Even an ordinary family was better off choosing an heir in advance, however meager its assets might be.
For a giant like the Xinfei Merchant Guild, which had grown into a Super-League Merchant Guild on the Sains Continent, with billions of gold coins in assets and annual profits exceeding a hundred million gold coins, choosing a leader was important, but choosing a successor was equally so.
Thus, although Xu Yi was only in his early forties and could expect to live for several more decades barring any accidents, the subject of his successor had long since been raised within the Xinfei Merchant Guild.
Had this been Earth, the Xinfei Merchant Guild, as a business organization, should have cultivated his successor internally and made the final choice based on ability.
But this was the Sains Continent, a society that was still half feudal and half slave-based. In everyone else's eyes, the person to inherit Xu Yi's position should naturally be one of his children.
Moreover, the Sains Continent did not have the pronounced preference for sons over daughters found on Earth. Since Xu Yi had named Freya as the heir to his estate shortly after her birth, everyone considered her the obvious choice to inherit the Xinfei Merchant Guild.
Yet although Xu Yi had designated Freya as the heir to his estate from the beginning, he had never confirmed her as the Xinfei Merchant Guild's successor.
Xu Yi had always felt that his estate was entirely his private property, and he could leave it to whomever he pleased.
The Xinfei Merchant Guild was different.
The Xinfei Merchant Guild had grown so large that its affairs no longer concerned Xu Yi's family alone. They affected tens of thousands of people, and even matters of importance within countless countries.
Since the Xinfei Merchant