Chapter 112: Su Qingying Rebels

Chapter 112: Su Qingying Rebels

Madam Su was nearly out of her mind with anger. This was the first time she had lost her temper at Su Qingying like this inside the company, in front of a room of company executives.

Su Qingying had always been very obedient. Even when something she did failed to satisfy Madam Su, Madam Su would spare her daughter’s face and never scold her in public.

But today she truly couldn’t bear it.

A little over an hour earlier, when Su Qingying first came back, everyone had been too busy for Madam Su to exchange more than a few words with her. She had planned to talk properly at lunch. Though she had sensed something wrong with Su Qingying, and though she suspected Li Ruobing’s influence, she hadn’t thought it a serious problem.

She knew her own daughter. A few words later on would be enough.

At ten there was an executive meeting.

At first everything went smoothly. Her daughter smiled less than usual and seemed more severe than before, but Madam Su only assumed she had something on her mind, and thought little of it. As long as nothing went wrong, that was enough.

And then, just now.

Su Qingying had raised a proposal Madam Su could not possibly accept.

Madam Su hadn’t wanted to oppose her daughter outright in the meeting. The effect would be bad. So she had only shot her warning looks, hinting that she should not do this. And she had never imagined her daughter would look straight into her eyes, repeat the proposal, and do it with an attitude of absolute resolve.

Which made Madam Su realize her daughter was doing it deliberately. It was aimed at her. She was no longer being obedient. She meant to rebel.

One point is worth mentioning: Madam Su held no management position inside Jinfu Group. She was not a Jinfu senior executive, had no division of responsibilities, and personally held no shares in Jinfu Group.

But she did have an “identity.”

She was special adviser to the chairman of Jinfu Group.

In truth it made no difference whether the title existed. Its only purpose was to make her activity inside Jinfu Group more reasonable, less strange. When she attended meetings, for instance, strictly speaking she was sitting in as an observer. She could offer suggestions, but she possessed no voting rights whatsoever.

But.

She was the chairman’s wife.

Most of the time her wishes were the chairman’s wishes. Who would dare oppose them? When she sat in on a meeting, even a casual cough from her could change the direction it took.

Most of the time, though, Madam Su had a sense of proportion.

She supervised. She didn’t go about pointing fingers.

Nor did she come to the company every day. The reason she had come today was that Su Ruiwen had flown to the capital for meetings on the afternoon of July 8 and still hadn’t returned. So these past few days Madam Su had been coming in to “work.”

She was simply keeping an eye on things for her husband.

Judged purely as a capable wife, she was exceedingly well qualified.

“You’d call a board meeting?! Su! Qing! Ying! Are you trying to rebel?!” Madam Su was so furious her hands trembled slightly. The more obedient a person had been, the greater the anger once they began to disobey.

“I am the company’s executive vice president, and a member of the board. I have the right to call a board meeting.” Su Qingying looked her mother straight in the eye. In truth she was forcing herself to say it, but she showed not a trace of weakness.

The conference room was so quiet a dropped pin would have rung.

This was only a regular meeting, so a little over twenty executives were present—but counting the assistants and secretaries taking minutes and handling materials, there were forty or fifty people in the room.

Every one of them was frightened.

Some wore expressions of outright horror.

What was happening?

What was happening today?

They hadn’t seen the chairman’s wife lose her temper in a long time, because nobody dared clash with Madam Su openly. The last occasion had been half a year ago at the annual meeting at the start of the year, when the second-largest shareholder had argued with her over something. But he had quickly been talked down, and the temper hadn’t run high.

This time it ran far too high.

And what’s more… the two in conflict were Madam Su and Su Qingying. Mother and daughter.

Everyone was too frightened to speak.

And too frightened to intervene.

Seated with one person between him and Su Qingying was a fat middle-aged man of about fifty who looked somewhat like Maitreya Buddha. He was the man who had sat in the car with Su Qingying when Wu Chen first came upon the Su family’s motorcade on the street and sent her a text message.

Tang Deyang. Jinfu Group senior vice president, president of the Business Operations Division, and Jinfu Group’s fourth-largest shareholder.

Like Su Qingying he was a senior vice president, but Su Qingying was the executive vice president, the number-two real-power figure in the entire group’s operating authority, second only to the president.

Su Qingying would take over in only a few years, so although she was twenty-seven, she had to occupy that seat.

Which meant that at present, in position and authority, Tang Deyang stood below Su Qingying.

However.

Su Qingying had formally entered the company only five or six years ago, while Tang Deyang was one of the founding veterans who had followed Su Ruiwen from the beginning. He was Su Ruiwen’s right hand, and currently the only founding veteran inside Jinfu Group still serving as president of a core department.

His prestige within the company was nothing Su Qingying could match.

Naturally, Tang Deyang was not frightened by the sudden clash between Su Qingying and Madam Su.

First he was surprised.

Then puzzled.

And then… his expression turned exceedingly subtle.

He swept his gaze across the two of them, and when it settled on Su Qingying there was actually a trace of gratification in it.

The conference room stayed silent for a full dozen seconds.

Mother and daughter looked at each other.

“Ah—that’s right. I am the executive vice president.” Su Qingying spoke again suddenly, looking at her mother. “For something like dismissing the Security Department’s supervisor and deputy supervisor, I probably don’t need to submit it to the board for a resolution.”

The cause of the rupture between mother and daughter was this “small matter.”

She did indeed have the authority to do it.

Though security was extremely important for a jewelry company like Jinfu, the people she wanted dismissed were only the Security Department supervisor and deputy supervisor. At most they counted as mid-level management within Jinfu’s headquarters, not senior executives. Their direct superior—the vice president assigned to oversee security affairs—was the senior executive.

The real problem was that Security Department supervisor Zhou Da and deputy supervisor Yang Kuo were both Madam Su’s trusted confidants.

Zhou Da was the man specifically responsible for carrying out security affairs inside Jinfu Group, while Yang Kuo, the deputy supervisor, was in fact responsible not for Jinfu Group but for the Su family’s security.

He was the bodyguard who had stopped Wu Chen at the alley entrance and been slapped across the face by Li Ruobing.

Madam Su was a woman with a very strong hunger for control.

The two had long since become her confidants. One helped her monitor the situation inside the company; the other helped her monitor the household, and monitor her own daughter, so she could control her better.

Everyone knew the pair were Madam Su’s trusted favorites.

And Su Qingying wanted them dismissed.

With an attitude of absolute resolve.

“Dismissing them is settled!” Su Qingying said again. Then she turned her head and told the secretary behind her, “After the meeting, notify Human Resources.”

“You dare?!” Madam Su rebuked her furiously once more.

“Why wouldn’t I dare?” Su Qingying looked straight at her mother and threw the question back.

From the standpoint of the company charter and the authority of her position, nobody truly could stop Su Qingying from doing this—unless Su Ruiwen suddenly returned.

Madam Su stared at her daughter for a full ten seconds. Then, unexpectedly, she sat down, her face dark as she said, “On what grounds are you dismissing them? What have they done wrong? You’re dismissing them without cause! If they take it to labor arbitration, the company is in the wrong. If it reaches the news, do you know how badly that damages the company’s reputation? As executive vice president, how can you do something that harms the company’s reputation and interests? Can you bear the consequences?”

Su Qingying had already forced Madam Su into reasoning with her.

She absolutely could not let Su Qingying dismiss those two. Today she had to suppress this daughter who meant to rebel.

And what she said was reasonable.

At the end she fixed her eyes on her daughter and added, “Su Qingying! Don’t imagine that with your father away you can turn heaven upside down!”

“I am not dismissing them without cause. I have a reason!” Su Qingying answered at once.

She truly did have a reason.

That she was making her move today through this matter was something Wu Chen had told her before bed last night. He had also given her the “reasonable grounds” for dismissing the two men.

“A reason?” Madam Su was so angry she laughed. “Then let’s hear it. Let everyone hear what reason you have for dismissing two men who have done nothing wrong.”