Chapter 882 — Wei Zhao Borrows Money

"I'll give you an account number — you transfer the money there. Once I've confirmed it's arrived, I'll give you an address. You tell that man named Wei Zhao to come collect your daughter and her best friend. Remember: he comes alone. If more than one person shows up, the men we've left behind would sooner kill the hostages." Zhen Yingjun said, "Of course, I'm sure Mr. Gu is a sensible man and won't go to the police. The men at my side were capable of taking out Qing Bo, so they can just as quietly wipe out your whole family."

Gu Pengzhan was rather puzzled as to why the other side had named Wei Zhao specifically to fetch the hostages, but among the people around him, Wei Zhao was the only one he could rely on. If Wei Zhao did not go, who else could he send?

"All right, I won't call the police. I hope you will keep your word," Gu Pengzhan said.

"You needn't worry about that. Even kidnappers have rules of the trade. Look at how professional we are, and you'll know we're the real thing," Zhen Yingjun said. "The account number is..."

Zhen Yingjun recited a string of account details, then had Gu Pengzhan write them down and repeated them back to verify before finally hanging up.

After the threats, Zhen Yingjun was confident Gu Pengzhan would not dare call the police. With the terrifying strength Ma Zhu had displayed, Gu Pengzhan would surely fear retaliation afterward.

Gu Pengzhan was now a man whose word was law in the Gu Group, so no one dared object when he gathered up the company's working capital. Even so, all the circulating funds combined came to only two hundred and ten million, and that was at the cost of crippling the company's operations for some time to come.

Once those two hundred and ten million were withdrawn, the Gu Group would not have a single cent of working capital left — a fatal blow to the company. But Gu Pengzhan could not afford to care. What occupied his mind was his daughter's safety. Even if it meant resigning the chairmanship afterward and handing over his shares to compensate the other shareholders, so be it.

Wei Zhao knew nothing of business operations, but he did understand how catastrophic it would be for a company to lose all its working capital. So when he saw that Gu Pengzhan intended to withdraw every last penny, Wei Zhao spoke up. "Uncle Chu, let me raise some of it for you."

"You?" Gu Pengzhan was slightly taken aback. He had no idea that Wei Zhao and Fatty Lai had started a company together — Gu Mengyao had never told him. He had simply assumed Wei Zhao and Fatty Lai were on good terms, and had never guessed at the role Wei Zhao played in Dr. Guan Pharmaceuticals.

"Heh..." Wei Zhao took out his phone and dialed Fatty Lai's number. "Fatty Lai, how much cash do you have on hand?"

"Boss? Cash? Why are you asking that all of a sudden? What's going on? Did something happen?" Fatty Lai asked.

"I need it urgently," Wei Zhao said.

"Cash — well, I could scrape together thirty or forty million at most. Everything we made from the auction went into buying production lines and building the factory. Our products aren't on the market yet, and right now most of our capital is sitting in the warehouse as medicine..." Fatty Lai explained.

"Thirty or forty million — that's a bit too little..." Wei Zhao sighed. He had not expected money to burn through so quickly. Launching a pharmaceutical company took such enormous investment. In truth, Fatty Lai had wanted to build the best and largest pharmaceutical company around, and the production lines he had purchased were the most advanced in the world. Dr. Guan Pharmaceuticals was not like the Kangshen Medical Group — besides its wound medicine, it would gradually roll out more sophisticated drugs such as "analgesics," and if possible, even mass-produce the Life-Extending Detox Pill. That would certainly require highly advanced equipment, so Fatty Lai had simply gone for the top in one stroke.

By current calculations, thirty or forty million in working capital would be enough to successfully launch Dr. Guan Pharmaceuticals' first flagship product, Dr. Guan Wound Medicine. They might not even need all thirty or forty million, since the earlier poisoning incident at No. 1 Middle School had already made the company's name known — no advertising was necessary.

And once the product hit the market and sales climbed, it would instantly generate profits in the hundreds of millions.

Wei Zhao knew Fatty Lai had planned everything around the company's current situation and could not have anticipated a sudden need for cash, so he bore him no grudge.

"Boss, how about I borrow some from my brother?" Fatty Lai, sensing that Wei Zhao was in urgent need of money, suggested.

"No need," Wei Zhao said. He knew Fatty Lai and his elder brother did not always see eye to eye, so he declined the offer. "You have Liu Tianyi's cell number, don't you? Give it to me. I'll borrow a bit from him."

"I do. Hang on a moment — his number is 139..." Fatty Lai recited a number for Wei Zhao.

Wei Zhao noted down Liu Tianyi's number and dialed it.

Liu Tianyi had saved Wei Zhao's number back then, but Wei Zhao had never saved his. When the call came through now, Liu Tianyi was startled — he had not expected Wei Zhao to phone him of his own accord.

As the young heir of the Liu family, Liu Tianyi naturally understood how important Wei Zhao was to the family. He had tried every means to forge a connection with Wei Zhao but had never found the opportunity. Earlier, some unpleasantness had occurred between him and Wei Zhao, and their relationship had been far from smooth. Then the affair of his wife's nephew, Wu Chengtian, had offended Wei Zhao further, plunging the Liu family's ties with him to a freezing point.

Fortunately, he had since been humble and low-key enough to thaw things slightly.

Liu Tianyi was filled with endless regret. If not for his spendthrift wife, how could he ever have fallen out with Wei Zhao? Watching Wei Zhao's life-extending detox pills become a hot-ticket auction item, watching his own father transform from a dying old man into someone brimming with health, Liu Tianyi felt ever more keenly just how important it was to stay on good terms with Wei Zhao!

That was why he envied Lai Changshan. This fat Lai had started out as nothing but a small merchant, his business hardly worth mentioning, yet now he had remade himself overnight into Wei Zhao's lackey - and what a lackey! The man was practically riding high enough to punch a hole in the sky!

When Liu Tianyi had spoken with Fat Lai before, he had been polite, yes, but he had also held the upper hand. Now the two of them had neatly traded places, and Liu Tianyi had to tread on eggshells whenever he talked to Fat Lai. What choice did he have? The man's boss was formidable!

Yet Liu Tianyi did not feel the slightest bit humiliated by this. True, not many people were currying favor with Fat Lai at the moment, but he was confident that as the great families came to recognize Wei Zhao's marvels, those who could find no way to reach Wei Zhao himself would scheme and scramble to get on good terms with Fat Lai!