Chapter 1633: Submission

Regarding the issue of succession, there had long been a consensus within Samsung.

Koreans favor sons over daughters. In their eyes, if family property is given to a daughter, it largely goes to an outsider. Unless there is truly no other choice, as long as the male heir is somewhat capable, the successor will be the son.

The same applied to Samsung.

Although Lee Kun-hee had never publicly stated it, everyone knew that his successor would undoubtedly be Lee Jae-yong.

And now, Lee Kun-hee was deeply disappointed in his son.

"Father, I..."

Lee Jae-yong, scolded by his father, quickly lowered his head.

Within the empire of Samsung, Lee Kun-hee was the supreme authority, and the same held true in the Lee family. The man who had defeated his many siblings was the ruler of the family.

Both Lee Jae-yong and Lee Boo-jin had to bow at Lee Kun-hee's feet.

"You! How many times have I told you? We are businessmen. No matter what we do, we must put the company's interests first."

Lee Kun-hee looked coldly at Lee Jae-yong: "Since Zhao Fusheng invited you and Boo-jin to meet in China, what does that mean? It means he wants to show us his strength and his sincerity for cooperation. Under such circumstances, tell me, why didn't you go?"

Lee Jae-yong remained silent; clearly, his father's words left him with no rebuttal.

"Boo-jin, this time in China, you will be in charge of the negotiations."

Lee Kun-hee, however, paid no heed to his son's reaction, saying coldly.

Lee Boo-jin was startled for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

Since her father had arranged it this way, she had no choice but to carry it out. As for her brother's feelings, they were utterly unimportant.

Family affection, though present in the households of wealthy conglomerates, was by no means paramount.

"Both of you, leave now. I'm a bit tired."

Lee Kun-hee waved his hand wearily, dismissing his two children.

The siblings exchanged a glance and cautiously walked out.

At the door, Lee Jae-yong opened his mouth to speak, but Lee Boo-jin spoke before him: "Jae-yong, this time, you can't blame me."

"I know."

Lee Jae-yong gave a bitter smile and shook his head helplessly: "I didn't expect Father to think so highly of that Zhao Fusheng."

"Father doesn't think highly of him, but of the benefits."

Lee Boo-jin glanced at her brother and said slowly.

Lee Jae-yong was taken aback, then laughed and nodded repeatedly.

It had to be said, Lee Boo-jin's assessment of their father was quite apt.

No one knows a father better than his children; Lee Jae-yong knew best what kind of person his father was.

As Lee Boo-jin said, Lee Kun-hee was absolutely a man who put interests above all else. Back then, for the sake of Samsung's legacy, he could completely destroy his own brothers and sisters, showing just how cold-blooded he was at heart.

In his eyes, even his own son, if he stood in his way, would have to be punished.

"Don't worry, this time I know what to do."

Lee Boo-jin said slowly.

Lee Jae-yong nodded, sighed, but said nothing more.

No one knew that years earlier, Lee Boo-jin and Lee Jae-yong had already secretly formed an alliance.

To be precise, it was Lee Boo-jin, the older sister, who first reached out to her younger brother Lee Jae-yong, indicating that she had no intention of competing with him for the position of heir.

This move of hers undoubtedly pleased Lee Jae-yong very much.

Whether she was sincere or not, as far as Lee Jae-yong was concerned, he was happy to see one fewer competitor.

"To be honest, I'm looking forward to seeing what surprises that Chairman Zhao can give me," Lee Jae-yong said with a smile to his sister.

Frowning slightly, Lee Boo-jin's expression turned serious because of Lee Jae-yong's words.

"What's wrong?"

Seeing his sister's expression, Li Zairong was somewhat surprised.

"Zairong."

Li Fuzhen looked at Li Zairong and said slowly, "I know you're not convinced about that Zhao Fusheng, but you must understand, our goal is cooperation, not competing with him over who's better. That would be meaningless."

This was her true feeling; the most taboo thing in business is acting out of spite, because it's utterly pointless.

In her view, this cooperation with Zhao Fusheng might well be an opportunity—a chance for the Lee family to step out of Samsung, out of Korea.

Everyone has ambition, and Li Fuzhen was no exception. Who wouldn't want their own family to develop better?

Although the Lee family was known as the master of Samsung, in fact, they held less than two percent of the shares, relying on a complex web of voting rights and equity control to manipulate the Samsung Group.

But in reality, the wealth truly in their hands was not that much.

Li Fuzhen was not resigned!

She truly hoped her father could reach a cooperation with Zhao Fusheng, so that at the very least, the family would open up another independent battlefield.

That was why she tried to persuade Li Zairong not to affect this negotiation.

Because Li Fuzhen was well aware that perhaps her father was considering the same things she was.

...

...

Zhao Fusheng was not clear about what the Lee family was scheming. For him, this cooperation was actually his open strategy.

Whether it was Li Jianxi or Zhao Fusheng, both knew what the other's goal was. The reason they were both interested in cooperation was that it could help each achieve their respective objectives.

"Win-win, understand?"

Zhao Fusheng sat in the chairman's office of Future Group and said to Zheng Yao.

Zheng Yao looked at him helplessly: "So, this is how you fooled Dong Chenxi?"

"What do you mean by 'bluffing'!"

Zhao Fusheng immediately protested, "I was persuading her with emotion and reason, persuading her, understand?"

"I don't understand."

Zheng Yao said irritably, "I just don't get why you're so pessimistic about Twitter. Although all that reasoning you just gave sounds very correct, the problem is, Twitter has come this far in two years. Why are you so sure it won't change in the future? Besides, since you've seen these problems, why didn't you tell Evan Williams and the others?"

This was what she found most baffling. Zhao Fusheng clearly knew where the problem lay, yet he didn't tell Twitter's top brass led by Evan Williams. Was it that he didn't trust those Americans?

Zhao Fusheng smiled bitterly. "Do you think they don't know themselves? If I told them, they might not believe my judgment. Besides, do you think they have no guard against me?"

This was his honest thought. Although he was a major shareholder in Twitter, Zhao Fusheng had actually received news more than once that Twitter's top management was approaching other Wall Street venture capitalists.

As the saying goes, 'Those not of our kin are bound to have different hearts.' These eight words hold a lot of truth.

In the end, it was all about the struggle for interests.

Of course, for Zhao Fusheng, the overlap in certain functions between Twitter and Facebook was also a major reason he chose to give up on Twitter.

Biting off more than one can chew is a major taboo in business. Zhao Fusheng didn't want it to end up as a game between his left and right hands.

"Alright."

After hearing Zhao Fusheng's words, Zheng Yao nodded helplessly.

She wasn't trying to persuade Zhao Fusheng to change his mind; after all, Dong Chenxi had already sent an invitation to Samsung. If she changed her mind now, it would be like publicly challenging the other party.

No normal person would do that unless they were crazy.

She was just simply curious why Zhao Fusheng used that reason to convince Dong Chenxi.

"The people coming from Samsung will most likely be Lee Boo-jin and Lee Jae-yong." Zhao Fusheng said to Zheng Yao, "When the time comes, you can receive them."

"Me?"

Zheng Yao was taken aback. "There's no need for me to get involved, right? Didn't Dong Chenxi send the invitation? Future Investment can handle them. Why should I participate?"

"You're the CEO of Future Group." Zhao Fusheng said matter-of-factly, "I'm the boss, so of course I'll make my appearance last."

At that moment, Zheng Yao really wanted to kick the guy.