Chapter 40 - The Save (1/2)

Chapter 40: The Save

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

“Deteriorating vision, eye pain, temporary blindness, if it goes on further, the end result will be a total loss of vision.” Leung ZiRui’s words were like a hammer that was flung straight onto Li Sui’s head.

For a moment, Li Sui froze, he suddenly remembered, when he asked Lu Shang why he was staring at him that night.

Lu Shang smiled as he said, “You’re good to look at, so I want to see some more.”

At that time, Li Sui thought he sounded abnormal, that was because Lu Shang was afraid that he would never see him again.

Li Sui felt sourness ran up his throat slowly, he stood in place for a long time. Looking at the tablets scattered on the ground, he crouched down to pick up the pills in a daze, putting them back into the bottle. When he finally returned all the pills into the container, his hand gave out, and the capsules were sprinkled all over the ground yet again.

Li Sui gave up and asked with his eyes stuck to the ground, “Is… is there no solution?”

“For now, I can only try my best to ease the symptoms, but to get rid of it, the only way is to fix the heart.” Leung ZiRui said truthfully.

“I…” Li Sui’s grasp on his phone tightened, and he could no longer speak.

Leung ZiRui heard the sound of Li Sui’s depressed breaths through the phone that somehow made sweat came out on his palms. Leung ZiRui finally understood why Lu Shang didn’t dare tell Li Sui his condition. The brat cared for Lu Shang a lot, if he knew of the truth, even Leung ZiRui couldn’t imagine what he would do.

Lu Shang couldn’t deal with it himself, so he threw the troubles to me, Leung ZiRui thought bitterly.

“Li Sui is a chronic disease patient. In the future, many other complications might develop, not just his vision. I believe you had already prepared yourself mentally when you decided to be with him.” Leung ZiRui said.

“I understand,” Li Sui replied, ignoring the pain in his throat, he continued, “But why didn’t he tell me, I had no idea that something like this was happening……”

Love counseling was not one of Dr. Leung’s many strengths. So, he was left with no other choice but to grieve about his unfortunate acquaintance with Lu Shang. At last, he decided on using the commonest of solutions; Leung ZiRui hangs the phone up. After sighing, Leung ZiRui thought, deal with the simple problem you sewed yourself, Lu Shang.

Li Sui leaned against the car door and finally managed to stabilize his own emotions. He had not yet been able to come up with a way to get Lu Shang to tell the truth when his phone rang again, the caller’s ID was an unfamiliar one.

“Is this Assistant Li? I’m Xiao Tang from the finance department.” The voice of a young woman came from the other end, she sounded like she was in a hurry.

“I am.” As soon as he knew it had to do with the company, Li Sui regained his sharpness.

“Lu Shang and the shareholders are fighting. I think he might not be able to handle it. Could you come over?” Xiao Tang said.

Once Li Sui heard what she said, his voice turned cold, “What’s happening, can you give me more details?” As Li Sui spoke, he got in his car and stepped on the gas pedal, heading back to Tong Yan as soon as possible.

“Mr. Fang and Mr. Liu are using director Lu’s expenditure on a project last year to question him, trying to make him deduct the number of company profits that will be listed as company reserves. His complexion today seemed poor, Uncle Yuen gave him lots of signals, but he didn’t respond to any of them. I can’t take it anymore, so I snuck out to call you. Lu Shang treated us, employees, pretty well, so could you come to help him.”

Although he and Lu Shang had never shown off their relationship in the company before, they did not deliberately try to conceal it either. Anyone who cares even a little about gossip would have known about their relationship. Xiao Tang must be in a real bind to have resorted to calling him out of the blue like this.

“I’ll come right away.” Li Sui’s voice sounded horribly cold.

“Xiao Tang, come back quickly. Manager Tan is asking for you.” Someone cried outside the washroom.

Xiao Tang put her phone back, then howled miserably, after washing her hands, he went out.

The conference room was quiet. The air conditioner was broken, so the room was cold. Manager Tan, who was in charge of regulating the meeting, had his head covered in sweat, however. After waiting for a long time, Liu XinTian still didn’t get a reply from Lu Shang, so he impatiently broke off the silence, “Director Lu, what do you mean by your silence? Are we shareholders unworthy of an explanation in your eyes now?”

Lu Shang closed his eyes in an attempt to reign in his headache, his back was almost completely soaked in cold sweat, his body was cold, and his fingers were shaking.

Seeing that Lu Shang looked pale, Uncle Yuen poured him a cup of hot tea. However, Lu Shang didn’t take the cup, his gaze stayed on the table, “The final profits of the project were still above expectation. How can you get profits if you don’t put in the cost?”

“We didn’t say anything about not putting in the cost, but the cost is too high. As far as I know, there is a similar project in another company, their cost is only 90 million yuan.”

After listening to him, Lu Shang pursed his pale lips, holding back his unstable breathing as best he could, he said with a steady voice, “Quality depends on the cost, if director Liu wants to build a tofu building, then I have nothing to say.”

“Oh, that’s a lot you are accusing, so you are saying that they constructed a tofu building. Do you dare say that in front of them?”

Lu Shang lifted his eyelids to glance at them, he clenched his hands under the table. Right now, in his field of view, there was only fogginess, he could not see clearly. He only managed to not show his illness by silently placing his elbows on the armrest.

Fang Miao noticed that Lu Shang hadn’t said a word, so he took advantage of that, adding more chaos, “Director Lu, we aren’t trying to make it difficult for you. Look, all the expenses last year could obviously be reduced. Last time, you took 10%, and now suddenly you want 40%. That is way too much. We have a family to feed as well. Let’s meet each other halfway and make it 20%. We can’t accept any more than this.”

“20%?” Lu Shang scoffed a bit, his heart rate spiked, and he couldn’t help covering his mouth to cough.

Fang Miao said hurriedly, “Oh my if you disagree, we can discuss it. You are still young, don’t wreck your health. If you feel that you can’t handle this job, there are a few far more capable candidates for your job. You can let them share the burden with you, how about that?”

“Mr. Fang, you have overstepped. Personnel matters are for the board of directors to handle.” Uncle Yuen could not stop himself from reminding him.

“Assistant Yuen, this is the shareholders meeting. As an assistant, just do your job in keeping records.” Liu XinTian waded in.

A layer of sweat formed on Lu Shang’s head, there was no color on his face. When Lu Shang heard Liu XinTian’s voice, he raised his eyebrows, following the direction of the sound, he turned his head and asked, “What exactly do you want?”

“15%,” Liu XinTian said. “Besides, I propose re-electing the board of directors.”

As soon as that came out, everyone there froze, even Fang Miao was shocked. To re-elect the board of directors basically means Liu XinTian wanted to strip Lu Shang of his control of the company. Or in other words, he wanted to bring Lu Shang down.

This time, there were no cheers of support in the conference room. Everyone except Liu XinTian understood, despite the conflicts between Lu Shang and the shareholders, there was no doubt that Lu Shang was a good leader, the annual profits attested to that. It was not likely that any other person could do as good a job as Lu Shang.

These people were not idiots, they wanted money and fame, but to kick Lu Shang, who was basically a money-dropping tree in their eyes away, that called for careful considerations.

The meeting fell into a stalemate, manager Tan’s face was red. He could not afford to offend either side, so he anxiously scratched his ears.