Chapter 016: The Situation Gradually Becomes Clear
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She never expected that her whimsical social media post while sitting on the stairs would set off a chain of butterfly effects.
For example, the next morning Liang Weining, while queuing up to swipe her card to enter the building, encountered a number of familiar female colleagues, who all curiously asked, "Secretary Liang, how did you get in last night?"
Before she could answer, someone interjected, "Certainly not by finding a locksmith."
The crowd chuckled.
It was only a few minutes from posting the update "Already inside, don't worry." No way there was time to find some locksmith.
The only possibility was that Secretary Liang shared an apartment with someone.
Roommate comes back, problem solved.
Of course, that wasn't the point at all.
The point was the gender and nature of the roommate, and their relationship with Secretary Liang.
Liang Weining completely underestimated the gossiping ability in the bones of the Hong Kong Company employees.
They really had too much spare time.
So much spare time that they could brainstorm so much from a single post.
As her mind wandered, Xu Zhou came in from outside, placing a project plan onto her desk.
Liang Weining snapped back to attention, "Do you need it photocopied?"
"Yeah, copies for everyone at the high-level meeting later."
Xu Zhou, having said this, turned to leave but then seemed to recall something, "By the way, Mr. Chen got held up by something urgent and might not make it to the office this morning."
Liang Weining nodded, "Then I'll inform the reception to postpone the meeting until the afternoon."
"There's no need."
Xu Zhou said with a smile, "Mr. Chen instructed that the meeting proceed as planned and asked you to randomly select one of the executives to make decisions in place of him for the Lianwu Island project proposal."
Randomly choose, her?
Liang Weining's mind crashed.
Seeing her unresponsive for a long moment, Xu Zhou spoke in a lowered voice to comfort her, "Don't feel pressured, just do as Mr. Chen said."
Before a storm comes, it is often calm.
Today, the whole company had been looking forward to the Lianwu Island development preliminary plan, an S+ level project. Such an important meeting, and the big shot just said he would be absent.
What exactly was he up to with this move?
In her mind, Jingjing filtered through the information of today's meeting participants.
There were a total of thirty executives.
Who would be the best choice to preside over this meeting?
Liang Weining closed her eyes in frustration.
She felt that Chen Jingyuan was deliberately making things difficult for her.
At 9:30 am.
The spacious and bright top-floor conference room's heavy wooden doors gradually opened, the elevator at the end of the corridor was frequently in use, and the senior managers from downstairs arrived one after another, everything proceeding in an orderly manner.
Once everyone was assembled, Secretary Liang duly appeared in front of the meeting room, asking the executives to be seated for a moment—Mr. Chen was dealing with urgent business midway and would be about ten minutes late.
The reaction in the room was quite calm.
Ten minutes wasn't too long, at least that's what most people thought.
However, events exceeded everyone's expectations.
This wait turned out to be a full half-hour, yet Mr. Chen's figure was still nowhere to be seen.
Consequently, some attendees got restless, rising to whisper to Secretary Liang, "What exactly has Mr. Chen been delayed by, and what business could be more important than today's project proposal?"
She shook her head apologetically, "I'm not quite sure, perhaps Assistant Xu knows."
"Where's Assistant Xu?"
"He just left a few minutes ago."
"..."
Another fifteen minutes passed, and another group of people came to inquire.
Liang Weining remained unflappable, continuing with the same responses, seemingly unwilling to divulge anything.
After more than forty minutes, she sat poised at the head of the conference table, quietly taking in every face in the room.
From the initial calm to the now general restlessness.
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Throughout the entire process, only three people maintained their composure.
One was Chen Jingyuan's most trusted aide, another was the representative of the Neutral Faction who had been a fence-sitter for a decade, and the third, was a loyal old minister who had been rooted in Zhonggang for dozens of years.
Seeing that the time was almost right, Liang Weining took a light breath and stood up from her seat.
This sudden motion caused those below to stop their conversation tacitly and turn their gazes together toward the slender figure.
Liang Weining nodded to everyone and went straight to the point, "Apologies, everyone. Due to objective factors, Mr. Chen is unable to attend the meeting today. He has now authorized Vice President Gao to replace him to preside over and discuss the preliminary plan for the first phase of the Lianwu Island development project."
As the words ended, the air fell into a sudden silence.
People looked at each other with bewilderment, as it seemed they had not anticipated that Mr. Chen would so easily entrust such an important decision-making authority to someone else.
One must know that Vice President Gao was...
Before the crowd could think further, Liang Weining already smiled and gestured to the hero of the day, hoping he would take control of the situation quickly.
At the lower end, the unshakeable Vice President Gao, under the focus of dozens of pairs of eyes, sat silently for a moment before he had to rise and stride towards the front of the conference room.
The meeting officially began.
Liang Weining swiped her phone and sent a brief message.
On the other side.
Xu Zhou received the message, which contained only one word: "Gao."
He quirked an eyebrow as if somewhat surprised.
After a moment's hesitation, Xu Zhou's gaze fell on the rearview mirror, looking at the man in the back seat who was resting with his eyes closed.
His own boss had made a move that even he found confusing.
Was he not afraid Liang Secretary would choose poorly?
Amidst his thoughts, he turned his head aside and reported to the back row, "Mr. Chen, the meeting is currently proceeding normally. Would you like me to connect you remotely?"
The extended Pullman drove smoothly on the Causeway Bay CBD avenue, with the interior of the vehicle extraordinarily silent, and a barely noticeable scent of sandalwood softly flowing, revealing the leisurely composure of the owner's current state of mind.
As the skyscrapers outside the window slowly receded, Chen Jingyuan slowly opened his eyes and asked calmly, "How long was the meeting delayed?"
Xu Zhou replied, "About forty-five minutes."
That is to say, almost an hour.
The lighter's flint wheel made a faint scraping sound, Chen Jingyuan's expression remained unchanged as he lit a cigarette. Amid the faint smoke, he murmured, "Quite composed for someone so young."
Xu Zhou chuckled upon hearing this.
Not only that, the person he chose was also quite unexpected.
Not to mention his role as Special Assistant, the high-level executives below probably also found their emotions at that time to be extremely vivid.
Chen Jingyuan did not ask who it specifically was.
However, Xu Zhou had a premonition. He felt that his own boss had probably guessed the words "Vice President Gao" long ago.
At this moment, in the top-floor meeting room of Zhonggang's headquarters building.
Disagreement over the first phase of the development proposal gradually intensified.
One faction was the reformists, who believed that while carrying out ecological construction on Lianwu Island, it was necessary for the group to take advantage of the situation and invest a fixed amount of capital, to align with policy trends and initiate in-depth research into cutting-edge biomedicine technology.
Another faction voted against, wary of the large initial investment and the inability to recover the funds in the short term. If the group encountered any problems during this period, the shareholders would face an unprecedented catastrophe.
Naturally, the remaining faction, as always, maintained neutrality, not expressing any substantive opinion, as they did not dare to offend either side.
In the half hour that followed, the two factions argued incessantly.
Liang Weining, as the Chief Secretary of the Board Office, observed the entire situation, with countless thoughts swirling in her mind.
In her mind, she recalled the previous night in the office.
Chen Jingyuan's attitude towards this interview, as well as her mention of potential risks, elicited a reaction from him that was disturbingly calm.
Upon reflection, she couldn't help but make a bold speculation.
In the end, the two-hour project meeting, without the key person present, ultimately failed to achieve the desired outcome.
After the meeting, she returned to the secretarial office.
After calming herself for a few minutes, Liang Weining dragged the office phone to her and quickly dialed the contact number for the TV station.
After stating her request, the person on the other end of the phone thought he had heard wrong and confirmed with her twice more.
"You heard me right,"
she indeed planned to change the interview time to two days later.
Location: Lianwu Island.