At that moment, someone outside the conference room pushed a wheelchair in, and the person pushing the wheelchair was the middle-aged man who had delivered the method to Qing Chen. Seated upon the wheelchair was an extremely frail old man.
But the old man's complexion was pale, his lips purplish-blue, and just outside the door of the conference room waited more than a dozen doctors and nurses, ready to perform emergency treatment at any moment.
Qing Chen thought to himself, "When you were fishing by the Dragon Lake, you didn't look at all."
What is this? He's actually putting on an act!
And what's more, the acting was quite impressive—the feeling of being short of breath was extremely lifelike.
Qing Chen looked around and noticed that the expressions of the others showed no sign of anything amiss.
Could it be that only he knew the old man was just acting?!
No, that's not right, Li Yunshou definitely knew as well, but he was not sure about the others.
What Qing Chen did not know was that not just anyone could go to the Dragon Lake. There were always people guarding the place, and even Li Su and Li Ke could not get anywhere near it.
The Autumn Leaf Courtyard was not really as harmonious as it seemed; Qing Chen had only seen its most peaceful side.
The old man's gaze did not turn to Qing Chen; he simply sat weakly in the wheelchair and said, "I am unwell, so I'll keep this conference short and to the point. I'll speak first, and if you have any thoughts, you can wait until I've finished. You can take my words as a last wish or as admonition, all I need is for you to listen."
The old man continued, "The first matter, as long as the Li Family exists, eliminating Jindai and Deer Island will be the perpetual goal and pursuit of every generation of the Li Family."
"The second matter, all of Li Yunyi's genetic potion and intelligence industries will be turned over to Li Changqing. With the coming turmoil in the Federation, our intelligence agencies must be controlled by one person, there must be no divergence."
This was essentially a personnel appointment and dismissal. He had only mentioned the transfer of Li Yunyi's power without assigning any new duties to him,
This indicated that the old man was highly dissatisfied with Li Yunyi's past work, and that Li Yunyi's branch of the family would likely find it difficult to enter the core of power for decades to come.
"The third matter, no matter when, the trade with the North must not stop."
"The fourth matter, within thirty years, there can be no compromise regarding financial and taxation legislation; it is one of the foundations of the Li family."
"The fifth matter..."
The old man listed more than ten matters in succession, and finally said, "The nineteenth matter, the Li Family has a tradition that values the order of seniority and respect for teachers and teachings. Do not forget the traditions of the old Lee family."
Many people in the conference room were stunned; it was clear that this was specifically said for Qing Chen's sake, indicating that everyone should not question Qing Chen's status within the Li Family!
Among these nineteen matters, the old man did not even mention the movement of the Federal Group's military forces, nor did he name a successor as the Family Head. Instead, he made a point to mention respect for teachers and teachings.
This confusion reigned among many.
At this point, the old man said, "Alright, I have finished speaking. Do you have anything to say?"
At a side of the long table, Li Yunyi suddenly stood up, "Dad, what did I do wrong? Why are you giving all my power to Li Changqing? What does she have..."
Before he could finish speaking, the old man suddenly passed out.
In an instant, the entire conference room was thrown into chaos, and even the usually composed Li Yunshou roared, "Doctors, nurses, come in and save him!"
Inside the conference room, people in the spectator seats were at a loss; Li Yunyi stood there dumbfounded, never expecting that he would not even get a chance to defend himself.
As the doctors rushed in, soldiers armed to the teeth entered the conference room: "Please leave in an orderly manner."
Qing Chen, utterly confused, followed the soldiers' orders and started walking out. At one point, even he began to doubt whether the old man's condition had suddenly worsened.
After all, the old man had been staying by Dragon Lake all this time, a place cold and damp, making it quite plausible for his condition to deteriorate.
However, just then, Li Changqing passed by him, escorted by Lao Jiu, "It's just turned nightfall. Wait for me at Autumn Leaf Courtyard later; I'll come over after a while."
Qing Chen couldn't help but laugh and cry. The old man was critically ill, and here she was, still in the mood for an outing, making it clear that she was in the know and aware the old man was faking it.
With this realization, he also put his mind at ease.
After leaving the conference room, Qing Chen didn't know where to go and somehow ended up walking towards Dragon Lake.
But when he arrived there on foot, to his surprise, he found the old man under the moonlight, already changed into a fishing smock and beginning to knead bait!
Qing Chen walked over, not hiding his irritation, "You're taking this play-acting too lightly, aren't you? Just half an hour ago, you were critically ill, and now you've come here to fish?"
The old man retorted with equal annoyance, "You're not even worried about whether I'm okay or not. I was critically ill, and here you are at Dragon Lake, trying to mess with my Dragon Fish?"
"The feeling's mutual," Qing Chen, who had not brought a small stool today, simply sat cross-legged next to the old man, "Who are you performing for with all this? The conference room was in total uproar, it was almost turning into a funeral home with people about to start wailing."
"It wasn't specifically for anyone," the old man sighed, "The main point is, previous meetings were too lengthy. For each decision I announced, they would argue for ages. A trivial matter would take days to settle. But this time, how wonderful it was – I spoke, and then I left. I'd like to see who dares to question me. I'm on the verge of death; do I need to waste time dealing with them?"
Qing Chen was speechless, "So, just to avoid listening to everyone arguing during the meeting, you went through all this trouble?"
A leader of a financial consortium, just to avoid hearing arguments in a conference, had resorted to such a childish tactic.