Of course, Wang Yue thought Xu Zhishen might turn against him, but he didn't say so. After all, that would have made him seem a little too pleased with himself.
Besides, Wang Yue had a backup plan of his own. He was just waiting for Xu Zhishen's years of investment to go down the drain. That would finally avenge Old Lu.
In fact, when Xu Zhishen had arranged for Manager Ding to keep an eye on things, it was to prevent Lu Tao from acting recklessly. After that, he had shifted his focus to other projects at the parent company.
But when Manager Ding learned that Lu Tao was Xu Zhishen's son, he didn't supervise the whole company the way Xu Zhishen had expected. He never refused Lu Tao's requests; he merely reminded him now and then to keep costs down.
Lu Tao did take those reminders to heart, of course—but only as long as they didn't interfere with his perfect design.
Xu Zhishen, naturally, couldn't keep trusting things blindly. When Lu Tao finally found time to visit Lin Wanfen, he took the opportunity to ask,
"Lu Tao, how's the project coming along? Manager Ding hasn't been giving you trouble, has he?"
Xu Zhishen was fishing for information, trying to find out whether Manager Ding had been blocking unnecessary expenses as instructed.
Lu Tao didn't catch on. Looking rather aggrieved, he said, "Old Xu, can't you reassign Manager Ding?
You have no idea. Every time I work on a project, he reminds me to cut costs and reduce the budget.
You know that some expenses are unavoidable if I'm going to bring my design to life perfectly."
From Lu Tao's words, Xu Zhishen could tell that he really was unhappy with Manager Ding. That actually reassured him, so he smiled