Li Chao Xiang hated that his good-for-nothing half-brother, Li Hao Chen, took the board meeting's spotlight.
That afternoon, the two of them attended the conference to pitch in their business idea for the luxury hotels they were going to create at the hectares of land they bought at Guilin in front of the board of directors.
The current CEO of Li Hotel and Resorts International was their father, but he wasn't present during the board meeting.
Father had been hospitalized for three months, and his health showed no signs of improving after a heart stroke rendered him weak, making his muscles numb which also made him lose balance.
Rumors have spread all over the country that CEO Li, who was also the richest hotel mogul in China, was in paralysis at his V.V.I.P Hospital Room.
He refused to show his face and was never allowed to be interviewed by the Chinese Media Outlets.
He was also prepared to sign his last will for his descendants.
People all over China—including the rich and the poor-- were both agitated and curious about who shall take over the largest hospitality group as its CEO.
The new CEO will be nominated by the board members, major shareholders, and Li Hotel and Resorts International investors.
Still, the final decision will be up to the Chairman-of-the-Board, their grandmother.
Their grandmother--bless her good health--was the head judge during their meeting's business pitch along with the rest of the board members.
The board members were free to nominate on which business proposal shall prevail.
Ever since their father's health got worse, Li Chao Xiang and Li Hao Chen have been given these succeeding tests to determine the CEO who will own Li Hotel and Resorts International.
The major shareholder was keen to decide on which CEO to nominate.
Did they think Chao Xiang wasn't aware of this?
The candidates for becoming the CEO were no other than the current CEO, Li Chao Xiang (him) and Li Hao Chen (his half-brother who was the only son of her father's first wife).
This was also the reason why the local media outlets, including the global ones, couldn't keep their noses from sticking into other family's business because of the scandal of Chao Xiang's mother and his father twenty-seven years ago.
The world will not let Chao Xiang forget that because it was why he existed in the first place.
He didn't want to stir that scandal all over the news and the Internet.
It might damage the company's reputation after taking his rightful place as the CEO.
Thirty years ago, Chao Xiang's mother was a supermodel in China who made it big as an actress in Hollywood, which landed her a spot on Forbes list as one of the richest billionaires before reaching the age of thirty after making consecutive blockbusters.
She became the notorious female leading actress known for action movies and difficult stunts, playing this badass chic for the males' viewing consumption in the entertainment industry.
His mother started her modeling career in China at the tender age of fifteen.
She began her acting career in Hollywood at the age of twenty-one and rose to stardom at twenty-three when she took her first leading role, which led to a record-breaking hit.
After the succeeding movie blockbusters, his mother felt like she was floating in cloud nine from striking gold every single time that felt almost supernatural.
She met his father, who wanted to secure an audience with her in private with the guise of a fan who desired to interact with his idol.
His mother had no idea that his father was still married to his first wife with whom his father's parents had picked an arranged marriage.
He also had a son with her and kept that a secret from his mother.
He didn't even mention that he was undergoing divorce while they continued their secret relationship.
He could imagine her twenty-five-year-old mother's shock when she found out about his beau's secret.
Not only was he eighteen years older than her and the richest hotel mogul in China, but the man was also already married to his wife for twenty years before she came into the picture to have an illicit relationship with him.
The ongoing divorce proceedings didn't matter to his mother, but it was the fact that she was having an affair and impregnated by a married man at the peak of her career, which was unacceptable.
When he was old enough to understand, Chao Xiang recalled his mother telling him the story so that he wouldn't hear the scandal from other people.
She trusted him to accept the truth, whether he understood it or not.
"It will be better if I tell you what happened from my own mouth." She said.
When he was thirteen years old, his mother had told him about the scandal while she tucked him into bed as if it was fit to be a teenage boy's bedtime story.
He wouldn't forget the look on his mother's face when she said that she felt like her entire world crumbled when she found out that she was pregnant on the same day his father's secret was revealed.
His mother had told him that being a popular actress pregnant with a married hotel mogul's baby made her give up her dreams as a Hollywood Actress to claim her position as the legal wife after his father divorced his first wife, Hao Chen's mother.
His father also won the case of their only son's custody after dividing all of their assets with his first wife, who was also an heiress.
In his young mind, Chao Xiang felt guilty because his mother gave up everything for him, including her dream.
She risked her reputation to keep him.
She didn't want what his father told her from the start when she told him she was pregnant—that Chao Xiang was a mistake, an accident.
He suggested abortion, but his mother refused.
Why would she abort the future heir of Li Hotels and Resorts International?
Chao Xiang remembered how his grandmother, who adored his father's first wife as her daughter-in-law, fawned over Hao Chen's business proposal of bubble hotels and European cabins when he showed his own designs during the business pitch.
Why did he have to rub it in Chao Xiang's face how he was the top Architecture student at Tsinghua University?
If that wasn't enough, Hao Chen took another Interior Design course with their grandparents' and father's permission while Chao Xiang was stuck working in this company earlier as the CFO.
Hao Chen was a free bird compared to Chao Xiang, who was stuck with his cage of responsibilities.
Chao Xiang graduated at the top of his class in Business Administration at the same university.
He couldn't fathom this blatant favoritism from her grandmother when both he and Hao Chen had amazing ideas to contribute to the company.
How could the Board Members and the Chairman-of-the-Board ignore his business plans to create Luxurious Oriental Hotels when Chao Xiang also hired the best architect he could find?
Grinding his teeth in anger, Chao Xiang clenched his fist on the pen he was using to sign papers as the company's current CFO.
He was so pissed off that he didn't notice that he was close to tearing the papers into pieces.
He exhaled a frustrated sigh before picking his phone from his desk and called his best buddy.
"Jian Yu." Chao Xiang lowered his voice, and it came out as a rumble. "Send me your most beautiful escort from your luxury casino."