Bab 5: Lian Hua
Ning Qi rushed out of his house and scampered along the familiar street, as he usually walks to his store location daily, but not today.
As he ran, Ning Qi carefully felt the ground under him and the divine power that coursed through his legs.
He naturally knows that his typical agility increased to an abnormal level, and he felt like he could compete with a luxury sports car that speeds up to 400 km/h easily.
He doesn't know the exact speed, but he felt like he could comfortably reach his work location in 30 to 35 seconds, even with all the obstacles on the road.
"God! If there are no obstructions in my path, I can even achieve it in just 20 seconds, I guess. That means I can typically hit around 100 m/s, damn!"
Ning Qi muttered to himself but decided to not run that fast, as that would arouse clear suspicion from the 'civilized' world.
The government will not tolerate him as he is, he will most likely be imprisoned or sent to a private lab for unique experiments.
He doesn't possess the necessary confidence that he can dodge bullets, as an average bullet can typically travel at a breakneck speed of 370 m/s.
He may be capable of dodging some bullets at a certain distance, but he is not going to naturally make it if too many are instantly shot at him or if a bullet is discharged from a limited distance.
He steadfastly maintained a reasonable pace and gently ran along the road so that it would reasonably take him 10 minutes to comfortably reach his shop location.
"Ah! Little Ning, are you late today? Do you require me to deliver breakfast to the office location today?"
As she saw Ning Qi running along the path, a middle-aged lady who owns a small restaurant inquired sincerely.
Ning Qi eats his decent breakfast here regularly, so she is familiar with his shop hours.
"Aunty Wang!! Send little Jie later, around 10 a.m. Send me the regular portion with an extra egg... Thank you."
Ning Qi slowed down a bit and shouted back at Aunty Wang.
Aunty Wang is an extremely good person, and her food is also absolutely delicious. She remains steadfastly a widow even though her beloved husband died in a car accident 10 years ago.
She has a son who is around 16 and studying in middle school. His name is Wang Jie, and he adopted the family name of his dear mother instead of his father.
Ning Qi doesn't grasp their particular family situation but knows that both mother and son are living well as of now, not depending on anyone.
As a result, Ning Qi retains an extremely pleasant impression of them and naturally became a repeat customer of theirs in the past 3 years.
Around 8:55 p.m., Ning Qi, fortunately, reached his office location. He eagerly scanned his unique ID card for his daily login... Every worker typically needs to scan their unique IDs before 9 a.m. and again at their shift ending time.
Even if they are only one minute late, their pay for the next hour will be reduced. Therefore, no one wants to be late for their work, and everyone is used to this at present.
After registering his attendance, Ning Qi heaved a sigh of relief and felt that he didn't even sweat a single bit nor feel out of breath, even after running 2 km. He marveled at his incredible stamina after his stats increased.
"Hm!! Why is no one there in the shop? The shop time starts at 9 a.m., and customers will promptly come."
Ning Qi exclaimed as he saw no one on the counters.
He carefully looked around the ground floor before taking the stairs to the second floor. There, he instantly heard a commotion in one of the counter sections.
"Looks like the special guest is already here! Why are they examining this early, though?"
Ning Qi naturally wondered as higher-ups routinely came for proper inspection around 11 a.m. to carefully check the flow of prospective customers and the specific behavior of executive staff in secret.
Ning Qi doesn't perceive what's happening and gradually approaches them.
"As staff working in the store, how are you incapable of explaining a product properly? If you merely demonstrate a product like this, do you genuinely think I will buy it from your counter or even from this local store? "
An attractive voice can be overheard from the center of all the staff, who are typically surrounding that person.
That pleasant voice doesn't contain a trace of emotion, not even anger, making the staff lady standing in front of her lower her head in shame.
"Why are the standards of the staff here average? I heard this shop was in the top 10 among all the Lianhua stores across the country."
That person spoke rhetorically to the middle-aged man standing right beside her in a scolding tone.
Ning Qi observed that person, who looked to be around 25 and got dazzled by her remarkable beauty.
She was one of the real-world quality beauties he had seen who could outrun the superstars.
He was only mesmerized for a moment but promptly saw Dong Xu standing beside her with an awkward expression, carefully trying to explain something to her.
He looks up and sees Su Xiao with her head down in shame and probably about to cry. After he had accurately analyzed the situation, he grasped what had happened instantly.
This young lady is the inspector that higher-ups sent, and she typically asked Su Xiao to explain a product as an essential part of the inspection.
Su Xiao is, however, a salesperson who doesn't have much experience dealing with an official superior of this level and undoubtedly suffered a nervous breakdown.
She didn't perform well, making the lady inspector angry and asking about the standards of this shop.
As he saw Su Xiao about to cry with shame...Ning Qi didn't stand on ceremony and forced his way to the center.
"Good morning, Miss! I'm Ning Qi, a sales leader in this shop, and Su Xiao is a staff member under me. If you have a legitimate complaint about my staff, please make it in my name, as it is my responsibility to instruct them."
Ning Qi spoke neither coldly nor passionately to this inspector, who herself looked to have no experience in this inspection job.
She is breathtakingly gorgeous, and Ning Qi naturally got attracted to her a bit, but Su Xiao is a friend, and Ning Qi is not going to stand down, whenever his friends are involved.
"Ah! Ning Qi! This is Miss Lian Hua, the beloved daughter of our chairman, Mr. Lian! "
Dong Xu spoke from the side, sweating profusely for Ning Qi.
That girl, Lian Hua, looked at Ning Qi with a touch of mild surprise in her eyes. Usually, no one responds to her like that.
But she nonetheless maintained her silence, as she wanted to observe what he wanted to say.
"But first of all, you are the daughter of our employer, who pays for the employees. Hence, an employee invariably tends to have some nervousness when encountering the higher-ups, not to mention the chairman's daughter herself."
Ning Qi paused for a moment before continuing.
"The official inspection was carried out in such a way that inspectors could observe in secret... a request like yours should have been carried out in such a way so that you could see how good Su Xiao is at demonstrating a product."
"...and they can also observe the appropriate behavior of the service staff. You can also manually evaluate the product's quality, maintenance, etc. as you stroll. "
In a rebuttal tone, Ning Qi properly explained the process of inspection to this inexperienced girl, who doesn't even know how to conduct a proper inspection but knows how to criticize someone.
"Oh! What if she has to serve a key customer? For example, the honorary mayor of this city. Will she typically commit the same mistake as she did with me and make our shop lose its reputation?"
Lian Hua got a bit angry with the rebuttal tone from Ning Qi and ultimately increased her voice a bit.
Dong Xu, on the side, attentively examined the situation a bit awkwardly and wanted to place a word in between them to stop them, but got cut off before he opened his mouth again to Ning Qi.
"Hm! Miss, you are truly inexperienced. I already said this girl was still a staff apprentice, and no shop will wisely let a staff apprentice deal with a key customer of that social level. Oh! Presumably, you may let an inexperienced staff deal with an important guest, huh?"
Ning Qi also got angry with this Missy, as she doesn't listen to reasoning and asks such dumb questions just to find fault with him.
"Also! No inspector will come before the shop opens for customers, as it is not their responsibility to obey the commands from higher-ups during non-working hours, according to the agreement. So! Su Xiao doesn't even need to respond to you at that time."
Ning Qi lucidly explained.
"Oh! I can dismiss you without an apparent reason too, you know that?"
Lian Hua asked bluntly, as she finally got pissed off by this terrific guy, who kept establishing her as a dumb person.
And doesn't he know that I am regardless a popular singer and can't present myself in the crowd?
How can I inspect the shop at a time when customers are visiting? Lian Hua complained bitterly in her agitated mind.
"I know you have the power to forcibly remove us anytime, and as a sales leader who has the most credits that contributed to this shop that made it to the top 10, I think I can get into a good job anywhere I apply..."
"So! I'm resigning from this job, as I don't want to work frantically under an employer who doesn't have any experience but threatens their staff. "
Ning Qi finally burst open as he resigned from his job on the spot before storming off!
But! If one observes Ning Qi's eyes at this moment, one can easily tell there is a crafty glint flashing in his eyes.
No one was able to respond to this sudden change with Ning Qi, who is usually a sociable person and is not as hot-headed as most young people.
"Ning Qi! Don't be hotheaded, come back here."
Dong Xu shouted as he finally responded to this quick-fire situation, which went out of hand in just 2 or 3 minutes of conversation.
Lian Hua also looked dumbfounded at the situation, but soon reserved her cold personality before merely looking at the way that Ning Qi stormed off.
'I didn't mean it that way... I, I, I just... '
Lian Hua's only intention was to scare this Ning Qi bit, who allegedly kept calling her inexperienced.
"The inspection is over, and I'm going back, Mr. Xu... Please talk with that person and urge him to not act on impulse. Assure him that he can come back and work here."
Lian Hua said that and walked away without looking back.
"Thank you so much, Miss Hua... All of you get back to work."
Dong Xu thanked Lian Hua and shouted back at the staff before going to look for Ning Qi.
Su Xiao is the one who doesn't know what to do at present, as Ning Qi resigned because of her.
She wept a bit, but went back to her work, as she still needs this job to support her significantly humble family.
After she obtained this job, their family is now stabilizing slowly, she can't ruin all their hopes if she makes something out of a hot-headed decision.
She is unlike Ning Qi, who has many skills and outstanding achievements under his impressive portfolio and can land him in a prominent position, wherever he goes.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone