KC | Chapter 1

“Good morning to all the Lanhai elites, and a happy July to everyone!” In the hundred-person meeting, one person spoke. The speaker held a microphone in hand, wore formal attire, and had a loud, confident voice.

“Good, very good, extremely good!” The entire room shouted in unison, full of momentum.

The conference room had a four-meter-high ceiling, white marble tiles inlaid on the floor, and faint bronze-colored textures visible on the walls. After the workplace elites finished shouting their slogan and took their seats, they sat upright, proper, and by the book. If not for the orthodox decor, anyone suddenly walking into this conference room would probably have thought they had entered some marketing organization.

“Q2 passed in the blink of an eye, and today we are welcoming a brand-new Q3. July is the first month of Q3, and here I wish the elites present here can achieve perfect results in Q3!” The speaker was a middle-aged woman, not very tall but with a loud voice. Her passionate tone had quite the effect of waking people up in the early morning. The listeners below brightened at her words and applauded with loud claps.

Chen Xi tiredly joined in the applause, placing his left hand on his right and clapping twice just to go through the motions. The colleagues from other systems beside him clapped like thunder. Chen Xi pressed a hand to his forehead and thought: if this scene were placed 100 years ago, it could compete with a fascist brainwashing speech.

Chen Xi should normally have been sitting in the dedicated KA area, in the second row of the venue. But this morning he got up late, and by the time he arrived the meeting had already started. He felt too embarrassed to walk forward, so he sat in the back row with the other systems.

But that was not the main reason he sat in the back.

He sat in the back because he did not want to be too close to a certain hypocritical and elegant scum.

“Next, we will begin the first item of this month’s kickoff meeting, a personnel appointment and removal announcement issued by General Manager Zhang of the group.”

A slightly stout middle-aged man walked up to the podium. The speaker respectfully handed over the microphone in both hands, and the middle-aged man took it. His breathing was steady, his voice was not loud, but he carried an inherent pressure. The words he read were clear, syllable by syllable: “Lanhai Group Personnel Appointment and Removal Announcement.”

“1. Remove Lin Yiran from the position of Yu City Lanhai KA Director, and remove Wang Shuang from the position of Manager of Business Division Two in Yu City.”

The outside-system employees nearby had no reaction to the KA personnel changes, but they all knew Wang Shuang, the speaker who was hosting the meeting on stage today.

The same old monthly kickoff meeting, Wang Shuang’s formulaic opening remarks, the employees’ pretended agreement. At Lanhai, everything had its fixed way of running. Usually after removing a leader from the original post, a new appointment had to be made again.

Chen Xi was very curious where Lin Yiran would go.

Best if he went to some other system, far away from me, and never contacted me again.

“2. Appoint Lin Yiran as Deputy General Manager of Yu City Lanhai, and General Manager of the KA Division in Yu City; appoint Wang Shuang as KA Director. This announcement takes effect as of today.”

Crackling applause erupted again below the stage, and the clapping made Chen Xi’s head hurt.

Lin Yiran had not changed systems, and he had even been promoted. How was I supposed to live now?

“Who is Lin Yiran?” Employee A beside him muttered in a low voice.

“The KA boss, Sister Jingjing’s husband,” Employee B answered.

Chen Xi frowned, subconsciously biting his lip. He bit until the lip broke and bled. Thinking of last night’s awful mess, he felt aggrieved and useless, and his head hurt even more.

Lin Yiran, the top figure of Yu City KA, the powerhouse of Lanhai KA, an expert in marketing strategy, the one who handled million-level projects, a big shot in the advertising industry. His handsome face drew countless beautiful women to look his way, but he got married young, and his marriage partner was exactly the former business director these two people beside him were muttering about, Wang Jingjing.

Not long after the two got married, Wang Jingjing resigned from Lanhai. It was said that the reason for her resignation was: Lanhai banned romantic relationships among management.

Lanhai Group had been established for 20 years, taking on advertising and marketing demands from leading companies in various industries. Its main business line was advertising media, custom design, creative strategy, and so on, making it a top domestic advertising company.

The person reading the personnel appointment and removal announcement on stage was the group chairman Zhang Guangming. Personnel changes involving regional general office ranks required a leader from the group to read them out, and superiors reading the appointment of subordinates was Lanhai’s fixed style of doing things.

The group president or vice president could read out the appointment letter for regional deputy general managers. Today, Lanhai chairman Zhang Guangming had specially come from North City to Yu City to appoint Lin Yiran, which showed how much importance he attached to Lin Yiran.

“Now please welcome General Manager Lin to give his inauguration speech,” Zhang Guangming said. After he finished, Lin Yiran went on stage, and there was another round of applause below. Chen Xi did not clap this time. He did not even want to pretend.

The black custom suit was tailored just right, making Lin Yiran look broad-shouldered and long-limbed. Chen Xi knew exactly how wide his shoulders were, and exactly how long each part of him was.

Lin Yiran stood tall and walked with a steady stride. He looked energetic, but his voice was a little hoarse when he spoke: “Good morning to all Lanhai elites, I am KA’s Lin Yiran.”

He had not warmed up his voice in the morning, and Lin Yiran’s own voice was already low. Speaking into the microphone, he sounded like a radio drama voice actor. Thinking of the whispering by his ear last night, Chen Xi drew in a sharp breath.

Lin Yiran said two sentences, then seemed to realize his voice was low. He coughed twice and raised his tone a little: “I am about the same as all of you here. After graduation, I have worked at Lanhai, and this year is my 13th year. When I first joined, like everyone here, I was an on-the-line salesperson, then I became a business manager, and then KA…”

The employees in the business system nearby whispered among themselves: “General Manager Lin used to be in business?”

“Yeah, I heard his business performance was not great before, and it was all thanks to his wife helping him. These past few years, after going to KA, he really rose up…”

“KA really is easy to do well in. They get assigned all the key projects.”

“Yeah, just luck.”

Rose up after going to KA? KA is easy to do well in? Just luck?

Heh.

Chen Xi sneered. Sure enough, if you had not shouldered the load, you would not know how heavy it was, and if you had not given birth, you would not know the pain.

Lin Yiran being able to make it in KA was not an accident, but an inevitability. He controlled key clients in Lanhai’s real estate and home furnishing, education and training, medical and pharmaceutical industries, and also had resources in government affairs and business channels, as well as media channel connections… Every year he brought Lanhai millions in profit, and he was a proper money tree.

All KA employees knew: Brother Lin was expensive.

For Lanhai’s profit amount, he was “expensive”; for snatching competition media budgets, he was “expensive”; for charging high prices for client package deals, he was “expensive.” Chen Xi had just started to cross his legs when his left leg moved up and twisted his waist. The pain made him grit his teeth. Inside, he cursed: last night you worked me to death, but you would not let me touch you even once, you really were precious!

Lin Yiran rarely hosted large meetings, and KA and business rarely had any overlap. On top of that, he had a low-key way of doing things, so many new employees at Yu City Lanhai thought he was a deputy general manager poached and parachuted in from some company. When new employees asked about Lin Yiran, old employees almost all used “Wang Jingjing’s husband” to replace Lin Yiran’s name.

“Wang Jingjing’s husband” seemed to have more influence than the name “Lin Yiran.”

Lanhai Group’s structure was divided into five major systems: KA, business, operations, technology, and functions. Among them, the KA system was Lanhai’s most mysterious department, with the fewest people and the highest value creation, while business was Lanhai’s garbage department, with the most people and the lowest value creation.

No one living in the trash can was willing to admit they were trash. The inherent thinking of the business system was: we are the best!

Without this belief, the bottom-level salespeople in business would probably have a hard time surviving at Lanhai.

Yu City Lanhai had 400 people, the KA system had only 20 people, and the business system had 100 people. These 100 people did not make much money and were not very capable. They spent their days living on brainwashing and pumping themselves up. Whatever the leaders said, they did. They had been smoothed out by Lanhai until there were no edges left. If one had to say they had any especially outstanding skill, it might be this, they were especially obedient.

The business system especially listened to the leaders, and Wang Jingjing was the former business director. So using “family member” to replace Lin Yiran’s “title” in Yu City Lanhai made sense.

Besides attending necessary meetings, Lin Yiran rarely participated in Lanhai’s social activities. Because KA had a special identity and needed to receive clients often, Lin Yiran, at director level, had his own separate office. He rarely went back to the company when he was out, and the time he worked at Lanhai was basically spent receiving clients in the office. He would not patrol the desks like a business manager and watch employees work.

Lin Yiran was absolutely the deputy general manager with the lowest presence in Lanhai.

Chen Xi did not look at the person speaking on stage. He opened a certain app and checked his salary balance.

4,000 yuan, still enough to pay one quarter’s rent.

Chen Xi, like Lin Yiran, had worked at Lanhai after graduating from university. Lin Yiran had worked for 13 years, he had worked for 3 years. Lin Yiran was 35 this year, he was 25 this year. He had thought that if he still continued working at Lanhai 10 years later, he should be able to reach Lin Yiran’s height.

But Chen Xi was destined not to become a 13-year veteran employee of Lanhai, because he was about to resign.

Lin Yiran’s outward image was like the carefully polished IWC watch on his wrist, every detail just right. He and Zhang Guangming both carried the pressure of leaders, had a strong sense of boundaries, spoke with rigor, had clear logic, and this speech fully reflected the bearing and demeanor of a business elite: “Finally, thank you to Lanhai for giving me this opportunity. I will lead Yu City KA to break through key clients and live up to everyone’s expectations!”

Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, there was applause again below the stage. Right after that was Wang Shuang’s inauguration speech, then more applause continued.

Chen Xi thought: we’ve only been clapping all morning. This damn company is going to be doomed sooner or later! The sooner I leave, the better, the sooner I leave, the better.

Wang Shuang’s speaking style was even more “business” than Lin Yiran’s. Her tone was passionate, cadenced, and full of emotion. When she reached the key moments, she even had rich facial expressions that were about to burst into tears, and her speech was comparable to an actor’s audition performance, vivid and incredibly moving.

Chen Xi thought: if this damn leader became my superior, wouldn’t I be tortured to death by her? The sooner I leave, the better, the sooner I leave, the better.

At last he endured until the company’s kickoff meeting ended, and each system had its own separate morning meeting. Chen Xi slowly stood up and left the conference room together with the other system employees. The employees who had kept silent during the meeting were now leaning toward one another, discussing the company’s structural changes, and the most frequently mentioned name was “Lin Yiran.”

The more they did not want to hear something, the more they brought it up. Chen Xi could only slowly dodge through the crowd and walk behind them. As the saying went, when the ears do not hear, the mind is clear, and when the eyes do not see, the heart is clean. Since he was about to resign, he should try his best not to have any more contact.

Chen Xi avoided the crowd because he did not want to hear Lin Yiran’s name. He did not sit in the KA system during the meeting because he did not want to be too close to Lin Yiran. He wanted to avoid Lin Yiran.

But he just could not avoid him!

A hand landed on his waist and pressed lightly once. A low voice sounded by his ear: “Your waist hurts?”

Chen Xi exploded instantly, supported his waist, and dashed several meters away. He turned back, frowned, and glared at the culprit who had made his waist hurt.

Lin Yiran, in his straight suit, looked elegant and refined at first glance, but Chen Xi knew this bastard dared to mess around with anything in private. Although a large number of employees had already left the conference room and there were not many people around them, this was still a public place. Chen Xi could not flare up, so he could only grit his teeth and curse, “Beast!”

After cursing, he limped toward the conference room door at the fastest speed, leaving Lin Yiran with a not-so-graceful back view.