Chapter 364: The More Arrogant, The More Pathetic

Watching Fang Zheng walk away, President Zhao couldn’t help but shake his head. “That guy’s probably getting ahead of himself again. He’s been so spineless lately, and now all of a sudden, his confidence is back.”

“I’ll replace him,” Yang Hui said. “And before I go, I’ll get the Channel Development Department whipped back into shape. Fang Zheng’s negotiation skills are just too weak. Anyone can do what he does, and he’s completely incapable of doing what others can’t.”

President Zhao nodded. “He only got this position by putting in the years. His skills are average at best, nothing special. After what happened with the Xinyue Group contract renewal, headquarters saw the light and completely killed any chance of him getting promoted.”

Yang Hui knew all this, of course. But he couldn’t just get rid of Fang Zheng, wash his hands of it, and walk away. If he didn’t fix the Channel Development Department, wouldn’t he just be leaving a huge mess for his successor?

There was another knock at the door—an urgent one this time.

Xiaocai pushed the door open. “President Zhao, President Feng is already upstairs.”

President Zhao scrambled to his feet, and Yang Hui stood up as well. Walking to the doorway, they saw President Feng already entering the main office area. Fang Zheng was hurrying to greet him with a sycophantic smile. “President Feng! We’ve been waiting for you.”

President Feng walked ahead, his assistant trailing behind with his bag. He stopped, glanced at Fang Zheng, and gave a slight nod. “Xiaofang, good to see you. Your channel development work needs to be more grounded. Don’t be so superficial.”

With that, he continued walking, leaving Fang Zheng utterly baffled. ‘Aren’t you here to announce my promotion to general manager? Why are you criticizing me instead of encouraging me?’

President Zhao and Yang Hui escorted him into the office. The moment he saw Yang Hui, President Feng grabbed his hand for a shake. “You rascal, you finally decided to come back! I chewed out Old Zhao when he let you go. It’s good to have you back, really good.”

President Feng was a shrewd, capable middle-aged man who commanded great respect at Ruijing Commerce. As the men sat and chatted, President Zhao had Xiaocai tell everyone to gather in the conference room.

Inside the conference room, the other department heads were all sitting toward the back. Only Fang Zheng had taken the first seat, right next to the head of the table. The first seat on the opposite side was, of course, reserved for President Zhao.

The managers from the support departments had no hope for promotion; for them, this job was just about coasting until retirement. Many of them didn’t want to sit too close to the leadership. Fang Zheng scanned the room, consciously imitating what he thought was President Feng’s commanding presence. “All of you, move to the front,” he ordered. “Why are you sitting so far back? Is this how you approach your work, too? Never striving to get ahead.”

The others had all heard he was being promoted to general manager today, so no one dared to disobey. They just exchanged glances, each hoping some other manager would be the one to move up.

Fang Zheng singled out Manager Fu from HR. “You, come sit next to President Zhao’s seat. Today is all about announcing personnel changes. What is an HR manager doing hiding in the back? No wonder your recruiting is always a mess. You’ve got an attitude problem.”

Manager Fu was furious but didn’t dare to say anything. He moved to the second seat at the front, the one next to President Zhao’s designated spot. Inwardly, however, he was cursing, ‘How does this dumbass have the nerve to criticize other people’s work? He can’t even get his own contract renewed and gets chewed out by headquarters several times a week.’

The seat next to Fang Zheng himself was also empty. He said to Qin Hong, “Manager Qin, come sit here. You, too, need to initiative in the future if you want to get anywhere.”

This was a double entendre—what kind of “initiative” was he talking about? Everyone knew what he was implying. They cast sympathetic glances at Li Qing, knowing that once Fang Zheng was promoted, the Operations Manager position would likely be handed over to Qin Hong.

Qin Hong, of course, knew to seize the opportunity. She came and sat beside Fang Zheng, a fragrant cloud of perfume wafting over. Fang Zheng took a sniff, inwardly pleased. ‘I could get used to having this scent around.’

He continued to make arrangements. Though he hadn’t been formally appointed, he was already acting as if he were the general manager. In his mind, this was perfectly reasonable. He was the acting GM, after all. He had been laying low recently because President Zhao was still running things and headquarters kept giving him trouble. But now, they were about to announce his official promotion. That had to mean he had headquarters’ approval—why else would President Feng come all this way to make the announcement personally?

And with President Zhao about to retire, today was basically his coronation.

When President Zhao entered, Fang Zheng was in the middle of lecturing Li Qing, pointing out her supposed recent shortcomings in operations. Of course, he didn’t know the first thing about operations; Li Qing found his comments laughable. At the same time, she knew exactly what he was doing: paving the way for Qin Hong to take her position.

“Alright, that’s enough noise. Can’t it wait until after the meeting?”

Everyone was stunned. For President Zhao to embarrass Fang Zheng so publicly, criticizing him the moment he walked in… It put the previously swaggering Fang Zheng in an incredibly awkward position. He cursed inwardly, ‘Old bastard. You’re about to be kicked out. How much longer can you throw your weight around?’

His face flushed beet-red. He felt that everyone in the room must be laughing at him. And he was right. Manager Fu from HR was inwardly ecstatic. Payback was swift.

“Fang Zheng, move to a seat in the back.”

President Zhao stood beside Fang Zheng, unceremoniously pointing to the back rows. Fang Zheng looked at him in disbelief. He had saved a seat for President Zhao! It was the first one on the other side. He assumed President Zhao wanted his spot, so he stood up and said lightly, “Alright, I’ll sit over there then.”

He figured President Zhao didn’t like the opposite seat because its back was to the door. He stood up, walked across, and was just about to take that seat.

“Xiaofang, what is the matter with you?” President Zhao’s voice was sharp. “I told you to move to the back. Was I not clear, or are you just not listening?”