After being talked back to by a male employee, Liu Chenyou was fuming.
When he saw Zheng Wenqi arrive late, he decided to take it out on her, never imagining she would dare to talk back!
"Wenqi, what are you saying?! Know your place! You have no sense of propriety. If you don’t even respect your superiors, how can you be expected to respect your other colleagues?"
Li Shuting immediately jumped in to lecture Zheng Wenqi.
’I can’t lecture people from other departments, but putting Zheng Wenqi in her place is perfectly within my rights.’
"Oh, stop kissing ass. I call you Sister Ting a few times and you really think you’re all that?"
Zheng Wenqi didn’t pull any punches and immediately fired back.
Her parents were both public officials, so she had been immersed in that world since she was a child.
She had seen more than her fair share of office politics and sycophants. She had Li Shuting’s number from day one, but had simply chosen to ignore her.
"What’s that supposed to mean? Do you still think you’re in school?! Have you forgotten your place?"
"I think you’re the ones who don’t know your place," Zheng Wenqi retorted.
"I may have called myself a slacker, but I still have a bachelor’s and a master’s from a top-tier 985 university. Did you really think I couldn’t survive without you? Let me be honest, I only came here to write my graduation thesis. And I’m not afraid to tell you, I have offers from all of the Big Four state-owned banks. Any single one of them is better than this company, but none of them were half as arrogant as you."
The two of them stood frozen, speechless. All this time, they had overlooked a critical fact.
Zheng Wenqi’s academic credentials were top-tier. For her to join Huipin Group would be a huge get for the company; she was the kind of person they should be grooming for a key position. ’It seems we really have no right to boss her around.’
"I didn’t come here today to fight with you. I’m here to quit and pack my things. Bye now. I’m heading to HR."
And with that, Zheng Wenqi was gone.
Liu Chenyou was still reeling from the verbal lashing. The crowd of onlookers slowly dispersed, but every single one of them was snickering.
It wasn’t just Liu Chenyou; Li Shuting was utterly humiliated as well.
RING RING RING—
Just then, Liu Chenyou’s phone rang. He was being summoned to a meeting.
"You head back first," he told Li Shuting. "President Han is calling a meeting for senior management. I need to go."
"Okay."
Liu Chenyou left and went to the conference room.
The mall’s senior executives were seated on either side of the conference table. The atmosphere was tense.
"Manager Wang, do you know what this meeting is about?" Liu Chenyou whispered.
"It’s only been a few days since the grand opening, and the mall’s performance has already plummeted. Anyone can see it, especially President Han. This meeting has to be about that."
Liu Chenyou nodded. At this stage, it was indeed a problem that urgently needed to be solved, or they would end up repeating past failures.
"You’re wrong. I heard there was an incident."
The person sitting next to Liu Chenyou said, "Haven’t you noticed Manager Sun isn’t here?"
Hearing this, Liu Chenyou and Manager Wang scanned the room. Sure enough, Sun Xiaojing was nowhere to be seen.
Sun Xiaojing was in charge of food safety. Her absence told Liu Chenyou exactly what kind of problem they were facing.
"What exactly is the issue?"
"Our in-house food brand. A hygiene issue was exposed online. I was passing by President Han’s office just now and heard him chewing out Sun Xiaojing. The next thing I knew, he was calling this meeting."
"This isn’t going to be easy to resolve."
Liu Chenyou appeared relatively calm. This sort of thing wasn’t rare in the industry; you could even say it was normal.
Even places like Berkeley and Donglai Supermarket had dealt with similar incidents. In a way, these things were unavoidable. The real question was how to handle it.
"The main issue is the timing. We just opened, and a problem like this already getting out will seriously damage our reputation."
"True. Now we just have to see how President Han handles it."
Just then, footsteps approached from outside the door.
Everyone tensed and sat up straight.
Moments later, Han Guangqi entered the conference room, his face a mask of fury. He was still seething.
His secretary and assistant followed behind, and trailing at the very end was the head of health and safety, Sun Xiaojing.
As Han Guangqi entered, he subconsciously glanced at Liu Chenyou.
The secretary and assistant following him also shot casual glances in Liu Chenyou’s direction.
But he failed to notice this subtle gesture.
After taking his seat, Han Guangqi said with a grim face,
"Show it to them."
The assistant turned on the projector and played the video that had been exposed online for all the managers to see.
"I have been stressing the issue of hygiene! We’ve only been open for a few days, and something like this already happens! How are all of you doing your jobs?!"
The management team watched the contents of the video.
In their opinion, however, it wasn’t that big of a deal. It was just a little dirty.
’They wouldn’t eat it themselves, of course, but they had no qualms about others eating it. They felt the person who reported it was making a mountain out of a molehill.’
"You all need to remember that Huipin City is benchmarking against Donglai Supermarket! Our service and quality must match theirs! There can be no oversights!"
Han Guangqi’s tone was severe as he looked at everyone.
"I expect all of you to take this matter seriously. Go back and conduct thorough internal reviews. I do not want to see something like this happen ever again!"
Han Guangqi’s ideas and intentions were good—benchmarking against Donglai Supermarket and aiming to surpass Berkeley—but he hadn’t raised salaries and benefits by much.
Because of this, the rank-and-file employees had very little enthusiasm for their work.
They felt the increased workload was completely disproportionate to the meager pay raise, putting them in a totally different league from the employees at Berkeley. This only made them more resentful.
’We all work in supermarkets, so why should we do more work for less pay?’
Consequently, employee morale was never truly boosted, and there was a world of difference between them and the staff at Berkeley.
The meeting lasted for over an hour, with the main focus being on emphasizing service and management.
They also devised a solution to protect Huipin City’s reputation.
After the meeting, the other managers filed out. Just as Liu Chenyou was about to stand up, Han Guangqi called out to him.
"Manager Liu, stay behind. I need to talk to you about something."
Liu Chenyou stopped and walked over to Han Guangqi. ’Why is he keeping me behind?’ he wondered.
"President Han."
"I hear there’s a management trainee in your department named Zheng Wenqi, correct?"
Liu Chenyou looked surprised. "Yes, there is."
"Go get her. I’d like to have a chat with her."
"Well..."
Liu Chenyou’s expression was awkward. Zheng Wenqi had gone to submit her resignation just a while ago. More than an hour had passed; she was surely long gone by now.
"President Han, did she do something wrong?"
"Not at all. It’s just that her background is rather special. Her father is a city official. When someone like that joins us, she must be given special treatment."
The corner of Liu Chenyou’s mouth twitched, and his face turned pale.
"Her... her father is a city official?"
"Yes. He’s Director Zheng, the one who came for the inspection a few days ago. I only just found this out myself."
Liu Chenyou was dumbfounded, momentarily at a loss for words. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead.
’I couldn’t afford to mess with her based on her education alone. I never imagined she had such a powerful background on top of that.’
"What are you standing there for? Call her and get her over here. I want to talk to her."
Han Guangqi was well aware that with Zheng Wenqi’s background and education, she probably wouldn’t even deign to work at the Group’s headquarters, let alone Huipin City.
’But this is a valuable connection that must be properly maintained. Meeting her every need immediately—that’s the secret to getting ahead.’
"President Han, she just went to quit. She’s probably already left by now..."
"She quit?"
Han Guangqi’s voice rose. "She’s been here for less than a week, hasn’t she? And she’s already quit?"
"Well..."
The gears in Liu Chenyou’s head were spinning furiously. If he couldn’t come up with a suitable explanation, he’d be the one getting chewed out.
"President Han, you know it yourself. She has a master’s from a top 985 university and such a powerful family. She was never going to be content working here for long. She probably couldn’t handle the workload, so it’s normal for her to quit."
Han Guangqi thought about it. What Liu Chenyou said made sense.
Since no one knew her identity before, her work assignments would have been the same as everyone else’s.
Add to that the fact she was a recent graduate, and it stood to reason she might not be able to handle the job and would decide to bolt early.
"I see. You can go back now."
"I’ll be going then, President Han."
"Mm."
Walking out of the conference room, Liu Chenyou heaved a heavy sigh of relief.
’Good thing I thought on my feet and smoothed that over. Otherwise, I would’ve been in for a lecture.’
Inside the conference room, Han Guangqi looked at his secretary and said,
"HR should have Zheng Wenqi’s phone number, right? Find it for me. I’m going to give her a call."
"I’ll find it right away."
The secretary took out his phone and called the head of HR.
Even though she had already resigned, her information was still in the system and easy to find.
For Han Guangqi, this was an opportunity.
He could call Zheng Wenqi to soothe any hard feelings. This would, one, help establish a good relationship, and two, if he could persuade her to come back, it would be a huge benefit for Huipin City’s future.
"President Han, I found her number. I’ve sent it to you."
Han Guangqi nodded, opened the chat with his secretary, and dialed Zheng Wenqi’s number.
"Hello? Who is this?"
"Is this Wenqi? My name is Han Guangqi. I’m the Vice President of Huipin Group, currently in charge of operations at Huipin City. I just learned that you were interning with us recently..."
"But I’ve already resigned."
Zheng Wenqi cut Han Guangqi off, clearly unwilling to speak with him further.
"I know. Were you unhappy at work? If you have any grievances, just tell me. I’ll make sure to set things right for you."
"That won’t be necessary. If you have that much energy to spare, you should focus it on your management. Stop putting a bunch of incompetent clowns in management positions. Sooner or later, it’s going to cause problems."
Han Guangqi could hear the resentment in Zheng Wenqi’s voice.
"If I recall correctly, you were interning in the purchasing department, right? Were you dissatisfied with the procedures there?"
"’Dissatisfied’ doesn’t even begin to cover it. There was nothing to be satisfied with. On my very first day, that old lecher tried to pressure me for favors. After I shut him down, he used his position for personal revenge and put me in charge of purchasing for the in-house food brand. He even assigned a self-important stooge to follow me around. With people like that in your management, heh... I’d say you guys should pray for yourselves."
After leaving the conference room, Liu Chenyou returned to his office.
Seeing Liu Chenyou return, Li Shuting eagerly scurried over.
"Manager Liu, what was the meeting about? Is there anything you need me to do?"
"No."
Liu Chenyou replied with a grim expression, and Li Shuting immediately sensed that something was wrong.
"Manager Liu, did something happen?"
"We completely misjudged her. That Zheng Wenqi is no ordinary person. Her father is Director Zheng, the one who came for the inspection the other day."
Li Shuting froze, dumbfounded.
She clearly remembered the officials who had come for the inspection on the 31st.
That particular Director Zheng wielded a level of influence far beyond what ordinary people could imagine.
"Manager Liu, how did you find this out?"
"President Han told me after the meeting. I was shocked, too," Liu Chenyou said, still shaken.
"Maybe it’s a good thing, then. Having someone that important in our department... one wrong move and we’d be in deep trouble."
"It’s a good thing I thought fast and just said she’d left. If President Han found out I’d put her in charge of purchasing for the in-house brand, I’d definitely get chewed out."
They both knew full well that the assignment had just been a way to bully Zheng Wenqi.
"Well, it’s fine now. She’s gone, so we don’t have to worry about it anymore."
Liu Chenyou nodded. ’I really dodged a bullet this time,’ he thought.
RING RING RING...
Liu Chenyou’s phone rang. It was Han Guangqi.
"President Han."
"Get your fucking ass over here right now!"
Liu Chenyou shuddered, nearly dropping his phone on the floor.
’I’m so screwed,’ he thought.

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