During the board meeting with directors from other sections of the company. The President of Hongsheng Holdings sat at the round table, facing a group of twenty men all in corporate black. Hong Yongrui, a man in his mid sixties looked almost a decade younger than his actual age, he had a pa.s.sable look and was borderline portly in appearance. He sat at the head of the table, while the rest of them sat opposite each other from across the table. From the tables to the chairs, there was no questioning the quality, everything in the room was lavishly furnished, the heavy black door had the look of extravagance. The discussion was about acquisition of new technology that will make the company more compet.i.tive with other home and foreign companies in the same business with Hongsheng Holdings. They had been on it for close to two hours with no possible end in sight.Each suggestion that the directors made was as quickly discarded as when it was first brought up. None of them wanted to show any impatience nor annoyance at the company President, therefore they had to bite their tongues from letting out their inner thoughts. The men that sat at the table were closely similar in age, very much in their fifties.
All of a suddenly, a series of knock sounded at the door, the impa.s.sive look on the faces of the directors quickly changed to one of great curiosity. After the President of Hongsheng Holdings called out for the person to come in, that was when the door opened as the personal secretary and driver to the Hong Yongrui walked in, they saw a young man with strikingly good looks also dressed in a similar fas.h.i.+on as them. He curtsied to the people in the boardroom before making his way to where the President of Hongsheng Holdings sat, repeating the same greeting to him. Afterwards he pulled out his phone and pa.s.sed it to Hong Yongrui for him to see what was on it. In mere seconds, they saw his complexion lose color. His hands trembled as he held on to the phone as dark eyes moved in rapid succession across the screen of the phone. The men in the room wondered what it was, that Yi Suyi gave to Hong Yongrui that could be that distressing to him. Almost three minutes later, he pa.s.sed it back to Yi Siyu, still the color had not returned to the pale skin.
Shortly afterwards, the President of Hongsheng Holdings ordered that the meeting be moved to a later date, as he told them that he will revisit the discussion some other time. None of the men was bold enough to ask what the matter was all about, they saw the closed off expression on the slightly lined face and could tell that asking him will be like hitting the President of Hongsheng Holdings in the face. What turned out to be a tediously long meeting that they were all in a hurry to get over with, now became something that they were willing to stay behind, to hear the hidden message that the President of Hongsheng Holdings had to himself alone. The eyes of Hong Yongrui followed the figure of the men that filed out of the room, until there was not a single one left.
In an urgent tone Hong Yongrui asked to be taken home, Yi Siyu hurried to open the door for the President of Hongsheng Holdings, before following closely behind him. The walk from the elevator on the twenty sixth floor to the black stately car which stood at the entrance of the imposing high rise sparkling gla.s.s building, took about ten minutes. Yi Siyu briskly opened the back seat door for the President of Hongsheng Holdings, before hurrying to the driver"s seat, as he set the car into motion, speeding through the afternoon light traffic towards the Hong family Chateau.
The drive lasted for about fifteen minutes, with the car coming to a dead stop after pa.s.sing through the automatic white gates at the entrance of the imposing building of golden yellow. Without waiting for the door to be opened, Hong Yongrui hastily walked towards the door which had a couple of maids and butlers waiting in a single file close to the doorstep to welcome him home. They curtsied on seeing his approaching figure, but he walked pa.s.sed them, as though none stood waiting for him.
A few steps and he was standing in a grand living room, which had eight maids in dark uniforms with a white ap.r.o.n tied to the front with their hair pulled back, an air of youthfulness surrounded these young women. They all stood to the side with a curtsy to the President of Hongsheng Holdings.
Madam Hong still sat where she was, with her hands tightly clenching to the side folds of her clothing. She had on a vivid look of indignation, from the rigid way she held herself, Hong Yongrui knew that his wife had already heard what his daughter did on TV.
Neither of them would have guessed that their daughter could do that kind of thing, bringing shame and reproach to the highly esteemed family name.
He carefully took a seat by his wife on the white leather couch in the living room. The atmosphere was as though someone had died, which wasn"t even the case. Madam Hong and her husband did not know when their daughter would be arriving and chose not to call her, as though in silent agreement, they remained where they sat, waiting on their daughter"s return.
Four hours after, Hong Ruolan strolled in, surprised that her parents weren"t talking to each other, the TV wasn"t even on, if she had looked at the faces of the maid that would have clued her in that she was walking on thin ice with her parents. But, her eyes were on them and not the maids, as she curtsied before straightening back up. None of them gave her the usual reply, instead a chilly lack of response was what she received in return, this got Hong Ruolan thinking that maybe they were about to scold her for not taking the family business seriously. She didn"t know that her father and not only her mother would take great offense for getting involved in the Zhang family tussle.
"A human being should always act as one! When you choose to behave like an animal then we will treat you as such! You are the face of Hongsheng Holdings, your action will always reflect back to me! Now that you chose to dine with animals, you leave your mother and I with no choice, but to mold you back!"
After Hong Yongrui harsh rebuke to his daughter, he asked for his golf club to be brought to him. In lightning speed, one of the maids returned with the silver iron rod and placed it in the hand of the President of Hongsheng Holdings, who grabbed it with force and told his daughter to lie flat on the spotless white rug.
Raw fear starkly showed on the face of Hong Ruolan, her eyes begged her father, but he had on an unforgiving look. Shaking in fear, the heiress of Hongsheng Holdings tossed her bag to the side and laid stretched out on the rug. No sooner had she completed the order, what followed next was the strikes of the rod on her back and b.u.t.t, accompanied by screams and cries of distress and pain. The maids that stood watch had to keep their eyes averted from seeing the disturbing scene in front of them, even Madam Hong was not immune to this, as tears fell freely from the tormented face of the once proud woman. Unable to bear the suffering of her only child.
What the President of Hongsheng Holdings meant by the statement he made, was that the Zhang family and Zhang Corporation was now considered as less than human since the Zhang name was now tainted by scandals. Therefore, his "pure" well bred daughter and their scandal free family are considered decent humans, since the Hong family name still commanded so much respect from the media and general public. The beating was supposedly meant to knock Hong Ruolan back to her senses, clearly her father thought her a.s.sociation with the Zhang family drama, stole away his daughter"s rationality. This way Hong Yongrui will completely cleanse his daughter from the "grime" that the Zhang family smeared his daughter with.