Return to 88: Starting from Marrying My Sister-in-law

Glass shards and spilled tea littered the carpet, the glaring water stains spreading into dark marks, much like Jiang Wanli's shattered dignity at that moment.

He was pinned to the cold mahogany edge of the conference table by two bodyguards in black. His arms were twisted from the violent struggle. The once high-spirited president now had bloodshot eyes like a trapped beast, and a hoarse, incoherent roar came from his throat.

"The Li family... they're despicable! My two hundred million! Ah—!"

The sound, distorted by extreme anger and despair, echoed in the empty conference room, causing the ceiling lights to tremble slightly.

Li Zekai stood a few steps away, his face ashen. His expensive suit jacket had a crooked tear in the front, and a delicate button had been blown off somewhere.

With trembling hands, he straightened his disheveled collar, his eyes sweeping over the out-of-control Jiang Wanli with cold disgust, as if he were looking at a pile of nauseating garbage.

The sudden, unexpected punch grazed his cheekbone, and the burning pain seared his reason like a branding iron.

"madman!"

Li Zekai gritted his teeth and squeezed out two words.

"Let him go? Let him pounce on me again?"

These words were spoken to Jiang Wanli's assistant, who rushed in upon hearing the commotion, and another Wan Yan executive who tried to intervene.

Upon meeting Li Zekai's murderous eyes, the latter immediately withdrew his hand in fear, his face filled with nothing but terror.

Jiang Wanli was still struggling in vain, repeatedly muttering "impossible," "Sun Yansheng betrayed me," and "two hundred million US dollars."

The betrayal of his former business partner was like poison; the two hundred million that was within his grasp was lost in an instant, completely corrupting his reason.

But the security guards' strong restraint left him unable to move, only his shoulders heaving from heavy breathing.

Li Zekai completely lost his patience. He no longer looked at his already defeated opponent and coldly ordered his assistant, "Contact the airport and book tickets immediately. This man has gone mad. There's no time to wait for him to come to his senses. We must fly to Beijing immediately. We must take over the remaining major VCD manufacturers before Lu Yang of Century Group returns to the mainland from North America and expand our market share."

The assistant nodded quickly: "Yes, Mr. Li, I'll arrange it right away..."

Li Zekai's gaze shifted to the somber nightscape of Xingcheng outside the floor-to-ceiling window. The humiliation he suffered at the banquet in Hong Kong, and the kidnapping case a few days ago, seemed like dark clouds about to descend upon him.

"It's raining."

He muttered to himself, then turned and left the conference room.

About 5 minutes later.

Once they were sure the boss had left and that there was enough safe distance, the two men in black suits, wearing earpieces and walkie-talkies, finally released Li Wanli, who had been struggling relentlessly as they pressed him against the cold conference table.

"Be honest. Just now, you dared to lay a hand on Young Master Li. We should have dislocated your arm, but considering that you are a person of status and have the potential to become a client of our company, we let you off the hook. Don't come after us again, or we will not be polite to you."

The two burly men in black suits, whose true identities were members of a well-known security company in Hong Kong, released Jiang Wanli after he was subdued. They then gave him a stern warning before stepping back and facing Jiang Wanli as they slowly left the conference room, closing the door behind them.

She turned and chased after her employer.

Although Li Zekai still has more than four professional bodyguards from a security company to ensure his safety, both Li Zekai himself and the top-tier Hong Kong City Security Company attach great importance to this trip to the mainland because it has only been less than a week since the kidnapping incident.

If all goes well, both sides will rise to a higher level. Li Zekai can finally accept the Asia Film and Television Fund, the only business in the Li family that has fallen into his hands. The top-tier Hong Kong security company can also boast about this commission, because it was their involvement in protecting the client's safety during his trip to the mainland that scared off the Asian King of Thieves.

All are happy.

Conversely, if the employer makes even the slightest mistake, they're finished; no wealthy person will dare hire this so-called top-tier security company in the port city again.

Because they were just boasting about it in the past, and it failed the test in actual combat!
Li Zekai is in an even worse situation. If he were to experience another kidnapping like last week, he would probably want to die. After all, he had half of his little finger cut off last time. Surely he wouldn't have to have half of it cut off again this time.

Moreover, he has already disappointed his father once. If he disappoints his father again this time, even if the kidnappers cut off his entire hand and send it back to his father, his father might not be able to soften his heart and raise hundreds of millions of cash to ransom him again.

"boom!"

"Bastards, ah—! Get out, all of you get out...get out!"

Having finally regained his personal freedom, Jiang Wanli angrily swept all the water glasses on the table to the ground.

He pointed menacingly at the conference room door, ordering everyone to leave.

These executives at Wanyan Electronics, though dissatisfied, thought: "You, Jiang Wanli, can't do anything to outsiders, so you just take it out on us, huh? Why don't you wash your face and look in the mirror? They just made it very clear that President Lu of Century Group has now raised more than 69% of the company's shares, and has already achieved absolute control of the company. You, the chairman and president of the company, have reached the end of your term. What's the point of being so arrogant in front of us?"

But despite their thoughts, they still dared not disobey Jiang Wanli's orders in the slightest.

Because people tend to have habitual thinking patterns.

Over the years, Jiang Wanli has been the undisputed leader at Wanyan Company. Relying on his status as the inventor of VCD and an indispensable figure in the company, no one dares to contradict him to his face, which has fostered his dictatorial personality.

When people in the company see him, they are sometimes like mice seeing a cat. They are filled with fear and panic, fearing that he will catch them and scold them, or even fire them.

There have been countless such examples over the years, so much so that even though they know that Jiang Wanli, the chairman and president of the company, won't be able to stay in office for long, they still dare not easily provoke him.

Finally, everyone had left.

Jiang Wanli's last bit of strength vanished instantly, his body went limp, and he collapsed to his knees, covering his face with his hands and weeping bitterly.

He dared not make a sound.

But the tears wouldn't stop; they streamed down her face, down her cheeks, down her chin, and dripped onto the floor of the Guanghua conference room.

silent.

Yet it felt as if every drop was falling on the tip of his heart, as if being drilled by needles, causing his face to twitch with pain.

"Damn it!"

"Why didn't I agree sooner?" "Two hundred million US dollars, my two hundred million US dollars! The Li family, what a faithless Li family... Lu Yang, I once considered you my best little brother, you... you all... Ah—! I hate you so much!"

Seeing two hundred million US dollars slip through his fingers just as it was about to be in his hands, and then suddenly losing it all, with his future uncertain, this sudden bad news almost drove him crazy on the spot. It's already quite good that he can calm down and just sit here crying silently.

"We can't sit still and wait for death."

“I need to stay strong. I am still a shareholder of Wanyan Electronics, one of only two shareholders. I am still the chairman and the president of the company. Yes, yes, yes… No one can do anything to me except him… I’ll go prepare the documents now… When he comes, I will have a good talk with him.”

Who should we talk to?
Naturally, I would talk to Lu Yang.

Just like when Lu Yang signed the contract to acquire Sun Yansheng's 20% stake in Wanyan Electronics, his first thought after getting it was to go back and have a good talk with his brother Jiang Wanli!
As expected, the two sides came to the same conclusion.

No wonder we became such close friends despite our age difference, able to talk about anything.

It went straight to afternoon.

At Xingcheng International Airport, Lu Yang got off the plane and was surprised to find that Jiang Wanli, who hadn't given him a friendly look for several years, had brought all the company's senior executives to the airport to greet him.

The two locked eyes, and the scene fell silent instantly. There were even some company executives who wanted to come forward and curry favor with the new head of Wanyan Electronics.

Sensing the awkward atmosphere, he immediately stopped to avoid making a fool of himself by flattering the horse.

The same goes for everyone else.

At the same time, they fell silent, afraid that making a sound would disturb the two people who were looking at each other.

In the end, Jiang Wanli spoke first. He strained his hoarse voice and stiffly twisted his neck. "Your move to cut off the enemy's supply line was good. If it had been half an hour later, I would have sold my shares."

It would be a lie to say he had no complaints, but since things had come to this point, he had no choice but to accept it.

Lu Yang smiled and said, "You flatter me, brother. What is this...?"

Now that he had revealed his hand, Lu Yang didn't bother to hide anything and hit a straight shot.

Are you here to surrender?
Jiang Wanli's face was clouded with anger. He took several deep breaths to suppress the anger that welled up from the bottom of his heart.

"I'm here to take you back and take over the company."

He gritted his teeth. "Didn't you always want to develop it according to your own ideas? I lost, you won, the company is yours now, do whatever you want with it. I accept the punishment of a loser. Tell me, how do you want to deal with me?"

It's as if he'd accept whatever punishment Lu Yang gave him.

It is a strategic retreat.

Lu Yang had seen this kind of trick many times before.

"I wouldn't dare to offer advice. Brother, you are one of the only two major shareholders in the company and the head of the laboratory. The groundbreaking audio-visual technology VCD was born from your hands. If I were to deal with you, wouldn't people think that I, Lu Yang, am discarding you after you've served your purpose?"

Jiang Wanli thought to himself: Isn't that so?
He snorted and turned his head to the side, not wanting the other person to see the dissatisfaction and disdain he couldn't hide in his eyes.

Demanding both money and a plaque recognizing her as a chaste and virtuous woman—I've never seen such a hypocritical person.

Lu Yang didn't care what Jiang Wanli thought, because he had been following his own well-prepared plan and implementing it step by step.

"I can't afford two hundred million US dollars. Only Li Zekai, that foolish son of the Li family, would be willing to throw money around if he wanted to compete with me."

"How about two hundred million RMB?"

Lu Yang stared at Jiang Wanli's face, wanting to see how the other party would react to his offer.

But he found that the other party's eyes were already like a still pool of water, as if he had already expected that he would offer a very extreme price.

It was used to highlight the incompetence of the Li family, and to showcase Lu Yang's ability to make himself look good.

Jiang Wanli's hands were already in his pockets, clenched into fists, and he kept his expression unchanged. He knew that he had no way out except to accept the other party's conditions.

So he closed his eyes and said, "Okay, I agree!"

After he finished speaking, he lost all his spirit and had to rely on his assistant to avoid falling. Even so, his face was ashen.

Two hundred million US dollars turned into two hundred million RMB. This means the price was slashed to the point of being reduced to 5/6 of the original amount. Even so, there was not much room for them to bargain.

"Sell it or not, it's no big deal."

He closed his eyes and thought that at worst, he could just take the money and start over somewhere else.

Unexpectedly, Lu Yang's next words made it impossible for him to even carry out his idea of ​​starting from scratch.

Lu Yang grinned and said, "I have another request. The 2 million RMB isn't just for the shares you hold, brother. It also includes... you, brother. You have to stay and sign a 5-year contract with me. I won't treat you unfairly. I'll pay you the same salary as the head of your lab. If you make any research or inventions in the future, you'll still get your commission. Also, if you want to leave the company after 5 years, you'll have to sign a non-compete agreement. You can't join any other companies in the related industry chain within 5 years."

This is going to lock Jiang Wanli up completely!
Lu Yang had always believed that Wan Yan Company's most valuable assets were the VCD invention patent and Jiang Wanli himself.

Invention patents are static, but people are dynamic. The key is that in the next two or three years, after foreign capital enters the market, it will quickly launch DVD, a more complete and higher-quality new technology based on VCD. If no one in China has mastered DVD audio-visual technology by then, then the other side will probably counterattack and take the opportunity to make a fortune in patents for several years.

But how can we break this deadlock?
According to Lu Yang's own memory, there was no solution to this situation. The domestic VCD manufacturers were only interested in internal strife and did not even have the courage to resist the extortion of these foreign patent holders.

Lu Yang refused to believe in bad luck. This time, he was reborn and not only saved the invention patent of VCD, but also ensured that Wan Yan Electronics, although on the verge of bankruptcy, still had some scraps left. In the future, even if foreign capital came to the mainland to extort money by holding the invention patent of DVD, it could still play a role in resisting the other party.

All that's left is to rely on Jiang Wanli. In his previous life, this guy went bankrupt a long time ago, sold Wanyan Electronics, made a farewell ceremony, and went back to continue running his modern television company.

But now, Lu Yang intends to keep him on, letting him continue leading the company's product development team, relentlessly working in the lab, relentlessly pushing the VCD technology to its next level, hoping to see if they can overtake the competition and develop DVD, this new audiovisual technology, before those foreign capital giants. (End of Chapter)