Chapter 1328: Scheming Girl
Xie Shenxing laughed heartily and gave Gu Nianzhi a thumbs up. “Good! Good job, little Nianzhi! Good job! Good job!”
Gu Nianzhi pursed her lips into a smile. Her eyes gleamed slyly as she said humbly, “You flatter me, Granduncle.”
Xie Shenxing patted her on the shoulder. “I didn’t misjudge you. You really have some impressive moves.” As he spoke, he turned to look at Huo Xuenong, who was lying on the hospital bed. “I think you should stop struggling stubbornly. Take out Guanyuan’s will, and I won’t hold you responsible.”
Huo Guanyuan’s trust fund had never fallen into grandfather Huo’s hands.
Huo Xuenong’s eyes grew dark, and he was still unwilling to give up.
He had planned for so long, and he couldn’t just give up because he was threatened by someone.
There was a moment of silence in the ward.
Cai Shengnan and Luo Jialan were standing on the left and right sides of Huo Xuenong’s bed respectively.
Gu Nianzhi and Xie Shenxing retreated to the window and lowered their heads to whisper to each other.
The three staff members of the Special Operations forces remained calm as they texted Huo Shaoheng for instructions on what to do next.
…
In the corridor outside the ward, Huo Shaoheng suddenly heard a noise coming from the elevator. Someone was coming.
He quickly turned around and led the remaining members of the Special Operations forces to the corner where he had hidden himself earlier.
The elevator door opened. Huo Xuenong and the head nurse Zhang Feng’s illegitimate son, Zhang Baochen, walked out of the elevator with his son Zhang Wenjie and daughter Zhang Wenna while carrying a large fruit basket and an exquisite gourmet food gift basket.
“The two of you greet your grandfather when you see him later. Remember to be obedient and don’t make the old man angry.”
“Wenjie, do you have your pa.s.sport and ident.i.ty doc.u.ments?”
Huo Xuenong had asked them to bring these doc.u.ments.
“Yes. Why did we have to bring these?” Zhang Wenjie looked impatient. “The old man always acts on whims, and you mess around with him as well.”
“I’m being filial! Filial! Don’t you understand?” Zhang Baochen hit Zhang Wenjie on the head in frustration.
…
In the ward, Gu Nianzhi stood next to Xie Shenxing with her arms crossed, but her eyes were fixed on Huo Xuenong’s bed.
She was racking her brains wondering why Huo Xuenong had hidden Huo Guanyuan’s will?
If what Song Jinning and Luo Jialan said was true and Huo Guanyuan had really left the trust fund to Huo Shaoheng, then why had Huo Xuenong dared to ask Luo Jialan to give half of it to Zhang Wenjie?!
Gu Nianzhi believed that Luo Jialan was no saint. If it was all smokes and mirrors, she wouldn’t have relented.
Could there really be something in the will that they didn’t know about?
Gu Nianzhi thought about it over and over again, then looked at Huo Xuenong thoughtfully, who was lying on the hospital bed with a gloomy expression on his face.
Her dark jade-like eyes darted around, and she walked over to Huo Xuenong. She looked down at him slightly and said, “Grandfather Huo, Uncle Huo’s will was once in your hands, wasn’t it?”
Huo Xuenong couldn’t deny this.
The military had recorded it.
It had been handed over to the Huo family.
Huo Xuenong nodded and said with a sullen expression on his face, “I was given to me once, but I was in so much grief that I didn’t know where I put the will. Perhaps I was so upset that I tore it up.”
“Have you read the will? ” Gu Nianzhi asked quietly.
Her gaze was soft and gentle, and no one could resist it.
Huo Xuenong thought abput it quickly and nodded again. “I’ve read it once, so I know that the will doesn’t say anything about the distribution of his a.s.sets.”
“Then why did you tell Luo Jialan that it did?”
“I didn’t say that. Luo Jialan was lying,” Huo Xuenong denied flatly. “Even the recording was fake.”
In reality, with audio a.n.a.lysis, it would be easy for experts to verify whether or not the recording was fake.
However, Gu Nianzhi didn’t want to push Huo Xuenong into a corner on this matter. She had more important questions to ask.
Therefore, she didn’t retort. She only said, “You and Luo Jialan both have your own opinions on this matter. The evidence in both of your hands aren’t complete, so I’ll retain my suspicions for now.”
Therefore, she wouldn’t allow Luo Jialan’s words to give her presumptions.
Gu Nianzhi asked again, “If the will didn’t specify the distribution of the estate, then what did it say?”
Huo Xuenong snapped back to reality and immediately shook his head. “It’s been more than ten years, so who would still remember?”
“But you just said that you remembered that there was no information about the distribution of the estate.” Gu Nianzhi reminded Huo Xuenong calmly, “Could it be that you have selective amnesia about the contents of the will? Why don’t we try hypnosis by a psychiatrist? This will help you recall what was written in Uncle Huo’s will.”
“Impossible! ” Huo Xuenong objected firmly. “I don’t have amnesia, and I don’t need to be hypnotized by a psychiatrist.”
“What can we do then? You refuse to see a psychiatrist, and you say you don’t remember the contents of the will, and that you lost it.” Gu Nianzhi tapped her left cheek lightly with one of her fair fingers. “What do you think is the probability of so many coincidences happening together?”
Huo Xuenong didn’t speak. He leaned against the bed with a sullen expression on his face. “I’m tired. All of you get out. Otherwise, I’ll call the doctor.”
Gu Nianzhi smiled and raised her hand. “Don’t be impatient, Grandfather Huo. I still have something to ask you.”
Huo Xuenong simply closed his eyes.
Gu Nianzhi pretended not to see this. She organized her thoughts and said, “Let’s first explain the will from a legal point of view.”
“According to the law, a will is a legal act whereby a citizen, within the limits of the law and while still alive, carries out a personal disposition of his estate or other affairs in accordance with the law and takes effect upon the death of the person concerned.
“Therefore, due to the nature of the will, it is a personal disposition of the deceased’s personal property and other personal affairs.
“According to what Grandfather Huo said, Uncle Huo’s will doesn’t contain any content regarding the distribution of property, which is obviously not in accordance with the rules of a will. I highly doubt that Uncle Huo would make such a disorganized will.”
Huo Xuenong’s eyebrows twitched imperceptibly, but he still didn’t speak.
Gu Nianzhi didn’t miss the subtle change in Huo Xuenong’s expression.
She knew that she had guessed correctly. She curled her lips and continued to ask, “So, Grandfather Huo, you still insist that there is nothing in Uncle Huo’s will that has anything to do with his personal property ”
” … What do you mean? If I say there is nothing, then there is nothing.”
“Then this will is invalid.” Gu Nianzhi spread her hands and looked regretful. “It can’t even be called a will.”
“Why can’t it be called a will?! It was handed over from the military, layer by layer. Why can’t it be called a will?!”
Gu Nianzhi looked Huo Xuenong up and down with a smile. After a while, she said, “Because according to what you insisted upon, the will was indeed valid, and that means that the will must have mentioned the issue of the distribution of property.”
Huo Xuenong opened his mouth and looked up at Gu Nianzhi, but didn’t know what to say.
Gu Nianzhi contined as if she was talking to herself, ” … We can speculate that Uncle Huo’s will stated that he would leave the entire trust fund to Major General Huo, and that made Grandfather Huo very unhappy, so he decided to hide the will and let Luo Jialan temporarily take over the inheritance?”
Huo Xuenong sneered and said, ” … lies, keep making up lies! ”
Gu Nianzhi nodded. “It seems like that’s not what the will said.”
” … How do you know? ” Luo Jialan interjected. “Grandfather Huo told me himself that my father’s will stated that the entire trust fund would be given to Major General Huo.”
Gu Nianzhi shook her head and said, “I don’t think that’s in keeping with Uncle Huo’s personality and M.O.”
“What do you mean? You know my father better than I do?” Luo Jialan’s was overcome with jealousy. The man she was in love with loved Gu Nianzhi, and now Gu Nianzhi knew Huo Guanyuan better than she did?
Dream on!
Gu Nianzhi smiled.
Her impression of Huo Guanyuan came from his deep hidden secret love for Song Jinning.
How could such a cautious man, who never acted without thinking, marry someone he didn’t like and pretend to be his wife for the rest of his life, rather than take the initiative to pursue the person he liked, come up with a will full of mistakes?!
“It wouldn’t be surprising if I knew your father better than you,” Gu Nianzhi said nonchalantly, “Because a person’s understanding of another person isn’t based on how long they’ve known each other or how many events they’ve attended together. It’s based on whether they have the heart to understand each other. Luo Jialan, your interest in your father is obviously not as big as your interest in his trust fund. Don’t try to argue with me on purpose.”
Luo Jialan retracted her neck and sank into her hooded jacket.
Gu Nianzhi turned to look at Huo Xuenong. “Grandfather Huo, I’m guessing that there isn’t anything particularly important in the will, is there?”
Huo Xuenong was pondering over how to get Gu Nianzhi out of these lawsuits when Gu Nianzhi suddenly asked him this. He nodded reflexively, then immediately shook his head when he realized what was going on. He said angrily, “How can there be official affairs in a personal will?! What are you trying to get out of me?! I don’t want to talk to you! Stop scheming against me!”
Gu Nianzhi wasn’t angry at all. She giggled and said, “A lawyer is either a scheming boy or a scheming girl. How can you be a lawyer without being scheming? I’ll treat Grandfather Huo’s words as a compliment!”
Huo Xuenong pursed his lips. Gu Nianzhi was really thick-skinned. He wasn’t complimenting her!
“There were no official affairs to begin with. Who would mention official affairs in their will?” Grandfather Huo scoffed.
” … Yeah, I don’t think so either.” Gu Nianzhi nodded with a smile. “I can infer from three aspects that Uncle Huo’s will idn’t involve official affairs. ”
“First of all, Mr. Huo Guanyuan was a soldier and a senior colonel. If there really was something unspeakable in his will, why didn’t he report it directly to his superior?”
“What’s the use of writing it in his will?”
“If nothing happened to him, would he not report it to his superior?”
That was obviously impossible.
Huo Guanyuan was a very principled person, so he would never do something that didn’t comply with the confidentiality rules.