How do you tell if someone is wealthy?
Take Second Madam Du for example – even though she was going through hard times, she was still like a camel that remained larger than a horse even when starved. Her clothing and accessories still met the standards of a wealthy family’s madam, obviously showing her wealth.
Xiao Lan didn’t care much about such things.
Her philosophy of treating herself well within her means wasn’t about pursuing designer brands and jewelry. For food, clothing, and housing, she focused on eating healthily, living comfortably, and wearing clothes that were stylish and comfortable – did it matter if they were designer fashion?
She was a women’s clothing brand founder, so she wore Luna when she could.
Luna was positioned as a mid-range women’s brand on the mainland.
A coat cost several dozen yuan. Given mainland salary levels, one had to think carefully about buying a piece of clothing.
But compared to Second Madam Du’s consumption level, how could she take seriously clothes that only cost dozens of yuan in Chinese currency?
Naturally, Second Madam Du was the one who looked wealthy.
Second Madam Du was the one who appeared not to need a million US dollars.
As for Xiao Lan, her entire outfit combined hardly looked like that of a wealthy person.
However, both Second Madam Du and Zhu Suizhou knew appearances could be deceiving… Xiao Lan truly didn’t need that million US dollars! A million US dollars converted to Hong Kong dollars wasn’t even 10 million.
Xiao Lan had previously made hundreds of millions during the Hong Kong stock market crash, earning herself the title of ‘Hong Kong’s Goddess of Stocks’ from the Hong Kong media!
Thinking of this, Second Madam Du’s expression changed:
“What exactly do you want? Isn’t making a million US dollars good enough? Must you force people into desperate situations? You’re so young, yet you’re so—”
Second Madam Du wanted to say Xiao Lan was too ruthless, but when Xiao Lan stared at her with her smile gone, Second Madam Du swallowed the rest of her words.
Ultimately, Second Madam Du lacked confidence.
If she were like Yu Shihua, a powerful businesswoman who had fought her way through the business world, normal business competition would be simple – if negotiations worked, great; if not, try another approach. Why fear Xiao Lan?
Unfortunately, Second Madam Du was just a pampered noble lady who had been sheltered for years.
When it came to understanding jewelry, clothing, or even art exhibitions and charity galas, Second Madam Du could speak expertly.
But business matters were completely foreign to her.
Now she was forcing herself to come out and save the situation, even fearing direct confrontation with Xiao Lan, preferring to pay a premium to buy out Xiao Lan’s Asia Department Store shares.
Others might respect her title as Du Chengrong’s Second Madam, but Xiao Lan wouldn’t fear her.
Because Xiao Lan understood the Du family’s current situation – this so-called Second Madam was now a toothless tiger, still having some money but no power… Thinking of all the hardships after her son’s imprisonment, including how she had humiliated herself by threatening to jump from a building in front of all Hong Kong media to pressure Du Zhaozhui, Second Madam Du’s eyes reddened, nearly bursting into tears on the spot.
This caught Xiao Lan off guard.
When Second Madam Du maintained her high-handed attitude, Xiao Lan naturally didn’t give an inch, but seeing her almost crying made Xiao Lan somewhat uncomfortable.
Huh?
Had she become such a frightening villain?
Second Madam Du thought for a moment, held back her tears, and asked everyone to leave, including Zhu Suizhou.
“I want to speak with Miss Xia alone!”
Bai Zhenzhu wouldn’t follow Second Madam Du’s orders and remained firmly in the room, and Second Madam Du could do nothing about it.
When only the three of them remained, Second Madam Du looked at Xiao Lan with reddened eyes:
“You and Du Zhaozhui have taken the bulk of the Du family assets, and Mr. Du now manages nothing and won’t see any family members – you must have him under house arrest… Winners write history, I accept all that, but do you and Du Zhaozhui need to utterly destroy us?”
Where did this come from?
Xiao Lan was completely baffled.
Honestly, she was quite surprised that Du Zhaozhui hadn’t yet moved against the Du family’s Second and Third Houses.
After all, Du Zhaozhui deeply despised the Du family members… Perhaps now that victory was assured, he had finally learned restraint? After all, Fifth Madam Xia Ziyu had been dealt with personally by Du Chengrong, Fourth Madam Liu Keying, and Liu Tianquan were dead, and the most threatening member of the Second House, Du Zhaoqi, was in prison. The remaining Second Madam, Third Madam, and others posed no threat, so Du Zhaozhui wasn’t in a hurry to eliminate them.
Though she didn’t know Du Zhaozhui’s thoughts, he had at least given the Second and Third Houses room to breathe.
Few people could turn the tide when at a disadvantage. If they couldn’t, they should minimize losses – Second Madam Du’s move to consolidate Du Zhaoqi’s businesses was a good step.
But in business, there are no permanent enemies, only common interests.
At this time, instead of trying to win her over, they wanted to force her out of Asia – wasn’t that foolish?
If Xiao Lan remained an Asia shareholder, she definitely wouldn’t let Asia become an abandoned project. That 1.5 million US dollars was borrowed from Xu Zhongyi – it needed to be repaid!
Not needing 1.5 million US dollars didn’t mean Xiao Lan would throw the money away.
So she remained an Asia Department Store shareholder, and Du Zhaozhui wouldn’t touch the Asia Department Store. They didn’t even need to discuss this issue – they had that much tacit understanding.
Second Madam Du coming to Qiong Island to buy her shares showed distrust and wariness, and was also a very stupid move—
She had been arrogant earlier, but now acted pitiful – what kind of act was this?!
“Second Madam, I don’t understand every detail of your Du family’s grudges. If Du Zhaozhui wants to destroy you completely, isn’t that because you all went too far in ganging up to bully him? You can’t expect him to be magnanimous and forgive you just because he was lucky enough to survive several times through good fortune, can you?”
At most, he would take their money and prevent them from inheriting much.
Du Zhaozhui wasn’t so grief-stricken as to want to kill all the Du family members.
It wasn’t that Du Zhaozhui was kind – he valued his blessings. Wasn’t it better to be the impressive young Chairman Du than to become a murderer? Why bother?
There were other ways to get revenge besides killing everyone – seeing enemies living miserably was also a continuous source of satisfaction!
“What did I have to do with his brushes with death? I just didn’t want him to inherit the Du family, I wanted Zhaoqi to be the heir. My son was both smart and well-behaved, while Du Zhaozhui was incompetent. I—”
Second Madam Du was full of grievances, but Xiao Lan had no patience to listen:
“You may not have acted yourself, but would you dare swear you didn’t stand by coldly or even help push things along? If the Second Madam thinks your current life is too comfortable, why not think about Fourth Madam Liu Keying’s fate? A loss is a loss – you once fought and grabbed desperately, but now the victor takes all, and the losers must bare their necks for the winner’s judgment! Let’s set aside your grudge against Du Zhaozhui for now and resolve the Asia Department Store matter first. I have a question – when Du Zhaoqi transferred his Chaoyang Real Estate shares to you, did he also instruct you to buy my shares and force me out of Asia?!”
Was Second Madam Du this stupid, and did Du Zhaoqi think the same way?
Xiao Lan didn’t believe it.
Du Zhaoqi might have had bad luck and been sabotaged by his own father Du Chengrong, but when it came to intelligence, Du Zhaoqi wasn’t foolish.
Xiao Lan’s direct question to the key point left Second Madam Du stunned.
“…Zhaoqi never said anything like that.”
Second Madam Du was quite confused.
Only after Zhaoqi received his suspended death sentence and the case was settled was she allowed to see him once.
There was also a lawyer present at the time, and Zhaoqi transferred the Chaoyang Real Estate shares to her on the spot. The visitation time was extremely short, and Zhaoqi couldn’t say much – he only asked about the current Du family situation and told her to maintain business as usual.