Chapter 41 The truth

Yuki didn’t care about the rumor itself.

Facts are facts. Even if there are many speculations from the outside world, the truth is always known only to the parties involved. In a sense, this old incident, apart from the legendary color deliberately exaggerated by the media, is really not worth any hype. It’s

just as Atobe Keigo said, when the industry thought that Atobe Securities and GS were competing head-on, the news that the president of Atobe Group was the son-in-law of the chairman of GS Japan Branch suddenly broke out. Even she couldn’t help but maliciously speculate on the intentions of the initiator.

She only rested at home for half a day. The next day, because she was thinking about the case she had just taken on, she had to go to work in the office as usual. She wore a pair of large sunglasses, lowered her head and hid her face in the raised collar of her coat, and entered the lobby on the first floor from the side door of the building. She didn’t encounter the reporters who kept pestering her.

At the routine morning meeting, there were many curious colleagues who asked her for confirmation indirectly. She was too lazy to explain and only responded lightly, not denying it, nor admitting it. No matter what others said, she just smiled and didn't say anything.

However, after the meeting, Kunimitsu Tezuka found her privately. His face, which was always calm, showed no expression. He just looked at her quietly for a long time, and then slowly said: "Are you... okay?" "

Don't worry." She laughed and curled the corners of her mouth, "I'm not that fragile. Besides, it's not something shameful."

After hearing her personal confirmation, Kunimitsu Tezuka's glasses flashed slightly: "Is that true?"

"Surprised?" She thought about it, and curled her lips in a self-deprecating way, "I was shocked when I saw him in Tokyo."

"Yuki..." Kunimitsu Tezuka frowned slightly.

"Don't look at me like that, Tezuka." She seemed unaccustomed to being stared at like that. "I just think there's no need to mention it, but I'm not unwilling to face it."

"Did Atobe know about it, too?"

"Well, probably... it was more than half a year ago." She nodded, as if she was thinking about something. When she raised her head again, she changed the subject calmly: "Forget it. I came back from the court yesterday, and the materials haven't been sorted out yet. What about Otonashi? Hasn't she come yet?"

"It seems so." Tezuka Kunimitsu did not comment. "But it seems that she is not in a good state. The old man of the Feng family came yesterday."

"Old man Feng?" Yuki was stunned. "Feng Chotaro's..."

"Grandfather." Tezuka nodded. "He sat in the reception room for a long time. When Sakai came out, he was in a bad mood."

Yuki couldn't help being speechless.

She herself had similar experiences.

She lowered her head and pondered for a moment, and then she understood.

Even if it is a fairy-tale love between a princess and a prince, people are not obliged to fulfill it.

Even if it is fulfilled, it may not necessarily be happy.

As she was thinking this, there was a sound of hurried footsteps in the corridor. A girl wrapped in a smart suit rushed in and almost bumped into Tezuka who was about to leave.

"Ah, sorry, senior!"

"Otonashi?"

"Sorry, sorry, Yuki senior, I drank too much last night."

Sakai Otonashi almost staggered in, panting constantly, and the makeup on her face could not cover the shadow of dark circles under her eyes. Yuki stared at her for a long time: "You are late, it's rare."

"Uh... Sorry... Senior."

She held the information, scratched her head, and grinned. Yuki looked at her for a long time and finally gave up the idea of ​​looking for some traces on her.

"Is the information from yesterday ready?"

"Oh, right away!"

The woman put down her backpack and information in a hurry, and rushed to the computer and started working.

Yuki looked at her silently, raised his head and exchanged glances with Tezuka who stopped at the door, and sighed slightly in his heart.

Just as she was about to say something, she heard Sakai let out a low "ah". The sound was not loud, but clearly full of surprise.

"What's wrong?"

The two were slightly startled and moved forward. It turned out to be an anonymous email sent to the mailbox. There was no text, only a simple link. When they clicked it, it was a post pinned to the top of the entertainment section of 2CH. Then there was yesterday's hot topic. The pictures on the new video seemed to have been old, slightly yellowed, but the image was clear.

The background was the tree-lined corridor of Harvard Business School. The woman had a delicate face and a cold smile. Behind her, an elegant and handsome young man embraced her gently, and the emotions in his eyes were vaguely surging.

"This is my mother..."

She said softly, not knowing how to react for a moment. The woman's face was somewhat similar to hers, but the man next to her was clearly not the person she imagined. The contours of his facial features were delicate and handsome, with sharp lines, and the youthful spirit that was inadvertently revealed could be vaguely seen. She was very familiar with his eyebrows and eyes. After nearly twenty years of time difference, they actually overlapped with a certain impact in an instant.

The fingers holding the mouse began to tremble slightly at some point. She subconsciously tightened her grip, and the cold air had already penetrated her muscles and bones from her fingertips.

"Akiyama, I don't know when the intelligence network of the Atobe Zaibatsu will be inferior to that of the paparazzi!"

The sun only showed a little face that morning before it was swallowed by thick dark clouds. The sky outside the window was gloomy. Akiyama Takuma raised his head from the computer screen in fear. Atobe Keigo had already stood up and put on his suit jacket.

"Master Keigo?"

"The afternoon meeting has been postponed. I have to go to Karuizawa and leave now."

Atobe walked out with a cold face without looking back. He walked out of the headquarters building and raised his head to look at the gloomy and desolate sky of Tokyo through his sunglasses. There were two or three pieces of snow falling faintly.

This snow fell for a long time.

At first, it was just small pieces of snow, floating in the gloomy sky in groups of three or two, and then gradually became larger, falling from the high sky like catkins, flying endlessly in the bleak winter air. By the afternoon, there was already piles of pure white snow on the street corners, decorating the bustling streets of Ginza.

The heating in the box was turned on to keep the cold out of the window. Tiny ice crystals gradually condensed on the window lattice, like crystal tears.

Lane Lindsay sat on the tatami, looking across the coffee table at the woman sitting across from him, and finally sighed, breaking the long silence.

"You saw it right, they were indeed a couple back then."

Terajima Yuki raised her eyelids, her eyelashes trembled slightly, and her guess was confirmed, and she actually had a look of disbelief.

The old man across from him sighed for a long time, as if he was recalling the distant past.

"That was more than 20 years ago. We were both international students at Harvard Business School at that time. Since there were very few Japanese people on campus, we were very close to each other. Gardenia was born in a famous family in Kyoto. She was very elegant. Although she was a girl, she was not inferior to men in academics and research. I remember that some famous young men in the same school had a good impression of her, but she was born arrogant and indifferent, and never paid attention to these things. At that time, Atobe Jingyi had not yet taken over the Atobe Foundation, but his brilliance had already begun to show. Perhaps after a long time of contact, the two were attracted to each other and unknowingly got together. Their family backgrounds were similar, and they were equally outstanding. At that time, we were considered a perfect match. At that time, although I was not inferior to others in academics, my family background was clean. Even my daily life had to rely on full scholarships and odd jobs to support myself. Although I envied him, I really had no time to think about other things."

"We all thought that the two of them would eventually get married, but unexpectedly, on the eve of the master's thesis defense, the management of the Atobe Zaibatsu ran into problems. The then chairman Atobe Jingren was critically ill and fell into a coma. As the only son, Atobe Jingyi had to postpone the defense and fly back to Japan to deal with the crisis. Not long after he returned, news came that he was engaged to the daughter of Lingchuan Media."

"It is said that at that time, politician Nakamura was investigated by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office for suspected political donations, and the Atobe Zaibatsu was implicated. After Atobe Jingren fell ill, the top management of the chaebol was in chaos for a while, and there were even rumors that the two major investors had withdrawn their capital. The shares under their names fell again and again, but later when the political donation case was officially opened, although the Atobe family was implicated, the charges could not be implemented due to insufficient evidence." "

Now that I think about it, this is probably inseparable from the mediation of the famous political family Ayakawa. Because after that, not only did the Atobe family and the Ayakawa family become relatives, but Ayakawa, a member of the Kyoto clan, also received great financial support from the Atobe family in the elections in the following years. At that time, the Atobe family was eager to get rid of the scandal of political donations and restore morale, and Atobe Jingyi also needed the help of Ayakawa Media to clean up dissidents, and the Ayakawa family also needed a powerful ally like Atobe Securities. Perhaps it was based on this that the two families reached an agreement and became relatives." "

And for Atobe Keiji, it did achieve his goal. Not long after he finished the lawsuit, he made drastic changes to the senior management of the board of directors, took control of the decision-making power of the consortium's affairs, and soon made the stock price steadily recover, allowing the Atobe Consortium to get out of the crisis." "

At that time, we, my peers, had just finished our defense, attended the formal graduation ceremony, and returned to Tokyo after a long absence. At that time, all the newspapers carried the news of his engagement with Miss Ayakawa, but Atobe Keiji himself got up and flew to North America without even a word of explanation to make up for his unfinished graduation defense. After that, he successfully obtained his degree and married Miss Ayakawa Kazumi. He then officially took over the affairs of the consortium at the instruction of the old chairman, and became a rising star in the financial industry with ruthless means. I don't know how they ended it. Even on the day of his wedding, she just stood on the edge of the red carpet and watched quietly, calmly almost cruelly." The

man immersed in memories sighed deeply. The words of the woman more than 20 years ago were still ringing in his ears, and every word was chilling to the bone.

——"It's just a dream. The youth, passion and love of a teenager... for us, perhaps it's just a time-limited game. When the dream is over, the game should be over too, so just do what needs to be done."

And as if to prove these words, in the next two short years, this calm, self-possessed and sharp woman finally emerged in various competitions in Ginza.

"At that time, the Hasegawa family had just begun to expand the market in Kanto. She assisted Hasegawa Kenshin in mediating in the treacherous business world. Most of Hasegawa's industries in Tokyo today were founded at that time. She and Atobe Keiji would meet on many occasions, and sometimes even had a cooperative relationship. They were polite and courteous to each other, and were as calm as ordinary classmates. I even thought that the past had really become the past and no one would mention it again." "

Three years passed like this. Chairman Atobe Keiji passed away, triggering a new round of struggles within the Atobe family. Atobe Yuichi, Atobe Keiji's cousin, had always been on the same front with him. His talents and achievements were also very remarkable. He had accumulated a lot of strength over the years, and at the same time his ambitions began to gradually rise. In order to compete with his brother for the position of chairman of the Atobe Group, he even proposed a marriage to the Hasegawa family in order to increase his bargaining chips in the family association. And the then Chairman Hasegawa, your grandfather, also agreed to the marriage."

The pot of Longjing tea on the table had already given out its last bit of steam. The woman sat upright, staring at the person in front of her with a cold face, like an exquisite statue of a god.

The snow in the suburbs was heavier than in the city center. Looking out through the large French windows, the view was full of snowflakes fluttering like catkins, silently weaving a dense curtain hanging under the gloomy sky of Karuizawa. Thick snow had accumulated on the ground, and the flower beds, corridors, courtyards, and tree branches were all covered with white snow, a piece of white.

Atobe Keigo stood in front of the window, looking at the icicles on the window, his hands in his trouser pockets, his lips pursed, and his expression sinister.

After a long time, he turned back and curled the corners of his lips with a hint of sarcasm: "So, father accepted the olive branch handed over by grandpa, even if it meant abandoning the woman he loved most?"

"Your grandmother knelt on the ground and begged me in tears." The chairman of the Atobe Zaibatsu sat beside the coffee table, drooping his eyelids, quietly pouring a pot of tea, his eyes calm: "Jingwu, even with a strong foundation and wealth, the Atobe family will not always stand firmly on the top of the mountain. Sometimes it only takes a moment to fall. What's more, the Atobe family at that time was far worse than it is today. I knew that your grandfather was threatening me, but I had to accept it. This was the first trial I had to endure when I first started out." "

So, although you never hesitated to provide financial support to your grandfather, you later quietly controlled Ayakawa Media, leaving him no room for counterattack." His son turned around, lowered his eyes and looked at him, in a statement tone.

"But I didn't destroy the Ayagawa family, and I don't think I have treated your mother badly."

"That's because she knows the big picture, otherwise..." Atobe Keigo secretly clenched his fists, gritted his teeth, and finally didn't say anything else.

The delicate and elegant woman in the memory, no matter how peaceful she was, still had regrets and unknown loneliness.

Otherwise, how could she die at such a young age?

Atobe Keiichi raised his head and looked at him steadily: "Otherwise, what would happen if it was you?"

Everyone in the Atobe family is proud and conceited. How can they tolerate being threatened and taken advantage of? Even if they tolerate it, they will always find a chance to retaliate fiercely.

Thinking of this, Atobe let out a long breath and loosened his palm.

"And then?" he said, "You ended up like this?"

"At the time, she was the financial director of the Tokyo branch of Hasegawa Company. We would often meet in business occasions, but that was all and had nothing to do with love. Until your grandfather passed away three years later, Yuichi competed with me for the position of head and chairman of the Atobe family. In order to gain greater bargaining chips, he proposed a marriage to the old chairman of Hasegawa, and the other party agreed." "

Even if he had obtained the support of the Hasegawa family, could your uncle pose a threat to your father at that time?"

"He was once your great-grandfather's favorite child. The shares and inherited property under his name are not inferior to mine. He has been helping me do various things over the years, and his own strength should not be underestimated. More importantly, for the elders in the family association, my methods have touched their interests more than once, and they are eager to have someone as capable as me to balance me."

"Then what happened later, Miss Gardenia didn't agree?"

"At that time, I was busy dealing with many issues concerning the power transition within the consortium. Naturally, I wanted to stop this marriage, so I found an opportunity to ask her out. However, she was calmer than I expected and just said that she would handle the matter properly." Atobe Jingyi put down the teapot in his hand and stared quietly at the green tea leaves in the cup. His brows were as calm as water, but there was a hint of sadness. "But I didn't expect that in order to get rid of Yuichi's entanglement, she unilaterally and loudly announced her marriage to Terajima Kyosuke, which angered the old chairman of the Hasegawa family, and in a rage, he kicked her out of the family."