Chapter 74: The Boss of Xingbei

Yao Jia hurriedly chased downstairs, trying to catch up with Meng Xingzhe, who had promised to wait for her but left without a word.

Finally catching up to him, she never imagined that revealing her true identity would shock Meng Xingzhe so greatly.

He seemed to transform into a completely different person, filled with hostility and tension.

When he said, “I’m doing this for your own good. Too many people like me, and you won’t even make it to the front of the line,” she was left speechless and heartbroken.

As she fiercely wiped away her tears, she resolved in her heart that anyone who liked him was a fool!

She glared at Meng Xingzhe and turned to head up the stairs. But with every step, she thought, if you call out to me now and say you were just acting crazy, I might consider forgiving you.

Yet, even after she climbed the last step and walked through the building’s main entrance, she didn’t hear him call her name.

Standing inside the building, she hesitated for a moment before turning back to look.

Through the floor-to-ceiling glass, she saw his retreating figure descending the stairs, leaving decisively, as if nothing and no one in the building was worth his lingering.

Clenching her fists in anger, she thought furiously: Meng Xingzhe, to hell with you! I’m done caring about you!

Yao Jia stood at the building’s entrance, took a deep breath, patted her chest, and quickly calmed her racing heart and emotions.

She knew now wasn’t the time to be distracted by these complicated feelings. Upstairs, her Chairman father was waiting for her to finish dealing with the Customer Service Department’s dismissal matters and report back.

Once she regained her composure, she entered the elevator, heading straight to the Chairman’s office.

Yao Bingkun was already waiting for her. As soon as she arrived, he led her, along with his assistant, on a tour of the various departments, ensuring that every department head and key personnel clearly understood that she was the future successor of Kunyu Electric.

When Yao Jia reached the Human Resources Department, Lu Fangfei was so shocked she couldn’t speak for a while. At the Finance Department, Chen Luoxi’s eyes widened in surprise. At the After-sales Department, Lu Jingyi was even more exaggerated, his eyes bulging as he dropped the toolbox in his hand.

As she walked through each department, she garnered a trail of astonished gazes. Many people looked at her with expressions of disbelief. Once she passed, those expressions turned into a wave of whispered conversations filled with surprise.

“I’ve seen her before. Someone was going to complain about me, and she specifically came to ask about the details. She realized it wasn’t my fault and helped mediate with the customer, ultimately preventing the complaint. I always thought she was a responsible and kind customer service rep. I never expected her to be the Chairman’s daughter! She’s so unpretentious!”

“I know her too! I heard about her because a colleague in the Customer Service Department told me. When she first joined, she ranked last in two consecutive assessments and was almost fired due to being framed by the second-to-last. But later, she improved tremendously and became the top performer! That colleague said she never acted like the Chairman’s child; any employee seemed to have more backing than she did. She even endured some bullying. I never expected, really never expected, the Chairman’s daughter to be so resilient!”

“I hadn’t seen her before, only heard of her. After all, she once cracked a distress call and saved someone, earning recognition. I never thought she was the Chairman’s daughter! It just goes to show, excellence leaves traces, and the Chairman’s genes couldn’t be lacking!”

“I’m different from you all. I just didn’t expect the Chairman’s daughter to be so beautiful and graceful!”

…

After the tour, Yao Jia’s initial nervousness and anxiety gradually turned into calm and composure.

The future of this enterprise was destined to be in her hands. The first thing she needed to learn was to remain calm and composed in any situation.

After touring the company, Yao Jia followed Yao Bingkun back to the executive floor. Yao Bingkun took her to meet the company’s executives one by one.

She had met almost all the executives, except for Vice President Qiu Lishi, who was not in his office.

Yao Bingkun told Yao Jia, “You can go back to your office, which is next to mine. If you need anything special for now, talk to my assistant. For general matters, just call the secretary’s office. I’ll arrange for a reliable assistant for you later.”

Yao Jia nodded in agreement and returned to her office.

Although her office was smaller than the Chairman’s, it was still impressively grand—spacious, well-lit, and offering a panoramic view of the ever-changing cityscape through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Sitting at the large desk, Yao Jia picked up the internal phone and said to the secretary’s office, “I’d like to review the company’s financial status for the past three years. Please prepare the relevant documents for me.”

Just as she hung up the phone, Yao Bingkun’s assistant knocked on the door.

Yao Jia said, “Come in,” and the assistant entered, standing at the door to tell her, “Little General Manager Yao, the Chairman wants you in his office immediately!”

It sounded urgent.

Yao Jia immediately stood up.

When Yao Jia walked into Yao Bingkun’s office, she saw her Chairman father sitting on the sofa.

Across from him sat someone she recognized—Vice President Qiu Lishi.

She quickly approached and greeted them.

Looking at the Vice President, who was about the same age as her father, she noticed he wore a light blue shirt with a knitted vest over it. He didn’t have the typical middle-aged paunch. Despite his age, he still exuded an impressive demeanor. Unlike Yao Bingkun’s graying temples, his hair was dyed jet black, and the gold-rimmed glasses perched on his nose gave him a gentle and scholarly appearance.

Seeing Yao Jia approach, he stood up with a smile, shook her hand warmly, and said, “I met you during the incident with the distress call, but I never realized you were Old Yao’s daughter, Little Yao. Uncle Qiu must be getting old and blind not to recognize you!”

Yao Jia felt that this person naturally bridged the gap between people.

Yao Jia sat on the long sofa between Yao Bingkun and Qiu Lishi, using her eyes to ask Yao Bingkun why she was called over.

Yao Bingkun said to Qiu Lishi, “Old Qiu, now that Yao Jia is here, if there’s anything you need her to know, go ahead and tell her.”

Yao Jia was slightly taken aback.

Was it Qiu Lishi who wanted to speak with her?

“Alright,” Qiu Lishi said, and Yao Jia turned to look at him.

“It’s like this, Yao Jia. Uncle Qiu just heard from Li Wangli that there’s an employee in the Customer Service Department named Meng Xingzhe, who is supposed to be dismissed for violating the company’s attendance policy, but you personally intervened to keep him?”

Yao Jia thought to herself, so it was about this matter. She appreciated that Qiu Lishi was considerate enough not to directly tell her father about it and instead called her over.

She smiled and nodded, saying to Qiu Lishi, “Uncle Qiu, I’m quite familiar with Meng Xingzhe. We sat next to each other in the Customer Service Department and shared the same dormitory after work. He’s very capable and knowledgeable. Dismissing him just for taking half a day off seems a bit harsh and unfair to him.”

Qiu Lishi’s expression changed from friendly to serious and stern: “Yao Jia, listen to Uncle Qiu. You can protect anyone else, but this person, absolutely not!”

Yao Jia felt a jolt at his serious tone.

“Why is it that, if it’s him, it’s absolutely not allowed?” she asked.

Qiu Lishi picked up a tablet from beside him, unlocked it, and handed it to Yao Jia. “Take a look at this.”

Yao Jia took the tablet with a puzzled expression.

She saw that Qiu Lishi wanted her to look at the profile of a female internet celebrity whose short videos had recently gone viral online.

She was a bit perplexed, thinking that Qiu Lishi was quite trendy.

But soon she understood why Qiu Lishi seemed so fashionable—

“This was discovered by a young person working under me. She loves watching short videos on platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou. After watching this, she felt something was off and brought it to my attention,” Qiu Lishi explained.

“Click on the audio clip this influencer posted three months ago,” Qiu Lishi instructed her.

Yao Jia scrolled to the audio clip and pressed play.

As soon as the sound played, she was taken aback.

The audio was of the female influencer calling Kunyu Electric’s customer service. The influencer, with a youthful voice, was intentionally trying to get the male customer service representative to talk more because his voice was exceptionally pleasant.

And that male voice unmistakably belonged to Meng Xingzhe.

Yao Jia recalled that when their batch of newcomers had just finished training and started taking calls, there was a day when both she and Meng Xingzhe were reprimanded during the Morning Meeting. She was scolded for arguing with a customer, while Meng Xingzhe was reprimanded because the higher-ups had monitored that a young girl kept calling to chat with him.

She even remembered transferring calls from this young girl to Meng Xingzhe herself.

Looking at the audio’s posting date, it was about three months ago, right when their group started taking calls.

So it seemed this influencer had recently become popular, and her previous posts were being dug up and scrutinized by everyone.

That’s how the young person under Qiu Lishi, who loved watching short videos, had the chance to notice this particular audio about the male customer service representative from Kunyu Electric.

She read the influencer’s caption accompanying the audio: “Sharing with you all a customer service guy whose voice is so good it could make your ears pregnant! His voice is truly amazing. If he hadn’t told me that if I kept calling him to chat, he’d get fired, I’d really want to call him every day! Sadly, I couldn’t get his WeChat, boohoo~ Girls, trust me, you must listen to this audio, you must, you must! Trust me, it’ll make your ears pregnant!”

She thought, yes, indeed, Meng Xingzhe’s voice was very pleasant. But what did this have to do with needing to fire him?

She looked up and voiced her confusion to Qiu Lishi.

Qiu Lishi gestured with his chin, pointing at the tablet like a compass, and said, “Open the comments and take a look. The key is in the top comments.”

As Yao Jia searched for the comment button, she thought, You’re quite trendy, knowing what top comments are.

When she opened the comments and saw the top ones, she was stunned again.

Dongci Daci Dian: [Damn, who is this guy? His voice is so seductive! I want all the information about this man in front of me in three minutes!]

Chunxin Dadong: [Huh? This is clearly the voice of our company’s boss! But why is it in an audio of a customer service call???? Our handsome boss is often elusive and doesn’t come to the office much, leaving everything to the second boss, 2333333.]

Dongci Daci Dian replied to Chunxin Dadong: [Are you saying your boss’s voice is identical to the male customer service representative at Kunyu Electric? Could they be long-lost twin brothers???]

Chunxin Dadong replied to Dongci Daci Dian: [We heard from the second boss that the big boss is an only child, a rare species, so no chance of twins.]

Lu Jian Buping Satui Jiu Pao replied to Dongci Daci Dian: [I’m a colleague of Chunxin Dadong, and she played this audio for many of us. We can all confirm, this is definitely our company’s boss’s voice! Absolutely no mistake!!! Because our boss is the most handsome in the world, and his voice is the most pleasant in the universe, there’s no way we could mistake it! Emmmm, maybe he’s participating in some role-playing event?]

Dongci Daci Dian: [May I ask which company you two are from?]

Lu Jian Buping Satui Jiu Pao: [Xingbei Technology~ Our products are great, please support us!]

Seeing those four words, Yao Jia felt as if her heart had lost its weight, pounding erratically. It was as if thunder was roaring in her ears.

Her mind kept repeating those four words:

Xingbei Technology, Xingbei Technology.

They had talked about Xingbei Technology many times before.

The commenters here claimed that the voice in the audio, Meng Xingzhe, was the boss of Xingbei Technology.

“This can’t be possible, right? If Meng Xingzhe is truly the boss of Xingbei Technology, why would he come to Kunyu as a low-level customer service representative? This is too unbelievable!” She tried to suppress the sudden surge of shock and uncertainty, attempting to ask in a calm tone. She even smiled as she asked, as if a smile could mask the initial shock and panic.

Qiu Lishi said to her, “So you see, his purpose is to infiltrate our Kunyu and steal company technology and trade secrets.”

Yao Jia was stunned for a long moment, digesting Qiu Lishi’s words.

That Meng Xingzhe, that pretentious and arrogant Meng Xingzhe, Qiu Lishi said he wasn’t really a low-level customer service representative. He was the boss of another company, and he came to Kunyu Electric as an undercover agent…

Her heart was silently racing, pounding against her chest as if it wanted to break free from its confines and uncover the truth.

“Is it really possible? For a company’s boss to go undercover himself?” She was reluctant to believe this theory.

Qiu Lishi chuckled and said, “Yao Jia, have you seen the recent news? The former chairman of ** Electric was caught red-handed sneaking into a competitor’s workshop to take photos. What in this world is impossible?”

Yao Jia felt her heart skip a beat. It was as if her heart had lost its weight again. She felt a growing tightness in her chest, and even breathing seemed to require effort. She thought maybe the color was slowly draining from her face, which she was trying hard to keep calm.

She put down the tablet and quickly logged into the corporate credit information disclosure system on her phone. As she prepared to search for Xingbei Technology, her fingertips were trembling slightly.

When the page loaded and she saw the legal representative and shareholder information, she breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment, she was almost overwhelmed with joy at not being betrayed.

There was no mention of Meng Xingzhe among the legal representatives or shareholders.

She looked up and showed the business information page of Xingbei Technology to Qiu Lishi: “Uncle Qiu, look, there’s no information about Meng Xingzhe here.”

Qiu Lishi shook his head with a smile, “Child, you’re still too naive. Shares can be held in trust. If a competitor is determined to infiltrate Kunyu as a corporate spy, wouldn’t they have thought of this and dealt with it in advance?”

Yao Jia’s heart, which had just regained some weight, began to feel weightless again. She couldn’t believe that Meng Xingzhe was the boss of Xingbei Technology. She didn’t want to believe it!

She turned to look at Yao Bingkun, seeking some support in her confusion.

But her father nodded slightly and said, “We can’t rule out the possibility of shares being held in trust.”

Yao Jia stood there, dazed, unable to respond for a long time.

— Translator’s Notes —

• Douyin and Kuaishou: Douyin (Chinese version of TikTok) and Kuaishou are popular Chinese short-video sharing platforms.