His mother would be happy and proud if she knew in the afterlife?!

What was there to be happy about?

If the dead truly had consciousness, she’d probably be angry enough to come back to life.

When his mother married and had children, she never imagined her husband would take so many concubines and have a bunch of children with other women to fight over inheritance with her son!

The shares should have been his inheritance by right, yet he had to fight Du Zhaoqi for them.

Du Zhaohui’s face darkened as his mind suddenly cleared – how could he expect the old bastard to suddenly stop being terrible?

Though Du Chengrong saying such things was exactly the sort of scummy behavior Du Zhaohui was familiar with.

Du Zhaohui felt it was time to test his acting skills. His face was red with anger, but he managed to squeeze out some moisture in his eyes to make it seem like he was moved by the recognition.

Du Zhaohui looked at Du Chengrong with filial devotion:

“Father, I was thoughtless before and caused you to worry. From now on, I’ll help share more company duties so you won’t be too tired.”

He wanted to add “If Mother knew in the afterlife, she would surely appreciate your good intentions,” but it was too unconscionable – Du Zhaohui couldn’t say it. The living could be shameless, but disturbing the peace of the dead was wrong. Even if it was just acting, Du Zhaohui didn’t want to mention his deceased mother.

Du Chengrong had no interest in playing along with this display of father-son affection and got straight to business:

“Regarding Chengrong Plaza, the electronics mall is just the beginning. This is a comprehensive large project with plenty of room left for you to develop. Since this is your project, you now have two choices: one is to stay in Peng City and make this project successful; two is I send someone to take over, and you return to Hong Kong to join the company like your brother did before, learning operations from bottom to top in each department, truly integrating into the group… which do you choose?”

No way – he absolutely couldn’t let go of Chengrong Plaza.

Du Zhaohui had long considered Chengrong Plaza his property. Naming it ‘Chengrong’ was to please the old man and increase Chengrong Group’s influence while also increasing his own winning chances.

But incorporating Chengrong Plaza into unified group management? He wouldn’t agree even if they killed him.

While mentally cursing the old bastard, Du Zhaohui asked curiously:

“If I choose the second option, who would you send to take over the plaza?”

“Naturally your brother Zhaoqi. With his abilities, he couldn’t independently develop a project like Chengrong Plaza, but following the existing plans—”

“Enough, no need to say more. I choose the first option!”

Fuck!

Du Zhaohui wanted to curse.

The old man’s thinking was truly unique – giving him 5% shares but wanting to hand Chengrong Plaza to Du Zhaoqi?

Giving him a sweet date then immediately hitting him with a stick.

For Du Zhaoqi, it was getting hit with a stick first, then being given a date to eat.

So just as Xia Xiaolan said, neither he nor Du Zhaoqi had won, because they both got hit with sticks and ate dates, just in a different order!

Du Zhaohui wanted both the 5% shares and Chengrong Plaza. The plaza was his biggest support – even if he completely split from the Du family, with Chengrong Plaza he wouldn’t starve and could live quite well.

Only a fool would let Du Zhaoqi manage it.

If Du Zhaoqi turned his plaza into a mess before returning it, he’d be angry enough to jump off a building.

“I’ll see the entire Chengrong Plaza project through to completion myself. This doesn’t affect your second option either – both things can proceed simultaneously. I’ll just need to travel between both places. It’ll be tiring, but since you think so highly of me, Father, I can handle some hardship. I won’t disappoint you!”

Afraid he couldn’t convince Du Chengrong, Du Zhaohui’s eyes darted as he chuckled: “Even if you wanted Zhaoqi to manage Chengrong Plaza, he might not have time. Is he going to close his factory in Thailand? He also bought Chaoyang Real Estate to develop some Asia malls. I think he’s busier than me!”

Could Zhu Suizhou be more capable than Xia Xiaolan?

Du Zhaohui didn’t believe it at all.

Speaking of this, Du Zhaohui had a flash of inspiration:

“I don’t think Zhaoqi will necessarily accept the result of this competition. Why not set up another wager between us, comparing the prospects of Chengrong Plaza versus Asia Mall, extending our previous competition…”

“One matter and you want to trick me into giving shares twice? Have I been too nice to you lately, making you think I’m going senile?”

Du Chengrong flatly refused.

Du Zhaohui persisted, dawdling and pestering for a long time, but Du Chengrong wouldn’t budge.

Du Zhaohui wasn’t particularly disappointed – you shake the tree three times whether dates fall or not. One tree had already dropped 5% shares; if more dates could fall that would be best, if not, so be it.

As Du Chengrong impatiently tried to send him away, Du Zhaohui suddenly adopted a very humble attitude and apologized:

“Father, I need to be honest with you about something. Before, I was afraid you would favor Zhaoqi since he had Second Madam helping speak for him while I had no mother to help. I was petty and arranged for a woman to be by your side… I swear I had no ill intentions toward you. After much thought, I feel father and son should be honest, so I’m telling you this. You can scold or hit me – I’ll accept it!”

…

As Du Zhaohui expected, separated by a wall, Xia Ziyu was pressed against the door eavesdropping.

She was naturally concerned about what Du Zhaohui would say.

She also eagerly hoped to get more news about Xia Xiaolan from Du Zhaohui’s words. Some things couldn’t be learned through investigation alone – they had to come from the people involved.

Discovering that Du Chengrong didn’t hesitate to call a lawyer and transfer 5% of the group’s shares, Xia Ziyu was annoyed but powerless to stop it.

Even if the entire Du family wanted to stop it, no one had succeeded. Du Zhaoqi was also useless – Xia Ziyu completely couldn’t understand what Du Zhaoqi was thinking.

Hearing Du Chengrong say he wanted Du Zhaoqi to manage Chengrong Plaza, Xia Ziyu felt schadenfreude.

Unfortunately, Du Zhaohui disagreed, and Du Chengrong didn’t insist.

Suddenly, Du Zhaohui changed his tone and voluntarily brought up sending women to Du Chengrong!

This almost made Xia Ziyu cry out in surprise.

How dare Du Zhaohui?

He was completely going off-script.

Xia Ziyu wasn’t afraid of Du Zhaohui exposing her – this was the benefit of confessing early.

But what was Du Zhaohui trying to do by bringing this up?

Xia Ziyu’s heart pounded and she panicked, biting her lip hard to try to stay clear-headed.

She heard Du Chengrong’s laughter.

“You mean Vivi? Zhaohui, did you think there was anything in Hong Kong, in the Du family, that could truly be hidden from me? I’ve known you for a long time, but I’m still very happy you’re willing to be honest with me now. I’m quite satisfied with Vivi personally – you indeed put a lot of thought into this matter.”

Du Chengrong’s words didn’t particularly surprise Du Zhaohui.

There had been a previous incident with Zhang Jiadong.

The Xia Ziyu matter was the second time.

The old man always knew more than he imagined – this was why he still couldn’t openly break with the old bastard.

“…I knew I couldn’t hide it from you. But what do you think about it? I heard this stepmother of mine is already pregnant?”