Chapter 222: Chapter 200: No Trace
On Mr. Gu’s first day back at work, he skipped half a day.
He took Qiao Yuxian back to Fenglin Villa.
Halfway there, Qiao Yuxian fell asleep leaning on his shoulder.
She was sleeping quite peacefully, but as they neared Fenglin Villa, her phone ringing woke her up.
As soon as she heard the sound, Qiao Yuxian frowned and flicked the phone in her pocket.
As if trying to mute the phone with one big flick.
But the phone clearly didn’t cooperate and kept ringing.
Qiao Yuxian, unable to do anything, began clutching Gu Yanjing’s clothes.
Gu Yanjing saw her furrowed little brows, took out her phone, muted it first, then checked the incoming call display.
Gu Yanjing looked at the phone, then at Qiao Yuxian, paused and said, "It’s a hidden number."
Qiao Yuxian rubbed her face against his shoulder, found a comfortable position, and closed her eyes, saying, "Just hang up."
Gu Yanjing ended the call.
But as soon as he hung up, the caller dialed in again.
Gu Yanjing muted the phone swiftly, yet it still buzzed once.
Qiao Yuxian opened her eyes to look at the phone, it was still that hidden number.
Gu Yanjing watched the little flame ignite in her eyes, wishing he could burn the phone.
Staring at the phone for a few seconds, Qiao Yuxian sat up straight, grabbed the phone, and pressed the hang-up button forcefully.
Just after pressing it, the call came in again.
Qiao Yuxian suddenly clenched the phone tightly, gripping it so hard her hand trembled.
Gu Yanjing watched her glaring at the number on the phone, paused, and said, "Take the call?"
Qiao Yuxian stared for a moment, then hung up, turned off the phone, all in one go.
The world was quiet.
Qiao Yuxian stared at the phone for a bit, put it back in her pocket, leaned on Gu Yanjing’s shoulder again, and closed her eyes.
Gu Yanjing watched her. As she was about to fall asleep again, he heard her mumble, "So annoying."
"Who?" Gu Yanjing softly asked.
"Bad person." Qiao Yuxian whispered two words, then after two seconds added, "Super big bad person."
Gu Yanjing touched her face.
Qiao Yuxian held his index finger and continued sleeping.
...
Qiao Yuxian went home to sleep, Gu Yanjing went home to work.
Feng Chuanbai, driven to desperation, wanted to use Qiao Yuxian to threaten Gu Yanjing, but Gu Yanjing didn’t want to keep him around for even a moment longer.
Meanwhile, Yunzhong Building also wanted a piece of Ghost Street.
Blocking the progress of the entire incident.
It’s like the kingdom you’ve worked so hard to build, just about to be yours, when someone who’s been watching you all along wants to take half of it.
How could Mr. Gu suffer such a loss?
So this led to, even before finishing the fight with Ghost Street, needing to consider how to deal with Yunzhong Building.
Gu Yanjing was in the library sorting through some documents sent by Meng Yan.
Su Qi was across from him, organizing the files.
Once finished organizing, Su Qi said, "Mr. Gu, should we meet with Yunzhong Building?"
Gu Yanjing put down his pen and looked at him.
Su Qi said, "I think Yunzhong Building is a bit strange. They’re obstructing us from dealing with Feng Chuanbai, yet don’t take any meaningful substantial actions, just keep asking to meet you."
Their requests are quite frequent.
Appointments went from twice a week to three times a week now.
Yunzhong Building was obstructing Gu Yanjing’s takeover of Ghost Street, and Gu Yanjing kept refusing Yunzhong Building’s meeting invitations.
If he made him uncomfortable, he wouldn’t let him feel happy.
"Check if Feng Chuanbai contacting Qiao Yuxian directly is related to the Gu Family." Gu Yanjing said.
His marriage to Qiao Yuxian hadn’t been fully publicly disclosed, unless someone was instructing Feng Chuanbai from behind.
This person behind him is likely someone from the Gu Family.
Gu Zhengyu and Gu Shuluo are prime suspects, but don’t rule out others.
Gu Yanjing paused again and said, "Find a time to meet with Yunzhong Building."
"Yes." Su Qi replied.
...
Bedroom.
Qiao Yuxian was sleeping soundly.
Lying on the bed, palm up still holding a phone.
On the phone was a newly released drama by Qin Xia.
She watched the drama for a few minutes after returning to Fenglin Villa and slept until nightfall.
She remained in this pose without moving.
The drama had updated nine episodes in total.
When she was awakened by her phone ringing, the battery was at eight percent, the drama had already reached the eighth episode.
She opened her eyes, looked at the phone.
It was a call from Yuan Wei.
She moved her hand holding the phone, it had gone numb without feeling. She could only use her other hand to pick up the phone.
And casually turned on the light.
She closed her eyes briefly and in a muffled voice said, "What is it?"
"Sis." Yuan Wei heard her hazy voice, his voice lowered a few degrees, "Gu Yao’s people called me."
Qiao Yuxian paused to reboot her brain and said, "What did they say?"
"They asked us to take down all videos related to Chen Xi and Gu Yao, intercept and prohibit future releases." Yuan Wei said.
"What did you say?" Qiao Yuxian turned over, raised her numb arm, allowing it to slowly recover.
"I said screw off, don’t delay Daddy making money." Yuan Wei laughed.
Qiao Yuxian let out a laugh.
YM Short Video is a platform founded by Yuan Wei after his college entrance exams.
Originally, the name was based on the initials of Yuan Wei’s name.
But Yuan Wei said in the future, once it’s known he’s one of the owners, it’s too cheesy to name it using his own name.
So he flipped the ’W’ upside down to ’M’...
At the time several short video platforms were booming.
Feeling bored, Yuan Wei followed suit and established one too. Qiao Yuxian even invested part of the money for him.
But those platforms had been running for nearly a decade.
His just emerged, would surely have no traffic, no reputation.
Luckily he had money, and so did Qiao Yuxian.
Together they leveraged their finances to rapidly boost YM’s traffic and popularity.
Although it’s slightly behind other platforms, the good thing is it could break even and generate profit.
This time with the Chen Xi incident, it attracted a lot of attention.
On other platforms, Chen Xi-related content had either been taken down, banned, or heavily restricted in visibility.
Only YM hadn’t. YM simply audited and screened out videos that exaggerated the incident, fabricated facts, or spun nonsense to gain traffic.
Banned their accounts.
Genuine content related to Chen Xi released on the platform wasn’t restricted.
Whether true or not, the matter would eventually have a conclusion.
If true, she needed to support it.
If false, she would bear the corresponding responsibility.
Thus, YM’s traffic surged.
"Still no information found about Gu Yao?" Qiao Yuxian asked.
"None." Yuan Wei sighed and said, "The call came from an overseas number. While the call was ongoing, I tried to trace his location and sent our people over there. Eventually, all we found at the traced location was a phone card, and it was a black card. We’re trying to trace where the black card originated from, but it might be challenging."
Qiao Yuxian didn’t speak.
There’s absolutely no information on the person Gu Yao.
As if he never existed at all.
Looking at it this way, the situation with Chen Xi seems false.
But Chen Xi was indeed pregnant and lost the baby. Moreover, her sister truly committed suicide.
Besides these two facts, Gu Yao seems like an imagined figure.
Yuan Wei continued, "Our people already moved quickly, but the opponent is very cautious, and works cleanly, leaving no trace."
...