Chapter 145: Gu Jinyan: His Sister Is Utterly Feeble

Gu Ci’s fingers tightened ever so slightly, casually. Her expression was languid and indifferent, as if the life she held in her hand was not a person’s, but a loose bundle of lifeless straw.

Meng Yueling suddenly felt suffocated.

“Gu... Ci, how dare you... lay a hand on me... let go...”

One of her hands clung desperately to Gu Ci’s, trying to grasp for a breath of relief, yet Gu Ci’s grip was as unyielding as steel, immovable by even the slightest force.

For the first time in her life, Meng Yueling felt how close she was to death itself.

And Gu Ci—her eyes remained calm and abyssal from beginning to end.

It was as if the life she casually held was not a human life, but merely a lifeless rag.

Gu Ci truly did not regard her life as anything worth valuing.

“This time, everyone’s here, right?”

A curt, fragmentary sentence—but at this most perilous moment, Meng Yueling miraculously understood Gu Ci’s meaning.

Gu Ci was asking if she had brought everyone who could be of use today.

Meng Yueling’s face turned nearly purple; she nodded with difficulty, “Yes... all... are here.”

Indeed, this time Meng Yueling had gathered everyone who had been transferred over.

Yet no matter what she did, she never imagined that even with everyone brought along, the outcome would still be like this.

“Hm,” Gu Ci’s eyes gleamed with absolute composure. She nodded slightly, then asked calmly, “Next time, shall we go find those two of mine?”

Her tone was as casual as if inquiring about the weather, yet Meng Yueling could not feel the slightest ease.

For Gu Ci’s hand remained tightly clasped around her neck, layer upon layer of suffocating pressure clouding her mind, almost rendering her incapable of thought.

Yet paradoxically, she heard Gu Ci’s words with crystal clarity.

She shook her head frantically, signaling she dared not do it again.

Seeing this, Gu Ci loosened her grip on Meng Yueling’s neck just a little.

“Remember, this is the last time.”

“There won’t... be... a next time,” Meng Yueling gasped, struggling to speak.

“Remember what you said.” Otherwise...

Gu Ci curled her lips slightly, then casually released Meng Yueling’s neck and turned to leave.

The moment Gu Ci’s hand let go, Meng Yueling slid down the wall, collapsing weakly to the ground, finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Yet at that moment, Gu Ci suddenly stopped in her tracks.

Meng Yueling’s heart leapt up sharply.

“By the way, what did you just say? What did you want to do to me?”

Gu Ci turned her head, asking casually.

A chill ran down Meng Yueling’s spine; her voice trembled, “I... I...”

“Beat you up.”

“Disable your hands.”

“Scratch your face.”

“Strip you naked?”

Each phrase was uttered with a flat tone, except the last, which ended with a raised intonation, striking Meng Yueling like a heavy blow.

“Doesn’t it seem easier to bully me if I don’t fight back at all? At least, beat me up, disable my hands, right?”

Meng Yueling felt cold all over. “Gu Ci, I... I was wrong, I really won’t do it again... I can pay you, give you lots and lots of money! You’re fine, it’s me who’s the problem, isn’t it? Can’t we...?”

“Hm?”

Meng Yueling immediately fell silent.

Seeing Gu Ci’s gaze fixed on her while she leisurely wiped the blood from her hands, Meng Yueling frantically slapped her own face.

Gu Ci said nothing, so Meng Yueling dared not stop or even glance in her direction.

After a long while, she realized Gu Ci had left. Trembling, she pulled out her phone from her pocket and shakily dialed a number.

At that moment, she still didn’t understand what Gu Ci meant by “disable your hands.”

Her face was swollen and red; as soon as the call connected, she vomited blood and burst into tears, crying out, “Mom... Mom…”

...

On the other side, at the Songdu branch of Tianxing Entertainment.

Gu Jinyan lounged arrogantly on the sofa of his private lounge, brow raised high, his tone full of displeasure.

“Are you telling me that even now, you haven’t found out who’s behind hiring the internet trolls?”

Although Gu Ci had said earlier that the Weibo incident didn’t affect her one bit, Gu Jinyan couldn’t tolerate someone secretly manipulating public opinion and buying trolls to ruin his sister’s reputation behind her back.

Besides, how could his delicate and gentle sister truly be unscathed?

She must have just been trying not to worry him, bearing it all alone quietly, crying in some corner when no one knew.

Even Gu Jinyan himself couldn’t keep calm when facing such things in the entertainment industry, so how could his sister?

Moreover, Gu Ci was not even part of the entertainment world and wouldn’t have guessed that someone was orchestrating such attacks with paid trolls, making things even harder for her.

Putting himself in her shoes, Gu Jinyan felt furious on her behalf.

So he refused to let whoever blackened his sister hide in the shadows and gloat in secret.

From the moment he learned of the matter, Gu Jinyan had his agent investigate who was behind it.

The agent knew how seriously Gu Jinyan took the issue and hired a renowned hacker for the task. At first, everything went smoothly—the hacker traced the paid trolls back to their source.

But when they tried to find the mastermind, problems arose.

The hacker reported that the person was untraceable—vanished without a trace, with no way to find them.

How could Gu Jinyan accept that?

“Oh my god, this person used a fake account. Our hacker traced it back, but the card is already deactivated; the ID info is fake. Even my top hacker can’t catch them!”

Gu Jinyan’s agent, Wu Fan, was overwhelmed, nearly tearing his hair out.

But was this something he could solve? Definitely not.

His hacker said no one else could do better.

This case was a complete dead end.

“Even if the card is deactivated, there must be bank transfer records, right?”

Gu Jinyan sat cross-armed on the sofa, as if daring them to give him an explanation—or else he’d make a scene.

“Boss, that card’s foreign. No matter how skilled, it’s impossible to trace that far,” Wu Fan almost cried. This boss was impossible to reason with; he had to coax and argue with him like a child.

Though Wu Fan knew well that this boss was hardly reasonable.

Most likely... he’d just keep causing a fuss.

Yet, surprisingly, Gu Jinyan relented rare and said, “Fine, I get it.”

Hearing this, Wu Fan finally breathed a sigh of relief. “Boss, don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on things online. Nothing like this will happen again.”

Gu Jinyan nodded.

But the next moment, Wu Fan saw Gu Jinyan stand up, brimming with defiance, and stride outside.

Immediately, Wu Fan felt a terrible premonition.

He hurried after him, “Boss... boss! Where are you going now?”

Gu Jinyan put on his sunglasses casually, raised an eyebrow, exuding invisible menace.

“Of course, I’m going to settle accounts with that bastard Akashi!”

Akashi was the one who dealt with the mastermind to dispatch those trolls against Gu Ci.

Hearing this, Wu Fan was dumbfounded. He collapsed to the ground, clutching Gu Jinyan’s pant leg with both hands.