The Administration Department was right next door to the Sales Department. She’d have to be blind to say she didn’t see him!
Ma Jing sat right next to Chen Xiao, so she had even less of an excuse.
The two could only whisper, "We saw him!"
’Chen Xiao, don’t blame me,’ they thought. ’President Feng caught you red-handed herself!’
"Since you saw him, why didn’t you turn on the heat? What if he catches a cold in this weather?"
Huh? The administrative supervisor and Ma Jing were utterly baffled.
’The company has a rule: the heat can only be turned on when the indoor temperature is below 0 degrees!’
’It’s November, just chilly enough for a light jacket.’
’Turn on the heat now?’
"And you, Ma Jing. You’re so close to Chen Xiao and see him sleeping like this every day. Didn’t it occur to you to buy a blanket to cover him with?"
"President Feng, I’ll go buy one right after work today!" Ma Jing admitted, bowing her head. ’Sigh, President Feng is so thoughtful. No wonder I don’t have a boyfriend—I’m not considerate at all!’
"Good. I’ll reimburse you for it personally."
After speaking to Ma Jing, Feng Feifei turned to the administrative supervisor. "Turn on the heat in that section for the afternoon. We can’t have him catching a chill."
After the two left the office, they just stared at each other, wide-eyed. ’How can people be treated so differently? President Feng is spoiling Chen Xiao rotten!’
’She doesn’t care that he sleeps on the job, and she’s even worried he’ll get cold. It’s just...’
’No wonder Chen Xiao even smiles and drools in his sleep.’
In the main conference room of the Wansheng Group Hanjiang Regional Headquarters, Peng Yu sat ramrod straight, his eyes fixed on the projection screen.
He had convened this meeting for all the general managers of the stores across the province.
After the November performance targets for each Wansheng Square were announced, the floor was opened for the general managers to speak.
"President Peng, our location is struggling. The pressure from the November sales target is too great. Is there any way it could be lowered?"
Peng Yu sneered. "Can we lower your salary? Can we lower your position? If we can, then we can lower the target!"
"But President Peng, we’re facing a problem. Several of our top brands have all, coincidentally, started talks with us today about pulling out."
’How could this be?’ Peng Yu was shocked. ’Those struggling Squares are only staying afloat because of those few top brands. If they pull out, the malls are finished!’
"President Peng, we’ve gotten the same notice!"
"President Peng, us too..."
"Same here..."
Peng Yu almost had a heart attack. He roared, "How could 14 Squares all be talking about pulling out at the same time? Get a list of the brands immediately! I want the regional merchandising department to start negotiations now!"
"I won’t allow a single one to leave! Drop everything else and handle this now!"
The meeting ended abruptly. Peng Yu immediately summoned the regional merchandising department. He put Li Chun, the VP of merchandising, in charge of compiling a list of all the top brands threatening to leave and scheduling urgent meetings with them.
He also put the squeeze on the individual Squares: not a single top brand was to be lost, or that Square’s general manager would have their year-end bonus canceled.
While Peng Yu was frantically issuing one order after another, deep down he knew this matter would be difficult to resolve.
’None of these top brands were easy to deal with. It had taken all kinds of persuasion, cajoling, and incentives to get them to open stores in the first place. Now, for some unknown reason, they were all trying to pull out at once.’
Peng Yu felt a dark cloud hanging over him, and his expression grew so icy it looked like it could freeze water.
As the saying goes: when it rains, it pours.
His phone rang. He glanced at the screen: it was Xia Bin. The two of them had partied hard together just last night, forging a bond of camaraderie.
"President Xia!"
"President Peng, there’s an urgent situation. With the exception of Jiangzhou Wansheng Square, we won’t be able to work with the Wansheng Squares in the other cities for the time being."
Peng Yu’s face fell. He said in a low voice, "President Xia, we had a deal. You were going to support me by opening in two of the other city Squares first. And I gave you a prime location in Jiangzhou Wansheng Square!"
"You saw for yourself—I even offended Yino Company to get you that spot!"
Xia Bin knew he was in the wrong. He thought for a moment before replying, "President Peng, it’s not that I don’t want to support you, I just can’t right now. Once this blows over, forget two Squares—I’ll have no problem opening in three."
Peng Yu sensed something was wrong. "What happened?" he asked, his voice low.
"Today, Ganglong International issued a notice to all its tenants. To ’protect the exclusivity of its brands in the Hanjiang Region,’ they’re demanding that any brand with a store in a mass-market shopping center in the smaller cities will not have their lease renewed when it expires!"
"Fuck! Their reach is way too long. And you brand owners are just going to roll over and accept it?"
Xia Bin replied, "What choice do we have? There’s only one Ganglong in the entire Han River area. Ganglong will still be Ganglong without us, but if our brand isn’t in Ganglong, how can we call ourselves a luxury brand?"
"Damn it! Are they targeting Wansheng Square? Our market positioning is completely different! We stay in our own lanes. Why are they coming after us?!"
Xia Bin said, "I don’t think they’re specifically targeting you. The rule includes other, smaller malls too. It’s just that those small malls don’t have any luxury brands to begin with."
"So, the one getting hit the hardest is the Wansheng Group Hanjiang Region."
Peng Yu cursed. It was obvious now. The mass withdrawal requests from top brands that the stores reported this morning had to be because of this.
After all, no one wanted to lose their spot in Ganglong International. It was the gold standard in the Han River area.
"President Xia, is there any room for negotiation with Ganglong?"
Xia Bin sighed. "No chance. I tried to meet with Huang Guangyuan this morning to discuss it, but he wouldn’t even see me. He even sent a messenger to tell me that of my three stores with expiring leases, I’ll have to give one up!"
"I’m at my wits’ end. It’s a good thing you gave me a spot at Jiangzhou Wansheng Square, President Peng, or my losses would be enormous!"
"But don’t you worry, President Peng. Once this whole thing blows over and we’ve secured our renewals, we’ll come back and support your other Squares!"
’Yeah, right,’ Peng Yu thought, internally scoffing. ’You just want a spot in my prime Jiangzhou Wansheng Square. You want to eat the meat but aren’t willing to gnaw on the bones.’
Still, he couldn’t afford to offend Xia Bin, as he would need his support down the line. Besides, the main reason for ousting Yi Rui from Jiangzhou Wansheng Square had been their personal grudge.
Chen Xiao was exhausted. He had fought a long, hard battle the previous night, and then had to "work" diligently at playing games all morning at the office. His eyes were strained.
He’d rested his head on his desk for a moment and ended up falling fast asleep.
When he woke up, something felt off. Then he realized the heat was on in the office.
Chen Xiao called Ma Jing over. "Who lost their mind and turned on the heat? It’s not even that cold yet. What a waste!"
Ma Jing stared at him, speechless. After a long moment, she said, "You were sleeping on the job, and President Feng said you must be tired from working so hard."
"We followed company policy and didn’t turn on the heat, so President Feng chewed us out for being unobservant and letting you get cold!"
"We broke company policy to turn on the heat so you wouldn’t be cold, and now you’re calling us crazy!"
"Brother Chen Xiao, I’ve got to ask, what kind of world are we living in? Where is the justice in any of this?"