Chapter Eighty-Four: Choosing to Let Go

The Great Steward, Lin Jian, was truly stunned this time. He had imagined it, yet never dared to imagine it fully; now the truth stood right before him. The boss had said it himself: abandon Meihua. Give it up.

Seeing his shock, Xiao Tianci instead felt oddly relieved, because it proved at least that telling him this decision had been the right thing to do. His feelings for Meihua might not have been as deep as Lin Jian’s, but Xiao Tianci knew that when the time came, even if Meihua had been built entirely by his own hands, he would still relinquish it. Sometimes to let go was to grasp something greater.

Though the Great Steward said nothing, his whole spirit seemed to fade. Xiao Tianci could not bear it and said, “I have not made this decision for long, but I believe it is the right one. If Father were still alive, he would have done the same. In fact, because he already did it once, I am even more certain that letting go of Meihua is the correct choice.”

Lin Jian looked up at the boss, puzzled. “Boss, you mean the master...”

Xiao Tianci nodded. “Think it through carefully. Back then, Father completely handed over Meihua’s management rights and stepped back, so far that even the fact that the Xiao family founded Meihua, that the Xiao family was Meihua’s true owner, became a secret only the upper circles knew—a secret that was not quite a secret.”

Yes. Lin Jian’s mind suddenly cleared. Just now they had been talking about reaching an agreement. The true purpose of that agreement had actually been to force the master to retreat. So that was it.

“Ha. Now you understand, don’t you? All right, I’m going to check on little Meg first. You keep your eye on the situation. Keep smashing, keep dumping it, and smash it until Will and the others can no longer take it. Then we’ll give them the fatal blow.”

“No way. Impossible...” Will stared at the screen. In less than an hour, their cash had nearly run out, while the other side was still dumping relentlessly.

He immediately called the bank again to secure more support, but he knew that if this continued, he would be unable to absorb it as well. Still, there was one good thing: at this pace, the shares would soon pass into Xiao Tianci’s hands, and then he could move to acquire Meihua. By then, he would kick that brat, Xiao Tianci, clean out of the game.

On the roof of a building far from the hospital, two people were bored out of their minds, yawning and looking half asleep.

“How long are they going to keep talking...”

The elder brother, whose beard had grown a little longer lately, was slightly more patient, but he too was nearing his limit. He yawned and said, “How should I know? Good heavens, over there they’re fighting over stocks! Stocks are something with a very high risk factor, and he’s still over here telling stories... I’m about to fall asleep...”

“That damn brat... he’s just a damn brat. When all this is over, I’m definitely going to teach him a lesson for his father’s sake. That Xiao kid... nothing but trouble... what’s he telling stories for? Hmph, no good—I’m sleeping first.”

“Don’t you dare. Get up. I’m so smart my beard has even grown longer and I still haven’t slept—what right do you have to sleep?”

“Hmph, that only proves I’m smarter than you...”

“What? You say you’re smarter than me? Today we’ll settle it with our fists and see who’s smarter.”

As soon as he finished, he scratched his beard and frowned. “Wait—can you really tell who’s smarter by comparing fists?”

“Hmph... huff... hmph... snore... hmph...”

Xiao Tianci gently pried open little Meg’s tiny hand, which was clutching the corner of his clothes. She was small, but her grip was astonishingly tight. After more than two hours, he had finally lulled her to sleep. She was much better now and could even get out of bed and walk around, but there was one thing that had not changed: if Xiao Tianci did not coax her, she absolutely refused to sleep.

Looking at her adorable face, Xiao Tianci tucked the blanket around her again with great care before quietly stepping out. As soon as he left, he saw Lin Jian waiting outside.

When he saw Xiao Tianci come out, Lin Jian hurriedly said, “Boss, we’ve already dumped all the stock we were snatching from Will.”

“Good. Go tell Zhou Ao and Xu Guowei right away to contact the media and say that I have something important to announce.”

As he spoke, Xiao Tianci thought to himself that there was no need to say he had something important to announce at all. As soon as he appeared, the reporters would probably go mad. The trouble now was that he could not sell his own shares. What a pity. Otherwise he could have smashed Will to death right then and there. For now, he could only hope for the future.

After all, I promised my wife I’d be a proper spendthrift. I can’t sell stock, so I might as well crash it into worthlessness... Heh. That counts as fulfilling my promise to my wife. A man must never break his word to the woman he loves. As for the future, that will depend on my own ability.

You think I’ll just jump off the cliff for you to watch? Keep dreaming. First I’ll drag you down with me as a cushion.

Hmph. Sooner or later I’ll find out exactly what sort of treaty it was back then. In recent years, Country M has only become more and more arrogant. Hmph, they’ve been the world’s number one power for over a hundred years; they must have had a hand in that old matter. Fine—none of them will get away. I’ll drag them all in and play this game together.

During this period, Zhou Ao was nearly driven mad. Xiao Tianci had hidden himself away and left him out in the open. Anything that happened outside came to him, yet what he actually knew was limited. He was made to look bad on all sides, and even his father could only shake his head helplessly. In the end, he had to go personally to each person, one by one, and explain everything.

Although only a few days had passed, much preliminary work on the desert villa had already been completed under Xiao Tianci’s pressure. Their relationship with the national government had always been good, but this time the matter had come on too suddenly. The land they wanted to buy was desert, yes, but it was enormous, and more importantly, there was Xiao Tianci’s damned order: everything had to be negotiated within a fixed number of days. Matters like this normally took half a year to a year to settle, because whoever grew anxious would be the one to suffer.

This time, the Meihua Group was spending without restraint. The money used merely to purchase land alone would have been enough to fund desertification control, education, and water conservancy projects across several surrounding provinces. Zhou Ao was Chinese, and Xiao Tianci had grown up in Country Z, so he could not understand why Xiao Tianci cared so little about money yet insisted that the contract state clearly that this sum could only be used for desertification control, education, and water conservancy in the surrounding provinces and cities.

Perhaps it was a disguised form of donation.

Other large seawater desalination plants had also begun inspections and preparations for construction, along with various other projects. Because of Xiao Tianci’s sudden takeover of Meihua, all of this had already become Meihua’s foremost project.

Still, today Xiao Tianci’s behavior was rather strange. Why had he dumped all the stock in his hands? Will still did not hold more shares than he did. But once the other major shareholders of the company were counted, including the shares held by Will’s own family, they would already have enough to kick him out and seize true control of Meihua. What exactly was he thinking?

Will should be coming to see him and his father soon. What should he do then?

His father had always said to remain neutral, but now the time had come when a choice had to be made. What would his father decide? Should he speak to him first?

Just then, the private phone rang. Pulling himself from his thoughts, Zhou Ao picked it up and glanced at it. It was Lin Jian, the Great Steward.

“Heh... yes? Great Steward, what may I do for you?”

There was a sudden jolt, and Zhou Ao sprang up from his chair. “What? Another press conference?”

Heavens. Zhou Ao felt as though his head might explode. Again? Another press conference? The last shock had not even died down yet, and now there was more trouble to stir up. Could it be that Xiao Tianci had dumped the stock because he had some secret trump card guaranteeing absolute control? If so, then he had better tell his father first. He could not rashly promise anything to Will; he needed to see the situation clearly before saying more.

In an instant his thoughts shifted, and Zhou Ao quickly masked his失态. “Ah... Great Steward, my apologies. There have been so many things lately that, as you know, I’m practically at my breaking point.”

“Mm. The boss wants me to inform you: contact all the media immediately today, and hold a press conference in the hospital courtyard tomorrow.”

“Understood, no problem. I’ll arrange it right away.”

After hanging up, Zhou Ao stared at the phone and could already picture Lin Jian’s face. The man really was strange. Such a handsome man, and yet he was like a block of wood. When he spoke, he sounded like a machine. Compared with him, his own family’s steward fell far short. His father had been much the same in the past. The Xiao family was truly abnormal—even their Great Steward was this abnormal.

Only the Xiao family could train a person into that sort of shape.

Thinking back to his previous visits to the Xiao household, he could not help but sigh. There really was no comparison. Both were great clans, yet the Xiao family was indeed the strongest. Even in matters of servants, drivers, and bodyguards, they did everything better. Any one person they pulled out was absolutely a model in the industry.

Zhou Ao patted his head. What was he thinking? Right now, he had better call his father and inform him of this news first, then see what should be done. Sigh. The only thing he did not know was what kind of earth-shattering, death-defying stunt Xiao Tianci would pull at this press conference.