Chapter 147 - Li WangJin will Also Be Attending the Banquet (1)

Once Fang JunRong had made up her mind, she let Xu WeiWei know of her choice.

She had further realized that she didn't have enough assistants around her. She had plenty of assistants at work, but not so much when it came to her personal life. A lot of the planning had fell onto Xu WeiWei's shoulders.

Hmm, she could interview was few and from those, pick a couple that she liked. Xu WeiWei quickly sent over the information on the young man.

The young man's name was Jiang DeXian. Fang JunRong thought about it for a little bit and didn't seem to recall that name in the book. She figured he was just a passerby in the book. She didn't want to have anything to do with anyone associated with Jiang YaGe. Jiang YaGe was a poisonous character and each character surrounding her was more problematic than the previous one.

She looked into Jiang DeXian's background and his life story had placed in front of her in the form of a piece of paper. After all, Xu WeiWei would never let her pick someone problematic, even if it was just a date for one night. Jiang DeXian grew up at an orphanage. As he has good looks, he was discovered by a scout in the entertainment circle and joined their company. As he had no background whatsoever, he had always been an 180th tier little actor. Someone who may not even have a spoken line. After being in the entertainment circle for a few years, he was sidelined for refusing to offer himself up. That went on for about five years and his youth was gone. Considering that he had signed a lengthy contract, this was certainly a tragic situation.

She met Jiang DeXian in person once. Sure enough, his ID photo did not do him justice. Many people would feel uncomfortable in front of Fang JunRong but not Jiang DeXian. He was calm. His ID said that he was currently 27 years old.

Fang JunRong asked casually, "Why did you apply for this position with me?"

"It pays well," said Jiang DeXian.

Fang JunRong, "......"

Welp. That was honest!

"Aren't you afraid that being my date would bring about scandals for you?" She asked.

"That will be fine. It's not so horrible if I am tied to you in the scandal. Perhaps it'd even help me get out of my contract."

Fang JunRong must admit that this Jiang DeXian was surely a very straightforward person.

"I'll have someone take you to buy a new suit in a little bit. Tomorrow after, I will have someone take you to a beauty salon and we will head out together tomorrow evening."

"Okay."

There was a light smile in Fang JunRong's eyes. "If this works out, there will be plenty of opportunities for us to work together in the future." After all, she attended banquets quite often and would always need to have a date to go with.

Li XinYun wasn't the only reason that she had picked Jiang DeXian. It was also because she had looked at his information and learned that in the years that he had been sidelined, he had always worked on the side. And, even during his most difficult time, he still sent a portion of his pay back to the orphanage where he came from. She had an appreciation for the ones who had an appreciation for those who had been nice to them. As such, she was willing to lend him a hand as well.

"Thank you." When Jiang DeXian lowered his eyes, his long eyelashes would cover up the aggressiveness in his features and made him look simple and innocent.

Fang JunRong returned to her office after this was settled.

The banquet that she was attending was arranged by Zhang ZhiSu's family. Words had it that many powerful individuals in the medical field, other shareholders of Gaoyuan Corporation, and some other well-known organizations in the field would be attending.

She figured that it was Zhang ZhiSu's attention to introduce her to the others as the second largest shareholder of the company.

Sun Mei had given her some additional information. That Li WangJin had pulled a lot of strings and was finally able to secure an invitation to this banquet.

Chapter 148 - Li WangJin will Also Be Attending the Banquet (2)

Fang JunRong must admit that Sun Mei always has the most up-to-date gossips. It seemed she knew everything that was going on in their circle. She didn't think much about it after she had thanked Sun Mei.

In the end, Li WangJin could no longer pose a threat to her. His trying so hard to get an invitation was probably his last resort to grab himself a last straw. She wondered what else he had left to offer in exchange.

She had heard that Ayron Corporation's stocks had been plummeting so much that the shareholders were having arterial sclerosis. They were short of standing inline to go up to the roof of a tall building.

If she wanted to buy him out, now was the perfect time. Except she didn't want to do that. She didn't like most of the shareholders of Ayron Corporation. None of them showed her any mercy when she was down in her previous life. They could all go to hell with Li WangJin and Ayron Corporation.

***

Li WangJin finally understood what it meant to be besieged on all sides. He was down and angry when he divorced Fang JunRong but comparing where he was now and back then, that was nothing.

Ever since the Zhang's had placed all the blame on his with no hesitation, all of the consumers' anger had turned to him.

Those who had purchased Cherry Blossom Pills had asked for refunds. Some of them even took things a step further and file complained of selling fraudulent products and asked for three times the compensation. As the number mounted, this has become a huge amount.

He was about to be driven to insanity by all these. He felt like an animal who had fallen into quick sand. The more he struggled, the deeper he sank. He was pitiful, helpless, and in pain.

Now his reputation had already been tied to fraudulent products. People distrust toward him had spread over to Ayron Corporation. Someone somewhere organized a group and many customers who had made their purchases previously had came asking for refunds and some even with fake receipts.

How did they have the audacity to demand for a refund on half used products?

These heartless people! Weren't they worried that they'd be chocked to death when drinking water?

Li WangJin cursed them viciously. It wasn't like he could take any actions other than cursing now. With the distrust and boycott from the consumers and the lost of confidence in the market, their stock price continued to drop and had already reached a new low.

"Li WangJin, when are you going to pay us back the money that you owe us? You promised you will pay us back within a few days. How come I haven't even seen a penny yet?"

"If you don't pay me back soon, even my company is going to run into trouble. I am not asking for profits, just pay me back what you own me for now."

"We all have our reputations to keep. You don't want this to end up in court, do you?"

Calls from his debtors came in nonstop making him even more distress. Everybody had lost their faith in him and worried that if they don't rush him, they would never get their money back.

Li WangJin was losing his hair at the same rate that he was borrowing money before. Not wanting to hear any more calls from his debtors, he turned off his cellphone.

He had stealthily sold 3% of share previously to pay off his debt but he wasn't able to get much money from that because of the drop in their stock price. Once words had gotten out, rumors had it that he was about to go bankrupt which was why he was rushing to sell his stocks. Li WangJin dared not sell any more after that and could only insisted that there was no such thing.

Nevertheless, nobody believed him and more and more people demanded their money back.

All he could do was to place his hopes on being able to find himself some investors tomorrow night.

Chapter 149 - Li WangJin will Also Be Attending the Banquet (3)

He paced back and forth in the office and almost turning his hair into a bird's nest.

"President, our meeting is in 30 minutes."

His assistant walked over and reminded him.

Li WangJin had been taking out his anger on his assistants recently and making everybody anxious.

Li WangJin looked up, gave him a stare, and said coldly, "I got it."

He knew the meeting today was all about old the old monsters giving him a hard time. All these people, they never thought how much how much he had given them over the years. He was only down on luck for a little while and they couldn't wait to kick him while he was down.

After the assistant had left, he started combing his hair in front of the mirror and put on some hair spray. One way or another, he refused to appear weak in front of those who were expecting him to.

Half an hour flew by with all the preparation.

His suit was tidy and his back straight. Li WangJin walked over to the conference room on the top floor.

The other shareholders were already waiting in the conference room. All of them sat in a large circle and they all turned to look at Li WangJin at the same time as he walked inside the conference room. Li WangJin's heart sank. He had a bad feeling about this.

Before he even sat down, they opened fire at him.

"Boss Li must be busy lately. It wasn't easy trying to get ahold of you."

"That makes sense. He had been busy with his new ventures. He didn't have time for a small company like ours."

"We will be very happy for you if your new venture worked out. But not only did it not work out, it is bringing down our stock prices with it. Now that's not cool."

All these relentless accusations made Li WangJin's face dropped. He knew the stockholders had been disgruntled but he hadn't expected that they wouldn't even keep up a good front. They cared not about being civil in front of him anymore.

Yet he had no choice but to put up with it. "Give me a little bit more time. Trust me this one time."

"We have already given you many opportunities. Over and over again. In the end, we are losing more and more money with you. It's only been three short months and the value of our company had gone down by three billion."

It pained Director Zhou to even talk about it. Those were all of their money that was lost!

Li WangJin had no retort as these were all truth. It wasn't like he could dismiss them just because he wanted to.

"Since you can't handle this position, you should resign and hand it over to someone who is more capable."

"As long as you've resigned, the consumers would not boycott our company any more and our stock prices will stop falling."

Li WangJin felt like someone had slapped him across his face, hard. His face was beet red. He had been the sole power in this company for over 20 years. This was the first time that anyone had pointed straight at his nose and chastised him and even asked him to resign from his position.

Gritting his teeth, he said, "I am still the #1 shareholder in his company."

Even though he sold 8% of his shares over time, but he still had 39% remaining. That would still make him the number one shareholder.

"Your news is outdated. I am the #1 shareholder right now." A man in a dark blue suit stood up. He was He Yi, the number two stockholder of Ayron Corporation.

Li WangJin felt like he had just fallen into an ice pit. "That's impossible..." Even though he had sold his share, but he signed contracts with the other buyers prohibiting them from selling their shares to He Yi for the purpose of securing his position in the company.

He Yi smiled and said, "I happen to have 41% of the shares. That's more than what you have." He looked around the room and smiled triumphantly. "And all of the other board of directors also side with me."

"Even though you have contracts prohibiting others from selling their shares to me, but they can sell them to other individuals then to me." He Yi decided to be nice and let Li WangJin know how this happened.

Truth was, that wasn't even necessary. Li WangJin figured that one out as well. Normally speaking, all transfers of shares were public knowledge. Unless those who were close to him had also betrayed him and chose to do it on the downlow.

When he was recruiting employees from Fang JunRong, he was so high spirited. He even mocked her behind her back about how she had no ability to manage her people. Now it was his turn. At least Fang JunRong had some who swore their loyalty to her. What did he have?

He was doing worse than Fang JunRong.

"Your time is up, Director Li."

From now on, he'd just be a regular shareholder at best. He was no longer the power behind Ayron Corporation. Not to mention the billions of yuan of debt that he had.