Chapter 26 Return of the Empress 1
This was what Tang Moyu found out the moment she checked Tang Enterprise's cash flow for the past five years…… This wasn't what she was expecting to see the moment she joined her family business.
When Elder Tang summoned her back home, she thought that the problem could be easily solved once she found the root of it but she never thought that it was this bad.
The documents her cousin, Tang Zhelan and her fellow executives gave to the stockholders— which consisted primarily of their family members, indicated that the company was making profits and had a good cash flow. Each of the stockholders was being paid out in time as well.
But the more Tang Moyu dug, the more inconsistencies she had found along the way. Tang Zhelan had omitted numerous resources and facts from the reports to deceive everyone.
Tang Moyu thought that the only reason her cousin could get away from it for so long was because the company was privately owned and their family trusted her. She didn't want to accuse her cousin when she first discovered the issue, so instead, she tried to get to the bottom of it.
If it was another company, she wouldn't waste her time and would immediately list down all the issues the company was facing. Embezzlement, gross mismanagement, and incompetence were the few she could name at the moment. The family business had been running for more than seventy years now and this was the first time it was facing this kind of problem.
Several millions of dollars seemed to be unaccounted for over the years, of course, this could only be proven once she started to run a full audit, but that would take months to finish.
When she delivered the report to Elder Tang, the old man swore for the first time since he retired from the company. This wasn't what he expected to hear from his granddaughter.
"Grandpa, let's not jump to conclusions, I might be mistaken—"
"Moyu, someone like you won't be mistaken when it comes to numbers."
Within the Tang family, everyone knew how insanely good she was with numbers. She graduated from Yale before joining Feng Conglomerate and went to Wharton during her exile.
"You were able to find the problem in a short time, even though I've given you five years' worth of data. Not anyone would be able to do it like you, Moyu."
The old man was brimming with pride for her but he also couldn't help feeling guilty that he wasn't able to help her during her lowest time. He was gravely sick and was confined in the hospital when Tang Moyu's mother chased her out of the Tang Mansion.
Tang Moyu was a rare genius born into their family. However, in spite of it, she was groomed from a very young age to become the perfect wife for a businessman, who in the end casted her aside when she wasn't needed anymore.
"The hard facts and numbers don't lie. I know something is wrong the moment I asked Zhelan about the deals she entered before." Elder Tang sigh dejectedly and looked at his granddaughter. If she was a normal girl, she would have cried and complained about the grievances she suffered in the hands of her own family and would not be helping them like this.
That morning, after leaving her twins in Qin Jiran's care, Tang Moyu met with Li Meili before heading to the board meeting. She wasn't nervous, she knew she came prepared. People would easily pick up her weaknesses if she wasn't careful. In everyone's eyes, the empress should be confident and competent wherever she was.
The elevator stopped at the top floor and opened into a lobby with a high ceiling and marbled floor. Secretaries rushed to welcome her and Cheng Ning as they arrived, obviously expecting their arrival.
"Miss Moyu, everyone is here and waiting for you."
"Right this way, Miss Moyu." One of the secretaries led them into a wide hall and opened the frosted glass door of the conference room.
The floor to ceiling windows gave the room a spacious aura despite the imposing large table at the center of the room, with several black leather chairs surrounding it.
Everyone stood up from their seat as soon as they saw Tang Moyu. There were murmurs of greetings once she'd taken her seat next to her grandfather and across her cousin, Tang Zhelan.
Some were curious if the Empress was still as invincible as before and had the prowess to help the company flourish once more. They heard about her return and how Elder Tang asked her to be an OIC for the past weeks while they were reshuffling the management of the company.
Tang Moyu felt like she was an outsider here, but she wouldn't back out like a coward when she clearly knew she could do something to help her family.
Elder Tang started the meeting without preamble. As the chairman of the board, he had an influence on the other board members, while Tang Moyu remained expressionless as he started to go over the issues within the company.
One of the executives who worked under Tang Zhelan raised his hand to get Elder Tang's attention.
"Hold on a minute. Are you sure this is accurate? It's only been a few weeks and yet she's able to find out the problem this soon?" The man in his late forties frowned deeply and glared at Tang Moyu.