Love? The Reborn Me Just Wants to Obtain Rewards
Chapter 917 - 379: Tonglin Suffers, Gu Prospers_2

Chapter 917: Chapter 379: Tonglin Suffers, Gu Prospers_2

"Look at you being so terrible, you’re worse than us two ladies."

Wang Gang immediately felt aggrieved: "I was using a machine gun, how can that be the same?"

"Doesn’t matter, you’re terrible either way!"

Wang Lezhi chuckled and pushed open the study door, then flopped onto Gu Tongshu’s back: "Who’s calling? Suddenly made such a commotion."

"Our dad." Gu Tongshu raised his eyebrows slightly, "The Puppy embarrassed Gu Tonglin to his core, and our dad is furious."

"Pfft!"

Wang Lezhi burst into laughter, throwing him a playful eye-roll: "You two little degenerates—don’t even need a secret signal to gang up on people. Honestly, you pair are the real match made in heaven!"

"Nonsense!"

Gu Tongshu shivered with anger: "What do I have in common with him? I’m cleaning up after him!"

"Yes, yes, yes, poor you~~~"

Wang Lezhi wouldn’t argue with him, covering her mouth as she kept giggling, clearly finding all this hilarious.

Gu Tongshu puffed his cheeks and glared, passionately defending himself: "I’m not helping him—I’m helping myself! There’s a fundamental difference between us..."

Hmm, there is a difference—a digger and a filler, that’s all.

...

Back in the country, Gu Tonglin found himself in hot soup, with his seat practically on fire as he scrambled to negotiate a settlement with those "henchmen."

Never mind that fraud cases are criminally prosecuted—when things reach his level, as long as a letter of forgiveness can be procured, there’s still some wiggle room.

That said, if he can’t satisfy all related parties, no matter how much capital and social standing he has, the iron fist of the law isn’t going to hold back.

But the prerequisite for a settlement is proactively returning the stolen funds.

The company’s legal team called in experts; a crowd gathered to brainstorm and plot strategies for him.

"We need to work on proving there was ’no intentional act of embezzlement’ on your part. Their evidence chain is pretty solid, especially the testimony from the production side. It shows you failed to fulfill the contract despite having full discretionary control, and that’s a serious issue.

So first return the funds that need to be returned, then take over Yida Film and Television. Only then can we attempt to push for probation."

Gu Tonglin widened his eyes: "Only probation? Can’t we try for exemption from punishment?"

The attorney shook his head: "It’s tough. We can only aim for ’lack of evidence to prosecute,’ but I can’t guarantee that’s achievable."

Realizing jail time was a real possibility, Gu Tonglin lost all his arrogance.

He promptly started scraping together money and refunded bits here and there.

Out of a total revenue of 360 million yuan, he only received less than 320 million yuan—most of it went toward various costs. Then another 120 million yuan disappeared, leaving merely 200 million in hand.

He sold off assets left and right and managed to scrounge together 160 million, plugging the contract’s deficit before turning to beg the production company.

"Bro, I’m begging you to be merciful, cut me some slack!"

Jiang didn’t even bother meeting him in person, roaring profanities over the phone: "Damn it, I’ve already been ousted—what good is begging me? Hell, if you hadn’t botched things, I’d have long made my coffin money, you bastard!"

Gu Huatang shamelessly approached Mr. Wang: "My nephew..."

"The film division is a hot potato. Yida Film wants to acquire it, but the shareholders were already unhappy. Now, with this fiasco, it’s impossible to smooth things over."

Gu Huatang gritted his teeth: "We’ll cover the losses—50 million for those shareholders. Is that enough?"

It wasn’t. In the end, Yida Film’s shareholders wrung 80 million yuan out of the Gu Family before settling.

This wasn’t paid by the Gu Corporation but personally by Gu Tonglin.

At this point, direct losses had already exceeded 240 million yuan. Factoring in financing costs, it was well over 260 million yuan.

Despite the illusion of grandeur he portrayed, strutting around like a big shot, his family’s total wealth only reached around 500 million yuan.

One slap from Su Huai halved his net worth.

And it didn’t end there.

Yida finally softened their stance—but what about Tencent?

Battle Through the Heavens has been airing for a while now—with no ads, no new influx of viewers, constantly ridiculed online. Do you think the mighty Penguin doesn’t care about its reputation?

Gu Tonglin visited them multiple times, but they refused to meet him.

The executives at Penguin Film and Television bottled up their rage and ignored him, while Xinli snickered on the sidelines.

Ultimately, after being humiliated repeatedly, Gu Tonglin had no choice but to summon an elder—the ancestral patriarch, Gu Huatang—to personally pay Su Huai a visit at Xingyu.

Only the bell-ringer can unring the bell—no one but Su Huai could resolve this mess.

Gu Huatang and Gu Tonglin arrived at Su Huai’s office, where Su Huai remained as warm and courteous as ever.

"Oh my, old sir, how could I trouble you to come personally? My apologies, my apologies!"

Gu Huatang dropped half his dignity, while the other half still clung as he perched steadily in the guest area, complimenting Su Huai on how well he’s developed his company.

Su Huai beamed politely, deflecting praise with humility, meandering in his conversations, never uttering a single serious word.

They waited and waited until the elder could no longer outlast the younger man—Gu Huatang had to relent.

"Su, can we trouble you once more with Tongshu’s matter?"

"Absolutely! If it’s something I can help with, no problem!"

Watching Su Huai thump his chest again, Gu Tonglin nearly coughed up blood.

Last time, you said the same thing—and the next day, you pinned me down!

Gu Huatang swallowed his anger and finally let go of the rest of his pride.

"I recognize this was our fault. Tonglin wronged you, and the Gu Family owes you an apology. We’ll reimburse Xingyu for its losses. Regarding Penguin too—you don’t need to deal with more than one party—I’ll give you 50 million yuan to handle it as you see fit. Can we agree?"

"What kind of talk is that?"

Su Huai widened his eyes, pretending to be deeply offended: "How could I possibly accept your money? I’ll handle this—it’s on me. You go back and wait for my news. Not a cent required. If I fail, I’ll offer my head as compensation!"