Chapter 103: And Then? That’s It?

Chapter 103: And Then? That’s It?

Yao Honglin was a director of Jinfu Group.

That was Yao Honglin’s value. He remained a member of Jinfu Group’s board of directors, an inside director of the company.

He barely took part in Jinfu Group’s operations anymore and by rights should no longer have held an inside director’s seat, but he hadn’t been elected to it this year. He had been elected two and a half years ago.

A listed company’s board members were elected once every three years.

Two and a half years ago, Yao Honglin had not yet become what he was now. He was already somewhat marginalized, but he was still doing work for Jinfu. His shares were few, but still enough to place him among Jinfu’s top ten individual shareholders. A seat on the board had been no problem.

He had only half a year of his term left, and when Jinfu Group elected its board again early next year he certainly wouldn’t be returned.

But.

As long as he was still a director now, he was useful.

Extremely useful.

Because on the board each person held one vote. Voting rights had nothing to do with how many shares a person owned. Someone could hold no Jinfu equity at all and still serve as an independent director. When resolutions were passed, it was one person, one vote.

Yao Honglin’s greatest value was that single vote.

“J-just that?” Yao Honglin was so delighted that he actually asked Wu Chen whether that was all.

Because Wu Chen had manipulated his psychology.

From the start of the meeting he had assumed Wu Chen meant to extort him, and that Wu Chen was the insatiable sort. Wu Chen had named one dirty deed after another, and his fear had climbed with each one, driving him to raise the price again and again while the intent to kill took shape inside him. He knew Wu Chen knew enough to take everything from him. Wu Chen had to die.

Then Li Ruobing and Su Qingying appeared, and he fell into despair.

There was no way out.

He didn’t dare move against Wu Chen. He didn’t dare touch anyone. Another man held the knife; he was the fish on the block. He had already braced himself for the worst and most extreme outcome.

And in that state of mind, Wu Chen had made only one “small request” of him.

He merely wanted him to follow Su Qingying’s lead at board meetings.

For Yao Honglin this was not a small matter, because on the board he took his cue from the second-largest shareholder—his former boss, the original big boss of Meiyuan Jewelry. The two of them had always moved in lockstep.

He would have to betray him.

But set against the horrors he had been imagining a moment ago, what was a betrayal like that worth?

His fortune and his life had nearly been gone. Everything else was nothing.

So he genuinely felt Wu Chen had made only a “small request,” one that did him almost no harm at all. It required nothing of him but to take the initiative and change his own will.

He was like a gambler who had lost everything and had only death left in front of him, and then the man who had won his money suddenly handed all of it back and asked in return for one small thing, one small favor.

That enormous plunge and surge of feeling would even make him believe he wasn’t being threatened at all—that the other side had let him off.

That he ought to be grateful, even.

“That’s right. That’s all.” Wu Chen nodded to him, and said it with certainty.

Yao Honglin was on his feet at once. One hand caught up the teapot on the table while the other took the overturned cups from the tea tray, righting two more of them, and with brisk, practiced movements he poured tea for all three of them.

A trace of a smile had already appeared on his face. He really was smiling—the smile of a man with a weight lifted off him, a smile of pure relief.

A moment ago he had truly believed he was finished.

Now not only was he not finished, it seemed he had even… made a connection with the Li family’s eldest granddaughter.

He simply assumed Li Ruobing was helping Su Qingying.

He read it from where the three of them sat and from how Wu Chen addressed her. Li Ruobing sat in the middle, which gave the sense that she was the principal, and Wu Chen called Su Qingying Miss Su, which meant there could be no close relationship there. And he was Li Ruobing’s boyfriend.

So it could only be that Li Ruobing was helping Su Qingying, that this was her doing.

When Su Qingying and Li Ruobing had struck up a friendship, who could say.

“Mr. Wu, please have some tea.”

“Boss Li, please have some tea.”

“President Su, please have some tea.”

Yao Honglin named each of them in turn as he poured. After filling Su Qingying’s cup he added, “President Su, I thought someone was going to do something to me. I was truly frightened just now… For a small matter like this you could simply have said the word. To trouble Boss Li and Mr. Wu to come out here—when the whole of Jinfu Group belongs to your Su family, could I possibly refuse anything you ask?”

Su Qingying regarded him coldly and said nothing.

But as soon as Yao Honglin finished speaking, his own expression went wrong. The hand holding the teapot stopped, and his eyes widened fast.

He had it.

Su Qingying was the Su family’s successor. She would certainly be Jinfu Group’s chairwoman in the future, and likely within the next few years. At present the Su family could control Jinfu Group’s board absolutely. Su Ruiwen was alive and still chairman, which meant the family’s grip on Jinfu was one hundred percent.

Under those circumstances, what Su Qingying was doing made no sense whatsoever.

Jinfu was the Su family’s to decide. Who would dare oppose them?

Nobody inside Jinfu dared cross the Su family at present, and yet Su Qingying was privately drawing people to her side and needed support. Which left… one possibility only.

There was disagreement inside the Su family.

Su Qingying was not waiting to inherit. She meant to seize power early.

She was going to rebel against her own father.

The matter had become enormous in an instant. This was no small request at all, because supporting Su Qingying very possibly meant opposing Su Ruiwen and Madam Su.

But…

Yao Honglin turned it over again, and it didn’t hold.

Because Su Qingying was Su Ruiwen’s only descendant. She was the Su family’s only successor. Su Ruiwen and Madam Su had no other option. Which meant that however violently the family tore at itself, in the end Su Qingying would be Jinfu Group’s chairwoman.

In that case…

What was wrong with taking orders early from the future chairwoman? If the rebellion succeeded and Su Qingying rose, the benefits would be enormous. If it failed, he would only have offended the chairman and Madam temporarily, and the benefits down the road would still be immense.

And this turned a bad thing into a good one.

He had become a man helping Eldest Miss Su “carry out a great undertaking.”

From being threatened, he had suddenly become one of their own.

Someone did hold leverage over him, but Yao Honglin understood perfectly well that Su Qingying had no interest in his modest family property, and Li Ruobing would have no interest in it either. Which meant that as long as he cooperated properly and became one of them, he would be not only safe but tremendously better off.

“What are you thinking about?” Wu Chen’s voice came suddenly.

Yao Honglin, drifting from too much thought, came back to himself at once.

He set the teapot down, sat, glanced first at Su Qingying, then looked at Wu Chen and spoke.

“Mr. Wu, rest assured. From this day on, President Su’s affairs are my affairs. In the company I will absolutely follow President Su’s lead!” Having made his promise, his tone shifted. “But I do have one small question. I wonder whether Mr. Wu might—”

“You want to ask whether your one vote alone isn’t enough to help Miss Su change board resolutions, right?” Wu Chen asked, smiling.

“Yes, yes, exactly. I’ll support her with everything I have, but one man really—”

“Do your own part. All you need to do is cast your one vote for Miss Su. I’ll handle everything else. Understood?” Wu Chen finished with the same smile, then tilted his head. “You may go now.”

Yao Honglin hesitated, then stood all the same.

He wanted to ask more, understand more, get some sense of what was happening. But clearly Wu Chen had no intention of telling him anything further.

“Mr. Wu, as long as I support Miss Su, then… there won’t be anything else?” Before leaving, Yao Honglin asked once more, carefully.

“Of course. Absolutely.” Wu Chen looked up and smiled.

Yao Honglin left.

And as he went, his mood was not merely free of irritation. There was even a thread of excitement in it.

Because he had already realized that today’s business, for him, was a threat he could not resist—and also a tremendous opportunity.

Only the three of them remained in the High Mountains and Flowing Water room.

“And then?” Li Ruobing turned her head and asked him outright. “That’s it? I thought you’d come here to meet someone who mattered. One director—even if he supports Miss Su, what use is a single vote? Jinfu’s board has over a dozen directors. Not all of them will submit to your threats. What is the point of any of this?”

There was an edge to Li Ruobing’s tone.

Deliberately.

“Trying to needle me into talking?” Wu Chen slanted a look at her and smiled. “Right now your curiosity is clawing at you like a cat, isn’t it? Uncomfortable enough to kill you?”