The door opened all of a sudden, interrupting Jin Liwei’s cold anger.
“It’s not even rush hour yet but why is the traffic already so horrible at this time? I want to know!”
A familiar booming voice made everyone jump up their seats on instinct. Rose Young and her supporters paled, not expecting the arrival of this formidable figure.
Grandpa Lu, or more known to everyone else as Sir Lu Jianhong, the other half of the business genius duo who decades ago founded what was now known as Jin Corporation, entered the meeting room, immediately filling the entire place with his huge force of presence.
“S-sir Lu, good afternoon!”
“Hello, Sir Lu Jianhong!”
The board members’ greetings were disorganized. Xu Tian immediately stepped forward and led the old man to the other head of the table opposite where Jin Liwei was sitting.
Jin Liwei also greeted Grandpa Lu, but unlike the flustered board members, he was very calm. He made eye contact with the old man and saw Grandpa Lu’s slight nod. Without showing any visible change of expression, Jin Liwei allowed himself to relax as he inwardly sighed in relief at the old man’s arrival.
When Grandpa Lu hadn’t arrived yet, Jin Liwei had been ready to face everyone by himself and remind them that his authority shouldn’t be challenged so easily. He was confident of himself but defending what should’ve already been a final decision was, in his opinion, a big waste of time. There were more important things that he could spend his precious time on. For example, spending more quality time with his pregnant wife and doting on her.
Fortunately, Grandpa Lu arrived just in time to take the burden from him. The old man’s status, in addition to his 50% shares, were held in the highest regard by everyone at Jin Corporation. It wasn’t too much of an exaggeration to say that Sir Lu Jianhong’s words were law in the company.
Unlike Jin Liwei’s cold intimidation which made the others shiver in fright earlier, Grandpa Lu looked very friendly, yet he still made the others shake for an entirely different reason. He was retired and rarely interfered in the running of the company but when he did interfere, nobody could challenge him with his 50% ownership of Jin Corporation.
The board of directors had the right to keep the CEO and the way he ran the company in check, but Grandpa Lu had the authority to keep the board itself in check. In short, the board of directors had no power over Grandpa Lu at all.
“Why are you all still standing like a bunch of kindergarteners? Sit down, all of you!” Grandpa Lu was full of smiles as he greeted those he knew, joking with them and making them feel more at ease.
He leaned back on his chair, looking very relaxed as if he just stopped by to watch something interesting. “You don’t mind that this old man is late, do you? Continue with the meeting! What have you talked about so far? I want to know!”
One of the board members, a supporter of Jin Liwei, volunteered to summarize what happened during the meeting so far. He was very thorough and even mentioned the tabloids accusing a jealous Iris Long as the reason why Jin Liwei fired Rose Young from her position as CMO.
Grandpa Lu had someone hand him the tabloids. Nobody said anything as they watched him scan the articles. They couldn’t tell what the old man was thinking just based on his expression alone. He was flipping the pages with one hand while stroking his perfectly groomed white mustache with the other. Then all of a sudden, he crumpled the papers into a ball and threw it accurately to the trash can in the corner.
“Bah! Such garbage belongs to the trash can! Who’s the idiot who brought such useless papers containing utter nonsense? I want to know! This is Jin Corporation where serious businesspeople work, not the streets where you spread gossip! Actually bringing the tabloids to a business meeting and using it as evidence, you sure have guts!”
The person who brought the tabloids was indeed feeling like an idiot right now. He felt ashamed of himself.
Any hint of good nature was now gone from Grandpa Lu’s expression. His sharp eyes landed on Rose Young.
“You are the one President Jin fired?” Even the way he addressed Jin Liwei was formal, showing everyone that he was now serious and meant business.
Rose Young felt her heart shake and her back soak with cold sweat. However, she still forced herself to give the old man a professional smile. “Yes, Sir Lu. My name is Rose Young and I am…I was the Chief Marketing Officer. But due to a misunderstanding, President Jin removed me from my position.”
“Misunderstanding?” Grandpa Lu swept his piercing gaze across the entire room. “I was told that there’s an emergency board of directors meeting which usually means that that company is in serious trouble, so I hurried over here today! But what is this? Where is the serious trouble? I thought that the company I founded with my late brother is going bankrupt or something serious like that, but I arrive here and all I find is just a former executive whining about being fired! Hah, so childish! Why waste people’s time and call for an emergency board of directors meeting? I want to know!”
Rose Young paled even more. She was unable to defend herself because the old man was like a bulldozer knocking everything and everyone out of his way.
“Have you all forgotten that time is money? What are you all doing here wasting your time in this useless board meeting when you could be doing more productive work for the company? This meeting is an utter waste of time! Is this the kind of work that the board of directors are doing now? If you have so much free time to do useless things like this, then you might as well retire like me!”
The board of directors were now shaking in their boots. This was bad!
Grandpa Lu harrumphed. “It seems like it’s time to elect new members to replace the unfit ones in the board of directors.”
No, this wasn’t just bad. This was a disaster!
