Chapter 167: After the exam (2)
In a different manor that was less luxurious than the Long Family's manor.
"Father, I'm back."
Zhao Kui announced as soon as he came in the door.
But all that he was met with were grim faces.
He was confused when he saw this and asked, "What's wrong? Did something happen?"
No one answered him as they all looked at the screens in front of them with grim looks on their faces.
Zhao Kui didn't know what was happening, but he could tell that something was seriously wrong for everyone to be acting this way.
He had expected a triumphant return after he passed the Irregular License Exam, so this was completely different from what he was expecting.
Finally, after a long silence, his father said, "It's the Zhao Group, we're facing a crisis."
Zhao Kui's face immediately filled with shock when he heard this before he said, "How could the Zhao Group be in crisis in just the few days that I've been gone?"
Zhao Kui's father shook his head and said, "It's not in a few days, it's been in the past few hours."
Zhao Kui was even more shocked when he heard this before quickly asking, "What do you mean in the past few hours? Just what has happened?"
Zhao Kui's father didn't even bother explaining as he just handed over one of the tablets he had been using.
Zhao Kui had a confused look when he took this tablet, but he still took it and looked at what his father wanted him to read. As he read the articles that were on the tablet, his expression couldn't help becoming uglier and uglier.
"Slander! This is all slander!" Zhao Kui slammed his fist down after he finished reading this.
"It's not." A voice came from the side.
Zhao Kui turned to look at his older brother who had been sitting there in silence.
He couldn't help being surprised that his older brother had suddenly spoken up at this time, but he knitted his brows and asked, "What do you mean?"
Zhao Kui's older brother took a deep breath before saying, "It's all true."
Zhao Kui's face filled with shock when he heard this.
If it was anyone else who said this, he might not have believed them.
But since it was his older brother who said these words, he had no choice but to believe.
That was because his older brother was the vice president of internal affairs for the Zhao Group.
He was the one that handled all the inner matters for the Zhao Group, for their father.
It could even be said that he was the cleaner for the Zhao Group.
If there were any dirty secrets that the Zhao Group had, he was the one that knew them all.
So he was the greatest authority on this matter.
If he was saying that all of these articles were true, then there was no denying them.
The articles that Zhao Kui had just read were about the Zhao Group's misdeeds.
These were articles that talked about the bribes the Zhao Group had made, the coverups that the Zhao Group had done, and all different kinds of evil things that the Zhao Group had done to further their business.
Of course, there was black and white in the business world, so these things were necessary to get ahead.
But they should have all been hidden without leaving a single trace.
So how had they found this out?
Zhao Kui looked at his older brother and asked, "How did they find all this out? Shouldn't all traces of this have been erased?"
Zhao Kui's older brother had a frown on his face as he shook his head and said, "I have no idea. I remember not leaving a trace, but somehow they were able to dig all of this up…"
As his voice trailed off, he revealed a look of deep thought as if he was trying to figure something out.
Zhao Kui couldn't help peeking at the other tablet that was on the table.
The good thing was that the market's were closed, so they had some time to fix this…but he could see that the projections for the Zhao Group's stock prices were getting worse and worse.
Zhao Kui's father then said with a sigh, "The worst part is that they keep releasing new articles on the hour, every hour! It's almost as if they are doing this on purpose just to mess with us!"
As if on cue, there was another article that suddenly appeared on the tablet that Zhao Kui was holding.
This was another article about another one of the Zhao Group's misdeeds.
As soon as this article appeared, the stock price projections once again dropped…
All of them had grim looks on their faces as they just sat or stood there in silence.
But after a long silence, Zhao Kui's father suddenly said, "But it's a good thing that you're back."
Zhao Kui was surprised and a bit confused to hear this.
Good that he was back?
What could he do to help?
He wasn't someone that was skilled in business or had that much influence that he could stop the media from reporting these things.
So how could he help?
Zhao Kui's father's expression relaxed a bit as he said, "I've gotten word that an important person also took part in the exam today. Since you're my son, I'm sure that you were able to build a relationship with that person through your outstanding performance. As long as we can get that person to help us, it won't be a problem for our Zhao Group to weather this storm."
Zhao Kui revealed an even more surprised look when he heard this before asking, "Who is it?"
While he had only placed third, that was third out of everyone.
He was sure that he had made an impression on everyone, so he would still be able to get them to work with him if he wanted to.
That was the confidence that he had.
It was just too bad that this confidence was about to be smashed when he heard his father's next words.
Seeing the confident look that Zhao Kui had when he asked this, his father gave a satisfied look before saying, "I've heard that the daughter of the Long Group also took part in the exam today."
"Long Group?" Zhao Kui couldn't help repeating after his father before slightly knitting his brows.
For some reason, this seemed familiar.
Of course he knew what the Long Group was, but he felt like he had met someone with the surname Long today…
He had been too focused on Lin Fan the entire time that he had forgotten about most of the others. But for some reason, the surname Long seemed very familiar…
Zhao Kui's father gave a nod before saying, "That's right, the young miss of the Long Group, Long Shui Ling." Then with a laugh, he said, "I'm sure that with your outstanding performance, you should have been able to charm her completely. When the time comes, we can even become in laws with the Long Group."
However, Zhao Kui wasn't as positive as his father.
He finally recognized this name…
Wasn't that the name of the girl who had stuck with Lin Fan the entire time?