269: By Means of Failure

Chu Yifeng and David, who had come over by plane last night, were currently sitting in Hengyu Group’s conference room. However, they had begun negotiations a little later than the Zhou Group did.

Things didn’t go well in the beginning. Chu Yifeng was participating in this round of negotiations in the name of Eimer’s subsidiary. Hengyu Group didn’t know that Eimer was behind this company, nor did they know that Chu Yifeng was the real boss of it all. Therefore, they began quite aggressively. There were two senior executives of Hengyu in charge of negotiations, a man and a woman who were powerfully eloquent.

If it was someone else, they might have been unable to refuse Hengyu’s demands. However, the person sitting in front of them was Chu Yifeng. No matter what they said, he would continue to calmly look at the information Hengyu presented.

The two of them talked until their tongues went dry, and they finally realized that the representative sent by Oubang [T/N: the company’s name] was not simple. They had been talking for so long yet he still wore an indifferent expression. However, the assistant next to him seemed to be secretly wiping sweat, and was holding his head low, as if he was frightened.

David was actually secretly snickering.

The two of them were stuck in a tight spot, so finally, the woman found an excuse to leave. When she came back, she held more papers in her hand. She sat down and sent an imperceptible nod at her colleague.

"Mr. Wang, giving up 40% in this cooperation is Hengyu’s upper limit. Any more, and we’ll be losing money. We are really sincere in wanting to cooperate with you, so I hope you can understand," The man said. He then pushed the document that the woman had brought towards Chu Yifeng, smiling and saying, "If you have trouble making a decision, take a look at this document first. You are free to take your time with this decision, we are very patient."

Chu Yifeng glanced at the information.

David immediately picked up the information.

The man suddenly called out for them to stop. When they looked up, he gave Chu Yifen a knowing grin: "Mr. Wang, the less people know about this, the better."

Chu Yifeng ignored him.

The man's face sank slightly.

David quickly flipped through the information, his eyes widening. He then silently handed it to his boss.

Chu Yifeng read through it faster than him. This so-called information had nothing to do with the project they were cooperating on. This was not a piece of information, but a threat. As Wang Cheng had said last night, Hengyu Group was not a good bird*. They would do whatever it took, by any means, in order to achieve their purpose.

[T/N: *not good people; villainous]

The information entailed the scandalous behavior of Li Jun, the person in charge of Oubang in China. Each of his scandals were listed, and there were also images as proof. One such picture was of Li Jun in a threesome with a man and a woman in a private bar. He would also spend the company's public funds and take bribes and so on.

Li Jun had originally been in charge of the project. He was the one who had sent people over to contact the Hengyu Group and he had also once come here in person. However, Charlie later found out that there were some internal problems within Oubang and that the finance accounts were not accurate, so he asked some trustworthy senior executives within Oubang to pass on the relevant information to the headquarters, and left this cooperation to Chu Yifeng.

Chu Yifeng brought the negotiations with Hengyu Group forward to today. Although the date was brought forward, it did not hinder Hengyu’s plans. However, Hengyu did not know that they had surpassed Li Jun, and thought that Chu Yifeng and David were people sent by Li Jun. When they found that they couldn’t land a blow on them after such a long time, they took out the information that had been prepared long ago. Their intent was to let the representatives inform Li Jun that Hengyu held evidence that could knock him down forever, as this would threaten Li Jun to retreat.

However, their plan was doomed to fail.

The man and the woman stared at the two, expecting to see their expressions change.

The little assistant David’s expression did change, but Chu Yifeng, who they could not begin to understand, just crisply closed the information and left.

David quickly packed up his things and rushed to keep up.

The man and the woman thought that they had finally become worried, and that they left in a hurry because they wanted to show the information to Li Jun. After a while, Li Jun should call them, and then they could sign the contract. Their task would then be completed.

However, when they expected to receive good news, they heard that Li Jun was not only fired, but he was also sent to drink tea with the police. Eimer’s headquarters transferred an employee to take charge of Oubang, and the new person in charge directly tore up the cooperation contract with Hengyu. It was also at that time that Hengyu learned that Oubang was originally Eimer’s subsidiary. However, the blow that caused them to vomit blood still had yet to come.

By the time Wang Cheng called, Chu Yifeng had just walked out of the building.

David originally wanted to talk to his boss, but shut up immediately when he heard the phone ring.

"Boss Chu, are you free?"

When he heard Wang Cheng's mischievous voice, Chu Yifeng's stern expression instantly melted. "You happened to call just when negotiations ended. Have you talked about it with your grandpa?"

"I really am a lucky person," Wang Cheng boasted. "I have already told my grandpa, but he won’t be relieved until he sees you, the boss. By the way, how is your cooperation with Hengyu Group coming along?"

Chu Yifeng narrowed his eyes, "The process was very interesting, I got a good piece of information."

"Oh? Did you sign the contract?" Wang Cheng felt that his words had some hidden meaning.

"You'll know when the time comes." Chu Yifeng played dumb and changed the subject: "When does your grandpa want to meet?"

"Of course, the sooner the better. Do you have time now?"

"If my future grandfather wants to see his grandson-in-law, I’ll have to squeeze out time even if I don’t have any."

Wang Cheng happily said, "There is no sign of anything happening yet*, you are being too impatient. What, do you want me to introduce you to my grandfather as my concubine?"

[T/N: *originally ‘our horoscopes haven’t been checked yet’, as in they don’t know whether their birth dates are auspicious enough for them to marry each other. The phrase means they don’t know if anything is going to happen for sure.]

"If you can, then say it."

Chu Yifeng let David take a taxi back with the information. He then drove to the Zhou Group in less than ten minutes. Wang Cheng waited for him downstairs once they finished the call. Chu Yifeng told him he’d be there in ten minutes, but happened to arrive earlier.

There were almost no people out and about downstairs during working hours. However, when they went upstairs, Chu Yifeng was given a lot of attention because of Wang Cheng, and everyone was speculating his identity.

Wang Cheng took him directly to the chairman's office.

Zhou Shichang and Feng Yifan were already waiting for Chu Yifeng. Although they’d long known Chu Yifeng’s identity and his young age, no one dared to look down on the identity of Eimer’s president. According to Zhou Shichang’s sources, the eldest son of the Chu family’s third generation had been running Eimer for many years.

Wang Cheng walked up to Zhou Shichang and took the initiative to introduce him: "Boss Chu, this is my grandfather, the chairman of the Zhou Group."

"Nice to meet you, Chairman Zhou, I often hear my grandfather mention you." Chu Yifeng and Zhou Shichang shook hands.

Zhou Shichang smiled and nodded and said, "The younger generation will surpass the older*."

[T/N: *he’s saying that Chu Yifeng has much potential]

Feng Yifan stretched out his hand without waiting for Wang Cheng to introduce him, "President Chu, I’ve long admired your name. I am Feng Yifan, the president of Zhou Group, nice to meet you."

Chu Yifeng shook hands with him, "I’ve heard Wang Cheng mention you."

Feng Yifan was a little surprised, but he didn't show it. He quickly started the conversation, "It's a great honor. We have heard from Zhou Shao that President Chu is here on behalf of Eimer?"

"I've heard about the Zhou Group’s matters. Although Charlie is usually responsible for this aspect, I can cooperate with the Zhou Group for Wang Cheng. However, business is business.”

Chu Yifeng's direct answer didn’t surprise them. However, the fact that he agreed to this cooperation because of Wang Cheng surprised Zhou Shichang and Feng Yifan.

Wang Cheng himself was also taken aback. Was it really okay for him to be so blatant? Fortunately, Chu Yifeng's last sentence still regained some normality. If it weren't in the name of business, their relationship would really be questionable. After all, no matter how good their friendship was, it should have been impossible for him to make such a hasty decision.

Charlie didn't know that at the moment, President Chu, who would frequently skip work, brought him another problem.

Some things were easy to say, but not so easy to do. Fortunately, as a vice president, he only needed to speak a few words, and a few of the many talents underneath him could complete the task.

Such an important matter was finalized without Charlie's knowledge. Now that they’d solved what had troubled him for so many days, Zhou Shichang was in a good mood. He invited Chu Yifeng to go to the restaurant downstairs for lunch, and informed the Zhou steward, who was preparing lunch, that there was no need to send food over.

Chu Yifeng took this opportunity to brush up on Zhou Shichang's favor.

Although Chu Yifeng was not from his own family, Zhou Shichang liked hard-working, talented young people. Chu Yifeng, this young man who was able to manage a company larger than the Zhou Group from a young age, was given lots of praise.

Wang Cheng couldn't intervene at all. He deeply felt that Chu Yifeng was more loved than him. Everyone loved him, and flowers blossomed for him. He was admired by men and women, children liked to stick to him, and his old man liked him too. Who didn’t like him? He would have been quite jealous, but the heartthrob belonged completely to him.

On the other side, the aG Group, who had been waiting for the Zhou Group to kneel and lick their feet, received an unceremonious call from Xie Wenzhi.

Xie Wenzhi informed them that their company decided to cancel their cooperation because of their impolite behavior in the Zhou Group this morning.

Reed thought he had heard wrong, but Xie Wenzhi flatly hung up the phone. A few days ago, aG still had things under control, but now, the tides have finally turned around. However, the representative of aG still thought he had heard things wrong; this cooperation was not a joke.

aG had already done some research before the Zhou Group first approached them, and learned that the Zhou Group really had no other choice this time. So, aG headquarters had long been prepared, already regarding the cooperation with Zhou Group as a done deal. Now that the Zhou Group suddenly cancelled, weren’t all the past efforts of the aG Group in vain?

***

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