Chapter 119: Not Only Win, but Win Thoroughly!

Chapter 119: Not Only Win, but Win Thoroughly!

Su Qingying glanced at Yao Honglin and the others, raised her hand slightly in signal, then walked to the conference table, pulled out a chair, and sat down. She tossed her folder onto the table, opened it, and began reading, looking as though she had no intention of paying anyone any attention and was simply waiting for the meeting to start.

Reading her attitude, Yao Honglin and the others understood what the gesture meant.

Keep a low profile for now.

They exchanged glances again, then all sat down.

Once seated, Yao Honglin cut a look to his left, at the nearest of the directors who had just stood. The man was in his fifties, with a long face and a bald head. His features were ordinary, but the fitted suit he wore, combined with that habitual expression of his, gave him the aura of a “leader.”

His name was Wan Wenchang. He was fifty-four, Jinfu Group senior vice president and Jinfu Group CMO—chief marketing officer. On top of that he was the overall head of Jinfu Group’s Online Business Group.

The “Online Business Group” referred chiefly to sales operations across the major online marketplaces. Everyone in charge of related business reported to Wan Wenchang, and Wan Wenchang reported directly to chairman Su Ruiwen.

Jinfu Group had begun as a traditional offline enterprise, but since the turn of the century, with the rapid growth of the domestic internet, online sales had grown steadily more important.

Even today, Jinfu Group and every other major domestic jewelry group still drew most of their annual sales from offline stores, but online sales climbed year by year, and mattered more and more.

Wan Wenchang was not one of Jinfu Group’s “old hands.” His résumé was extraordinarily impressive: important posts at several large multinationals, with deep experience in online marketing.

He was a “senior professional manager” Su Ruiwen had personally recruited at a sky-high annual salary. Eight years ago he had joined Jinfu Group to go on expanding Jinfu’s territory in online sales.

Although he held no Jinfu Group shares, in two consecutive board elections he had, under Su Ruiwen’s arrangement, smoothly become a group director.

His personal relationship with Su Ruiwen was very good, and on the board he was one of Su Ruiwen’s loyal supporters.

Yao Honglin studied Wan Wenchang out of the corner of his eye, his expression turning subtle again.

He supported Su Qingying too? Had it been arranged?

“President Wan,” Yao Honglin said suddenly, his voice neither loud nor low.

Wan Wenchang glanced at him.

Yao Honglin raised his brows, tilted his head slightly, and gestured toward Su Qingying without speaking. The words weren’t convenient to say aloud.

Wan Wenchang paused, then glanced at Su Qingying, and only then understood what he meant.

He gave Yao Honglin a nod.

Yao Honglin smiled, and the way he looked at Wan Wenchang turned considerably warmer. He’d known it! How could Su Qingying, the successor in whom the Su family and most of Jinfu had placed their hopes, suddenly pull something like this without any preparation?

Wan Wenchang only returned a polite smile and moved his gaze away.

He didn’t much care for Yao Honglin as a person.

Naturally that didn’t affect his support for Su Qingying. Last night, a little after eight, he had first spoken with Wu Chen, mainly about matters in his “family.” Afterward he had met Su Qingying and Li Ruobing.

He had his own helplessness.

But he also didn’t think supporting Su Qingying was much of a problem. Just as Yao Honglin had reasoned at the time, Wan Wenchang had reasoned it out too: however violently the Su family tore at itself, Jinfu Group would in the end be Su Qingying’s.

Forced by circumstance, and yet supporting the future chairwoman ahead of time—that wasn’t so hard to accept.

More people came into the conference room, one after another.

At last it was three thirty in the afternoon.

Su Qingying looked at her watch, then closed her folder and lifted her head to sweep the room. Every director who could come had come. Counting assistant- and secretary-type figures and the people from the Board of Supervisors, there were more than thirty in all.

Everyone else sat toward the back, each seated behind whomever they followed.

Those genuinely seated around the conference table numbered only a dozen or so.

The other directors had taken their places. Only Madam Su and the second-largest shareholder, Xu Zhenyuan, were still at the window, speaking quietly.

Xu Zhenyuan was Meiyuan Jewelry’s original largest shareholder and big boss—Yao Honglin’s former boss.

In truth he didn’t hold that many Jinfu Group shares, and the proportion wasn’t high, only a little over ten percent. But he was indeed Jinfu Group’s second-largest individual shareholder. His holdings didn’t even reach half of Su Ruiwen’s—and that was with Su Ruiwen having already distributed shares to Su Qingying.

Xu Zhenyuan had never been entirely settled. He had once quietly bought tradable shares on the market to raise his own shareholding ratio, and his relations with Madam Su weren’t very good either.

But the two of them only clashed occasionally, and afterward things stayed presentable on the surface.

“…Madam, don’t worry. Miss Su has probably just reached the age where she wants to decide things herself and doesn’t even put her parents in her eyes. This time I’ll support you with everything I have…” Xu Zhenyuan assured Madam Su in a low voice, his smile somewhat strange.

He didn’t know how matters inside the Su family had suddenly come to this, but Su Ruiwen wasn’t dead yet. Whatever thoughts of his own Xu Zhenyuan harbored, there was no need to go against Madam Su over a small matter like this.

In truth it made no difference whether he did, because the two or three votes he controlled couldn’t affect the larger situation.

Complete control of a board meant controlling more than two-thirds of the seats. Only then was control total. Major resolutions passed with more than two-thirds of the votes.

Madam Su understood this perfectly well too. Winning would be exceedingly easy for her, but she wanted to win thoroughly. She wanted Su Qingying not to have a single vote, and that was why she had spoken to Xu Zhenyuan.

As for Xu Zhenyuan, he was merely doing her a convenient favor.

“Then I’ll have to trouble you.” Madam Su was relatively courteous with him, smiling as she said it softly. “When my husband comes back, the three of us should have a meal together. It’s been a long time. There are some matters we ought to talk over properly…” There was meaning behind her words; she was implying something.

Xu Zhenyuan smiled and nodded, saying nothing more.

Their talk finished, the two parted at the window and walked to different positions in the room.

“Everyone is more or less here. Close the doors.” Madam Su, glittering with jewels and every inch the noblewoman, folded her arms and gestured to her assistant as she spoke.

She walked to the table. A director nearby even pulled out her chair, and she sat down on the motion.

“Begin,” Madam Su said.

Strictly speaking, those words shouldn’t have come from her. She wasn’t a director; at most she counted as someone sitting in as an observer. But if she said the meeting should begin, nobody would object.

“I believe everyone seated here has already heard what this special board meeting is here to discuss.” Su Qingying spoke directly, standing as she did.

Madam Su watched her daughter, expressionless and perfectly composed.