Chapter 1665: Discover with Jericho Maya (Part V)
Chapter 1665: Discover with Jericho Maya (Part V)
"My late grandmother also loved my wife," Jin Liwei added.
"My condolences to you and your whole family for the loss of your grandmother," Jericho Maya said in a sombre tone.
Jericho’s team had done their research in advance and knew about the recent death of Jin Liwei’s grandmother.
"Thank you," Jin Liwei said, his voice sounding cold and indifferent as usual.
Those who didn’t know him personally might think that he must be a cold-hearted monster who didn’t even feel anything at the mention of his own grandmother’s passing, but Iris Long, who knew him inside out, could sense his tense muscles underneath his clothes.
She reached with her other hand and began rubbing his arm. He glanced at her, and a meaningful silent exchange happened between them under everyone’s eyes.
In no time, Jin Liwei relaxed and calmed down.
Jericho: "May I ask if it’s alright to ask about your grandmother’s passing?"
Jin Liwei’s aura immediately turned icy.
Iris signalled at Jericho with her eyes. Her meaning was clear to the journalist: ’You can ask me instead.’
She didn’t care about what others thought about her, but she didn’t want other people badmouthing her husband and family members either. Her protective instincts blared loudly when it came to her family and loved ones.
She didn’t want her husband’s hesitation today to ruin Jericho and his team’s good impression. What if their production team did the evil edit trick and edited today’s episode to show her husband in a bad light just because he didn’t allow them to talk about his grandmother’s passing?
Her husband was the head of a multinational company. A lot rode on him alone.
She didn’t want to give his business rivals any ammunition and use today’s interview to tarnish Jin Corporation’s well-maintained image.
Fortunately, Jericho had high EQ. He immediately understood Iris Long’s eye signal. He smoothly asked her instead.
Jericho: "What was the cause of your grandmother-in-law’s passing? And how did you, your husband, and your whole family cope with it?"
Iris glanced at her husband first. Thankfully, Jin Liwei didn’t tense up again.
"Our family prefers not to discuss the specific cause of my grandmother-in-law’s passing," Iris replied. "But she died peacefully, surrounded by our family and loved ones. How did we cope with it? The same thing as we always do. By supporting each other and being there for one another. The loss of a loved one is one of the most painful things that a person can experience. Even now, my husband and our family still feel the loss of our matriarch. Grandma Li was a big part of why I was able to smoothly integrate into the Jin family after marrying her grandson. She accepted me with open arms and even declared to everyone that she would side with me if my husband and I ever had any serious conflicts."
Jericho nodded. Then he took several deep breaths, steeling himself as he asked the next question. This was something that he and his team deliberated for a long time on whether to include in the possible interview questions or not. Now that he had the chance to ask it, Jericho would never let the opportunity pass.
"There are many rumours about what CEO Liam Jin’s grandmother left to each of your family members," he said. "There are so many speculations that some details have even been reported by the international media. Your family or representatives haven’t confirmed anything yet. Those of us who aren’t in the know could only continue speculating based on the movements of your lawyers."
Jin Liwei narrowed his eyes.
Jericho felt a shiver go up his spine, but he avoided the man’s intimidating gaze and focused on Iris Long. Gathering his courage and ignoring the cold sweat forming on his forehead and back, he continued asking her, "May I ask what your grandmother-in-law left you after her passing? Or if she left you anything at all?"
Iris felt her husband squeezing her hand. It wasn’t painful, but it was enough to let her sense his unease. She squeezed his hand back and sent him a reassuring look. The moment Jericho Maya wanted to focus on Grandma Li’s passing, she had already predicted that his questions would lead to this. After all, people were curious about a billionaire family’s wealth and how it was distributed among family members.
She was already prepared for these kinds of questions. And she wasn’t the least bit afraid. Perhaps this was a good time to finally make some things clear.
"I can answer those questions," Iris said, showing no hesitation at all.
Seeing her calm resolve, Jin Liwei finally let go of his hesitation. He was completely relaxed and let his wife take the lead in this interview.
Although the death of his grandmother still hurt, the presence of his wife and their children made up for the grief. They were the most important to him.
Jericho felt excited. He leaned forward a little, not wanting to miss any of Iris’ words.
Iris: "I won’t go into too much detail—again, for privacy and security reasons, but I can say that Grandma Li left me the biggest chunk of her wealth."
Jericho: "The biggest chunk of her wealth?"
’Please elaborate!’
And she didn’t disappoint.
Iris: "In addition to several of her personal assets, she left me all her Jin Corporation shares."
Everyone gasped.
"All of it?!" The shocked Jericho looked at Jin Liwei, who nodded.
Iris: "Yes."
Jericho became even more excited. This was big news!
BIG NEWS!!!
Even the international media hadn’t dared to report on this yet! Iris Long’s name was nowhere to be found in the recent Jin Corporation’s financial transparency reports. It was speculated that she used another entity, perhaps a shell company or a legal representative, to hold the shares, if she had them. It was quite normal for wealthy people like her to do things this way.
So many tried investigating, but they all withdrew without achieving any substantial results. CEO Jin was known to be extremely protective of his wife and family. For small shrimps, it was not worth it to offend him just for this kind of information.
And included in this group of small shrimps were Jericho Maya and his team. No, they weren’t even considered small shrimps. They could barely qualify as microscopic planktons. In short, they couldn’t afford to offend a billionaire family like CEO Jin’s.
Jericho, however, was still a true-blue journalist who had painstakingly built his career from the ground up. This was a rare opportunity that even the international media hadn’t covered yet.
If he could report this information first, then a higher international journalism award might be on the way for him!
Jericho: "So, Iris, does this mean that you’re now a billionaire just like your husband?"
Iris chuckled before saying, "Yes."
Although she preferred to achieve true global billionaire status through her own group of companies, fate had other plans for her.
Since she had no intention to take any of her private companies for public trading yet, their valuations remained clear-cut without any exaggerated inflation. Their current valuations rose steadily yet swiftly. Although not yet billion-dollar worth, they were close. And as the owner of them, Iris Long was already one of the youngest and wealthiest women in the world.
Now that she held all of Grandma Li’s previous shares of Jin Corporation, she was catapulted to the global billionaire list in one go. This information, however, remained secret...until now.
Iris Long initially planned to let everything flow naturally without deliberately releasing this information to the public. If others learned about it and disclosed it to the media, she had no plans of confirming anything.
Today, however, a chance to clarify things presented itself. With the help of Jericho Maya, she had more control over how she wanted the information to be presented to the public. She was sure that Jericho and his team were more than willing to edit this episode to suit her purpose in exchange for the right to disclose this information to the world first.
It was a fair deal, wasn’t it?
Back to the present, Jericho asked Iris more questions about it, but she clammed up. Unsuccessful, he attempted to shift the topic by asking about what her grandmother-in-law left to the other members of the family instead.
Why should she answer?
He wanted to take a mile after getting an inch, but that wasn’t going to happen.
She already revealed the most important part—that she inherited the biggest chunk of Grandma Li’s wealth, and that the late matriarch’s Jin Corporation shares had instantly made Iris into a global billionaire.
It should be enough to satisfy everyone’s appetite.
Why should she reveal every single little detail? That would breach not only her own privacy and security but also that of her family.
She certainly wouldn’t reveal that her own children inherited quite a lot as well, despite still being babies. As for what Jin Liwei and Jin Chonglin inherited, it should be their own decision whether to reveal the information to the public or not.
No matter how many times or at what angle Jericho asked Iris, she refused to provide additional information about the inheritance. He finally had no choice but to give up. Nevertheless, he was more than satisfied with the information that he managed to get during this interview.
This single piece of information alone was enough to secure the episode rating of his show.
He could already foresee how this particular footage would be used by countless local and international business media outlets to report on the matter of Iris Long becoming a global billionaire by inheriting her grandmother-in-law’s Jin Corporation shares.
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