Once she was inside the general manager’s office, Li Xiao finally understood what was happening!
A whirlwind of emotions washed over her—envy, joy, and even a touch of melancholy.
She envied Xu Wu for all she had achieved. She was also thrilled; with her old classmate’s help, the project was a sure thing. But at the same time, just like Gao Yue, she felt a pang of melancholy, a sense that she could never catch up to Xu Wu in this lifetime.
"Xiao Xiao, go talk to your boss. And don’t have him come looking for me. If he agrees to my terms, you can be the one to handle this project directly!"
"If he doesn’t agree, then don’t blame me for not helping out an old classmate. To be honest, I’m not that interested in this project anyway."
"I’ll go talk to my boss as soon as I get back. I’m sure it won’t be a problem. After all, the R&D is outsourced. What’s the difference who we give the work to?"
Li Xiao’s boss, of course, had no objections. The lack of incoming funds was already holding up their R&D progress.
Just as Li Xiao had said, it didn’t matter who did the R&D work, as long as their part of the project was delivered on time.
After getting a firm yes, Li Xiao called Xu Wu to finalize things, and they began the official collaboration process.
But before they could start the collaboration process, there was one necessary step: the business partnership with Dr. Feng had to be confirmed. And it had to be confirmed through Chen Xiao.
「Dr. Feng’s Robot Company」
A visitor at the front desk was looking for Chen Xiao. After checking, the receptionist told the man that Chen Xiao hadn’t come into the office yet.
The visitor introduced himself as Gao Yang, the vice president of Jiefei Technology Co., Ltd. He was quite disappointed to hear Chen Xiao wasn’t in and asked when he usually arrived at the office.
The receptionist said he usually came back for a while around noon.
Gao Yang glanced at the time and said, "I’ll wait for him then."
The receptionist led him to a meeting room to wait, promising to let him know as soon as Chen Xiao arrived.
As they approached one of the meeting rooms, they found it was already occupied; Hou Fei and Yuan Kai were in the middle of a meeting with a client.
The receptionist apologized and was about to lead Gao Yang to a different room.
But Hou Fei’s client immediately stood up to greet him. "Mr. Gao, hello!"
Gao Yang studied him for a moment before asking, "And you are?"
"It’s me, Xiao Gu! I visited you at your company with my boss last month."
"Oh, Xiao Gu! Good to see you! I knew you looked familiar. Well, you all carry on, I won’t disturb you."
He honestly couldn’t remember any Xiao Gu, but his acting skills were first-rate.
He sat down in the adjacent meeting room, his mind on the bizarre task his boss had given him: hand over the AI development portion of a major company project to Chen Xiao at Dr. Feng’s Robot Company. The contract was worth twenty million.
’Since when does a client chase down a contractor and beg them to take a job? And even insist on a specific employee? This is all too strange,’ he thought. ’I have no idea what the boss is thinking.’
But the boss was the boss. His orders had to be followed. Moreover, he’d repeatedly stressed that there could be no mistakes, so Gao Yang was being extremely cautious.
As Hou Fei and Yuan Kai watched Manager Gu greet Gao Yang, Hou Fei asked, "Manager Gu, who was that?"
"That’s Gao Yang, the VP of Jiefei. Oh, right, you haven’t worked with Jiefei before. No wonder you don’t recognize him."
Hou Fei just said, "Oh," and humbly explained that he had just returned from abroad, so he wasn’t familiar with many people in their professional circle yet.
Yuan Kai had been negotiating a three-million contract with Manager Gu, but the client hadn’t committed. He’d only said that several companies were competing for it and that they were still deciding which one to choose.
So today, Yuan Kai had invited Manager Gu over and asked his own boss to host the meeting. It was a gesture to show how much they valued his business, and having a leader present who could make decisions on the spot would make it easier to close the deal.
But that’s not how the meeting went at all. Hou Fei spent the whole time talking about technical matters, trying to impress upon the client how strong his team was.
Manager Gu made it clear he had no doubts about the technology of Dr. Feng’s Robot Company; he was more interested in the terms and structure of the potential partnership.
The two of them were talking completely past each other, never on the same page. Yuan Kai grew anxious listening to them, but he couldn’t very well interrupt Hou Fei.
He’d brought Manager Gu here hoping Hou Fei would promise some benefits beyond the official scope of the contract, not lecture him on technology.
’You’re talking tech with a marketing guy. A brief overview would have been enough. Why are you explaining the fundamental principles to him? It’s like casting pearls before swine.’
Finally, Manager Gu stood up. "President Hou, you truly are a technical expert. I’ve learned so much from our conversation today. We’ll take this back and study it further. We’ll be in touch!"
They shook hands and said their goodbyes. On the way out, Hou Fei said to Yuan Kai, "That went pretty well. It looks like he’s very confident in our technical abilities. This deal is basically in the bag. Make sure you follow up properly!"
’In the bag my ass,’ Yuan Kai fumed internally. ’The guy was just feeding you polite, passive-aggressive bullshit, and you couldn’t even tell?’
’Manager Gu sat there forever without hearing a single thing he wanted to, and you think the deal is basically done? And you want me to follow up?’
’If I manage to close this deal, it’s because *your technology* won him over. If I lose it, it’s because *I’m* incompetent. Screw you!’
Yuan Kai kept his head down, cursing furiously in his heart. He secretly swore that no matter what, he would never bring a client to meet Hou Fei again.
He had actually hoped this meeting would help him get closer to his boss.
’Looks like I’d better stay as far away from him as possible from now on.’
’That Chen Xiao fellow may be annoying, but at least he brings in bonuses. This President Hou is a clown sent by the monkeys—apart from his technical skills, he’s a complete idiot!’
’You can’t do business with a guy like that.’
’He could ruin any number of deals!’
"Manager Yuan, there’s another guest over here. Let’s go meet him together."
Yuan Kai said, "President Hou, we don’t have an appointment with that guest. Wouldn’t it be inappropriate?"
Hou Fei waved a dismissive hand. "You’re too rigid. A client comes to see the company, not one specific person, right?"
He led the way, and Yuan Kai had no choice but to follow. It wasn’t going to affect him either way, and it certainly wasn’t worth offending Hou Fei over.
Gao Yang was scrolling through his phone in the meeting room when he saw two men walk in.
The man in the lead had an honest, sincere face and a very affable smile. He started with the pleasantries immediately. "Hello, you must be Mr. Gao!"
Gao Yang stood up as the man continued, "I’m Hou Fei, the VP and CTO of Dr. Feng’s Robot Company. A pleasure to meet you!"
Gao Yang was, of course, very polite in return. His boss placed great importance on one of this company’s mere salesmen; how could he dare disrespect its vice president?
Hou Fei then introduced Yuan Kai, and Gao Yang was just as courteous.
Once they were all seated, Hou Fei asked with an attentive air, "Mr. Gao, what brings you to our company today?"
Gao Yang hesitated for a moment. "Oh, nothing like that. I’m actually here to see one of your salesmen, Chen Xiao."
Hou Fei frowned at the name. He turned to Yuan Kai and said, "You need to get your department under control. What a complete lack of manners. The guest is here, but he’s nowhere to be found!"
Yuan Kai verbally agreed, but inwardly he was cursing. ’Why the hell don’t *you* get things under control? I’m the only one who does the stupid "homework" you assign every day. That Chen Xiao doesn’t give a damn about you, and there’s nothing you can do about it.’
Gao Yang was startled by the outburst. ’Oh no,’ he thought. ’I hope I haven’t caused any trouble for Chen Xiao. It would be bad if this messes up the boss’s plans.’