24: Chapter 24 You Are My Moonlight: The Substitute Male Supporting Character 23

"Boss, that's the situation. What do we do now?"

The assistant held a pile of documents and looked at Su Qingxue with deep worry.

Su Qingxue massaged her brow with one hand while flipping through the documents with the other.

She asked a few questions from time to time.

"Are you sure it's Gu Group?"

"Yes."

The assistant nodded.

"Just a few days ago, I heard that Gu Group's autonomous driving system was implemented, and all the collaborations we had previously negotiated were explicitly rejected yesterday."

"Boss, without Gu Group's autonomous driving system, we will lose our core competitiveness."

Su Qingxue frowned, lost in thought, her fingertips tapping lightly on the desk.

"There are other excellent AIs in the country. If we were to collaborate on developing an autonomous driving system now, about how long would it take?"

"At least half a year."

The assistant had clearly considered this question, answering clearly and concisely.

"Then put it on the agenda. Electric cars can still run without autonomous driving; it's just that intelligent driving is indeed the future trend."

"But Boss, autonomous driving isn't the most critical issue."

After saying this, the assistant stepped forward, picked out a few red folders from the desk, and handed them over.

"The most important thing is the battery manufacturers. Currently, all battery suppliers have an abnormal attitude towards us, and all the preliminary collaborations we drafted have fallen into a state of delay."

"Gu Group has that much power?"

This time, Su Qingxue was truly anxious.

Over the past two years, Su Group's automotive division had completely finished its transformation. The only things missing were the autonomous driving system and batteries—and for electric cars, batteries were their lifeblood.

The assistant gave a bitter smile and pulled an investigation report from their jacket.

"Boss, Gu Group has used the autonomous driving technology in their hands to gather all the battery manufacturers into a circle. Although I don't know how they did it, they have succeeded."

This time, the silence lasted even longer, but Su Qingxue eventually figured it out.

Promises of profit combined with threats.

Yes, profit alone wouldn't be enough to bind them so tightly; there definitely had to be threats involved.

This was also easy to understand.

The domestic battery industry had long been stagnant after years of development, but things were different now; the rise of electric cars had driven the battery industry to take off.

Humans are very interesting creatures.

Setting aside class, when everyone is having a hard time, they are unexpectedly united and help each other.

But once an opportunity to make big money is presented, everything changes.

People are often no longer united; they don't think about cooperating to make the cake bigger.

Instead, they think about how to reduce the number of people sharing the cake so that they can get a bigger slice themselves.

Sudden and massive profits will amplify the greed of human nature.

This situation is not lucky for everyone; the weak will instead be devoured.

The threat to survival makes them more likely to submit.

So the question arises: how can this relationship be broken?

You not only need enough profit, but you also need the confidence to stand up to their controller, which is Gu Group.

Does the current Su Group have that?

It does; the scale of the entire group does not fear Gu Group.

But in the future, it won't.

Without a top-tier autonomous driving system, the future Su Group will only go downhill, and the gap with Gu Group will grow larger and larger.

Su Qingxue gradually sorted everything out.

"In other words, the urgent priority is a new system that rivals Gu Group's autonomous driving. With it, battery manufacturers will be willing to cooperate."

"Yes, Boss. Without an autonomous driving system, the company's prospects are visibly bleak. If battery suppliers cooperate with us, they will eventually be liquidated."

"Half a year for self-development is simply not enough time..."

The assistant sighed and said helplessly:

"Time waits for no one, and the market certainly won't wait for us."

A deep sense of powerlessness welled up in her heart, and Su Qingxue felt a bit lost for a moment.

Plans can't keep up with changes.

She never expected that Gu Qingyan would bring personal feelings into company collaborations.

They had clearly already negotiated the collaboration and were just waiting to sign the contract.

Gu Group was also considered to be on good terms with Su Group. Given Su Group's automotive manufacturing experience, a collaboration between Gu Group and Su Group would have been perfect, a win-win for both sides.

Why was Gu Qingyan willing to give up even the profits, hurting the enemy by a thousand while losing eight hundred himself, just to go against her?

"Gu Qingyan..."

The fountain pen in her fingertips tapped lightly on the desk as Su Qingxue murmured the name.

The next moment, the office door was knocked on.

"Knock, knock, knock."

"Come in."

Su Qingxue frowned and looked toward the door.

Another assistant pushed the door open and entered, holding an exquisite gift box in their hands.

"Boss, this is a gift box sent by Gu Group. They said it must be handed to you personally to examine."

"Gu Group?"

Su Qingxue narrowed her eyes and took the gift box.

It was made of matte black leather, with a heavy, premium texture, and had no flashy patterns.

It didn't look like a gift box.

Her fingertips stiffened as Su Qingxue slowly lifted the lid.

The next moment, she clenched her fists tightly and pressed her lips together.

Inside the box was a beige silk lining, steadily supporting the only gift in the center—a pure gold rose crafted entirely by hand.

It was in a half-bloomed state, with petals layered upon each other. The texture had been carved by the craftsman with extreme delicacy, perfect and lifelike; even the natural wrinkles and subtle undulations on the petals were vivid.

The gilded luster flowed in layers, dazzling and eye-catching. It was so luxurious it was almost blinding, with a straight, slender stem, entirely gilded.

But it possessed none of the softness of a fresh flower branch; the pistils at the top had no fragrance, nor a trace of the vitality and warmth belonging to real flowers.

It was exquisite to the point of being impeccable, expensive to the point of being priceless, yet cold, stiff, and dead.

Roses represent passion, sincerity, and devotion; even a fool knows that they are symbols of love.

But this rose cast from gold had only the skin of a rose.

Its meaning was obvious.

He was forcing her to compromise, forcing her to accept this marriage wrapped in a transactional deal.

A golden rose.

Does it symbolize both money and love?

Looking at this cold gold rose, a wave of scorching anger instantly exploded from the bottom of her heart, sweeping through her veins and limbs.

Perhaps in Gu Qingyan's view, this gift meant that their marriage would bring huge profits.

But in Su Qingxue's view, this was an insult; this rose was clearly saying that this marriage was Su Qingxue selling herself.

She stared fixedly at the rose, her fingertips trembling uncontrollably.

How arrogant Gu Qingyan was.

He grasped all her weaknesses, using the most despicable and overbearing methods, holding the life and death of the entire company as a threat, pressing her step by step.

Now he had sent this gold rose, as if offering charity, brazenly wrapping a dirty transactional deal into so-called love.

He didn't deserve to talk about love at all!

The surging hostility in her chest made her breathing tight and her heart feel stifled.

She looked at that gold rose, feeling only immense irony and ugliness.

She would never accept such feelings.

Feelings were never commodities that could be exchanged at equal value, and marriage was even less of a bargaining chip.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have just had a secret crush on Gu Qingyan back then; she would have directly asked the elders to discuss a marriage alliance.

And she certainly wouldn't have entered a contract marriage with Meng Zhu because of her grandfather's coercion.

If she had just wanted to find a substitute, there would have been no need to actually register the marriage.