Inside the conference room...
At this moment, Cao Feifei was just about to wrap up the meeting, but she inadvertently looked at the door and her face couldn't help but change as she shouted her most hated name: "Zhang Xiaohua!"
Zhang Xiaohua directly ignored the father and daughter duo and entered the conference room.
As he stood before the conference table, Zhang Xiaohua first glanced at the audience and found that except for Cao Dequan and Cao Feifei, he did not have any impression of the rest of them.
It seemed that those former veterans had already been purged by the father and daughter pair.
Once upon a time, this company was like another branch of his family. But now it just felt strange and foreign to be here...
Shaking his head, Zhang Xiaohua locked his eyes on Xu Fengnian's now empty seat, but that made him feel much happier.
Originally, Zhang Xiaohua wouldn't have a place to sit for himself. This Cao father and daughter certainly did not prepare a seat for him.
Of course, let alone sitting in Xu Fengnian's former seat, as one of the shareholders of this company, Zhang Xiaohua had every right to be in such meetings. Even Cao Dequan could not say anything about this.
Seeing Zhang Xiaohua's arrogance, Cao Feifei got up from her seat while barking at him, her tone full of anger:
"Zhang Xiaohua, who let you in? Don't you see that we are in a meeting? Hurry up and leave before I call security to throw you out."
In the face of Cao Feifei's stern warning, Zhang Xiaohua was unfazed. He took out his mobile phone and hushed his head while playing a casual game. He replied to her in a mild tone:
"No one's gonna call security unless you wanna see your father in prison. In that case, I'll be more than happy to oblige, and I'll see you guys in court. There, we can figure out how many years the judge feels like giving to a chairman of a listed company who embezzled company dividends from the private shareholders."
This immediately caused an uproar among the shareholders at the scene, and they all jumped from their seats and glared at the Cao Dequan. Finally, Zhang Xiaohua turned his attention to Cao Dequan's face.
Cao Feifei's face became pale as paper, but her eyes were still filled with resentment. She stared at Zhang Xiaohua and snorted: "What do you mean by that, Zhang Xiaohua? How much are your dividends? How much money can you even get? It's not even worth our time! Why would we bother swallowing it?"
"It's worth it, I think it can be seen from the fact that you came to my house and threatened me and my mother into selling these shares to you...? So much for sworn brothers, haha. In fact, why not just ask the other shareholders if it's worth it."
Finishing his words, Zhang Xiaohua turned away from her and fixed his eyes on Cao Dequan's body as if he could see through his heart. He clearly understood that his every move was causing Cao Dequan to break out into a cold sweat. His panic was obvious to anyone, and his guilt was written across his face.
Cao Dequan really couldn't understand where had this kid gathered so much courage from.
He watched this kid growing up and according to his understanding of him, even when his father was here to back him up, he wasn't so haughty.
But now, when he no longer had any backing, he actually dared to come to the company to find trouble. With this kind of courage, he really was worthy of being called a second-generation wastrel.
However, no matter what, this was a company, and he was the chairman of its board. If he allowed this kid to be so abrasive again and again, he would truly lose all of his face.
Thinking of this, Cao Dequan reluctantly looked up and showed a false smile to Zhang Xiaohua. He pretended to be kind and said: "Ai, Xiaohua, you must have misunderstood Uncle. I have watched you grow up. How could I be scheming against you? You are practically my family and as for the last time, I do apologise, but I think we can both agree that we took things too far and said things that we didn't mean."
"I'm not here for your two-faced act, so let's just cut straight to the chase." Zhang Xiaohua was not embarrassed and cut him off saying: "Give me all the dividends that I deserve from last month and not a penny less. Or we can sort this out in court. But before I go to court, I think it might be necessary to host a press conference and talk to our friends in the media about the methods you use to handle business."
Upon hearing this, Cao Dequan suddenly felt anxious.
With Zhang Xiaohua's current popularity, once he opened a press conference and discredited Cao Dequan in front of the media, both Cao Dequan and New Century would have their reputation tainted. Some of the shareholders would love nothing more than to use this as an excuse to remove him from the chairman position. Especially after hearing about his attempt to buy the remaining shares and become the major shareholder. While they didn't mind him running the day to day aspects of the business, if he tried to gain full control over it, they would definitely work together with this Zhang Xiaohua to suppress him, then all of his hard work would be wasted.
As for Zhang Xiaohua's threats of getting him sent to jail, he knew he was bluffing. If this was taken to court, at most he would receive a fine and some bad comments on press media, but with his connections and power, he could easily minimize the effects.
However, the shareholders and company executives were on the scene, and Cao Dequan couldn't really confess that he had swallowed Zhang Xiaohua's share dividends even if he wanted to.
Cao Dequan decided to maintain a friendly attitude and appease Zhang Xiaohua: "I think you have misunderstood Uncle. Let the accountant send you the rest, how much did you not receive?"
Since this old bastard wanted to play, then he would play with him; anyway, he had plenty of time.
Zhang Xiaohua leaned back and slid comfortably against the conference chair. He tilted his head high and said leisurely, "You gave me thirty thousand dollars out of 1 million. Everyone knows that my dad gave you everything. Yet now that my dad is gone, you have finally showed your ungrateful side."
"Zhang Xiaohua, you..." Cao Feifei was suffocated with a snotty, sloppy eye, and she wanted to beat Zhang Xiaohua up. Zhang Xiaohua's calm and shameless appearance was so infuriating!
"What are you doing here? You don't have to accompany me, you know... oh yeah, why aren't you with that Ling Fang?"
Seeing Cao Feifei become triggered, Zhang Xiaohua didn't forget to add some extra salt to her wounds. Cao Feifei was blindsided with anger, and her vision became crimson red so much that the two peaks on her chest heaved up and down. Zhang Xiaohua was enjoying the view very much, he really wanted to reach out and grab one!
After seeing Cao Feifei becoming mad, an executive was stunned, and in order to please Cao Feifei, he scolded Zhang Xiaohua: "Zhang Xiaohua, don't think that just because you're the son of the former boss, you can come here and say whatever you want. You said just now that you want to file a lawsuit, right? We can also play that game. As a shareholder of New Century, you actually went and opened a private company outside. Did you know that we can sue you for this?"
"Sue me?" Zhang Xiaohua smiled, "If I remember correctly, according to 'Corporate Law', all shareholders have the right to open their own businesses; of course, unless they have an official position in the company. As far as I'm aware, I'm neither the chairman nor the general manager of the company. I'm just a small shareholder. So I'm interested in how you plan to sue me."
The executive immediately blushed like a peach and quietly lowered his head. He wanted to drill legal loopholes to scare Zhang Xiaohua. He also wanted to use the opportunity to impress the Cao father and daughter, but he was wrecked by Zhang Xiaohua.
Cao Dequan and Cao Feifei couldn't help but scrutinise Zhang Xiaohua. They couldn't believe how this former wastrel could become so shrewd and not only open a company but also write songs.
At this moment all the company's senior executives were speechless.
"Come on, stop diverting the topic." Zhang Xiaohua reverted his attention back to Cao Dequan, and said: "No one here is a child. Some things are needless to say and I don't want any more crap. Give me my money, and I will leave immediately. I don't want to stay any longer in this snake den."
Cao Dequan felt pure hatred in his heart. He had never been so humiliated in his life, but he maintained a smile on the surface, saying with a gentle tone: "Xiaohua, I'll have the accountant send the correct amount to your account. Because last month the company's profit was limited, so only thirty thousand was sent instead. If you don't believe me, I'll let the accountant get the company's bill of last month."
Here, Cao Dequan winked at the accountant. The accountant was obviously a smart person. After he gave Cao Dequan a certain look, he made his way out of the conference room.
Twenty minutes later, the accountant returned to the conference room and placed the book in his hands in front of Zhang Xiaohua. He immediately cast a look on Cao Dequan and indicated that his task was completed.
When Zhang Xiaohua picked up the accounting book and opened it, he could not help but be dazzled. The dense numbers were like a sky full of stars. Everything could be added, subtracted, and multiplied.
Seeing Zhang Xiaohua's face full of fog and confusion, the accountant smiled happily. Not to mention this young man, even some of the professionals from the Bureau of Industry and Commerce may not be able to distinguish between true and false from the numbers.
"The company's turnover last month was a total of 1.5 million yuan. You are owed 4% of the company's share. So, after deducting taxes, you should get 30,000 yuan. So I can prove that you had the correct amount from the shareholders dividends last month. In the past few minutes and in accordance with the chairman's instructions, I have already sent all of the company's account details to your email."
After he listened to the accountant's remarks, Zhang Xiaohua immediately understood that it would be impossible for him to understand this account. Even if he could understand it, he would still be fooled by it.
No wonder the numbers just went on for so long, this turned out to be a fake accounting book. However, the speed of this accountant was surely amazing if he was able to make a falsified account statement in only 20 minutes. It showed Cao Dequan's requirements from his employees and what they were used for, it seemed that this Cao family was even shadier than he thought.
Although everyone on the scene knew that this was a false account report, under Cao Dequan's power, no one spoke up. What's more, Cao Dequan was just targeting Zhang Xiaohua. It had nothing to do with them; after all, as long as their own interests were not compromised, they were fine with it. But some of the shareholders reminded themselves to keep an eye on that accountant and recheck their books later just in case.
Looking at the indifferent expressions in front of him, Zhang Xiaohua sneaked a sly grin and threw the books on the table. At the same time, he felt that he had played around enough, he took out the tax records from the tax bureau from his pocket.
Bang!
Throwing them on the table and not missing a beat, he questioned: "I wonder if anyone in this room can explain this to me: How did the company pay over 17 million taxes last month, according to the tax rate when the turnover was only 1.5 million yuan? Cause according to my calculations, you would need around 70 million in turnover before the due tax totals up to 17 million. Since I hold 4% of the shares, according to the ratio of total income, I should get at least 1 million in dividends, so why did I only receive 30,000 yuan?"