Chapter 357: The Real Plan

Chapter 357: Chapter 357: The Real Plan

The Luo family isn’t short on talent, nor is it lacking in male heirs.

Luo Yaqian’s father has brothers, and she has younger brothers as well as male cousins.

Yet Luo Yuqing wanted to seize control of the Luo family, going so far as to decide never to marry.

Although Father and Mother Luo treated Luo Yuqing as their own daughter, she didn’t carry the Luo family bloodline. On top of that, she was a girl.

As long as she didn’t have Luo family blood in her veins, it would be impossible for Luo Yuqing to ever truly control the family’s assets, regardless of her gender.

Unless she was the only heir the Luo family had left.

"What’s your purpose in telling me all this?" Wang Chenning asked, not quite grasping her true intentions.

"Haven’t I told you before? I never planned on getting married. I want to control the Luo family and become its matriarch!" Luo Yuqing sighed softly. "But now, I’m not a direct-born daughter of the family, just an adopted one. It will be incredibly difficult to make my dream a reality!"

Wang Chenning asked another question. "Can the Luo family compare to the Yang family? Or the Lin, Zhao, and Zhang families?"

"They can’t," Luo Yuqing said, shaking her head. "The Luo family is a third-tier family. Our influence isn’t particularly high, but it’s not low either. We have a significant number of businesses, and if you calculate our total assets in US Dollars, it would be around ten to twenty billion. Under my management these past few years, our assets have been appreciating rapidly. With time, they’ll be worth even more!"

Wang Chenning understood what she meant. She wanted to gain complete control over these tens of billions of US dollars in assets and use them as a foundation to continue expanding and strengthening the family business.

Furthermore, she had no intention of abandoning the assets she had so painstakingly built. She wanted to keep them firmly in her grasp.

"What’s the rush?" Wang Chenning replied with a chuckle. "We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. As long as you keep producing results and your influence continues to grow, the Luo family won’t just kick you to the curb."

"That’s not a given!" Luo Yuqing shook her head. "If word of this gets out, the people who were once wary of me might not be anymore. Those who used to show me respect might stop. I could lose many things that were supposed to be mine."

After a pause, she added softly, "Perhaps... even you will look down on me!"

"I came from Chang’an with no foundation in Yandu whatsoever. Yet it’s been less than two months, and look where I am now. No matter how you look at it, my starting conditions were worse than yours, wouldn’t you say? I don’t have your reputation or your network!" Wang Chenning said, smiling at Luo Yuqing. "Even if your situation is worse than mine, you won’t end up worse off than most people, right? Besides, you have me now!"

"Listening to you say that, I suddenly feel confident again!" A smile finally broke across Luo Yuqing’s face. "You’re right. You came to Yandu with no network at all, but in such a short time, you’ve made excellent use of your resources to get to where you are. That’s truly impressive. If we help each other from now on, we’ll definitely do even better!"

To show her gratitude to Wang Chenning, and to make her feelings for him clear, Luo Yuqing took the initiative and closed the distance between them.

Luo Yuqing’s forwardness came as a pleasant surprise. Wang Chenning didn’t punish her for it; he simply gave her the most wonderful experience and then fell asleep beside her.

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Before leaving with Zhao Xiao’an for their spring trip to Jiangnan, Wang Chenning made a point of posting on his social media.

"Spring is in full swing, which makes it the perfect time to gather raw medicinal herbs. I’ve taken some time off to travel and collect enough herbs to last the year. My students’ lessons won’t be interrupted; I’ll be prerecording my lectures and having one of my disciples with extensive clinical experience supplement them in person. If anyone needs me, you can leave me a message on WeChat, but I can’t guarantee a timely response."

After Wang Chenning posted this, many people messaged and called him to ask about it.

A number of people wanted to go with him to gather herbs, including his disciples, his students, and Yang Xiaofu.

But Wang Chenning turned them all down.

He told them his itinerary was already set and he didn’t want to change it.

He would be going out again to gather herbs in the winter and would definitely bring assistants then, since it would be freezing cold.

Anyone interested could join him then.

Yang Xiaofei also called to ask about Wang Chenning’s trip.

She had no intention of going with him, however.

She was still bothered by the way Wang Chenning had teased her the other day.

Besides, she wanted to keep some distance from him to avoid completely losing herself.

Yang Xiaofei was certain that if she spent all day with Wang Chenning, she would quickly lose her own personality and become his accessory.

All Wang Chenning had to do was move his hands or his mouth, and she found it hard to resist him.

If he were to use his full arsenal of tricks, she would be completely done for.

She was only calling to ask about the situation because she felt she ought to.

Finally, she invited Wang Chenning and Wang Chongjiu over to Yang Liansheng’s place for dinner.

"We can talk about the engagement over dinner!"

Wang Chenning agreed.

Wang Chongjiu had been very busy these past few days.

He hadn’t been to Yandu in many years, and some old friends he had lost touch with were taking the initiative to invite him for tea or a meal. Considering Wang Chenning’s future, Wang Chongjiu didn’t refuse them. While their old friendship was one reason for the invitations, a more important one was Wang Chenning’s outstanding performance recently. He had practically become the most sought-after figure among Yandu’s young elites.

Everyone felt Wang Chenning had a limitless future, which was why they were so eager to invite Wang Chongjiu out.

With so many invitations, Wang Chongjiu was even seeing less of Yang Liansheng.

Yang Xiaofei had offered to send a car to pick up Wang Chenning and Wang Chongjiu, but Wang Chenning declined.

He drove his own Ford Edge, taking Wang Chongjiu to the dinner.

On the way, Wang Chenning brought up the engagement with Wang Chongjiu. Wang Chongjiu told him that Yang Liansheng had listened to Yang Xiaofei and was willing to call it off. However, they hoped the matter wouldn’t be blown out of proportion, as it would cause the Yang family to lose face, and Yang Xiaofei as well.

Wang Chenning nodded. "I won’t say a word anyway."

Wang Chongjiu reminded him, "Elder Yang will probably want to speak with you alone later. You’d better think about what you’re going to say."

"Grandpa, I know what to say."

When their car arrived at the Yang family’s villa, Yang Xiaofei wasn’t back yet.

After some small talk, Wang Chongjiu stood up. "Chenning, why don’t you keep Grandpa Yang company for a bit? I’m going to take a walk in the garden. Our courtyard at home could use some work, and I see Grandpa Yang’s garden is quite well done. I’ll take a few pictures for reference."

"Go ahead and have a look around, Chongjiu," Yang Liansheng said with a broad smile. "Chenning and I will chat for a bit."

However, as soon as Wang Chongjiu was gone, Yang Liansheng’s smile vanished.

"Chenning, are you very dissatisfied with Xiaofei?"

"How could that be?" Wang Chenning shook his head. "We simply don’t want to be constrained by an engagement. Having this hanging over our heads makes both me and Xiaofei feel suffocated, and it makes our interactions unnatural. Please rest assured, Grandpa Yang, even without an engagement, we will still be very good friends. The ties we’ve built won’t be broken, and we’ll cooperate even more in the future.

In fact, I will always consider Xiaofei my most trusted partner. If I manage to achieve anything of note in the future, she will certainly get the largest share of the benefits!"

At these words from Wang Chenning, Yang Liansheng’s expression changed once again.