Chapter 674 - Caught in a Trap

The sun had risen amidst the cold breeze of autumn. People woke up to the news of another controversy encircling the Guan Empire.

The topic became hot immediately.

In the past few days, fraud identity scandals and the murder involving the new head of the Guan Empire spread in the news channels and social media day after day. But with the Guan Empire's influence, it got buried quickly. 

However, it did not stop the people in the upper circles to notice that something was going on. Even amongst the public, there were already speculations on the scandals of the new chairman. But it did not blow up due to the power of the Guan Empire.

However, today, another news was released. It came from one of the most trusted sources of the public. 

The acclaimed rising tiger and the eye of owl in the media industry, SHM.

SHM media was known for their transparency and bold confidence in pursuing truth. Ever since they made their popular debut almost five years ago, they kept releasing news and articles that were helpful and eye-openers to the public.

The most recent news was about helping a poor individual who was trampled by greedy people from the higher levels of the pyramid. SHM helped them obtain justice by helping the victim speak out the truth and used the country's laws to condemn the sinners.

The public often kept watch of the news from SHM and branded them as a media channel that only spoke of the truth and sought justice for the masses. They have long gained the public's trust.

SHM had been rather quiet regarding this scandal. However, today, they finally spoke up and released an article. The number of people who were interested in this scandal grew ten times in just one day with SHM's influence.

It was now harder to conceal the matter from the public.

Moreover, the scandal was about Univ One which recently became a huge sensation just a few weeks ago.

Thus, the prolonged scandal reached new heights.

The article that was released by SHM indicated that Univ One's foundation was allegedly not created through legal means.

Unlike SC's ZD World which was backed by the power of the five kings' investments and network, Univ One's foundation investment was apparently gotten through illegal trading underground. This information came from an anonymous source but contained many details that alerted the relevant investigation team of the government.

It was said that Guan Gao Huan, the creator of Univ One, did not use funds from the Guan Empire nor his inheritance, because all of the Guans from the main branch received their inheritance from their parents at a specific age.

Based on Univ One's creation date which the company had released in the pioneering scandal with SC more than two months ago, Guan Gao Huan should not have received his inheritance at that time.

This fact was backed by the article marked with the Guan seal detailing the Guan Family's laws on this matter.

A lot of people began to question the Guan Family if the article was telling the truth. After all, it was released by SHM, the most trusted source of the public. There was surely some truth in it.

Immediately, in the middle of the rushing comments and exchange of speculations, a Guan member from a secondary branch gave their statement that the article regarding the Guan's family law was true. 

The appearance of that confirmation made the news rise to another level.

So it was true?!

Then if Guan Gao Huan did not receive any support from the Guan Empire nor from his Guan family, then where did the astronomical amount of money in creating Univ One, a multi-billion large-scale project, come from?

Initially, people thought that this project, Univ One, was backed by the Guan Empire since the Second Young Master Guan created it.

Of course, there were a handful of intellectuals who questioned why a Guan member would stand up to confirm this information that was obviously incriminating towards the Guan Empire.

But this was immediately swallowed by the large majority.

The masses felt that they had indeed overlooked something important. 

The foundation of Univ One itself. 

For the conspiracy-loving masses, it was as if everything suddenly came to light.

The public pointed their fingers at the Guan Empire to make an explanation. 

Did the Guan Empire fund Univ One? If they did not, then who funded Univ One?

....

Inside the locked doors of the chairman's office of the Guan Empire, Gunan swept his hand on the table. An avalanche of doc.u.ments and a cup of coffee fell from the table, crashing and shattering on the floor.

"Useless! Useless! You should all just die! Just a simple task and you can't handle it well!" 

The man was livid.

The phone pressed against his ears sounded again.

"I apologize, Master. We truly made sure that the media company who previously released the scandal will be tightlipped, but we overlooked that SHM, such a big media company, will suddenly take interest in it--"

"I don't need your excuses! Go to SHM and make them delete it. Make sure that they offer a public apology to me and to Univ One," Gunan ordered with gritted teeth.  With this single article, it could destroy his hard-earned Univ One!

The voice on the other side hesitated. "Master, it is said that SHM refuses to receive bribes. And by doing it, we are letting them aware that it is all true--"

"Shut up! Just make a way to pull down that crap! You useless fool!" 

After yelling for a while, Gunan took a deep breath. He then spoke more calmly this time. 

"Besides, they only received useless speculations. They don't have actual evidence. They can't trace back those dealings to me. And if they did, I can just point it to another person, can't I? So make sure that you handle the media. I have the Guan Empire with me. I can just tell the people that they funded me."