The phone call connected quickly.
"Younger sister, it's me," Su Jianguo said urgently, "There's something I need you to..."
"Big brother!"
Before Su Jianguo could finish his sentence, Su Ya cut him off, "You're urgently looking for me, it must be about the Duans, right?"
"How did you know?" Su Jianguo was shocked.
"I heard about what happened this afternoon," Su Ya said solemnly, deliberately keeping her voice low, as if afraid of being overheard. She asked, "How is dad now?"
"He's in the city hospital, just woke up," Su Jianguo looked back at Su Bingtian and said, "He should be fine. The doctors want dad to stay in the hospital for observation for a few days because of his age, then recuperate at home."
"That's good to hear."
Su Ya breathed a sigh of relief and said heavily, "I'm afraid I can't be of much help with this matter, you can only rely on yourselves for good fortune."
"Huh?"
Su Jianguo's hand shook, almost dropping the phone in shock. He urged, "Younger sister, what are you talking about? You're also surnamed Su, you're part of the Su family!"
"Now that the Su family is in such big trouble, you can't just stand by and do nothing. Are you going to just watch as the Su family's business is ruined and dad is hounded to death by those people?"
Su Jianguo was truly anxious now!
Just as Su Bingtian had said earlier, the Su family had no power to resist Duan Yihong's wrath. But the Zhao family was different. As fellow provincial city residents, the Zhao family had some dealings with the Duan family. Though not as powerful as the Duans, if the Zhao family was willing to mediate, they could definitely minimize the damage to the Su family.
So now, Su Ya was the Su family's only hope!
"It's not that I don't want to help, it's just that..." Su Ya said helplessly, "Since big brother is asking me, I won't hide it from you. The Duan family people just came by and haven't left yet. They're talking with my father-in-law in the main hall right now."
"I listened in for a while at the door. The Duan family people made it very clear that my father-in-law should not get involved in our family matters."
"Moreover, my father-in-law has already agreed!"
Though her voice was low, it was no less shocking than thunder.
"This, this, this..."
Su Jianguo was stunned, his right hand holding the phone shook again as he asked, "Then...younger sister, while Old Master Zhao and the Duan family people are there, can you..."
"I can't!"
Su Ya naturally knew what Su Jianguo wanted to say. She flatly rejected him before he could even finish his sentence, "In the Zhao family, my father-in-law's word is law, his decisions are final. No one can go against his wishes. What he has decided cannot be changed by anyone."
"If I go in now to plead for our family, not only will I not be able to save you all and Su Shi Group, I'll be dragging myself into this mess too. At the minimum I'll get scolded by my father-in-law, at worst I'll be accused of eating from the inside and kicked out of the Zhao family."
Clearly, Su Ya was extremely fearful of her father-in-law, fearing him like a tiger.
There is a saying, once you enter a wealthy family, it's like entering the deep sea!
The greater the family clan, the stricter the rules and ancestral precepts, and the more obvious the hierarchy. The family head is almost like an emperor within the family. Take the Su family for example, Su Bingtian's words are like holy edicts, who would dare defy him?
If this was the case for the Su family, what more the prestigious Zhao family of the provincial city?
Su Jianguo's face turned green.
"Give me the phone!"
Noticing Su Jianguo's expression, Su Bingtian gestured with his hand, "Let me speak to Little Ya."
Su Jianguo passed him the phone.
"Little Ya, I..."
"Dad!"
However, Su Ya maintained the same attitude even with Su Bingtian, not giving him a chance to speak before solemnly saying, "You should be very clear about my position in the Zhao family. If it was someone else or some other matter, I could try to find a way. But the Duan family..."
"The Duan family wants to destroy our Su family as easily as crushing an ant. My father-in-law will definitely not offend the Duan family for my sake or for our Su family."
"So you should just abandon any hopes. Leave it to fate."
Hearing this, Su Bingtian's face, which had just regained a bit of color, turned paper white again.
"Then..."
"Dad, all I can tell you is, the Duan family people mentioned earlier that they've already sent people to Quan City. They should arrive soon. Remember, if they make any demands, just agree to everything, don't resist, or the consequences will be unimaginable."
With that, Su Ya directly hung up.
From beginning to end, Su Bingtian didn't even get to say a single sentence.
Clack!
The phone dropped onto the hospital bed. Su Bingtian's face was filled with despair, his breathing suddenly becoming rushed, seeming as if his old ills were recurring, at risk of passing out again at any moment.
"Dad!"
"Grandpa!"
Su Jianguo and Su Wenchao threw themselves over, crying.
"It's over, it's over..."
Su Bingtian lay slanted against the pillows, eyes blank, expression dazed, as if he didn't hear Su Jianguo and Su Wenchao's cries. He kept murmuring to himself, "The Su family is finished. This time, we're really done for..."
Su Ya's attitude just now reminded Su Bingtian of Song Qingshan's words this afternoon at Su Shi Group: Remove Su Shi Group's name from Quan City!
Removing the name!
Were the people the Duan family sent here to wipe out the Su family?
"Stop right there!"
Just then, a security guard's stern shout suddenly rang out from outside the ward, "Who are you people? This isn't a place you can come to, scram!"
Bang! Bang bang...
Right after the security guard finished yelling, the sounds of punching and kicking rang out.
The sounds continued for about ten seconds.
Ten seconds later.
The door to the ward was pushed open and two men and a woman walked in. One of the men was wearing a suit and looked refined and cultured, holding a folder in his hand. The other man had a sturdy build, clearly a man of martial prowess.
The woman was young and beautiful, walking in front as if she was their leader.
"You! You guys..."
The three generations of Sus in the ward were startled by this sudden change of events. They turned their heads and saw the two men and one woman. At first they were surprised, frowning in confusion, but upon seeing the security guards strewn outside the ward door, their faces instantly turned ashen.
Without another word, they started attacking, clearly these two men and woman had no good intentions.
Those who had been chased out of the ward earlier witnessed the brawny man single-handedly thrash those security guards. They were also badly frightened, not daring to make a peep. But out of curiosity, they still couldn't help poking their heads out, pricking up their ears and widening their eyes to keep an eye on the situation inside the ward.
They wanted to go in, but didn't dare to.
"Are you people from the Duan family of the provincial city?" Su Bingtian opened his mouth to ask. Having heard Su Ya's warning earlier, he immediately guessed who these people were when they appeared, though he absolutely did not expect the Duan family people to arrive so quickly.
"Let me introduce ourselves," the beautiful leading woman nodded with a smile and said, "My surname is Li, name Fei Li. I'm Director Duan's personal secretary. These two are the company's legal department manager and head of security.
"We've come today because we wish to discuss a deal with Chairman Su."
As she spoke, Li Fei signaled to the man in the suit with her eyes. He immediately stepped forward a few steps and handed the folder he was holding to Su Bingtian.
Li Fei continued speaking, "From my understanding, Chairman Su holds 72% of the shares in Su Shi Group, making you the largest shareholder as well as Chairman of the Board. Now, we want to acquire all of Chairman Su's shares and take over Su Shi Group..."
iving with nine beautiful women. [Ding! Welcome back to the Joyous Sect, Host…] Lin Yu: ??? I’m clearly in a shared rental, but you’re saying I’m in the Joyous Sect? Watering plants is now [Tending to Spiritual Flora]? Cooking becomes [Researching Elixirs]? Making the bed turns into [Setting Up Formations]? A gentle and innocent auntie, twin classmates, a mysterious hacker girl on leave, a severely socially anxious artist, an elementary school Chinese teacher, a community hospital nurse, a pet shop owner, an antique clock restorer… This system… is kinda interesting.
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
wed him to see the innate talent, destiny, and future of those he invested in. The greater the destiny of his target, the richer the rewards he would reap. Then he discovered that the aloof girl next door, his childhood sweetheart, possessed the highest-grade crimson destiny—a future destined to reign supreme as the Empress of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands. Lately, she seemed troubled, pondering how to unlock her sealed meridians and unleash her talents ahead of time... — — — My name is Ying Bing, one of the Nine Heavenly Sovereigns, titled the Phoenix Empress, reigning invincibly over the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands. I have been reborn and bound to a Peerless Genius System, where ranking first among my peers grants me rewards. [Would you like to activate the Punishment Mechanism?] [Upon activation, rewards will increase, but after the rankings are announced, you must carry out the "Punishment of the Defeated" on the top-ranked individual.] Ying Bing: "I can’t very well punish myself, can I?" — — — Years later. Ying Bing: "Can’t you let me win just once?" Li Mo: "First, call me 'husband' properly—I didn’t hear it clearly last time."