The second ring of Beijing.
Ye family villa.
"Dad's condition is critical. I think we need to prepare for the worst."
"The company cannot be without a leader for a day. I believe we should convene a shareholder meeting as soon as possible."
"Yes, the sooner the better. Company matters cannot be delayed for a moment."
In the villa's living room, everyone was talking one after another, their words revolving around company matters.
However, it was understandable. The Ye Group's market value was close to a hundred billion, and the Ye family, as the major shareholder of the Ye Group, had assets worth tens of billions.
"Eldest brother, second brother, I want to go see Dad."
Ye Jianming looked at his eldest and second brothers in the living room, as well as their respective wives and children. Everyone's mind was on the company, and not a single person cared about their father who was bedridden. He felt a chill in his heart.
However, the people engaged in a heated discussion did not pay attention to Ye Jianming's words.
He quietly stood up and walked towards the third floor of the villa.
Reaching the largest room on the third floor of the villa, before Ye Jianming could push the door open, someone happened to walk out.
"Third young master."
The person who came out was a Ye family servant. Seeing Ye Jianming standing at the door, the servant quickly greeted him proactively.
Ye Jianming nodded, then pushed the door open and walked in.
The spacious room was now desolate.
An old person's scent filled the room.
Ye Jianming slowly approached the large bed in the center.
An old man lay on the bed. His face was unnaturally pale. Although his eyes were closed, his brows were slightly furrowed.
"Cough, cough."
The old man on the sickbed suddenly coughed violently.
Ye Jianming hurried forward, "Dad, are you alright? Have some water."
As he spoke, Ye Jianming picked up the water cup on the bedside table and helped the old man take a sip.
He propped up the pillow and placed it behind the old man, letting him lean on it.
"Dad, are you feeling any better?"
The old man turned his head to look at Ye Jianming and asked, "Are your eldest and second brothers downstairs discussing how to divide the company?"
His voice was very aged, and his tone carried a kind of detached indifference that saw through everything.
"How could that be?" Ye Jianming shook his head. "They are waiting for Doctor Qian downstairs, so they asked me to come up and see how Dad is doing."
After hearing this, the old man let out a scoff. "Heh, Jianming, no one knows a son better than a father. You can't even look people in the eye when you lie. Besides, do I not know the character of your eldest and second brothers?"
Indeed, when Ye Jianming spoke earlier, he had subconsciously lowered his head, not daring to look his father in the eyes.
Now that his father had seen through him, he could only choose to remain silent.
Seeing Ye Jianming's reaction, the old man spoke to himself, "I know my own body very well. It's not that Doctor Qian isn't coming, even if he did, he would be helpless.
"Heh, speaking of which, it's ironic. In your three brothers, I thought you were the most useless. Not only did you find an ordinary woman to be your wife, but later you couldn't even manage your own daughter's shop. Therefore, I often neglected you, and you had almost no shares in the company. But I never expected that when my life is about to end, it would be you who visits me often. Hahaha, perhaps this is God's way of... cough, cough, puke..."
The old man looked at Ye Jianming by the bedside, feeling very guilty.
As he was speaking, he started coughing violently again. This time, at the end of the cough, he actually spat out a large mouthful of blood, and the blood was black.
"Dad! Dad, don't say anything more. I'll call and ask Doctor Qian where he is."
Seeing the old man spitting blood, Ye Jianming became flustered.
He hurriedly reached for his phone, but the old man pressed his hand down.
"Dad?"
Ye Jianming looked at the old man with some confusion. However, the old man smiled slightly. "It's fine. After spitting out this mouthful of blood, I feel much better. Don't worry, even if I'm going to die, I can last a few more days."
Although the old man had coughed up a large amount of black blood, he seemed to be in better spirits than before. Ye Jianming stared at him for a while before finally relaxing.
Recalling what the old man had just said, Ye Jianming also felt a pang of sadness.
Old Master Ye had three sons, and Ye Jianming was the third.
Since his eldest and second brothers were much older than him, when Ye Jianming was still in college, his two brothers had already started working in the company.
By the time he graduated and also entered the company under his father's arrangement, his eldest and second brothers were already division heads.
However, Ye Jianming had no ambitions for this. He just did his job conscientiously and diligently.
Two years later, due to work, Ye Jianming met his current wife.
But when he brought his wife home, he was met with opposition from the entire family, especially Old Master Ye.
In his words, the Ye family was a prominent family in Beijing. For Ye Jianming to find the daughter of an ordinary worker as his wife was simply a disgrace to the Ye family.
He then stated that Ye Jianming should break up with her and find a wife of suitable social standing as arranged by the family.
Unexpectedly, Ye Jianming, who had always been the most obedient to Old Master Ye, was determined to marry his current wife this time, even to the point of moving out of the Ye family.
In the end, Ye Jianming married his current wife, but this also led to an unpleasant rift with his family.
Even after several years, when Ye Jianming returned to the Ye family, he gradually became an outsider in the family.
To this day, Ye Jianming is merely the deputy general manager of a small subsidiary company under the Ye family, with an annual salary of only a few hundred thousand. The villa he lives in was also discarded by his eldest brother.
Perhaps to ordinary people, a salary of several hundred thousand and living in a villa would be considered a very good life.
But the Ye family was the major shareholder holding seventy percent of the Ye Group's shares, with assets in the tens of billions.
Moreover, his eldest and second brothers were core figures in the Ye Group, living in luxurious mansions worth hundreds of millions and arriving in Rolls-Royce Phantoms worth tens of millions. Compared to them, Ye Jianming was like an adopted child.
It was precisely because of the decision he made back then that he was now so downcast and far from the core power circle of the family, that Ye Jianming absolutely did not want his daughter to follow in his footsteps.
He poured all his energy into his daughter, cultivating her to be very outstanding.
But unexpectedly, in the end, his daughter, like himself, chose a poor boy, which naturally made Ye Jianming unable to accept it.
Although Ye Jianming still loved his wife very much to this day, as the third young master of the Ye family, he was now so downcast and miserable. Ye Jianming did regret it at times when he woke up in the middle of the night.
Therefore, Ye Jianming strongly opposed his daughter marrying a poor boy.
Because he didn't want his daughter to regret it like he did.
Unexpectedly, his slap caused his daughter to run away from home for five years.
Five years later, his daughter returned. Ye Jianming was actually very happy, but on the surface, he couldn't bring himself to admit it.
Hearing his father's words now, Ye Jianming's heart was filled with mixed emotions.