The Qi Group has become a giant corporation after years of Qi Wang’s leadership at the helm. Even as his departure set off ripples across the ranks of the company’s higher echelons, Qi Qiuyu quickly called for a shareholder’s meeting to elevate her son she bore with Qi Wang, Qi Ze, into the position of Group President. The new leader of the Qi Group solidified his position by proving his worth in the few projects that followed, successfully quelling complaints of doubt that arose because of Qi Wang’s sudden abdication.
Upon his shoulders, they saw the reminiscences of his father. His boyish youthfulness remained and his methods had less surgical-precision and finesse compared to Qi Wang, but everyone began to believe that he would one day become a competent, if not exemplary, captain of the ship.
No one is indispensable. At least this philosophy worked in the Qi Group. Even as Qi Wang remained the savior who delivered the company from the brink of ruin in the past, and became the hand that nurtured and molded this company into the giant colossus of the business world it is today, Qi Ze was able to win over everyone in the boardroom with his charisma and ability. Slowly but surely, the memory of Qi Wang faded into oblivion.
After all, Qi Wang was only the Group President with no stake in the corporation. Despite his prodigious flair in business, no one would ever bat an eye on a king who had lost his kingdom. At forty-five, no one believed that possessing skills and talents would be enough to accomplish wonders, at least not without the help of money and influence.
With the unrest within the Qi Group quickly subdued, it didn’t really matter to the people below whether Qi Wang or Qi Ze reigned as President. Soon, newspaper headlines enumerating the whole Qi Group episode swiftly subsided.
Qi Ze sat comfortably in his chair and gazed out the French windows of his spacious office, taking in the breathtaking view outside as his smile grew broad in triumph.
Qi Wang had once seemed like an unscalable peak to him. Just by standing beside the man, he could feel himself shaking out of fear and respect. Even as he grew up looking up to Qi Wang, he never felt the closeness and intimacy that a son would normally have with his father.
This was especially true in recent years when Qi Ze entered to work at the Qi Group. His mother, Qi Qiuyu, had wanted him to start as Vice President of the Group, yet Qi Wang saw it fit to have him start as a measly Department Manager.
Qi Ze was hardly thrilled by the purported distrust that his father held for him.
However, that was hardly the end of his troubles; Qi Wang turned out to be a terrible taskmaster to please. He never stopped his overscrupulous fault-finding, pointing out each and every error Qi Ze committed with the precision of a surgeon. It was as if nothing Qi Ze had done pleased him in any way.
That marked the beginning of Qi Ze’s loathing for Qi Wang, eventually burgeoning into a grudge.
Qi Wang became President at the early age of 25. Even he has had his own share of blunders. Yet why could he not give his own son some leeway?
Qi Ze began to feel that Qi Wang disliked him as a son.
And the straw that broke the camel’s back was his dispute with Qi Wang when he insisted to take Qi Xiaoyu as wife.
Qi Wang’s reaction to his declaration came harshly and forcefully, that he had even threatened to have Qi Ze disowned. Right at that moment, Qi Ze lost all hope towards his father.
As far as Qi Ze was concerned, Qi Wang achieved his success only through the good graces of his mother Qi Qiuyu. Everything he owns was because of her, if not from her. Meanwhile, Qi Ze always believed that his surname of Qi came from his mother, not his father. He alone was the rightful heir to the Qi Group, he strongly believed.
So what gave Qi Wang the right to treat him so?
For exactly this reason, Qi Ze sided with his mother when Qi Qiuyu demanded to divorce Qi Wang.
No one could ever be happier than Qi Ze if Qi Qiuyu were to divorce Qi Wang, for this would definitely mean his proper ascension to the throne as President of the Qi Group.
The projects that he expeditiously launched without delay once he assumed his chair – projects that were planned out by Qi Wang prior to his termination before he could put them into realization – brought great profits to the Group and they became Qi Ze’s cornerstone to his presidency. He was still known as Mr. Qi to everyone, just like Qi Wang before, but the same address carried a vastly different significance now.
He has conquered the great unscalable peak that had once been beyond his reach. He has redefined those terms entirely.
“The information you asked for, Mr. Qi.”
A young male secretary came in with a stack of files and folios, handing them to Qi Ze.
Qi Ze graced him with not so much as a curt look. Ignoring him, he merely took the stack off the man’s hands and waved him out.
He transferred away every secretary that once worked under Qi Wang, replacing them with a new crop, freshly-handpicked by Qi Xiaoyu for him. They were all young men with hardly any distinguishing looks, but they were all competent and that was enough for Qi Ze.
That was all the information he requested about Qi Wang. The young secretary had been meticulous, as observed by Qi Wang, for he had clearly and carefully recorded Qi Wang’s activities with great detail since his departure from the Qi Group several months before.
Qi Ze has never tried to contact Qi Wang ever since his parents’ divorce. He had been busy as President of the Group and he could hardly spare a moment for his father. That said, he had one of his secretaries investigate him because of troubling news that Qi Xiaoyu told him: Qi Wang has found a new calling as an online personality and content creator on Site B.
It sounded preposterous in every way to Qi Ze that a former President of a powerful, publicly-listed company, to pose as an entertainer with as much salience as a clown on the Internet.
That Qi Wang, who refrained from appearing in person, was the only reason he had not made good use of his power to force the website to tear down everything related to Qi Wang. How could he, the great President of a mighty business entity, have a father out there peddling comical relief like a fool?
The information hardly took long for Qi Ze to finish. When he was certain Qi Wang had nothing — save for the silly obsession of his droid-building exploits in mind — he decided that his former father-figure no longer warranted any notice nor care.
At any rate, Qi Wang has only ten million. Qi Ze only has to wait until Qi Wang has finished spending his money, and that would be the end of him.
Building a droid that would redefine the limits of today’s technology?
What an absurd fantasy.
He must be getting senile, Qi Ze thought. What could a man equipped with just a pipe dream possibly do to threaten him?
He was sure that his mother and Bai Qiujiang were just worrying for nothing.
…
Qi Wang was always aware that he was under constant surveillance. Yet, he did nothing to hide what he was doing. With more than ten million view counts on his video, he knew that it was only a matter of time before he attracted enough scrutiny. He was hardly afraid.
He uploaded his new video and shut down his computer, swiveling to look at the droid standing proudly before him.
With most of the hardware complete, all that remained was the interposition of the power source.
Qi Wang had Lovely run another evaluation of the data to make sure everything was in order, before he withdrew to his room for the night.
Tomorrow would be the day he unveils his masterpiece. But where should he do it?
…
Chen Yang once again visited Hope’s homepage on Site B and saw a newly-uploaded video. His hand shook unsteadily as he wondered if he should have a look.
Hope has uploaded a total of twenty video clips in the span of five months, each detailing his journey on how he turned mere fantasy into reality by building his droid from scratch.
Hope was now Site B’s most popular content creator when it came to cinematic special effects. It had enthralled legions of fans to keep abreast of any new developments from him.
Hope had been rolling out piecemeal marvels of vivid nature on every new episode, keeping his viewers and fans enraptured. Chen Yang could still remember the pandemonium that broke loose in the last episode. Hope had committed an inadvertent blunder, resulting in a minor explosion with multitudes of parts and components flying everywhere.
Everything looked so real – so real as if everything that happened was true.
At first, Chen Yang dismissed Hope’s wizardry as the use of special effects. But the more he followed his videos, the more he began to realize a daunting possibility:
That droid seemed to look more real by the second.
Hope had mentioned that he would be unveiling his finished product in his new episode, to which he did not forget. Biting hard, he could no longer keep his curiosity bridled and he clicked on the “Play” button.
The first thing that filled his computer screen were the scrolling remarks depicting everyone’s veneration and respect.
Author’s Notes:
Thank you all for your support! I’d be sure to keep on going!