Chapter 67 (Plot chapter, please subscribe with caution)...

The conversation between the two ended unpleasantly.

Tan Su's heart sank slightly. He was certain that Li Zhoudu must have reached some kind of deal with Tan Congxu to be so determined to win.

That weekend, Tan Su invited Lü Dai and Xie Zongfang to his home, where Chen Ya announced his plan to redeem his personal bonds ahead of schedule after the New Year in exchange for company shares.

He was wearing a casual, comfortable sweater and stared blankly at the massive numbers flashing across the projector screen.

Before Chen Ya could even finish speaking, Lü Dai jumped up.

He believes that once Tan Su’s early repayment of debts is made public, it will inevitably cause market panic and a lot of speculation. Others will rush to follow suit, and Yan Qi will have to pay a large amount of cash in a short period of time, which will definitely cause his financial situation to deteriorate rapidly.

Lu Dai panicked and said, "President Tan, Tan Su, Big Brother, Boss! What exactly are you trying to do? Unless you want to abscond with the money, I can't think of any reason to do so."

Tan Su said calmly, "Huisheng's six-month transaction restriction period has not expired yet, and Tan Congxu has not been out to make any financial moves for a long time. He holds the 3.06% that my grandfather transferred to him before, and now he is sitting back and playing a war of attrition with me. I'm afraid the transaction is already completed. With the shares I have, sitting on the sidelines is not safe enough."

"Huh?" Lu Dai said in disbelief, "You and Chairman Tan aren't..."

He is still struggling: "Trading this 3.06% is nothing, it might just be for the dividends."

Tan Su interrupted him: "This is only Tan Congxu's share. The other party has ill intentions, and considering the stock market, it's probably not just five percent, it might even be ten percent or more. It just depends on when they reveal their hand."

Lü Dai forced a smile and said, "This is just a possibility, isn't it? We can't let things change in the future and ruin our lives now, can we?"

“From the outside, everything looks very promising for FPS and TICC. But with your actions, before that ‘theoretical possibility’ can even materialize, things will fall apart internally.”

Tan Su raised his eyes: "You don't trust my judgment, do you?"

Lü Dai let out a deep breath: "Tan Su, as a subordinate, I acknowledge your illustrious resume and undefeated record; but as a friend, I don't believe your judgment is accurate."

He said, "If you continue like this, I'm afraid I can't continue as the CFO."

Tan Su stared coldly at him, while Xie Zongfang stopped Lü Dai from saying anything even more absurd.

Tan Su tilted his head and asked again, "What do you think, Mr. Xie?"

Xie Zongfang said, "President Tan, I... have no objection. It depends on what the legal department says and whether it needs to be approved by the board of directors."

"Did you hear that?" Tan Su said to Lü Dai, "Go back and calculate the amount of the bond-to-equity conversion and send it to me. We need to talk to the legal department before next Monday."

Lü Dai stormed out in a huff, and Xie Zongfang gave a bitter laugh before bidding farewell to Tan Su as well.

——

This is the first time that the whole family has been reunited during the Spring Festival holiday, except for Li Li.

While everyone was getting ready for dinner, it was just getting light on her end. Li Zhizi was driving, Li Li threw her bag into the back seat, and she sat in the passenger seat, complaining to Li Fujing, "Dad, keep your hand steady!"

When Li Fujing has no official duties, he has no status at home. When his daughter calls and orders him to "go see the cat," he has to go up and down the stairs to look for it.

After finally finding a spot in the meeting room, Li Li remotely ate some millet for a while before wanting to watch her mother play cards.

Li Fujing then used the camera to take him to find Ling Wei.

Ling Wei has studied mahjong for many years, but she is no match for an expert like Wen Xi.

She lost more than she won. Seeing that she couldn't read the cards, Li Fujing anxiously raised his hand to help his wife play, but Wenxi quickly stopped him: "Fujing, you two have saved so much money, why don't you go out and spend it to give back to society at the end of the year? Are you going to use it all to give to the little kitten's dowry? Aren't you losing out!"

When Li Li saw the topic had turned to her, she said, "Oh dear."

Where is my brother?

She had barely finished asking when the person on the other end of the phone changed. Li Zhoudu turned the camera around, looked at her, and asked, "Going to school?"

“On the way,” Li Li said, “almost there.”

How's your homework going lately?

"There are still so many!" she began to complain, lamenting how inhumane the tasks assigned by the teacher were and how competitive the people around her were.

She said her passion for art was burning out, and she wondered when she would finally graduate!

“It’s the last semester,” Li Zhoudu said. “It will be over soon.”

Just then, his own phone rang. Li Zhoudu took it out, glanced at it, and returned Li Fujing's phone to him.

"Hello--"

——

On Monday of the following week, Yanqi's stock was snapped up, opening high and approaching the daily limit. Before the meeting between Lü Dai and the legal department even started, they received an official notification from Wan Jing that their holdings in the secondary market had exceeded 5% of Yanqi's.

Lu Dai was startled and hurriedly went to the 32nd floor. In front of Tan Su's office, he was stopped by Chen Ya.

"I need to speak with General Manager Tan!" He was covered in sweat.

"Not now."

"Extremely urgent!"

"President Tan knows that it's not possible now," Chen Ya said, looking as if she were in deep meditation.

Lu Dai raised his hand to dial Tan Su's number, but the other party hung up. He cursed.

In the office, Tan Su and Xie Zongfang sat facing each other. He hung up the call and threw his phone on the table: "President Xie has been with Yanqi for many years. Why go to such lengths and ruin your reputation in your later years?"

Xie Zongfang looked surprised: "President Tan, I don't understand what you mean."

"Wanjing is acquiring Yanqi, didn't you know?"

Upon hearing this, Xie Zongfang immediately distanced himself, saying, "I do have some personal connections with Li Junchuan of Wanjing, but he has never told me anything about what you're saying!"

Tan Su asked directly, "What did Li Zhoudu promise you?"

"Even if Wan Jing is a big company, it's still a private enterprise. You probably wouldn't be interested in any senior management positions there. Money? I don't think you're short of money. What he's promising you is probably my position, right?"

Xie Zongfang said seriously, "President Tan, you need to provide evidence for your statements."

Do you want to see evidence?

Tan Su said, "Why did you go back to the company after 8 p.m. after leaving my house on the weekend? What reports did you log on to the intranet, what data did you look at, do you want me to continue?"

“I’ve always known that there’s someone close to me who’s been leaking information,” Tan Su said. “It’s very secretive and high-ranking. So over the past six months, I’ve done something.”

“A dedicated link is set up for each executive. Every downloaded document is tracked for viewing and forwarding. Of course, there are bound to be some violations, and you're not an exception.”

“But this time, you were too hasty, Mr. Xie.”

“You’re afraid I’ll really go my own way and be willing to lose the contract to ensure the bond conversion is successful, leaving Li Zhoudu with no chance, so you want him to surface early and stop me through the board of directors.”

"You could have continued to muddle through, but unfortunately, you were a little unlucky this time. Lü Dai refused to carry out my mission; he went on vacation to the suburbs with his wife over the weekend. And from beginning to end, only your account accessed the internal network to check the specific amount of bonds I personally held in Yanqi and related to the company's articles of association. So everything was already an open game for me."

"If you disagree with my suspicions and insist on your innocence, then please hand over your phone now so that the technical center can recover your chat history and photo album data. If this results in an infringement of your personal privacy rights, I am personally willing to bear all legal consequences and issue a public apology."

Tan Su said, "Are you really going to take this step, Mr. Xie?"

Xie Zongfang said, "That's really your usual style."

Tan Su nodded and asked, "Why? Can you tell me?"

"Why?"

Xie Zongfang thought for a moment, chuckled, and said, "Perhaps it's because your old man is too autocratic, Tan Congxu is too stubborn, and you, the rising star, are too domineering."

“I graduated from Stanford more than 20 years ago, slept 20 hours a week, returned to China with straight A’s, and was taken under your father’s command.”

“I admire him very much. He was my mentor in the field. He was extremely intelligent, unique, decisive, and impartial. But all of that changed after he passed away.”

"Your grandfather is past his prime and unwilling to relinquish power. He practices nepotism, parachuting an unknown illegitimate son into such a large corporation as a senior executive. How many people despise him for this?"

“Tan Congxu has taken sole control of the company and has led to a corrupt atmosphere. For many years, I have been trying my best to maintain your father’s past achievements and greet him with a smile. I have endured for ten years and waited for you.”

“But you are not qualified, Tan Su. You are just like your grandfather, you value blood ties, connections, and cronyism. Anyone with the name 'Tan' is more approachable than a selfless outsider. How many opportunities did you have to crush Tan Congxu? But you didn’t. You held back. The consequence of raising a tiger is that you will be attacked by the other side time and time again.”

"Let me talk about myself again. I have served Yanqi for more than 20 years. I have never competed for anything, but in the end I can only be your think tank and database."

I have no decision-making power, no independent voice; everyone treats me as nothing more than a puppet on the board, raising my hand to vote for you. My importance in the company is even less than that of the undergraduate classmates you brought in from university.

"I'm truly innocent," he said, shaking his head with a smile.

Tan Su said calmly, "If you have any objections to your position, you can talk to me. No matter how you try to cover it up now, it doesn't change the fact that you've sold contracts and leaked company secrets. To some extent, I wasn't wrong to appoint Lü Dai to a high position."

Xie Zongfang did not continue to argue.

Tan Su said, "At this juncture, I will not fire you, nor should you think about resigning to seek refuge with Li Zhoudu. HR will process your medical retirement. If you continue to make any unnecessary moves, then we'll see you in prison at any time."

Xie Zongfang smiled, stood up and said, "Perfect, I can go home and have a good New Year."

Li Li heard the news of Xie Zongfang's retirement due to illness when she was exchanging New Year's greetings with You Chang on New Year's Eve.

Li Li came to Tan Su in a great deal of surprise to ask for confirmation: "How come I heard that Uncle Xie retired due to illness? Is he seriously ill? He's only in his forties, not even fifty yet! What happened?"

Tan Su had just finished having dinner with his grandfather and was smoking on the balcony when he asked, "Are you two close friends?"

Li Li said, "He was my boss for over a year, and he even ate crabs from my family! They were a gift from my brother."

“Oh,” Tan Su joked, “you guys really know how to give me trouble.”

"Who's causing you trouble?" Li Li said unhappily, "You're talking nonsense that no one can understand."

Li Li had just finished seeing the lively and bustling New Year celebrations at the Li family's place, and seeing Tan Su all alone made her truly feel sad.

She asked, "What did you eat for dinner?"

"Hmm?" Tan Su said, "Just steamed fish and vegetables."

The elderly person's stomach couldn't digest rich, meaty foods, so the auntie prepared very bland meals. But in Li Li's eyes, it was pitiful to eat so bland and tasteless meals during the Spring Festival.

She said in a dramatic, rhythmic voice, "Ah... why are you only eating this?"

Tan Su asked her, "Will we celebrate the New Year together next year? Ask Auntie to make a lavish feast."

Li Li hesitated and said, "Ah... this... isn't that a good idea?"

Tan Su countered, "Why? I'll be staying in S City next year. The two places aren't very close, so I can easily catch up even if I only eat half a meal at one place."

Li Li thought, "Do you want to hear what you're saying? Li Zhoudu let you in, brother."

Tan Su was teasing her for fun when Li Li suddenly said very seriously, "Tan Su."

"Um?"

"You smoke?"

"..."

"Wow, really," Li Li said with a look of disgust, "Uncle Xie's example is there, and you still don't cherish your health. Besides, the smell of smoke is awful, I'm never kissing you again."

-----------------------

Author's Note: The plot chapters are killing me! [Laughing and crying while covering face]