Volume One, Chapter 45: Su Guoxing Wants to Take Her Money

That evening, no matter how much Su Wanqing loathed the idea, the thought of her mother's ashes forced her to return to the Su household once again.

Su Guoqing had always been a ruthless man. Ever since she found him in Haicheng five years ago, he had initially put on the act of a loving father. He even deceived Su Wanqing by claiming he loved her mother so deeply that he couldn't bear to bury her ashes, having a special room built in the backyard just to enshrine them. Su Wanqing had gone there to pay her respects several times.

It wasn't until she learned that Su Wanning was only two months younger than her that she realized Su Guoqing's profound affection was entirely a performance.

When she confronted him, Su Guoqing dropped the act altogether. Knowing how deeply she cared, he deliberately used the matter to suppress her. He would even threaten to scatter her mother's ashes to the winds if she disobeyed him.

Even though Su Wanqing had never laid eyes on her biological mother, as a human being, she could never tolerate the thought of her mother's remains being desecrated. Moreover, deep down, she sensed that her mother must have loved her. Now that she was a mother herself, she understood the agony of a ten-month pregnancy better than anyone. If not for the immense power of maternal love, no one could endure it.

Gazing at the grand gates of the Su residence, Su Wanqing's eyes turned dark and inscrutable, her hands clenching into fists at her sides. One day, she would take her mother's ashes back and lay them properly to rest.

Upon stepping into the house, she saw Su Guoqing seated right in the middle of the sofa. A steaming pot of tea was brewing in front of him, accompanied by a small purple clay tea cup. The living room was rich with the aroma of tea.

"Sir, Miss Wanqing has arrived," the butler stepped forward to announce.

Su Guoqing put down his newspaper, looked up upon seeing Su Wanqing, and gave a cold, faint nod. "You're here? Have a seat."

He acted as though their fierce argument last time had never happened.

Su Wanqing had no desire to bicker with him either. With a similarly cool nod, she chose a seat farthest away from Su Guoqing.

"Did you finalize the divorce with President Xie today?" Su Guoqing cut straight to the point.

Su Wanqing nodded.

"I heard you asked for ten percent of the Xie Corporation's shares?"

"Mm."

"How much do those pay out in dividends each year?"

Su Wanqing pondered for a moment. "Around ten billion, I suppose."

Truth be told, she didn't have much concept of such staggering sums, but she had overheard Xie Yanchen and Min Yuanhua arguing about it last time.

Su Guoqing's hand trembled slightly as he poured the tea, nearly spilling the liquid from his cup.

Was this the difference between top-tier financial magnates and ordinary people like them? For families like theirs, getting a few hundred million in annual dividends was already considered a blessing, yet the Xie family casually threw around tens of billions.

Su Guoqing felt a surge of excitement, though he immediately coughed to mask his loss of composure. Feigning nonchalance, he finished the rest of his tea before speaking. "Xiaoying, have you given any thought to how you'll spend all that money?"

Su Wanqing frowned slightly. People only ever worried about not having enough money; who worried about not knowing how to spend it? But she quickly understood—Su Guoqing was probably eyeing the money again.

"I'll put it in the bank to collect interest," she said deliberately.

To business-minded people like him, leaving such a vast fortune sitting idly in a bank was nothing short of a terrible waste.

Just as she predicted, the moment the words left her mouth, Su Guoqing broke into a violent fit of coughing.

It took him a good while to recover. "Putting that much money in the bank earns a decent amount of interest, surely, but haven't you considered other avenues? Like investments..."

Su Wanqing shook her head. "No need. The interest is more than enough for me. Besides, investments carry risks."

Su Guoqing keenly seized upon the opening. "Then what if there was an investment with zero risk? Would you be willing then?"

Su Wanqing felt his motives were practically written across his face. While she sneered inwardly, outwardly she maintained a calm shake of the head. "No, I don't understand any of those things. It's too much trouble. After the divorce, I just want to live a quiet life with Kexin, and I don't want to get involved in anything else."

A flash of disdain crossed Su Guoqing's eyes. Raised in the countryside, uneducated, and completely devoid of vision!

"Xiaoying, here's the thing. I know you lack experience in these matters and understand nothing about finance. However, you have a natural advantage—you have a father who is an expert in this field.

"How about this? You sign a power of attorney now, and once the ten percent share of the funds arrives, I will manage it on your behalf. Don't worry, twenty percent of the profits will belong to you. As for me, I'll simply take a small agency fee for my trouble."

As he spoke, Su Guoqing pulled a folder from behind him and opened it. Inside was a proxy agreement he had prepared long ago, right after learning that Su Wanqing would acquire such a massive stake in the Xie family.

His mental calculations were meticulous. Even though Su Wanqing and Xie Yanchen were divorced, Su Wanning surely wouldn't be able to marry into the Xie family immediately. And no matter how much Xie Yanchen pampered Su Wanning, he would never hand over ten percent of his annual shares to her.

Regardless of everything else, Su Wanqing was his daughter and rightfully owed a contribution to the Su family. The current state of the Su family was neither too difficult nor too easy—they were better than some, worse than others, but in upper-class circles, they were mere blades of grass with zero say or influence.

However, if such a massive cash flow entered their accounts every year, climbing a few rungs up the social ladder would be entirely within reach. While their future position among the elites might not rival the Four Great Families of Haicheng, they would definitely secure a spot in the upper tiers.

After a while, once the storm surrounding the Xie family blew over and Su Wanning was married in, the resources available to them would be inexhaustible. Breaking into the second tier would be an effortless feat!

Just thinking about it these past few days had left him too excited to sleep.

He never entertained the possibility that Su Wanqing might refuse. After all, the terms he offered were exceptionally generous; she would receive twenty percent of the profits without lifting a finger. Only a fool would turn that down.

Su Guoqing pushed the document across the table toward Su Wanqing and pointed to the signature line. "Come on, just sign right here."

Su Wanqing took the file and glanced through it casually. While she appeared to be simply flipping the pages, her mind was actually extracting the text at lightning speed.

To an ordinary person, this document might indeed make their potential earnings look astronomical—a seemingly foolproof venture that would prompt many to sign in an excited frenzy.

However, Su Wanqing was different. Although she had spent the last five years acting as a full-time housewife within the Xie family, she was far from ignorant about the outside world. Furthermore, Su Guoqing was her father; she had thoroughly dissected his character long ago. For instance, while the contract meticulously detailed how profits were to be divided, it completely omitted who would bear the losses.

Most importantly, Su Guoqing was fundamentally a terrible businessman. The current standing of the Su family was solely due to the solid foundation laid by his ancestors, coupled with her mother's help in establishing sensible corporate regulations years ago, which kept the company from going under.

Leaving aside his earlier years and focusing purely on the past five years that Su Wanqing was aware of, Su Guoqing had invested in a total of twenty ventures: eighteen went straight into bankruptcy, one was still operating at a loss, and another barely broke even.

Those had only been small-scale investments. If he were actually handed a fortune of this magnitude to play with, forget about dividends—even the principal would likely vanish without a trace.

Su Wanqing pushed the document back across the table and refused flatly, "I already said, I'm not investing."