Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  So, when Gu Deshou called, she jerked awake. She didn’t know where she was, nor did she know the time.

  She placed the phone next to her ear in a daze and answered it with a slightly raspy and weak voice, “Hello, who is it?”


  “Qingyan, it’s me, your father.” Gu Deshou’s anxious voice sounded over the phone.

  Zhuang Nainai’s mind was still in a daze. She closed her eyes, her voice exasperated as she replied, “Mm, what’s the matter?”


  Just what had happened for him to call and wake her up at such an ungodly hour!

  Gu Deshou ignored Zhuang Nainai’s unpleasant tone of voice and said, “Nainai, the Imperial Group has commenced legal action against us. They’re claiming that we plagiarized their design drafts. You have to help us keep this matter under wraps! The Gu Corporation is depending on this batch of clothes to turn our business around. I’ve invested all my operating funds in it — if their legal action is successful, the Gu Corporation is finished!”


  Hearing this, Zhuang Nainai finally opened her eyes slowly.

  The faint glow from the street lights illuminated the ceiling, but it was too dim to light up the room much.

  She paused. It was only then that what Gu Deshou had said registered in her mind, and the sleepiness slowly retreated from her body.

  Then, she couldn’t help but smirk, a cynical expression appearing on her face.

  Was Gu Deshou finally feeling anxious?

  Hadn’t he foreseen what could happen when he had asked her to steal the Imperial Group’s drafts?

  When she thought about this, her heart suddenly grew cold.

  Or perhaps he had already planned to seek help from her when he had tasked her with this matter.

  Zhuang Nainai blinked. After a short pause, she said coldly, “What has the end of the Gu Corporation got to do with me?”


  Gu Deshou paused for a while before replying, “Qingyan, I know you and Mother Zhuang were highly dependent on each other whilst you were growing up in such an impoverished environment. Her condition has recently stabilized, and she often tells me that she misses you very much. When this matter is resolved, I’ll bring her back! What do you think about it?”


  His voice was cajoling, but Zhuang Nainai’s heart lurched upon hearing what he had to say.

  Although she had spoken to Mother Zhuang through the voice call before, it had not completely alleviated her worries. Instead, she had felt even more worried. Mother was all alone in a foreign country. Was she afraid? Was she lonely?

  Zhuang Nainai gripped the cell phone tightly, her mood bleak.

  This father of hers had been absent from her life for over twenty years. After he had re-established contact with her, he had been using her, threatening her, and he was even trying to win her over now!

  However, she had never fallen for his antics. She only cared about Mother Zhuang.

  All of a sudden, it seemed as if Zhuang Nainai had lost all strength in her body.

  She didn’t want to compromise with him, but she had no energy to break away from all these troubles.

  Then, she started thinking.

  What kind of clothes did the Gus manufacture? Why were they being accused of stealing the Imperial Group’s designs?

  She said, “The design drafts that you handed over to the manufacturing company — were they the ones I gave you?”


  Gu Deshou replied, “Yes.”


  Zhuang Nainai didn’t believe him. She was working in the design industry herself. She knew that deeming a work as one that had been plagiarized was a very serious matter.

  She paused and said, “Send me the design drafts that you had delivered to the manufacturing company.”


  Gu Deshou nodded. “Alright.”


  Soon, Gu Deshou sent her the design. “I’m not sure about the drafts, I handed everything to your mother and she handled most of it. Look at these drafts — are they the ones you gave us?”


  “Beep!”


  The drafts that had been delivered to the manufacturing company appeared on Si Zhengting’s computer screen. They were exactly the same as the drafts that Ji Chen had sent him.

  After hearing what Gu Deshou had to say, Si Zhengting’s eyes narrowed. Even his breathing slowed. He had always been a man who feared nothing and no one. It was his first time nervously awaiting an answer.