Chapter 237: Souce of rumours

Fu Jianguo stood at the front-lines and engaged the reporters. As time ticked by, pressure began to build up. They were already an hour past the due time for the event. He was not concerned at first; such delays were not unexpected in events. 

But soon he noticed indistinct grumbling growing into audible voices of protests — unnerved, he skipped to a side and directly dialed up to Secretary Xiu. To his distress, her line turned out to be busy at the first call. After a brief pause, he tried again, but to no avail.

It continued for ten long minutes.

A seamlessly busy line under such tense circumstances — Fu Jianguo was wise enough to infer the cause.

It meant Secretary Xiu was in distress. And there were fair chances of that 'cause' being linked with Mr. Ji's absence.

Fu Jianguo was acutely aware of the situation. More than that, he was aware of the consequences if Mr. Ji failed to appear.

An assemblage of suspicion rooted in his heart. But since President Jing had invited the official, she would make it certain that he appeared? In the state of the turmoil of his thoughts, his eyes met President Jing, who was seated not far in a car quietly accessing the situation. 

She gave him an affirmative nod; it was enough to blow away all his fears. Since she appeared so calm, she must be having everything under control.

With that thought, he pacified himself and with a confident smile strode back to the crowd to engage the reporters.

A minute had passed by when he sensed the President approaching. The way she carried herself, the unshakable confidence in her bearing put him at ease. Since she was so assured, everything should be fine, right?

However, when she confirmed that Mr. Ji had indeed fled aboard, he chocked. He was not expecting that!

What were they supposed to do now?

Before he could collect himself, he heard judgmental remarks follow. And quite surprisingly, not from the reporters, but from the people who stood by his side!

"It had indeed been a bit sketchy, the whole affair; Mr. Ji's fluent acceptance at President Jing's first invitation. I had a few encounters with Mr. Ji. Quite an arrogant fellow. Since the beginning, I could not come in terms with the fact that he would agree so readily."

"Well, well, now we can at least openly express our thoughts on whether Mr. Ji even agreed or not without the fear of backlash from the devotees; the rumor alone that Mr. Ji might appear has imparted enough publicity." The man was hinting that the management used Mr. Ji's name to falsely gain publici

ty. The practice, while not uncommon in the businessmen circle to make their brand names known, would obviously be a nasty stain on the company's reputation that would be impossible to clean over the years.

It might have a positive outcome in the short term; the reason shot-sighed, amateur entrepreneurs would employ such means. But in the long term, the losses would surpass the benefits.

And since the Tang Enterprise was known for keeping upright deals, the thing would come as a shocker and receive an intense backlash.

And let's not dwell on the possibility of what might come if Mr. Ji turned around and decided to throw a comment or two condemning and denying ever agreeing to attend the event.

Fu Jianguo was agitated. But he found himself helpless. If not for his biased respect towards President Jing because she trusted and supported him when any regular person would have discarded him — from the eye of an impartial onlooker — he might have judged her the way the other's did.

Because of that one devastating experience, he knew that her work ethics could not be called into questions.

Thus he believed in her unquestionably.

However, his beliefs could not stop the mass of critics to throw their nasty comments. One of them even said.

"I heard that they had employed some sort of threatening to have Mr. Ji agree. Now it doesn't come as a surprise that he backed out at the last moment to get back at them." The particular outrageously bold accusations had Fu Jianguo jerk up his head. 

He noted the name of the person in his mind. It was the head of the security section.

"Mr. Yi." Fu Jianguo walked up to the person when he was in alone, catching him off guards by suddenly voicing out his name. 

"Yes?" Yi Fang craned his neck, alarmed at the sudden intrusion.

"The claim you just made, I happened to be standing nearby. Now, I am interested. Is this true? Do you have any substantial evidence to support your claim?" Fu Jianguo deliberately tamed his tone to make it appear as if he was not interrogating with the intent of telling on him instead as if he was merely curious. 

To make himself appear credible, he even smiled warmly. "No need to be suspicious. I have no ill intention towards you. I am merely asking because I also happened to hear the rumors of this sort from others. If you provide me with something to convince me, I could establish whether or not they are true. Just to be...more careful while working in the company in the future"

Fu Jianguo smile seemed to have made the assistant lower his gua

rds; his words washing away Yi Fang panicked expressions. "Mr. Fu, from your zeal you appeared to be the sort who wouldn't tolerate a word against President Jing." Yi Fang laughed heartily, eager to strike an acquaintance. "But what I said was true. I don't dare make a claim without any substance. The words I have to say, they will completely convince you."

"Oh, is that so? Carry on then."

"The other day, I was going back to submit a report to the department head and there I heard him by accident, chatting with higher up about employing men from the underworld to warn those who tried to create the problem. Mr. Fu, you do know that Heng Limited has connections to the underworld, right?"