Chapter 173: The Role of Family

“Goodbye, Mr. Gap!”

As farewells echoed through the office, Gap saw off the last of the employees. He then began checking the ledgers, putting them back in order, logging the inspection records, locking the safe, and finally securing the office door before leaving.

This was part of his daily routine. He didn’t have to do these tasks, but he did them anyway. He felt it was necessary—at the very least, it ensured that if a problem arose, it could quickly be traced back to a specific time and person.

When the lights went out in the now-empty room, the reserved smile of a corporate partner vanished from his face along with the brightness. What replaced it was irritation—anxiety.

After a meeting with President Neo, Gap had learned more detailed internal matters, which helped stabilize his mood somewhat. But a new emotion was already brewing.

Before the end of the workday, the president’s secretary had informed Gap that Mr. Neo wanted to see him.

After adjusting his attire, Gap met with Mr. Neo in his office. The president was very polite, even offering him a cigar and assigning him a task.

But this task wouldn’t be easy.

“You know, not long ago I had some… unpleasant encounters with the mayor and the governor,” Neo had said.

As a subordinate, Gap could do little more than nod. Neo continued with a smile, “So if I apply to relocate out of state, they’ll definitely make it difficult. They’ll try everything to prevent us from moving smoothly—whatever it takes.”

Neo paused briefly before continuing, “Gap, you’re an ambitious young man. I’ve heard how often you work late voluntarily and how well you get along with your colleagues. That’s good. I believe you’ve earned your position as a corporate partner.”

“What I need from you next is an opportunity to prove your worth to all of us. They’re going to audit the books. You need to make sure there are no mistakes in those ledgers—or at the very least, if there are any problems, they must not be within your scope of authority. Can you do that?”

What else could Gap do but nod, even if he was feeling uneasy? He had no choice but to hold it together.

Neo then told him that if he could handle this task, once they relocated, he would propose Gap be promoted to Senior Partner of the corporation, granting him a seat at board meetings.

That promise, unlike before, didn’t give Gap much motivation. Still, he feigned excitement and eagerness, assuring Neo that he would fulfill the assignment.

The dim lighting in the underground garage made him feel a strange sense of fear. His hands were trembling. When opening the car door, he dropped his keys. When inserting them into the ignition, they fell again to the floor mat.

He didn’t know why, but panic surged within him. Something in his chest was thrashing wildly, draining him of all strength.

Suddenly overwhelmed, he slammed the steering wheel, as if to vent his emotions.

Then, a car horn blared abruptly—startling him!

In the deathly silent basement, the sound was so sudden, so jarring, that it made him flinch.

He slumped against the steering wheel in disarray. After a while, the emotional outburst finally subsided. He picked up the keys, started the car, and slowly drove toward the exit.

In a place like the Liston Group headquarters, the parking garage security was well-acquainted with all regular vehicles. Normally, as soon as the guard saw Gap’s car, the gate would lift automatically.

But today was different. His car reached the barrier, and it didn’t rise. Even stranger, the guard stepped out of the booth—something that never happened.

He knocked on the window. Gap paused for a second or two before lowering the tinted glass.

“Mr. Gap?” the guard glanced at the notebook in his hand, then at Gap, as if verifying his identity.

He was a new face. Gap nodded. “Is there a problem?”

The guard made a quick mark in the notebook—at least, that’s what it looked like to Gap—then looked up with a smile. “No, sir. I’m just familiarizing myself with my new post. Sorry for the delay.”

His eyes flicked over the back seat of Gap’s car before looking away. “I’ll raise the gate now. Have a good evening, Mr. Gap.”

Gap nodded, didn’t roll the window back up, and drove out of the garage.

The sweltering summer night did nothing to ease the heat. The hot wind made Gap tear off his tie in frustration. He was irritable. A strange, gnawing unease haunted him.

Fear. Panic. Hatred. Disgust. Anger…

The flood of negative emotions made him sensitive and volatile. It all started after that private conversation with Neo.

He understood perfectly well—this was the greatest crisis of his life. When a local government decides to act with full state power, it’s nearly impossible to stop them.

Neo wanted him to guarantee the books were clean. Gap could probably do that for the group’s own accounts, making them look flawless. But he couldn’t vouch for the ledgers of external partners.

It was simple: if they sold a hundred items to another company, their own books might be spotless. But they couldn’t control the buyer’s books.

Were there actually one hundred units? At what price? When were they received? Who signed off? A check on the buyer’s records would reveal everything.

If the buyer’s books matched, they could investigate the bank transfers.

If individual transactions checked out, they’d look at overall flows. If those passed, they’d analyze by time period. If that was clean, they’d go up another level. As long as there were issues in the books, there was always a chance they’d be uncovered.

In the past, he could confidently say there were no problems in the accounts he handled. That confidence came from one thing: Liston was the pillar industry of Sabin City. Local protectionism ensured that even if there were minor issues, they’d be overlooked.

But without that protective shell, everything changed.

Look at EverBright Group. Before its collapse, no one thought it would fall so suddenly. Their department heads were the best in the country—some even internationally renowned.

Their finance team included an expert featured in early editions of professional textbooks.

But even they couldn’t withstand a federal investigation. Could Liston survive it?

Gap didn’t know. He only knew he was terrified now—so much so that he could barely concentrate on driving.

It was after 9 PM when he finally got home. Exhausted, he trudged upstairs, disinterested in everything.

Vera, sitting on the couch watching TV, glanced at him and asked, surprised, “Did someone beat you up?”

His eyes were ringed with a dark bruise, the second button of his shirt ripped off with a chunk of fabric. He looked worse than ever before.

Even Vera, who normally ignored him, couldn’t help but ask.

Gap let out a sarcastic laugh, shook his head, and headed upstairs. Just as he was about to shut the bedroom door, he retorted, “Wasn’t beat up. I got into a fight.”

There was a strange pride in his tone, a ridiculous sense of dignity. Vera turned her attention back to the TV. If he still had the spirit to argue, then maybe he wasn’t doing that badly after all.

He had simply gotten into a dispute while waiting at a traffic light. When the light turned green, he was still lost in thought about work, and the blaring horn from the car behind broke his concentration.

Annoyed and embarrassed, he stuck his head out and cursed a few times, even throwing a gesture every federal citizen would recognize. The honking stopped.

In the past, Gap would never have done something he considered so ill-mannered. But today, he lost control.

A shirtless man with a thick beard got out of the car behind him. Normally, Gap would have hit the gas and fled.

But not today. His mood was off. He turned off the engine instead, and…

Maybe it was the harsh reality of a beating that made him realize how powerless he truly was. He also came to understand that if anything went wrong, it would be President Neo and the board who went down first.

He was just a pitiful accountant. He had no choice.

Getting beaten up actually made him feel better. He stopped obsessing over things he couldn’t figure out. He even hummed a little tune while showering.

After his shower, still in his pajamas, Gap went into the study. He opened the safe, hesitating as he looked at the duplicate documents he was supposed to have destroyed.

Now that things were moving forward, keeping them here might be dangerous. He wasn’t sure whether to destroy them or hide them somewhere else.

There were other items in the safe too—some related to the company, some not. All of them needed to be moved.

After making a list, he walked into the living room and sat on the couch, looking at his wife.

The reason management trusted him with altering the books was because he had a stable home, a beautiful wife, and a lovely child. A man like that would do anything to protect his family—he would even sacrifice himself to keep a secret.

“I need your help, Vela.”