Chapter 54 (1/2)
Chapter 54
Yan Liang formally proposed the dismissal of Jiang Yu Nan as CEO of Xu to the board.
Nobody expected a divide between the two so soon after the news of the marriage was made public. The two parties kept to themselves, the directors had no idea about the real picture and the media inevitably added spice to the entire situation.
This meant that in the shareholders meeting on the 1st of the month, there were two important things the shareholders needed to vote on : Jiang Shi Jun joining the board of directors and Jiang Yu Nan’s fate
Jiang Yu Nan seemed to have expected her to dismiss him. He did not even turn up at the office. Although they never met him, but from the media, they would get to know where he went for a meal, where he played tennis or where he played bridge. He seemed to be on vacation, in general, pretty happy.
She was rapidly preparing for the hard battle this time. If Jiang Shi Jun managed to forcibly get on the board, Xu would not be easy to manage.
However, Yan Liang did not understand why her opponents were sitting tight while she was so busy. She used up all her money to but a lot of Xu stock to ensure that in any circumstance, her position as the largest shareholder of Xu would not be shaken.
Just a week before the shareholders meeting, early in the morning, her assistant rushed to Yan Liang and woke her up. Yan Liang had been working all night and had just taken a break for a few minutes. “ Ms Yan, Ms Yan..”
Yan Liang rubbed her temple as she looked at her assistant standing at the door, “What happened that is so urgent?”
Her assistant finally took a deep breath and said, “There is a package for you.”
Yan Liang was surprised at the fuss. The assistant looked as if there wasn’t a moment to spare, and put a gift box wrapped with a white ribbon on the table.
Yan Liang looked at the box and the fancily knotted white ribbon and frowned.
She hesitated to untie the tape and suddenly just took a peek by lifting the lid. As she had guessed, it was a new wedding dress.
Even before she asked the assistant, she answered, “ Mr Jiang sent it.”
As soon as she had finished the sentence, Yan Liang dropped the lid, pushed the box to the side and impatiently said. “Please throw it away.”
The assistant was a bit reluctant. Even though she had just glanced at the wedding dress, she could see it was made of excellent material and the workmanship was exquisite.
Yan Liang immediately raised her voice, “Throw it away!”
The assistant nodded and took away the box.
Nothing else of much importance happened this Monday.
In the American and European branches, they met with the principals to discuss a reasonable lay of program.
The revised company charter had also passed the final audit and would be read in the next shareholders meeting for the first time.
One of the most important changes in the new charter was that the shareholders would only have one chance to apply for a board seat. Once the first application failed, they could no longer qualify for a board seat.
If the new charter was implemented, her control over Xu would be doubly insured.
It seemed the odds of that happening were high
But Tuesday came with a prelude to despair..
*** ***
On Tuesday, Xu’s share prices fell within one hour of the market opening. Yan Liang immediately smelled something wrong and instructed her subordinates, “ Just check, is Jiang Shi Jun selling his shares?”
The results were as she had expected. Either Jiang Shi Jun was a fool…. or Jiang Yu Nan was playing a bad move.
Yan Liang pondered on this and could not help but laugh. Jiang Yu Nan had calculated the amount of funds she had at her disposal to counter the hostile takeover, but he hadn’t counted the 1 billion that Lu Zeng had given her. Did he think that his playing short in the market would kill her? Instead of a collapse, this provided her an opportunity to collect more shares.
She immediately told the management, “ From tomorrow, whatever shares are sold in the market, I will buy.”
If this plan went astray, it would be devastating. Zhou Cheng asked her , “ Are you sure?”
The answer was definitely yes. She was forced to this, there was no other escape route.
This cycle continued through Wednesday and Thursday. Yan Liang was psychologically prepared. Jiang Shi Jun continued selling and Yan Liang continued buying, the stock prices were steady, but the losses on Yan Liang’s side were like a bottomless hole, getting bigger and bigger everyday.
On Friday, with one swoop, Jiang shi Jun sold all his remaining shares. In order to deal with this, Yan Liang took the drastic step of using all her reserve funds.
Finally, she had won.
The moment the stock market closed, Yan Liang’s office broke out in a loud cheer.
Yan Liang’s nerves were high strung for the entire week, finally she relaxed. She looked closely at the index on the computer screen , slowly closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.
Someone suggested: “Are we celebrating with champagne?”
Others agreed.
A cheer arose again. Only Zhou Cheng looked a bit worried. He solemnly detailed the losses of the week as he shared the file with Yan Liang.
Yan Liang had just started relaxing and did not want to be faced with such bad news. Zhou Cheng solemnly reminded her, “If the price falls by more than 7% next Monday, and we do not get additional funds, you will be faced with bankruptcy.”
But he could continue no more as Yan Liang tried to dispel his worries, “Jiang Shi Jun totally invested 5 billion. This will not exceed more than 4% of the total shares in the market. This week he has already sold more than 40% of the stock at a loss, he has no more money to engage in any new tricks. As long as he does not engage in any tricks, investors will not panic. How then will the share price go down more than 7%?”
Zhou Cheng was silent for a moment with a “ I hope you are right” look .
Everyone said , “ Mr Zhou, what the director said is right. Else, we can open the champagne next week. No, not just champagne, we should have a large celebration.”
After a long time, Yan Liang finally smiled slightly and asked Zhou Cheng,” When that happens, what if Director Zhou does not approve the full cost of celebration?”
But Zhou Cheng still did not smile , “ No problem.”
*** ***
The next week.
Until noon, the stock market was calm, there wasn’t the slightest ripple.
The strange trend in Xu shares last week had led to a lot of disagreements within the stock analysts. The experts concluded that the stock market will fall this week as well, but the trend so far was steady, Some people worried while others were happy. At the noon break, Yan Liang was in office. Everyone was a bit relieved, especially Zhou Cheng , on how fortunate they were in that their fears were unfounded.
The team had been working hard for half a month. Now they relaxed, the office was no longer dull and depressed.
“It seems that we can now celebrate with champagne.”
“Fortunately they were not aware that the Ming Group lent us a billion, otherwise we would not be able to defeat them.”
Zhou had naturally become the target of good natured teasing, “Director Zhou, you cannot run away from the evening celebration. How about lunch, are you coming?”
Zhou Cheng smiled, “ Which restaurant?”
Everyone started a loud discussion on the restaurant. Zhou Cheng went to the door and doubled back to see Yan Liang smoking by the window, “ You’re not coming?”
Yan Liang paused, finally smiled reluctantly and then said, “ I have something I need to do, you guys go ahead.”
Zhou Cheng saw something in her face as he looked at her, something that caused his eyes to soften in mercy, but that look of mercy caused Yan Liang’s eyes to harden in disgust, and Zhou Cheng subconsciously took a step back . Yan Liang turned her head to look out of the window.
She had not smoked before, but now she couldn’t stop smoking. Almost every night, she needed to smoke. The nicotine helped to calm her nerves and to escape the nightmares she had at night, her most vulnerable time.
At this moment, as she stood smoking by the window, the nicotine filling her lungs, she thought.. ..
Why is my mind never empty?