Chapter 343: A New Destination

This was a common affliction for large corporations—they had too many people.

Take a company like Futong Commerce, with over 2,000 frontline employees. Even a 300 yuan monthly raise to each person’s base salary would cost 600,000 yuan. Add in the increased insurance base, which would raise the company’s required contributions, and the total additional annual expense would be nearly 10 million yuan. What boss wouldn’t feel the pinch? And for all that—a mere 300 yuan raise—the employees would still think the boss was being stingy.

That’s why they say a large ship is difficult to turn. The foundational systems had been in place for years. To change them, you’d have to tear everything down and start from scratch. But a total rebuild carried the risk of complete failure. Who would be willing to take such a risk? The owner certainly wouldn’t, let alone a professional manager like President Zhao, who was even more powerless to push for such a change.

It was impossible to replicate. Truly impossible. The secret to Yanghe Commerce’s success was an overt strategy that others could only envy. Try to copy them, and you’d fail spectacularly. Don’t copy them, and you’d be crushed by them sooner or later.

‘At the same time, President Zhao felt he understood why Yang Hui wouldn’t stay at Ruijing Commerce for long. As the owner of Yanghe Commerce, with his own business doing so well, why would he be interested in a mere professional manager position? It was just as Yang Hui had said—he was only taking the job to experience life.’

Just then, President Zhao’s phone rang. He pulled it out and glanced at the screen. “A Hui, give me a second. It’s the CEO’s assistant. Maybe they’re calling to confirm my meeting time with the CEO.”

Yang Hui knew President Zhao was meeting the CEO to discuss him taking over as Ruijing Commerce’s regional general manager, so he gestured for him to take the call. Meanwhile, he walked over to chat with Yang Na about the stores.

“Opening four stores at once next month… is the staffing pressure intense?”

It wasn’t just four stores. It was the NLB and Zen at the Qingzhou Xinyue Square Second Store, plus two stores at the first San Yang Xinyue Square. The ones in Sanyang were a particular challenge. Since they were out of town, managing them wouldn’t be as convenient as it was in Qingzhou.

Yang Na seemed confident. “It’s no problem. Starting next month, Xia Jie and Zhu Jing will each take charge of a brand. They’re your top lieutenants—you know what they can do.”

‘Top lieutenants?’ Yang Na’s tone was a little odd. Yang Hui chuckled. “You’re one of my top lieutenants, too.”

Yang Na shot him a look. ‘All talk, no action.’

Yang Hui glanced over at President Zhao. He saw that after hanging up, President Zhao immediately made another call. ‘He’s probably calling the CEO at Ruijing Trading Group Headquarters,’ he guessed.

“Recruitment for the out-of-town positions is already underway,” Yang Na continued. “The mall is helping us, and Xia Jie, Zhu Jing, and I are all reaching out to former subordinates to spread the word. On top of that, the staff at our two Qingzhou stores have friends in Sanyang, so they’ve been forwarding us a lot of resumes lately.”

With the compensation package Yanghe Commerce offered, they didn’t have to worry about a shortage of applicants once the word was out; they just had to pick the best of the bunch. Current employees were also eager for their own friends and family to join the company. After all, why let such a good opportunity go to an outsider? With such great pay, successfully referring a friend or relative was a huge favor.

“Once Zhu Jing joins, we’ll hold a special recruitment event at the office. Xia Jie and Zhu Jing can take their time picking from the candidates, so you don’t need to worry about it.”

President Zhao finished his call and came over, beaming. Yang Na whispered with a chuckle, “He looks as happy as a man who just took a second wife.”

“You’ll joke about anyone these days, won’t you?” Yang Hui said. He actually had a great deal of respect for President Zhao.

Yang Na said, “Well, I’ll let you two talk. I’m going to go check on the store, and then I’ll head back to the office.”

‘If it had just been Yang Hui, she would have stayed. But she had no interest in listening to two men talk business.’

“President Zhao, I’ll let you two talk. I’m going to check on the NLB store and then head straight back to the office. I’ve got a mountain of work waiting for me.”

“Of course, President Yang,” President Zhao replied. “When I have some time, I’d love to visit your company and learn from you.”

Yang Na quickly replied, “Please, just call me by my name. You’re my old boss, after all! You’re welcome to come offer guidance anytime. Just give me a heads-up beforehand.”

After she went into the store, President Zhao said, “A Hui, the CEO agreed to all of your conditions.”

“As long as you take the regional general manager position and handle all the contract renewals with Xinyue Group in Qingjiang Province, you’ll be set. He’s not even asking you to renew at the current rate; keeping the rent increase under 8% will count as meeting your KPI. As for operations, you just need to stop the year-over-year and sequential decline.”

Yang Hui laughed. “I’m not that interested in KPIs. My condition is that I get to resign as soon as this is done.”

President Zhao let out a laugh. “I’ve never met anyone so focused on when they can quit. I brought it up with the CEO. He was reluctant to let you go so easily, but to solve the immediate problem, he agreed to everything. I also brought up your compensation: a monthly salary of 40,000.”

‘Yang Hui’s heart skipped a beat. The salary was higher than he’d expected. He knew President Zhao’s own base salary was 32,000 a month; it looked like President Zhao had negotiated this higher amount for him.’

“Thank you, President Zhao, for negotiating a better salary for me.”

He shook his head. “I doubt you care about a little extra money like this. Besides, no matter how you slice it, Ruijing Commerce is the one getting a great deal. Forget everything you promised—even if you just manage to save a few of their stores, it’ll be a win for them.”

It was true that Ruijing Commerce was getting a fantastic deal. But to say Yang Hui didn’t care about his base salary would be dead wrong. The difference it made was enormous.

‘If his base salary were 30,000, then after he resigned from Ruijing Commerce, his Unemployment Value would be 3. That meant he could collect 90 million in unemployment benefits each month. But now his base salary was 40,000. This meant that when he resigned in the future, he could collect 120 million. How could he possibly not care about that? If he didn’t care about this, then what was the point of finding jobs just to lose them?’