Financial freedom starts from graduation

Chapter 502 "Cause and Effect"

"So Mr. Zhou... Mr. Zhou, are those seven people and the founders of our Wangjiang Club?"

Zhang Shiling originally wanted to call Zhou Wang by his name, but changed his words unconsciously, his eyes full of astonishment and disbelief.

The first time she met Zhou Wang was actually a few days ago, when Zhou Wang and Zhang Zhiyuan came together to deliver her an invitation to a charity dinner.

But in fact, she had heard of Zhou Wang's name earlier.

In the words of Uncle Zhang and Young Master Zhang, this is an extremely outstanding young man with a mysterious aura.

This was the first time that Young Master Zhang admired a person of the same age so much. According to Zhang Shihao's description, Zhou Wang had a similar personality to him, was neither restrained nor pretentious, and was a partner with whom he could cooperate on an equal footing.

But no matter how the two praised Zhou Wang, in Zhang Shiling's subconscious mind, he still regarded Zhou Wang as a junior.

Although Zhou Wang has actually formed a solid cooperative relationship with the entire Zhang Group due to the establishment of Beidu Wangjiang Chamber of Commerce, it cannot change Zhang Shiling's subconscious idea.

During his first contact with Zhou Wang, Zhang Shiling's liking for Zhou Wang came more from his considerate manners and generous demeanor, nothing more.

At this moment, Zhang Shiling suddenly learned about Zhou Wang's other side from Guo Wangshan, which naturally had an enormous impact on him.

But when you think about it carefully, it doesn't seem so inconsistent.

Instead, there is a feeling of sudden enlightenment.

Perhaps only a person like this could accumulate a trillion-dollar fortune at such a young age, and even stir up trouble in a place like Beidu?

He Jinglun was also stunned, and then he couldn't help asking Chen Qiaosheng: "So, Mr. Chen, before you came, you had already guessed that the person was Mr. Zhou?"

"It's not really a guess."

Chen Qiaosheng and Liu Heng looked at each other and shook their heads. "We just know that this was once the top floor of the office building that belonged to the Jiangnan Guo family. Later, it was handed over to Yunshang Trust, and Zhou Wang became the new owner. It is reasonable for us to come and pay a visit..."

Chen Qiaosheng's words were subtle, but his meaning was clear. They could not be sure whether Zhou Wang was the seventh person. It was just that from their perspective and based on some clues, they believed that Zhou Wang was at least an insider, or one of the spokespersons put forward by Yunshang Trust.

"Wangjianghui, Wangjianghui, since it's not the 'Wang' of Brother Wangshan, then can it only be the 'Wang' of Zhou Wang?"

Chen Qiaosheng chuckled.

Everyone was silent, and then He Jinglun raised a new question, "If your guess is true, then President Zhou really has no reason to harm us, but what is going on now? Why did President Zhou invite us to this place and lock us in here?"

"I said, this may not be from Brother Zhou's instruction. Although it is a bit strange, my stupid son will only listen to Brother Zhou..."

Guo Wangshan was somewhat puzzled when he spoke of this, and could not help but frowning.

"Could there be... another possibility?"

At this time, Liu Heng from Sutong Express said suddenly.

"what?"

"You all know that the incident got out of control, right?"

Liu Heng sneered, "Why did Guo Sanli commit suicide, and how did Mrs. Guo jump off the building... Mr. Guo, I have been holding this question in my mind for a long time. Wasn't it in our original plan to do this?"

Guo Wangshan was silent upon hearing this, and his expression became somewhat complicated. "These consequences are indeed unexpected, but I don't think this is what any of us want..."

"Is that really true?"

Liu Heng glanced at the people with different expressions and squinted his eyes and said, "I'm just worried that some people won't be able to have a clear conscience."

"Boss Liu, what do you mean?"

He Jinglun said dissatisfiedly: "At the beginning, we were just acting according to the plan. After Guo Sanli handed over the things, no one would embarrass him anymore. It was completely his own fault that he couldn't figure it out and insisted on jumping into the sea. To put it bluntly, this is his own fault..."

"But what kind of person is Guo Sanli? How could his inner tolerance be so low? If no one had pushed him, how could he do such a stupid thing?"

"Boss Liu, you can't just say something without evidence. Let's talk business. I don't think anyone here has such a big grudge against him that they want to kill him, right?"

Chen Qiaosheng couldn't help but speak up: "That's hard to say, Mr. Shen, I remember you and Guo Sanli were classmates when you were studying abroad, how come you suddenly stopped communicating?"

"We just don't share the same ideals. What about you, Mr. Chen? You pursued Mrs. Guo when you were young, right? Why don't you mention these things?"

"Boss Shen, be careful with your words!"

Chen Qiaosheng's face immediately turned gloomy.

Seeing that everyone was about to argue again, Guo Wangshan frowned and was about to interrupt them, when suddenly, a strange "beeping" sound was heard in the room.

"what sound?"

Zhang Shiling, who was already sensitive, was the first to notice the strange sound. Everyone else heard it as well and stopped arguing.

"It seems to be a movement under the table."

Confused, He Jinglun bent down to check, then his face turned pale and he took a few steps back.

"what happened?"

Seeing that He Jinglun was so shocked that he couldn't speak for a moment, Zhang Shiling, puzzled, also looked down.

"That's... a bomb?!"

This glance also made Zhang Shiling pale, and she stepped back in horror.

"what?"

Guo Wangshan and the others all changed their expressions and looked down. Sure enough, under the long table there was a rectangular object that seemed to appear only in movies. There was a conspicuous timer on the outer shell, and the "beeping" sound came from the timer.

When they discovered it, there was only a little over three minutes left on the timer.

"Is there really a bomb?"

"The structure doesn't look fake. We have used explosives in engineering blasting before..."

Shen Li came closer and observed calmly, then his face changed drastically.

“Can it be removed?”

"Are you kidding me? Do you think this is a movie where you just need to cut a red and blue line? Demolishing a bomb in real life is not that easy..."

Even though the people present were experienced and powerful, they all panicked after confirming that it was not a prank, and the scene was quite chaotic for a while. "The door still won't open!"

He Jinglun, who ran to the door first, tried it, but no matter how hard he hit it, the heavy wooden door did not move at all.

Seeing the countdown of the bomb ticking away, Zhang Shiling, who was huddled in the corner alone, shuddered for a moment, then murmured, "Retribution, this is retribution..."

As he spoke, Zhang Shiling suddenly smiled strangely and looked at He Jinglun who was still trying to find a way out by the window.

"Mr. He, stop struggling. When you asked me to get Sister Qin to talk, you should have expected this day, right?"

Guo Wangshan and others were stunned when they heard this, and looked at He Jinglun with puzzled eyes.

The "Sister Qin" that Zhang Shiling mentioned is Mrs. Guo, Guo Sanli's wife. Listening to the conversation between Zhang Shiling and He Jinglun, it is obvious that there is some tricky going on that neither of them knows about.

"Mr. Zhang, what nonsense are you talking about?"

He Jinglun's face changed slightly, and he said in a deep voice: "I asked you to find out the whereabouts of Guo Sanli's illegitimate child just to give him a warning, so that he wouldn't be desperate and destroy those things directly. In fact, I didn't do anything."

"Is that really true?"

Zhang Shiling chuckled, "On the day Sister Qin jumped off the building, she called me. She asked me why we were still forcing her even though we had already succeeded. She said that if we were worried, she would die, and only asked us to let her two sons live... Mr. He, can you tell me why she said that?"

"how could I know?"

He Jinglun said angrily, "After their family went bankrupt, Wei Qin has been mentally ill for a long time. She only knows how to talk nonsense. It's none of my business!"

After finishing speaking, He Jinglun looked at Zhang Shiling and sneered:
"Mr. Zhang, you are so funny. You pushed everything onto us, but you yourself are innocent. Why don't you say that you and Wei Qin were such good friends, but in the end it was you who sold her out? Wasn't it you who produced the so-called evidence of their tax evasion?"

"I……"

Zhang Shiling's face turned pale.

"enough!"

Guo Wangshan finally rebuked in a deep voice. He took a deep look at the two of them and said, "We'll talk about these things later. For now, let's think of a way to save ourselves..."

Drop drop!
As if in response to Guo Wangshan's words, the timer of the suspected time bomb rang more and more rapidly. Just when everyone's heart was in their throat, the sound suddenly disappeared.

Everyone was stunned. Guo Wangshan took a few tentative steps forward, looked down, and then asked in confusion: "This timer seems to have... stopped."

Stopped?

Everyone came forward to check, and sure enough, the timer stopped at the countdown of dozens of seconds and stopped moving.

Just when everyone was puzzled, there was a sudden "click" sound from the porch behind them. He Jinglun, who was the first to react, ran over to check and then shouted inside: "Everyone, the door is open!"

Although Guo Wangshan and the others were all shocked and confused, it was obvious that no one wanted to stay in this room any longer, and they quickly walked towards the door.

As soon as they went out, they saw several men with serious faces and wearing uniform formal suits.

"Bosses, I'm Xiao Wang, Mr. Zhou's bodyguard. There were some unexpected situations at the banquet tonight, and Mr. Zhou specifically asked me to protect your safety. Please follow me, I will take you to a safe place first..."

Guo Wangshan and others looked at each other, not knowing what was going on. But no matter what, they could only suppress their doubts and wait until they saw Zhou Wang.

……

Ding!
[The energy of "Zhe's Windbreaker" has been exhausted and it has been automatically destroyed]

After Guo Wangshan and others left, Zhou Wang, who was sitting alone in the corner, heard the system's prompt. He looked down and saw that his figure seemed to have broken free from a mosaic world and gradually appeared in the air.

Zhou Wang shook his head secretly.

He exchanged this [Jie's Windbreaker] in the system store last time in order to spy on the real life of his senior sister. It cost him nearly 500,000 reputation points at the time. It was clearly marked as a "permanent item", but it only worked twice.

Zhou Wang felt that he was being tricked by the system, but he couldn't find any reason to reason with it, so he could only give up.

No matter what, this [windbreaker] still played its due role and allowed Zhou Wang to hear the information he wanted.

At this time, Zhou Wang took out his mobile phone and opened an encrypted email in his mobile mailbox.

The email was sent by Wang Ruxi himself shortly after he and Wang Ruxi had a phone call, and it contained a very large attachment.

The attachment contains some news highlights and internal encrypted information of Yunshang Trust, which roughly records the decline of the Jiangnan Guo family.

Some of them can be found on the Internet, such as "the continuous evaporation of the market value of Jiangnan Guo Group", "the successive resignations of some senior executives and legal disputes", "large-scale workers' petitions", and "the continuous on-site investigations by relevant departments".

But there is also some information that cannot be seen in the news, which comes from the internal information of Yunshang Trust. This is what Zhou Wang really wants to see.

With these records, plus Wang Ruxi's vague description on the phone, Zhou Wang already had a rough outline of the incident in his mind.

Back then, the Jiangnan Guo family was extremely prosperous, with businesses spread across Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. Especially in the fields of electronic devices and heavy industry, they owned many companies that could be called unicorns in the industry.

Two years ago, a company under Jiangnan Guo Group that specializes in optical systems had an unrecorded "research and development mistake."

That mistake led them to develop a replica of a multi-layer mirror with a high-precision coating...

Zhou Wang couldn't understand the various overly industry-specific terms, but according to the report, this high-precision optical system is one of the keys to the production of EUV lithography machines.

The so-called EUV lithography machine is the core equipment for manufacturing advanced chips of 7nm and below. Only one country in the world, the Netherlands, has the ability to mass-produce it.

If China can independently produce EUV lithography machines, its progress in the field of high-end electronic chips will be directly accelerated by more than ten years, breaking the foreign monopoly in one fell swoop, which is of great significance.

However, this "research and development mistake" was concealed by the Jiangnan Guo Group for various reasons.

This was also the fuse for all subsequent events.

How "I" knew about this is unknown, but the Jiangnan Guo family, which was "guilty of possessing a treasure", fell into decline in just a few years amidst "I"'s alliances, and all the industries under the group were divided up...

Yunshang Trust’s internal documents also record some seemingly unrelated past events. Combined with the information just revealed to him by Guo Wangshan and others, Zhou Wang has basically deduced all the causes and effects.

……

"It's time to go talk to Guo Nansheng."

Zhou Wang, with a complicated expression, withdrew his gaze from the phone, stood up and went out, walking downstairs alone.

(End of this chapter)