Chapter 193: A Little Goblin in Human Skin

July 10th.

Tuesday.

Having received an invitation, Liu Ju left work early.

He went to a barbershop near the station for a hair treatment.

Then, he changed into a stylish new suit.

And set off on his way to Hongsheng Group.

Regarding tonight’s banquet, Liu Ju had already made inquiries through others.

Its purpose was to invite various figures from Jiangzhou’s catering industry, under the group’s name, to safeguard the group’s dining establishments.

It was a form of courtesy call.

Essentially, it was to inform the entire Jiangzhou catering industry that Hongsheng Group intended to get deeply involved, asking everyone to show leniency out of respect for the group.

It had a strong flavor of “let’s all make money together” and “let’s all bear the burden together.”

However, as an insider, Liu Ju knew that Hongsheng Group hadn’t been so polite originally.

They had directly launched three fried chicken shops, intending to force their way into the daily fast-food market.

But who would have thought?

They stumbled over ‘Shi Ning Ji’.

One advertisement, one set meal, directly crushed ‘Emperor’s Chicken’.

Many only belatedly tried to salvage the situation with advertisements, price reductions, and other methods.

There was some effect, but it wasn’t significant.

At least from the information Liu Ju had gathered, daily sales had only recovered to at most half of their original amount.

As for their competitor, ‘Shi Ning Ji’, not to mention its old stores, just its three new stores each had about three times the customer traffic of ‘Emperor’s Chicken’.

This was without even calculating the average customer spend.

If calculated strictly, the sales volume of one ‘Emperor’s Chicken’ store might not even be one-third of a new ‘Shi Ning Ji’ store.

One must know that when they first opened a month ago, these figures were completely reversed.

Yet, in less than a month, such an exaggerated reversal had occurred.

All of this was due to that combination of moves.

Subconsciously, a graceful figure squatting by the roadside eating skewers appeared in Liu Ju’s mind.

In ‘Shi Ning Ji’, the one with such ability and means, it was probably only her.

He wondered if he would see her tonight.

Meanwhile, inside Hongsheng Group’s banquet hall, Shang Jie was meticulously arranging the upcoming banquet. Dressed in a purplish-red qipao, she stood out remarkably in the banquet hall.

Whether from her figure or appearance, she didn’t look like a woman who already had two children.

Since the number of attendees for today’s banquet was not large, the group had arranged for the small banquet hall.

But even so, there were many things that needed to be verified and checked.

Just then, a secretary approached Shang Jie, leaned down, and whispered something in her ear.

Then, Shang Jie nodded.

And immediately followed the secretary, walking out of the small banquet hall.

Outside the hall at this moment, the sun was still shining.

The five o’clock sun hung high in the distance.

As Shang Jie stepped out, she immediately saw a short, stout middle-aged man walking towards them from the main entrance of the group building.

Seeing this, Shang Jie instead paused, clasped her hands, and stood naturally at the entrance of the banquet hall.

After the stout middle-aged man approached, she gently nodded to him.

“Mr. Wang, welcome and thank you for gracing us with your presence.”

“Oh, no need for ‘Mr. Wang’, just call me Old Wang,” the middle-aged man waved his hand.

“Old Wang values the camaraderie between partners the most.”

“As soon as I saw President Shang’s invitation, Old Wang immediately dropped what I was doing and rushed over specifically ahead of time.”

Shang Jie showed no sign of annoyance at his boasting.

She smiled gently, nodding politely from time to time.

It took quite a while before she finally ushered this largest chicken supplier in Jiangzhou City into the banquet hall.

After the person entered, the young secretary beside her frowned slightly and said:

“President Shang, this person has a very strong smell.”

In response, Shang Jie’s expression remained unchanged.

“He is Wang Quanming, a chicken supplier in Jiangzhou, and also one of the largest chicken ingredient sources for our ‘Emperor’s Chicken’.”

“Ah? So it’s him?”

The secretary’s small face was full of surprise.

She seemed not to have expected that ‘Emperor’s Chicken”s largest chicken supplier would look like this.

At this moment, Shang Jie spoke again.

But this time, her voice was a little low.

It seemed like she was talking to herself, or perhaps afraid of being overheard.

She murmured:

“Wang Quanming, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the collapse of the Catering Enterprise Association.”

“From a slaughterhouse owner with a market share of less than 10‰, he leaped to become one of Jiangzhou’s large suppliers with 2% of the chicken market share.”

“Even high-end hotels like Lion House and Tianfuyuan source their chicken from him.”

“Even half of ‘Shi Ning Ji”s chicken is supplied by him.”

“Old Wang, what kind of opportunities in these past few months allowed you to expand to such a scale?”

“What? President Shang, what did you say?” the young secretary asked, puzzled.

The only reply she received was Shang Jie’s smiling shake of the head.

For the rest of the time, Shang Jie stood at the entrance with her secretary, like a greeter.

She offered a gentle smile to everyone who came to the banquet.

Of course, those who could attend the banquet were, more or less, people who had been through the mill in society for some years.

The lower the host’s posture, the more they understood that the host’s ambitions were not small.

Even a young man like Liu Ju, could belatedly grasp this truth when faced with Shang Jie’s humble demeanor.

However, understanding was one thing, but Liu Ju still greatly admired a woman like Shang Jie, who could rise and fall.

He had also heard that Hongsheng Group’s recent flourishing development owed no small part to this woman’s efforts behind the scenes.

Now it seemed, even if this rumor was mistaken, it wouldn’t be far off.

Just then, Liu Ju, standing by the entrance, caught sight of a red BMW.

It drove in from outside the group building and parked in a nearby parking lot.

Then two women got out of the car.

The one from the driver’s seat had a graceful and full figure.

Even though she was wearing a light yellow suit, it seemed unable to conceal the allure beneath her clothes.

As for the other girl who got out of the passenger seat, with just one glance, his gaze was drawn to her exquisite figure.

She wore an off-white top and coffee-colored capri pants.

Her long, straight black hair fell naturally in front of her, complementing her delicate and beautiful features.

Her whole demeanor exuded a graceful and dignified, yet charming and proper, aura.

However, what was the meaning of that cold and annoyed expression?

——————

Jiang Ning truly found it boring.

Especially this outfit.

Although an off-the-shoulder top isn’t easy to slip down, when walking, the neckline tended to slide left and right, making it difficult for the shoulder straps to stay covered.

Even though she had already changed to transparent straps, Miss Jiang still felt an indescribable discomfort.

Fortunately, her hair was long enough to cover most of it.

Otherwise…

“Little Jiang Ning, what are you muttering about?”

“Let’s go.”

“Oh, coming.”

Miss Jiang quickly caught up with Li Mingyu, who was walking ahead.

When they arrived at the entrance of the banquet hall, at a glance, well, well.

They were all familiar faces.

But Jiang Ning merely glanced at Liu Ju, and didn’t even respond to his nod.

Clearly, she wore an expression that said, ‘this old man doesn’t want to bother with you’.

At this moment, Li Mingyu and the young Madam Shang began to converse.

“President Li, welcome to the banquet.”

“Are we really welcome?”

“Truly welcome.”

“That’s good then~”

Their words, though seemingly spoken with happy smiles, gave the young secretary nearby an indescribable feeling.

It was as if they were fighting.

“And this is?”

“Jiang Ning, my younger sister.”

Seeing the attention shift to herself, Miss Jiang’s lips curled slightly, and she stepped forward.

“Sister, I’m sorry about last time, I was actually genuinely offering advice.”

“It’s alright, I’m very grateful for your advice; it allowed us to make further improvements.”

“Hehe, as long as Sister isn’t angry.”

Saying this, Jiang Ning smilingly extended her hand and, without any reservation, grasped Shang Jie’s hand.

The latter clearly hadn’t expected this gesture.

She paused for a moment.

But made no move to pull away.

Miss Jiang was seen caressing Shang Jie’s hand.

“Sister, your skin is so good, what brand of skincare do you use?”

“Sister, your fingers are so long and slender. Huh, why is there no nail on your middle finger?”

“Oh my goodness, there isn’t even a single callus on your hand, I… hey, hey, gently, gently…”

Li Mingyu pulled away ‘Old Man Jiang’, apologizing:

“The little girl has been spoiled too much, her personality might be a bit too lively, I apologize…”

After saying that, she pushed Miss Jiang inside the door.

After they entered the door, Miss Jiang’s liveliness suddenly settled down.

She linked arms with Li Mingyu.

“This is a poisonous narcissus…”

Hearing this, Li Mingyu let out an exasperated chuckle.

“You’re not bad yourself.”

“A little goblin in human skin.”
(End of this chapter)