Chapter 184: Countdown To Conclusion
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
CBS Headquarters, Europe.
The incident was far more serious than what Li Shaoling could imagine.
“President Li, the Qiao family is serious about making a move!” His assistant somberly said even as he followed him. “They had somehow gotten their hand on our company secrets, and every executive in the company is waiting for you at the meeting!”
Li Shaoling pursed his lips tightly, a rare pensiveness in his eyes.
The doors to the meeting room slowly opened, and he entered to find stockholders and elders arguing away endlessly.
All of them turned by instincts when they felt a breeze, finding Li Shaoling standing day imposingly despite not showing his rage.
“President Li, you’re finally here! What should we do this time?!”
“That’s right, President Li! Who could have leaked our company’s secrets!”
It was eight in the morning when CBS stocks opened punctually as usual, only to fall to a historic low. Their intranet was occupied by the Qiao family as well, following the leak of their organization’s top secrets.
The market value of CBS was falling to a new low by every passing second.
That said, everyone was aware that those top secrets could not be reached by just anyone—it was handled by the president, the vice-president, the board chairman and several major stockholders.
And those people were not that suicidal.
Li Shaoling slowly took the main seat, tapping his long fingers lightly on the table before looking up and calmly said, “I’m hereby announcing a one-work suspension of operations for this company.”
“What?!”
The stockholders blew up.
“President Li, this is the critical moment, but you would have the company freeze up?!”
“Aren’t you just fooling around!?”
Li Shaoling smiled. “Perhaps this table would only be satisfied when this company goes bankrupt?”
Every stockholder traded glances in response, unable to say a thing right then.
Meanwhile, Li Shaoling continued succinctly, each word ever imposing. “Within this week, I’ll get the mole and settle things.”
The meeting room was silent, all of them thinking who the mole could be even as they harbored their own motives.
After the meeting was dismissed, the meeting room became empty immediately.
Beside Li Shaoling, his assistant asked. “Why aren’t you leaving, President Li?”
His eyes were closed in rest. “You can go.”
He was waiting for someone.
One particular person who would appear… and at the most appropriate timing.
Then, just as the meeting room was closed, it was opened again—the assistant had returned, exclaiming urgently as he ran up to Li Shaoling. “Oh no, President Li! The Qiao family has this place surrounded!”
Li Shaoling opened his eyes a little, but his gaze was unruffled as if he had already expected that to happen. “You can go.”
The assistant was dumbfounded. “President Li?! The Qiao family are going wild, but you are being like this…”
Li Shaoling’s voiced turned ice-cold immediately. “Get out!”
The assistant was seething in indignation, but despite looking like he had more to say, he eventually left again with a snort.
Lifting his wristwatch to check the time, Li Shaoling saw that there was just a minute left.
Then, someone outside the door shouted ‘second young master’, and soon, Li Shaogan was wheeling himself into the meeting room, accompanied by a group of people.
It appears that Li Shaogan had dressed up specially for today: trimmed short black hair, body-hugging suit. His lips were curled upwards in a smile beneath his evilly charming gaze, radiating a masculine wildness.
“Brother, what are you doing here alone?”
Li Shaoling looked up lazily. “Waiting for you.”
“Waiting for me?” Li Shaogan blinked several times. “Did you have to? I was only late to one meeting…”
Pausing, he suddenly began to look upset and pleading. “Brother, please don’t punish me…”
But despite looking upset, his tone and expression were threatening.
Li Shaoling rose from the main seat and slowly walked up to him. “Your acting is too clumsy.”
Li Shaogan looked up at him, bemused.
“You are the one who leaked those secrets to the Qiao family, just as you are the one who sent those people outside the building.” Li Shaoling sounded very sure.
However, Li Shaogan did not look guilty despite being exposed, and nodded honestly instead. “Yes, it was me.”
“Tell me why.”
Why you would betray your own family.
Li Shaogan’s pleading look a moment ago had turned to one of jealousy in the second he was exposed, and he reverted to his usual form.
“Why?” He mocked. “Don’t you get it, Li Shaoling?!”
“Because I want you to fall!”
Li Shaoling was unsurprised; he was sneering instead. “You destroyed all of CBS just to have me fall. Could you face the Li family?”
“Don’t talk to me about family!” Li Shaogan had instantly burst out in agitation, unable to stop himself as he roared. “I’ve given so much, but how did they repay me! They call me a cripple! Hahaha, cripple! Everyone called me that! Even Grandmother didn’t care about me anymore, and gave you everything that was once mine!”
“And by what right!? You are a bastard who no one wants to see! By what right did you take what’s mine! Li Shaoling, your very position now was supposed to be mine!”
Li Shaogan continued in his rage, with crimson circles appearing around his eyes.
In comparison, Li Shaoling was simply indifferent.
He lowered his gaze to Li Shaogan’s feet then and neutrally said, “You can stand up now.”
Li Shaogan was only surprised very so slightly before he rose to his feet.
He looked like a healthy man now, and not a paraplegic.
“Since when did you know?”
“The third year of your ‘crippling’.” Li Shaoling played things down.
Li Shaogan’s eyes tightened. He was shocked not because Li Shaoling had known the truth for years, but that he clearly knew and yet did not reveal it.
Soon, however, that faint stir degenerated too.
Was Li Shaoling taking pity of him and feeling compassion that he did not expose the truth!?
Meanwhile, Li Shaoling was looking at him impassively. “By the way, you could have taken away all that I have right now without sacrificing the entire company.”
That was too much of an overkill.
Li Shaogan sneered. “Did you think I care about the Li family? When everyone started looking sympathetically at me, I am no longer a Li! All that I’ve done today is only to bring you down!”
Li Shaoling chuckled softly, although his laugh did not quite reach his eyes. “Congratulations, you’ve succeeded.”
He was so untroubled it was as if everything did not matter to him, but his noble aloofness and disdain finally pushed Li Shaogan over the brink.
Catching Li Shaoling’s collar with one grasp and forcing up the wall, Li Shaogan growled as a fierceness erupted right out of his eyes. “This look of yours disgust me the most! The truth is you must be very afraid, because your years of hard work is going to waste in the blink of an eye! Did you ever expect me to this? I myself didn’t, but all of you are the ones who forced me!”
Be that as it may, Li Shaoling was still unruffled and unsurprised as he stared back into Li Shaogan’s eyes just like an android.
He suddenly started chuckling quietly after half a beat in mocking and pity.
“Did you know why Grandmother would hand over all of CBS to me?”
“Even if the doctors had said there is almost no chance for you to stand again, she had faith that you would recover. That’s why she had me take your place in the years you were recovering, and she would wait until you could stand again to kick me out.”
To put it in a nutshell, Li Shaoling was a mere chess piece to Li Shaogan, a substitute.
The only problem was that the chess piece gradually became difficult to control until every person learned to fear it.