Chapter 070: The Rich Woman and the Pretty Boy

Chapter 070: The Rich Woman and the Pretty Boy

The handsome middle-aged man had gone stupid with fear on the spot. The instant he saw the wealthy-looking middle-aged woman, his mind simply emptied.

She’d fixed her eyes on him the moment she stepped out of the car. Her expression was calm; her eyes held murder. She walked toward that table, and all dozen-odd bodyguards closed in around her.

Everyone present could see something was badly wrong.

Li Ruobing turned to look, and surprise flickered across her face—because she knew this woman. In fact, this was one of the earliest local businesspeople she’d met after arriving in Donghai.

Zhan Xiumei, forty-five, chairwoman of Donghai Guifeng Group, owner of Donghai Haichao Club, vice president of the Donghai Chamber of Commerce, secretary-general of the Donghai Entrepreneurs Association… Her personal net worth at present sat somewhere around a billion yuan.

Purely in terms of money, Zhan Xiumei didn’t rank especially high in Donghai. She was nowhere near the city’s top ten richest.

But her position in Donghai’s business world was extraordinarily special.

Her father, Zhan Jianyi, had been among the very first patriotic overseas Chinese businessmen to return and invest in China after reform and opening-up, and he had restored his Chinese nationality in the early 1980s.

He was the founder and first president of the Donghai Chamber of Commerce, and the first president of the Donghai Entrepreneurs Association. He had also single-handedly brought the Donghai Overseas Chinese Chamber of Commerce into being. He had given both money and effort to help Donghai attract investment, and had made a contribution to the city’s commercial development over the past several decades that nothing could erase.

Zhan Jianyi had served two terms as a National People’s Congress delegate and one term as a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. These days, though, he was nearly eighty and had long since settled into retirement.

Even so, he still held titles like honorary head of the Donghai Chamber of Commerce and honorary head of the Donghai Entrepreneurs Association.

Zhan Jianyi had five children in all. His eldest son was nearing sixty now and was the principal heir to the family business, though for the sake of growing the family enterprises he had long ago moved company headquarters to the capital.

The second and fourth sons had both entered officialdom, and of the two the fourth had risen furthest. He currently served as mayor of a city in the northwest, and he wasn’t yet fifty. If nothing went wrong, by the time he stepped down he’d likely reach at least deputy provincial-level rank.

The third and fifth children were daughters. The third had married long ago, to the son of one of Zhan Jianyi’s old friends, and lived in the United States.

As for the fifth—

That was Zhan Xiumei.

Of Zhan Jianyi’s five children, Zhan Xiumei was the only one still at his side.

She hadn’t inherited the family business, but she’d gone into business herself in her twenties with the family’s backing, and had carved out her own path as a formidable businesswoman.

Li Ruobing had known her for four years.

In a place like Donghai, the Zhan family no longer commanded the absolute voice it once had, not since the branches divided. Even so, it remained the family of highest standing in the city. Not the one with the most money—but without question the one with the most status.

And for as long as Zhan Jianyi drew breath, that would not change.

When Li Ruobing first arrived in Donghai, she and Li Ruotai had gone together to call on Zhan Jianyi. There was a touch of paying respects to the local power in it, though they hadn’t wanted anything from the Zhan family. They’d simply gone as juniors, to offer greetings and make themselves known, so as to avoid unnecessary friction later.

Zhan Jianyi and the old master of the Li family were acquainted.

Even at the height of Zhan Jianyi’s standing…