Zhou Rutong looked at everyone's expressions and he felt a bit smug.
His daughter had truly outdone herself this time. He had not expected her to be able to get close to those top ten families. They were really not easy to interact with.
This was good though. Now all Zhou Lin had to do was maintain her relationship and advance it.
"Rutong why have you told us this. If your daughter is truly seeing Ming Xian, can't she just utilize his power to neutralize Han Ziyou. What's the use of risking it with Long Feng Jian." Zhou Ni asked.
Everyone instinctively turned their heads to Zhou Rutong.
Zhou Rutong smiled but his smile was a bit shallow. He had also initially hopped for it to be like that but Zhou Lin had contacted him the day before complaining about what the little thief had done.
It seems the thief had met Ming Xian while him and Zhou Lin were heading for a dinner date.
Annoyingly, the thief of a girl seems to have left a rather commendable opinion of herself on Ming Xian.
Zhou Rutong couldn't risk his daughter losing such a wonderful candidate for a future husband.
Moreover losing him to that little wretch would even be worse than losing the CEO position to her.
So Zhou Rutong advised his daughter to keep Ming Xian as far away from Han Ziyou as possible if she could hence they couldn't leverage on his power to get rid of her.
Zhou Rutong had truly felt like killing someone when the realization had dawned upon him.
Hence now he had to follow up with his higher ups plan since they even offered him protection from Long Feng Jian.
"Well as you must probably be speculating I'm sure, my daughter's relationship with Ming Xian is still just blooming. I wouldn't want to appear as a leech to such a prominent family now would I."
Zhou Rutong explained without batting an eyelid. Everyone almost scoffed but they refrained since they realized that they were indeed powerless to Zhou Rutong even if his daughter's relationship with the big shot was just blossoming.
"But Rutong—what's the use of inviting us here where even if you actually manage to dethrone Han Ziyou, your son will still probably take position of CEO considering your rich connections."
Everyone present had the same thought process.
What were they gaining by risking their lives when in the end they would still surely lose the CEO position to Rutong's son.
Zhou Rutong's smile broadened at the question.
"I invited you of course to inform you all that I'm handing out an olive branch to whomever wants to take it."
Abruptly Zhou Rutong's smile fell off his face and was replaced with cold indifference.
"I won't deceive you in the slightest. I have every intention of making my son the CEO so I want to give you all a fair share of warning."
"Try as much as you want but I'll still make sure my son wins. If you decide to fight him, I hope you don't mind losing your jobs in a short while."
"But if you choose to support him generously, I will surely be very generous too."
A politician surely knew his crowd and how to address it effectively.
Zhou Rutong's words pissed off everyone but it also made sense. He was backing up his son. All of them would do the same if they had as much power as him.
They could all just grind their teeth in anger and dejection.
Most of them were already leaning towards currying favor from Zhou Rutong hence they would have to support Zhou Xi, his son.
Zhou Ni narrowed his eyes a fraction. He wanted power and he wanted the CEO position but their father, Zhou Ren had always advised them to choose their battles wisely.
Zhou Ni knew that without a doubt, this was a battle not worth fighting.
He didn't like the Han Ziyou girl but to anger a person such as Long Feng Jian just to get rid of her was not a wise move at all.
Zhou Ni sighed internally. It seems it was about time he forfeited the fight for the CEO position.
Just as their father said. They had to bear the consequences of their actions. Zhou Ni didn't like the mere idea of the consequences he would face say Zhou Rutong's plan failed
He had heard of how heartless Long Feng Jian was and how he could get up and physical with his enemies. He'd burn you and everything you have to the ground.
That was not worth the risk.
Once Zhou Ni knew where his priorities lie, he confidently held his head up and turned around to leave.
Everyone was stunned by his actions. They had still been having internal battles but the guy had already made a choice.
"I see you've chosen to go against me Ni." Zhou Rutong spoke coldly.
Zhou Ni paused for a moment but didn't turn.
"I'm not going against you Rutong. I'm simply following father's orders. Choosing my battles wisely."
"The Han girl maybe nothing but—"
Zhou Ni glanced back at everyone who was still sitted pitifully as if he already knew the outcome of today's gathering.
"Long Feng Jian is way beyond our league and even your higher up government friends can't protect you. I actually have a young daughter, I don't think I want her to stand by my grave by the end of the week."
"If you want to die, die alone. The position of CEO is yours to bicker over just please if your plan back fires don't say I was part of it."
"I cut ties here and now. I won't even say a word about it to anyone as if I was never here."
Zhou Ni then turned around and left. Zhou Ni didn't know why but he felt that was the wisest decision he had ever made in all his forty years of existence.
Zhou Rutong's jaw flexed in anger but he managed to calm down.
He glanced at everyone else.
"Does anyone else want to leave after giving me their heart warming speech."
Zhou Rutong asked coldly but this time no one else moved.
They had all decided to silently hope Zhou Rutong was successful. Anyway they knew he had some mean scary connections so at least they'd be safe if they followed him.
Unbeknownst to them was that people were usually given titles because of certain reasons and the man Long Feng Jian was not known as the most ruthless man in the business world for no reason.
"Ok everyone, my sources informed me that Long Feng Jian will be returning to the country within this week. I've already put the plan in motion so once he arrives, he'll surely drag Han Ziyou to hell."
Everyone nodded feeling a bit of excitement at the possibility of getting rid of the Han girl once and for all.
....
As the Zhou family members were plotting Han Ziyou's demise, a very tired Han Ziyou was just leaving the meeting room after a tideous meeting with the department heads of the company.
Qin Jun handed her a bottle of water "It seems you may need a break soon boss lady."
Han Ziyou shook her head out of habit as she received the bottle of water. She sipped at it a bit.
Qin Jun could only shake his head before he spoke getting a bit serious.
"Boss there is something else you need to know."
Han Ziyou paused once they were in the office, she glanced at Qin Jun as she picked up her hand bag.
"What's it Jun." Han Ziyou asked.
Qin Jun nodded "Han Lee has been trying to contact you. I don't know why but yeah—"
Han Ziyou's face fell when she heard what Qin Jun said. Han Lee was her dad. The one and only man who had put up his daughter as collateral in case he failed to repay his loan to Zhou Rutong.
Han Ziyou wasn't going to lie that she liked him. Because of him, she had to start repaying his debts at the age of eight.
She was taken away from her family by Zhou Rutong because he failed to repay his debts to the man.
And that wasn't the worst part. Han Ziyou had found out through her investigations that even after selling her off, the man never even stopped his gambling habits nor his habit of investing in stupid things that always flopped.
And if that wasn't bad enough, he just had to abandon her mom and brother a few years later. He upped and packed and bolted the hell out of there leaving his mom with her elder brother who was just twelve years old at the time.
He didn't care at all that his actions were heartless and that his son was just twelve.
He never left them with anything except a load of debts and debt collectors.
Han Ziyou felt soo angry. When she gained power, she had gone back to her former home hoping to find her mom and brother so that she could take care of them.
However, she found that they were no longer where they used to leave. Han Ziyou had used all of her connections to look for them but she had failed to find them for years now.
It was frustrating.
It made her feel fear. What if something bad had happened to them. What if one of her dad's debt collectors had come over to collect debts only to find Han Lee had taken off into hiding.
And now they had rolled out their anger on her mom and brother.
Han Ziyou clenched her hands.
Now the man had showed up out of nowhere. No doubt he wanted something from her.
All he ever did was take take tak
"I don't want to hear anything about him. Don't ever let him get an inch near me." Han Ziyou tried to control the tremor in her voice.
Qin Jun felt Han Ziyou's pain but he also had to tell her the one thing Han Lee had said that Han Ziyou had to know.
"However there is something that Han Lee said that I think you may need to know."
Han Ziyou's face remained blank but she listened to Qin Jun.
"He said that he knows you're looking for your mom and brother. He also said that he has some crucial information you may find worth knowing. He says it may help you find them."
There was a shift in Han Ziyou's expression.
Qin Jun nodded at her unasked question.
Han Ziyou clenched her hand and she looked to be conflicted between choosing to believe Han Lee's words and ignoring him.
However she had been looking for her mom and brother for years now and she hadn't succeeded in the least bit to find them.
She was starting to feel a bit desperate and worried.
But trusting Han Lee was a bad choice on its own. He was selfish. He probably wanted something back in return or he wanted to snuggle himself back into her good books now that she was somewhere in life.
He probably saw her as a walking bank card and probably thought that all he would have to do was this.
After all he did.
Han Ziyou took a deep breathe to calm down and soothe her taut nerves and the throbbing headache that was on the brink of fully blooming.
Han Ziyou glanced at Qin Jun after finally making her choice. She couldn't risk loosing a single chance to find her mom and brother though it meant trusting the devil himself.
"Contact him. Tell him to come met me at the Grand Hotel. Have a private room prepared for me. Make sure that there is enough security in case he tries something stupid."
Han Ziyou spoke coldly and decisively.
Qin Jun nodded.
"I'll do that immediately. I'll drop you off."
Han Ziyou nodded in distraction. She was truly tired of all of this. She just wanted to find her family and afterwards she could move away with her mom and brother to a nice place where no one would ever disturb them again.
Han Ziyou massaged the gap between her brows. Now she had a migraine thinking of how she was gonna handle Han Lee.
That is if she didn't loose her temper before him.
...