“You’re right, and then what?” Liu Yong had been drinking during dinner, and the alcohol had gone to his head, making his face and neck red. “Then what? There are only two of us left in the Liu family. How could I compete with your business? Xiaolan, an uncle and niece shouldn’t be divided. I had your cousin too late – it’ll be at least ten years before he can help us!”

Xia Xiaolan began to understand.

Uncle felt the Liu family was too small and didn’t want any conflict with her.

Xia Xiaolan was studying architecture and running a real estate company, clearly intending to dive deep into this industry.

If Xia Xiaolan opened one real estate company and Liu Yong opened another, their combined strength would be divided. Liu Yong was determined not to touch Shenzhen’s real estate market. Yuan Hui was making enough money already – following the current development trend, earning a few million a year, wasn’t that enough?

No, her uncle meant more than that. He also mentioned her cousin Liu Zitao, complaining that Liu Zitao was too young.

This was a heartfelt concern!

“Uncle, is it about the Li family…”

Liu Yong hesitated for a moment, and Xia Xiaolan was certain!

It was indeed about the Li family.

This wasn’t just about the first generation of entrepreneurs who started from scratch during the Reform and Opening Up – even thirty years later, family businesses would still face these problems.

One person couldn’t do everything alone. Success requires support from others.

When a boss made money, they often brought in close family members to help with the company.

Brothers, sisters, and even the younger generation were generally more trustworthy.

Sure, there were cases where small favors turned into big grudges, where people showed no gratitude and constantly schemed for more… but compared to strangers, relatives were still the most reliable during the initial stages of business.

Liu Yong’s situation was different from Xia Xiaolan’s. She didn’t use any relatives, instead using Ying Jinchuan and Ge Jian to keep each other in check.

After all, she didn’t need to deal directly with so many frontline workers. A real estate company wasn’t like managing a construction team – they could hire construction companies for projects, and Qihang didn’t have many employees.

Yuan Hui was different. Liu Yong had brought so many workers from his hometown as renovation workers, and he needed people to manage them.

He had to deal with workers.

He needed people to help him manage.

The problem was that the Liu family were outsiders in Qijing Village, and Liu Yong only had two sisters in his generation!

Liu Fen was quite capable now, but she had her stores in Beijing.

Liu Fen’s new husband was even more capable – he wasn’t managing some renovation company, he was managing an entire city’s economy.

If Liu Yong asked, Liu Fang would be more than happy to come help with Liang Bingan, but Liu Yong didn’t trust them! At Liu Yong’s age, others would have sons in their twenties who could help share the burden.

Liu Yong only had one son, Liu Zitao, who was still in elementary school – how could he help?

As for running the business with his wife, Li Fengmei was now managing Luna franchise stores in Shenzhen, but she wasn’t as business-savvy as Liu Fen, clearly lacking ambition.

Without relatives to help, Liu Yong only had Li Dongliang to rely on.

Li Dongliang was loyal, but his abilities weren’t on par with Ge Jian—

So who could help Liu Yong?

Xia Xiaolan finally realized that during her year abroad, the proportion of Li Fengmei’s family members in Yuan Hui had increased significantly.

“Yuan Hui is your company alone!”

Liu Yong laughed sarcastically, “Precisely because it’s my company alone, considering your aunt’s feelings, I gave her family members more consideration. But instead of developing their abilities, it only inflated their expectations… The other day, your aunt tried to suggest giving her family members shares in the company.”

Give the Li family shares?

Had the Li family invested money in the business, or did they have connections, or were they exceptionally capable?

“That’s cra—”

She almost blurted out that it was crazy – why would anyone give the Li family shares?

Remembering these words came from her Aunt Li Fengmei, Xia Xiaolan held her tongue.

But precisely because it came from Li Fengmei, the impact on Liu Yong was even greater.

A husband and wife should be of one mind. Xia Xiaolan knew her uncle wasn’t stingy and didn’t mind supporting his wife’s family.

However, paying Li family members to work was one thing; giving them company shares was another matter entirely.

Yuan Hui was built entirely through Liu Yong’s efforts. How could he possibly give shares to others? He must have already decided that these assets would only be passed down to Liu Zitao.

“This seems too sudden. Did you ask Aunt why she suddenly had this idea?”

It didn’t make sense.

The Aunt Li Fengmei that Xia Xiaolan remembered was quite shrewd.

Li Fengmei was different from Liu Fen. Liu Fen had divorced because Xia Xiaolan pushed and forced her, while Li Fengmei hadn’t had children with her ex-husband for many years, and had divorced and remarried Liu Yong of her own accord because she didn’t want to suffer anymore.

Later, when Lan Fenghuang split up, Li Fengmei didn’t expand her clothing store business, instead investing all the profits into Liu Yong’s business.

She might have lacked personal ambition, but as far as Xia Xiaolan knew, she couldn’t be described as “muddleheaded.”

Family matters were hard to judge, and Liu Yong wouldn’t even tell his sister Liu Fen these things, yet he felt he could tell Xia Xiaolan.

“Remember when you came back last time, and Building 45 at Erqi Square in Shangdu was occupied? Later, Xu Zhongyi helped negotiate cooperation with Chaoyang Real Estate, and Building 45 was demolished to build a shopping mall. Your aunt’s reaction was normal then, but recently the Li family has been using this incident to influence her, talking constantly until they changed her mind.”

She had always been clear-headed before, helping her family was one thing, but she would never give away the family’s significant assets.

But this year’s accounts showed that Liu Yong could earn 4 million yuan through Yuan Hui!

That number was too large.

It exceeded Li Fengmei’s imagination.

Perhaps the Li family members working at Yuan Hui had also been secretly calculating how much Liu Yong could earn.

What did 4 million yuan mean in early 1987?

Even with Jinsha Chi’s expensive housing, 4 million could buy more than twenty small units!

Even if they bought a house for each of Li Fengmei’s siblings, there would still be money left over.

The interesting part was that they didn’t want houses. They probably got the idea from the Building 45 incident, saying that just working for Liu Yong gave them no security, that the family needed to work together to make Yuan Hui better, and bringing up how Liu Zitao was only in elementary school – how would he manage without help from relatives in the future?

Who knows what else they said that touched Li Fengmei’s heart, but they convinced her to start testing Liu Yong’s reaction.

Liu Yong’s ambitions were largely extinguished.

The money he earned – he could let Li Fengmei spend it freely, but not the Li family.

More importantly, Li Fengmei bringing this up showed she had sided with her family.

Liu Yong couldn’t understand. A husband and wife should be closest to each other – was it worth testing him for the sake of her family?

“Your aunt’s thoughts aren’t right anymore. We’ve been through hardships together, and I won’t leave her over this, but I rejected it this time. If she brings it up a second time, a third time… maybe by the hundredth time, I might become confused and agree. I don’t want to do real estate in Shenzhen, I’ll just stick to renovations. This business is less likely to go wrong.”