Even so, he had achieved success. He had successfully attained the position and stood firm in the Ye family. If that was the case, she had underestimated him previously.

  Five months ago… Zhao Youlin flickered her eyes with some form of emotion. If she had remembered clearly, that was the time when herself, Ye Yan and Mu Tingfeng had bumped into each other at her own desserts outlet.

  No wonder when the two were fighting and not willing to give way to each other, Ye Yan looked very troubled and had left right after he had received a call.

  As she recalled the scene, that call should have been related to the former master of the Ye family about him suffering a stroke.

  Besides, ever since then, Ye Yan had not appeared in front of her, except that time through Ling Ran’s connection…


  Zhao Youlin had thought that he had figured it out and would not come to pester her anymore. But as she pondered over this matter again, it was only because he had too many things to handle at home, so he really could not spread himself too thin…


  As Zhao Youlin was looking at the partnership proposal that she held in her hands, her expression grew complicated.

  In private, she did not want to have any deep involvement with Ye Yan, especially in the case of him using this opportunity to deliberately approach her through business affairs. However, in public, she had to admit that Ye Yan was a capable and talented man. He was a suitable business partner that was hard to come by.

  If Zhao Youlin cooperated with him, the percentage of profit for Zhao Enterprise in the resort proposal could be increased slightly.

  Her long and slender finger slid along the cold pen. In the end, she gritted her teeth, turned the pen agilely and signed on the cooperation proposal before she pushed it back to Xiao Jingyao. She enunciated each and every word clearly, “Tell Third Young Master Ye that I look forward to cooperating with him in business. Strictly business, that is all.”


  Xiao Jingyao took over the signed cooperation proposal from Zhao Youlin. He slightly heaved a sigh of relief. In fact, in his heart, he had worried that Zhao Youlin would reject such a rare cooperation opportunity because of her own private issues.

  “With this contract, we’ll have a higher bargaining chip in tomorrow’s decision-making meeting.”


  Zhao Youlin looked at him disapprovingly. She cast a glance at Xiao Jingyao and snorted, “Uncle Xiao, how much leverage do you think we have now?”


  Xiao Jingyao was stunned. He hesitated for a brief moment before he gave out a conservative estimation, “Eighty percent.”


  “No, it’s only ten percent. But, what we have to worry about now is not about how many bargaining chips we have on hands. In fact, we need to know how many people would side with us by the time the decision is finalized tomorrow.”


  A hint of puzzlement flashed across Xiao Jingyao’s eyes. “Are there any differences between these two?”


  “Of course there are! One is the result while the other is the process. Some people care about the results while some only value the process.”


  Xiao Jingyao fell silent for some time. The next moment, he seemed to have understood something. He looked like he had been enlightened. “General Manager, you suspect that someone would take advantage of this opportunity to buy off those who would be involved in tomorrow’s decision-making meeting so that they…”


  As for the exact individual who had wanted to buy off the rest, Xiao Jingyao did not say it out explicitly. In fact, they already knew who the person was.

  Zhao Youlin did not speak anything further. Instead, she took out a few photos from the desk drawer and flung them over to Xiao Jingyao.

  “These are…” Xiao Jingyao took the photo and looked at them. His expression changed slightly especially when he noticed the recorded timestamps shown under the photos.

  “Last Friday, after work hours, as soon as the chief of publicity department left, Zhao Youming immediately followed him out of the company.” Zhao Youlin pointed to a photo at the top that had captured the duo’s car plates as she said in a low voice.

  The next moment, she tossed the photo to the side and pointed at another photo as she said, “Last Saturday night, Zhao Youming had asked the chief of the planning department to have dinner together. From this photo, we could see that they had a good chat with each other.”


  Zhao Youlin paused for a moment before she continued, “Oh, by the way, there’s another shot that is rather blurry. I did not bring it with me today. But, the content is generally about Zhao Youming appearing together with a certain personnel from top management in…”


  Even though Zhao Youlin had only conveyed a rough image of the whole thing, Xiao Jingyao had roughly learned about Zhao Youming’s intentions.

  Looking at the photos scattered on top of the desk, most of them were personnel from the top management who were going to attend tomorrow’s decision-making meeting. Apparently, Zhao Youming’s intentions were obvious to everyone.

  However, what caught Xiao Jingyao by surprise was not Zhao Youming’s actions. Instead, he was shocked to find that Zhao Youlin also had someone to follow Zhao Youming outside of the office at all times apart from having someone else inside the company to keep a close eye on him.

  Zhao Youlin seemed to have read Xiao Jingyao’s mind. She smiled gently. She crossed her arms, stroked her chin and said teasingly, “Uncle Xiao, haven’t you heard of this saying, the business arena is like a battleground. As for Zhao Youming and I, we are now playing a big game of chess. The chessboard has started and a careless mistake could cause us to lose the entire game. Uncle Xiao, don’t forget that the factors that could affect the game are not necessarily all within the board, but it might also be outside the game.”


  Xiao Jingyao was stunned. Looking at the young lady in front of him who was only growing more scheming and cunning, he began to understand why the chief director had insisted on dragging in an outsider who did not have a very good understanding about the company or anything in related to its aspects, yet gave her a position that was much higher than an average person’s starting point.

  At that time, he was just like most people in the company. He had thought that the reason why this person could receive such preferential treatment was because of her superior background.

  Even when he was assigned by the president to guide and lead Zhao Youlin so that she could get familiar with the company, he had done so out of showing his respect to the president. In fact, he had held some slight contempt for Zhao Youlin.

  However, after a few months of interacting with her, Xiao Jingyao found that although this young lady was still very green, he was amazed at how fast she had been picking up the skills.

  She could adapt to the surroundings rapidly and quickly got familiar with her job scope. She could even push the envelope to build upon existing work. She could also reinterpret the existing foundation and add new layers and twists upon it.

  He had stayed by the side of this young lady all around and had watched her slowly growing up. Today, he abruptly realized that this person, at some point, had grown to the stage where he had no choice but to look up to her.

  “Then, what do you think is the best to do now?” Xiao Jingyao fell silent for some time before he frowned and asked the question.

  The internal organization of Zhao Enterprise looked structured, united and harmonious. However, the fact was how many of them were actually hypocrites, behaved inconsistently and could always stab you in your back?

  Zhao Youming would not commit to these moves all of a sudden. Since he had dared to bribe these people openly, some people might be looking forward to this type of bribery at that very moment as well.

  As such, this might be beneficial to them too.

  Zhao Youlin pursed her lips and pondered over the matter for a short while before she snorted, “Someone once told me, any issue that could be resolved with money is never an issue at all. Before this, I thought he was spewing nonsense. Now, as I think it over, it is starting to make sense to me.”


  “General Manager, what you mean to say is…” Xiao Jingyao furrowed his eyebrows. Apparently, he did not quite agree with Zhao Youlin’s suggestion.