Chapter 54 Another Cuckold
The Hong Kong stock market is booming, and there are many listed companies. Zhou Fujin is one of them.
Although Zhou Jinlong now seems impulsive, irritable and brainless, he was still very far-sighted when he first took over Zhou Fujin. After all, he was a rare college student in that era, and he had planned the listing very early.
Before the listing, Zhou Fujin went through multiple rounds of financing, but each time he diluted a small number of shares. When it was officially listed, Zhou Jinlong's shares were just stuck at 51%, to ensure his absolute control over the company.
In the past ten years, although Zhou Jinlong transferred shares to Fu Wenfang and their children several times, the total shares transferred to them were less than 15%.
He still personally holds more than one-third of the company's shares and has a veto.
In addition, Fu Wenfang and Zhou Jinlong are husband and wife, and she is always his absolute supporter during the shareholders' meeting, so Zhou Jinlong's position in the company has always been as solid as a rock.
But that was in the past. Since he hinted in an interview that Wen Yue seduced him, he has become a frequent guest in the media, and the news that broke out was not positive.
First, a newspaper quoted Wen Yue's words scolding him as a headline, and then a newspaper published his medical examination report many years ago saying that he was not good enough. In the evening, a lot of media reported that he beat up reporters.
In fact, these things are nothing if they are taken out separately, and they are not big news when they are exposed together. At most, it is not good for face.
What is difficult is that Zhou Jinlong was exposed for his chaotic private life.
In fact, a messy private life is not a big problem. All the wealthy people in Hong Kong have a wife and a mistress at home, and they also have a fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh concubines outside.
Ordinary people can only watch the excitement when their wives fight in the palace, but as long as the products sold by their company are good, the store will still be full of customers, and as long as the company develops well, people will still rush to buy the stocks.
Personal morality is not good?
What does it have to do with them? Do you care about bonuses?
No?
Sorry, they don't care.
Only when there is a problem with the product like the Zheng family, or when the Zhong family uses ordinary people to survive, making ordinary people feel a sense of crisis, will they boycott their products and sell their stocks.
Normally, Zhou Jinlong's incident would not affect the company's development.
The problem is that Zhou Fujin is a marketing company. Although there was no such concept in the 1990s, it is indeed the case. Zhou Fujin started out in marketing, and the brand image is closely tied to his love story. In this way, his image is particularly important.
Other images can be ignored, but loyalty and single-mindedness must not be destroyed. It just so happens
that his messy private life is exactly contrary to the transfer of loyalty. In other words, his most important personality is destroyed. Once the personality collapses, Zhou Fujin's long-accumulated brand image will also be destroyed.
Therefore, when the news of Zhou Jinlong's messy private life first came out, the public relations direction of Zhou Fujin's publicity department was concerned about whether to recognize the authenticity of the photos.
He said that the photo was taken by a competitor who found someone who looked like Zhou Jinlong, and that he did not know the woman in the photo, nor did he have any improper relationship with her.
He also bribed the newspapers to remove the unsold newspapers from the shelves, and persuaded them not to publish any news related to Zhou Fujin in the near future.
Although it seems a bit shameless to do so, and it would definitely cost a lot of money to bribe all the newspapers in Hong Kong, the good thing is that as long as he plays dead and holds on for a few days, when new news hotspots come out, Zhou Jinlong's scandal will be over.
After a year or so, when everyone has forgotten about this matter, as long as Zhou Fujin is thick-skinned enough, he can still stir up the love story between the boss and the boss's wife that spans more than 20 years.
But just as the publicity department held a meeting to discuss the response plan, they received bad news - their boss attacked a reporter at the company gate!
Hitting a reporter is no small matter, especially since Zhou Jinlong attacked the reporter in public.
He felt relieved after the punch, but the difficulty of public relations increased. The public relations department employees were so worried that they pulled their hair and hurriedly contacted newspaper companies to suppress the news.
But even those who do entertainment news have backbones. Seeing Zhou Jinlong being so arrogant, not many newspapers are willing to withdraw the news. Especially those large newspaper companies, they don't take Zhou Jinlong seriously at all.
Of course, the news was not suppressed.
When Baiyutai released the video of Zhou Jinlong going to his lover's house for a date in the early years, but the other's husband came back early, and he had to climb out the window naked to avoid being discovered, the people in Zhou Fujin's publicity department wanted to give up completely. No
matter how thick-skinned they were, no matter how much they could lie with their eyes open, they couldn't withstand the wave after wave of well-founded revelations!
Moreover, the media didn't cooperate, so they had no conditions to lie with their eyes open.
So they could only watch Zhou Jinlong's scandal ferment on this night, and gradually turned into customers' disappointment in the Zhou Fujin brand. As
soon as the stock market opened the next morning, Zhou Fujin saw a wave of decline. Although the decline slowed down after 10:30, the trend continued until noon. It continued to fall at 1:00 p.m. and continued to fall until the close.
The customer flow of Zhou Fujin's stores also showed a downward trend.
Gold shops have always had no shortage of customers, not to mention Zhou Fujin is a big brand. Not to mention weekends, there are customers on weekdays. But on this day, the employees of various gold shops could clearly feel that the customer flow had decreased. It was not obvious in the morning, and in the afternoon, there might not be two customers in an hour.
On the second day, there were even fewer customers entering Zhou Fujin's store, and the number did not reach double digits all day. Moreover, most of the few people who came in were tourists from the mainland, and they were unaware of Zhou Jinlong's scandal.
As the saying goes, the shopping mall is like a battlefield, and most of the rules followed by peer competition are "take advantage of your weakness to kill you." Now that Zhou Fujin is in trouble, his competitors will naturally not be soft-handed.
Some gold brand founders have come out to imply that brand marketing should focus on the product itself, combining the brand with a fictional story, and in nine out of ten cases, the product is not up to standard.
Some people also spread rumors that Zhou Fujin is going to go bankrupt, so don't buy it now! You can only get a big bargain by buying it at the bottom after a while!
After such an operation, the sales of Zhou Fujin's stores, which were already deserted, became even worse. Even mainland tourists who came to travel and shop were not willing to go to Zhou Fujin.
They buy gold for investment. If Zhou Fujin's quality is not up to standard, it will be difficult for them to protect their rights when problems arise!
Zhou Da Jin is still better, an old brand, reliable!
Seeing the situation is like a landslide, Zhou Fujin's shareholders who originally wanted to wait and see can no longer sit still. If they don't do something, the plate will be swallowed up by others. What are they still waiting for!
So they united to convene a board meeting and kick Zhou Jinlong out.
To be on the safe side, someone secretly came to lobby Fu Wenfang, saying that Zhou Jinlong's legs were broken into centipedes, why are you still thinking about him!
He also said that he had been focused on profit in the past ten years, and the brand image constrained his behavior. Now his image has collapsed, and it will be sooner or later that he will be solid. If you don't kick him out, he will find mistresses again, and it will be a problem whether his shares can fall into the hands of you and your son.
Besides, even if he is willing to give you the shares, it will be useless. Zhou Fujin is a big ship, and only when it is good can they, the shareholders, be good. Zhou Jinlong is now hated by everyone, and if he continues to serve as chairman, the ship will sink sooner or later. By then, no matter how many shares you have, you can't exchange them for a few dollars.
Finally, she was advised to join hands with them to get rid of Zhou Fujin and replace him with someone else to rebuild the brand image. Zhou Fujin had a solid foundation, and even if he was in a slump now, he would make a comeback sooner or later. By then, even if she only had 15% of her and her son's shares, it would be more than the 51% after the ship sank.
Fu Wenfang did not agree immediately after hearing this, but only said that she needed to think about it. The person on the other end of the phone did not think that he could convince her in one go, and really gave her a day to think about it.
But after hanging up the phone, Fu Wenfang did not spend too much time weighing the pros and cons, but directly called Zhou Jinlong and asked if he was at home. She had something to tell him, but it was not easy to say it over the phone, so she had to wait until she got home from work.
Zhou Jinlong had not been to the company since the naked photos spread all over Hong Kong. He was feeling irritated. When he heard this, he said unhappily, "What are you talking about? You are being mysterious. Just tell me what you want to say. Don't keep me in suspense."
Fu Wenfang pretended to be embarrassed and hesitated until Zhou Jinlong was about to lose his temper. Then he said, "Okay, I can tell you now, but don't act impulsively after listening to it, okay?"
Zhou Jinlong felt that he was about to die of arrogance. He sneered, "How can I be impulsive?"
Fu Wenfang seemed to be relieved and said, "A shareholder just called me and asked me to vote to remove you from all your duties at the shareholders' meeting."
Zhou Jinlong exploded instantly, "Who? Which idiot called you? I'll go find him!"
"What's the point of you looking for him?" Fu Wenfang raised her voice and asked, "Because of the recent incident, the shareholders are very dissatisfied with you. It's not just one or two people who want you to step down, but the majority, or even everyone except me. Do you understand?"
Zhou Jinlong on the other end of the phone was silent. After thinking about it, he was unwilling to accept it. He cursed: "A bunch of dead losers! If it weren't for me, could Zhou Fujin have developed to the scale it is today? When we divided the money, you called me big brother, but now it's my bad luck. One or two of them want to cross the river and destroy the bridge!"
Fu Wenfang sighed: "People are like this. Who doesn't look at money?"
"What about you? You don't want me to step down too, do you?"
"Of course I don't want you to step down, but other shareholders..." Fu Wenfang sat down at the desk, her face calm but with a hint of worry, "It's okay to just hold a shareholders' meeting. I will always stand on your side. I have more shares than them. I'm just afraid that if they fail to remove you from your position, they will sell off the company's stock. The company's stock has been falling. If there is another large-scale sell-off, will we go bankrupt, Jinlong?"
Zhou Jinlong wanted to say no, but he calculated the assets he had on hand and realized that it was not easy to take over other people's shares. Even if he managed to take it over, it was still a question whether Zhou Fujin could survive this crisis. It would
be easy to survive safely.
But what if not? He might really go bankrupt!
"Let me think about it, let me think about it," Zhou Jinlong said in a low voice, like a whisper, or as if to comfort himself, "I will think of a way."
"Yes." Fu Wenfang said firmly with a choked voice, "I also believe that you can think of a way."
...
However, until Fu Wenfang got home from work, Zhou Jinlong could not think of a suitable solution.
In the afternoon, he called a shareholder with whom he had a good relationship and asked him if he also thought that he should give up his position. At first, he avoided answering.
Later, seeing that he could not escape, he honestly admitted that he did think so, and said: "Brother Long, don't blame me for being cruel, I am also doing this for Zhou Fujin's good. You took over the gold shop from your father and expanded it from one gold shop to the current scale of dozens of stores. You must also hope that Zhou Fujin will be well, right? Just give way. After all, you are the major shareholder. Even if you step down from the position of chairman, won't the new chairman still have to listen to you? If this time can be safely passed, I will still support you if you want to take the position!" Although
the other party said this sincerely, Zhou Jinlong sneered: "If the new chairman does a good job, will you still be willing to support me to take the position?"
"If the change does not affect the future development of the company." The person on the other end of the phone said sincerely.
"So, if the company develops well, you won't support me to take the position?"
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, and then said: "Brother Long, is power really that important? I think it's good to get dividends for nothing. And even if you occupy the position, what's the use if the company is gone? Isn't it good to take a step back when it's time to retire? If you are worried about losing control of the company, you can choose someone you trust to be the new chairman. You are a major shareholder, and no one can persuade you."
Although he couldn't think of a better way, the other party's last sentence did open up Zhou Jinlong's mind.
But who should be chosen as the new chairman?
When Fu Wenfang walked in, Zhou Jinlong thought of an idea and said, "I'll push you to be the chairman?"
"What crazy things are you talking about?" Fu Wenfang seemed to be shocked and couldn't help talking.
But the more she expressed disbelief, the more Zhou Jinlong thought she was suitable, and said: "I've thought about it. If I insist on not resigning, those shareholders will definitely not quit, and they may really sell off their stocks on a large scale. By then, Zhou Fujin will really be finished. But I don't feel at ease to give the position to others. Who knows what those people who only care about money will do, so I think it's best to choose the new chairman from the people around me."
Zhou Jinlong did not say that he had no close relatives around him, but took Fu Wenfang's hand and said affectionately: "Of these people around me, the most trustworthy one is of course you. We are husband and wife, and I believe you will always stand by my side, right?"
"Yes, that's right, but..." Fu Wenfang looked flustered, "I have only been in the company headquarters for three years, and my position is not high. I have been struggling for the past two years. I didn't get fired because of my status as the boss's wife. It was not until this year that I felt I could get the hang of it, but you suddenly asked me to be the chairman. I am not capable enough?"
Zhou Jinlong saw that Fu Wenfang was not capable, although in the past few years, he had heard Fu Wenfang's department leaders praise her for her ability and her efficiency and stability in her work. But Zhou Jinlong never took these compliments seriously. She is the boss's wife, and it would be strange if the department leaders did not praise her.
Zhou Jinlong felt that Fu Wenfang's little tricks were fine for her to play around in front of him, but if she really went to the business world, she would probably be eaten up.
He didn't think Fu Wenfang could hold the position of chairman securely.
It's good if she can't hold the position securely!
If she can't hold the position securely, he can propose to replace the chairman himself after the storm has passed.
And the worse Fu Wenfang's ability is, the more it can contrast with his ability. Only after comparing him with others will the shareholders know how reliable he is, and they will not want to replace the chairman when they encounter problems in the future.
"You can do it." Zhou Jinlong held Fu Wenfang's hand and said, "Even if you can't do it, don't you still have me? I will definitely not watch you anxiously, right? If you don't understand something, just ask me directly. All this is for our family. You promise me not to back down, okay?"
After staring at Zhou Jinlong for a long time, Fu Wenfang seemed to finally muster up the courage, took a deep breath and said, "Okay, I promise you, I won't back down."
Forever.
That night, Fu Wenfang called the director who had lobbied her before and told him that Zhou Jinlong was willing to step down but on the condition that she would take over as chairman.
The director initially suspected that he had heard it wrong, but after hearing Fu Wenfang's repeated words, he had to believe the reality and said he would consider it.
Two days later, after several rounds of tug-of-war, Zhou Jinlong and Zhou Fujin's other colleagues finally agreed to take a step back and let Fu Wenfang serve as Zhou Fujin's new chairman.
...
When Wen Yue learned that Zhou Fujin had replaced the chairman, she was stunned: [This Fu Wenfang is quite amazing! Did she also take over in the original book? ]
This... The system really doesn't know, but it can check the data.
After about half a minute, the system replied: [In the original novel, Fu Wenfang did not appear directly, but there was a chapter that mentioned the replacement of Zhou Fujin's chairman. It said that Zhou Jinlong had mental problems, and Mrs. Zhou was appointed as his guardian and became the new person in charge of Zhou Fujin, but that was a few years later.]
[Wow! Awesome!]
Wen Yue sighed again and guessed: [In other words, Fu Wenfang did not really forgive Zhou Jinlong, but had been lurking. There was no external force in the original novel, so she waited until Zhou Jinlong had mental problems, or she found an opportunity to send Zhou Jinlong to a mental hospital and locked him up before taking the position. But Zhou Jinlong was entangled in scandals throughout his life, which caused dissatisfaction among the board of directors, and she seized the opportunity to take the position in advance? 】
【That should be the case. 】
Wen Yue thought: 【I kind of want to meet this Ms. Fu. 】
A few days after she said this, Wen Yue met Fu Wenfang.
The two did not meet by chance outside, but Fu Wenfang personally called Lirong Department Store, hoping to meet with Wen Yue to discuss the renewal of the contract.
In addition to watching the play these days, Wen Yue was not idle at all. Zhou Fujin has more than ten stores in Lirong Department Store, and each store is large in scale and well located. The monthly rent is not a small amount of money. After
confirming that Zhou Fujin is going to withdraw, Lirong must find a new owner, otherwise the store will be vacant for one day, which is equivalent to a loss for one day.
Others in the company tend to look for gold brands to take over all the stores. Gold brands have sufficient funds and will not default on rent. In addition, the stores vacated by Zhou Fujin are surrounded by gold sellers. If they are rented to similar merchants, it will be beneficial to form a group effect and attract more customers.
But Wen Yue doesn't think so. Zhou Fujin focuses on marketing, and Zhou Jinlong also values face. Therefore, the stores they rent are basically in the best locations of Lirong Department Store. They are not only next to the gate, but also face the street and have separate entrances and exits.
Wen Yue thinks that such stores are not difficult to rent, so it doesn't matter whether to find someone to take over or rent them out separately. In fact, the former offers greater discounts, and the latter is more profitable.
As for rent arrears, there is no need to worry. The rent of shopping malls is collected in advance, and there will basically be no rent arrears. If there is such a thing, it would have been cleared out long ago.
It is true that gold brands are more stable than other brands. After all, there are risks in every business, but the price of gold will continue to rise in the next few decades. As long as the management does not mess up, it can survive longer than ordinary brands.
But Wen Yue does not have to worry about these. She has a plug-in. As soon as she meets the brand owner, the system will know whether this person is reliable or not.
Although a person's reliability does not mean that his business can last long, it can already screen out many people. It would be even better if the brand owner had appeared in the original book, so that the system can find him in the second half of his life.
In line with the principle of casting a wide net to catch more fish, Wen Yue has met with many brands in the past few days, of course, gold brands are not left out. She has met the heads of Chow Tai Kim, which ranks first, and Chow Chin Chin, which ranks third.
Chow Tai Chin is very interested in Regent Department Store because Wen Yue represented Regent Department Store to confront the Ye Tianhua partnership, but they already have many stores and cannot swallow up the stores vacated by Chow Fook Chin all at once. They can only rent two or three stores in busy areas such as Causeway Bay as a test.
Chow Chin Chin has been stationed in Regent Department Store for a long time, and the latter has given them a good location. They were also renovated last year, so they can only swallow up a few shopping mall stores that they have not opened and that Chow Fook Chin wants to withdraw from.
There are also two other fast-selling clothing brands, each planning to open two or three stores.
So the stores vacated by Zhou Fujin after his withdrawal were divided among two or three stores, and almost all of them have found buyers.
Although the contract has not been finalized due to the short time, and it is only a verbal intention agreement at present, but honesty is the basis of business, and verbal intentions are also binding.
Wen Yue did not intend to break the contract, so after learning that Fu Wenfang wanted to negotiate a contract extension, she directly asked her assistant to reject the other party.
But Fu Wenfang did not give up after hearing this, and said that even if the contract extension could not be negotiated, she hoped to meet with Wen Yue and apologize to her for what Zhou Jinlong had done before, so that she would not be angry with Zhou Fujin. Even if the contract extension could not be reached this time, she hoped to continue cooperation if there was a chance in the future.
Wen Yue thought of the story of Fu Wenfang's success in seizing power in the original novel, and felt that her words were quite meaningful, so she changed her mind and decided to meet her.
So the next morning, Wen Yue met Fu Wenfang in the office.
Fu Wenfang is one year younger than Zhou Jinlong. She is 42 years old this year, but maybe because she takes good care of herself, or maybe she doesn't look her age, she looks more like she is in her early 30s.
Her facial features are not outstanding, only her nose is a little straight, but the combination is very pleasing to the eye. Her hair is curled and her lips are flaming red, which is very much like the Hong Kong-style beauties in pictorials.
But as soon as she walked into the office, the system in Wen Yue's mind rang - [Ding! There's a melon! ]
[What's going on? ] Wen Yue asked in surprise, Fu Wenfang also has a melon?
Wen Yue asked in her mind but did not stop. She walked around the desk to Fu Wenfang, stretched out her hand and said, "Hello, I'm Wen Yue."
"Hello, Miss Wen, my name is Fu Wenfang, and Zhou Fujin is the current chairman." Fu Wenfang had a smile on her face and spoke in a soft voice at a steady pace. Her overall temperament was very gentle.
This is obviously a superficial appearance. In the original novel, she sent Zhou Jinlong to a mental hospital and succeeded in seizing power. Although this does not mean that she is a bad person, it definitely means that she is a ruthless person.
Wen Yue was a little curious about her gossip, so she did not speak out to stop the system when it spoke: [Her son is not Zhou Jinlong's biological son. ]
[Wow! ]
Although Wen Yue was not used to the behavior of cheating and raising a mistress, she only wanted to say one sentence to the scumbag who was cuckolded and liked to be a father: "Well done!"
and hurriedly asked what was going on.
[In the first two years of Fu Wenfang and Zhou Jinlong's marriage, their relationship was actually good. Except for the mother-in-law urging them to have a baby, there was not much unhappiness in their marriage. But in the third year, Zhou Jinlong changed. He started having an affair with a female employee in the store. Later, he had more and more lovers and stayed away from home more and more. He had some health problems and rarely went home. Fu Wenfang couldn't get pregnant, and her mother-in-law was urging her to have a baby more and more...】
【Then Fu Wenfang went to find someone else to have a baby? 】
【It didn't happen so quickly. At first, Fu Wenfang placed her hopes on Zhou Jinlong and complained to him, asking him not to just work and spend more time at home. Zhou Jinlong agreed, but soon forgot about it and stayed out all night as usual. Fu Wenfang's mother-in-law saw that she had tried various folk remedies but still had no results. She suspected that she couldn't have children, so she wanted Zhou Jinlong to divorce her and find another one. 】
Wen Yue interrupted and asked: 【Wait! Even if it was a dozen or twenty years ago, Hong Kong medicine should have been very advanced, right? Wouldn't it be clear if Fu Wenfang could have children by going to the hospital? Why was there any doubt? 】
【Zhou Jinlong's mother didn't trust the hospital and firmly believed that the problem was with her daughter-in-law. 】
【Tsk. 】
【Fu Wenfang overheard the conversation between Zhou Jinlong and his mother, and heard his mother say that if they divorced, she would have to leave the house. Zhou Jinlong said that it was not necessary, and if his mother wanted to have a grandson, he could just find another woman to have one. After hearing this, Zhou Jinlong's mother asked him if he had an affair outside, saying that she didn't recognize the son born by the woman outside, and complained about Zhou Jinlong's father, saying that he had found a second wife and had a bastard outside. Zhou Jinlong quickly denied it. His mother believed it, but Fu Wenfang didn't believe it and started to find someone to investigate Zhou Jinlong. 】
【Then what happened? 】
【Then Fu Wenfang knew that Zhou Jinlong was supporting several women at the same time. She was in pain and angry. In addition, Zhou Jinlong's mother forced her to drink those drugs. She decided to take revenge on them and found someone to investigate the situation of Zhou Jinlong's younger brother...】
Wait, this development... Wen Yuechi asked in doubt: 【Fu Wenfang's son, could it be that he is Zhou Jinlong's illegitimate younger brother? 】
【Yes, but Fu Wenfang had another reason to look for Zhou Jinlong's illegitimate brother. 】
【What was the reason? 】
【At that time, paternity testing was already possible, but because the technology was not very mature, there was no blood relationship that could be found out, but if there was a blood relationship, it would not be easy to distinguish. Moreover, Fu Wenfang was worried that if she looked for someone else, the child born would not look like a member of the Zhou family. She secretly met the illegitimate son of the Zhou family. He did not look very much like her, but he looked a lot like Zhou Jinlong's father. If the child born looked like the grandfather, it would be justified. 】
The system continued, 【After Fu Wenfang successfully approached the illegitimate son of the Zhou family, she also found an opportunity to take him to the hospital to donate blood, tested his blood type, and confirmed that it was the same as Zhou Jinlong's, so she decided to have a child with him. 】
Appearance, blood type, paternity test, all the ways to prove the parent-child relationship were considered by Fu Wenfang, and she tried her best to plug the loopholes.
Zhou Jinlong probably never thought that his son was not his biological son until his death.
Wen Yue felt that Fu Wenfang was indeed quite amazing.