Chapter 32

On Monday, the regular meeting for the company management was held.

Lin Qian arrived rather early. After sitting for a while, managers of the various departments and the company’s executives started to stream in.

Snow was falling heavily outside the window and it soon became a blurry image of white. The meeting room was bright with a tranquil atmosphere. The New Year’s decorations hanging from the ceiling that had been hung the “previous year” hadn’t yet been taken down. They added some warm colors to the room. No matter how much tribulations there had been in the past year, the managers all wore grins on their faces; they welcomed one another back warmly and enjoyed themselves by joking around.

Whenever the big boss wasn’t present, the meeting room was always bustling with activity.

Lin Qian was the youngest woman in the room but she was a smooth-talker; she knew when to step back or when to take initiative. This enabled her to strike up an impromptu conversation with the middle-aged managers from the production department sitting near her, and they got along pretty well.

But they would of course get along well. The first thing she’d done that morning was bring in the elaborate gifts from America, and then she’d asked her subordinate to distribute them to each and every department. Formalities were often indispensable, and no one would reject gifts—if one had insufficient experience, favors and connections could make up for it.

In the middle of their conversation the meeting room door opened once again. Li Zhicheng, with a suit and a posture as straight as a pencil, walked in wearing a serene expression. Behind him followed Jiang Yuan, who had a warm smile on his face.

The meeting room immediately fell silent.

Li Zhicheng sat down at the head of the table. Jiang Yuan put down his notebook and large military thermos before sitting in the back row, where Lin Qian used to sit.

Sitting in the boss’s chair, Li Zhicheng placed one hand on the table and lifted his head to look at everyone in the room. Lin Qian was dozens of people away from him and could only gaze at him from afar. Even this distance she could feel his strong and cold aura.

She hadn’t seen him in a few days. In the broad daylight and in front of such a large crowd, he seemed slightly different—more like a stranger.

His black suit was neatly pressed and cut in a way that nicely emphasized a man’s shoulders and waistline. His white shirt, navy blue tie, shiny cufflinks, and strong hand spread on the table all contributed to his introverted but stable aura. And when he lifted those deep eyes to gaze at you, you could clearly feel the quiet yet strong aura that was unique to him.

Lin Qian had to admit that looking at him like that made her heart pound even more than it made her feel touched.

She guessed that everyone else in the room also shared the same sentiment. When Li Zhicheng very naturally scanned the room, everyone became even quieter—the quietest it had ever been in there.

“How was your New Year’s?” he asked. His voice was low and cold, but there was amusement floating in his eyes.

Then, everyone broke into a smile. Seated on his right, the vice-president, Liu Tong, was the first to respond. “Mine wasn’t bad. My whole family and I went back to our hometown. I brought back some local specialties which I’ll have my secretary hand out later on.”

“Yeah!””Great!””Thank you, Vice-president Liu!” Everyone took turns cheering.

Seated on his left, Gu Yanzhi smiled. “New year, new atmosphere. During the holiday, our President Li was exceptionally busy—he was never off his feet.”

Most people averted their gazes in turn. Li Zhicheng smiled slightly and did not speak.

Lin Qian who was sitting quite a distance away felt her heart drop for a moment, guilty about the fact that he was never off his feet? Was this sarcasm? A subtle hint that he’d been running everywhere enjoying himself?

She couldn’t help but stare at Gu Yanzhi. However, she was met with his usual expression, and he didn’t look long in her direction.

Fortunately, fortunately. She’d been wondering if Li Zhicheng would really tell Gu Yanzhi what he’d done during New Year’s. If he had told him, she would have felt a little awkward when faced with the sly old fox, Gu Yanzhi.

Just then she suddenly saw Li Zhicheng lift his head. His expression was normal, but he looked in her direction with electrified eyes.

Lin Qian felt her face heat up and she immediately avoided his gaze.

This man…

Even if he wasn’t trying to give her a hint, there was definitely some hidden meaning within that stare.

Lin Qian lifted her teacup and drank a mouthful. Beside her, a middle-aged man said something (she was not sure what) that caused the entire table to erupt in laughter. She didn’t catch it but she just laughed along with everyone. Even though she wasn’t looking at the big boss, and even though she was unsure whether her mind was just playing tricks on her, she felt as though his shining eyes were still trained her way.

This feeling… Why does it feel like an office affair?

It’s rather thrilling…

Meanwhile Li Zhicheng, who was separated by the crowd, subtly watched the woman try to act natural and hide the faint blush on her face.

After several days of not meeting, the memory of the beautiful woman resting in the crook of his arms that night was as vivid as ever.

The marketing department was first to report on the situation of the past few days. The topic was the state-owned enterprise projects that Li Zhicheng and Gu Yanzhi had pushed for so fervently. It had been an unquestionably prosperous start for the new year. Although the project hadn’t yet been finalized, the two presidents had constantly been accompanying President Kang and the other, more senior state-owned company president. Before they left, they had hoped that Aida would hand in a detailed project proposal as soon as possible and even invited Li Zhicheng to personally discuss in detail once they agreed on the relevant sections. They were obviously very interested.

Everyone became very excited listening to the news. Lin Qian was also pleasantly surprised. Along with most people in the room, she looked at Li Zhicheng in admiration. He was currently listening to the reports from the other departments with a slight lift of his handsome face and his gaze full of concentration. Occasionally, he picked up his pen and noted several lines down. His cold voice was hushed and curt when asking questions. The people questioned by him always replied with exceptional caution and took second glances at his face in the hopes that they would find some hint of approval.

Watching this, Lin Qian could not help but internally exclaim, Today is a new day for the company!

She remembered Li Zhicheng’s first time hosting an important meeting. It had been to decide on their battle plan to resurrect the company, and the atmosphere had been much different then than it was now. Everyone had fought back and hadn’t in the least bit respected this ex-soldier who had to report to duty as a second-generation heir.

But now?

After his complete upheaval and revamping of the company, Aida now had over a thousand employees, ten product lines, a few hundred physical storefronts, and so on.

He had an entirely fresh set of subordinates under him who would gladly follow his instructions.

After the respective departments had finished reporting a brief outline of their situations, it was time for their subsidiary company Vinda, which was under a team of three executives led by Xue Mingtao. Just then, Gu Yanzhi interrupted, “It’s such bad news that Vice President Xue has had such an issue crop up on his end. Vice President Xue can just go over the main points.”

The moment those words were said, everybody’s expression became solemn. Lin Qian’s heart tremored. She had just returned to Lin City last night and had rushed over to the company first thing in the morning. She had no knowledge of this matter.

Li Zhicheng’s expression was still and did not reveal any emotion.

Xue Mingtao nodded. First, he briefly reported on Vinda’s sales during the period in the new year before revisiting its total sales thus far. Of course, the numbers were encouraging. Then he said something that completely changed the atmosphere.

“However, according to reliable sources, SMQ will be preparing to launch a subsidiary product line similar to ours this year. At the same time, their large-scale mid-range product range will launch a series of aggressive promotional and sales activities.

“Apart from that, the other companies who are ranked top ten in the market will also be pushing out similar products and carrying out their plans for online advertising and sales. Everyone is capable of fighting for a place in the market, and such moves by our competitors are very likely to impact Vinda’s growth and development, reducing our share of the market.”

The entire meeting room fell silent.

After a moment, Liu Tong took a drag of his cigarette and without emotion said, “SMQ will always be like that. Copying, maintaining low-prices and engaging in underhanded methods of competition. They have no creativity and are extremely shameless.”

Although it was true, the market was a free-for-all. Even if everyone was upset and nervous about the competitor copying them, their actions were still within reason.

After a moment of silence, Li Zhicheng said, “Does anyone have any thoughts or opinions?” As he spoke, his gaze remained calm and relaxed. He leaned back in the boss’s chair, his fingers entwined and lightly resting on his knees. It gave people the sense that he would maintain his usual stable self and have full control of the situation.

Although the competitors were near, everyone had different opinions on how to deal with them.

Some suggested to similarly launch a sale as they wanted to protect Vinda, their only source of hope, to their last dying breaths.

Others suggested that they enhance their online advertising and, instead of lowering prices, strengthen their product marketing instead. This was something that Xue Mingtao, Lin Qian, and the relevant parties were currently and had constantly been doing. The few of them listened and nodded their heads.

However, Lin Qian quickly noticed that in this heated discussion, Li Zhicheng and his other main confidantes—Liu Tong, Gu Yanzhi, and Xue Mingtao—did not express many of their views. They mainly scribbled down valuable opinions from the discussion in their notebooks. This caused Lin Qian to zone out for a moment as she considered how deep Li Zhicheng’s thoughts went and how complicated his means to an end could be. He had probably predicted this problem a while back.

It appeared that the big shots had long since reached a conclusion about how to handle this problem.

However, Lin Qian didn’t expect this “consensus” to be her responsibility.

Because once everyone had thoroughly aired their views and finished brainstorming, Xue Mingtao nodded his head and said, “Everyone’s views are valuable, hence, our company will go into a detailed analysis and discussion in order to best formulate a working plan that will target the root of this problem. Meanwhile, on my end, I’ve also exchanged some ideas with several other experienced presidents and come up with a precursory plan.

“This plan will require a strong and specialized team in order to compete with our competitors. Thus, we would like to set up a marketing department for our subsidiary company. To outsiders, we will promote it as an overarching marketing plan. However, internally, we view it as being specially set up to fight our competitors in this particularly tough battle.”

His words were very reasonable and everyone nodded their heads in turn.

Just then, Li Zhicheng lifted his head to ask, “Who would you recommend to be in charge of this department?”

To her surprise, Xue Mingtao looked at Lin Qian. Then she heard him say, “Vice President Lin can take charge of it. She was born to be in marketing and she’s in charge of Vinda’s online marketing. I feel that she is most suitable.”

A solemn-faced Liu Tong nodded his head. “Alright, I think that works.”

…

An hour later, Lin Qian sat in the CEO’s office, which had long been unoccupied. She stared at a calligraphy painting hanging on the wall and let her mind wander.

This painting had been added after she’d left the position. It was not as grand or over-the-top as paintings that were usually in the offices of experienced presidents. It was square in shape and not very large. There were several long thin stems of bamboo painted on it. There were subtle hints of water flowing, and mountains as well.

However, Lin Qian felt that it had a lot of depth and artistic value.

A person’s art could reveal a lot about their personality. There was a subtle cutting edge to the painting, and the mountains painted with thick black ink had a certain faded quality to them.

She thought, His inner self is actually very virtuous and responsible.

In the meeting that had just been adjourned, Li Zhicheng had asked her after she was nominated as a candidate, “Lin Qian, what do you think?”

What could she say? Since it was his arrangement, she had no choice but to agree wholeheartedly.

Thus, Lin Qian smiled sweetly and told everyone, “I will abide by our leader’s arrangements. If I do take over this department, I’ll definitely give it my all. Under the leadership of President Li, we will definitely fight a beautifully-executed counterattack!”

Even after the meeting had ended, Lin Qian was still talking to Xue Mingtao and the rest. Jiang Yuan just walked over and smiled at her, saying, “Vice President Lin, President Li has asked you to see him in his office in a short while.”

It was the first day of work in the new year. As usual, the president had to make his rounds of the office as a form of encouragement. Lin Qian sat in his office for over ten minutes, but he still hadn’t come.

For the past few days Lin Qian had actually missed him a little. His image surfaced in her mind from time to time.

After being so greatly affected by him, how could she simply go back to normal?

Even though they were only going to talk about business matters, knowing that she would be interacting with him without anyone else around made her heart itch as though there were a tall field of grass growing within. Lin Qian sat for a while longer. She stared at the bookshelf. A row of neatly-placed books on it sat just below the painting, and she suddenly realized something.

She walked to the door and looked outside—there was still no sign of movement. Then, she gently shut the door and hurriedly ran to the bookshelf. Very quickly, she found Master Sun’s The Art of War.

The moment her finger made contact with the spine of the book, she felt overwhelmed with emotion.

The second book, I’m coming for you!

She could not read it in front of Li Zhicheng—that would be equivalent to a silent agreement that she was one of his people. But secretly reading it was a bad decision that she could blame no one but herself for.

She retrieved the book off the shelf, and flipped through it quickly. She soon found a small, neatly-folded note. She hurriedly opened it to take a look. The note read: “Enter the court and borrow a knife to murder people.” This was the first note. She dexterously folded it to its original state and quickly slotted it back in the page. Flipping to the next page, she found another one! Through the white, thin piece of paper, she could seemingly make out a couple of words, “A sword with three carvings…”

Just then, a familiar set of stable footsteps could be heard from outside. Jiang Yuan’s voice rang through the door separating them. “President Li, Lin Qian is inside.”

“Okay.” His voice was as low as the wind. “I’ll be talking to her about some important matters, so don’t let anyone disturb.”

“Alright.”

Lin Qian immediately stuffed the piece of paper back into the book and crammed the book back onto the shelf before running back to the sofa with a thump, thump, thump and planting her backside down. There was a click as someone twisted the knob and pushed the door open.

Lin Qian displayed a wide smile. “President Li.”

Li Zhicheng closed the door with a flick of his hand and lifted his head to give her a look: dark and focused, magnanimous but direct. It was as if the past few days of being apart had never happened and he was still the man from that night who had wooed her without apprehension.

Lin Qian’s expression didn’t change, but she could feel the entire atmosphere of the office become unsteady after the seemingly careless look of his.

Li Zhicheng first walked over to his huge desk and picked up the cup of water on it to drink a mouthful. Then he removed his outer suit jacket and folded it against his arm before placing it on the back of his chair. With his back facing her, the simple shirt and suit pants made his back look even firmer and straighter, and his waistline appeared slim but strong. Meanwhile he took a document from his desk and started to walk toward her. However, he suddenly turned his head to look at the floor beside the bookshelf.

Lin Qian followed his gaze—one quick glance made her heart tremble.

The neatly-folded note that contained the second battle tip had fallen to the floor.

Lin Qian immediately formulated a plan: act like she didn’t know anything.

She watched Li Zhicheng fold his hands behind his back and slowly make his way to the bookshelf. He bent down and picked up the piece of paper. He did not replace it in the book but simply held it in his hand before turning around and walking toward her.

Their eyes met and Lin Qian maintained her relaxed face.

But catching a glance of the battle tip out of the corner of her eye made her heart rate speed up once again. It was a similar feeling to whenever she’d done something wrong as a child and had been discovered by her parents.

She suddenly felt the urge to laugh.

The sofa in Li Zhicheng’s office had three sections to it, including a long section, a single piece and a double piece. Because the single piece was arranged towards the upper right, the subordinates were all used to giving it up and allowing their boss to have it to himself. Lin Qian sat on the long section, at the side which was closest to the single piece, so as to facilitate a more convenient discussion.

Unexpectedly, Li Zhicheng took a large step around the single piece of the sofa and walked toward her. Lin Qian was slightly shocked. He was not going to sit in the main seat, but instead sit beside her in the position that was meant for people of a lower rank.

His unique, familiar aura enveloped her. It was completely silent in the office. The two of them sat shoulder-to-shoulder, gazing at each other.

Lin Qian asked, “President Li, what do you need from me that you asked me here?”

Li Zhicheng did not respond immediately. He held up the note that contained the battle tip. Lin Qian’s eyes widened. He stared at her with those dark, relentless eyes before lightly placing it into the left breast pocket of his shirt.

He didn’t say a single word, but the initially-composed Lin Qian felt her face instantly become red. This was because she remembered his words from before: If you want it, then come and get it.

Last time he had just held it above the sofa. But this time…

He acted as though as he was completely unaware of his actions, once again confusing her heart and feelings. Li Zhicheng placed the file he held in front of her. “Have a look.”

Lin Qian opened the file. It contained the resumes of six people, all employees of Aida. Lin Qian flipped through the pages and understood. These were the resumes of people from each product event team who had performed exceptionally well lately. Most of them had already worked over five years and were considered to be part of the more reliable staff members.

Good soldiers were strong soldiers.

Did he want to give them to her?

Just as she was about to ask, she heard Li Zhicheng say in her ear, “What do you think of my decision today?”

Lin Qian was stunned. Putting down the documents in her hands, she turned to look at him.

He leaned into the sofa with his long legs loosely crossed together, one arm behind her on the back of the sofa and the other hand lightly resting on his knee. His handsome face was slightly tilted as if he was deep in thought while staring at Lin Qian, who sat in his half embrace.

Lin Qian stared back at him. “I have a question.”

“Say it.”

This question had been stirring within her since the meeting. However, due to everyone’s excitement and the intimidation that came when facing a crowd, she hadn’t wanted to bring it up.

“I have been trying to grapple with the concept of the battle that you led,” she said.

“Okay.”

“Actually, since we are on the topic, we are considered to have suddenly whipped out a surprise move at the last minute. To sell of high-quality products at a low price before switching our focus to mid-range products is a strategy that only us at Aida can pull off. New Bori cannot do it, and neither can SMQ.”

Amusement flashed in Li Zhicheng’s eyes.

Lin Qian sucked in a breath before continuing, “Because before this, Aida was doing very well. When we lost out in the high-quality and lower-range product markets it was synonymous with losing the entire company, and we were basically done for. Hence, we used a strategy that would not have many negative effects on the company.

“However, New Bori and SMQ are different as their entire operation functions very well. If they were to do as we did, wouldn’t it mess up their entire pricing system and all their cataloging? What we did was necessary for us to continue building our company, but if they did it, it would be like sabotaging themselves.”

“Yes, so?”

“So even if SMQ and other competitors are out with a vengeance to get rid of our brand Vinda, we won’t have to worry about the smaller companies because their quality can never match ours. As for SMQ…” She paused for a moment. “No matter how fiercely Chen Zheng may bark, the company’s bark is worse than its bite as it can absolutely never lower prices to the extent that we can. Also, our product has already created a name for itself. The products that hit the market first have a huge advantage in this industry. They definitely won’t be able to beat us in this competition.”

She looked at Li Zhicheng brightly. “So whatever was brought up in today’s meeting is not much of a concern. Even so, you’ve set up a special department.” She glanced down at the resumes.”You’ve even collected all this talent for me. So… what is my real objective here?”

She had started to keep in mind that whenever Li Zhicheng did something, he always had a hidden motive. Whatever appeared at first glance was surely the thing that he wanted you to see. His true intentions were always obscured beneath thick layers of haze.

In today’s meeting, he’d made a big deal out of things and had wanted to specially create a department of talents in order to go against SMQ’s preliminary provocation. It sounded perfectly reasonable—it was a company’s normal reaction in a commercial battle.

Li Zhicheng definitely had a bigger objective that he could not reveal to anyone, and it was likely hidden within this department.

Indeed, he stared at her for a moment before cracking a small smile.

“What seems false is true,” he said softly. “What seems true is false. My objective is New Bori. The largest portion of the market that once belonged to Aida is still monopolized by them.”

Lin Qian felt a tremor in her heart.

New Bori. Working behind the scenes was the extremely capable Zhu’s. They were a leader in the field that no one had been able to overthrow for years. Li Zhicheng, however, had them as a target, and this made Lin Qian’s blood run cold.

She stared in shock at his calm profile.

How courageous was he? How strong of a heart did he have?

In comparison to a company like New Bori, Aida was just a newborn sheep that had just learned to stand. Could he really lead this company to defeat the stronger company? Was this some legendary battle story?

At this moment he treated her as someone he could easily reveal the deepest depths of his thoughts to.

Did he really not have any filters around her?

A thought floated through her mind. If this is the case, what’s so scary about going into a relationship with him?

Li Zhicheng was someone who would obviously never act without thinking. He always wasn’t arrogant. She could tell because he looked at her and slowly said, “Against competitors like SMQ, relying on Aida’s current products and feigning some attacks was enough. However, for New Bori… we need to unleash our true weapons and abilities.”

He removed his hand from behind her and entwined his fingers to rest them on his knees before lightly saying, “So, I will require a longbow.”

Lin Qian was stunned. “Longbow?” She had never heard of this classic business story. So, did he mean…

Indeed, she heard him say, “Something close to perfection that hasn’t been seen on the market, and that has a competitive quality to it, will become our longbow to shoot into New Bori’s market. While you…” He turned his head to look her straight in the eye.

“Officially, you are to protect Vinda’s product expansion. However, your real task is to help me secretly craft this longbow.”