After the meal, everyone went their separate ways.
Only Ding Yong went back to Li Guoqiang’s office. They drank tea for two hours, but what the two of them discussed remains unknown.
However, starting that night, a piece of news began to circulate within a small circle in Jiangzhou.
There was a new capital management firm in Jiangzhou with over five billion in funds, and its investment focus was on the AI sector.
But the general manager of this firm had a peculiar preference when it came to investing: one needed to have a business relationship with a man named Chen Xiao from Dr. Feng’s Robot Co., Ltd.
Doing so would make it relatively easy to secure funding—provided, of course, that the project itself was solid.
That was just the beginning. As the rumor spread and got distorted, it eventually became "you had to have a relationship with Chen Xiao," leading to many farcical situations. But that’s a story for another time.
「Yinuo Jiangzhou Branch」
The head of HR was guiding Xu Jia through the onboarding process.
’She had been with the company for seven years, and not once had President Liu personally arranged for someone to be hired.’
’But this month, he had made exceptions twice, both times parachuting someone directly into a deputy head position.’
’Zhao Hui was one thing; he was going to the logistics department as a deputy head with a base salary of 15,000.’
’But this young woman, hired just before the New Year, was starting as the deputy head of retail with a base salary of 20,000—even higher than the head of retail, Li Lei.’
Of course, besides the HR head and Liu Haoran, no one else knew this. Salaries were confidential.
’She also knew the company had given Xu Jia a housing allowance, a perk that only Liu Haoran himself received, as his hometown was also in another province.’
’Xu Jia wasn’t some key talent they had recruited. The HR head had seen her resume; a year ago, she was just a clerk at the Jiangzhou Wansheng Square Store.’
’A promotion this fast? She must have strapped herself to a rocket.’
Xu Jia had been to the company offices before, but always for training, sitting in the large conference room with a group of her fellow "sisters" for lessons.
This time, she was returning after a year of unemployment, rejoining in a leadership role.
She found the change in roles to be incredibly dramatic, but she knew it was all thanks to Chen Xiao and Xiangjun.
She was Zhao Xiangjun’s best friend. Xiangjun told her everything, except for the most private matters, so she knew that Xiangjun was a major shareholder in this company.
Therefore, her only worry was doing a poor job and tarnishing her best friend’s reputation; she didn’t have the usual anxieties of starting a new job.
’She knew that within this company, the real decision-makers, those qualified to know about her connection, would look out for her.’
’And those who didn’t know about it weren’t qualified to know. People who weren’t qualified were naturally not worth worrying about.’
The HR head’s final stop with Xu Jia was to meet Li Lei, her immediate superior after joining.
Li Lei had some impression of her, not because she was particularly outstanding, but because her best friend was so famous.
’Xu Jia, the best friend of the most beautiful sales associate in the entire company!’
Yes, his impression of her came with that long list of qualifiers.
Li Lei had mixed feelings. The retail department was getting a new deputy head, and he hadn’t even been allowed to interview her.
Boss Liu had arranged it personally. As one of Liu Haoran’s confidants, Li Lei knew not to ask questions he shouldn’t ask.
He just needed to follow Boss Liu’s instructions: train her well, be attentive to her difficulties, and proactively help her solve them.
’He understood immediately: they had just hired a pampered princess.’
Li Lei had high emotional intelligence. He wasn’t like Fang Qiang, who would argue with heaven, earth, and the very air.
He was a needle hidden in cotton—a classic case of a dog that bites without barking.
"Ah, Xu Jia, long time no see! Back when you were at the store, I always felt you were one of the few in our retail team with true management potential."
Xu Jia had no idea how he could have seen that. Back at the store, her performance had been average, and she usually only hung out with Zhao Xiangjun, not socializing with others.
But flattery will get you everywhere. And everyone knows how to engage in a little professional mutual admiration.
"Manager Li, it’s a great honor to be assigned to your team again. As my former leader, I’ll be counting on your guidance!"
As deputy head, Xu Jia also had to manage her own team. Li Lei assigned her three of his most capable key players and his best supervisor.
This wasn’t a favor from him; it was a requirement from Liu Haoran, ensuring Xu Jia would face little pressure.
The supervisor was in charge of managing the store managers, and coincidentally, the Jiangzhou Wansheng Square Store fell under Xu Jia’s jurisdiction.
After finishing the paperwork, Xu Jia sat in her own office area, a novel feeling. It was her first time experiencing what it was like to be a white-collar worker.
She couldn’t resist sending a message to Zhao Xiangjun: "Babe, I’m all set up over here. From now on, the Jiangzhou Wansheng Square Store is my turf!"
A moment later, she received a reply: "Alright, Boss. Please look out for me!"
"Huh? Aren’t you supposed to be driving?"
Xu Jia had messaged her last night and knew she was going home with Chen Xiao today in her Wisdom Realm R7, since its trunk and frunk had a lot of storage space.
That morning, Chen Xiao had taken Zhao Xiangjun down to the garage to put their things in the trunk.
When he was about to get back in the car, he found Zhao Xiangjun already sitting in the passenger seat.
Chen Xiao asked, "Aren’t you supposed to drive? I can watch out for you from the passenger seat."
"Didn’t you say I had no more room for improvement? You should drive. I like being a passenger, not a driver!"
Chen Xiao just shook his head. "This car has autonomous driving, and you’re still too lazy to drive it!"
"You still have to keep your hands on the steering wheel. It’s inconvenient for texting!"
Fine. Chen Xiao was a bit helpless. She would chat with him for a bit, but spent the rest of the time texting her mom and Xu Jia.
In her own words, her world was perfect as long as it had Chen Xiao and her phone.
Chen Xiao started the car. As he drove, he said to her, "I bought a little too much bird’s nest this time. Have your mom stew several servings at once, put them in the fridge, and then just take one out and add some milk when you want to eat it."
Chen Xiao had bought a huge box of bird’s nest. People usually bought just a few nests at a time, and Zhao Xiangjun had already roasted him about it several times.
"I know, old man. This is a total ’IQ tax.’ It’s not nearly as good as plain old whole grains."
"Are you calling me stupid?"
"No, Chen Xiao, I’m complimenting you on your well-developed limbs."
"So you *are* saying I’m simple-minded?"
Zhao Xiangjun just giggled and didn’t respond.
Chen Xiao feigned anger. "So you’re the one who bites Lü Dongbin, huh?"
She stuck out her tongue playfully and smiled charmingly. "Where’s the donkey? It’s just dog-eat-dog, okay!"
Chen Xiao was left speechless.
The road to the suburbs wasn’t congested, and the car sped along like the wind.
As Chen Xiao and Zhao Xiangjun bickered, time flew by, and soon they were approaching the neighborhood where Zhao Hui lived.
Happiness Garden was a resettlement housing complex from a demolition project. The inside was rather chaotic, with cars parked haphazardly everywhere. It was impossible to drive directly to the entrance of Zhao Hui’s building.
The complex’s underground garage wasn’t in use either, which was very inconvenient. Chen Xiao was starting to understand why Zhao Xiangjun had insisted he not bring too many things.
Now, how to get everything upstairs had become a major problem.
Fortunately, the Zhao Family was also eagerly awaiting their arrival, constantly texting Zhao Xiangjun to ask where they were.