Chapter 686 - Parental Quality
Lu Zihao"s suggestions for the prenuptial agreement were heavily favourable to Iris. The most prominent clauses he suggested were as follows:
Iris would receive US$10 million for every child she had with Jin Liwei.
If Jin Liwei ever cheated on Iris, he would pay her US$50 million as compensation.
In the event of a divorce, Jin Liwei would need to pay hefty child support to all of their children which would equal to 65% of his total monthly income. As a billionaire on a global level, this was a HUGE amount of money every month.
Also, he would need to pay US$900 million in alimony to Iris. Lu Zihao actually wanted at least US$1 billion but Kang Huizhong, Jin Liwei"s lawyer, strongly opposed when the amount reached the billion-dollar mark. However, Lu Zihao didn"t back down and wouldn"t allow anything lower than 900 million.
After the divorce, Iris would get full custody of their children while Jin Liwei would only be awarded with limited visitation rights. This arrangement was just like the results of Jiang Ying Yue and Long Hui"s custody battle for Little Jun that both Iris and Jin Liwei"s expressions turned dark upon hearing it.
There were other clauses in the prenuptial agreement but these were the major ones that elicited the greatest reactions from not only the couple but also Dom and Qiao Yu. Hong Shaoqiang and Kang Huizhong saw their reactions but kept their expressions professional and neutral while continuing to painstakingly read and explain each of the clauses.
Kang Huizhong was especially feeling conflicted at the content of the prenup. As Jin Liwei"s lawyer, of course he would prioritize his own client"s interests over anyone else. This kind of prenup which placed his client at a severe disadvantage made him extremely unhappy. He attempted to block and change almost all of the clauses in order to make them more favourable to Jin Liwei but unfortunately, Lu Zihao was surprisingly a force to be reckoned with during the drafting of the prenup. He knew exactly what he wanted and was determined to get it, only allowing very minor adjustments to his suggested clauses no matter how hard the lawyers tried dissuading him.
Jin Liwei"s lawyer felt confused. Wasn"t Lu Zihao a sworn brother of Jin Liwei? As someone who had been working closely for Jin Liwei throughout the years, Kang Huizhong was privy to his client"s relations.h.i.+ps so he knew just how close all five sworn brothers were to each other. Even Lu Zihao"s grandfather, the business genius Sir Lu Jianhong, didn"t discriminate by blood and treated all sworn brothers as his own grandsons.
So why then was Lu Zihao so adamant on favouring Iris Long in the prenuptial agreement? Shouldn"t he be backing his own sworn brother instead of an "outsider"? Shouldn"t it be bros before hos all the time?
Kang Huizhong mulled about it numerous times but still failed to understand Lu Zihao"s purpose for doing this. He even suspected that Lu Zihao and Iris Long were having an affair. Maybe there was an insidious plan of stripping Jin Liwei of all his wealth and then divorcing him so that Iris and Lu Zihao could get together in the end.
However, Kang Huizhong eventually discarded this speculation. As a successful lawyer, he was also quite adept at reading people. Although not always accurate in his a.n.a.lyses, he could still sense whether some people were hiding something from him. And just by observing the interactions between Lu Zihao and Iris Long, he couldn"t detect anything romantic between them at all. On the contrary, Iris and Lu Zihao acted more like a guilty child and a strict father rather than secret lovers having an affair.
"Weird," the lawyer thought, as he detected the parental quality on how Lu Zihao treated Iris. It was a completely different kind of overprotectiveness from a lover. It was simply…a father"s overprotectiveness. Kang Huizhong had no other way to explain it. He looked at Iris and Jin Liwei who both had expressions that looked like they ate something sour and bitter at the same time. Iris" expression didn"t look like she was faking it.
"Big Brother! What is this?!" Iris exclaimed, unable to hold her dismay any longer. Then she glared at the lawyers. "I don"t want this agreement! Tear it up! It"s so unfair! Just draft a standard prenup. I don"t need all those ridiculous clauses!"
"10 million per child... 50 million in the case of cheating... 900 million alimony... Wow," Dom gasped. He lifted the doc.u.ment closer to his face, his hands trembling a little. "Wait…uh, did it say that it"s all in US dollars? This is a mistake, right? It"s in yuan, right? Not American dollars, right?"
"Mr. Chua, we didn"t make a mistake. Everything is really in American dollars," Hong Shaoqiang told him in a serious tone.
"Oh…" Dom"s voice became weak. Two seconds later, he started hyperventilating.
Iris and Popcorn both freaked out after seeing Dom like that. (Ice Cream continued sleeping on Iris" lap, dead to the world.)
"Dom? Dom! Ambulance. Liwei, call an ambulance! Oh no. What"s happening to you, Dom? Don"t die!"
"MEOW!!! MEOW!!! MEEEEEOOOOOOOW!!!!!!!"
Dom wasn"t just an a.s.sistant to Iris anymore but was now her best friend as well. Seeing her best friend unable to breathe in front of her made her panic.
As for Popcorn, Uncle Dom was his most precious Slave #1 who understood him and his sister Ice Cream better than anyone else in the world, even better than Mommy and Daddy. Like his mommy, he also began panicking and crying for his Uncle Dom not to die. He began slapping his Uncle Dom"s increasingly pale face with his fluffy paws in an effort to "revive" him.
"Calm down, love. Dominic will be fine," Jin Liwei said, holding Iris in a firm embrace.
Qiao Yu stood up and left his seat. Then he pushed down on Dom"s back until the guy"s head was hanging upside down between his legs.
"Breathe, boy."
For some reason, Qiao Yu had a sense of déjà vu as Iris continued to panic and demand for an ambulance behind him.