Chapter 235 - 191: Let Him Go

After Xia Jie left, Li Na stood at a distance, looking into the store. She then glanced at the shops on either side, making a comparison. When it came to service standards, the other stores weren’t in the same league as Yanghe Commerce. Futong Commerce’s level wasn’t even worth mentioning.

"Li Na, what are you doing here?"

She turned her head and saw a former colleague from Futong Commerce, the store manager for the Shi Meng brand upstairs. This was one of the people who had gone to dinner with Xia Jie that night—the dinner Li Na had been invited to but didn’t attend. Li Na disdained such fair-weather friends, but for the sake of their past association, she gave a slight nod. "I’m working here now."

"Well, you certainly move fast. I just heard yesterday you’d resigned, and you’ve already found a job today. Running to join your former supervisor, are you?"

Since Xia Jie had been posting her sales victories on her Moments feed for the past few days, and this woman was on her friends list, she naturally knew Xia Jie had gone to NLB at Yanghe Commerce.

Joining Xia Jie was already proving to be the best decision Li Na had ever made. Hearing the jab, she replied proudly, "That’s right. My boss thinks I’m worth it, so she brought me along."

"Are you the store manager here?"

Li Na shook her head. "I’m a sales associate."

The woman was taken aback, then said mockingly, "Well, that doesn’t seem like a great arrangement from your boss. A store manager at Futong Commerce for several years, and you come here to be a mere sales associate? Isn’t that a waste of your talent? Seems like quitting wasn’t a very rational decision."

Li Na let out a dry laugh. ’If this woman knew how much I’m making now, she’d probably be on her knees, crying and begging her own boss for the same deal.’

"Wow, and you’re usually so proud. I never would have expected this... never. If it were me, I’d rather starve to death than take a job as a sales associate. It’s just too embarrassing."

"Is that right? You’d better remember what you said today. Let’s hope it doesn’t come back and hit you like a boomerang."

Li Na didn’t want to waste any more breath on her; there was no point in talking when they clearly didn’t see eye to eye. "I’m heading back inside. You just keep on ’shining’ in your position as the Shi Meng store manager."

Xia Jie sat down next to Zhu Jing, across from Yang Hui.

"Zhu Jing, I didn’t think you were in charge of the Airex store over here."

"Yeah, Ji Kun is out on sick leave. I’m just covering for him today to check on the store and lay out the work for the week."

The food arrived, and Yang Hui gestured for them to eat. "After Zen opens, Xia Jie, you’ll manage it for now," he said. "Once Zhu Jing is fully on board, the brand will be handed over to her."

Since the Zen and NLB stores were located together, the original plan, for convenience, was to have both of them manage both brands, with their territories divided by shopping mall. Ultimately, however, Yang Hui decided that managing a single brand would allow for greater focus. He also considered that as the company grew, both women were likely candidates for promotion and would eventually lead their own teams. Therefore, he made the call for Xia Jie to focus on managing NLB, while Zhu Jing would be responsible for Zen.

They would do whatever he arranged. Zhu Jing said, "Boss, can you send me the product introduction for Zen, along with any materials on visual merchandising techniques? I’d like to study up in advance."

Yang Hui nodded. ’I have a feeling my time at Futong Commerce is almost up,’ he thought. He could see the writing on the wall in Li Yang’s plan to promote Zhu Jing to operations manager. ’He’s already preparing for my departure. Even if he hasn’t decided for sure to force me out, the thought has definitely crossed his mind.’

"Boss," Xia Jie said, "I just opened the official Xinyue Go app and saw they’re promoting an online livestream for NLB on the home page. Are we about to do a livestream for NLB, just like we did for Airex?"

"Yes. As early as next week, if things go quickly. We’re also negotiating the online license for Zen. Once we get it, we’ll do the exact same thing for them."

Zhu Jing’s voice was full of anticipation. "The Airex stream did over a million in sales last time. NLB will probably do even better—its brand power is much stronger."

Yang Hui was extremely confident on this point as well. Their inventory this time was much more substantial than it had been for Airex. ’I have Serene to thank for that; she was a huge help.’ Thinking of her reminded him of his idea to start his own brand. ’It looks like I can speed up that timeline.’

’As soon as Li Yang can’t stand me anymore and I’m out of Futong Commerce, I can get started on my own brand. Looks like I really need to have a serious talk with Serene soon.’

「Futong Commerce, General Manager’s Office」

Li Yang’s face was grim. Dan Biao sat across from him, head lowered, not daring to meet his eyes. He knew Li Yang’s temperament well enough to tell he was on the verge of a massive eruption.

"Why have all the brands been sliding lately? And NLB, the one you and Zhang Li were supposed to be watching closely, has dropped even more sharply! I told you to give them special attention! I meant for you to pull them up, not push them off a cliff! Are you two trying to sabotage me?"

"Employee turnover is up again, our staffing shortages are getting worse, and both year-over-year and month-over-month numbers are deteriorating. Xiaodan, explain this to me. Are you a mole sent by the competition?"

Dan Biao remained silent. He knew why, but there was no point in saying it.

The stores were up in arms over Li Yang’s policy of setting unrealistic targets and docking bonuses for failure to meet them. Many of their best sales associates had quit because of it. The new hires were nowhere near as experienced as the veterans, and they couldn’t handle the pressure of the performance metrics, causing them to quit even faster.

The stores were trapped in a vicious cycle; it was a miracle their performance wasn’t even worse. They had tried to push back on the issue before, but Li Yang had just cursed them out, accusing them of being too soft on employees and having no principles. He even said to just let the disobedient ones who wanted to quit "get the hell out," calling them a "bunch of rabble."

’With the boss this hysterical, how could I possibly dare to speak up?’

"I told you last week to talk to the mall about doing a livestream for every brand, following the Airex model. Why haven’t I heard back? I told you to negotiate for a rent reduction. Why no update on that either? I’m busting my ass every single day trying to come up with solutions for you, and what do I get? You don’t follow through! You’re all just trying to figure out ways to undermine me, aren’t you?"