Chapter 361 - 233: From Daughter-in-Law to Mother-in-Law?

The directives established under President Tian were to fully push for the launch of the NLB and Zen projects, secure the best first-floor locations, offer the most favorable commercial terms, and designate Yanghe Commerce as the exclusive partner. Now that a new leader was in charge, a report was necessary. After all, this level of support was almost absurd. Without the regional boss taking the heat, things would be difficult to manage down the line.

To his surprise, after hearing the report, President Zong didn’t hesitate for a moment. She ordered them to proceed according to the direction President Tian had set and, furthermore, to accelerate the progress of all related projects.

’Alright, so she’s even more aggressive than President Tian.’ She was forcefully pushing for cooperation with Yanghe Commerce, with no consideration for Futong Commerce whatsoever.

Li Yang must have been cursed with eight lifetimes of bad luck. While the previous President Tian had looked down on him, he’d at least given him some face and gone through the motions of socializing now and then. This new president, however, wouldn’t even give him her contact information. It might just be a temporary refusal, but her attitude toward Li Yang was even icier.

’And here I was, hoping to make a breakthrough on the NLB project once the new regional president was in place,’ he thought. ’Looks like that’s a lost cause for this lifetime.’

Ruijing Commerce had also been going through a tumultuous period lately. Company performance had started to slide, primarily because the Xinyue Group projects faltered after losing the mall’s resource subsidies. Since these stores made up an oversized portion of the company’s portfolio, the entire regional division was feeling the impact.

On top of that, contract renewal negotiations were at a standstill, and headquarters was breathing down their necks practically every day. Everyone in the company, from the top down, was a nervous wreck, wondering when this ordeal would ever end.

While chatting with someone from headquarters HR, Manager Fu heard a piece of news: President Zhao was set to retire this week.

It was a bolt from the blue. Yes, that was the only way to describe it—a bolt from the blue. ’My relationship with Fang Zheng has always been terrible,’ she thought. She had firmly been in Yang Hui’s camp from the start. When headquarters brought President Zhao back from retirement, she’d assumed it was because the corporation wasn’t fully confident in Fang Zheng. With the recent problems in both contract renewals and operations, she had been secretly praying the company would remove Fang Zheng. If he were to secure his position, her own good days would surely be over.

’So now there’s sudden news of President Zhao retiring? What does that mean? Is Fang Zheng about to have the word "acting" removed from his title?’

"Manager, is our housing fund contribution base going to be adjusted this year?"

Xiaosong from the Channel Development Department suddenly appeared behind her. She scrambled to close the QQ chat window on her desktop, but it was clearly too late—Xiaosong had seen it all. After Manager Fu nodded and confirmed that the housing fund contribution base would indeed be adjusted starting in July, Xiaosong’s mind was already elsewhere. ’I have to hurry and deliver this good news!’ he thought. ’This will put me at the top!’

In the general manager’s office, President Zhao breathed a sigh of relief. ’Headquarters really trusts Yang Hui,’ he mused. ’For anyone else, I’d have to stick around and help them get settled in. But with Yang Hui, I can just hand over my duties and retire with honor.’ He had already confirmed with headquarters that this was his last week. Once Yang Hui was on board, he wouldn’t even need to keep regular hours—he could just drop by occasionally or come in if Yang Hui needed him.

He knew that given Yang Hui’s personality, he probably wouldn’t be bothered. After all, Yang Hui had worked at the company for two years and had only been gone for a month. Aside from the dip in performance, not much else had changed.

Fang Zheng was in his office trying to schedule a meeting with the regional business VP of Xinyue Group. When his call went unanswered, he contacted their business development manager instead. He used to be fairly close with the manager, but now, as acting general manager, he felt their positions were no longer equivalent. ’I should at least be meeting with the regional VP,’ he thought.

But the VP didn’t seem to be giving him the time of day. So, he had no choice but to call the business development manager again and ask for his help in scheduling a meeting with the business VP.

The call went through, and Fang Zheng stated his request. The man on the other end didn’t mince words. "Old Fang, our new regional president just got here. The VP has a ton of work to report to her over the next couple of days. When would she have time to see you? We’ve answered your request countless times. Stop trying."

Fang Zheng’s expression was grim as he ended the call. ’If I can’t fucking solve this,’ he fumed internally, ’when will I ever get rid of the "acting" in my title?’

KNOCK, KNOCK. A knock sounded at the door.

Xiaosong entered, his face ecstatic. He closed the door, crept toward Fang Zheng, and whispered, "Boss, great news! Amazing news!"

Fang Zheng looked up at him. "What’s so great? Are you getting married?"

Xiaosong’s expression faltered for a second before he chuckled awkwardly. "Boss, I just got married last month. I can’t very well do it again."

Already in a foul mood, Fang Zheng snapped, "What is it? Spit it out."

Xiaosong knew that if he didn’t hurry, someone else might snatch the credit for delivering this news. He quickly approached Fang Zheng’s desk and whispered, "I was just near the Human Resources department and I saw a message from headquarters HR. It said this is President Zhao’s last week. He can officially retire."

"What?" Fang Zheng shot to his feet, his arm bumping against the sharp edge of the desk. He paid the pain no mind. Xiaosong repeated the news.

Fang Zheng paced around his office a few times before slamming his fist on the desk. "Fantastic! The day has finally come."

Xiaosong chimed in with some well-timed flattery. "The Ruijing Commerce Qingjiang Branch is finally entering the era of President Fang! We’ll be counting on you to lead us all to greater things, Boss."

"Haha, definitely, definitely! Xiaosong, you’re a sharp one. I’ve always thought highly of you. Tonight, get some of the guys together. We’ll go out. The pressure has been immense lately; we need to blow off some steam."