Zhao Youlin knew what Xiao Jingyao was thinking in his heart just by looking at his expression. She smiled helplessly. “Uncle Xiao, what have you been thinking about? Actually, it’s not that troublesome.”


  “Huh?”


  Zhao Youlin rose up from behind her office desk and went up to Xiao Jingyao. She smiled faintly. “Anything that is equivalent to monetary value is also known as benefits or interest. As long as those people perceive something which is deemed more valuable and beneficial than what Zhao Youming has to offer to them, do you think that they won’t turn against him after weighing out the situation?”


  Zhao Youming had joined Zhao Enterprise for less than half a month. Although he had always been eager to achieve his goals, he obviously was not as insolent as to think that he could compete with Zhao Youlin even though he had slowly gathered support from the others who were almost of similar ranks as Zhao Shunrong, nor he even had the wishful thinking of taking away the job that had originally belonged to her.

  After the meeting had ended that day, Zhao Youming had come to her all of a sudden and told her that he wanted to make a bet with her. Zhao Youlin had already found such a proclamation strange. However, at that time, she had not thought much deeper about it.

  It was not until she had accidentally overheard several ladies inside the company who had mentioned that Zhao Youming had taken the initiative to make a gamble with her that she realized it. Besides, judging from the young ladies’ words, their words were full of praise and admiration for Zhao Youming’s youthfulness and talent.

  From then on, Zhao Youlin finally understood that Zhao Youming had never intended to prevail against her when he grabbed the resort’s promotion plan from her this time.

  In fact, nailing down the proposal was never his ultimate goal. Instead, he was discreetly promoting himself.

  Zhao Youming had joined Zhao Enterprise not long ago. Therefore, most of the internal staff inside the company were basically still in a wait-and-see manner as they observed him. Some people among them even treated him as an incompetent person who had relied on his family background to parachute his way into the job.

  Zhao Youming had to face so many experienced staff and subordinates who had no idea about his capability. As such, his first priority was to market himself in front of them so that the others would not see him as an idle man without capability, just like Zhao Shuncheng.

  In fact, Zhao Youlin had received similar treatment when she first joined the company. However, she was luckier compared to Zhao Youming because she had the approval of the former master as well as the backing of Zhao Shunrong. Therefore, no one dared to show even the slightest hint of contempt against her.

  On the contrary, Zhao Youming was different from her. Even though he had the approval of the former master when he joined Zhao Enterprise, he did not have any back-up from the elders. On the other hand, Zhao Shuncheng had already been kicked out of the company long before he even joined.

  Moreover, the incident of Li Hongyu and Zhao Youxi had sent a sensational wave across the company back then. A majority of the staff inside the company had already learned that Zhao Youming was Li Hongyu’s son. As such, they had more or less looked down on him.

  As a matter of fact, Zhao Youming had a difficult starting point in Zhao Enterprise. Under such circumstances, he could only try to save himself and the only way to do so was through this proposal.

  Today, many people inside the company had already learned that the top management was still hesitating over two proposals with one proposal from themselves and the other from Zhao Youming. Tomorrow’s decision-making meeting would certainly end up with a vote of the majority.

  Zhao Youlin was confident that at the end of the day, she would prevail against Zhao Youming. However, if the result from the vote showed a close gap and by that time, Zhao Youming would deliberately spread some news out and even exaggerate it by mentioning her previous feud and grudges with Li Hongyu.

  Those curious staff would easily put the blame of the result of the decision on her for abusing the power. They would think that she had done some tricks discreetly and narrowed-mindedly suppressed her younger cousin whom she had a personal grudge against.

  By that time, her prestige in the company would drop. On the other hand, Zhao Youming would use his identity as a victim to gain sympathy from a majority of people and hence, these people would acknowledge his ability by judging the proposal. If that happened, he not only could step her down, but he also could use her as a stepping stone to climb higher. This was truly a one stone, two birds approach.

  However, that fellow had underestimated her. If he wanted to treat her as his stepping stone, he first had to check if this stone was soft enough so that it would not hurt his feet instead.

  Xiao Jingyao was deep in thought for a brief moment upon hearing Zhao Youlin’s words. He looked serious as he said, “General Manager, like what you mentioned, if that’s the case, the weight of this contract is not quite enough, then.”


  “True. That’s why having a contract alone is not enough. We need a more profitable contract.” Zhao Youlin spoke in a low voice. The corners of her lips curled upwards, revealing a mocking smile. “The reason Zhao Youming had made a bet with me was because he was certain that I would invest more in this proposal compared to the rest and that not many wealthy sponsors were willing to do so, right? Now, we have Ye Yan. It shouldn’t be a problem if we could find another big tycoon.”


  Upon hearing this, Xiao Jingyao subconsciously pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose. The corners of his lips unwittingly twitched.

  Zhao Youlin’s crazy words were akin to saying that as long as she had the wealth, no one would dare to vote against her and that she could even smother him to death with money. Not everyone would so easily accept the sanity of those words.

  However, judging from Zhao Youlin’s words, he more or less understood what Zhao Youlin was about to do. He heaved a sigh to himself. The thin, gold-rimmed glasses reflected a ray of light and covered the obvious hint of delight in watching others experience misfortune that rarely ever appeared in his eyes.

  The next morning, Zhao Youlin went to the company with Duan Yarong. Zhao Youlin arrived early because she had to attend a meeting while Duan Yarong was there early because she wanted to pass an important document for Zhao Shunrong.

  After Duan Yarong took the document, she was in a hurry to get back to her appointment. As such, she did not notice several figures coming in from the other side of the entrance. As a result, she ran into a person’s arms head-on.

  “Ouch…” Duan Yarong cried out in pain. She jerked backward after she hit the person.

  While she was about to fall on the ground, suddenly, her wrist was clenched, followed by a strong force that directly pulled her forward. She staggered a little but managed to stabilize herself.

  “I’m sorry. Are you… alright?” A silvery voice that only belonged to a young man rose from above. Duan Yarong was stunned for a moment upon hearing his voice.

  She stroked her chest with a lingering fear before she looked up, only to be greeted by the sight of an inexplicably familiar face of a stranger. Her heart let out a thump. She forgot to answer the other party’s question.

  “Are you… alright? Did you hurt yourself anywhere? Do you need to go to the hospital to do a check-up?” The young man furrowed his eyebrows and continued when Duan Yarong did not say anything for some time.

  Only then did Duan Yarong snap out of her daze. She was shocked to realize that she was actually staring at a stranger. More so, the stranger was a man and she had actually fixated her gaze on him. She felt embarrassed and said, ‘I’m alright. I’m alright. I did not pay attention just now and have accidentally bumped into you. I’m sorry.”


  The young man did not take it seriously. He shook his head. The person following behind him had picked up the documents and reorganized them. The young man took the documents from him and handed them over to Duan Yarong. He nodded at her politely and passed by her as he walked in.

  Duan Yarong held the documents in her arms as she watched the person walking away. A hint of confusion and puzzlement unwittingly appeared in her eyes.