Chapter 164 A Fair Competition

Lin Pingchao was irritated. To please Lin Xiaotian and change the old man’s opinions about him, he prepared these two gifts. However, they were immediately ruined by Qin Haodong.

As he thought, even if his gifts remained complete, their value was less than one-tenth of that of Lin Momo’s Jade Chicken.

If this happened, he might give Lin Xiaotian a worse impression. Therefore, he cried foul.

Lin Zhigao hurriedly pulled Lin Pingchao back and scolded, “Today is your grandpa’s eightieth birthday, why are you so noisy? Don’t talk nonsense.”

Lin Pingchao shouted as loudly as before. “It’s unfair! Unfair!”

There was dead silence in the room, and Lin Xiaotian’s expression turned grave. He looked at Lin Pingchao and asked, “Why did you say that?”

Lin Pingchao answered, “She is the president of the group and in charge of everything. Of course, she could get everything she wanted, a fine jade, a great carver. If I were the president, I could prepare a much better gift for you, grandpa.”

Lin Xiaotian’a face looked gentler after he heard the words. “It doesn’t matter how much the gifts worth, but your love for me does. So it’s nothing about fairness.”

Not as others expected, Lin Pingchao did not stop pursuing the matter and continued to say, “It is, grandpa!”

“I’m also your grandchildren and the only man among the third generation. I’m only one year younger than cousin but as well-educated and excellent as her. Why she could be the president of our group but I couldn’t?”

“Shut up!” Lin Xiaotian beat on the table and shouted angrily, “You have no place to talk about our family business!”

Although scared of his grandpa, Lin Pingchao was determined to speak his mind. “I only want to compete fair with consin, grandpa, to see who can do better for the position.”

Lin Xiaotian was about to thunder when an old man in whose sixties chimed in, “Brother, Pingchao was right. Several years ago, he was too young to take charge of the group, but now, he has grown up and should be given a fair chance.”

The speaker was Lin Xiaotian’s cousin, Lin Xiaofeng, an immediate family member who had a say in the family matters.

Another old man agreed with him immediately. “Yes, that’s right. Pingchao is outstanding among his peers. We should give him a chance.”

Following these two men, many other seniors of the family all stood out to defend Lin Pingchao, and at last, an old man about eighty rose up tottering and said, “Xiaotian, Momo did well for the group, yet, she is a girl and will be someone’s wife sooner or later. But Pingchao is a man. We should give him a chance.”

This old man, the last one of the senior generation of the family, had great seniority, thus, Lin Xiaotian had to listen to him.

At the point, Lin Xiaotian realized Lin Pingchao schemed all these, otherwise, there would not have been so many people standing out for him.

Lin Xiaotian was caught in a dilemma. As the family master, he had to treat everyone fair, so, if he did not listen to those who defended Lin Pingchao, he would be thought tyrannical and unfair, but, if he took their advice, it would impair his dignity and do an injustice to Lin Momo, who had worked so hard.

Finding Lin Xiaotian in a quandary, Lin Momo stepped forward and said to him, “Grandpa, I’d love to compete with cousin. If he is capable enough for the job, I’ll quit.”

“Ok.” Lin Xiaotian sighed. It was sensible of Lin Momo to compromise, which helped him out the quandary.

He then turned to Lin Pingchao, “How do you like to compete with Momo?”

Lin Pingchao was overjoyed by Lin Xiaotian’s agreement. What he had done was not out of impulse but a scheme. The seniors had been persuaded to stand out for him, and some of them had even got precious gifts from him.

Seeing that his plan worked, Lin Pingchao suppressed his excitement and answered, “Since our family mainly engages in jade business, what about both cousin and I operate a shop selling jades with no support form Lin’s Group? And who earns more money will be proved to be better for the job.”

On hearing the words, Lin Xiaofeng turned to old man, “It sounds good, brother. If they can operate a shop well, they can manage our group well too.”

He then looked aside at Lin Momo and asked, “Momo, what do you say?”

“I agree.”

Lin Momo replied without hesitation.

She had had it enough of Lin Pingchao’s harassment, so, she hoped he would give up his intention after the competition, but if Lin Pingchao won her in the end, she would quit from the group.

“Well, let’s do it then, but, just to be fair, we have to detail the rules,” Lin Xiaotian said after consideration, “we’ve newly set up a shop in the city and yet to open it. I’ll let you two opetate it for the competition.

“Each of you in charge of half of it. You could run your own jade business there, from 8 a.m to 5 p.m, who makes more money within the period win.

“After you go back today, you can start the preparation, and the competition begins three days later.”

Lin Xiaofeng nodded and said, “Sounds fair, but in case of dispute, we need a referee to supervise the cashier.”

In fact, Lin Xiaofeng wanted to be the referee himself, however, Lin Xiaotian had spotted his intention and knew Lin Xiaofeng was on Lin Pingchao’s side, so, he said a solution before him, “It’s easy. We set up only one checkout for all the goods in the shop, Zhigao and Zhiyuan will supervise the cashier together. In this way, everything will go on well.”

It was indeed a clever idea because though Lin Zhiyuan and Lin Zhigao were blood brothers, they favored their own children more and would supervise each other. Thus, no one could falsify the accounts.

However, Lin Zhiyuan spoke his worries. “It’s great, but the problem is how we can prevent them from buying the goods with their own money. If that happens, it will be a competition about money, not their talents in selling.”

Lin Pingchao’s heart skipped a beat because he had planned to use his own money to win the competition if he failed to sell more goods than Lin Momo. However, he had not expected Lin Zhiyuan discussed the matter in advance.

Lin Xiaotian replied after thinking for a while, “Easy. All the money they earn that day will be handed over to the group, so, I’m pleased to see if they’d love to make some contributions.”

The older, the wiser. Though the solution could not ensure the competition absolutely fair, it prevented deceptions in some way. After all, no one wanted to gave away their money to the group for nothing.

Speaking of this, Lin Xiaotian turned to Lin Momo and Lin Pingchao, “What do you say?”

Lin Pingchao had tried hard to earn himself a chance, so, he agreed immediately. “That’s fine with me.”

Lin Momo also answered, “As you suggested, grandpa.”

After the little incident, the party went on.

Lin Momo and Qin Haodong went back to Lin’s Villa in the afternoon after the party was over.

When they entered the house, Tang Tang immediately rode on Damao and went out for fun. Lin Zhiyuan said to Lin Momo, “Momo, you could have refused their request. Grandpa wouldn’t force you.”

“I knew grandpa would not force me, but people always said I depended on him to become the president. I wanted to prove they were wrong.

“Besides, Lin Pingchao troubled me so many times recently. I want him to give up his intention forever after this.”

“But, what if you lose to him?” asked Lin Zhiyuan.

“I’ll quit from the group. I’m really tired of being the president.”

“As long as you please, I’ll be on your side whatever you do.”

After saying this, Lin Zhiyuan went upstairs, leaving Qin Haodong and Lin Momo alone in the room.

Seeing his future father-in-law left, Qin Haodong took Lin Momo’s hand and asked, “Momo, what do you think of my performance today?”

“Brilliant. The gift you prepared for grandpa is really great. I appreciate it.” Lin Momo kissed Qin Haodong on the cheek and said, “As a reward.”

She then contined to say, “You frustrated Lin Pingchao really hard. Seeing the gifts he spent thirty million yuan on turned into ruins, he was almost mad.”

“He deserve it for he always wanted to steal the spotlight from you. I don’t allow one to wrong you,” Qin Haodong said, “by the way, he was really scheming. He was enraged back then, but not mad. What happened later was a trap.”

Lin Momo asked in surprise, “So, he said he wanted to compete with me on purpose, not out of impulse?”

“No, of course. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been so many people standing out for him. They were his lobbyists.”

Lin Momo still could not believe her ears. “Is that so? If it was a scheme, why did he rack his brains to prepare the gifts for grandpa? He could have proposed the competition directly.”

“You use your talents in business, but he uses his in plotting aginst his families. He was trying every means to replace you in the group.”

Qin Haodong continued, “If I don’t miss my guess, he had two plans. One was to please grandpa with the gifts so that grandpa might be glad to make him the president. The worse one was to force grandpa in front of all the families to agree his competiton with you.

“And because of me, his first plan failed, so, he then chose the worse one.”

Lin Momo was silent after hearing the words. Just as Qin Haodong had said, she was smart enough to find out about the scheme, but because Lin Pingchao was her family, she had not thought of him that way.

Qin Haodong continued to ask, “Do you want to win or lose to him?”

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