Chapter 47 - A Temporary Separation

The advent of Aito has affected an incredible amount of companies, and individuals.

Although New Bori appeared to remain still, the outside world was watching, they wondered how the industry leader would respond to this Aito frenzy. Chen Zheng saw the forceful commercials of Aito, and instantly smashed a teacup in the office. But what could he do? It was a war that had nothing to do with him or SMQ.

The life of Wang Taishi, the general manager of Mind Fabric Factory from Taiwan was also changing. His name and his fabrics began to be known throughout mainland China and even across Asia, becoming the hottest high-tech star in Taiwan.

In the fireless battlefield, the biggest winner and the most prominent company at this stage was undoubtedly Aida.

The happiest and most content people lately had also been every Aida employee.

On the second day upon returning from Mount Emei, on the early Monday morning, Lin Qian headed to the conference room on the top floor to attend the managers’ meetings as planned.

She arrived bit later than others and when she got to the conference room, most of the other managers were already there. Looking up again, she saw Li Zhicheng, the Big Boss, coming from his office and walking towards the conference room, followed by Jiang Yuan.

Their eyes met silently across the room. Lin Qian’s face was turning a little red. She lowered her head to went inside, sitting down somewhere at the round table. After a while, Li Zhicheng came in and sat down in the main seat. The atmosphere in the conference room seemed to become heavy and serious the moment he stepped in. His voice was low and heavy, “Let’s start.”

Someone began to report sales data as of this morning. Lin Qian’s side-long eyesight slowly drifted to Li Zhicheng’s calm face, she couldn’t help but feel distracted.

After taking the bus back to Lin City last night, he took the car and sent her home. At night, he was reluctant to leave.

Later they snuggled in her bed, being intimate for most the night, and finally, she used her hand to finish.

As soon as the morning dawned, he kept her on the bed, even asking her to do it again. Lin Qian felt very embarrassed about it, she’d never thought that one day she would become so skilled in this…

The pair had pretty much experienced everything they could, except for the final step. Even the shirt he was wearing right now, was changed early this morning after driving back to his place.

Aito’s sales volume was staggering. Just over a weekend, tens of thousands of items nationwide were sold out.

Meanwhile, every manager’s face was beaming, talking and nodding frequently in agreement.

However, after a short period of excitement and joy, Gu Yanzhi raised the most critical issue at present.

“With the great sales volume, Aito has officially become a hit.” He looked cheerful. “But the following planning, marketing, and management are more important.”

Everyone nodded.

Lin Qian also understood the principal, considering for any new product that just hit the market, it’s far from enough to only fire the first shot. The follow-up publicity, promotion, distribution, management, and other complicated matters must be followed, in order to really make this excellent product find its safe spot in the market.

There already had been some examples for some certain domestic products when they entered the market, despite having great sale volumes and built their reputations. However, due to the follow up they failed to keep up, resulting in running out of stock, bad fluency, customer service legged behind and so on. In the end they had to be aborted, all the previous creations and investments were in vain. Although they were clearly genius products, they were short-lived.

Many of the people in the room were marketing and management veterans. Now that the most difficult juncture was over, this kind of routine work naturally became very familiar to them. The discussion lasted for 30 minutes, and they finally agreed to extract the most elite talents from the various departments, led by Gu Yanzhi, heading to the different cities in the country, supervising, managing and supporting the front-line markets in person. They needed to ensure the communications with the front-line are close and clearly understood, and ensuring Aida, the huge machine had the smoothest operation this time, sending Aito to a higher and better position.

Li Zhicheng had no objection to this proposal. In fact, since he took charge of Aida, he had made more decisions in terms of major strategic directions and options. As to the routine work, he often respected the experience of veterans such as Liu Tong and Gu Yanzhi.

It was also where Lin Qian admired him. Being strong but not indulgent, knowing others’ specialities to use them wisely.

Then they discussed the candidates. Gu Yanzhi’s decision was made fast, after a brief silence, he said: “It takes at least over a month or two to go through all the key markets. Well, Manager Liu, you can arrange some staff from the production and technology department; the recruiters and assessment managers should all come along; form the human resource department, Xue Mingtao, Lin Qian and …” He named a dozen names without a taking a breath. Finally he looked up at Li Zhicheng and said, “That’s pretty much it. What do you think, President Li?”

Lin Qian was also called out, she slightly froze, looking up at Li Zhicheng.

Going away … for a month or two.

But she had no choice.

Not surprisingly, Li Zhicheng’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. Without looking at her, he slowly nodded, “Sure.”

In fact, Lin Qian would have loved to research in the market, if it wasn’t for Li Zhicheng.

From her perspective, at the beginning of the listing of a “great” product, the various reactions in the market and problems in the business were all commendable. Going on this trip would inevitably give her another great experience and increase her skills.

But… what about Li Zhicheng?

At noon, Lin Qian returned to subsidiary Vinda, sitting in her office, muttering and flipping the pens.

Last night, in the end when he held her lying down, he was still whispering in her ear: “3 days left? Huh?”

At the time, she was speechless and could only bury her face in his naked chest, groaning hard.

3 days, sigh, it would soon turn into 30 or even 60 days.

Having thought of this, Lin Qian’s sour taste began to rise, the invincible Boss, didn’t expect to have the misstep either. What’s his thoughts on it right now?

However, this idea was just a flash, it was mainly the reluctance to leave him.

She had always been self-disciplined, separating the professional and personal life. Including last time leaving Li Zhicheng, in order to conduct the pre-market research for the listing of Aito, leading the team for the first time. Despite that being the beginning of their relationship, she still missed him badly. But she was mainly thinking of him, over and over again, intensely, and she was able to control those emotions.

Unlike this time, the thought of being apart for two months was even making her a bit sad. It was a strange feeling, the feeling of unfairness and lack of motivation. It seemed that all the motivation she had was suddenly taken out because of the coming separation.

There was even a flash of thought in her mind to tell Li Zhicheng not to arrange for her to travel. She was amazed that she was looking forward to this result. But she soon suppressed this irrational idea.

If she really missed this trip for him, maybe she might regret it afterward.

Indecisive for a while, by the time she was off work, the day had become dark and most of the staff had left too. She took the elevator and went downstairs.

A line of vehicles were parked in front of the office building. Having had something on her mind, Lin Qian didn’t look around, keeping her head down to the entrance of the industrial park.

Shortly after she started walking, she suddenly heard a “beep” from a car horn.

Stop beeping at me!

In a terrible mood, Lin Qian looked forward with a smirk but was shocked to find a familiar Land Rover stopped just a few meters away. Through the glass, there was a vague silhouette of the driver, who else could it be except Li Zhicheng?

At this time, although it was already after work, there were still company employees passing by. When the car was beeping, some people not too far away started looking up. Lin Qian was caught off guard, swiftly walking up to the car, quickly opening the passenger seat door.

“Why are you here?” She looked at Li Zhicheng.

He glanced at her and starts the car, “To pick you up.”

He sounded like he had taken it for granted. Lin Qian instantly had a guilty conscience. The car was just about to exist the gate of the industrial park, and there must had been lots of security guards and cameras around. Without even thinking, Lin Qian knelt down and buried her face in his knees. Then she could feel his hand on her neck, rubbing it gently, like petting a small animal.

“Get up, it’s all right.” There was a hint of laughter in his voice. But Lin Qian didn’t act accordingly, until they had driven away, She finally looked up and took a long breath.

After she was driven home by Li Zhicheng, while they were sharing a kiss on the couch, she blamed him, “Why did you pick me up today? What if someone sees us?”

Li Zhicheng placed a hand on her shoulder and held her hand in his other, saying, “Don’t worry about it. We should gradually make it public.”

Lin Qian was stunned, what? P…public?

“That’s way too soon.”

Li Zhicheng looked at her and said simply: “It’s not.”

Lin Qian found it a little awkward.

She glanced at him once more. After all, because of his identity, making it public means she’ll be seen as the Boss’ Wife. She always thought that they should wait until at least after the engagement.

“If you make it public now…” Lin Qian leaned against his arms with her fingers circling on his shirt. “If we didn’t end up together in the future, how should we deal with it? Let’s imagine, you’ll become the playful son of the rich who was messing with his staff, and I’ll become a fox relying on the unspoken rules. Hmm… In the future, if you make another girlfriend, you’ll have to to make it public again, perhaps it’ll be a little embarrassing for you…”

She mumbled for a while, only seeing Li Zhicheng had been silent the whole time. Looking up, she realized that his face had sunken. His appearance made Lin Qian slightly guilty, she gave him a harsh glance: “I’m talking about the facts.”

Li Zhicheng grabbed her waist firmly, with a little pressure. Lin Qian reacted, “Whoops”, then she was firmly pushed into in his chest, only able to rest and look up at him, but unable to move around.

“Are you still going to keep that nonsense?” he asked in a low voice, implicitly threatening.

Lin Qian gave him the angry look, silent, but she felt warm in her heart.

After a while, she blinked in his arms and said, “I’ve got the trip coming up tomorrow, so I’m hitting the sack soon. Maybe you should head home.”

Li Zhicheng also looked down at her, his dark eyes were always hard to discern.

“What for?” he said. “I’m staying here for the night too.”

Under his watchful eyes, Lin Qian’s heart completely melted. Reaching out her hand to his neck, she said, “I’m going to be away for at least a month. You must think of me, don’t let our relationship be affected by the separation. Do you understand?”

Once she finished, Li Zhicheng lowered his head and kissed her. Slowly, he laid her entire body on the couch, and his body coming on top of hers quietly. During the long night, the relationship was getting extra intense because of their impending separation. He couldn’t help but want to get more of her body, but it wasn’t the ultimate liberation. All he could do was suppressing his desire even harder and felt more tortured.