Chapter 7

Before Shen Jingze could take over, my father’s due-diligence team had already completed every step. All that remained was for Shen Jingze to present the final report at a board meeting and secure approval.

At the board meeting in mid-October, I sat in the seat just below the chairperson’s, with the team I had built over the years behind me.

Shen Jingze sat at the far end of the long table. His dark gray suit was immaculate, and he looked full of confidence.

He began presenting the project. His delivery was smooth, his language polished, and his PowerPoint deck was flashy enough to make your eyes hurt. The shareholders in attendance kept nodding along.

My father sat at the head of the table, smugness written all over his face.

When Shen Jingze finished, a smattering of applause broke out.

My father cleared his throat and was about to deliver his closing remarks when I raised a hand.

“I have a few questions.”

Everyone turned to look at me.

Shen Jingze’s smile stiffened for an instant, but he quickly recovered and put on a polite expression.

“Go ahead, President Shen.”

I stood and walked over to the screen, circling several understated figures in the financial report with a laser pointer.

“You say this company had revenue of three hundred million last year and a net profit of fifty million.”

“But according to the data I obtained, its actual revenue last year was just over one hundred million, and it had a net loss of more than twenty million. These books have been cooked to make the numbers balance.”

Shen Jingze could no longer keep smiling.

“That’s impossible. The due-diligence team verified it!”

“What did they verify? Did they check the company owner’s offshore accounts?”

I cut him off and switched to another page of data.

“Mr. Zhang has gambled away nearly forty million at casinos in Southeast Asia and the United States over the past three years. To cover the losses, he has already mortgaged several of the company’s core patents. The company you’re trying to acquire is nothing but an empty shell.”

The room fell utterly silent.

A few shareholders leaned together and whispered. Some flipped through the documents they had brought to compare the figures, their expressions growing grimmer by the second.

My father sat upright at the head of the table, his brows knotted tightly.

Shen Jingze flushed red. His lips quivered. Then he shot to his feet and slammed a hand on the table.

“Shen Xiangyi, you’re slandering me! Where did you get this data? You’re deliberately sabotaging me!”

I turned to him, my tone calm.

“You don’t need to worry about the source. I’ve already had someone send the data to all the shareholders’ inboxes. Feel free to check it for yourselves. And as for sabotaging you… Special Assistant Shen, do I really need to? You’re the one who ruined this project with your own hands.”

After the board meeting adjourned, Shen Jingze slunk away with a dark face.

My father sat in the conference room for a long time, looking ashen.

The project had collapsed. Five hundred million in capital had nearly gone down the drain, and the board’s confidence in the father-and-son duo had plunged to rock bottom.

Around the company, people started calling Shen Jingze “the family’s ruin.” Wherever he went, he heard whispers.

He held it in for three days, but in the end, he couldn’t take it anymore.

That evening, I was in my office organizing project files when the door was suddenly shoved open.

Shen Jingze stormed in, murder in his eyes.

He strode to my desk and raised a hand to sweep my laptop to the floor.

I didn’t move from my chair. I reached over and pressed a button in the corner of the desk. The security camera in the ceiling blinked red and gave a quiet beep.

“Go ahead,” I said with a laugh. “If you’ve got the guts, smash it. This project is worth fifty million, and the penalty for breach of contract is ten times that. You break it, you pay for it!”

Shen Jingze’s hand stopped in midair.

The veins stood out on the back of his hand and ran up his neck.

His chest heaved. His teeth ground together, but in the end, he didn’t dare bring his hand down.

Instead, he spun around, slammed the door, and left.

I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes.

Early the next morning, my phone suddenly rang.

The moment I answered, my assistant blurted out in a panic,

“President Shen! President Shen, look at the news! Something happened to Shen Jingze!”

Apparently, after leaving the office the day before, Shen Jingze had taken his supercar out to race on the overpass. Traffic police had stopped him twice, but he ignored them both times.

In the end, he lost control while speeding and slammed into a heavy truck. He was badly injured and rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.

By the time I arrived at the hospital, Shen Jingze’s injuries were so severe that although his life had been saved, both his legs had been amputated.

My father sat outside the ward, burying his face in his hands as he wept in devastation.

I neither approached him nor left.