Lin Jinshen’s failure to deal with Zhang Zeyuan, while successfully getting rid of Zhang Qiyuan, made it seem as if his abilities were not on par with his son’s.
"I understand. After this lesson, Zhang Qiyuan won’t dare to cause too much trouble in the future."
Lin Jinshen hung up the phone and returned to the meeting room. "Zhang Qiyuan will not be fired, but he will receive a company-wide warning and will forfeit his year-end bonus for this year. As for Zhou Jicai, he will be dismissed immediately."
"President!" At this moment, Zhou Jicai had lost all the arrogance he had when he first entered the room. He looked deflated, almost pleading. "President, this is all a misunderstanding. You... no, you, please, considering how many years I've worked diligently for the company, can you forgive me this time?"
"You've stopped my bonus and reduced my salary—I'm fine with that." If he were to be dismissed because of this, which company would still dare to hire him?
Zhou Jicai then looked at Shen Mianyin. "Director Shen, I really didn't know that General Manager Fang would do that last night. I was only thinking he’s one of our big clients, so I thought I could tolerate it temporarily. But I never intended to collude with outsiders to bully you."
"Director Shen, please forgive me. As long as I can stay in the company, we will get along peacefully."
Shen Mianyin completely ignored him, and Lin Jinshen said, "Don’t make me call security. It would make things even uglier."
Zhou Jicai gritted his teeth, his eyes reddened. "You’re really trying to go all the way and force me out, aren’t you?"
Shen Mianyin silently sneered. She had expected this. If things were going to turn out like this, why had she bothered to go against him in the first place?
Why couldn’t people just behave like decent human?
"Fine, you guys win!" Zhou Jicai, realizing he couldn’t plead for mercy, flipped and pointed at Shen Mianyin. "Bitch, you wait for it!"
"Zhou Jicai!" Lin Jinshen shouted sternly, "Watch your mouth! This is just a dismissal. Do you want me to expose everything about you?"
Zhou Jicai couldn't swallow his anger, but he dared not challenge Lin Jinshen's threat.
He snorted angrily, but ultimately left the meeting room like a defeated dog.
After the meeting, Xu Huaixiang was stopped on her way back to the office by a few female colleagues.
"How did the meeting go?" Colleague A whispered. "Is Shen Mianyin really getting fired?"
Colleague B wore a look of contempt. "I never would have guessed she’d do such a dirty thing."
Colleague C scoffed. "Yeah, she used to be a young lady from a wealthy family. She should have more self-respect. But now, for money, she’s willing to sell herself. If that's the case, she might as well just become a prostitute instead of going through all this trouble."
Colleague A sneered. "How do you know she didn’t do this when she was at the Su Corporation? She was the general manager there, and I heard she closed a lot of big deals. She was young and had no experience before joining Su, so how do you think those deals came about?"
"True." Colleague B nodded. "It had to be her—she's willing to go all in, doesn’t care about the dirt."
Colleague C urged, "Huaixiang, what happened? You need to tell us."
"Didn't you check the trending topics this morning?" Xu Huaixiang said coldly.
"We haven't had time to check yet." Colleague A said. "What happened?"
"The situation turned around." Xu Huaixiang looked visibly upset. "It’s probably still on Weibo’s trending page. You can check it yourselves."
She didn’t want to help clear Shen Mianyin’s name.
The three of them quickly took out their phones to check.
"What?" Colleague A couldn't believe it, seeming to prefer the direction the story had taken with the video from yesterday's trending topic.
Colleague B sneered, "I really didn’t expect this."
Colleague C said, "But it might not be over yet. There could be another twist. And even if it’s a misunderstanding, I don’t believe she hasn’t done something like that."
Colleague A agreed, "I think so too. Otherwise, how could she have closed those deals? Pfft! With her looks, it's clear she’s not there for her skills."
Colleague B added, "Obviously, she relies on her looks and body!"
"By the way, how was this matter finally handled? Both Vice President Zhang and General Manager Zhou are involved," Colleague A asked.
With a small sigh, Xu Huaixiang finally relaxed her lips and said, "Zhou Jicai has been fired."
Since he's no longer the general manager, Xu Huaixiang didn't address him as 'General Manager Zhou' anymore.
"Vice President Zhang is fine," Xu Huaixiang looked around and whispered, "The CEO originally wanted to fire him too, but after receiving a call from Chairman Lin, he changed his stance and decided to just deduct Vice President Zhang's year-end bonus."
"It’s probably because of Vice President Zhang’s connection with Chairman Zhang that he was able to keep his position," Xu Huaixiang murmured.
"Tsk tsk," Colleague B clicked their tongue. "Still got strong backing, huh? Even the CEO couldn’t do anything."
"And what about Shen Mianyin?" Colleague C asked. "Although she cleared things up, she still offended Zhilan. There's no way she’s getting away with nothing, right?"
Xu Huaixiang didn’t mention that Lin Yunan was going to apologize to Shen Mianyin—she certainly wasn’t going to give her any credit.
Moreover, the dignified president of Zhilan would definitely apologize in private, if at all.
Maybe he wouldn’t even apologize, just say a few perfunctory nice words.
So, Xu Huaixiang only said, “Nothing happened to her, and there’s no punishment.”
“How can this be?” Colleague A said indignantly, “The president is clearly too biased toward her.”
Colleague B quickly tugged on Colleague A, and sure enough, Xu Huaixiang’s face had darkened.
Colleague C rolled her eyes and said, "Xiangxiang, we’re so close, so I’ll just say it directly. The president really is too partial to Shen Mianyin. Do you think there might be… something between them?"
To be honest, Shen Mianyin’s face really is stunning.
And not just in a conventional way—she could look innocent or seductive, depending on the situation.
If she really wanted to seduce someone, she’d probably be an expert at it.
“Besides, ever since she joined, the president hasn’t taken you to any banquets,” Colleague C added.
"Exactly," Colleague B chimed in. "On her very first day, the president took her to a banquet. In the past, it was always you who went to those events."
Xu Huaixiang's face darkened further as her anger grew, but outwardly she maintained composure and said, "The president has his own considerations. Don’t jump to conclusions."
"Besides, the only reason the president allowed her to join the company was out of respect for Miss Lin. She and Miss Lin are close friends—when Miss Lin personally requested it, could the president say no?" Xu Huaixiang added.
She had been right by Lin Jinshen’s side when Lin Wanran made the call and had heard every word clearly.
"As for Shen Mianyin, her messy personal life—there’s no way the president would be interested in her," Xu Huaixiang sneered, completely unaware of how jealousy had twisted her expression. "Others might not know, but since Miss Lin is friends with her, the president must be aware of her background."
"Anyway, I need to head back. I can’t be away for too long."
"Wait, just one last question," Colleague A stopped her. "Now that Zhou Jicai is gone, who’s going to take over as General Manager? It won’t be Shen Mianyin, will it?"
"Impossible!" Xu Huaixiang blurted out without even thinking, her voice involuntarily rising. "She’s only been at the company for such a short time! Even if she’s closed a couple of deals, how does that compare to what others in the company have achieved? I’m sure we’ll get the announcement by this afternoon. Just wait and see."
Sure enough, as Xu Huaixiang predicted, shortly after the start of the afternoon work session, the entire company received an email from the HR department announcing the appointment of a new General Manager.
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