Chapter 19: Half

The Su Group board met at nine, in the long room on the sixtieth floor.

Su Yu was on time.

This had never happened before, and several directors checked their watches against the clock.

Seven weeks had passed since the gala.

Shu Fan's company was in liquidation, and Shu Fan was waiting for his trial.

Shen Li had sold his flat and moved into a shared one.

He had appeared on a newspaper's front page once, under the headline The Man Who Handed It Over.

It was the day the agreement ended.

Lu Chen sat at the vice president's right hand in his grey suit with the notebook shut on his knee.

He had not mentioned the date at breakfast.

He had eaten no toast at all.

Su Yu had noticed both, and had said nothing.

He had been awake since four, with a pen.

"Item one," said the board secretary. "Mr. Su has requested a transfer of shares."

Chairman Su lifted his eyes from the table with an expression of deep, innocent calm.

Su Yu stood up.

He had a folder with him, and a black fountain pen, and his hair was flat on one side.

"I hold sixty percent of the voting stock of the Su Group," he said.

"I got it from my father on the day he made me vice president. I did nothing for it."

"I want that on the record."

"Noted," said the Chairman.

"I'm giving half of it away. Thirty percent."

The room was suddenly very still.

A thin director at the end of the table cleared his throat.

He had been losing arguments to the Chairman for twenty years.

"Mr. Su. To whom?"

"To my husband."

Every head in the room turned to Lu Chen.

Lu Chen did not move.

"A moment," said the thin director. "I am aware of the agreement. It is public."

"The marriage is on a year's probation, and the year ends today."

"A transfer of that size to a spouse whose status expires at midnight"

"It doesn't expire," Su Yu said.

"The agreement"

"Is a piece of paper. Here is a different one."

He put the folder on the table and slid it down the polished wood.