章 10: His Burden
編集者: Nyoi-Bo Studio
As the saying went, "A new broom always sweeps clean." Not only did the new CEO intend to do a good job, but his employees also wanted to prove themselves in front of their new boss.
It was just past nine o'clock in the morning. Lin Qian had already received countless requests from the heads of departments to have a meeting with Li Zhicheng. Everyone was saying that he or she had something urgent to report to their boss.
Lin Qian didn't think it was possible that there could be so many urgent and important things to report at one time. She was careful not to make any promises to anyone. She just told them that she would try her best to make arrangements for them. Then, she made a full schedule and took it to Li Zhicheng for him to review.
The sun shined that winter morning. Sitting behind his well-polished dark desk, Li Zhicheng was reading some basic information about the company, such as their products, markets, suppliers, techniques, etc. After hearing what Lin Qian reports, he looked up and frowned.
Lin Qian carefully watched his expression and tentatively gave her opinion. "Maybe you could pick from some of the main departments and meet their head managers to start?" She then handed him her schedule, on which she had marked with a pencil a few appointments that she thought were more important than the others.
She had done so just in case that Li Zhicheng had no idea how Aida operated. After all, he had no experience working in business. If that were the case then she, as his adjutant, would help him, the commander, by giving him suggestions. But to her surprise, her suggestions turned out to be pointless. Li Zhicheng took the schedule, glanced at it, and just put it down on the desk.
"Cancel them all." In a calm and cool voice he said, "We're going out this morning."
Lin Qian was impressed. In her opinion, only leaders who had their own ideas could become good leaders, no matter what kind of experience and abilities they had. Seeing him get up and reach for his coat, she didn't ask any more questions. She quickly went to her cubicle to pick some stuff up and then followed him out.
To her surprise, their first stop was the Security Department.
Curious as she was, she was smart enough to know that she should keep quiet and not ask questions. She followed him quietly, walking through the long hallway in the Security Department. On their way, some employees passed by them but no one recognized Li Zhecheng. It was probably because he was walking so fast and that he had also rarely made public appearances since taking up office. Wearing a pair of high heels, Lin Qian had to try very hard to keep up with him and she ended up attracting a lot of attention from the other employees. Still, she was lagging behind him.
Striding a few more steps, he suddenly stopped and turned around to look at her. His gaze fell on her feet.
Quickly holding her hands up as if she was surrendering, Lin Qian said, "I'll wear flats tomorrow."
"Mmm." He turned around and continued to walk forward.
Lin Qian didn't move but chuckled to herself. Well, I'm afraid you're probably the only male boss who doesn't like it when his female assistant wears a nice pair of heels to work.
Gao Lang sat in the surveillance room at the end of the hall, dutifully working. He didn't look surprised seeing them come in. Lin Qian guessed that Li Zhicheng must have made an appointment with him earlier.
Still, he looked uneasy and said in a low voice, "Mr. Li, Assistant Lin, a moment please." He then took a black bag out of the cabinet and handed it to Li Zhicheng. He stood aside and kept quiet, his head bowed and his face red.
Li Zhicheng took the bag and watched him. Quiet for a second, he said, "What are you afraid of?"
Gao Lang shook his head at once. "No, no, I'm not afraid! I'm just a little bit uncomfortable. I'm good, I'm good."
Knowing well that she shouldn't interrupt the conversation between them, Lin Qian stood quietly aside with a smile on her face.
Li Zhicheng went on to say slowly, "There are reasons why I didn't tell you who I was before."
Still as calm as she looked, Lin Qian grew more alert to what he was going to say next. Unexpectedly, she heard Gao Lang say, "Well, Commander, we all understand. They say that business is like a battlefield and to know yourself and know your enemy. You've come through hundreds of battles undefeated. It was right for you to have done some secret investigation at first for a better understanding of the situation."
A faint smile appearing on his face, Li Zhicheng nodded to him and said, "Mmm."
Their conversation revealed a good relationship between the two, and Lin Qian became lost in her thoughts as they chatted.
So he's been treating the company like a battlefield and originally decided to do a private preliminary inspection of the situation on his own. No wonder I would see him wandering around looking serious and nonchalant.
Staring at his sharp profile, Lin Qian continued to think, Boss, you really are clever and dedicated. I'm lucky to work for you. But, you're still really insensitive as well.
Li Zhicheng and Lin Qian left the Security Department and went to the parking lot. When they arrived, they walked directly towards his Hummer. Seeing him walking towards the driver's seat, Lin Qian hesitated for a second and said, "Mr. Li, do you want to let me drive?" She thought that CEO's weren't supposed to drive themselves.
Not even glancing at her, Li Zhicheng opened the car door and said, "No."
"Okay." Lin Qian couldn't argue with him.
Aida Group had two production bases, an older one and a new one.
The old one was in the vast industrial park behind the main building. The luggage and bags produced there were mainly for the domestic market. Now that their market had shrunk dramatically, production had been put on hold in many locations.
Lin Qian guessed that Li Zhicheng had already carried out a full inspection at the old base, as they were driving directly to the new base located around thirty miles away in Xiangchuan County. With relatively low rent and a good transport system, the county had attracted many manufacturers from Lin City to set up their bases there.
However, Lin Qian didn't expect that the situation at Aida's new base would be even worse than it was at the old one.
Built under the supervision of the former CEO, the industrial park was, without a doubt, new and beautiful. Aida had heavily invested into this base to specially produce high-end luggage and bags for their international market. But currently, there were only a few people working, even at this location. Lin Qian guessed that at least ninety percent of the plants had halted production based on what she was seeing. She figured that only a few plants were still running to support the poor sales in their overseas market.
Lin Qian had already realized that Li Zhicheng was pretty much permanently expressionless, so she wasn't surprised to see that he had remained emotionless since they had stepped into the dismal industrial park. She could see him walking up ahead, looking as he usually did. Lin Qian knew better than to act worried because she realized that any normal person would be uncomfortable with the fact that what he was taking on was such a mess. She decided to keep quiet and act carefully so she wouldn't annoy her boss.
They quickly arrived at the gates.
After putting on the dark blue smocks that Gao Lang had prepared for them, and clipping on and the passes that Li Zhicheng kept in his car, they entered the plant.
The plant was still running with long rows of rumbling machines. The employees were working the assembly line, looking unmotivated and dazed.
They had barely taken a few steps into the plant when a bulky supervisor came over looking grim. "Who are you guys? And why are you here?"
Li Zhicheng was observing the semi-finished bags on the assembly line and didn't even bother looking up after the man spoke. Confused, the man stood there and waited. Lin Qian thought, Although Li Zhicheng usually doesn't act arrogant, he does have a powerful presence. She immediately showed the supervisor their passes and her employee card, and then dismissed him.
After a full tour through the base, they finally stopped at the large warehouse that kept the raw material inventory.
It was nearly noon. The sun shined brightly on the concrete floor from outside the warehouse, looking warm. But inside the warehouse, it was cold and unbearably quiet.
It was the most depressing scene she had witnessed since joining Aida. There were huge piles of raw leather that was used for making their luxury bags. They were stacked up like mountains, from floor to ceiling.
It's all money, wasted money, causing bills of unimaginable prices! Lin Qian was deeply concerned about it.
Having written many reports over the past few days, Lin Qian understood the details of Aida's downfall well. Following the seemingly impressive plan of entering the overseas market that he had developed himself, the former CEO had implemented the strategy of quickly expanding their production scale and sales to increase their profitability. Because of this, they had stocked up on large amounts of raw materials to prepare for the potential "explosive upcoming growth."
Eventually, something did explode, but it was only the crisis. Aida is now at risk of collapsing.
While she was criticizing the former CEO in her mind, she stole a glance at Li Zhicheng by her side, only to see him staring at the piles of raw materials with a cold look, hands resting in his pants pockets.
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