What could Joann say to that without sounding heartless or uncouth? There was nothing.
This could be considered to be emotional bribery and Joann would not put it past her mother-in-law to be doing this on purpose. After all, Joann knew Mrs. Xu to be a shrewd businesswoman and she would do anything to save Xu Corp, and that apparently included emotionally manipulating her daughter-in-law.
Mrs. Xu was not done. "Joann, you know how much Xu Jing adores his father. He might not show it on the surface but I know he misses him dearly and this company is the only connection Xu Jing has left to his father."
Whether Mrs. Xu was being purposely disingenuous or she truly felt this way, it did not matter. The important stuff was Xu Corps was coming under and Joann had to admit her mother-in-law had a point.
Joann saw Xu Corps as nothing more than a company but to Mrs. Xu, it was the memento from her dead husband and for Xu Jing, it was a goal in life for him. Joann remembered her husband once told her that he would do everything within his power to keep Xu Corp running strong because he knew it would make his father proud. Losing Xu Corp would be a huge psychological blow to both Mrs. Xu and Xu Jing, Joann understood that much.
Noticing the hesitation on Joann's face, Mrs. Xu nudged herself forward to the edge of the sofa. She turned and aimed to kneel down once more. Joann noticed this and quickly reached out to stop her. "Mother, what are you doing?"
Instead of answering Joann, Mrs. Xu pleaded, "Please, Joann, just do this favour for me. I can give you anything you want as long as you help me with this favour."
While Joann was holding Mrs. Xu, she noticed the tears shining in her mother-in-law's eyes. She then realized she had underestimated the meaning of the company to her mother-in-law. As she had said, this was the only thing she had left of her late husband. To be honest, Joann did not expect her mother-in-law's love for her late husband to go so deep.
It was then that Joann felt her face burn with shame for thinking that her mother-in-law was trying to coerce her into doing this by appealing to her emotions earlier. Mrs. Xu's distress and desperation was genuine.
Before Joann could say anything, Mrs. Xu added, "Joann, I know that you hate me. If you are willing to help me this time, I promise I'll move out of the house and get out of your hair once and for all. You have my word on that."
"Mother, I don't hate you," Joann said almost on reflex but when the words left her lips, she realized how true they sounded to her ears. It was true, Joann did not hate her mother-in-law, at least not in a malicious, I-wish-you-are-dead kind of way.
In spite of their differences, she respected Mrs. Xu, she respected the woman's tenacity of getting up every morning to face the day even though she knew she would need to do that alone now for the rest of her life. Joann examined her animosity, if you could call it that, towards her mother-in-law and she realized most of it came from her disapproval of her mother-in-law retiring from an ebullient career and be a stay-at-home mom after marrying her husband.
Joann could never see herself making that kind of decision. And some say there are only two reasons why we dislike the people that we dislike, one, we see in the other person some qualities that we want in ourselves and two, we see in the other person the qualities that we hate about ourselves.
In Joann's case, it was kind of a mixed bag. She wished she could make the decision her mother-in-law did, which was to put down everything, fade into the background and leave everything to the man of the house. Joann knew Xu Jing would appreciate that. He had been suggesting on the sly that he wanted her to retire from the silver screen so he could take good care of her since the early days of their marriage. However, Joann also knew that if she ever made that decision, she would hate herself for it.
Unbeknownst to Joann, Mrs. Xu had sort of morphed into a mother figure for her since she did not have one in her life before marrying Xu Jing. Yes, they had their fair share of arguments but that only meant that Joann could share her ideas openly and without fear with her mother-in-law. Instead of bowing to her mother-in-law's demands like most Chinese daughter-in-law would, Joann was comfortable enough around Mrs. Xu to trade verbal blows with her and vice versa like a real pair of biological mother and daughter would.
This might seem to be a highly destructive relationship to outsiders, and sometimes even to Joann herself, but their arguments came from a difference in thinking and not because they harbored mal-intention towards one another.
Therefore, Joann added to stress, "Mother, I really don't hate you. Don't worry, I promise to look into this and see what I can do."
"Thank you…" A teary-eyed Mrs. Xu pulled Joann into a hug.
…
Joann left Mrs. Xu's office soon after. Even though she had promised Mrs. Xu, she would deal with the issue, she did not know how to go about it.
Mrs. Xu suggested she talk to her friend, Xiu Ling but Joann did not think that would such a good idea. She did not want to place that burden on her best friend.
Instead, Joann opted to do it the most straightforward way. Since there was a problem, why not go directly to the source?
If that failed, then perhaps Joann would go to Xiu Ling.
Joann reached into her pocket to pull out her phone. She went online to search for the contact number for Lin Corps.
What could Joann say to that without sounding heartless or uncouth? There was nothing.
This could be considered to be emotional bribery and Joann would not put it past her mother-in-law to be doing this on purpose. After all, Joann knew Mrs. Xu to be a shrewd businesswoman and she would do anything to save Xu Corp, and that apparently included emotionally manipulating her daughter-in-law.
Mrs. Xu was not done. "Joann, you know how much Xu Jing adores his father. He might not show it on the surface but I know he misses him dearly and this company is the only connection Xu Jing has left to his father."
Whether Mrs. Xu was being purposely disingenuous or she truly felt this way, it did not matter. The important stuff was Xu Corps was coming under and Joann had to admit her mother-in-law had a point.
Joann saw Xu Corps as nothing more than a company but to Mrs. Xu, it was the memento from her dead husband and for Xu Jing, it was a goal in life for him. Joann remembered her husband once told her that he would do everything within his power to keep Xu Corp running strong because he knew it would make his father proud. Losing Xu Corp would be a huge psychological blow to both Mrs. Xu and Xu Jing, Joann understood that much.
Noticing the hesitation on Joann's face, Mrs. Xu nudged herself forward to the edge of the sofa. She turned and aimed to kneel down once more. Joann noticed this and quickly reached out to stop her. "Mother, what are you doing?"
Instead of answering Joann, Mrs. Xu pleaded, "Please, Joann, just do this favour for me. I can give you anything you want as long as you help me with this favour."
While Joann was holding Mrs. Xu, she noticed the tears shining in her mother-in-law's eyes. She then realized she had underestimated the meaning of the company to her mother-in-law. As she had said, this was the only thing she had left of her late husband. To be honest, Joann did not expect her mother-in-law's love for her late husband to go so deep.
It was then that Joann felt her face burn with shame for thinking that her mother-in-law was trying to coerce her into doing this by appealing to her emotions earlier. Mrs. Xu's distress and desperation was genuine.
Before Joann could say anything, Mrs. Xu added, "Joann, I know that you hate me. If you are willing to help me this time, I promise I'll move out of the house and get out of your hair once and for all. You have my word on that."
"Mother, I don't hate you," Joann said almost on reflex but when the words left her lips, she realized how true they sounded to her ears. It was true, Joann did not hate her mother-in-law, at least not in a malicious, I-wish-you-are-dead kind of way.
In spite of their differences, she respected Mrs. Xu, she respected the woman's tenacity of getting up every morning to face the day even though she knew she would need to do that alone now for the rest of her life. Joann examined her animosity, if you could call it that, towards her mother-in-law and she realized most of it came from her disapproval of her mother-in-law retiring from an ebullient career and be a stay-at-home mom after marrying her husband.
Joann could never see herself making that kind of decision. And some say there are only two reasons why we dislike the people that we dislike, one, we see in the other person some qualities that we want in ourselves and two, we see in the other person the qualities that we hate about ourselves.
In Joann's case, it was kind of a mixed bag. She wished she could make the decision her mother-in-law did, which was to put down everything, fade into the background and leave everything to the man of the house. Joann knew Xu Jing would appreciate that. He had been suggesting on the sly that he wanted her to retire from the silver screen so he could take good care of her since the early days of their marriage. However, Joann also knew that if she ever made that decision, she would hate herself for it.
Unbeknownst to Joann, Mrs. Xu had sort of morphed into a mother figure for her since she did not have one in her life before marrying Xu Jing. Yes, they had their fair share of arguments but that only meant that Joann could share her ideas openly and without fear with her mother-in-law. Instead of bowing to her mother-in-law's demands like most Chinese daughter-in-law would, Joann was comfortable enough around Mrs. Xu to trade verbal blows with her and vice versa like a real pair of biological mother and daughter would.
This might seem to be a highly destructive relationship to outsiders, and sometimes even to Joann herself, but their arguments came from a difference in thinking and not because they harbored mal-intention towards one another.
Therefore, Joann added to stress, "Mother, I really don't hate you. Don't worry, I promise to look into this and see what I can do."
"Thank you…" A teary-eyed Mrs. Xu pulled Joann into a hug.
…
Joann left Mrs. Xu's office soon after. Even though she had promised Mrs. Xu, she would deal with the issue, she did not know how to go about it.
Mrs. Xu suggested she talk to her friend, Xiu Ling but Joann did not think that would such a good idea. She did not want to place that burden on her best friend.
Instead, Joann opted to do it the most straightforward way. Since there was a problem, why not go directly to the source?
If that failed, then perhaps Joann would go to Xiu Ling.
Joann reached into her pocket to pull out her phone. She went online to search for the contact number for Lin Corps.
