Chapter 121: A Betrayal of the Gravest Kind!

Chapter 121: A Betrayal of the Gravest Kind!

Madam Su could hardly believe it.

If other people had supported Su Qingying—one or two who had originally listened to her husband Su Ruiwen and suddenly chose to listen to Su Qingying instead—then although it would have been unexpected, although it would have angered her, on reflection it would still have fallen within reason.

Su Qingying had been in the company five or six years. If she didn’t have even one or two directors she was close to, that would be strange indeed; her interpersonal relations would have to be appallingly poor. And everyone understood she was certain to take over one day. There was no helping it—she was the only daughter. So it wasn’t impossible for one or two people to support her. Supporting Su Qingying didn’t amount entirely to betraying Su Ruiwen.

But what in the world was Yao Honglin doing?

Yao Honglin had come over from Meiyuan Jewelry along with the second-largest shareholder, Xu Zhenyuan. More than ten years ago Jinfu Group had acquired Meiyuan Jewelry outright with part cash and part equity. The two of them had been Meiyuan’s largest and second-largest shareholders. After receiving their shares they had joined Jinfu Group, and from that day on the pair had always moved in lockstep.

For all these years, at every board meeting, Yao Honglin had advanced and retreated in step with Xu Zhenyuan. Whatever Xu Zhenyuan supported, he supported.

What was happening today?

Madam Su whipped her head around to look at Xu Zhenyuan. Her first instinct was to suspect he was playing some trick behind her back—backing her in the open while quietly sending others to support Su Qingying.

But one look at Xu Zhenyuan’s face and Madam Su dismissed the idea at once.

Xu Zhenyuan was dumbfounded.

He was staring at Yao Honglin with pure disbelief written across his face.

He was signaling wildly with his eyes, and Yao Honglin appeared not to see a thing.

Before the vote, Xu Zhenyuan had already taken the lead in declaring his support for Madam Su. And now Yao Honglin was the first man out of the gate against both him and Madam Su, in support of Su Qingying.

A great many of the directors in the conference room were stunned.

Because Yao Honglin being the first to raise his hand for Su Qingying was simply… bizarre.

Hand up, position declared, Yao Honglin wore an expression of perfect calm—and something of a man whose mind had drifted off somewhere else entirely. He lacked only the final touch of tipping his head back to study the ceiling. He didn’t want to meet anyone’s eyes, and he didn’t want to see Xu Zhenyuan’s signals. He was going to support Su Qingying.

There was no other way. His problems were far, far too grave. Refuse, and he died. Support her, and there were enormous benefits instead.

It’s worth mentioning that the “murder and arson” Yao Honglin had committed back then was bound up with Meiyuan Jewelry, and with Xu Zhenyuan.

It had happened on the eve of Jinfu Group’s acquisition of Meiyuan Jewelry. The two sides were still in negotiation, and the deal was close to being struck. Once it was struck, the Meiyuan Jewelry being acquired would undergo asset liquidation.

At the time, in order to destroy the evidence of the money he had been skimming and pocketing inside the company before that liquidation, Yao Honglin had done a great many things—including setting fire to a warehouse.

That warehouse was Nanhe Warehouse, the one Wu Chen had mentioned on their first phone call. The fire had also burned a warehouse security guard to death by accident. That guard was Liang Yuan, the man Wu Chen had named on the phone.

Because he had watched Liang Yuan burn to death with his own eyes… for many years afterward Yao Honglin woke from nightmares. He couldn’t forget the sight of Liang Yuan thrashing and screaming inside the flames.

Afterward the incident was classified as an accidental fire, and security guard Liang Yuan was ruled to have died fighting it.

That single incident had cost Meiyuan Jewelry tens of millions at the time. It directly affected the acquisition talks, and Jinfu Group used it to press the purchase price lower.

When Wu Chen had spoken with him, he had also named Bai Kaifeng and Qian Rufa. Both had been Yao Honglin’s trusted men, and both had gone with him to set the fire. But after a man died in the “warehouse fire,” Bai Kaifeng threatened and extorted Yao Honglin again and again, saying he had gambled away everything, that he couldn’t go on living, and that if he was going to die they could all die together.

At first, under threat, Yao Honglin paid him. Later he decided to silence him for good. And just before he could do it… Bai Kaifeng vanished.

More than ten years had passed, and Bai Kaifeng had never surfaced again.

Yao Honglin knew he must have caught wind of it in advance and run. Which left him unable to eat or sleep in peace, forever afraid that one day Bai Kaifeng would suddenly reappear.

Qian Rufa’s death, by contrast, was rather unjust. He had never extorted Yao Honglin. But after Bai Kaifeng extorted him, Yao Honglin feared Qian Rufa might do the same, so he killed him to silence him and buried the body in the mountains.

There was no question that if what Yao Honglin had done more than ten years ago ever came out, he would be sentenced to death.

More to the point, if Xu Zhenyuan learned the inside story of that affair, then nobody else would need to lift a finger. Xu Zhenyuan himself would march him to the execution ground.

So the matter could never be allowed to reach Xu Zhenyuan’s ears. Which left him no choice but to betray Xu Zhenyuan.

Yao Honglin had already harmed Xu Zhenyuan once, long ago, so betraying him now carried little psychological weight. He had no need to weigh “feeling” at all. He had only to weigh benefit.

The roomful of people still hadn’t come back to themselves. The way they looked at Yao Honglin grew stranger by the moment.

And then—

A scene appeared that left them even more stupefied.

A dozen or so seconds after Yao Honglin, the group’s CMO, Wan Wenchang, raised his hand as well, with no expression on his face. He truly had none, and he was unafraid of meeting anyone’s gaze. He was perfectly composed.

He was Su Ruiwen’s man. Everyone knew it. And now he supported Su Qingying.

After Wan Wenchang.

Two more men raised their hands.

One was a middle-aged man of about forty-five or forty-six: the group’s fifth-largest individual shareholder, senior vice president, and president of the Overseas Business Division—Song Yuanming.

The other was an old man nearing sixty, though his hair was black and his bearing lively. In his suit and glasses he had the air of an old gentleman. He was the head of Jinfu Group’s Legal Department—Pei Changhe.

That these two had raised their hands piled shock upon shock for everyone else.

Because these two men…

Song Yuanming had once been a brilliant student who earned a doctorate. At thirty he founded the jewelry brand Oriental Charm in the Xiangjiang Special Administrative Region, aimed squarely at overseas markets, and achieved astonishing results.

Later, to expand its overseas business, Jinfu Group acquired Oriental Charm. Song Yuanming’s condition for agreeing to the acquisition had been an equity swap, and so he received a portion of shares, joined Jinfu Group, and became the fifth-largest individual shareholder.

As a person, he counted as one of Su Ruiwen’s people. On great matters he would never sing a different tune from Su Ruiwen. But on smaller matters, matters open to discussion, he always had views of his own.

He was a man with a fairly strong mind of his own.

As for Legal Department head Pei Changhe—he was Su Ruiwen’s old friend. He had once held a post within the system, then went into business in the early years of the new century. His connections in political-legal circles were extremely strong. On the board he rarely spoke, and he was a staunch supporter of Su Ruiwen.

Everyone who hadn’t known in advance was thunderstruck.

Founding veteran Tang Deyang included.

Yao Honglin, Wan Wenchang, Song Yuanming, and Pei Changhe had all raised their hands for Su Qingying. Counting Su Qingying’s own vote, that made five.

The air in the conference room froze for several seconds.

And then.

Two more people raised their hands at almost the same instant.

These two were more shocking still.

Chen Lei, female, fifty years old, Jinfu Group CFO—chief financial officer. She was not only Su Ruiwen’s person; she was Madam Su’s friend. Although she held only 1.1 percent of Jinfu Group’s shares, Madam Su trusted her deeply, and their private relationship was excellent.

Sun Haomin, forty-two, vice president of Jiangnan Alai Investment Group and the son of Alai Investment Group’s chairman.

Seventeen years ago Jinfu Group had accepted a round of financing from Alai Investment. At present Alai Group held 13.6 percent of Jinfu Group’s shares. Before the investment it had been set down in black and white that Alai Group would hold shares and take dividends only, voluntarily waiving the voting rights attached to them—but that as an “institutional shareholder,” Alai Group would have one seat on the board.

Sun Haomin was the independent director Alai Investment had sent.

What was happening?

Chen Lei had actually betrayed the chairman’s wife.

And Sun Haomin, an independent director who could plainly have cast an abstention—why had he waded in and backed Su Qingying too?

Everyone else remained dumbfounded.

“Chen Lei! What do you think you’re doing?!” Madam Su shot to her feet and shouted at her, her face full of fury. She had been betrayed—a betrayal of the gravest kind.