Financial freedom starts from graduation

Chapter 546 Awakening
There was something Mu Li didn't tell Zhou Wang.

That was her aunt, who had single-handedly built the Tianque Group, and who had passed away from cancer two months ago.

The biggest backer of Tianque Group has always been the management of her aunt. After her passing, the other party no longer has much reason to continue supporting Tianque Group.

Mu Li went to Beidu in an attempt to maintain this relationship, but unfortunately, she was unsuccessful.

However, considering that Mu Li's aunt had been with him for many years, the other party pointed out one last path for Mu Li...

This is why Mu Li sees Zhou Wang as her only hope.

She didn't believe that someone in that position would speak nonsense.

After her aunt's passing, Tianque Group, now valued at nearly 10 billion yuan, appears to be thriving, but hidden dangers lurk beneath the surface.

Mu Li knew very well that the previous suppression was due to her aunt, but now many shady characters were gradually emerging. Some wanted to completely destroy the Tianque Group because of past grudges, while others saw it as a piece of fat meat on the chopping block, such as...

Conglomerates from Hong Kong Island and Macau Island.

These people were all major clients of Tianque Group. They were very familiar with Tianque's various businesses. When Aunt's health began to deteriorate, they had already expressed their desire to invest, which aroused Mu Li's vigilance from then on.

The Hong Kong Island Consortium has a well-known, albeit unsavory, quirk.

That is "exclusion".

Looking at all the high-quality assets they control, almost all of them are just internal celebrations of Hong Kong capital. Mu Li knows all too well that once she lets the wolf into the house, not only will she not be able to protect the Mu family's position in Tianque Group, but in the end, she herself may also be completely eliminated.

This is why she was willing to sacrifice some of her own interests to ask Zhou Wang to endorse Tianque Group.

She had no better choice.

But now, Wang Chengyun brazenly tells her that he invited these representatives of Hong Kong family capital and made some kind of promise beforehand.

How could Mu Li not be terrified?
"What promise?"

Startled and angry, Mu Li quickly pressed for an answer.

"It's nothing much. It's simply that we are willing to relinquish some of the group's equity in exchange for legal operating rights in several industries in Hong Kong and Macau..."

"'us'?"

Mu Li sneered, "When did I say I agreed to this?"

After Mu Li finished speaking, she suddenly realized something was wrong, because she then noticed that Xiong Min and Ma Jun were acting too calmly, as if they had known about this all along.

When they met Mu Li's gaze, both of them awkwardly avoided looking at her.

"You knew about this all along?"

Mu Li felt a sense of betrayal and anger, especially towards Xiong Min, the third largest shareholder. Xiong Min was once considered her aunt's sister, a close friend and relative. It was her aunt who had led her step by step to her current high position...

Needless to say, before meeting his aunt, Ma Jun was a street vendor, living a precarious life.

They had all received kindness from their aunt, yet they remained silent at this moment.

“They not only knew, they also agreed.”

Wang Chengyun spoke up for the two with a cold laugh:

"President Mu, Tianque Group is not a place where you can make your own decisions. Although you are the largest shareholder, you do not have absolute control. I did not want things to get too ugly, so I gave you some room to maneuver. But you produced this agreement without saying a word, which clearly shows that you do not respect us. In that case, it seems that we do not need to respect you."

“Xiao Li, you know their methods. If we agree now, we can still fight for some of our rights. But if it really comes down to a hostile takeover, we can’t beat them…”

Xiong Min's eyes darted away, but she still forced herself to speak.

Do you even know what it means to invite a wolf into the house?

Mu Li, unusually flustered, said angrily, "Do you really think that by reluctantly giving up a portion of your shares, those people will be satisfied? Go and check for yourselves how many of the projects they've been involved in aren't under their control?"

Mu Li argued fiercely for a few more minutes, but seeing that the others remained unmoved, as if they had already accepted the fact, she finally stormed off in anger.

Throughout the journey, Mu Li took deep breaths, forcing herself to calm down.

But that feeling of irritability kept pounding into her heart.

On the surface, Wang Chengyun has only given those people in Hong Kong a verbal promise and has not signed any formal agreement. As long as Mu Li does not nod, it seems that everything is meaningless.

But Mu Li understood very well that once Wang Cheng made such a promise, it would give them a reason to act at any time.

If things don't turn out the way they expect, they'll immediately resort to all sorts of ruthless measures to force Tianque Group to submit, or even directly take steps to erode Tianque Group's shares...

Who can blame them when Tianque Group itself isn't exactly clean?
Having lost the endorsement of its superiors, Mu Li couldn't fathom what kind of resistance the Tianque Group could possibly have against the Hong Kong conglomerates.

When Mu Li stopped, lost in thought, she found herself at the door of the master suite on the top deck.

It was almost instinctive that she came here again.

But this also aligns with Mu Li's underlying psychology. She needs to have a proper talk with Zhou Wang again, even if she can't finalize the matter, she at least needs to get a sense of Zhou Wang's attitude.

However, after knocking on the door, Mu Li discovered that Zhou Wang was not in the room.

"Mr. Zhou said he wanted to go out for a walk by himself, so he didn't let me come with him..."

In response to Mu Li's question, Lisa explained in a low voice.

Mu Li nodded and was about to turn and leave when she suddenly noticed large wrinkles on the bed sheet. She stopped and turned her surprised gaze to Lisa.

"Were you resting with President Zhou just now?"

"Well, it's just..."

Lisa nodded, noticing the joy in Mu Li's eyes. She hesitated, wondering whether to explain to Mu Li that nothing had actually happened between them. Just then, Mu Li's phone rang.

"Mr. Mu, would you mind coming to the banquet hall? It seems that Mr. Zhou, whom you specifically instructed, had a little conflict with Young Master Li and Young Master Huo..."

The slightly anxious voice of Lao Xu, the yacht butler, came through the phone.

"what?"

Mu Li's expression changed drastically. She no longer cared about what Lisa wanted to say to her, quickly hung up the phone, and hurriedly walked out the door.

……

Let's rewind to twenty minutes earlier.

Led by Wang Jia, A Gui, A Jie, and Sun Xiningning entered the main living room and were seated in the booths with the best view. While the obsequious Wang Jia exchanged pleasantries with the people in the booths, Sun Xiningning, out of curiosity, took out her phone and searched for the name "Huo Chengrui".

In today's information age, there is almost nothing that cannot be found online, not to mention the special ecology of Hong Kong Island, where all the heirs of large families can be considered public figures to a certain extent. Therefore, Sun Xi Ningning easily found relevant information about Huo Chengrui.

"The second in line to inherit the Huo family's throne..."

"Father Fok Ying-hsiung, Chairman of the Fok Group in Hong Kong, and a founding member of a renowned private equity fund council in Hong Kong..."

"Total assets of US$180 billion..."

Sun Xining had no concept of the large amount of information mentioned earlier, but the figure of "180 billion US dollars" startled her.

Although she was used to spending money lavishly, she wasn't a girl who had no concept of money.

$180 billion translates to hundreds of billions of yuan, an astronomical figure that is simply unimaginable for ordinary people.

Upon seeing this information, Sun Xi Ningning couldn't help but glance at Huo Chengrui a few more times.

But soon, Sun Xi Ningning looked away, seemingly bored.

Huo Chengrui is already in his early thirties. His appearance is only average, and he has a noticeable beer belly. However, because of his background, he has a decent temperament and is better than the average greasy middle-aged man.

But Sun Xi Ningning immediately noticed a small white mark on the ring finger of his left hand, where he was holding a champagne glass, caused by years of wearing rings.

Would Huo Chengrui be unable to afford a ring of the right size?
of course not.

This only means that the ring he took off was on his hand a long time ago, but later, due to weight gain and other reasons, the size gradually became unsuitable.

Sun Xi Ningning had seen countless men like this, who were clearly married but pretended to be single when they went out to play.

This made her feel somewhat disdainful.

She didn't think there was anything wrong with men cheating; in fact, she thought it was quite normal, especially for successful men. How many of them didn't have affairs? She just subconsciously disliked the behavior of men who were clearly having many affairs but still insisted on maintaining a single persona.

Like herself, she was embroiled in a scandal during high school because of a sugar daddy relationship, but she never shied away from the topic.

Even when Zhou Wang asked her, she readily admitted it.

I may be a bad girl, but at least I'm not hypocritical.

Furthermore, there's Huo Chengrui's status as the "heir apparent." Sun Xiningning hadn't interacted with scions of this level of aristocratic families before, but she at least understood one thing: an "heir apparent" is an "heir apparent." This meant he was still on the path to "inheritance," and no matter how much money the Huo family had, it wasn't his for the time being...

Sun Xi Ningning is materialistic, but she is also very clear-headed.

In her opinion, this half-baked rich kid is not as good as a small business owner with some money.

At least, people have full say when disposing of their own property.

Unbeknownst to A-Jie and his cousin Wang Jia, Sun Xining, who had deliberately moved closer, overheard some of their whispers. Coupled with the way Wang Jia scrutinized her, Sun Xining, with her experience, was able to deduce quite a bit in an instant.

If Huo Chengrui is truly outstanding and is her ideal type, then Sun Xi Ningning wouldn't mind playing along, just for the sake of it, and seeing if she could gain any benefits.

But right now, all I can say is that Sun Xining is a little disappointed and has little interest in Huo Chengrui...

There's a deeper reason behind this that Sun Xi Ningning avoids thinking about.

That is, while she was sizing up Huo Chengrui, she was constantly comparing him to someone else in her mind.

Yes, the man she deliberately avoided thinking about seemed to have become an invisible point of reference, completely overshadowing Huo Chengrui at this moment.

Having been in Shenzhen for several months, Sun Xining has been longing for a new beginning.

But only she knew that the starting point in her heart had always been that night at the class reunion in Jingcheng, the moment he invested in her...

Thinking of this, Sun Xining felt somewhat troubled again.

She's clearly the "bad girl," so why is she caught in the whirlpool of innocence and can't seem to get out of it?
Zhou Wang has probably long forgotten about her.

"Ningning, why are you sitting there by yourself? Come on, come drink with us... Um, why don't you toast President Huo and the others?"

At this moment, A-Jie called her name, and Sun Xining looked up and noticed that A-Jie looked somewhat embarrassed.

His cousin, Wang Jia, was sitting next to him. It was clear that Wang Jia had said something to him in that short time, making A-Jie realize his intentions and forcing him to cooperate.

Upon hearing Wang Jia's cousin's greeting, Huo Chengrui and the others, who were chatting and laughing, also turned their interested gazes towards him.

It has to be said that Sun Xi Ningning does have a rare, pure face. Although her outfits are somewhat scheming, unless you're a scumbag with a perfect eye for beauty, anyone who sees her at first glance will subconsciously think, "This girl must be very innocent."

This also applies to Huo Chengrui.

Although he had been with many women, given his wealth and status, most of them were willing to throw themselves at him. He didn't need to actively study women's minds, so he was immediately captivated by Sun Xining.

Young Master Li, whose family background was not much different from his, winked at him and said, "What a catch, Chengrui! You're in luck tonight!"

Huo Chengrui was very satisfied, and even patted Wang Jia on the shoulder because of it.

Wang Jia only recently started hanging out with Huo Chengrui and the others.

Because of his father Wang Chengyun's instructions, Wang Jia also bears a heavy responsibility today, striving to entertain Huo Chengrui and his entourage well.

Through subtle inquiries, he learned in detail about the preferences of this young master Huo, and also learned that the other party had no interest in so-called yacht models and preferred "good girls".

This initially posed a real challenge for Wang Jia.

Fortunately, his cheap cousin was quite capable. He hadn't had high expectations, but the other party actually managed to find a top-notch person.

Although Sun Xining was not particularly interested, out of courtesy, she picked up her wine glass and came to the group to toast Huo Chengrui.

"Is Miss Sun still in school?"

Huo Chengrui asked with a smile as he clinked glasses.

"No, I just graduated this year..."

Sun Xi Ningning replied and was about to pick up her wine glass and drink it all when she suddenly caught a glimpse of a familiar yet unfamiliar figure out of the corner of her eye.

The reason he seemed unfamiliar was because Sun Xining hadn't seen him in a long time; the reason he seemed familiar was because he would occasionally appear in her tear-stained dreams...

Sun Xining's mouth gaped slightly. She never expected Zhou Wang to suddenly appear here. This brief moment of distraction caused Sun Xining's fingers to loosen, and the wine glass in her hand slipped and fell to the table with a "clatter".

(End of this chapter)