Chapter 354: For the Reputation
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Transfer? Isn’t it power of attorney?” Zhang Baochen was totally confused. “She would never agree to that.”
“You have to the ask the more demanding request first and have her refuse it, and then offer the less demanding request.” Gu Nianzhi had to explain everything step by step to Zhang Baochen. “She will agree to the latter.”
Zhang Baochen seemed to understand but was still confused. “Are you sure that’ll work?”
“Just wait. I’ll write up a transfer of assets authorization and all I have to do is alter a few lines in this authorization.” Gu Nianzhi took out her laptop to open the original file and quickly saved a separate transfer of assets authorization by first deleting the stipulations about power of attorney. All the terms were reorganized using the template for the transfer of assets authorization. Taking the flash drive on which the file was saved, Gu Nianzhi and Zhang Baochen went to the military police building’s photocopying room to ask someone to help her print out the transfer of assets authorization. “Here, you can take these two documents to see your mom.” Gu Nianzhi pushed the papers into Zhang Baochen’s hands. “Show her the transfer of assets authorization first and she’ll reject it for sure. Then, you can take out the power of attorney authorization and say that it’s just in case of emergencies. It’ll be difficult for her to handles her assets from prison, so you will help her instead. Not all situations will require money, but if something comes up, you can deal with it right away instead of having to wait to see your mom to make a decision.”
If they were to wait for Zhang Feng to make all the decisions, nothing would ever get done. Zhang Baochen finally understood Gu Nianzhi’s plan and glanced at the two documents before cramming them into his briefcase. “I’ll go give it another try.”
…
Zhang Feng was seeing Zhang Baochen for the second time that day. At first, she’d been unwilling to talk to him, but Zhang Baochen had asked the guard to tell her that there was something important they needed to discuss, so she had reluctantly agreed. “What now?” Zhang Feng was irritated. “If it has to do with the assets, you can save your breath.”
Zhang Baochen nervously placed the transfer of assets authorization on the desk first and stammered, “Mother, the thing is, I went outside and thought about it. Maybe I didn’t explain myself properly in a way that you would understand.”
“Understand? What is there to understand?” Zhang Feng wanted to roll her eyes. She was almost at her limit after being imprisoned for only a few days. “It’s always about the money, isn’t it?”
Zhang Baochen was also angry now. Why was he running around and getting insulted for? This was all because he hadn’t wanted his mother to end up in prison! But from her eyes, she truly didn’t care about prison if it meant being able to keep her money. The issue, though, was: how woud she keep her fortune under these circumstances? Gu Nianzhi’s words reminded him that once Zhang Feng was sentenced, all her assets would be automatically confiscated. Not only would she lose everything, but she would also get charged additionally for not returning the illegal income. Did she really want to spend the rest of her life in prison? She didn’t seem to care, but Zhang Baochen and his children did. Their reputation would be ruined if their grandmother was sentenced to jail. Zhang Baochen and Qian Shihui were eager to have their children marry into affluent families, but now that Zhang Feng had gotten into this mess, their family could never be elevated to the upper class circles.
Zhang Baochen frowned. “Mother, don’t only think about the money. Did you think about how your assets will be declared as illegal income once you are convicted? All the money will be confiscated. Rather than having it be confiscated in the future, why don’t you… give me power of attorney right now?” Zhang Baochen pushed the document to Zhang Feng. “Please sign it. I don’t want to lose both you and the money. We won’t be able to keep the money or keep you out of jail.”
“Nonsense!” Zhang Feng panicked and her heart wrenched as her expression contorted. “That’ll never happen.I won’t get convicted!”
Zhang Baochen remained silent and watched Zhang Feng until she calmed down. He said with anguish, “Mother, it’s not up to you and whether or not you get convicted. If you refuse to listen to me, then there’s nothing else I can do for you but to try and visit you in jail more often.”
“Nonsense!” Zhang Feng screamed at him again. “How can you say these horrible things instead of finding someone to help me. Are you really my son? Did you talk to the Chief yet? Will he allow you to move back in?”
Zhang Baochen shook his head. “The Chief’s already given me a house; why would he still ask me to move back?”
Zhang Feng stared at him blankly. She wondered how things had gotten to this point? Just before Christmas, Grandfather Huo had finally promised to marry her and yet now, only past the Lunar New Year day, and everything was already in shambles?
“Mother? Are you listening to me?” Zhang Baochen rapped the table and took out the power of attorney authorization as Gu Nianzhi had instructed. “It’s fine if you don’t want to sign the transfer of assets authorization right now; this is the power of attorney authorization that you can sign instead. It only authorizes me to help you handle your assets, but everything still belongs to you.”
“Oh.” Zhang Feng’s mood was at the lowest now and she no longer had the energy to argue with her son. She couldn’t transfer all her assets to Zhang Baochen at this point, even though he was her only son. However, she was willing to grant power of attorney of a partial amount of her assets in order to keep some security for herself. In the depths of her heart, she still refused to believe that she would be convicted. But just in case anything were to happen, she would allow Zhang Baochen to handle half of her assets and also give his family some peace of mind. Zhang Feng looked at the inventory in the power of attorney authorization and crossed out half as she told Zhang Baochen. “Remove this half and I’ll give you full power of attorney on the other half.”
Zhang Baochen considered it and knew it was better than her not signing anything at all. The power of attorney authorization was messy from the scribbling, so he had to get a clean copy. “Ok, I’ll have someone print a new power of attorney authorization then bring it here for you to sign.” Zhang Baochen stood up and left with the document.
He met Gu Nianzhi outside the building and said to her, “My mom only agrees to give me power of attorney over half her assets.” He then showed the power of attorney authorization that Zhang Feng wrote on.
Gu Nianzhi looked at it and nodded. “Ok. Let’s do what she says and auction off what we can.”
Zhang Baochen knew that his mother was very stubborn; this was the greatest possible compromise. When the power of attorney authorization was revised, he took it back in to see Zhang Feng.
Zhang Feng immediately signed it and reminded Zhang Baochen, “You have to be careful to not let people cheat you. These are all real estate properties and you can make rent off of them. You won’t have to do anything else and Wenna and Wenjie will have nothing to worry about.”
Zhang Baochen nodded, but felt very conflicted. Zhang Feng was really looking out for his family, but her methods were too extreme and he couldn’t accept it. He took the signed power of attorney authorization to Gu Nianzhi. “Shaoheng asked me to give it to you and take it back.”
Gu Nianzhi took out another power of attorney authorization for Zhang Baochen to sign. “This is the power of attorney authorization that allows a professional auction house to sell the real estate. The auction process will start as soon as you sign this.”
Zhang Baochen quickly signed it and asked her, “The proceeds will be going to the military?”
“Of course. The military will send you the invoices.” Gu Nianzhi put the two signed documents into her briefcase before waving goodbye to Zhang Baochen and getting inside the car. She returned to the Special Ops base and brought the two documents to Huo Shaoheng’s office. “Huo Shao, here are the power of attorney authorizations you requested.”
Huo Shaoheng flipped through them and noticed something was amiss, “Why are so many assets missing?”
“Zhang Feng only agreed to give power attorney over half her assets to Zhang Baochen. We had no choice.” Gu Nianzhi shrugged. “Earlier, she had even refused to sign, but she finally agreed after some persuasion.”
Huo Shaoheng shook his head silently and filed the documents as he waved to Gu Nianzhi. “Thank you. You can go back first. I still have a meeting to go to.”
She left the office in high spirits and went back home to prepare for school.
Huo Shaoheng took the two documents and contacted the auction house he was familiar with so that they could list the properties and begin the auction process. The auction house was to resume business officially on the 16th day of the first month of the lunar calendar, but reopened earlier on the 6th to especially handle Zhang Feng’s property at Huo Shaoheng’s commission.
Zhang Feng’s properties were all in prime locations around the city. They were luxuriously finished with large living spaces, so these were all considered luxury mansions. Finding buyers were not difficult since the homes were good quality and located in good school districts. In order to sell them all as soon as possible, the auction house did not pad the price and used the purchase price as the starting price. Many keen eyed purchasers came forward and so it took only half a day for the internal private auction to sell off half of Zhang Feng’s assets, with a net amount of approximately 600 million RMB. The funds would be transferred to the auction house’s bank account within three days.
Three days later, Huo Shaoheng took the bank statement to Grandfather Huo. “Grandfather, Head Nurse Zhang gave her son power of attorney on half her assets and these are the proceeds from the auction. It only amounts to half the debt she owes.” Huo Shaoheng set the bank notice in front of Grandfather Huo. “What do you think we should do?”