearing that the caller was a colleague of his father's, Xie Jinbiao held back from cursing the man out. What was wrong with this fellow, so rude? Just because I was captured, does that mean I can never come home?

After a moment, Xie Guangbo's voice came over the line: "Hello? This is Xie Guangbo."

"Old Xie, it's Old Jin here." Jin Gubang forced a laugh. "Was that your son who answered just now? He's back?"

"He's back. What is it?" The warmth Xie Guangbo had shown him before was now utterly gone; what remained was coldness and perfunctory haste. "If there's nothing else, I'm hanging up. I'm cooking for my son."

"Wait — Gu Pengzhan is convening a shareholders' meeting. Did you know about this?" How could Jin Gubang let Xie Guangbo hang up? He rushed out the question.

"What does that have to do with me? I've already given my shares to someone else," Xie Guangbo said, a note of impatience creeping in. "All right, if there's nothing else, I'm hanging up. Goodbye."

"Click, click, click..." A few tones sounded in Jin Gubang's ear, and then the screen read, "Call ended"...

Jin Gubang was stunned — utterly stunned. He gasped for breath in great heaving gulps, at a loss for what to do. Minutes ago he had still believed he was about to become chairman, but this phone call was nothing short of a bolt from the blue, blasting him clean out of his wits.

It was over. Everything was over... Jin Gubang knew there was now absolutely no chance of his becoming chairman. What a joke! The company's largest shareholder and its third-largest shareholder were now one family. What the hell was he supposed to play at anymore?

And those minor shareholders who had previously leaned his way would surely, seeing how things now stood, lean his way no longer. At the shareholders' meetings to come, it was plain as day that Gu Pengzhan and Wei Zhao's side would be overwhelming in their strength. What did he have left to contend with them?

Hope, shattered in an instant.

How Wei Zhao had come by Xie Guangbo's shares, Jin Gubang no longer wished to know. It was utterly meaningless now. The only thing left for him to do was find a way to save his own skin.

Jin Gubang was certain that when Gu Pengzhan moved against him next, there would be no mercy in it. So whether he could become chairman was now a secondary matter; whether he could even keep his place in the company at all was a different question entirely.

"Bang!" Jin Gubang slammed his phone down onto the floor with all his might, and it burst apart on impact.

After smashing the phone, Jin Gubang rose straight to his feet and walked out of the meeting room without a backward glance, his face written all over with gloom.

Gu Pengzhan did not mind. Such a reaction from Jin Gubang was only natural. Gu Pengzhan was not the least bit offended; on the contrary, he felt rather gratified, for back when Jin Gubang and Xie Guangbo had been playing their duet of echo and response, Gu Pengzhan had long since wanted to smash a phone himself.

"The purpose of this emergency shareholders' meeting is to introduce to everyone our new shareholder, Mr. Wei Zhao," Gu Pengzhan said with a smile, presenting Wei Zhao to the other shareholders present.

At once the meeting room rang with enthusiastic applause. No one there was a fool: this man was the company's third-largest shareholder, and he stood in "intimate" relations with Gu Pengzhan's daughter. Who among them would dare offend such a person?

Moreover, by now no one doubted in the least that Wei Zhao had been right to accuse Jin Gubang of borrowing the tiger's might. The man had the capital to be arrogant — he was the company's third-largest shareholder.

"I look forward to working with you all," Wei Zhao said, rising and nodding to the assembly.

"Next, I propose that Wei Zhao be made a member of the company's board of directors. I ask everyone to cast their votes," Gu Pengzhan proposed.

Jin Gubang had already walked out — who would offend Gu Pengzhan on his behalf now? And so, beyond any doubt, Wei Zhao became the company's newest director. Whether Jin Gubang's vote was counted or not no longer mattered in the slightest.

"Heh... though I am a shareholder and director of the company, I authorize Uncle Chu to represent me with full authority. His decisions are my decisions." Wei Zhao had no wish to come to board meetings and shareholders' meetings whenever the whim took him, so he simply handed his rights over to Gu Pengzhan.