The Heiress's Game

Gu Yunjin was sitting in the study of Suiyuan Garden when her phone screen lit up.

She glanced at it—it was a notification from the ephemeral messaging app, a message from Julie.

A few seconds later, the message was automatically deleted, and the screen returned to a blank state, as if nothing had happened.

Gu Yunjin knew about this news even earlier than Julie.

Daheng Group. Gu Yunjin has never been optimistic about the real estate industry.

When I was in school, my professor spent an entire semester talking about the cyclical patterns of asset bubbles. The curves of every case were all pretty much the same—boom, overheating, frenzy, and collapse.

According to Gu Yunjin, China's real estate market has long passed the "overheated" stage and is now accelerating wildly on a "crazy" track.

The leverage was outrageously high, the cash flow was stretched to the limit, and everyone was betting that they wouldn't be the last one left holding the bag.

This bubble is bound to burst; the question isn't whether it will, but when.

Gu Yunjin had studied people like He Daheng. He was a typical gambler-type entrepreneur who treated "scale is everything" as gospel. Even when his debt ratio soared to the sky, he still thought it was because he wasn't bold enough.

This model is a myth during pro-cyclical periods, but once any link in the capital chain goes wrong, it collapses.

Gu Yunjin's original plan was to make a big deal out of this incident. Da Heng's bomb was bound to explode sooner or later, and when it did, Gu Mingcheng's more than seven billion yuan would be the perfect trigger.

—Unauthorized investment, disobeying his father's orders, and causing significant losses to the group—these three points combined are enough to strip him of his prestige on the board of directors and even remove him from the list of heirs.

And she was able to stand up at crucial moments and let everyone see clearly: the Gu family doesn't only have Gu Mingcheng, what a pity.

It has to be admitted that experience matters; Gu Zhenxing's reaction was too quick.

The investment must be withdrawn within 48 hours, and as much as possible must be withdrawn, effectively blocking all of Gu Yunjin's backup plans.

The thunderbolt from the Great Horizon hasn't exploded yet, and Gu Yunjin doesn't know when it will.

Gu Mingcheng's financial hole has not yet been discovered by the market. As long as the money can be withdrawn, this matter will only be an "internal lesson between father and son," and the board of directors will not even need to report it.

Gu Zhenxing was indeed Gu Zhenxing; she spent a long time plotting, trying to use Daheng as a weapon to pry Gu Mingcheng off from his position as heir.

As a result, her father slapped her, and the knife was pushed back into its sheath before it could even be drawn.

It's okay, there will be other opportunities in the future.

She knew Gu Mingcheng's personality all too well—he could be scolded and admit his mistakes, but he couldn't shake the impulse in his bones that "I want to prove that I am stronger than my father."

This impulse may be suppressed today, but it will resurface from somewhere else tomorrow.

What she needs to do next is to make sure that when it emerges, Gu Zhenxing doesn't have time to cover for him.

But that's for later; right now, there's something else that's giving her a bigger headache.

Wang Manyun has been introducing her to potential blind dates much more frequently lately, with new names, new photos, and new "you won't lose anything by meeting them once" every few days.

She knew what Wang Manyun was planning—to marry her off, so that her presence in the Gu family would be further diluted.

Gu Yunjin was sometimes shocked that Julie's presence had almost no impact on Wang Manyun.

Gu Yunjin was all too familiar with this kind of reaction.

Only two types of women can do this—either they have no feelings for their husbands, or they are playing a much bigger game.

Wang Manyun, however, is clearly the latter.

She didn't care how many female confidantes Gu Zhenxing had, as long as they didn't threaten Gu Yunxuan's status in the Gu family and the future distribution of inheritance, she could pretend not to see anything.

The best way to clear the obstacles for her son is to marry Gu Yunjin off.

Women from political and business families are indeed different.

Wang Manyun's greatest skill in life was maintaining decorum—arranging marriages with decorum, tolerating others with decorum, and eliminating obstacles with decorum.

She wouldn't openly bully her daughter-in-law like Mrs. Bei, nor would she show her displeasure like those wicked stepmothers on TV.

She'll just smile and introduce you to potential partners, moving on to the next one if one doesn't work out, until you finally agree.

She's not opposed to blind dates, but she's currently very busy—the second version of her reality show is scheduled for review next week.

She had to review the next round of financing for Zhang Zhuoran's AI project, and she also had many other things to deal with from Zhou Ji.

She picked up her phone, tapped on Li Chunjing's profile picture, and typed a line of text:

"Send me the reshoot progress for Xingyao tomorrow." After sending it, she leaned back in her chair and looked out the window at the quiet night view of Suiyuan.

Wang Manyun wants to marry her off? She'll have to wait in line.