KC | Chapter 21

Sun Xingshun lied without blinking an eye. Chen Xi gritted his teeth in hatred, cursing inwardly, This smiling tiger was already perfect at spouting nonsense with his eyes open, how could there be such a shameless person!

Chen Xi simulated in his head the possible dialogue that would happen if he continued negotiating with Sun Xingshun, and

1. Expose Sun Xingshun’s lie:

Me: I know your channel account’s line budget is far above 240.

Him: How do you know?

Me: Chen Bin told me the line budgets for other channel operations were 240 to 350.

Him: Oh, Chen Bin made a mistake.

If he went to confront Chen Bin, the other side was very likely to fear Sun Xingshun and then tear him down, birds of a feather flocked together, and the negotiation ended.

2. Not exposing Sun Xingshun:

He could only talk about rebates, circling around and around without getting away from 20%.

The negotiation directions extended from these two scenarios were both dead ends.

Chen Xi had thought before coming that he had made full preparations, and the negotiation script had also been entirely following his line of thought. By this point he should have been smoothly taking down Sun Xingshun, planning to swallow a huge bite in one go and get all of Shine’s ad placement budget, but he had not expected to stumble at the last moment, Sun Xingshun flatly refusing to admit Lanhai’s operating results.

Chen Xi’s strategy was to use “Lanhai’s operating line budget was low” as the basis for negotiation, but Sun Xingshun had played the bottom-out card and pulled the foundation out from under Chen Xi’s negotiation logic. Chen Xi was completely thrown off, not knowing what to do.

“We haven’t seen each other for quite a while. This time I had you come over because I also wanted you to have a fresh understanding of Shine,” Sun Xingshun said. “How about this, go back first and ask your leader what policies you can give Shine, then we’ll talk again.”

Chen Xi could not think of any good response strategy for the moment, and could only leave in frustration.

On the way back Chen Xi kept regretting it, hating himself for not being able to stay calm, for being too eager to get results, for showing his cards too quickly. If he had been a bit steadier and talked it through slowly, maybe the ending would have been completely different now.

Chen Xi ran into Lin Yiran in the elevator lobby on the 20th floor of Lihua Building.

“Mr. Li, if it’s convenient for you this afternoon, I’ll go over and we’ll meet face to face,” Lin Yiran said, clearly just out of a high-level meeting, a MacBook in his hand.

Chen Xi had just reached to swipe his card into the office area when Lin Yiran grabbed him.

Lin Yiran blinked at Chen Xi, pointed with the index finger of his right hand to the Bluetooth earpiece on his ear, and mouthed to Chen Xi: wait for me.

“OK, see you at 3, no problem.” Lin Yiran hung up the phone and led Chen Xi toward the freight elevator.

Chen Xi was startled by being led like that. Before he could even pull his hand back, Lin Yiran let go on his own.

The freight elevator lobby was not as bright and spacious as the passenger elevator lobby. There were no lights here, and it was less than 3 square meters. After his “deep communication” with Lin Yiran, Chen Xi had more or less developed some PTSD, and the cramped, narrow space inevitably made him think too much. As soon as Lin Yiran let go of his hand, he wanted to get out like his tail had been singed.

Getting out was impossible. After taking just two steps, his paw was grabbed again.

Before returning to work, Chen Xi had struggled for a whole week, telling himself countless times, “Don’t deal with Lin Yiran anymore.” The moment he faced Lin Yiran, he instantly broke down. Even though Lin Yiran’s actions were filthy to the core, Chen Xi still could not bring himself to reject him harshly.

“Liking Lin Yiran” had already become Chen Xi’s habit over these 3 years, just like brushing his teeth morning and night, washing his hands before meals, forming a deep-rooted kind of cognition. He very much wanted to correct this wrong emotion, but reason could not win against instinct. When facing Lin Yiran, he still had longing, admiration, and liking.

Even though he knew there would be no result.

Chen Xi cursed himself: Damn, he really was weirdly cheap.

“How is it?” Lin Yiran asked.

“W… what?”

“How did the talk with that招商加盟 client just go?”

Chen Xi said in complete disarray, “Ah… i-it was okay.”

So he had been asking about the client situation. Chen Xi let out a breath of relief. Then in a flash he thought: but if you wanted to ask about the client situation, why drag me into the freight elevator? Wouldn’t it have been better to go back to the office?

The reason Lin Yiran did not go back to the office was that this time happened to coincide with Lanhai’s afternoon exercise. If he and Chen Xi went back to the office in full view of everyone, he would have to be stared at by a bunch of lively gossip kings again. Also, he did not want Wang Shuang blocking him to report work. Having a subordinate who was super proactive about work was not necessarily a good thing either.

“What kind of ‘okay’ is okay?” Lin Yiran found the little expression on him pretty amusing and wanted to tease him, taking half a step forward to get closer to Chen Xi. “Did the client agree to cooperate? How much rebate do they want? When is ad placement expected to resume?”

Chen Xi stepped back half a step and his back hit the wall. He had not clearly heard what Lin Yiran had just said at all, only heard his own heartbeat, beating “thump thump thump” like a drum, very loud and very heavy.

Lin Yiran’s knee seemed to be brushing against Chen Xi’s. Chen Xi immediately wanted to step back, but there was a wall behind him, and he could not retreat.

The refined scum slightly hooked up the corner of his mouth, looking at Chen Xi with great interest in the dark. The light from the outer hallway fell on Chen Xi’s face, as if returning to that night, moonlight scattering across snow-white skin, clear and bright.

In the small space, with the two of them so close, Chen Xi found it hard to focus. He pressed both hands against Lin Yiran’s shoulders and pushed him away a little, his tone sounding steady, only speaking a bit urgently: “Before I talked with the client marketing manager, I found out that their channel client’s line budget was higher than Lanhai’s, so I didn’t argue with the client about rebates, I talked about line budget.”

“Oh?” So he had some improvement, and even knew to switch strategies.

“The client recognized Lanhai’s operations” The two were separated by the distance of two fists, and they could clearly hear each other’s breathing.

Chen Xi had just hit a wall with the client, and now he was being pressed with questions by Lin Yiran. Inside he felt stifled and wronged.

These past few days had all been full of upsetting things. He had originally placed his hopes on Shine, but the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment. Chen Xi’s state of mind had fallen to the bottom of the valley, and the fuse that caused all of this was precisely Lin Yiran.

Chen Xi admired Lin Yiran’s confidence and ease when negotiating, appreciated his calm composure when making decisions, admired his decisiveness and courage when fighting for budget… at the same time, he also loathed his undisciplined lifestyle and his reckless indulgence of his body with no moral bottom line.

It was all that human-shaped Teddy’s fault, messing up my mind and ruining my deal!

Chen Xi dumped all his anger on the person in front of him, but because he was still concerned about the hierarchy between them, he did not dare to curse too harshly.

“They’re all f*cking dogs!” Pushed to the limit, Chen Xi pointed at mulberry and cursed the locust toward Lin Yiran, “I talked to him about line budget, and he said the channel client’s line budget operations were about the same as Lanhai’s, then directly twisted the topic back to rebates, he just f*cking knows how to change the subject!”

The refined scum was stunned by the rabbit with its fur blown up.

There were many clients who did not play by the rules during negotiations. Chen Xi must have been anxious and shown his cards first, so he was led by the nose by the other side.

This little brat is cursing me. Go on, curse if you want, let you curse until you’re satisfied first.

“Mm, they’re all dogs, they only know how to change the subject.”

“How can he open his eyes and tell lies like that, what a shameless bastard! Relying on the fact that I didn’t dare get angry at him, he squeezed me dry to death. On the surface he’s all smiles, but what he actually did was filthy to the core!” Chen Xi kept on cursing with a double meaning, “How can someone bully people like this!”

The refined scum lowered his head and admitted fault: “Mm, all shameless, shouldn’t have bullied you.”

After Chen Xi cursed a few sentences, he felt a little better. Only with this sentence did he truly start talking about the client: “But the problem is I still can’t expose him!”

The rabbit that had been forced to the edge had slightly red eyes. When Lin Yiran caught sight of those reddened eyes, his heart unexpectedly softened into a lump.

These past few days he had not just once thought about how he and Chen Xi should get along in the future. Staying out of each other’s way was definitely impossible, and further development was not very realistic either. The best way was to put the matter behind them.

I can move on, but Chen Xi clearly cannot.

He had thought he hid it well, that I did not know he liked me. He would steal glances at my lips in the office, and his little face could not hold out for more than three minutes; now he was so angry his eyes were red, baring his fangs and claws yet unable to say anything狠话.

Chen Xi liked me this much, how could I forcefully move on?

Mm, yes, cannot move on.

Lin Yiran did not overthink the emotional entanglement between him and Chen Xi, nor did he dare trace it back to the root to find a solution. At this moment he only knew,

I do not want to draw a clear line with Chen Xi.

“You did very well,” Lin Yiran said in a low voice. “Thanks to you putting on the ‘brake’ at that time, if you had not held back and negotiated violently with the client, then this account would truly have had no possibility of being salvaged.”

“I did it terribly,” Chen Xi said, holding his head and frowning. “The client sales team had around 40 people, and their daily ad spend was definitely over ten thousand. I originally wanted to shift all the ad spending they had on other channels over here, but now I can’t even get them to resume placement.”

It was already pretty good that Chen Xi could think of talking to the client about line budget instead of obsessing over rebates, could find out the client’s operating line budget, and could come up with a solution that did not hurt gross profit based on his current experience. But clients who “exchanged money for money” were not one-off deals, and continuing to cut the client’s ad spend still required other strategies.

The little loser was still too anxious.

“Have you eaten?” Lin Yiran asked.

“Ah, not yet…”

Lin Yiran let go of Chen Xi’s hand, pulled open his A-grade fake bag, stuffed the MacBook in his hand inside, and said, “Put this on your workstation, come back and find me.”

“Huh?” Chen Xi’s eyes widened like a goldfish.

Dumb as ever, only knew how to go “huh,” getting bullied by the client and not making a peep.

Lin Yiran wanted to rub Chen Xi’s head, but when he reacted and wanted to pull his hand back, it was already too late.

“If nobody asks, you don’t say anything. If anyone asks me, just say you didn’t see me, especially Wang Shuang, she can’t know I’m in the company,” Lin Yiran said. “After delivering the stuff, let’s go downstairs and get a meal together, brother will help you sort out this account.”

Chen Xi carried his bag back to his workstation. Almost all the KAs were out visiting clients, only Wang Shuang was typing on the keyboard. The “leaders” without key clients also did not go out to visit clients, all day long they only knew how to do data, make spreadsheets, and block Lin Yiran. No wonder Lin Yiran was annoyed with her.

When Wang Shuang heard footsteps, she looked up and saw that it was Chen Xi coming back, then turned her head and kept typing on the keyboard.

Chen Xi did not bother with her either, put down his bag and left.

Their relationship had already been torn by Chen Xi until it could not be any more broken. He did not want to salvage it, only hoped that from now on they would stay out of each other’s way and never have anything to do with each other again.

Chen Xi had said overly harsh things to Wang Shuang, but he had also said even harsher things to Lin Yiran, even questioning him on WeChat, “Do you have a problem?” He and Wang Shuang had broken off so completely, so why was he still entangled with Lin Yiran, not breaking off completely and instead seeming to have gotten even closer?

Was Lin Yiran not just using the client as an excuse to trick me into eating together?

It probably would not be that bad.

Eating together would not cost him a piece of flesh, could he still dare to do anything to me in the restaurant?

He definitely would not dare.

Chen Xi returned to the freight elevator lobby and saw Lin Yiran stretching out half a long leg to block the elevator. The elevator could not close its doors and kept stopping on the 20th floor.

What a bad thing, using public facilities!

“Hurry up!” Lin Yiran took one long stride and slipped into the elevator, and Chen Xi jogged into it after him.

The reason Lin Yiran had kept using his leg to block the elevator was precisely because he had figured that using the key client as an excuse, Chen Xi would definitely eat with him.

The client issue had to be solved, but the issue between the two of them had to be solved first.

The elevator doors closed. Lin Yiran brushed the dust off his suit pants and gave Chen Xi a bright smile, revealing eight neat white teeth: “Just now the elevator door pinched me several times, it was really tight.”

Why did that sound so weird.

When you get pinched by an elevator, shouldn’t you say that “it hurts”? Why did he have to say “the elevator was tight”?

Chen Xi: … He should “probably” and should “dare” too, I now run still in time么?