Chapter 36.1: You're So Polite
Chu Qianmiao had allowed herself to be a little sad the
previous night. The next day, she immediately pulled herself together. Simply
feeling sad when encountering something is useless; the key is to analyze and
summarize afterward. She needed to analyze yesterday's situation, to understand
the root cause of her mistakes, whether she had encountered an unexpected
disaster, and whether similar crises were lurking in the future. If so, how
could she resolve them?
She calmly reviewed the meeting from yesterday.
After discussing several major issues, Ren Yan suddenly
turned to the head of legal affairs and asked about a contract for a project
worth 70 million yuan.
The head of legal affairs immediately pulled the contract
from a pile of documents and handed it to Ren Yan. She quickly reviewed it in
her mind, confirming that she didn't have the original draft of a contract for
such a large project. So, she said to Ren Yan, "Mr. Ren, please read it
and let me see it too."
Ren Yan quickly flipped through the contract and handed it
to her. As she flipped through it, she felt puzzled. This 70 million yuan
contract had already been fulfilled last month, and yet she still didn't have
the draft.
70 million yuan was a very large project. Contracts over 1.5
million yuan were the focus of their agency's attention. It seemed there was a
problem with her communication with the legal department.
But what puzzled her was that she had specifically checked
with the legal department yesterday—there were indeed no contract drafts that
needed updating. She couldn't figure out what the problem was.
Seeing she hadn't even seen the contract, Dong Lan took the
opportunity to offer some encouragement: "I hope everyone will be more
prompt when submitting documents in the future. While our senior executives may
not be experts in IPOs, after receiving coaching and training from Mr. Ren and
his brokerage firm, you've gained some understanding of listing requirements,
haven't you? So, we should all quickly standardize everything according to
listing requirements. If the contract needs to be provided to the lawyers
through the Legal Department, please make copies as soon as possible. Don't
slack off. As for the lawyers, you're professionals, so please work harder, be
more attentive, and be more thoughtful. If we haven't thought of the contract
drafts, please consider urging us to submit them. If neither side anticipates
something, wouldn't there be room for mishaps and omissions?"
At this point, Dong Lan smiled, her smile gentle and
easygoing, her tone soft, but her words were as sharp as arrows. "Also,
today's meeting was actually very important, but Attorney Zhang said he was
absent due to something. Both the CEO and Attorney Zhang said before the
meeting that Lawyer Chu could handle the legal aspects. Now, it seems
inappropriate without Lawyer Zhang. I hope everyone will attend the next
meeting."
She concluded, "I believe that with the professionalism
of the intermediaries, this kind of asymmetric progress won't happen
again."
She spoke both truth and irony. She spoke in a veiled way,
and Chu Qianmiao realized she was essentially trying to save face for her
lawyers. First, she was unhappy that Zhang Teng didn't attend the meeting.
Second, at the previous meeting, their lawyers had slapped Jialeyuan's legal
director and secretary, Sui Huan, in a way that indirectly slapped Dong Lan in
the face. Dong Lan must have felt uncomfortable. Therefore, it's possible that
Dong Lan's attitude at yesterday's meeting was a bit of a pretext.
Looking back on the 70 million yuan contract incident at
yesterday's meeting, Chu Qianmiao didn't feel particularly at fault. She had
specifically gone to the Legal Department the day before the meeting to
confirm, and the Legal Director had indeed stated that there were no contracts
that needed to be updated.
But during the meeting, the Legal Director had pulled out
this very contract and showed it to Ren Yan right there and then.
So, what was going on? She reasoned that she had no grudge
against the Legal Director, and that he had no reason to be so taunting.
Chu Qianmiao decided to go to the Legal Department in person
and speak with the Legal Director.
As soon as the working day was over, Chu Qianmiao went to
Jialeyuan's Legal Department. The Legal Director was there, already working.
This was the third Legal Director since Sui Huan and her boss were fired.
The current Legal Director was Qi Mingheng, a man in his
thirties who appeared calm and composed. He communicated with her in a tactful
and smooth manner, without any obstacles. Because he'd only just taken on the
job, he was still getting familiar with and navigating many of Jia Leyuan's
affairs. Chu Qianmiao couldn't help but feel that he didn't seem like someone
who would deliberately try to trick her.
So, they'd have to discuss the situation later.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Chu Qianmiao and Qi
Mingheng got down to business. She asked Qi Mingheng about the 70 million yuan
engineering contract.
Qi Mingheng pushed his black-framed glasses up and said a
little sheepishly, "Lawyer Chu, speaking of this, I wanted to apologize.
The day before the meeting, you asked me if I had any contracts that needed
updating. I said no, but that evening, a new contract actually appeared. It
hadn't been filed before, but I was busy preparing for the next day's meeting
and forgot to tell you. You were caught off guard during the meeting yesterday.
I'm so sorry!"
Chu Qianmiao repeatedly said it was okay, then asked Qi
Mingheng, "Then why did this unfiled contract suddenly appear last
night?"
Qi Mingheng said, "Come to think of it, it was
President Ren who discovered it."
Based on Qi Mingheng's account and his own speculation, Chu
Qianmiao pieced together the events of the night before the meeting.
Sometime after dinner, Qi Mingheng received a call from Ren
Yan.
Ren Yan said that while preparing materials for the meeting,
he had taken another look at the financial statements. Comparing them with the
previous reports, he saw that the company's operating revenue in the new report
was significantly higher than the previous month. He suspected it was a new
payment from a contract. He searched for draft contracts currently under
execution, but couldn't find any matching projects.
So he wondered if there was another contract, other than the
draft, that had been executed and the payment collected.
He immediately called Qi Mingheng, the head of legal
affairs, to confirm. Qi Mingheng firmly stated that he didn't have such a
contract. Ren Yan then asked him to call Ji Xia, the head of the engineering
department, to confirm.
Qi Mingheng immediately contacted Ji Xia, who replied,
"There is indeed such a contract. After signing it, I forgot to submit it
to your legal department for filing. It's just that our legal department has
been constantly changing personnel. One has left, then three have been
replaced, and now Iam the fourth." Our legal department was so
disorganized during the signing and execution of the contract that we didn't
have time to file it.
Qi Mingheng then asked Ji Xia for the contract. Ji Xia said,
"No problem. I'll come to the office early tomorrow and look for it.
Aren't we having a meeting tomorrow?" That's perfect. I'll give it to you
directly during the meeting.
—So, before the meeting the next day, Ji Xia gave the
contract to Qi Mingheng. When Ren Yan asked about it during the meeting, Qi
Mingheng handed it to Ren Yan.
After untangling the entire process, Chu Qianmiao realized
that Qi Mingheng wasn't particularly at fault. He'd only just arrived and was
constantly overwhelmed. If the Engineering Department had intentionally
withheld the contract from him, he certainly wouldn't have noticed.
So, at this point, Chu Qianmiao felt that the whole thing
seemed somewhat intentional on Ji Xia's part.
She remembered that during a previous chat, the legal
representative, An Ruda, had said that Ji Xia had asked the HR director to
recruit Sui Huan. During that previous meeting, she had severely slapped Sui
Huan in the face, and subsequently, Dong Lan had fired Sui Huan in a
disgraceful manner—it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say she had been kicked
out. So, this, too, was a slap in the face to Ji Xia.
At this point, Chu Qianmiao understood. She decided to be
extremely vigilant in all future work related to the Engineering Department,
preventing them from deliberately setting traps or refusing to cooperate.
After she had thoroughly through the entire
situation, she called Zhang Teng and reported everything. Zhang Teng, seemingly
exhausted from another project, offered her some words of comfort, neither
criticizing nor blaming her. He simply told her to be more careful and
attentive in her future work, to avoid giving anyone with ulterior motives a
glimpse of her flaws.
After hanging up, Chu Qianmiao thought that not only would
she need to be more careful and attentive in her future work, but she should
also review her previous work to see if there were any other omissions.
The day after the meeting, Ren Yan wasn't supposed to be at
Jialeyuan; he had a regular meeting of department heads at Litong Securities.
However, he found a plausible excuse to take leave and drove himself to
Jialeyuan.
But after entering the due diligence office, he never saw
Chu Qianmiao. Her bag was on the desk, but she was nowhere to be found.
He remained composed, controlling his emotions, not letting
himself ask Qin Qianyu where Chu Qianmiao was.
After lunch, well into the afternoon, Chu Qianmiao still
hadn't appeared. He finally lost his temper.
He asked Qin Qianyu, "Did Lawyer Chu show up
today?"
Qin Qianyu turned and replied, "Huh? Qianmiao? She came
early this morning and went straight to the Legal Department with her computer
to review the Engineering Department contracts with Qi Mingheng. She said she
felt the need to review all the contracts."
Ren Yan remained silent.
Qin Qianyu sighed to himself, "I thought Qianmiao would
be incredibly depressed after yesterday's setback. I didn't expect this girl to
become more energetic the more she's been challenged. She's not at all
squeamish. Not only does she know how to pick herself up from where she fell,
but she also knows how to fill the gaps to prevent future setbacks."
Ren Yan remained silent. But deep down, he agreed with Qin
Qianyu's words.
She was a stubborn girl. Even after being scolded, no matter
how upset she was, she wouldn't give up. She would quickly pick herself up and
swiftly and decisively strike back at the pain points.
Strangely, the more stubborn she was, the tighter his chest
felt. Her strength was far more heartbreaking than her tears.
The turmoil in his heart didn't show on his face. His
silence led Qin Qianyu to mistakenly believe that he hadn't yet gotten over
yesterday's incident.
So, Qin Qianyu tentatively spoke up for Chu Qianmiao:
"Boss, to be honest, I really don't think Qianmiao is to blame for what
happened yesterday. She's a lawyer, and she doesn't understand finance. We, the
ones who do, didn't see anything at first, so how could she have? I feel like
this is ultimately Ji Xia's fault from the Engineering Department, with a
little Dong Lan exploiting the situation."
Ren Yan remained expressionless and silent, but the
irritation within him had already built up into a mountain.
Qin Qianyu decided to say one last word to his stern-faced
boss. If he remained indifferent, he'd have no choice but to give up on him.
"Qian Miao told me on WeChat that she'd indeed
discovered some issues with the Engineering Department's contract. But they
weren't cooperating at all with her in resolving the issues, and seemed quite
hostile to her."
After he finished speaking, a figure flashed before his
eyes.
Ren Yan walked out of the due diligence office and headed
for the Legal Department.
Chu Qianmiao and Qi Mingheng efficiently compiled a list of
contracts, all of which needed to be reconciled with the Engineering Department
regarding their review, filing, and fulfillment.
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