Tan Jinxian was so angry that he coughed violently. Pointing at his daughter, he roared, "If you want to blame someone, blame your cold - blooded grandfather. He didn't leave you a single bit of the family fortune. Instead, he gave it all to that outsider!"
Tan Wanru was too lazy to argue with her father. "Don't drag me into the disputes of your older generation. Besides, Wei Zhengdong is going to divorce me. We're in the process. I don't have time to deal with the company's affairs now. If you're still up to it, why don't you handle them yourself?"
"Divorce?" Tan Jinxian almost fainted from anger. "How could Zhengdong do such a thing? Didn't he love you the most? You two were even planning to have a second child..."
"Plan my ass! The family is falling apart!" Tan Wanru stamped her foot in anger. "I'm going to find my younger brother right now and ask him to come out of that damned retreat immediately. Let him take back this damned position that's going to kill someone!"
"No!" Tan Jinxian stood up angrily and shouted sharply to stop her. "What do you want to call him for? I'm not dead yet! Women's opinions are the most stupid. I'd like to see how difficult it can be to run this company!"
So the Tan family fell back into Tan Jinxian's hands. At his sixties, he was busy with official business day and night. In just a week, his hair turned completely white.
Previously, thanks to good maintenance, he hardly grew a few white hairs in a year.
Moreover, there were hundreds of people in the Tan family, near and far, close and distant. They were all living a life of luxury and would reach out for money from the Tan family every month.
Tan Jinxian didn't know until he took over the accounts himself. Since he took charge, he was shocked to find out how extravagant his siblings were!
He couldn't treat his family badly. In order to make ends meet, he proposed to cancel the charity cause that Tan Linyuan had been insisting on, and several donation projects were immediately stopped.
As a result, it made the news in the whole Jiangcheng overnight. He was scolded by everyone in Jiangcheng as worse than a beast and faithless.
It would be difficult to convince the public with this public opinion trend for a while.
Because of this wrong move of his, the remaining few cooperation partners were also angry about the Tan family's behavior of canceling the donation for the sake of interests and directly announced that they would never cooperate again.
The company showed a trend of collapse in just a few months.
Without capital injection, new cooperation couldn't be carried out. The daily expenses of the hundreds of people in the family were hundreds of thousands. They would just reach out for money. The days of making ends meet made him more and more strapped for cash.
The top priority was to find a new large - scale cooperation partner to make the capital flow.
One of his subordinates reminded him, "When Tan Linyuan was still in power, he had cooperation with the big shot Li Guanyue from Jingbei. Why don't you contact him and see if he can help?"
Tan Jinxian was overjoyed and immediately sent someone to contact him. However, the other party mercilessly refused him.
The reply was also very straightforward: Li Guanyue cooperated with Tan Linyuan himself, not the whole Tan family.
Moreover, they had no intention of poverty alleviation.
The word "poverty alleviation" almost made Tan Jinxian hospitalized.
When did the Tan family ever fall to the point of "needing poverty alleviation"?
Driven to desperation, Tan Jinxian gritted his teeth and said that he was going to Changuang Temple.
It was he who forced that person away, so he had to go and fetch him back himself.
The early summer in Jiangcheng was already very hot. As soon as Tan Jinxian got out of the car, he felt the oncoming heat wave.
There was no air - conditioning in the temple. The sweltering heat made his eyes blacken. He just wanted to talk to Tan Linyuan as soon as possible.
As it turned out, the little monk told Tan Jinxian that Tan Linyuan was in retreat and meditation today and would only come out of the room in the evening, but only for ten minutes.
Tan Jinxian had to ask, "What time exactly? I'll come then."
The little monk smiled and said, "It's not certain. It depends on senior brother's own schedule. After ten minutes of relaxation, he'll go back into retreat again."
The implication was that if you missed it, you'd have to wait until tomorrow.
Tan Jinxian had no choice but to wait in the temple under the scorching sun.
Several times he wanted to turn around and go back, but thinking of the mess at home, he endured and waited in the temple.
He waited and waited until the sun set before he heard the news that Tan Linyuan had ended his retreat.
Tan Jinxian, who had waited all afternoon, was almost at the end of his patience. As soon as he heard that he had come out, he immediately asked the little monk to take him there.
As it turned out, he saw a back figure from afar, and it seemed that he was about to enter the meditation room again.
"Benefactor, you probably won't be able to see senior brother today." The little monk turned around helplessly. "He ended his retreat early today and is about to start the evening Buddhist ceremony."
How could Tan Jinxian wait until tomorrow?
The temperature in the early summer was getting higher and higher every day. If he delayed any longer, he would surely suffer heatstroke in this temple.
He quickly shouted from behind, "Linyuan! Linyuan! Uncle is here to see you!"
Unexpectedly, that person didn't respond at all. With a flash of his figure, he entered the meditation room.
The door closed, and no one could enter anymore.
He still wanted to go forward, but was directly blocked by the monks in the temple.
Tan Jinxian was so angry that he almost spat out blood. He had no choice but to turn around and go back, planning to come the next day.
As it turned out, he almost had the same experience the next day. Fortunately, he shouted loudly enough, and Tan Linyuan in front finally stopped and turned around.
Tan Jinxian let out a sigh of relief and quickly walked forward. "Linyuan, uncle wants to talk to you alone."
Tan Linyuan's expression was calm. He only replied indifferently, "If it's about family or business matters, please go back, uncle."
Before he converted to Buddhism and entered retreat, he had already explained the situation to Tan Jinxian. Of course, he couldn't break the rules now.
Tan Jinxian looked at his pure - hearted and cold - eyed appearance and understood without asking.
"You knew this would be the result, didn't you? You've almost ruined the Tan family!" he said angrily.
Tan Linyuan said calmly, "I've been a Buddhist for more than three months and haven't participated in any outside affairs. How can you say that I've ruined the family? Uncle, shifting the blame to others won't solve the problem."
"Besides, wasn't this the optimal solution that you and I discussed at that time?" His eyes were calm, without a trace of emotion.
Being retorted like this, Tan Jinxian's anger was immediately extinguished, replaced by shame.
After three months, he seemed even more detached and difficult to get along with.
"I've devoted myself to Buddhism. Please go back, uncle." After saying this, Tan Linyuan turned around and was about to enter the meditation room.
No matter how much Tan Jinxian wanted to save face, he had to humble himself at this moment. "Linyuan! Uncle is begging you."
During this period, Tan Jinxian finally realized that without Tan Linyuan, the Tan family was really leaderless.
A few years ago, when the Tan family declined after the old master's death, it was able to make a comeback entirely thanks to this young man in front of him.
Now, they could only rely on him to turn the tide.
"Linyuan, for the sake of our family, even if you can't end your retreat, please give uncle some advice. Otherwise, when you end your retreat, the Tan family - the Tan family will really cease to exist."
Looking at the painful and remorseful old man in front of him, Tan Linyuan didn't have much emotion in his heart. His eyes were as if he was looking at a stranger.
He just said lightly, "Uncle, have you ever regarded me as a member of the Tan family even for a single day?"
These words made Tan Jinxian stand there stunned.
Tan Linyuan said unhurriedly, still in a calm tone, "Since you haven't, what does the future of the Tan family matter to an outsider like me?"