CHAPTER 1027: CHAPTER 1024: INTERROGATION (PART 1)

Miss and Xiao Manxuan both looked at Ou Mengmeng with great surprise, then showed looks of admiration on their faces. Each of them secretly glanced at Lin Tian and then lowered their heads, not knowing what they were thinking.

As Ou Mengmeng was speaking, a crisp "ding" sound rang out, and Qian Jin, who had previously sat down, stood up again. He walked to the center of the hall and bowed to everyone around him one by one.

Only then did Lin Tian realize that the sound was a reminder to everyone that the semi-annual meeting was about to start. No matter what each person was doing before, they all put away their thoughts at this moment and looked towards Qian Jin.

After exchanging greetings with everyone, Qian Jin then cheerfully announced, "I declare the start of this year’s semi-annual meeting. Thank you all for attending, thank you to the Sea Navigation Chamber of Commerce for being here, and thank you to the Ou family and the Li family for their presence..."

As the secretary-general of the chamber, Qian Jin hosted the meeting and delivered an opening speech filled with words of welcome. Lin Tian turned his head to look at the position of the Li family, just in time to see Li Wenrong looking over. Their eyes met in mid-air, and a slight smile appeared on Li Wenrong’s face.

Seeing this smile, Lin Tian knew that this guy was up to no good. But why did the Li family send him here? Were they just trying to cause trouble?

"Next, please welcome Mr. Yun to deliver a speech. Let’s give him a round of applause." Qian Jin’s voice interrupted Lin Tian’s thoughts.

"Clap clap clap..."

The enthusiastic applause broke out as Yun Haoyu, under everyone’s gaze, stood up and walked to the center of the hall. As the president of Yunhua Commerce, Yun Haoyu naturally needed to summarize the past work and look forward to the future.

As a leader’s speech, it is generally unpopular. If you speak too little, the audience says you are perfunctory and lacking in substance, unable to complete a speech fully. If you speak too much, they say you are long-winded and disregard the audience’s feelings.

Fortunately, Yun Haoyu didn’t fall into clichés; at least Lin Tian didn’t find it soporific. Yun Haoyu’s speech summarized the work of the first half of the year, praised the progress made, and pointed out the shortcomings.

The shortcomings he pointed out were not generalizations but very much to the point. Most importantly, he also sincerely gave suggestions for improvement, which made many people nod frequently. Quite a few even took out notebooks to record Yun Haoyu’s speech.

As one of the largest families, the Yun family’s perspective and angle of viewing things are naturally different. Yun Haoyu can think of things that ordinary people wouldn’t consider.

Yun Haoyu’s speech earned loud applause. After the president’s speech was over, it was the turn of guest representatives to speak. To Lin Tian’s surprise, the guest representative was Li Wenrong.

However, this arrangement seemed appropriate, since the Li family is the head of the Sea Navigation Chamber of Commerce. Li Wenrong’s speech not only represented the chamber but also represented the Li family, making him the best choice.

When Li Wenrong went up to speak, a few positions of merchants applauded particularly loudly. Lin Tian turned his head for a few glances, and saw Qian Jin among them, which made Lin Tian feel very disdainful.

A proper secretary-general praising an outsider as if Li Wenrong were the president of Yunhua Commerce, besides Qian Jin, people from the Bai Family also applauded particularly enthusiastically, making Lin Tian have every reason to suspect that this group might be betraying from within.

Li Wenrong, on the other hand, enjoyed the praise from others. As he smiled, he looked at Lin Tian a few times, either intentionally or unintentionally, with a look of provocation and pride.

Of course, Lin Tian understood the meaning behind his look: no matter how strong and capable you are, Lin Tian, you are still a small figure without status. Even if I am not capable of fighting, I am still a noble child of high status. In such high-profile occasions, I am the one in the spotlight, not you, a small fry.

Lin Tian dismissively curled his lips, thinking that giving a speech was nothing to get so arrogant about. If I wanted to be a president, I would have accepted the Yun family and Ning family’s offers just now. Why would it be your turn to gloat?

Ou Mengmeng was more direct, bluntly saying, "A dignified child of the Li family, yet laughing like an idiot. Li Zhengyang should recharge his son’s intelligence."

Yun Haoyu and Ning Weirong, upon hearing her comment, looked rather peculiar, thinking that the Ou family’s little girl was indeed quite feisty to dare to comment on Li Zhengyang’s descendant in such a way.

Xiao Manxuan suddenly smiled strangely, leaned over, and whispered a few words in Lin Tian’s ear, making Lin Tian’s eyes widen in shock.

The little girl actually said she wanted to send out Little Zi to secretly prank Li Wenrong. Lin Tian remembered how he played a prank on Sun Decai last time, having Little Zi chew Sun Decai’s clothes into tattered beggar garments, making him thoroughly embarrassed, to the point where Sun Decai probably wanted to die.

If Li Wenrong were to follow Sun Decai’s footsteps today, he would surely become the laughing stock among families, not daring to step out the door in the future. Xiao Manxuan was really ruthless to her cousin.

Lin Tian hurriedly stopped her, saying, "Second Miss, please don’t. I don’t mind you teaching him a lesson, but not at the commerce meeting. Doing so would undermine Uncle Yun, after all, Li Wenrong is attending as a guest representing Yun’s family. If something happens in the chamber, it wouldn’t be good for Uncle Yun."

"I see, then I’ll wait until after the meeting to teach him a lesson, hehe, on the road, it’s even better when there are more people," Xiao Manxuan said with a devilish grin, and Lin Tian could almost see two devil horns growing on her head.

"What are you talking about?" Wang Wanxi suddenly turned to ask, her face having a knowing smile, as if she already knew Xiao Manxuan’s prank.

"Aunt Wang, it’s nothing. We were talking about some personal matters, right, Lin Tian?" Xiao Manxuan grabbed Lin Tian and shook him with a cheerful smile, as if threatening to punish him if he didn’t cooperate.

Lin Tian nodded helplessly and agreed, "Yeah, just some personal matters." Wang Wanxi amusingly shook her head and turned back, ignoring them.

Xiao Manxuan gave Lin Tian a sweet smile, lightly scratching his arm, showing her satisfaction. Lin Tian’s heart itched from her small hand’s tickling, as if experiencing a secret romance right under the Miss’s nose.

On the stage, Li Wenrong, unaware he had already made it onto Xiao Manxuan’s prank blacklist, was still grandiosely making his lengthy speech. The smug look on his face made it seem like he had already become a hero in promoting collaboration between the two commerce chambers.

Lin Tian was extremely displeased seeing this. Initially, he felt sympathy for Li Wenrong, who was about to be pranked by Xiao Manxuan, but now Lin Tian thought this guy entirely brought it upon himself.

Li Wenrong’s lengthy speech caused many to yawn—the speech was so empty it became a lullaby.

After finishing his speech, it was the turn for the Ou family representative to speak. Naturally, the representative was Ou Mengmeng. Her speech, like her personality, was simple and straightforward. For the businessmen who were used to long speeches, it was refreshing, and Ou Mengmeng received a lot of applause.

The speeches of these representatives were all part of the procedure. When the representatives finished speaking, Qian Jin, the host, once again stood in the center of the hall.

Everyone thought the next step was to move into the next part of the process, but Qian Jin, smiling brightly, said, "Dear friends, we’ve talked a lot about failed experiences just now, but there have been a few major events in the business world recently that you surely still want to hear about."