To Love You Again - zChapter 741
The man who spoke seemed to have the tongue of a prophet. In a few days, just right after the minor families were purged by the legendary families, several consecutive scandals were released in the news internationally.
The headquarters of the Lu Empire was in chaos.
Old Lu gathered all of the members of the board to face the current matters at hand. Lu Yin Ze insisted on coming. This was a huge setback in the empire. He needed to be present.
The conference room was lively.
“Headmaster, is it true that the branch in the North had done those dealings before?!”
“Headmaster, the overseas business was seized by the country’s government. The whistleblower had a full list of evidence!”
“Headmaster, we received huge blows everywhere! The spies have clearly done all these!”
The cries and panicked remarks of the directors filled the whole room.
Lu Yin Ze had a grim face. He wanted these people to shut up and give his grandfather a breather. They all dared to complain to his grandfather, when all these mistakes were done under their watch. How come the spies got into the empire so easily? It was because these people were too lax.
Old Lu had a cold face. His ears were ringing by the whining of these people.
With annoyance, he hit his cane loudly on the table.
Bam!
Hushed.
The people in the room unconsciously shut their mouths.
Old Lu: “You are like children whining that your toys got taken away.”
“…Headmaster, the blow we received from those spies are not little. The whole empire is in danger! The government will come for us and seize everything under the name of investigation!”
“If the empire is not able to escape this predicament, we will suffer a huge loss. Not to say, we do not know for how long they will hold us back!”
Another director also could not hold on anymore and spoke of his concern. “If this continues, it will be hard for us to get back on our feet! The Lu family’s prestige and our Lu Empire will fall to the bottom!”
The situation that the Lu Empire was having right now was the same as when the Guan family faced the traitorous actions of Gunan.
The blow that the Lu Empire received from the actions of the corporate spies was too great. Since many of their ȧssets have to be surrendered under the investigation. The business has to stop too for who knows how long.
Old Lu was filled with cold killing intent.
Ming Zhi Yi was really too capable. He had already expected that there were spies among his people. He had managed to get a few of them in the past weeks, but there were still the others who hid too deeply. And their positions must be quite high, too.
Old Lu felt his head ache. His heart was heavy.
Those people….
The spies who had caused this blow were all once hard-working and long-time employees that he trusted.
How come… that man easily bought them!
Old Lu looked at the panicked faces of the directors and shareholders at this table.
Now, he still did not know if there were more of Ming Zhi Yi’s people among them.
Old Lu held his aching head.
His dear grandson’s position was not stable yet. If there were Ming Zhi Yi’s henchmen in this table and they supported Lu Jin to become the successor, then this Lu Empire was truly done for.
“Grandpa…” Lu Yin Ze saw that his grandfather was holding his head. His grandfather must be having a headache right now.
Lu Yin Ze helped him sit down. “Grandpa, you are still not feeling well. Please return to the mansion and rest. I will handle the rest.”
Old Lu shook his head.
The Lu family had gone through many chaotic times. Ming Zhi Yi, that bastard, would not be able to bring them down with just something like this.
“No. I need to be here. Or else, these people will find fault instead.”
Lu Yin Ze’s silver-blue eyes were filled with worries. He wished that he could explain to his grandfather right now that having these consecutive setbacks was necessary.
Yet, the Lu Empire was filled with spies. Lu Yin Ze was forbidden from saying any of the plans to his grandfather for fear of the spies overhearing them. And since this process was a part of their plan too.
This painful procedure that they were facing right now was part of their grand plots to counter Ming Zhi Yi.
Lu Yin Ze closed his eyes and controlled his emotions.
He had already promised. For his family’s and friends’ sake, he promised to Xiong Zhi that no matter how hard the time would become, he would never be impatient and disrupt the plan.
Lu Yin Ze opened his eyes. There was a firm look in them.
All he needed to do was to trust Xiong Zhi and his allies, and wait.
…
It was not only the Lu family who suffered a major blow from the whistleblower’s appearance. The Tang family suffered too, although the losses were not as much as the Lu’s.
Tang Xinyang returned home from a long overseas trip. She was on an important business trip in Country F when she received news about the corporate scandal currently happening in their family business.
Now, these mistakes came out to bite them.
In the mansion, Tang Xinyang looked for her grandmother, but found Tang Yin instead.
“Where is Grandma? I heard the news. Can we handle this well?”
Tang Yin usually quarrelled with her older sister as a greeting, but the situation was very tense right now so she answered Tang Xinyang straightforwardly. “Grandma went to the office. One of our uncles really did bad. We have no choice but to shut down one of our major subsidiaries overseas.”
(A/n: The uncle mentioned here is not an immediate Tang family member, but a distant relative that carries a Tang surname. )
Tang Xinyang frowned.
So all the news was true.
She turned around to get her driver ready. She needed to go to the office as soon as possible.
“Wait, sister, are you going to the company?” Tang Yin hurriedly ran after her sister.
“Yes, I need to help with the company matters. Grandma must be having a hard time. The blame will surely be pinned on her, because it was her who ȧssigned uncle to become the head of that subsidiary.”
“I will come with you.”
“No. You stay here.” Tang Xinyang did not look back anymore.
As the successor, she must be there.
Tang Yin watched her sister’s back.
She was not that worried about their family’s business, because she knew something that her grandmother and her sister did not know about. However, she worried that they would suffer greatly from this pressure.
But Tang Yin must hold herself back.
This was a process that needed to happen.
Her sister Tang Xinyang was someone who was not good at hiding her emotions. If she knew about their secret, her unusual behavior might give them away.
….
On the third floor of the East Wing of the Xiong mansion, Xiong Zhi was wearing her nightgown while watching the sensational conspiracies in the news about the sudden fall of the four empires of the country from grace.
Among the four great families, the one who took the greatest blow in the current turbulence was the Lu family.
Not only several of their secondary branches were in scandals, but even their main headquarters was under government inspection due to several allegations against them. It was likely that some of the company ȧssets would be seized by the government for an indefinite period of time.
It was futile even if the Lu Headmaster used his connections, because this scandal was at such a large scale involving several major corporate groups that the government could not turn a blind eye to it.
The Tang Empire also had to close one of their major subsidiary companies overseas. A handful of their people, involving distant relatives, had to be punished by the law. Their reputation and credibility fell by a considerable margin.
The Guan family was fortunately spared from this large losses due to all the previous dirty laundry getting aired in advance and was afterwards proved to be the impostor’s doing. Still, as several of their existing projects and investments were affiliated with the affected families, they suffered a few damages.
Out of the four families, the Xiong family received the least blow from this.
Xiong Zhi turned off the television in her room and walked to the balcony. She opened the window and let the cold breeze sweep past her hair and nightgown.
She did not plan to stay long in the cold, lest she get sick. But she needed the cold air of the night to cool her head.
Ming Zhi Yi was finally harvesting what he had patiently planted for more than a decade. His spies’ information repertoire was now unleashed. His counterattack against the four families was very effective.
Now then, what would he do next?
….