CH 223

In just two days, great changes had taken place within the Zhou Group. Many employees had been laid off, and many positions had been vacated within the company. The pressure on unaffected employees had increased a lot, but most of them made no complaints, because many of those laid-off employees had come through the back door, and few were serious about their work, only fishing in troubled waters.

[T/N: to fish in troubled waters = to take advantage of confusion/chaos to reap benefits.]

Some employees were dissatisfied. After being told by colleagues that they had been laid off by the company, some ran to their boss’s office and made a ruckus, while others went to the person who helped them through the back door. However, none of them could escape. Several employees who were fired were senior executives of the company. Because of this incident, people with ghosts in their hearts became frightened, wondering if they had any hope left, and whether the next person posted on the notice board would be themselves. The Zhou Lin husband and wife were haggard, as it was them who had suffered the most in these layoffs.

The layout these two made in the company had not been in place for long. After Wang Cheng was kidnapped, the Zhou Lin husband and wife always thought that the Zhou Group belonged to them. It wasn’t until the past decade that the two discovered that their father had no intentions of transferring the power to them. They had only begun this layout in the past few years.

[T/N: layout = the overall distribution and arrangement; in this case, of which of their allies gets the jobs and positions.]

Their layout was not deep, and those who came in through relationships had the intention to fish in troubled waters, so they were caught out at once. The high-leveled ones close to them were found to be embezzling funds. This incident dealt a great blow to the Zhou Lin husband and wife. Zhou Shichang became furious after discovering the presence of such assholes in the company, and lost his temper during a high-level meeting. At the same time, he asked Feng Yifan to conduct a thorough investigation and, and several big fish were found as a result of it.

For example, a senior executive surnamed Miao in the Human Resources Department had used his position to gain benefits by secretly communicating with outsiders and selling some positions in the company to those who wanted to work in the Zhou Group but were too unreasonable, and the price depended on the position.

After the news spread, everyone was shocked.

There were also as many as six or seven high-level executives who sold company secrets, helped their relatives and friends through the back door, etc. The bad news that came one after the other was simply appalling. If it were not for this massive layoff, many employees would not know: it turned out that the company's interior was already full of flaws.

The Zhou Lin husband and wife, who were still thinking of a solution, also completely lost their minds.

They had not forgotten the angry look on the chairman’s face during the meeting. At this time, whoever dared to oppose would die, so even if they didn’t want to, they could only refuse those who asked to come. But soon, something happened that made them feel calm.

Two days after the layoffs, Xie Wenzhi came to find Zhou Lin in her office, bringing a bunch of documents.

Seeing him, Zhou Lin was a little surprised, because ever since Wang Cheng became his assistant, Wang Cheng did all the errands.

"It turns out to be Assistant Xie. What's the matter?" Zhou Lin didn't stand up, only glancing at him and looking away casually. She stared at the information in front of her and looked very busy, as if she was conveying that nothing was wrong and he shouldn't disturb her office.

Xie Wenzhi calmly put the information in his hand in front of her, just in front of her sight, and said, "This is the information Zhao Shao took before."

Zhou Lin raised her head, face full of displeasure, and she said without a smile: "It's really hard for Assistant Xie to make this trip in person. Why didn’t Zhou Cheng bring down such a small matter?"

"President Feng ordered me to take it down. He has one more thing for me to convey to Manager Zhou: by the way, when Zhao Shao brought the information last time, it seemed that a part of it was missing, but Manager Zhou can rest assured that I have already added that missing part of the information." Xie Wenzhi smiled.

Zhou Lin's expression became stiff. She had forgotten about that incident. The layoffs in the past two days made her mentally exhausted, and she had no extra space in her head to think about other things. Xie Wenzhi's words caused her unease, and Zhou Lin squeezed the pen in her hand to remind herself that she should be calm.

"Thank you so much, Assistant Xie. What did President Feng tell you to convey?"

Xie Wenzhi picked up the two uppermost pages of information. "President Feng looked at the project that Manager Zhou is responsible for, and found that there are losses in some areas. Moreover, the period of the losses have not been short, but Manager Zhou is continuing to throw money into it several times to fill up the leakage. President Feng would like to ask you, what's going on? Don’t be too angry, Manager Zhou, President Feng actually doesn’t intend to embarrass you. Otherwise, instead of letting me come to you, he would have brought it up at the meeting yesterday."

Even if the words added were kind for her sake, Zhou Lin still felt that Feng Yifan was deliberately trying to embarrass her, and she sneered. However, she could only bear it, no matter how unhappy she was. Now was a sensitive period. Based on whatever happened, it might be her turn next.

"President Feng does not need to worry about this matter. You go back and tell Mr. Feng I will solve this, I will definitely give President Feng a satisfactory answer."

Zhou Lin thought Xie Wenzhi would leave after she said that, but she guessed wrong.

"I remember, the one in charge of Yazhi is Zhao Shao, right?" Xie Wenzhi smiled slightly.

"What do you mean?" Zhou Lin frowned.

Xie Wenzhi held up the two documents that he had just extracted. "As President Feng has said: Zhao Shao will not be responsible for the losses of Yazhi in the future. By the way, this is an order issued by the chairman."

The last sentence successfully blocked Zhou Lin’s anger. She only just remembered that the person who asked for this information was her father. The things they had wanted to keep in the dark were finally seen. Did her father make this decision because he felt that Chenlin was not suitable for business? But that was not right. It turned out that she was responsible. Even if her father was disappointed with Chenlin, he should have returned the media to her. Why should he take it away?

After Xie Wenzhi came back, he summoned Wang Cheng. "Zhou Cheng, you take these two documents to the chairman's office."

"Yes." Wang Cheng took a look at the document. The chairman's office was on the same floor, not far away from them, and to get to it, he passed through a corridor with transparent glass on both sides.

"Zhou Cheng, are you looking for the chairman?" Li Min just walked out, and asked this with a smile when she saw him.

Wang Cheng nodded, "Assistant Xie asked me to give these two documents to the chairman."

Li Min turned her body sideways, "The chairman is inside, you can go in."

"Thanks, Sister Li." Wang Cheng opened the door and walked in.

Zhou Shichang sat on an office chair with a pair of reading glasses on his face. He stared at the things in front of him very intently. After a while, he found that he was there and said, "Let’s go to the sofa and speak."

Wang Cheng supported his arm across the desk. After they sat on the sofa, he handed the information to Zhou Shichang, "Chairman, Assistant Xie asked me to bring this up."

"Just call me Grandpa when there is no one here." Zhou Shichang took the information, glanced at it, and put it down.

"Yes, Grandpa." When Wang Cheng finished speaking, he found him staring at him, and said surprisedly: "Grandpa, do you have something to tell me?"

Zhou Shichang held his hand and sighed, "Chengcheng, you have worked very hard during this period of time. Grandpa is very pleased. Grandpa has also read the report that Assistant Xie asked you to make, it is very well done.”

Instead, Wang Cheng became a little embarrassed from the praise. "Grandpa, in fact, the report is not entirely to my own credit. I had also asked a professional to help me with it. If he hadn't helped me analyze the situation a bit, I think it could not have been written."

Zhou Shichang laughed and touched his face: "Don't be so humble. To be honest, your grandpa knows you are working hard, so Grandpa has an idea. Do you remember what was written at the end of the report?"

"Grandpa is referring to these two materials?" Of course Wang Cheng remembered, it had left a deep impression on him. After all, it was related to Zhao Chenlin.

"Not bad." Zhou Shichang nodded, "Grandpa wants to give Yazhi to you, how about it?"

Wang Cheng was startled, "Let me be responsible?" Was this not a joke?

Yazhi was an entertainment company that almost actively lost company money.

Zhou Shichang touched his head and said in a gentle voice: "You have read the information, and you should have a better understanding of Yazhi. Although Yazhi's current reputation is not very good, Grandpa believes in you. You will be able to do better than Chenlin, right? Grandpa actually wants to give you an opportunity. Although you can receive knowledge while working in the company, you also need a chance to form experience."

Zhao Chenlin was brought out. Of course, Wang Cheng could not think that he was inferior to Zhao Chenlin. "But what about the company, I still have to go to work."

"You don't need to worry about this, you can manage Yazhi. Grandpa will allow for you to not be here all the time.”

"Okay." Wang Cheng compromised.

Zhou Shichang smiled and patted his shoulder. "In this way, in order to encourage you, we will make an agreement. If you can bring Yazhi back to life within three months, Grandpa will give you Yazhi."

Wang Cheng almost choked on his own saliva. He looked at his grandpa, who wore a particularly kind smile on his face, a little weakly. Was this really encouragement, and not a reminder? He thought for a while: "Grandpa, I actually don't have any idea what to do about Yazhi. I will try my best, even if you don’t give it to me in the end."

"It is because you have no idea that I made this agreement." Zhou Shichang said.

Wang Cheng: "..."

Seeing his speechless face, Zhou Shichang laughed loudly, "Such a kind decision, three months is. If it were someone else, I would give them one month. However, since you have never been in the entertainment industry before, Grandpa gave you three months. This should be enough to take care of you, work hard."

For some reason, Wang Cheng felt his grandpa’s kind image collapse a bit.

***

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