Chapter 114: Are You Really an Information Broker?!

Chapter 114: Are You Really an Information Broker?!

Madam Su left the conference room.

Su Qingying then declared the meeting adjourned. On the dismissal of Zhou Da and Yang Kuo she chose to set the matter aside for the moment. She had the authority to dismiss them outright and could have done it there and then, but the whole purpose of her attack had been to find a reason to call a board meeting.

So even though the matter needn’t go before the board, she still had to take it there.

The others in the room rose one after another and filed out. Hardly anyone spoke, but in twos and threes they traded glances, and only once they were through the door did bursts of low murmuring start up outside.

“Does anyone know what’s going on?”

“Miss Su and Madam Su, she—”

Su Qingying was still gathering the things in front of her. She turned and handed them to her assistant-secretary, then said, “You go on ahead.”

She sent everyone else out and remained in the conference room herself.

Very soon the room was empty.

Only Su Qingying and one other person were left. In her mind she couldn’t help hearing again what Wu Chen had told her before bed last night: “After the meeting ends, don’t leave. Tang Deyang may stay behind. He’ll certainly have something he wants to say to you.”

The one who stayed was Tang Deyang.

Wu Chen had also told Su Qingying that on Jinfu Group’s board of directors, although most of the time nobody dared defy Su Ruiwen, if one looked closely, some were other people’s followers and some were fence-sitters.

And there were others who would support Su Qingying as soon as she showed her attitude.

“Second Uncle.” Su Qingying turned to Tang Deyang, seated in his chair like Maitreya Buddha. “Not leaving?”

“Qingying.” Tang Deyang’s smile was kind, with something benevolent about it. He wasn’t truly that old, and in his youth his temper had been fierce, but years of illness and steadily worsening health had gentled his nature.

“You really have grown up,” he said with a sigh.

“Second Uncle thinks what I did today was wrong?” Su Qingying asked.

“Right… and not right, I suppose.” Tang Deyang nodded, then shook his head. “Your mother’s need for control is too strong. She’s a good woman. It was your father’s good fortune to marry her. But it’s been so many years now, and you’ve grown up…”

He didn’t go on.

In truth, for all these years he had held opinions about Madam Su. It had to do with how she had pushed several company elders out back then, and with her style across all the years since.

Though Tang Deyang understood that Sister-in-law had done nothing wrong.

But… when it came to brotherly feeling, how could anything be settled by right and wrong?

Of course, knotted as his heart was, Tang Deyang had never opposed Madam Su, because he had always moved in lockstep with Su Ruiwen.

“Actually, what you did today…” He weighed it, then looked at her and smiled. “It wasn’t wrong. Who knows whether your father or I will go first? There aren’t many years left. You are certainly going to be the head of Jinfu in future. You should have your own judgment. You should stand on your own, not simply do as you’re told, whoever is telling you… The fear is that when you’re thirty or forty your mother will still be managing you this way. How could you, like that, possibly run the company well…”

Some things Tang Deyang knew perfectly well in his heart. As a bystander he saw them clearly and understood them. But they were awkward to say—awkward even to say to Su Ruiwen.

“However! The timing you chose is wrong,” Tang Deyang went on. “Far too sudden. Your mother was entirely unprepared, and so were you. You simply went against her so bluntly, with nothing prepared. If you fail this time, it will be hard for you later.”

Su Qingying said nothing.

Wu Chen had told her that certain things need not be disclosed to Tang Deyang in advance.

Disclosing them early might cause problems instead.

Tang Deyang might even pass word to her father…