Chapter 159 Produce Evidence

The previously dark main hall suddenly lit up as all the guests began to look at the flowers in their hands.

However, all gazes converged toward the center—the flowers in Chloe’s hands were the most numerous in the entire room.

And the bizarre scene was that Chloe was surrounded by a circle of men.

Her expression was exceptionally grim. With just a few fleeting glances, anyone around could easily tell that her relationship with the surrounding men was far from simple.

"Congratulations..."

Before the host could finish the sentence, the microphone was snatched away by one of the men.

"I am here to expose her! Even though Chloe is a core member, she abused company privileges to maintain her own private team. She even made core internal personnel research unrelated projects in collaboration with external companies, stealing core data for development!"

Chloe managed to maintain a semblance of composure on the surface. She smiled as she looked over, "Everything requires evidence. Do you have any?"

She glanced at her assistant, "Who is this?"

Unfortunately, before the assistant could figure out whose person this was, the man standing on the stage directly pressed his phone, and the luxurious giant screen behind them instantly changed.

With a single glance, Chloe recognized it as the company's internal financial fraudulent accounts being exposed.

"Hacking into the company's financial system—you are committing a crime!"

Her expression tightened completely, her eyes turning red as she stared at the display on the screen. The company's CEO was also present at the banquet.

Caring no longer about what was legal or illegal, her reputation in the industry was now thoroughly ruined.

"My hacking into your internal financial system may be a crime, but I'm afraid your offenses are far heavier than mine."

Besides, this was in Country A, and he was walking right on the edge of the law. But Chloe was different; her fate had already been completely sealed by the several directors present.

"Who on earth are you?!"

The assistant rushed over and whispered into her ear, "This is someone from the Gu family."

It wasn't just this single incident. The men surrounding Chloe were all men she had previously kept as lovers. Most of these men were former internal R&D staff who only had a vague understanding of what she had been doing, but under their joint cooperation, Chloe could no longer keep her secrets hidden.

The combined exposure of these individuals left her completely overwhelmed and unable to cope.

"It's you."

Chloe stared at Gu Shiyan standing at the entrance of the main hall.

She furrowed her brows. Ever since she learned that Gu Shiyan would also attend this banquet, Gu Ming had warned her.

She had specifically dispatched quite a few people to Yao Xiangming just to ensure he kept an eye on Gu Shiyan and prevented any trouble from happening at this crucial final moment.

Yet it was now blatantly obvious that the people Yao Xiangming was watching were not Gu Shiyan's primary objective for coming here tonight.

"Long time no see."

Gu Shiyan walked toward her, followed by a man wearing thick-rimmed glasses.

The man was dressed in a plain t-shirt and cargo pants, looking at first glance like a highly educated intellectual.

And indeed he was. In fact, he was an old acquaintance of Chloe.

"You..." Chloe stared fixedly at the man. This was the man who had stayed by her side the longest, and the only boyfriend whose status she had ever privately acknowledged.

She had thought she had hidden him deep enough, never expecting that Gu Shiyan would manage to track him down.

"Don't look at me like that. He was the one who came looking for me."

"Chloe, back then when I agreed to join you in the R&D, you promised me that the authorship rights would belong to me! Not only did you fail to put my name down, but you stole the hard work of my past few years! I had no idea you conspired with those people to deceive me!"

The man stared at her fixedly, his eyes red and brimming with tears. That project represented years of his sweat and blood, but the woman before him was also someone he had truly loved. It was precisely because he trusted her that he hadn't pried too deeply into the subsequent steps. Never had he imagined that once the project was completed, Chloe would break up with him, leaving him heartbroken and unable to recover for a long time.

It was only later, when he heard from a close friend, that Chloe hadn't put his name on the project at all—his name wasn't even listed among the personnel!

He had been continuously exploited by Chloe, essentially working as unpaid forced labor!

Out of such a massive sum of money, the salary he received amounted to less than one-tenth of a tiny fraction of that project!

"You..." Chloe pressed her temples, feeling slightly overwhelmed by this sudden flurry of accidents.

Before she could even resolve the situation here, her assistant handed her a phone showing an incoming call from Gu Ming.

Chloe froze, her eyelids twitching violently as a premonition of another major disaster washed over her.

Putting on a brave face of calm, she instructed her assistant, "Go call Xiangming over, and have Foote immediately contact finance. Make sure our stories match."

"Hello..."

"Didn't you say you would handle everything properly? Do you have any idea that the things you did have already been reported back home? Our relationship has been leaked too, and all those projects where you had others do the work while claiming sole authorship have been published! Along with the things you did abroad dancing on the edge of the law! What on earth are you doing?!"

The voice on the other end raged indiscriminately, "Chloe, are you trying to ruin yourself?!"

He had been cautious for so long, never expecting that because of Chloe, who was far away in Country A, his entire life's work would be wiped out.

The private transactions between the two of them were far more complicated than just a few shady projects; otherwise, the moment the media reported it, it wouldn't have caused such public fury, prompting even Gu Ming to call her personally amidst his busy schedule.

"We'll talk about this later." Chloe looked at everyone in the room staring at her. She still had matters left unfinished, and with all eyes on her, she couldn't afford to explain things to Gu Ming right now.

Hanging up the phone, she handed it back to her assistant, standing next to the company's legal representative.

The representative's gaze was sharp and severe, "Chloe, I expect an explanation from you. Do you know what you are doing? The entire company has to take responsibility for what you alone have done, and the newly launched project is also implicated. That represents years of our hard work."

If she couldn't turn this situation around, let alone continuing to move in elite circles, she would consider herself lucky not to be dragged into a jail cell.

"The opposing party has no evidence whatsoever. I have every reason to believe they conspired together to deliberately get our project pulled from the shelves."

"No evidence?!" The man standing beside Gu Shiyan trembled so hard his lips quivered. "I was in the lab every day from before dawn, reviewing data and running experiments until dark. There are surveillance cameras!"

"If there really is surveillance footage, then please present it."

The moment she said that, Gu Shiyan understood that she had already tampered with the surveillance system; those recordings probably no longer existed or were useless.

"You!"

Gu Shiyan suddenly pressed down on the man's arm, stopping him, "Don't..."

He suddenly chuckled, "Did you really think we wouldn't have evidence?"

Gu Shiyan retrieved a contract in black and white from the hands of the assistant beside him, "Back then, when you tricked people into signing this modern-day slave contract, you played tricks with the legal loopholes..."

"How did you get your hands on that?!" Chloe's eyes widened in horror, as that document was strictly confidential and never leaked.