Chapter 214 - 212: Afraid of Being Wiped Out

Chapter 214: Chapter 212: Afraid of Being Wiped Out

Based on the state of the three members of the Yang Family, it was obvious that Yang Hui’s recently deceased father had been the family’s sole backbone.

With their backbone gone, only three "good-for-nothings" remained.

Zhang Zhe had heard a little about Father Yang from Old Bai. He’d been an entrepreneur with a lot of guts.

Anyone in the furniture business knew that its most profitable period was during the explosive growth of the real estate market. In reality, though, it was just feeding on the scraps left behind by the property developers.

But even though they were just scraps, the real estate pie was so massive that a furniture boss like Father Yang, who wasn’t even in the top ten in Qing City, could still accumulate a fortune in the hundreds of millions.

But no one expected that in recent years, those scraps would dry up. The furniture business suddenly became a saturated market, and the competition grew incredibly fierce. Many bosses who lost out simply chose to take a dive.

What made Father Yang so shrewd was that at the critical turning point when the furniture market went from boom to bust, he chose to cut his losses to survive. He kept only Old Yang Furniture City, the business that started it all, and converted the majority of his other assets into real estate.

Although his assets shrank significantly, leaving him with a net worth of A8.7, the family could still live very comfortably on rental income and the profits from the furniture city.

After Father Yang’s unexpected death in a car accident, that decision proved to be even more valuable.

Mrs. Yang could take good care of her two children just by being a landlady; their standard of living would hardly decline at all.

The only remaining issue was the furniture city, and Yang Hui’s marriage was tied to it.

"Your boyfriend is the de facto manager of the furniture city now, isn’t he?"

"Yes. My father personally groomed him. The plan was for him to gradually take over after we got married."

"I just never thought my dad would be gone so suddenly."

"Roughly how much equity does your family still have in the furniture city?"

"It should be over thirty million, but it’s all in shares. If we wanted to cash out and walk away now, we’d have to sell them to the other shareholders at a discount."

"We won’t be selling anytime soon," Mrs. Yang interjected. "Even though business isn’t great, I estimate we can still get over a million in dividends a year. Selling would be too great a loss."

"Do the other shareholders at the furniture city support your boyfriend taking on a CEO-like role?" Zhang Zhe continued to ask.

"They do. They all assume we’re getting married, so they see him as the Yang Family’s son-in-law," Yang Hui explained. "My dad started introducing him that way to others a long time ago."

"He was the one who arranged our engagement before he passed away."

"I see. So the problem now is the attitude of his parents, right?"

"Yes. A while ago, when our family was discussing the wedding with his parents, they felt very dismissive and insincere."

"His family is just an ordinary working-class household, with an asset level of probably only A7. They’re not on the same level as us at all. They should be the ones marrying up, but the impression his parents gave me is..."

"...that now that my father is gone, I have no choice but to marry him."

As Yang Hui said this, her mother nodded along beside her. Clearly, they both felt the same way.

As for Yang Hui’s little brother, Zhang Zhe glanced over and saw the kid was still on his phone, doing knife runs in Secret Dam.

Zhang Zhe shook his head at the boy and said to Mrs. Yang, "Why don’t you hire a couple of bodyguards for your son in that game? A kid from an A8 family shouldn’t have to be glued to his phone all day just for a few dollars’ worth of game currency."

Hearing Zhang Zhe, Yang Hui nodded, stood up, and coaxed her little brother out of the room.

She knew that Zhang Zhe had brought up her brother for a reason—he had something to say that he didn’t want the boy to hear.

Once Yang Hui sat down again, Zhang Zhe began to break it down for the mother and daughter.

"Is he really your brother? Not your son?"

"What? Of course not." Yang Hui shook her head. "He’s my little brother."

"Okay, my mistake. I’ve just seen a lot of strange things. Let’s continue."

"Miss Yang, have you talked to your boyfriend about how you and your mother feel?"

"No." Yang Hui shook her head. "But I feel like his parents are acting this way because of him. Something he’s doing must be influencing them."

"Exactly!" Mrs. Yang nodded resentfully from the side. "They weren’t like this when I met them before. This is all because my husband is gone."

"Of course," Zhang Zhe nodded. "If Father Yang were still alive, you wouldn’t need to be consulting with me."

"Let me offer a perspective. You two can tell me if it sounds right."

"The reason you’re so conflicted is that after Father Yang passed away, there’s no one left in your family to take charge. Add to that how capable your boyfriend is, and you’re worried he’ll swindle you out of everything, right?"

"Yes, yes, exactly!" The mother and daughter looked as if they’d found a kindred spirit, nodding furiously at Zhang Zhe.

"So the optimal solution is for you..." Zhang Zhe pointed at Yang Hui. "For you to step into your father’s shoes and carry this family, and your family’s furniture city, on your shoulders."

"Huh? Me?"

Yang Hui looked dismayed, as if she were a lowly demon being ordered to defeat the great Tang Monk and his disciples.

"She can’t do it." Mrs. Yang, who knew her daughter well, quickly came to her defense. "Her personality just isn’t suited for leading a company. Her father never groomed her for it."

"Then... having her little brother take over the company isn’t realistic either, right?"

"Of course not," Mrs. Yang said, shaking her head. "And I can’t do it either."

"Only her boyfriend can run the furniture city. But if he does, he could secretly transfer all of our family’s assets into his own name, and we’d be none the wiser."

"You think he would do that?"

"It’s hard to say. And with his parents’ attitude..." Mrs. Yang wrinkled her nose, her tone dripping with displeasure.

"What about you?" Zhang Zhe asked Yang Hui directly. "Do you think your boyfriend would do something like that?"

"I don’t know."

"You’ve been dating this long and you still don’t know?"

"I... I really don’t know. I have a feeling he wouldn’t, but his parents make me uneasy."

"And that’s the biggest problem right now." Zhang Zhe said directly to Yang Hui, "The problem lies with you. You don’t know your own boyfriend well enough. You don’t even have faith in his character."

"With a personality like yours, even if you dumped this boyfriend, there’s no guarantee you wouldn’t just get cheated by some other man down the line."

"So, from a risk-management perspective, don’t even think about breaking off the engagement yet. Your father spent years choosing this man for you."

"If his kindness toward you was all an act and even your father couldn’t see through it, then you certainly couldn’t either. By sticking with him, you’re at least trusting the man your father vetted and approved of."

"But I think there’s something wrong with him," Mrs. Yang insisted.

In response, Zhang Zhe just gave an enigmatic smile and offered no further explanation.

On one side, you had Father Yang, a battle-hardened veteran of the business world. On the other, Mrs. Yang, who couldn’t even manage her own son. The choice of whose judgment to trust was a no-brainer.

Yang Hui naturally understood what Zhang Zhe was implying, but she still had her reservations.

"But my boyfriend’s parents’ attitude really makes us feel terrible."

"That just so happens to be my second point," Zhang Zhe said with great seriousness. "There’s a problem with how you’re approaching this marriage."

"You’re still treating your boyfriend the same way you did when your father was alive, but everything has changed."