Dawn of Life

"Lin Yue, what are you doing?" Xiao Feng's voice came from inside the car soon after. He didn't know when it started, but he had been calling her by her name so naturally.

Lin Yue frowned slightly, her train of thought suddenly interrupted, and felt a little annoyed. After a few seconds of blankness, she seemed to remember something, and her expression relaxed. She prepared to organize her thoughts and tell Xiao Feng about the various scenarios she had just deduced, because she could completely trust him in this merger and acquisition project.

So she told him about Su Ling's place on the elimination list, the situation of several lost old clients, and the recent unusual behavior of Shi Potian and Vice President Liu. Of course, she was always cautious and only stated the facts she had observed, without making any speculative conclusions.

When she mentioned Shi Qing, the owner of "Tea Garden House," Xiao Feng seemed to remember something and interrupted her, saying, "Wasn't Shi Qing there when Shi Potian took Su Ling to a social event last time? I saw him in the car at the time. His company is a chain of cultural and creative stores located at the airport, and he is also one of my clients."

"Really? That's great!" Lin Yue said, glancing quickly at the right-hand rearview mirror, then swerved the steering wheel and pulled the car over to the side of the road. Her voice was urgent: "Where are you now? If it's convenient, I'll come find you."

Soon, Xiao Feng said with a noticeably upbeat tone, "Sure, I'm at a newly opened live house, not far from your house. The atmosphere is great. I called you to invite you over. I'll send you the address on WeChat."

Twenty minutes later, Lin Yue parked her car on the roadside in front of the live house. She looked up at the artistic glass door, the pink neon sign flashing above it, and the melodious singing faintly drifting from inside. The door was gently pushed open, revealing a man in a simple white casual sweater paired with black straight-leg trousers, which accentuated his tall and straight figure. Most striking were his deep, star-like eyes.

The person who came was Xiao Feng. Lin Yue watched him slowly walk towards her. Her mind was a little dazed for a moment, but she quickly shook her head and shook off those crazy and unrealistic thoughts.

She rolled down the car window and waved to Xiao Feng. As he approached, she said, "I'm sorry to have disturbed your enjoyment. To express my apology, if you've been drinking and didn't drive today, I'll take you home. We can talk about Shi Qing on the way."

Xiao Feng hesitated for a moment, but still opened the passenger door and got in. He looked up at Lin Yue and said, "It's only nine o'clock. Aren't you going to come in and sit down? Or we can find a shop nearby to chat, okay?"

Lin Yue looked down and carefully operated the navigation on the car's screen, saying, "I checked, it takes half an hour to get to your house from here, and it takes about twenty minutes to get to my house from your house. We can basically finish our business in half an hour, so I can get home before ten o'clock."

After she tapped the "Start" button on the navigation screen, she looked up and fixed her gaze on Xiao Feng's face, waiting for his reply. Xiao Feng nodded at her and said helplessly, "Okay."

After starting the car, Lin Yue got straight to the point: "I wanted you to help me ask Shi Qing which company he signed with later. Also, 'Iron Man' was one of President Sheng's early resources, and you said on the phone that you know them too. It would be even better if you could find out who their goods were sold to. And..."

Lin Yue rattled off the names of Su Ling's other clients who hadn't renewed their contracts.

Xiao Feng listened quietly to her finish speaking, then added, "Please give me a list of clients that the marketing center has recently lost. This circle isn't big; I can find a middleman by asking around. But business cooperation involves not only personal relationships but also interests, and not every company will be willing to tell us. So I need to ask several companies. Also, I need to keep in touch with Shengxing. He's been talking to Liu Zheng about a share buyback recently, and this information will be his bargaining chip."

Lin Yue gleaned a crucial piece of information: Liu Zheng already knew about the upcoming acquisition of the company, so they were running out of time.

The company matters were quickly settled. While waiting at a traffic light, Lin Yue turned her head to look at Xiao Feng's handsome profile and asked, "Does this mean your consulting cooperation with the company will end after the merger and acquisition project is completed?"

Xiao Feng was taken aback at first, then turned to look at Lin Yue. When their eyes met, he revealed a smile that Lin Yue couldn't decipher. He said, "Yes!"

The light turned green, and Lin Yue gently pressed the accelerator, the car steadily continuing forward. She felt completely relaxed; the heart palpitations and worries she had felt upon seeing Xiao Feng earlier had vanished. With one month left, her most important task now was to secure a permanent position as HR Director and for Shengxing to fulfill its promise of a raise.

Looking at the city streets still bustling with traffic at nine o'clock, and seeing everyone busy making a living, she suddenly felt a sense of peace and security about this promising life.

The next day, Lin Yue gave Xiao Feng a list of customers she had lost in the past two months. Xiao Feng patted his chest and promised her that he would give her a reply within three days.

Afterwards, she scheduled the marketing center's performance review for the following Monday, the final one. During this time, while working with Qian Minmin to push for performance reviews in other teams, she kept this matter in mind. Also, seeing Su Ling looking so dejected these past few days, she felt a pang of sympathy and finally decided to tell her about the current situation during a meal one day.

Sure enough, when Su Ling heard Lin Yue's speculation about Shi Potian and Xiao Feng's investigation into the whereabouts of recently lost clients, her face immediately showed an expression of anger and sudden realization. She said, "I can also compile a list of high-potential clients who were about to sign contracts but then changed their minds. They said they had signed with other companies, so we can check those too. If they really went to the same company, we can settle the losses, and these can also be considered in the team members' performance evaluations."

Because of sufficient sample data, coupled with Shengxing and Xiaofeng's connections, Xiaofeng informed Lin Yue of the conclusions on time three days later.

Of the more than ten clients compiled, five confirmed that they would later sign contracts with a company called "Zhengshi Trading". Two of these clients, who had good relationships with Zhengshi Trading, said that the reason they chose Zhengshi Trading was not only because the price of the same product was more advantageous, but more importantly because their online operation strategy was more creative and imaginative. In addition to traditional e-commerce promotional activities, they also had creative ways of playing, such as online live streaming and auctions.

When Su Ling saw the words "Zhengshi Trading", she couldn't help but laugh and said, "It's obviously Liu Zheng's biological son. Not only is the name similar, but even their temperament of quickly selling goods and making money is exactly the same."

That being said, Lin Yue has not yet obtained any evidence linking this company to Liu Zheng, because these clients have all stated with certainty that there was no one named Liu Zheng during the entire process of communication, and the legal representative and shareholders of this company listed on Qichacha have no connection with Liu Zheng.

Shi Potian's identity was exposed; his name appeared prominently among the shareholders of Zhengshi Trading, holding a 5% stake. Furthermore, a company with good relations with Xiao Feng personally confirmed that they had met Shi Potian.

Lin Yue finally understood that Liu Zheng's main purpose in striving for a higher position for Shi Potian at the meeting was to help him transfer clients and buy time. After all, having the title of Marketing Director of Dasheng would make existing clients lower their guard in the first place.

However, as Xiao Feng said, personal relationships are personal relationships and business is business. These companies told Xiao Feng the reasons why they would not renew their contracts due to personal relationships, and even where they were going. But in the end, they still chose to cooperate with Zhengshi because, at least in the current depressed economic environment, they needed to try something new.