"What?!"
Upon hearing Grandpa's words, Gu Xiyan's emotionless face suddenly lost its color as she raised her voice, "My company, why should I have to hand it over?!"
"Why?!" Gu Zhengxin heard this, smiled faintly, and gestured with his hands downward a few times, signaling Gu Xiyan to calm down. He then explained, "Because our Gu Corporation has developed to a point where it has become somewhat difficult to make progress. Without assistance from other families, I'm afraid we could only stop here or even gradually decline. Therefore, we are in dire need of a marital alliance with either the Zhang Family or the Chen Family to gain their resources and support!"
Gu Xiyan, upon hearing Grandpa's righteous words, laughed angrily and spread her hands, "But what does that have to do with me? Why should I sacrifice my own happiness for the development of the family corporation?!"
Gu Tianhe and Lin Lingling's faces changed instantly when they heard Gu Xiyan's words, and they exclaimed in a low voice, "Xiyan, don't talk back to Grandpa!"
Gu Zhengxin didn't mind Gu Xiyan's retort and continued serenely, "You ask what this has to do with you?! Let me tell you how it concerns you."
As he spoke, he looked at Gu Xiyan, his expression growing colder and his tone full of authority, "You were born into the Gu Family; from the moment of your birth, you've enjoyed endless benefits that the family has provided, allowing you to be pampered from a young age, letting you live without worries, without having to struggle for money like the poor. When you've grown up, naturally you must endure the various unpleasant aspects of a large family, as well as shoulder the responsibilities that you ought to bear..."
Then, Gu Zhengxin pointed his finger at Gu Tianhe and Lin Lingling, who stood somewhat helplessly to the side, and said in a cold and defiant voice, "Ask your parents, when they got married, whether they were truly in love or if they had no feelings for each other, marrying just to ensure better relations between the families, for a more secure cooperation."
Gu Xiyan's expression grew darker as she turned to look at her parents.
Gu Tianhe and Lin Lingling, however, helplessly lowered their heads, remaining silent.
Obviously, the truth was just as Gu Zhengxin had laid it out.
Seeing their reaction, Gu Zhengxin scoffed and continued to preach to Gu Xiyan, "You want to enjoy the convenience of being born into the Gu Family, but not fulfill the corresponding obligations. You talk about starting a company from scratch by yourself, yet you take the resources that the Gu Family has provided for you, all the while rejecting the plans we make for you. Where in the world does such a good deal exist?!"
Pausing slightly, Gu Zhengxin's tone turned uncompromising as he raised his voice, "You have two choices, either completely rely on yourself without the backing of the Gu Family, start from nothing on your own, and we'll lower our heads and no longer control you, or, accept our arrangement, kick away that disrespectful boyfriend of yours, and then choose between Zhang Qiuhuai and Chen Xuyang to marry!"
"There are no other options!"
Gu Zhengxin stared at Gu Xiyan's reddening face and said firmly.
Clearly, he had tolerated Gu Xiyan's freedom for years without much restraint, and now he could no longer bear it, perhaps due to the scolding he had received from Mu Jinyu that day, forcing Gu Xiyan to make a decision immediately.
Gu Xiyan, her face red with anger, looked at her grandfather, who stood with an air of moral superiority, and at her parents, who turned their heads away helplessly, not daring to look at her. She suddenly sneered:
"Do I need you to lecture me on how to live my life?"
As she spoke, she pointed at her mother Lin Lingling and said, "You say I'm taking resources from the Gu Family on one hand and refusing your arrangements on the other. Are you referring to the one million yuan I took from my mom to start Face of Jade Group with my best friend?"
Gu Zhengxin nodded and said, "Are you trying to deny that you didn't take the money?"
Gu Xiyan shook her head, "Initially, mom did give me one million yuan as startup capital, but I paid her back tens of millions after the company started making a profit, and I haven't taken a single penny from you since then, so I don't owe you anything at all."
"Not owe anything?" Gu Zhengxin scoffed, saying, "If it weren't for the one million yuan your mother gave you, could your company have started up? Is that what you call not owing?"
"Of course, I don't owe anything!" Gu Xiyan pressed her lips together, locked eyes with her grandfather unflinchingly, and said firmly, "Could you take your one million yuan, lend it out to someone else, get back the principal in a year, and also earn tens of millions in interest?!"
"Absolutely impossible!" Without waiting for Gu Zhengxin to answer, Gu Xiyan directly gave the answer.
"I am fully aware that without the support my mother gave me, the company I started would take at least several more years to develop, which is why I offered such a high interest rate. This return is already more than ten times over, so I fundamentally don't owe you anything!"
Gu Zhengxin was about to say something.
But Gu Xiyan, still riding her surge of anger, continued, "And you accuse me of enjoying the Gu Family's resources and connections, yet unwilling to take responsibility. Since when have my company, Face of Jade, and Linglong ever used the Gu Corporation's name to make collaboration with other companies more convenient?"
Gu Zhengxin sneered, saying, "Even if you don't flaunt the Gu Family's name, as long as you carry the surname Gu, those partners of yours are naturally going to cooperate with you out of respect for our family name!"
"You're overestimating the weight of the Gu Family's name!" Gu Xiyan said scornfully, "Do you really think your Gu Family is one of the Four Great Families of River City? That you carry so much clout?"
Gu Zhengxin opened his mouth but found himself speechless, his face suddenly turning extremely grim.
Gu Xiyan, without any mercy, continued to expose their ugly true colors, saying, "Also, don't think I'm unaware that after I rejected the blind date you arranged with Zhang Qiuhuai all those years ago, you covertly spread word, forbidding anyone from collaborating with me!"
Upon hearing this, Gu Zhengxin's face turned even uglier; he truly hadn't expected Gu Xiyan to have connections aware of these matters.
Gu Xiyan grew increasingly infuriated as she spoke, and since the conversation had already opened up, she simply voiced all the grievances and frustrations that had been festering inside her over the years:
"Your suppression indeed made some who didn't want to give up collaborations with Gu Corporation choose to forego working with me. However, some of the companies I found simply couldn't care less about giving you face!"
"Which of the companies I've worked with lately, including the foreign luxury brand agency I just secured a few days ago, chose to work with me because they were giving face to your Gu Family?!"
"Hah..."
With a cold laugh, Gu Xiyan said, "Now that you see you can't control me anymore, you have the audacity to claim you've given me so much help?"
Her tone intensified, "Over these years, if it weren't for your constant efforts to trip me up behind the scenes, suppress me, and make even getting a bank loan difficult, my Face of Jade Group could have, by now, possibly outstripped your bloated and chaotic Gu Corporation!"
Looking at the drastically changing faces of her parents and grandfather, Gu Xiyan said with a sneer, "Now, no matter how much you try to suppress me, the endorsement deal I just signed with this luxury brand is enough for me to overtake Gu Corporation within a year. So, Grandfather, don't even think about making me bow my head or forcing me into marriage and teaching children!"
Having said her piece, Gu Xiyan turned around stylishly, ready to leave the dinner table.
Gu Zhengxin, however, after being berated by Gu Xiyan, felt as though he couldn't maintain his dignity, and in a burst of annoyed shame he said, "Very well, you really have done quite well. But my dear granddaughter, do you remember the agreement you signed when you took my one million yuan? Oh, you forgot, you didn't really read it, you just signed the agreement, right..."