Chapter 237: Chapter 237 Solution
Just like back in the day, when he was down on his luck and got relentlessly pursued by an unattractive woman. Unable to resist, he ended up marrying her and they had their son, the unattractive Tao Yingjun.
"Dad, I think that\'s quite unlikely, you should stop dreaming," said Tao Yingjun with a bitter expression.
"What\'s the matter, usually you chase women with such bravado, don\'t you? How come you\'ve lost your nerve with someone of high social standing?" Tao Yongchang glanced at his son with disdain.
He knew about his son\'s escapades.
Young people\'s affairs, those of mutual consent, he didn\'t want to meddle in.
If things got out of hand, he was able to smooth them over and couldn\'t be bothered to micromanage.
"It\'s not that I\'ve lost my nerve, but there\'s a bit of an issue," Tao Yingjun said grimly.
He had to tell his father about the feud with Zhao Yulu, and Zhao Yulu\'s close relationship with Han Mengting.
A solution had to be found; otherwise, they both would be doomed.
"What\'s the problem?" Tao Yongchang noticed his son\'s complexion and couldn\'t help but frown.
"Dad, before I start, did you bring your nitroglycerin pills?" Tao Yingjun asked.
"You rascal, have you gotten yourself into some serious trouble?" Tao Yongchang\'s face turned sour.
This question was not new to him.
Every time it was asked, it preceded a major disaster.
Recently, his son had messed around with a girl and got beaten up by her boyfriend. His son retaliated and ended up putting the boyfriend in the hospital.
"Dad, don\'t get excited, I\'m just asking casually. I think the situation is quite serious, but maybe you won\'t think so. Just hear me out," said Tao Yingjun.
"Fine, speak. If it\'s serious, watch how I break your legs. It seems I\'ve been too indulgent with you over the years. From now on, I\'m going to keep a tighter leash on you," he said.
Tao Yongchang took a deep breath and quelled his anger.
He decided to listen to what his son had to say before making any plans.
"Dad, here\'s what happened..." Tao Yingjun proceeded to explain the grudge he had with Zhao Yulu, as well as Zhao Yulu\'s relationship with Han Mengting.
"You little rascal..."
Tao Yongchang exploded with rage.
The trouble his son had caused was bigger than any previous messes.
One wrong move and he himself could be dragged down by this rascal.
It was the very definition of a headache for a parent.
He stood up, pointed at Tao Yingjun, and let out a curse, but suddenly he couldn\'t catch his breath, and sat down, clutching at his chest. He quickly took out a bottle of nitroglycerin pills from his pocket, swallowed them, and after a few minutes, he started to recover.
"Dad, are you okay?" Tao Yingjun sat beside Tao Yongchang, asking with concern.
"I\'m not going to die," Tao Yongchang sighed heavily, looking at Tao Yingjun with a blaze of anger, "You scoundrel, getting into such a mess this time. If things go south, I could be brought down by you. Go and apologize to that Zhao Yulu immediately. I don\'t care how you do it, but you must get her forgiveness!"
Tao Yingjun said, "Dad, if an apology would help, I would definitely go apologize. But after the way I\'ve humiliated her, just an apology won\'t make her forgive me."
Tao Yongchang immediately said, "Then use money. As long as she\'s willing to forgive you, pay her. As long as what she wants isn\'t too much and within my means, I\'m willing to give it to her."
Paying to resolve the crisis was always his first thought.
This was the same method he had used to deal with his son\'s previous troubles.
His wealth might not be much to real rich people.
But to the average person, it was an astronomical figure.
Money can be lost, but it can also be earned back.
If the career is gone, climbing back up will be hard.
Even if Zhao Yulu has a relationship with Han Mengting, she probably wouldn\'t regard money as mere dirt, right?
She should still be swayed by money.
"Alright, I\'ll call her and ask,"
Tao Yingjun hadn\'t thought of any good solutions either. He took out his cell phone and dialed Zhao Yulu\'s number.
Two minutes later, he hung up the phone.
Tao Yingjun shook his head bitterly, "No matter what I said, she insisted on not taking the money and demanded I pay the price."
Tao Yongchang\'s complexion turned ugly.
If money couldn\'t solve the problem, he really couldn\'t think of any other way.
"What should we do now? It\'s all your fault, you rascal, always messing around with women. Do you have any idea how many problems you\'ve caused over the years, too arrogant to pull yourself back."
"Now you\'ve hit a snag; not only are you in trouble, but I\'m also screwed because of you. If I really go down with you, I won\'t give you another penny in the future!"
Tao Yongchang looked at his son as if he wished he could slap him to death.
It really wasn\'t easy for him to reach his current position.
If he was really fired, especially because he was sabotaged by his own son, this would certainly spread to other companies in the industry.
Hoping to secure another vice president position would then be slim.
And at Shengda Literature, he owned shares.
The dividends from those shares were quite substantial each year.
If he left the company, his shares would be retracted.
"Dad, I didn\'t expect Zhao Yulu to have Han Mengting as her background. If I had known, even if I couldn\'t win her over, I wouldn\'t have threatened her, troubled her, and certainly wouldn\'t have said those extremely insulting words," said Tao Yingjun with a pained expression.
That was his heartfelt confession.
He dared to threaten those women recklessly because he knew they didn\'t have any backing.
He wouldn\'t dare to mess with anyone whose family was stronger than his.
"What\'s the use of saying all this now!" Tao Yongchang glared at his son, grinding his teeth with anger.
"Dad, it\'s true that talking is useless now, what\'s key is that we need to find a way to solve this issue," said Tao Yingjun.
"What other solution could there be? Can you think of anything?" Tao Yongchang said angrily.
"Dad, I think the only way is to prevent Penguin from acquiring Shengda Literature. As long as Penguin doesn\'t acquire Shengda Literature, Han Mengting won\'t be able to become the president of Shengda Literature and can\'t meddle in our affairs," suggested Tao Yingjun.
"Isn\'t that obvious? In the current situation, Penguin\'s investment in acquiring Shengda Literature is a done deal. As a vice president with shares, albeit only dividend shares without any say, how could I possibly stop Penguin\'s investment from acquiring us!" Tao Yongchang said irritably.
Not to mention being unable to stop it, once the acquisition went through, his shareholding would be forcibly taken back.
"Dad, I remember you mentioned once that Yang Xin Investment also wanted to acquire Shengda Literature, right?" Tao Yingjun asked.
"Yes, what about it? Huang Chi, the major shareholder, tipped me off about it, asking me to keep it from CEO Qiu, so I kept it under wraps, preventing Yang Xin Investment from coming to negotiate," Tao Yongchang replied.
"Dad, I think there\'s something off about Huang Chi\'s behavior," Tao Yingjun said.
"What\'s off about it?" Tao Yongchang frowned and asked.
"Dad, think about it. Huang Chi wants to cash out for a profit. Logically, letting Yang Xin Investment come in to compete should yield a better acquisition price than just Penguin Investment alone,"
"But he explicitly wanted you to withhold the information and prevent Yang Xin Investment from getting involved, which is illogical."
"I guess that he must have struck some sort of deal with Penguin, where after the acquisition, they would give him certain benefits that are greater than what he would get from a two-party competition,"
"I think you should report the news of Yang Xin Investment wanting to acquire Shengda Literature to CEO Qiu and do your best to facilitate it,"
Having analyzed the situation, Tao Yingjun came up with this suggestion.