Who's going to be the female lead's simp? Aren't the supporting female characters mor

The faint light from the phone screen illuminated Bai Jingyou's pupils, displaying a newly received text message:

[The water in Haicheng is cold, Young Master Bai. Someone wants to warm you up at tonight's charity gala. —Gu.]

Bai Jingyou casually turned off his phone and tossed it aside.

[Gu Yanzhi, Chu Cang's sharpest scalpel. In the original novel, this guy, with his team, slaughtered countless local powerful figures.]

[Warm yourself up? I think you want to send me to the crematorium to warm up.]

"Chen Mo, turn around and go pick up Meng Yao." Bai Jingyou leaned back in his chair, a playful smile curving his lips. "Now that they've already handed me the challenge, wouldn't it be a waste of Chu Laogou's efforts if I didn't go and see how this show goes?"

Two hours later, the Hyatt Regency Haicheng was brightly lit.

Tonight is the annual charity gala of Haicheng's business community. To put it bluntly, it's just a group of predators disguised in a civilized guise, dividing up territory while drinking and making merry.

The Maybach came to a stop, and Bai Jingyou got out of the car first.

Today he changed into a dark blue bespoke suit. He was tall and slender, and his demeanor was as calm and composed as a bottomless pool.

He walked around to the other side and gentlemanly opened the car door.

A pair of ivory-white legs stepped out of the carriage, and Jiang Mengyao stood still, arm in arm with Bai Jingyou.

She wore a long silver dress studded with rhinestones, her long hair styled in an updo, revealing her fair and slender neck. Under the dazzling spotlight, she looked as beautiful as a goddess who had stepped out of an oil painting.

"Jingyou, I feel like something's off tonight." Jiang Mengyao lowered her voice, her beautiful eyes filled with worry.

"When soldiers come, we'll block them; when water comes, we'll dam it." Bai Jingyou gently patted the back of her hand. "Tonight, all you need to do is look pretty; leave the rest to me."

As you step into the banquet hall, the sounds of champagne towers and cellos intertwine.

The two's appearance instantly drew everyone's attention. The recent moves by the Bai and Jiang families in the eastern part of the city had already made these old foxes sense something unusual.

"Young Master Bai, I've long admired your name."

A gentle, refined voice rang out.

Everyone turned to look.

A man wearing gold-rimmed glasses and a silver-gray suit walked over, raising a glass.

He had a refined and scholarly air, and a flawless smile on his face. If one didn't see the venomous coldness hidden deep in his eyes, one would think he was a gentleman who had returned from abroad.

Gu Yanzhi, CEO of the Chu Group in Beijing.

"Mr. Gu, do you know him?" Bai Jingyou stopped and looked at him with a half-smile.

"We didn't know each other before, but from today onwards, we might become best friends." Gu Yanzhi stopped a meter in front of Bai Jingyou, a distance that was both intimate and polite. "Master Chu heard some things about Young Master Bai in the capital and felt deeply sorry for him. That boorish Wang Biao didn't know the rules and offended Young Master Bai. I have already sent him back to the capital to receive his punishment on behalf of the Chu family."

The surrounding business elites exchanged bewildered glances.

The Chu family is actually apologizing to the Bai family?

[The clown is actually beside me? No, Gu Yanzhi is just trying to create a persona for me.]

[You can't hit someone who's smiling at you; showing weakness first and then stabbing them in the back—they've really mastered this old trick.]

"Really? Then I have to thank Mr. Gu for cleaning up my house." Bai Jingyou casually took a glass of red wine from a passing waiter's tray and swirled it gently.

"To show our sincerity, the Chu family has decided to invest 500 million yuan in the Blue Ocean Technology City project that the Jiang Group is currently preparing." Gu Yanzhi pushed up his glasses, making a startling statement, "We are not seeking controlling stake, only a financial investment, and we only require a 20% share of the profits. Young Master Bai, President Jiang, is this enough of an apology?"

Five hundred million!

The entire audience erupted in uproar.

At a time when cash flow is generally tight, 500 million in cash is a lifesaver.

And they don't even want control. This isn't an apology; it's practically a money-giving fairy descending to earth.

Jiang Mengyao was visibly taken aback. She looked at Bai Jingyou with a questioning gaze. Such a good thing was almost impossible in the business world.

Jiang Zhenguo also came over, and upon hearing this, a hint of suspicion flashed across his originally serious face.

"Five hundred million... Mr. Gu is really rich and powerful." Bai Jingyou took a sip of wine, but his eyes looked at him as if he were looking at a dead man.

[Poison pill plan.]

[First, inject capital, embedding hidden performance-based agreements and debt traps in the contract. Once the Jiang family invests this 500 million into the project, Gu Yanzhi will use his short-selling skills in the financial market to cause the Jiang family's stock price to evaporate instantly. At that point, this 500 million investment will become a deadly poison; the Jiang family will either go bankrupt or mortgage all its core assets to the Chu family.]

[In the original story, this move caused the Jiang family to vanish completely.]

"Young Master Bai doesn't seem interested?" A barely perceptible glint of cold light flashed in Gu Yanzhi's eyes.

"How could I not be interested? The two things I love most in this life are beautiful women and freebies." Bai Jingyou suddenly smiled very brightly, like a good-for-nothing playboy. "Since Master Chu is so polite, then I'll accept this money on behalf of the Jiang family. However, I need to read the contract myself, after all, I'm a coward and afraid of ghosts."

Gu Yanzhi was slightly taken aback, then his smile widened: "Of course, Young Master Bai is indeed a man of few words."

At the ensuing dinner, Gu Yanzhi acted with extreme humility, even taking the initiative to introduce Bai Jingyou to several investors from Beijing.

But Bai Jingyou noticed that Gu Yanzhi's gaze had repeatedly passed over the crowd and lingered on Bai Qing, who was talking with a socialite not far away.

That look wasn't like looking at a woman; it was more like looking at an exquisite offering about to be unwrapped.

Bai Jingyou's grip on the wine glass tightened slightly.

After the banquet ended, it was already late at night.

The Maybach was driving home, and the atmosphere inside was somewhat somber.

"Jingyou, can we really get Gu Yanzhi's 500 million?" Jiang Mengyao leaned on his shoulder and asked softly.

"Take it, why not?" Bai Jingyou looked at the rapidly receding lights outside the window. "Someone is eager to give us money to buy land; such good fortune is rare. Chen Mo, tomorrow find some top actuaries and lawyers to break down Gu Yanzhi's prepared contract into pieces for analysis. Since he wants to gamble, let's gamble big with him."

"Understood," Chen Mo replied.

It was already 1 a.m. when they returned to the Bai family villa.

The lights were still on inside.

Bai Jingyou pushed open the door and found that his sister Bai Qing was not applying a face mask or watching TV as usual, but was sitting alone on the sofa in a daze.

A thick stack of documents lay on the coffee table, and her expression was more serious than ever before.

"Sis, why aren't you asleep yet?" Bai Jingyou walked over and took off his coat.

Bai Qing heard the sound.

She looked up at Bai Jingyou, her lips moved, but in the end she didn't say anything. She just pushed the document on the coffee table in front of Bai Jingyou.

Bai Jingyou took a look, and his eyes instantly darkened.

That was a lawyer's letter from the Supreme Court of Beijing.

The contents are shocking: a notice to reopen the investigation into a case involving illegal fundraising by the Bai Group five years ago, and the signature of the person in charge at the time was clearly that of Bai Jingyou's father.

This is a time bomb that has been buried for five years.

Once it's detonated, not only will the Bai family suffer.

"This is the second big gift Gu Yanzhi gave me?" Bai Jingyou clenched the paper in his hand tightly, his knuckles cracking from the force.

Bai Jingyou sat down next to Bai Qing and gently put his arm around her shoulder.

His voice was frighteningly calm, like the calm before a storm.

"Since they want to dredge up old scores, then let's settle this score clearly. I'll find out who was involved in what happened five years ago, and who handed them the knife, one by one."

Outside the window, the light rain that had stopped started falling again.

In the darkness, Bai Jingyou's phone vibrated again; it was still that unfamiliar number.

[Young Master Bai, have you received the lawyer's letter? The fire to warm us up has already been lit.]

Bai Jingyou stared at the text message, a chilling light flickering in his eyes.

He didn't reply, but instead dialed Chen Mo's number directly.

"Chen Mo, could you help me find out where the accountant who did the Chu family's books five years ago is buried?"

Bai Jingyou slowly stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the silhouette of the city lying dormant like a giant beast in the distance.

[Gu Yanzhi, you think you've got my Achilles' heel?]

[Actually, you just handed me a ticket to completely bury the Chu family.]

The next morning, the headlines in all the media in Haicheng were not about the charity dinner, but about a major news story: Bai's Group was facing a dual investigation into taxation and fundraising, and its stock price immediately plummeted to the daily limit upon opening.

The rain outside the window showed no signs of letting up; in fact, it seemed to be getting heavier, pounding against the French windows as if providing accompaniment for the impending storm.

Inside the living room of the Bai family villa, the air pressure was so low it was suffocating.

The morning financial news was playing on a giant LCD TV.

In the footage, the area in front of the Bai Group headquarters building is already surrounded by reporters carrying long lenses and microphones, and there are also many people holding banners and claiming to be the relatives of the victims from five years ago, crying and wailing.

"The Bai Group is suspected of illegal fundraising amounting to tens of billions of yuan!"

"With the old case reopened, can the Bai family father and son escape unscathed?"

"Stock price plunges 30%, insolvency may be inevitable!"

Each headline is like a sharp knife, piercing straight into the heart of the Bai family.

Bai Qing, dressed in a neat white loungewear outfit, sat on the sofa, holding a cup of black coffee in her hand.

She wore no makeup, yet she was still breathtakingly beautiful; however, her eyes, which usually held a touch of languor, were now as cold as ice.

"These flies came as soon as they smelled it." Bai Qing snorted and threw the tablet computer on the coffee table with a crisp thud.

She turned to look at Bai Jingyou, who was leisurely eating a sandwich, her brows furrowing slightly: "Xiaoyou, Gu Yanzhi came prepared this time. Although the so-called notice of reopening the investigation has not yet been officially determined, public opinion has already sentenced us to death. I have also called the banks, and several banks that had originally agreed to renew their loans are now watching and may withdraw their loans at any time."

That's the business world for you; when someone's down, everyone pushes them down.

"Sis, calm down." Bai Jingyou swallowed the last bite of his sandwich, pulled out a tissue to wipe his mouth, and said, "It tastes good. Next time, you can put in more tuna."

"What time is it and you're still eating!" Bai Qing glared at him, then sighed, took out a black bank card from behind her back, and pushed it in front of Bai Jingyou.

"Some of this money is my personal savings from years of venture capital work, and some is working capital obtained by mortgaging several overseas properties under my name."

Bai Qing spoke calmly, as if he weren't pushing family assets at him. "If the company accounts are frozen, use this money to stabilize the situation. As long as I'm here, the Bai family won't collapse. At worst, we can abandon all our domestic assets and go abroad."

[Is this the sense of security that comes with being a rich woman?]

[In the original story, after the Bai family's downfall, Bai Qing relied on his secret stash of money to eke out a living abroad with his good-for-nothing younger brother. Unfortunately, now that I'm here in this life, how could I let you lose so miserably?]

Bai Jingyou looked at the black card, a warm feeling flowing through his heart. He reached out and pushed the card back.

"Sis, keep the money safe." Bai Jingyou stood up, straightened his collar, and a wicked smile appeared on his lips. "As for Gu Yanzhi... he wants to play with fire, then I'll show him what it means to get burned."

"You have a way?" Bai Qing looked at him suspiciously.

"It's indeed time to settle the score from five years ago." A cold glint flashed in Bai Jingyou's eyes. "However, the one who owes the debt is not our Bai family."