Offer To The CEO

Friday, continued …

Before anything else could be said, Anna, Hou Yi, Yao Tan and Amanda all walked into the courtroom followed by Alister Nang and they sat down waiting for the matter to be called. Very soon the judge came back and announced that the release that he was going to make and further adjourned the matter for four weeks to allow Lu Jingho and his lawyers to further negotiate to see what matters could be resolved.

As he stood up and left, the smirk on his face told Anna, Amanda, Hou Yi and Yao Tan that he believed that he had won. Hou Yi quietly whispered to Anna to stay in the court room, and he would follow him out to see what was happening.

Once Lu Jingho cleared the court room and was exiting the courthouse, unbeknown to him and his legal team Lu Jinhu entered the court room from a different direction and sat at the defendant's table, without a Lawyer. Alister headed to the prosecutor's table to sit with the representative from the National Prosecutor's Office.

The judge turned to Lu Jinhu, and said "Mr Lu, you need legal representation?"

"Sir, I have decided not to have legal representation, and waived all rights. As you can see from the agreements, which I hope you have read I have agreed to plead guilty to matters before the court and accept the penalty as proposed. Additionally, I have agreed to assist the National Prosecutor's Office in relation to prosecutions of certain matters involving my father Lu Jingho."

"Is that correct?" said the judge looking directly at the National Prosecutor's Representative.

"It is. While the court may seem unhappy about the charges that are proceeding with this Mr Lu, the cooperation given and the evidence that has already been provided is significant. Much of the evidence if irrefutable evidence, that will result in multiple convictions. That is why we have agreed to the penalties."

"In fact, Mr Lu increased significantly the community work, and based on discussions with the prison authorities they believe a combination of work, including using his skill set and connections to assist charities behind the scenes could be invaluable to them."

"Mr Nang, in terms of the victim…"

"Miss Alecia is still in Australia. Madam Hou, from what I understand spoke to her last weekend personally…"

With that, Anna stood up and confirmed the discussion with Alecia.

"Plus, she authorised her father, and now legal mother, given her adoption was finalised recently, to sign the agreement."

Yao Tan, was ready to say something about the agreement, but realised that Alister knew nothing, and given Alecia and James agreed to the penalty, he had to hold his tongue.

Continuing Alister said "The only thing Sir, would be that the agreement and penalties all need to be kept secret until the matters involving Mr Lu Jingho are resolved before the court. Allowing any news of this court appearance or the penalty to come out would potentially jeopardise multiple charges in those matters."

"The cover excuse we could use in relation to the matter is that Hou Enterprises asked Mr Lu to be brought back before the court in relation to the penalties imposed on him previously. CEO Yao and Madam Hou are directors of the company and Madam Yao is a lawyer employed by the legal department. CEO Hou's leaving could be excused by saying that he did not believe that he would not react to Mr Lu being in the court room."

While Alister was speaking the National Prosecutor was nodding, and immediately stood up "Sir that sounds reasonable, and we have an in-built cover story. All we would add is that Mr Lu asked for the matter for come back as he wanted to seek the court's permission for him to pay the fines levied on both him and his wife."

Lu Jinhu stood up and quietly said "Whatever is decided as a cover story is fine by me."

Debate raged for another five minutes before the final story was reached, and the matter then finalised before the court.

As they all walked out Hou Yi leaned over, and said "The b*stard…"

"Which one?" Anna quickly interrupted.

"The older one. The bragging about how matters were being resolved and that the police had gone over the top. He then claimed that we were behind this, targeting him. I wanted to…"

"Yi calm down." Said Anna, putting her hand on his arm.

"Then there was that other one, who manipulated the court on his penalty."

"Boss that is still subject to his full cooperation with the prosecution of his father. Fail to cooperate, and the deal is gone. That was written into the agreement that we signed, and he let it through."

"Amanda Mei, you failed to tell us that."

"Well Boss, I am not your wife, just your employee, the wife of your friend, and stepmother to your wife's sister-in-law. Where does any description of those roles tell me that I have to tell you."

Hou Yi had an angry look on his face, like he was about to explode. Anna was just able to keep in her laughter, but Yao Tan could not help himself, and started laughing. Once he finished, all he could say was "Yi, she is right, but she damn well owes me an explanation."

With that the four of them left the courthouse, Hou Yi, Anna and Amanda all headed to Hou Enterprises while Yao Tan headed to XF International for the balance of the working day.