Darkstone Code

Chapter 1343: Chapter 1342: A Part of the Future

It felt as if a long time had passed, but in fact it was only a brief moment, a few seconds, maybe a dozen seconds.

Lynch’s fingers stopped tapping on the tabletop, and this sudden pause almost made Anna lose her breath.

What came next would be the pronouncement of her fate!

She swallowed a mouthful of saliva and looked at Lynch.

"You can..." When she heard this, Anna’s whole body relaxed.

In the Akiner Clan there were indeed people who chose not to start a business and to keep this sum of money instead, and more than just one or two; in every generation there were always some who made this choice.

They might not have much business Talent, and they had a clear understanding of themselves, so they took this money and chose to "fail," then put the money back into the family Foundation and still lived a life that was not too bad.

For Anna at this moment, the meaning of starting a business wasn’t all that great; she didn’t think she could beat those companies in the incubator park with her own startup.

Even with the Akiner Clan’s support, she might get a lot of conveniences, but she still wouldn’t achieve any great success.

This wasn’t the life she wanted.

But right after that, Lynch’s "However" made her heart tighten again.

"I can’t just carve out a bit of equity for you alone, that doesn’t fit the rules I set, but we can do it another way."

Lynch picked up a pen and wrote a phone number on a slip of paper, then handed it over. "This is the number of a private Foundation. Put your money into this Foundation. You should understand what I mean."

Anna took the slip, glanced at it, and nodded. "Yes, I think I understand."

Her father, Mr. Pato, didn’t hold a very high percentage of shares in the group company, yet he was the group’s president and wielded relatively great power.

In a country that pursues freedom and equality, how could something like this happen?

Stripped to the core, it was still that through various means he indirectly controlled more of the company’s stock, or he could influence the decisions of other shareholders, and that was why he could be the one whose word carried the day.

This kind of maneuver was very common in the capitalistically developed Federation. From the perspective of avoiding certain legal liabilities, the more equity you hold, the more legal responsibility you bear when it’s time to assume liability.

In the Federation there is no such notion that when a company makes a mistake a single person shoulders all the blame; normally the legal responsibility is borne by whoever made the decision.

Sometimes, when problems arise, the entire board of directors or even all shareholders with positions have to shoulder the responsibility.

The first situation is manageable; most of the time the responsibility doesn’t fall on the major shareholder. But what if it’s the second situation?

Then whoever holds more stock bears more responsibility!

These big capitalists quickly mastered the way to avoid the greatest legal risk: reduce their own shareholdings and instead hold equity through multi-layered "nesting doll" structures, letting several companies stand in for them as the shareholders of the group company.

It sounds like... pulling your pants down just to fart, and then fart again, but in practice it’s very effective.

Direct liability is reduced, and indirect liability might, after multiple steps of passing down and transformation, no longer exert any effect.

Without changing their actual control over the company, they minimize the responsibility they might encounter; capitalists have always been this cunning.

Lynch was the same. Though he held the largest single share block, in fact there were still more shares effectively in his hands; only this way could he ensure that in the board of directors or the general meeting of shareholders, no one could jump out, sing a different tune, and successfully "seize power."

For capitalists in the Federation, driving out a company’s founder and cashing out someone else’s dream is the most normal thing in the world.

Even Future Light Investment Company did similar things. As long as the benefit met the company’s demands, they didn’t mind selling off the equity they held in some firms, making those rapidly developing companies into "yesterday’s news."

In the Federation, if you want to make money purely by capital operations and financial means, it’s actually not difficult at all.

As long as you do something that makes others feel you’re a threat, then in order to protect their interests, they don’t mind spending a bit of money to remove this danger.

Acquisition, breakup, complete absorption.

Every year, many newly born companies full of potential and promise are perceived as threats by big firms in certain industries, only to be bought at high prices and then dismembered.

This plays out every single day.

There are many ways in competition to keep others from surpassing you; directly eliminating your competitors is one of the options.

If you want to control your own company’s fate, the best way is that your word can truly count.

To high society, this sort of thing is simply a way the social machine operates, a kind of rule. To the lower classes, they might not even have heard of it.

Anna was clearly a member of high society; she immediately understood what Lynch meant. She would not appear directly on the list of company shareholders, because what she held would not be the company’s stock.

But in practical terms, she would still be indirectly holding the company’s shares. She would hold units in Fund A, and Fund A would hold the company’s shares—this was one layer of indirect relation.

And she could, with the Foundation’s authorization, act as its representative in the company, whether attending board meetings or shareholder meetings, whatever!

What she ought to enjoy, she wouldn’t miss out on at all; what she shouldn’t be touching, she wouldn’t get any share of either, including responsibility.

Seeing that Anna had understood, Lynch smiled and asked, "So what are you planning to do next?"

"Join the family business, or do something you yourself want to do?"

This was probably what people at the bottom of society all envied.

If you want to work, you can go straight into a big company and take an important position.

If you don’t want to work, then you go do whatever you want, without needing to worry about making a living.

There’s nothing more carefree than this. Ordinary people toil away every day and can’t exchange it for a few days of freedom; this is the life they yearn for!

Anna thought for a moment. "Can I keep working at the company?"

"Over this year I’ve learned a lot. It’s more effective than books and those family lessons; I think I can still learn much more."

Lynch didn’t hesitate for long and agreed.

He did indeed need someone to keep an eye on the investment company and the incubator park, and report certain matters to him at any time.

"Of course, as long as Mr. Pato doesn’t object, I have no opinion."

Anna completely relaxed, and her face brightened with a bit more of a smile. "He won’t object..."

Indeed, Mr. Pato would not object to this. In his eyes there were only two kinds of people in this world.

People with value, and everyone else.

He would not look at things or people too emotionally; including toward himself, he was very rational.

Whether Anna went out to start a business, got married, or did something else, in reality none of it was as good as staying by Lynch’s side.

As society progressed and the forms of capital evolved, some old Consortiums also needed to start transforming.

Take the Duncan Clan, for example; they had in fact always been trying to transform.

The people business, the resource business, and some gray industries might still have some Life Force left in them, but in the end they would be completely phased out.

It’s undeniable that these businesses were indeed very profitable, but society’s tolerance for them was also getting lower and lower.

If they didn’t want to wake up one day to find themselves suddenly standing in opposition to the entire society, then change was necessary.

The Akiner Clan also needed to transform. The resource business wasn’t bad, but they ought to have more options, to jump out of traditional industries and explore new fields outside. That required not only courage, but strength!

And if they could have some allies, that would be even better.

Two days flew by just like that; time always passes so quickly.

At 8:30 in the morning, Lynch had already arrived at the school gate.

There were too many people. Several hundred meters before the school gate, the Bupen Police Station had already deployed a number of officers to help maintain order.

Including guiding people to park in an orderly manner.

Besides the police, there were FBI Investigators maintaining order, and many Reporters vying to photograph the guests who were qualified to attend the graduation ceremony.

Even the TV stations had sent people!

When Lynch appeared at the school gate, he triggered a small wave of excitement.

"Look this way, Mr. Lynch!"

The Reporters outside the gate shouted Lynch’s name and kept "murdering film" with their cameras.

Lynch waved amiably in greeting and lingered for a moment outside the gate.

He was the Federation’s youth leader; in a sense, he represented the highest standard of the Federation’s young generation!

Once he stepped through the school gate, everything became quiet again, as if they were two separate worlds!

Anna had been waiting there early; she was there to meet Lynch.

Honestly, although Lynch was her classmate, he had come here so few times that you could count them on one hand; he would definitely get lost.

The school board very considerately arranged for Anna to do nothing else today but take care of Lynch.

"I hope you don’t find it too troublesome. The school is actually under a lot of pressure too..."

The Saint Harmony School within the Federation had more than one campus, and there was competition between them. Letting Reporters conduct interviews and coverage at the gate was also a form of competition.

As Anna walked Lynch through the day’s agenda, Lynch kept nodding and greeting classmates and teachers they met along the way, or saying hello.

It was obvious that everyone was very enthusiastic toward Lynch; they hadn’t snubbed him just because he hadn’t come to school for a long time.

This fully reflected the humanistic care in Federation universities; people’s friendly attitude toward others inevitably brought one word to mind—civilization.

When Lynch reached the lawn where the graduation ceremony was being held, what he saw was like a miniature of the Federation’s high society ten or twenty years in the future.

Enthusiastic.

And also hypocritical!