Chapter 74

"Are... are you rich people all like this?" Isabel clenched her fists, took a deep breath for a long while, and finally managed to squeeze out these words through her teeth.

"Do you have any complaints?" Miko held a small teacup, still maintaining her calm and composed demeanor.

"Then, Mrs., do you think I should be grateful? Grateful for the opportunity to crawl at your son's feet, to trade my child for my humble existence?!" Isabel asked sharply, her chest heaving, her azure eyes almost spitting fire, causing the maid performing the tea ceremony to glance worriedly at Miko.

"So, you are indeed dissatisfied?" Miko gestured to the maid, signaling "don't worry," and said, "Then resist."

"Huh?" The sudden change in tone left Isabel momentarily at a loss for words.

"Since you are dissatisfied, since you feel you have been treated unfairly, since you feel you have been oppressed, then stand up and resist." Miko's tone was very steady, as if she were discussing where to have dinner.

"Resist?" Isabel laughed in anger, "You made my parents owe huge debts, left me with no way out, and now you want me to resist?! Can't you stop being so shameless!"

"Then find a way!" Miko suddenly became stern, "Is there really no way out? Or can't you see the path you should take? Did you compromise when you should have? Did you lower yourself when you needed to? Did you preserve yourself? Did you persist? Did you give up?!"

The more she spoke, the more severe her tone became, leaving Isabel speechless.

Miko stared at her without blinking, her eyes sharp and piercing, "In this country, it was once believed that women were mere appendages of men, that women should stay at home to raise children and serve men, that women were unsuitable for research, business, management, and everything else they didn't want women to do!"

She gently placed the cup on the table, lifted her chin slightly, and a condescending air enveloped her, "These people, these men, are now all under my feet. They may still be不服气 (unwilling to accept it), they may still be plotting a comeback, but no one dares to belittle me to my face. I paid a high price, in life, love, marriage, and family, but when I made up my mind to overthrow the oppression on me, I knew these were inevitable, and I was willing to bear them!"

"When you face a dead end, without the courage to make a last stand, without a calm and unyielding mind, only pain, anger, and unwillingness, how can you win!" Miko looked directly into Isabel's eyes, "500 years ago, that peasant girl from Domrémy gave everything to save her country. Today, someone facing oppression wants freedom but doesn't even try the slightest resistance, then crawling on the ground is inevitable."

Then, she chuckled, "Oh, I almost forgot, according to the records, your father is Algerian, and your mother is German."

"You!" Isabel's face turned red, her lips trembling, but she couldn't speak.

"This is my attitude, Miss Isabelle Adjani." Miko said, stood up, and left the courtyard leisurely.

Isabel remained seated, motionless, biting her lip, her face almost swollen. But when Li Xu went to help her up, she unexpectedly didn't push him away and didn't show any signs of disgust.

"Mother, do you have to be so hard on your son?" Li Xu's face fell after hearing their conversation in the study.

"Renshi, you have to understand your mother," the mother leaned back in her high-backed chair, speaking in a lazy tone, "It's rare to see such a stubborn young girl."

"So you told her... to resist?" Li Xu's lips twitched.

"Oh, it's rare to find a suitable girl for your mother to show off, I couldn't help it," the mother propped her chin in her hand and chuckled, "I ended up saying a bit more, being a bit too preachy."

"You didn't just say a bit more, this makes things very difficult for me." Li Xu complained irritably.

"Can't be helped, whether it's Yoshinaga, Yamaguchi, your Teresa, or the two Miss Lins, they are all like Ah Dou, even if I told them these things, they wouldn't react much." The mother shrugged, "Is your son, can't even handle a little girl?"

Li Xu rolled his eyes and said nothing.

"Alright, let's not talk about this," the mother chuckled, "I suddenly found something interesting, Isabelle Adjani seems to be 25 years old this year, the two Miss Lins are 25 and 27, plus Teresa, and..."

"Can we not talk about this, Mother?" Li Xu immediately covered his forehead.

You are really something, if this were 30 years later, a big 'dirty' word would definitely apply. How bored are you to enjoy playing such games?

"Alright, alright, let's talk about your designated housekeeper, she seems to have a talent for cooking." The mother smiled and changed the topic.

"So?" Li Xu shrugged.

"Maybe you should find a few more, like chefs or pastry chefs to assist her." The mother said in a tempting tone.

"Maybe later." Li Xu replied insincerely.

"Renshi is really unlovable." The mother sighed, looking a bit sad, but quickly changed the topic again, "What do you think, if Sony were to become independent from the Mitsui Group?"

"Sony independent from Mitsui?" Li Xu was initially puzzled, this change of topic was too fast.

But he soon frowned, "Is this your idea, or Akio Morita's?"

"I think Akio Morita has this idea." The mother said ambiguously.

"Isn't this something I shouldn't be considering, Mother?" After a moment's thought, Li Xu asked.

"Can't you help your mother strategize?" The mother asked with a smile.

"Without more information, any strategy is just a castle in the air." Li Xu wagged his finger.

"What about intuition?" The mother raised an eyebrow.

"Intuition?" Li Xu chuckled, "If I say yes, would you and Akio Morita make Sony independent?"

"Of course." The mother was very certain.

Huh? Li Xu blinked in surprise, then realized, damn, I fell into the trap again.

The reason is simple, whether Sony should become independent from the Mitsui Group is not important, because Sony is already quite independent and is only a peripheral part of the Mitsui Group.

To put it bluntly, Sony is quite disadvantaged because it was founded after World War II and did not have government backing—like Mitsubishi, Hitachi, and Panasonic, which were military enterprises during World War II and performed "outstandingly," so they had government backing and no need to worry about bankruptcy.

This is similar to state-owned enterprises and banks in China.

But Sony was founded after the war, so it did not have these advantages and was not valued by the major conglomerates—similarly disadvantaged is Sharp, which, although founded before World War II, mainly produced civilian products and did not "perform outstandingly," so it suffered huge losses in the new century and was eventually acquired by Foxconn.

As mentioned before, the Japanese value seniority, and Japanese companies are no different.

The large and small companies associated with the Mitsui Group, which were all established before World War II, why should a post-war company like Sony be allowed to sit at the table? Just because you have technology, are you special?

So Sony was not even part of the Mitsui's Niki-kai (General Manager's Meeting).

But this means Sony has more independence than companies like Toshiba, and it is not difficult for it to act independently of the Mitsui Group's strategy, which is one point.

The second point is that cross-shareholding among Japanese large companies is a common practice to prevent foreign hostile takeovers, a special defensive measure.

As times have changed and companies have developed, the initial hierarchical relationships have become more flat. Although the U.S. relaxed economic restrictions during the Cold War, it did not mean they could do whatever they wanted, otherwise, how would the Plaza Accord have come about?

With internal and external pressures, changes were inevitable. After the 21st century, the Mitsui, Sumitomo, and other conglomerates were more like mutual aid associations, with the Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) above them.

In this situation, whether Sony is independent from Mitsui is not important, so...

"It seems Renshi has been paying attention all along." The mother smiled.

"Ha ha." Li Xu could only laugh awkwardly, not knowing what expression to make.

How did I end up with such a mother, always falling into your traps, is it so fun to pry into your son's mind?

"What do you want to say?" He asked weakly.

"I just want to show some concern for my son." The mother shrugged, "I remember you once seemed very eager for Akio Morita to develop a game console."

"After he refused, I no longer expect it." Li Xu said immediately.

"But you are still very interested in Sony, aren't you?" The mother looked at him with interest.

"… Yes, I am still very interested in the semiconductor industry. When I return to California, I will meet with people from Intel and Texas Instruments again." Li Xu put on a serious face.

"No, that's not it," the mother immediately shook her head, "I know there's more to it."

"Then… do you really want to know?" Li Xu scratched his face.

"If you are willing to tell me, I am willing to listen." The mother smiled.

"I won't tell you." Li Xu made a face and quickly slipped out as the mother looked surprised.

Hahaha, it's so rare, being an adult is great, I finally got to tease my mother, what a relief, yeah! But before he could even celebrate for half a minute, Li Xu ran into Isabel as he left the study.

"I have something to talk to you about." Isabel said coldly and turned to leave.

Damn!