Chapter 56 - Curtains Closing (1/2)
Chapter 56: Curtains Closing
(Unedited)
On the other end, the voting in the conference room had also reached the climax. The number of votes on both sides continued to increase neck-and-neck. The tense atmosphere enveloped the conference room. Fortunately, except for the initial three shareholders who changed sides, everyone else voted as Li Sui had anticipated. In the end, Li Sui only had 6% less than expected.
Although they had done their best, they still made a wrong move and fell short. Li Sui felt disappointment surging in his heart. The feeling of disappointment had yet reach its height when Fang Miao walked up to cast the final vote, with trembling hands, he raised his note, “Li Sui.”
As soon as the two words were uttered, everyone, including Li Sui himself were in a daze. Liu XinTian gave him a dark look, Fang Miao smiled and shrugged his shoulders. He retreated half a step and said clasping his hands together, “I’m sorry, Mr. Liu.”
The dramatic reversal of events disorientated Li Sui, at that moment, he did not realize what had happened. Xe WeiLan was the first to react, “We won.”
In the chaotic room, Li Sui slowly recovered, he was still puzzled and whispered, “Why did he vote for me? Isn’t he a close friend of Liu XinTian?”
Xe WeiLan shook his head and analyzed the situation for him, “Fang Miao is not anyone’s confidant, he is a loyal confidant of money. In the whole company, he has the clearest purpose, he follows whoever that could give him money. He doesn’t think about the company’s prospects, nor does he care about his face. He definitely knows about all the dirty things Liu XinTian did behind people’s back. He originally wanted to leech off of Mr. Lu, but he didn’t pay any attention to his sweet talks, that was why he went to Liu XinTian in the first place. Now, seeing that you actually got the 40% of shares from Lu Shang, it’s quite normal that he’d rather side with you instead.”
Applause rang out in the meeting room. Li Sui stood up, he had sweat all over his palms. He glanced at Fang Miao, the latter was looking back at Li Sui as if he was a huge piece of gold.
Li Sui’s gaze wandered between Fang Miao and Liu XinTian for a moment. Then he took his gaze back. Sure enough, the world was always like this. The people who would side with you immediately when the situation called for it, would also be the people who would abandon you the quickest. Liu XinTian was well versed in this basic principle and he had benefited from it for most of his life, but he never expected to one day fall on that as well.
“Our new chairman is born! Everyone, applauds!” Fang Miao made a fuss.
This person truly didn’t care one bit for his face, he was just so thick skinned that even Li Sui felt a bit embarrassed.
“Who said that this is the new chairman,” Liu XinTian interrupted their applause, the veins on his forehead popped up, “The Meng’s have not arrived yet, what are you all celebrating about?”
The people present discussed and someone said, “Quick, someone call the Meng’s.”
Fang Miao took the lead and pulled out his mobile phone, he dialed Meng XinYou and turned the speaker on.
“Director Fang, what’s the matter?” The phone was picked up quickly.
“Miss Meng, our shareholders’ meeting is almost over. Are you coming or not?”
“I’m still stuck in traffic. I can’t get through.”
“Traffic jam?” Liu XinTian understood now, he glanced over at Li Sui. He was so angry that he pulled the phone from Fang Miao and said, “You Meng’s have helicopters, right? You can come here by helicopter. I’ll pay you the cost.”
“Oh, is that Mr. Liu. Didn’t you read the news? There are air defense drills today, no flights for the entire city, unless you want me dead that is.”
Liu XinTian’s tone froze, “Does official Xu have no opinion on your current actions?”
Meng XinYou was obviously unhappy, “Director Liu, please get things straight. Tong Yan’s shareholder is me and only I can exercise the rights as a shareholder, this is related to the Meng’s family interests. If he supports you, then that’s just something that allow. If I had decided on something, even he have to stand aside. So, are you trying to interfere with my decisions?”
Meng XinYou was not holding back at all, she sounded quite rude. Li Sui almost wanted to bow in admiration for the woman. She was strong and her family was also powerful, so naturally the weight of her words was different from the rest. No wonder even Lu Shang used to be weary of her.
“Then the shareholders’ meeting…” Fang Miao asked in a rush.
“I don’t think I can make it today. I abstain. Anyway, as long as 80% of the shareholders are present, the meeting will still be effective. I have other things to do here. I’m hanging up.” After that, she hung up without hesitation.
There was a few seconds of silence in the conference room, Li Sui didn’t know that Xe WeiLan had already prepared the follow up after they had won. The lawyer quickly took the opportunity to step onto the stage and said, “Everyone, Mr. Li Sui currently owns 40% of the shares, he has 14% of votes on his side, so it is a total of 54%. Due to Miss Meng’s abstention, the total percentage of votes he obtained is 67.5% of the total voting power present. It has exceeded two-thirds of the total, as such he has the right to change the company constitution.”
Liu XinTian stood still for a long time, his eyes fixated on Li Sui, “So this is your goal?”
Li Sui looked back at him with blazing eyes, “What else?”
There were warm applause in the conference room. Li Sui walked past him and up the stage, he looked at all the different faces below and said, “Thank you for your trust in me. From today onwards, I will be temporarily dealing with all of Tong Yan’s affairs. First of all, I propose abolishing Article 48 in the company constitution. I also suggest changing the company’s nature to a stock corporation at the end of this year, we will strive for listing within five years.”
“Hmn, it’s good to go public.” Fang Miao took the lead in applauding.
Other shareholders looked at each other and applauded sparsely as well after some hesitation.
Li Sui had solid power in his hands now after the voting. Liu XinTian’s people also knew that their upper hand was no more. Even if they hinder Li Sui today, he could just hold another shareholders’ meeting tomorrow. After the papers were passed down, almost everyone signed them.
Liu XinTian was still sitting at the main spot of the conference room, but in the present situation, that position seemed quite ironic. Li Sui noticed that his always straight back seemed to be slouching as the people applauded.
Everything was set now, Liu XinTian fought with the Lu family for half his life, he had exhausted every trick he had up his sleeve, only to final lose to a young boy. Lis Sui tried putting himself in his shoes, surely it was normal for Liu XinTian to feel somewhat depressed.
When the papers were handed to Liu XinTian, he laughed, “How could I have lost to you…”
“You didn’t lose to me,” Li Sui corrected him. “The road leading to today’s result was paved by Lu Shang over years of preparation. I just happened to be the one who picked up his work.”
“So are you happy?” Liu XinTian asked him.
Li Sui did not answer.
“Are you happy, now that you got Tong Yan and lost Lu Shang?” He asked again.
Li Sui clasped his hands together and Xe WeiLan patted him on the back.
At that moment, Li Sui’s cell phone vibrated, he stagnated. He got up and slowly walked to the window. The screen displayed that an advertisement message had arrived. His eyes moved across the screen and his heart shock.
The content was not long. Li Sui moved his hands and opened the advertisement. He stared at the sentence “to unsubscribe, please press ‘Y’”. He looked at it again and again, repeatedly saying it in his heart for three or four times. After confirming that he had indeed read it correctly, he felt his legs go numb and almost fell to his knees.
Xe WeiLan was puzzled and walked up to him nervously, he asked, “What’s wrong? What’s the situation?”