Assistant Chen was able to sit in the position of the first deputy beside the boss because of his ability to read people's expressions.
He was familiar with every move, micro-expression, and every little habit of the two bosses. As long as the boss gave him a look, he would know how to arrange the next five or ten steps.
Relying on this ability, Assistant Chen's career can be described as smooth and rapid.
But today is different.
As soon as he entered the door today, he couldn't figure out what he was thinking about.
At 2:00 p.m., the first quarter sales report meeting was held in the "Asia" conference room on the sixth floor of Fengyu Group.
About ten people came into the conference room one after another, and almost all the heads of several major departments were present.
The supervisors were a little surprised to see that Mr. Shi, who usually showed up last, was already sitting at the table, looking like he had been waiting here for a long time.
"what happened?"
The channel director poked Assistant Chen and asked in a low voice before going on stage to give his report.
Assistant Chen winked, signaling him to start reporting first.
Slides were switched one after another on the big screen, and the afternoon passed quietly. The company executives sometimes discussed, sometimes argued and sometimes buried their heads in research, but the boss sitting at the end of the conference table remained silent, staring at the tablet in his hand with his eyes downcast.
Even though he has already stepped into his thirties, the boss is still the same as he was a few years ago. The first impression he gives is always clean, elegant, and a bit bookish, like a college graduate.
Even though her brows were half-furrowed and her eyelashes were slightly drawn downward, her sharp profile reflected in the floor-to-ceiling window still added a touch of softness.
Assistant Chen glanced at his boss several times and found that he would stare at the tablet from time to time. He thought his boss was reviewing meeting materials, but later found out that he was not.
Half an hour later.
The stylus turned a few circles between his fingers, and then the boss lowered his head and wrote two large bold letters on the tablet very carefully, stroke by stroke.
——S——B.
Assistant Chen: “…”
What made the boss change his rigorous and focused style and become distracted again and again during meetings?
Who else can make the boss, who is usually calm, speak sweetly?
While handing over the documents, he leaned over to the conference table took a peek, and found a news report with pictures and text opened on the tablet.
Amidst the fireworks and the crowds of people, a straight figure in a suit raised the bronze hammer in his hand in front of a huge brass clock.
The protagonist of the news is none other than the boss’s high school classmate and his longtime rival, Mr. Zhou Sifu Zhou.
At 9:30 a.m. New York Stock Exchange time, Danofi, a multinational automobile company headed by Mr. Zhou, rang the bell on the Staneq.
"This quarter's conservative forecast is 43 million, with the first channel accounting for more than 60%, including 16 million in public works orders. In the second quarter, transactions will continue to shift to the second and third channels, and together with follow-up orders for public works, the total will exceed 50 million." The channel director pulled up several charts and showed everyone the numbers. "For the entire first half of the year, it can reach 194.7 million."
After briefly introducing a few data, he held a page-turning pen in his hand and summarized the slides behind him: "As a newcomer in the lighting industry in the southern region, this is also the first time that Fengyu has signed a billion-dollar order with an established smart home retailer. In other words, the market recognition of our new products is no less than that of those traditional first-tier brands."
As soon as the channel director finished speaking, Assistant Chen quickly led the applause, and warm applause suddenly rang out in the conference room.
The channel director and his colleagues smiled and nodded, straightened their collars proudly, and then looked toward the end of the long table.
"Mr. Shi, look——"
Shi Tian said nothing, just lowered his head, and drank a sip of water.
Seeing that the boss didn't respond for a long time, the channel director felt a little embarrassed for a moment, so he had to look at Assistant Chen who was sitting behind the boss for help.
Before Assistant Chen stood up to warm up the audience, a "click" sound was heard in the air, and Mr. Shi closed the tablet in his hand.
"This is an optimistic scenario. What about other scenarios? Have you considered them?"
"This is still a conservative estimate," the channel director said inwardly, "Even if all the pessimistic scenarios happen to us this year, the total amount can reach over 100 million."
"How confident are you about this order? What about the cooperation with the supply chain?" Shi Tian asked, "I want exact figures."
"The department has simulated the rolling forecast for the next year," the channel director replied immediately, "This order is a done deal. There is sufficient supply in the global supply chain. This year's overall transaction volume will increase significantly due to this order."
The boss held the pen in his hand, and Assistant Chen heard the metal pen body creaking in the palm of the boss's hand. The creaking sound of the pen reached Assistant Chen's ears, as if asking him for help.
"Count it for me again," Shi Tian narrowed his eyes and spoke after a while, "How many are there?"
"Four thousand in the first quarter—"
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The channel director paused, then suddenly understood: "... Mr. Shi, you just like to listen to this part, right?"
His subordinate spoke out his thoughts. Shi Tian leaned back in his chair, tilted his neck back slightly, and still looked calm: "Well done, continue."
The meeting proceeded in an orderly manner, and Assistant Chen continued to secretly observe the boss's expression.
Among all the people present, he was the only one who knew why his boss cared so much about these numbers.
As a lighting control system manufacturer that has been gaining momentum in recent years, Fengyu Group was co-founded by current executive director and CEO Shi Tian and chairman of the board Ji Yuanlin.
Within the company, the personal relationship between the two big bosses is no longer a secret.
Mr. Shi and Mr. Ji are not only partners in starting a business together but also a couple that everyone admires. One is a financial elite who graduated from a top business school in China, and the other is a young and promising genius in the field of applied materials. They have been in love since they graduated from college and have been together for nearly eight years, creating a good story among the alumni of Peking University.
In addition to their daily lives, they also work well together at work. Mr. Shi is in charge of the company's cash flow and investment and financing, while Mr. Ji is responsible for technology and products. In just five years, Feng Yu has gone from an unknown start-up unicorn company to the second echelon of the domestic lighting industry.
Just at the end of last year, when the two were traveling in Malta, Mr. Ji knelt on one knee beside the Blue Lagoon and grandly proposed to Ms. Shi.
Mr. Shi neither agreed nor refused at the time. But a few days later, he got drunk at a high school reunion and boasted in front of dozens of old classmates that he would agree to Mr. Ji's proposal as long as Feng Yu's profit doubled in the first half of the year.
According to company gossip, the two bosses will celebrate their eighth anniversary together soon. And the company's first-half performance forecast was released today.
This means that soon, no, maybe even today, this fairy couple will be upgraded to become prospective husband and wife.
--
The meeting was to take a ten-minute break. Assistant Chen saw that Shi was always looking down at his tablet, showing no intention of taking a break, so he quickly went to the tea room to pour a cup of hot coffee and handed it to the boss.
Unlike Mr. Ji who never adds sugar to his coffee, Mr. Shi always adds two packets of sugar every time and always complains that it is not sweet enough.
After taking the cup and taking a sip, Shi Tian was very satisfied with the sweetness of the coffee. He turned his head and looked at his assistant in confusion: "Xiao Chen, where is A-Lin?"
Assistant Chen stepped forward quickly and said, "Mr. Shi, Mr. Ji said he called you at noon, but you seemed to be in a meeting and didn't answer. Two investors from the Horner Fund just flew back from the UK and made an appointment with Mr. Ji for a dinner at Marriott."
Shi Tian picked up his phone and found three missed calls and a text message.
A-Lin: [Tiantian, remember to eat well on time at noon, don’t get a stomachache again. I’ll pick you up at the company in the evening]
Shi Tian: “…”
This guy is too corny.
He closed his phone thoughtfully, stretched his neck, and looked at everyone present: "Let's continue the meeting. The sooner we finish the meeting, the sooner we can leave work."
The sunset dyed the city skyline red, and the meeting gradually came to an end.
Seeing that it was getting dark outside the window, Shi Tian simply said, "Okay, that's enough for today. Sister Qiu still has to pick up her kids from cram school. If you're late again, Fatty Qiu will make a scene again."
Hearing the boss mention the good things his kid did, Secretary Qiu blushed: "That kid deserves a beating--"
Qiu Jing, the board secretary, is a single mother. She had to get off work late a few times because of meetings. Shi Tian drove her to the school gate to pick up her son and then sent the mother and son home safely.
After picking him up and dropping him off several times, the fat second-grade boy would hold on to his waistband like a pendant every time he saw him at the school gate.
Before long, the whole grade knew that Fatty Qiu had a young, rich father who drove a supercar.
After the meeting, Shi Tian picked up the suit hanging on the back of the chair and walked out of the meeting room. Secretary Qiu picked up the documents on the table and hurriedly left the meeting room with the boss. After the boss left, the executives present also stood up from their seats and prepared to return to the floors where their departments were located.
Suddenly, there was a burst of cell phone vibrations in the conference room.
“Buzz——”
“Buzz—”
The screens of the mobile phones on the table lit up at the same time, and everyone's mobile mailbox showed that a new email had been received.
After looking at each other, the company's executives picked up their phones and opened them.
The email was sent from an internal mailbox with the company name suffixed. The email had no title or content, only a picture attached.
Executive A: “…”
Executive B: “…”
Staring at the picture in the email, everyone held their breath at the same time. The entire conference room fell into a dead silence, and even the air froze.
Including Assistant Chen, the executives had various expressions on their faces, but no one spoke first.
After a full minute of silence, someone finally couldn't hold back and asked in an extremely complicated tone: "...Assistant Chen, what is this?"
As everyone's eyes were turned to him, Assistant Chen felt his vision go dark.
You ask me, who should I ask?
Attached to the email was a screenshot of the parking lot surveillance camera, the picture quality was very clear. The time displayed in the upper left corner of the camera was exactly 2 o'clock this afternoon when the meeting had just started.
Two figures were standing in front of the pure white Maserati Quattroporte. One of them was dressed in a suit and tie, with a pair of half-frame gold-rimmed glasses on his nose. He had deep facial features and a handsome look.
It was none other than their other boss Ji Yuanlin.
President Ji leaned against his car door, put his arm around the waist of the person in front of him, and let the person in his arms raise his hands and wrap them tightly around his neck.
The boy who stood on tiptoe and asked for a kiss from Mr. Ji was a boy who looked to be in his early twenties, between a young man and a teenager. He was wearing an ordinary pure white T-shirt and dark blue jeans, with a recently popular Ducky bracelet on his left wrist.
Perhaps because of the alcohol, the boy's earlobes and cheeks were tinged with a hint of drunkenness, making his already handsome face even more lively.
In the surveillance video, the two of them were hugging each other in love under the camera, and they didn't notice the existence of the other eye at all.
He felt vaguely that this college-looking boy looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen him.
At this moment, the head of the marketing department silently interrupted: "...Isn't this Chengxi?"
After listening to the marketing director's words, Assistant Chen finally realized why he felt that person looked familiar.
Cheng Xi is the exclusive advertising model for four luxury fashion brands. Recently, she switched to the film and television industry and starred in her first online movie, which was on the hot search list for several days.
He usually doesn't pay much attention to the entertainment industry, and it was only because he frequently saw the news about this person on Weibo recently that he had a vague impression of him.
Why is Mr. Ji always with a newly popular model? What is their relationship?
Who sent the surveillance footage to all of them through the internal email box?
Most importantly, what is that person's purpose?
Assistant Chen subconsciously enlarged the photo on his phone and his eyes stopped on President Ji's left hand that was holding Cheng Xi.
There was nothing on the middle finger of his left hand. In the surveillance video, Mr. Ji was not wearing the couple ring that he always wore.
In the conference room, someone subconsciously wanted to excuse Mr. Ji: "Mr. Ji, this, this, this... is it possible that he drank too much?"
"Is this picture photoshopped? Could it be sent by a competitor?"
"This must be a misunderstanding. Mr. Ji can't possibly—"
"Everyone, calm down for a moment." Interrupting everyone's speculation, Assistant Chen swallowed his saliva and spoke uncertainly, "Boss Shi should be with Boss Ji now. Let me call him first to find out whether he has received the photos, and then..."
After a pause, his tone gradually became a little shaky: "We'll talk about it later."