Chapter 233 - 190: Playing Dirty (2)

In his view, he had already given Yang Hui a chance. Since Yang Hui didn’t know what was good for him, he couldn’t be blamed for resorting to underhanded tactics. He dialed the intercom and called Han Chao in.

"Xiaohan, arrange for someone to file an anonymous complaint with Xinyue Group Headquarters regarding their Qingjiang Region operations. Report them for illicitly colluding with tenants and abusing their power for personal gain. Leak Yanghe Commerce’s business terms."

Han Chao was stunned and stared at Li Yang. This was no small matter. If anyone found out that he and Futong Commerce were behind this, they would likely be ostracized by the entire client community and, at the very least, blacklisted by Xinyue Group. Everyone would fear becoming the next target of such a complaint.

But he didn’t dare disobey Li Yang’s orders, so he could only comply.

"Be discreet about it. Make sure you cover your tracks."

Even without Li Yang’s reminder, Han Chao knew he was dancing on a knife’s edge. If this ever got out, his career would be over. After leaving Futong Commerce, no one would dare hire him.

Yang Hui, however, didn’t give the matter a second thought. Futong Commerce had only ever served one purpose for him: getting hired. The next step was to resign, and quickly. So, Li Yang finding out he was the owner of Yanghe Commerce was actually a good thing. He hadn’t deliberately hidden the fact precisely because he wasn’t afraid of Li Yang knowing. A part of him even hoped it would lead to Li Yang forcing him out of Futong Commerce.

’But would Li Yang really do that? After all, my being the owner of Yanghe Commerce hasn’t affected my work at Futong Commerce. In fact, I brought in over two million in extra profit for him in a single month. At my current salary, you could say he could pay me to do nothing for three years and still come out ahead.’

Thinking back to Dan Biao’s talk with Zhu Jing about promoting her to operations manager, a thought struck him. ’Could Li Yang be this... cooperative?’ But it fit his character perfectly—petty and vindictive. ’This incident, on top of everything else, must be eating him up inside.’

’This is good. This is a very good thing. I’ll have to turn up the heat on him over the next couple of days. I can’t let that little flame of resentment in his heart die out.’

Yanghe Commerce’s livestream started today, but Shen Meng wasn’t hosting. She was in a management role now, having recruited two new streamers who both had a great look and presence.

Yang Hui popped into the livestream to check on it occasionally. Since the account was new and they hadn’t paid for any traffic boosting, it had very few viewers—only a dozen or so people. But he wasn’t the type to rush success. He believed that building an online presence was just like running a physical store: you had to slowly build your reputation through quality products, service, and professionalism. It was about laying a solid foundation for future growth, gathering sand to build a tower.

He had already spoken with Cheng Jun. Once sales stabilized, the NLB store and Xinyue Group’s regional company would collaborate on another online livestream, following the same model as the Airex event. He had only brought it up casually, as it required the mall to subsidize consumer vouchers equivalent to 10% of total sales. However, Yanghe Commerce’s profit share for the mall was only 6%. This meant the higher the sales, the more money the mall would lose. Yang Hui didn’t think the mall would ever agree to such a deal, so he had proposed to Cheng Jun that Yanghe Commerce could cover the subsidy cost itself and simply use the mall’s platform for publicity.

However, after Cheng Jun reported to President Tian, the response was to proceed with the same partnership model as the Airex event. Yanghe Commerce would not need to provide the funds; Xinyue Group would cover the cost. When Yang Hui heard this, he was stunned for a good while. Honestly, he could hardly stand to watch President Tian so blatantly misuse company resources for personal reasons!

Cheng Jun even teased him, asking if he was related to one of Xinyue Group’s top executives.

The first week of business was over. Yesterday had been the final day to use the mall’s subsidized consumer vouchers. Since it was also a Sunday, foot traffic had been explosive. Today, however, was a different story. The store had entered a stabilization period, and being a Monday, morning foot traffic throughout the mall was mediocre.

Even so, the store’s sales had already surpassed 10,000 yuan before noon, which was incredibly impressive. He no longer had access to the sales figures for Futong Commerce’s NLB store, but he knew from past experience that it would rarely make a sale before noon, with total daily sales hovering around just 5,000 yuan.

He tidied up briefly and headed out with Zhu Jing. His habit of openly escorting a pretty young woman around was so common that no one at the company batted an eye anymore. In fact, if he were ever to show up alone, it would probably attract more attention; people might think he’d had a complete change of character.

Li Yang stood by the floor-to-ceiling window of his office, watching Yang Hui and Zhu Jing get into a car in the parking lot below. His expression was grim. He stared intently at the receding taillights of the Mercedes, his eyes turning bloodshot.

He wasn’t taking Zhu Jing out for fun today, though. The site for the Zen store in Xinyue Square was almost ready for handover, and he was going to take a look. Zhu Jing, meanwhile, was headed to the same mall to do a routine inspection of the Airex store.

The two of them took the elevator to the first floor, which opened up right in front of the NLB store. As they stepped out, they saw Xia Jie standing outside, observing the situation inside. It was a management habit of hers; Xia Jie believed that she could better spot areas where her sales staff needed improvement by watching from the outside—a classic case of ’a bystander sees the game best.’

Seeing them, Xia Jie hurried over with a sweet smile on her face. Ever since she had joined Yanghe Commerce, it seemed she had never stopped smiling.

"Xia Jie," Zhu Jing greeted her. The two were already well-acquainted, and now that they were both working under Yang Hui, their bond had grown even stronger.

"Manager Yang, Zhu Jing," she said. She was so used to calling him Manager Yang that she couldn’t break the habit. Yang Hui didn’t mind. A name was just a name, as long as he knew she was talking to him.