Chapter 123: The Sky Changes Over Jinfu!

Chapter 123: The Sky Changes Over Jinfu!

The reason Wu Chen had dealt with only six directors, rather than more, wasn’t that he couldn’t manage more.

It was that he didn’t want Su Qingying’s seizure of power to turn into a tug-of-war.

If Su Qingying had simply won on the board through a majority of votes, then afterward Madam Su would certainly have gone to talk with everyone who had betrayed her. And even once Su Ruiwen returned, Su Ruiwen would still control the board—and if Madam Su blew a little wind in his ear, then…

So the crux of this matter was not, in fact, controlling the board.

It was… making Madam Su give up.

Madam Su had to understand that she could no longer control her daughter, and give up of her own accord.

Otherwise the thing would drag on without end.

Which was why Tang Deyang himself, and the one vote he could carry with him, had both been accounted for in Wu Chen’s design. And they still had to fall one vote short. At least one vote short. That vote had to be given by Madam Su herself.

And in Wu Chen’s impression of Madam Su, apart from controlling Su Qingying too much, in every other respect… she truly was a good woman.

So…

“I will do this! What wouldn’t I dare? I’m your mother. Are you telling me I can’t control you anymore?”

“You still know you’re my mother? You still remember we’re family? Then what are you doing to me right now? Why are you treating me like this?!”

Mother and daughter, each having slapped the table and risen in turn, went straight into a quarrel, both of them blazing.

Su Qingying’s emotions ran very high. In this moment she was not acting. These were words from her heart. She had long wanted to ask her mother why she treated her this way.

“We’re family!” Su Qingying stared at her mother, her voice hard and measured, her breathing heavy. “You know it. You know we’re family! Then what are you doing right now, letting outsiders watch and laugh at us? Do you think what you’re doing is good for me? Good for the Su family? Good for the group?”

Madam Su stared back at her daughter.

She looked at this daughter who was both familiar and unfamiliar to her, so agitated her hands shook.

“In this vote, you can refuse to let my proposal pass. You can stop them casting their votes for me. You can! Of course you can! You are the chairman’s wife! Whether what you do is legal and compliant or not, they’ll listen to you! You can do this!” Su Qingying looked at her mother and went on. “But! I hope you will think clearly about exactly what you are doing today!”

She was reminding her mother.

Wu Chen had given her this key point. Wu Chen had worried too that Madam Su might be so blinded by rage that she wouldn’t weigh the consequences.

So she had to be reminded.

Madam Su had to think through for herself what would follow if today ended like this.

Madam Su glared at her daughter, the rhythm of her breathing badly broken. It was a sound like sobbing with the mouth held shut, produced by sheer excess of feeling.

She wasn’t crying.

She was too agitated.

Su Qingying said nothing more. She only held her mother’s eyes, waiting for her mother to curse her—or to declare herself.

Of course Madam Su could see what would follow from acting this way today.

She understood. She understood perfectly. In the present situation, if she refused to let Su Qingying’s proposal pass, then starting today an enormous conflict would open inside the Su family, one that could not possibly be reconciled in the short term.

Madam Su had never expected matters to blow up to this extent.

What she had thought was that nobody would support her daughter, that she would make her daughter understand who had the final say, and that afterward everything would return to normal. But now the greatest problem was this—

Su Qingying already had the strength to stand against her.

So if she kept opposing her, then not only would there be trouble at home—Jinfu Group would suffer greater trouble because of it.

It would drive Jinfu Group’s board of directors straight into two great factions.

A rupture.

Su Qingying already controlled nearly half the votes.

So if Su Qingying went on fighting her afterward, the whole of Jinfu Group would develop problems. There might even be turmoil at the top.

On important board resolutions, one-third of the directors refusing was enough to sink the motion. And Su Qingying already controlled more than one-third of the directors.

She had even secured the support of two men of enormous importance inside the group: Tang Deyang and Chen Lei.

Of course Madam Su didn’t want Jinfu Group to suffer trouble on that scale.

And more to the point.

Su Qingying was still going to take over one day. Sooner or later it would be her.

But if they truly let it explode like this—if other members of the Su family openly opposed, inside the company, the Su family’s only daughter and only successor—

then the consequences that set off might even reach as far as whether Su Qingying could take over smoothly in the future.

Su Ruiwen was the major shareholder, but he did not hold an absolute controlling stake. That was precisely why Xu Zhenyuan was restless. If he could only get the other shareholders and board members to support him, he could take the company’s operating authority.

Madam Su thought through every kind of consequence.

She knew that if her daughter dared slap the table, rise, and shout at her, then her mind was already made up.

But the power to decide today’s matter lay in her hands, the mother’s hands.

Was she to let the Su family tear itself apart, let mother and daughter become enemies, let Jinfu split into two factions and fall into turmoil, hand others an opening, and damage her daughter’s future succession…

or… take one step back?

The longer Madam Su thought, the more it… hurt.

They were one family. How had it come to this? And it might even profit outsiders?

Madam Su, in the end, loved her daughter.

Scraaape—

The harsh sound of a chair dragged across the floor.

It was Madam Su.

Madam Su, locked eye to eye with Su Qingying, bloodshot threads already showing in her eyes, suddenly reached back and pulled her chair away. Without a word she turned and walked out—strode fast to the door, shoved the conference room doors open, and left without once looking back.

She was gone. She had left the board meeting.

In that moment Su Qingying let out a breath. And what surged up into her heart right after was guilt, and remorse. She didn’t know whether treating her mother this way had been too cruel. She had used her mother’s hopes for her, and her mother’s love.

The feeling surfaced for only an instant.

Things had already come this far. Su Qingying knew she couldn’t turn back, and wasn’t permitted to turn back.

“Who else supports it? Who opposes?” Su Qingying lifted her head, her face expressionless as she swept her gaze across those at the table who hadn’t yet declared themselves, taking them in one by one.

Madam Su had left. That represented surrender. She had yielded.

So a hand went up in support at once.

After that the others looked at one another and slowly raised their hands, one after another. All of them raised their hands—including second-largest shareholder Xu Zhenyuan, though he raised his with a grim face.

Because one more person in support meant the vote carried.

So whatever the rest of them were thinking inwardly, at a moment like this it was impossible for them to offend Su Qingying over a matter this small. There was no point in withholding support. In that case, they might as well support her.

And in this moment.

Everyone who had taken part in this board meeting, hastily convened over one “small matter,” understood a single thing, a single truth.

Which was that from this moment on—

the sky over the Su family and Jinfu Group had changed.

“Everyone agrees, so it passes,” Su Qingying announced. “Meeting adjourned.” That said, she sat back down and began, expressionless, to gather the documents in front of her.

The directors rose.

At the same time.

At the far end of the corridor outside the conference room, around the corner.

Madam Su walked quickly toward the floor-to-ceiling window, taking out her phone as she went. She dialed and put it to her ear, halted before the window, pressed her lips together, and waited for the call to connect.

Two seconds later it connected.

“Is the meeting over?” Su Ruiwen asked at once. “Is our daughter all right? Don’t be too fierce with her either. She’s grown now. As long as she knows she was wrong, that’s enough.”

At the sound of her husband’s voice, Madam Su, who had been forcing it all down until now, went red around the eyes in an instant, and the tears slid straight down.

“Honey, I can’t control our daughter anymore…” And with that she began to cry. Her weakness and her helplessness were things she showed only to her husband. She truly had no way left. All she could do was tell him.

“What? Don’t—don’t cry. What happened?” On the other end of the line Su Ruiwen was plainly startled, and startled again.