I was forced to start the second round because I was raised in poverty

Chapter 373 Are you two dating?

After leaving the beverage shop, the two met up with Qin Fen at the entrance of Hang Lung Plaza.

Su Cheng is treating us to hot pot tonight.

Qin Fen has been helping him find a house these past two days, and he's done a great job, so Su Cheng plans to reward him.

Ye Li and Qin Fen had both met up with Su Cheng alone, but the three of them hadn't spent time together since Qin Fen arrived in Shanghai.

"I'm exhausted these past two days, running back and forth. You have no idea how many people are on the subway."

Qin Fen originally wanted to find a house near Su Cheng, preferably one that was like the one Zhang Yangwen and Su Cheng had in Macau, with rooms upstairs and downstairs.

However, housing in Shanghai is in short supply. There are several nearby properties that Su Cheng doesn't like, and the rent is also very expensive, so even he himself doesn't like them.

Finally, Su Cheng found a house she liked, and Qin Fen looked for a place to stay nearby.

Although we're not in the same neighborhood, it's alright; we're not far apart, less than a kilometer.

Qin Fen has been feeling not only physically exhausted these past two days, but also mentally exhausted.

"How to say?"

"Those old ladies in Shanghai are really stupid, the kind who are unreasonable and difficult. I feel like if I rented their house, I would probably have to inspect the house with a lamp in hand, and they would find all sorts of reasons to make trouble for me."

Qin Fen looked helpless.

It's not just the older women in Shanghai, but also the younger men.

Is it really true that you're just being petty and calculating?
Upon hearing Qin Fen's 'accusations,' Ye Li couldn't help but tease, 'Oh my, our CEO Fen still has this ability now?'

"Of course! I've been following Sister Li and Brother Cheng for so long, I'm sure I've learned something!"

Su Cheng chimed in, "That's true. Our CEO is a Stanford graduate. How could she not have this much insight?"

Qin Fen belatedly realized that the two of them were joking with him.

"That's so xenophobic!"

“No, no, no, this isn’t xenophobia, it’s essentially ‘money worship,’ but they’ve disguised it as xenophobia.” Su Cheng refuted Qin Fen’s idea and gave a reasonable explanation: “Shanghai produces this kind of people, ever since ‘Saying Goodbye to Cambridge,’ you should have been mentally prepared.”

"I've given them a lot of money, so they should treat me better."

"So what? You're still just a renter. You think you can be on equal footing with others just because you pay a little rent? Dream on."

However, Su Cheng firmly believes.

When Tang Li's C'est La Vie opens in Shanghai, business will definitely be booming.

Any coffee shop run by its owner will definitely be crushed by C'est La Vie.

"I don't care, I have to be treated."

"Okay, okay, order whatever you want, I'll make it up to you properly."

We were eating hot pot halfway through.

Qin Fen suddenly blurted out, "Brother Cheng, are you and Sister Li dating?"

Su Cheng: ???
Ye Li: ???
How did Qin Fen figure it out?

Su Cheng did not deny it; he looked at Ye Li.

Ye Li tacitly agreed.

"finally!!!"

???

"You two are finally dating! Oh my god, I'm finally shipping you!"

Su Cheng/Ye Li: Huh?

Their relationship had long since transcended that of lovers.

"What I want to ask is, are you two having an office romance? Wouldn't that violate the company's rules?"

"Of course it doesn't violate any principles. We're not in the same system anymore."

Su Cheng's answer was tantamount to directly acknowledging their romantic relationship.

"Then you'd better tell me honestly how long you've been keeping this from me. If you don't tell me, I'll drown in this hot pot today."

"Okay, okay, don't be impulsive. Tell us how you know?"

"Hmph, I guessed it when I saw you and Cheng-ge go back to your hometown last time, Sister Li."

Ye Li: ???
"Going back to your hometown? That's not how it was back then!"

"When did you and Cheng start dating, Sister Li?"

Ye Li glanced at Su Cheng: "We just started talking, right? Around yesterday or the day before?"

Qin Fen: ???
"I do not believe!"

Ye Li gave a soft hum: "Hmph, believe it or not, and besides, if you hadn't brought it up, we probably wouldn't have been thinking about talking about it anyway."

Qin Fen didn't understand: "Huh? What do you mean?"

Ye Li replied, "It's fine as it is."

"Still don't understand."

"What's there to not understand? He's busy with his things and I'm busy with mine."

"So how do you do it?"

Ye Li: ???
Su Cheng: ???
Ye Li immediately started cursing: "What the hell are you? How can you ask such a question? It's optional, right? Does dating mean you have to do it?"

Qin Fen's line of thinking was actually correct. He asked in confusion, "But what if you just do it without talking about it?"

The subtext is: if you do it without talking, isn't that just being friends with benefits?

Su Cheng would definitely not admit that they were friends with benefits; he and Ye Li definitely had a stronger relationship than that!
Strictly speaking, it's definitely not!
Su Cheng invited Ye Li out because he was truly at his wit's end and had completely lost his mind.

Ye Li's lack of refusal was enough to demonstrate the nature of their relationship.

We can talk whenever we want, and we can do things whenever we want.

This is the most accurate one.

"Alright, alright, let's not talk about 'do' anymore. This is a private matter between Sister Chestnut and me."

Qin Fen: ???
It is indeed a private matter, but as a good friend, shouldn't he have inquired about it?

Su Cheng gave a long "hmm": "Hmm... You can ask around, but I don't want to say, is that okay?"

Ye Li was even more determined than Su Cheng to dissuade Qin Fen from having this "eager to ask questions" idea: "Don't ask questions, why are you so curious!"

Qin Fen quickly gave in to their onslaught: "Fine, fine, I won't ask anymore, okay? Pshaw!"

Qin Fen naturally steered the conversation toward what had happened yesterday.

"Hey, Cheng-ge, there's something I'm not sure if I should say."

"?"

"Stop talking nonsense and get to the point."

"Just yesterday, after I got off work, I received an email from the HR of Jin Hong Group, saying that they wanted to meet me."

Su Cheng was immediately stunned.

ha?
What's the meaning.

Is Jin Hong Group trying to poach Qin Fen?

Are you kidding me?
"??? What? Can't I be dug up?"

"Yes, I don't mean you're not worth poaching, I just think their behavior is a bit baffling."

"That's more like it!!!"

Qin Fen explained that he wasn't the only one who received the email from Jin Hong Group.

"According to my inquiries, many colleagues in Yh International Department have received it, especially in our joint team."

Su Cheng thought to herself, "If that's the case, then this is quite interesting."

What is Jin Hong Group doing?

Stealing Yh's man?
It doesn't seem like revenge.

It seems more like it's targeting UNV.

"So, Cheng-ge, you didn't receive an offer from Jin Hong Group?"

Su Cheng shook his head; he really hadn't received any contact from Jin Hong Group.

It would be good to contact him.

Su Cheng was thinking about how to switch sides.

If Jin Hong Group shows enough sincerity, Su Cheng might actually collude with them and go against Dihao Group. To be precise, he might go against Su Sheng.

One of the reasons Su Cheng was that he didn't know how to handle his relationship with Su Sheng, or how to get along with Su Sheng.

Su Cheng knew how to deal with the old man.

He also knew how to treat Long Ruoli.

But I just don't know how to deal with this character who is appearing for the first time in both past and present lives.

The concept of "brother" does not exist in Su Cheng's world.

Suddenly, a half-brother who was not related to him by blood appeared, completely catching him off guard.

Su Cheng cannot completely regard Su Sheng as a superior, nor can he completely regard him as an older brother.

Su Cheng even disliked treating Su Sheng as an older brother; he didn't like Su Sheng.

Even though Su Sheng is very capable, and treats me well and is patient enough.

But I just can't bring myself to like it.

Su Cheng physically dislikes Su Sheng.

Su Cheng already received very little love, only a tiny bit, and Su Sheng would take a portion of it away.

Su Cheng refused!

He refused to share the love he deserved.

How could anyone possibly like this!

the next day.

Xing Yuyuan frantically searched for Su Cheng.

"Manager Su, I have something to report to you."

Yesterday, Xing Yuyuan heard from Liu Jiajia that Jin Hong Group had offered her an irresistible job. They hoped that Liu Jiajia would work for Jin Hong Group.

Xing Yuyuan's face was filled with tension and panic.

According to her understanding, at least half of the members of the joint team had been poached by the Jin Hong Group.

Su Cheng had already heard about this from Qin Fen last night, and he didn't seem as nervous as Xing Yuyuan.

"Yeah, I heard."

Xing Yuyuan frowned slightly.

Why is Su Cheng so calm?

Could it be that he was also poached?

"No, Qin Fen was poached. He told me."

“Oh…” Xing Yuyuan was extremely anxious. “I feel that our joint team, and even the international department, is at risk of coming to a standstill.”

Su Cheng: ???
Shutdown?

This is a bit serious.

Su Cheng reassured Xing Yuyuan: "Manager Xing, this is a bit funny. A shutdown is impossible."

"Manager Su, I'm not overreacting."

Xing Yuyuan has already heard rumors that many people seem to be leaving Yh Consulting.

Because in addition to poaching people from the joint team, Jin Hong Group also started poaching people from the international department and headquarters, and they were poaching people from entire teams.

Su Cheng couldn't help but feel puzzled.

The Jin Hong Group's poaching efforts exceeded his expectations.

Are they poaching not only colleagues from the joint team, but also others?
What do you want to do?
With Yh shut down, UNV's solution is unlikely to be implemented.

So, is this a large-scale poaching of talent?
Is this Jin Hong Group's objective?
However, Su Cheng remained unconcerned.

He actually thought Jin Hong Group had some ideas.

"Our UNV case has only just begun, and they're already poaching people on such a large scale to cause trouble?"

Su Cheng nodded, thinking that this was indeed a possibility: "Yes, we'll nip it in the bud, so you don't have enough manpower to carry it out."

"Now what?"

"What do you mean?"

"So... how should we deal with this?"

Xing Yuyuan's question puzzled Su Cheng quite a bit.

What do you mean by how to deal with it...? Of course, we shouldn't deal with it!
Let them poach our people.

Jin Hong has some ideas, but they're thinking too simply.

Su Cheng comforted Xing Yuyuan, saying, "There's only one thing you need to do right now: calm down. Look how flustered you are."

"They haven't even made any big moves yet, and you've already thrown yourself into disarray."

"But what if we really shut down? We don't have enough manpower..."

Regardless of whether Jin Hong Group has the capability to poach all its employees.

Even if they all leave, and YH is left with only a few lone commanders, the group will still find a way.

"But temporarily drawing personnel from other sister companies would require them to re-understand and reorganize the case, which would be very troublesome, and we cannot rule out the possibility that they might try to cause trouble in other ways."

Su Cheng didn't know what to say, so he could only say, "Manager Xing, calm down, you're overreacting."

Just as Su Cheng was about to explain, the company secretary came in and told the two of them to go to the chairman's office.

Xing Yuyuan gave Su Cheng a look, as if to say: See, President Sheng has also received the news, and he is worried about this issue.

The two went to the office to see Su Sheng.

Su Sheng cut to the chase and asked the two if they knew about the little tricks that Jin Hong Group had been up to recently.

"You two need to take responsibility; you're likely to be very busy lately."

The person in charge that Su Sheng mentioned was not to make Su Cheng and Xing Yuyuan take responsibility for being poached, but to tell them to be prepared and deal with the situation.

His face did not show the tension that Xing Yuyuan had expected; instead, he seemed more composed.

understand.

As the person in charge of Yh, President Sheng couldn't show his panic too obviously.

Xing Yuyuan reiterated her concerns to Su Sheng.

But what she got from Su Sheng at this moment was neither words of reassurance for her subordinates nor a solution to the incident.

Why is President Sheng's expression almost identical to Su Cheng's?

Upon hearing Xing Yuyuan's concerns, Su Sheng couldn't help but feel puzzled and confused.

He had to press further: "Manager Xing, is this how you view this poaching incident?"

"Ok?"

Xing Yuyuan didn't dare answer the question.

In the case of Jin Hong Group poaching employees, Su Cheng and Su Sheng share the same views, judgments, and current mindset.

Su Cheng was calm and composed because he had worked at the Emperor Group for over ten years in his previous life, and he understood the Emperor Group's system and operating methods.

Su Sheng remained calm and composed because he was a senior executive at the Emperor Group, and someone had seriously taught him about the group's operating system.

The salaries offered to employees by the Dihao Group have consistently been among the highest in the market.

This definition of "highest in the market" is exceptionally stringent.

It does not refer to the 90th percentile or average level in industry salary reports.

Rather, it refers to the highest salary that other companies in the market are willing to pay for a specific talent.

This means that compensation is highly personalized, depending on the scarcity of the employee's skills, their importance to the company, and the level of competition in the external market.

By offering top-tier market salaries, Geely Group hopes to "take the compensation issue off the negotiating table."

When employees are confident that they are receiving the best compensation in the market, they will not be distracted by salary issues or easily poached by competitors, thus allowing them to fully dedicate themselves to value-creating work.

They've already offered the highest market salary for that employee in that position, so it won't be so easy for Jin Hong Group to poach him.

Good idea.

However, the costs and consequences that Jin Hong Group will incur as a result will be far greater than imagined.

Su Sheng didn't believe they could poach many people.

(End of this chapter)