Chapter 40 Gossip

It was dusk, and the setting sun cast a lot of afterglow into the spacious office through the large French windows. The painted floor was slightly golden. Sitting at the coffee table by the window, stirring the hand-grinded Blue Mountain in her hand, she could see the colorful sky outside the window and the crowd of people like ants under her feet with a slight side glance. Youji closed her eyes slightly, unable to tell what kind of feeling it was. In short, she was very surprised that she accepted such an invitation on a whim in an instant.

"Looking at your complexion, it seems to be much better." Lane Lindsay sat opposite and looked at her quietly, "Why don't you take a rest for a while, and go back to work so soon?" "

I have rested long enough. If I stay any longer, I will get sick."

She only curled the corners of her mouth lightly, gently placed the white porcelain cup in her hand on the coffee table, leaned back on the chair, crossed her legs elegantly, and the whole person was bathed in the fiery twilight, like an old photo from a long time ago, exquisite and elegant, calm and indifferent.

The man opposite was silent for a long time.

"Your mother was also of the same temperament back then. She would never stop working for a moment."

Hasegawa Gardenia was smart and capable back then, shuttling between business circles, and her swift and decisive methods made even men feel inferior.

But -

"I don't have any impression." She raised her eyelids slightly as if she was recalling something, "I don't seem to have ever seen her domineering appearance when she was young..."

"Yes, you were too young at that time, and she was no longer a lady from the Hasegawa family at that time." Lan En nodded, not without emotion, "Fate is really strange. At that time, she stubbornly wanted to get rid of the shackles of the family and leave the world that originally belonged to her, but you, you, were determined to break in again."

She raised her eyelids in surprise, digested his implication, and only lowered her head and chuckled.

"I wanted to go see you," Lan En just smiled bitterly and changed the subject calmly, "but I'm too busy during this period, and..."

"Inconvenient?" She raised her eyebrows, and the corners of her mouth curled up slightly.

The other party was stunned for a moment, then laughed helplessly: "Youji, you are really sensitive."

"GS intends to expand the Japanese market, and it is bound to confront Atobe Securities. This is an ironclad fact. I thought I was slow." She sneered, stood up, and looked down at the Ginza street scene that had already fallen at night, but her eyes were calm, "However, this is a matter between GS and the Atobe Zaibatsu, and I am not interested in asking about it."

Lan En was slightly stunned, and just smiled and shook his head.

Just as he was about to say something, the phone on the desk rang, and the secretary's respectful voice was picked up: "President, President Yokotani of Yokotani Construction wants to meet with you. Is it convenient?" "

Tell him that my schedule is full recently and I really can't arrange the time."

"I have already replied, but he seems to be very persistent."

His eyebrows were slightly frowned, and he pondered for a long time: "There is no room for maneuver in that matter, just tell him like this."

Then he hung up the line. Youji looked from the side, and in the blood-like afterglow, the man opposite had a gloomy face, and it was impossible to tell whether he was happy or angry.

After a while, the phone rang again. Unexpectedly, the voice in the ear was fluent American English: "Hello, Lane."

"Bob?"

"I heard that you have rejected the president of Yokotani Construction several times."

"I don't want to repeat the same thing again."

His eyebrows frowned even deeper, and his English was authentic, but his tone was not tactful.

Youji watched for a long time, and felt that it was not appropriate to stay any longer, so he stood up and said goodbye.

Lane Lindsay held the microphone and watched the woman's figure walk out of the building through the bright French windows and disappear in the gradually closing dusk. He sighed deeply: "This is not a good time for large-scale capital expansion, Bob."

"President Yokotani, welcome, welcome."

From the outside, Yokotani Eiji is just a young man under 30 years old, with a tall figure, handsome features, and a sharp spirit of a young man in his every move. Only when a sharp light occasionally flashes in his narrow eyes, people will remember that he is still a sophisticated businessman.

It was just an insignificant charity banquet, all the ceremonies were over, Keigo Atobe stood in the corner of the banquet hall holding a glass of red wine, looking at the head of the Yokotani family who was late but still graceful, and only raised his eyebrows coldly. 

"Well, it seems that this young master Yokotani is still very popular." Yuushi Oshiro shook the wine glass in his hand, and deliberately dragged out the syllables in his lazy Kansai accent, "It's a pity that such a person is worthy of the unruly Miss Hasegawa." " 

After so long, you are becoming more and more kind-hearted, Oshiro." Atobe snorted coldly, "Is it the habit of saving the dying and the wounded?" 

"On the contrary, if you are used to seeing too many deaths, you will become numb to life." Oshiro smiled, his eyes flickered behind his plain glasses, and the meaning was inexplicable. 

Atobe just chuckled, "How is it, I heard that Batista's most recent surgery went smoothly." 

"Ah, it finally lived up to everyone's expectations." Oshitari leaned lazily on the bar, drank the wine in his glass, and motioned for the waiter to refill it, "But Atobe, you don't seem to be having a good time recently?" " 

When did you start to believe what those third-rate financial magazines say?" 

Atobe raised his eyebrows, but Oshitari laughed, "GS's intentions are obvious, and Atobe, your reaction this time is really not commendable." 

"I won't act on my own, but." Atobe sneered, raised his eyes and saw the figure of Yokotani Eiji not far away, slightly restrained his smile, and leaned close to his ear, "You are from Kansai, tell me honestly, how much do you know about the Yokotani family?" " 

You have plenty of information I have." Oshitari curled his lips, "However, Yokotani Eiji studied in New York in his early years, and worked on Wall Street for a while after graduation. His mother's family seems to have a marriage relationship with the top management of GS. However, I heard that Yokotani Trading Company recently applied for financing loans from GS Investment Bank and was rejected several times." " 

Oh?" Atobe slightly prolonged the ending tone of his inquiry, and his slender fingers tapped the bar counter lightly, squinting his eyes, as if a wild beast had seen its long-lost prey. 

Oshitari Yuushi saw it all and just smiled slightly. 

"It seems that the Yokotani family has some problems with the capital turnover of home appliances, but it makes sense. If the Yokotani family didn't have any ulterior motives, how could they easily accept Hasegawa Nuru's goodwill, but then again." He seemed to remember something, "Are you really going to let the last thing go?" 

Atobe's fingers were pointed, slender and beautiful, and his narrow and long phoenix eyes narrowed, and it was hard to tell whether he was happy or angry. 

"Sooner or later, I will ask him to return it." 

After a long time, he said word by word, turned around and left the bar. 

It was already mid-November, and the chill of late autumn was getting stronger, quietly and gradually seeping into the bones of this city. It was not obvious at first, but when I suddenly came to my senses, all the streets seemed to have been 

invaded by the bitter autumn wind. However, in the nearly one month since then, there has not been a fierce competition between GS Investment Bank and Jibu Securities as the outside world has inferred. Not only has Jibu Securities always been sitting still and watching GS's market expansion in the past period of time, but GS Investment Bank itself seems to no longer have any fierce big moves. The two sides seem to be just in a stalemate, or there is no inevitable confrontation between the two, but the outside world has exaggerated the normal competition between peers.

Before I knew it, it was December. The year was coming to an end. Tokyo had already snowed several times. Keigo Atobe still had no obvious business moves. Instead, he tightened the review policy for foreign investment. However, the media was still enthusiastic about the game between GS and Atobe Securities.

"Those media are really persistent. Even if I do nothing, they can write so much nonsense."

The financial section of the Yomiuri Shimbun in the morning was still arguing about the competition between foreign banks and local leaders. Atobe just glanced at it coldly and turned aside.

"Although it is hype, it seems to have gone too far." Takuma Akiyama, who was standing opposite the desk, frowned slightly, "It seems like someone is doing it deliberately to create an atmosphere of incompatibility between the two families. Master Jingwu, do we need to suppress these reports?"

"More importantly, we need to find out who is fanning the flames." Atobe's eyes were cold, "Also, some overseas investments should expire, and those that can be recovered should be recovered first." "

In this case, will there be any objections at the board meeting?" Akiyama hesitated slightly, "You have adopted an attitude of evading the important issues towards GS, and some directors have already expressed their opinions."

"What they think is their business." Atobe snorted coldly, "Why should those media have to get excited with them when they write about this uncle?"

"Yes, I'll tell them right away."

Akiyama nodded, and was about to turn around and go out, but he saw that the heavy door of the office was opened first, and Feng Changtaro strode in hurriedly: "Atobe-senior!"

"Huh?" Atobe narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at the slightly panicked young junior, "What's the matter, Feng?"

"Senior, come and take a look." The tall young man with silver-white hair spread the entertainment magazine in his hand on the table in front of him and turned to the page with the corner marked. His breath was still a little hurried.

The popular entertainment magazines on the market contain nothing but entertainment, fashion, and gossip. They are exquisitely framed. It seems that the original black and white printed pages have been specially replaced with color pages to attract people's attention. The photos are also very clear.

A photo of Lane Lindsay, the president of GS Investment Bank's Japanese branch, at the inauguration ceremony was published in many media at the time. The other photo was a photo of him and Youji at the press conference for his engagement. Both were taken under the media's spotlight, with good angles and lighting.

In the middle of the two photos is a striking title:

Shocking! Lane Lindsay's true identity has surfaced.

The rest of the text was densely packed, and what was repeatedly mentioned was the romantic love story of that year, in which a lady from a noble family abandoned her family and married an ordinary young man named Kyosuke Terajima to venture into Tokyo alone. However, this young man went to a distant ocean for his future, and there was no news from then on. He returned home in glory more than ten years later, but he was very secretive about his real name.

At the end, he did not forget to emphasize the previous sentence, "It is interesting that GS Investment Bank sent Mr. Lane Lindsay from the headquarters to serve as the president of the Japanese branch, which is bound to compete fiercely with the local industry leader Atobe Securities. But coincidentally, his long-lost daughter Arisuke Terajima had become the president's wife of the Atobe chaebol a year ago. It must be said that fate is really an elusive thing."

There is no need to look closely at the rest of the speculations.

Atobe spread the magazine in his hand forward, frowned, and did not speak for a long time.

Akiyama hesitated for a moment: "Master, should we send someone to close it right away?"

"I'm afraid." Atobe lowered his eyelids and said in a cold voice, "It's too late."

To be fair, this past event was not something shameful, and even the parties involved did not want to deliberately conceal anything. It was just that the revelation at this critical moment was very subtle.

He seemed to remember something, and turned to open the webpage on his computer. As expected, 2ch was already abuzz. The earliest post was only online for two hours, and there were already many replies and reposts, including research, speculation, and entertainment. Some even took out the photos of Hasegawa Gardenia and Terajima Kyosuke from more than 20 years ago and compared them with the current Lane Lindsay, and the details were well researched.

After a circle, Atobe lost interest in looking closely.

He pushed away the mouse and leaned back on the chair. He picked up his hands and pondered for a long time before taking out his mobile phone and dialing a number.

Unexpectedly, he heard the prompt tone of the phone being turned off.

He frowned and dialed several times. It took a long time before the call was connected.

"Why are you answering now?"

"The trial just ended. What happened?"

The woman's voice was calm. She must have appeared in court early in the morning to defend her and had no time to pay attention to the rumors outside.

Atobe was inexplicably relieved: "Still in the court, right? Stay there and don't move. I'll come to pick you up."

It was almost noon when the trial ended. The sun quietly moved overhead. The sunlight was only slightly warm, and it lightly poured on the remaining snow that had accumulated the night before, with a thin light white color.

Yuki was somewhat suspicious when he suddenly received a call from Atobe Keigo, but he still told Sakai Otonashi to leave first, and he quietly went around the back door of the court and found the low-key black Lincoln on the corner of the street.

"What's going on?"

Atobe covered most of his face with large sunglasses. He didn't say anything. He just pondered for a moment, handed her a magazine, and then lowered his head to start the car: "Read it yourself."

She flipped through the extravagant layout, eye-catching pictures, and light text one by one, and didn't know what to do for a moment.

"When did it happen?"

"The news broke this morning, but it's already a hot topic on the Internet." Atobe turned the car into a remote road, "You will definitely be targeted by paparazzi if you go back now, so take a leave in the afternoon."

Youji was silent for a long time, but finally did not object.

In fact, if you think about it carefully, even if this old story is dug up by someone, it is not a shameful scandal. People in the secular world have been bored for too long, and there will always be some after-dinner gossip. When a new round of gossip grabs their attention, they will naturally ignore the so-called old news.

It's just that when you think about the recent stance between GS and the Atobe chaebol, and the ambiguous words in the report that seem to be teasing, it is not a simple entertainment gossip after all.

"I don't mind if this matter is exposed at this time, but I don't know if your father will get into any trouble."

You Ji was slightly startled, raised her eyelids, looked at his delicate and sharp profile, and then turned her head to look at the desolate street scene outside the window. The pale sunlight shone through the brown glass, and the feeling of coldness gradually came over her, making her unable to help but slightly clench her hands on her knees. The joints were delicate and slightly bluish-white.

Suddenly, she felt warm, and when she came to her senses, she found that she was covered by Tebe's palm. He left after a while and continued to steer the wheel.

She was slightly stunned, unable to see the expression on his face through the sunglasses, but she felt relieved for no reason in her heart. She simply tucked her hands into her sleeves, leaned back on the comfortable chair, and closed her eyes with a little tiredness.