KC | Chapter 86

Chen Xi always slept very well at Lin Yiran’s place, and that made him come up with the idea of moving in as soon as possible. But they had already agreed last week to move at the end of the month, so changing his mind so quickly would be a bit too hasty.

“What are you thinking about?” Lin Yiran looped a belt around Chen Xi’s waist. There was still more than a span of room between the innermost hole and the buckle, his waist was really thin.

Lin Yiran then changed to a dark brown belt. Chen Xi cooperated by lifting his arms, blinking his big eyes and putting on a pitiful little expression. “I’m thinking about whether there’ll be squirrel fish to eat tomorrow.”

I made you angry yesterday, and today I still can’t keep you company properly, how could I have the nerve to shamelessly say I want to live together with you.

Lin Yiran was so annoyed he laughed, pulled the belt out and whipped it hard against the floor.

“Pa”!

A clear belt mark was left on the bamboo floor. Chen Xi swallowed and said softly, “I don’t want to eat it that much either.”

The Gucci belt buckle fell to the floor. Lin Yiran cut off a section of the belt and beckoned to him.

Chen Xi was afraid of being hit, but he still obeyed instinctively, and there was even a bit of secret excitement in him. Little Chen was gradually standing up. Noticing his physiological reaction, he felt it must have been because yesterday had been too wild and messed up his brain.

How could Lin Yiran bear to hit him? He stopped just when things were heating up, cut a several-thousand-yuan belt without hesitation, and after finishing the labor of a strong man, he even took on the work of a seamstress, spoiling him beyond all bounds.

“A slim style doesn’t look good with a wide belt. I only have two thin ones, so just make do for now. I’ll give you a new one another day.” Lin Yiran wrapped his arms around his waist, fastened the cut belt, and studied the person in front of him. However he looked at him, he looked good.

“Thank you, Brother Lin.” Chen Xi obediently answered.

Lin Yiran liked leaving marks on him, liked letting him wear his clothes, liked fastening his own belt on him, and Chen Xi was the same. He did not say no, and he did not say polite words either. If Lin Yiran wanted to give him something, he would take it.

He thought, Brother Lin’s IWC had been worn for many years. When he made money, he would give him a new one.

Sales had no weekly days off, always on the road.

Chen Xi fell asleep as soon as he got in the car. When they were waiting at a red light, Lin Yiran covered him with a blanket. After driving to the outlet mall and parking the car, he waited another 10 minutes, then woke him right on time.

“I can’t show up for your meeting with Xu Dongxu. I also can’t come pick you up tonight.”

Chen Xi nodded groggily, unbuckled his seat belt and stretched, then lifted the blanket and straightened his shirt. His hazy sleepy eyes instantly turned sharp. Pedestrians hurried past outside the window. Chen Xi swept away his lazy state, his posture straight and tall like a pine tree, his brows carrying a touch of heroic spirit, a faint smile hanging at the corners of his lips, showing wisdom and composure, completely different from half an hour ago.

“Don’t worry, Brother Lin, I can find my way home.”

Chen Xi pushed open the car door and got out, walking step by step toward the outlet mall, his pace firm and powerful, like a valiant warrior setting out on a new journey.

Lin Yiran looked at the receding back and said in a low voice, “My Chen Xi can stand on his own now.”

Aoli Plaza was a large nationwide chain shopping center. As a luxury commercial property distribution hub in Yucheng that had been operating for 10 years, Aoli would hold promotional events every time there was a “Goddess Day, National Day, store anniversary” and other holidays. Media also got corresponding advertising budgets at these marketing nodes.

Chen Xi felt that compared with a shopping center, this place was more like a European-style town. There were narrow, winding cobblestone paths, with many international luxury brand stores on both sides. Gothic-style buildings shone brightly in the sunlight, and at the end of the path was a quiet lake, with many pigeons of peace flying up over the square in front of the lake.

Aoli was built against the mountains and by the water, with beautiful and pleasant scenery. Quite a few couples rowed boats on the lake, old people strolled along the lakeshore, and middle-aged men and women carried shopping bags as they moved through the town. Chen Xi crossed the square and continued forward, walked half a circle around the lake, took the elevator to the second floor at the end of the road, and entered the dining area.

Perhaps because it was in a remote location and ingredients were hard to transport, there were not as many restaurants here as in the city’s traditional shopping centers. Chen Xi walked half a circle and locked onto a private kitchen restaurant, then sent the location to Xu Dongxu.

「晨曦：Brother Xu, come here later. It’s in the suburbs, there are fewer people, and the environment is pretty nice.」

In less than half a minute, the phone rang.

「旭日东升：OK, I’ll arrive around 3.」

Wang Xin was sitting by the window in a hotpot restaurant. When Chen Xi passed by, he knocked on the glass. Chen Xi smiled and went in to take a seat, finished dealing with the plastic brother, and came to see his real brother.

“Yo, you’re dressed really handsome today, like a celebrity.” After ordering, Wang Xin handed the menu to Chen Xi and asked him to see if there was anything else to add.

Chen Xi handed the menu to the waiter and said, “Let’s have these first. If it’s not enough, we’ll add more.”

Although it was lunch time, Chen Xi had just gotten up not long ago and didn’t have much appetite. On top of that, what happened yesterday had been too much, so eating hotpot made him a little wary. But fortunately it was a yin-yang pot, so eating the clear broth side should be fine.

“Old bro, you had a pretty good time in the Philippines, huh.” A few days ago, Wang Xin had posted several sets of Philippines diving photos on his Moments, looking very relaxed, and Chen Xi had liked each one.

“Haha, it’s a honeymoon, of course it has to be top spec. A lifetime is only a few dozen years. Working and making money every day, finally getting a vacation, why not treat yourself better.”

Chen Xi suddenly remembered that Lin Yiran had said he had never taken a marriage leave. He had earned so much money, why not treat himself better?

“Yeah, life is short, so enjoy it while you can. Since I couldn’t make it to my brother’s wedding, I’ll punish myself with a drink first.” Chen Xi poured wine and raised his cup, his movements crisp, without the slightest drag.

Wang Xin laughed out loud. “You’re being too formal with me.”

Chen Xi also laughed along. “I remember last time you said you were about to get promoted. How come you suddenly quit?”

“Sigh, the mall I worked at before was a private company. The boss had absolute power. If he didn’t like one person today, he’d fire them. If he took a liking to someone tomorrow, he’d sleep with them. If he didn’t like me the day after that, he’d curse me out. That dogshit bastard didn’t care about the mall’s revenue and spent all day studying useless crap. What good could a company rotten from the roots possibly have? Even if I got promoted, I’d never get to the top. Better to get out of that sea of suffering early and take fewer detours.”

Chen Xi compared it to himself and guessed that Xu Dongxu probably wouldn’t get anything good in Gulin either. No wonder he had secretly worked together to sabotage the “nephew’s” bid.

Wang Yaohua had spent most of his life on enlightenment. How had he still failed to understand the principle of “empty yet not bent, moving yet yielding more”?

“Changing jobs is good too, at least the scenery here is nice, and it feels comfortable to work.”

“Exactly. Aoli is partly state-owned, the rules and system are transparent, and there won’t be any of those rotten incidents from before. The work pressure is higher than before, but being tired still feels decent.” Wang Xin poured wine and clinked glasses with Chen Xi. “It’s just that this place is a bit far, commuting every day is deadly. I’m planning to save up some money, and once the job is stable, I’ll buy a car in a few years.”

Chen Xi finished the wine in his cup and was genuinely happy for his old classmate.

After some small talk, Chen Xi finally got to the main point. “I often see Aoli’s ads. Which manager is in charge of your advertising business?”

Wang Xin was holding chopsticks in his mouth while fiddling with Enterprise WeChat. He took several screenshots with names, titles, and phone numbers, and sent them to Chen Xi on WeChat. “I’m under the investment promotion department. I only just got here and don’t know the people in the planning department well, otherwise I could’ve helped brother make a connection.”

Chen Xi smiled. “Brother has already helped a lot.”

To sign key clients, you needed an informant. In Gulin, the informant was Xiao Fang. At Aoli, the informant was Wang Xin. Not only could Wang Xin provide the contact information of key KPs, he could also help monitor the KPs. With his assistance, Chen Xi was like a tiger with wings added.

Ever since rolling around in bed with Lin Yiran at the beginning of July, Chen Xi had signed Shanyao, negotiated Gulin, gotten Pinsheng settled, and executed Zao Wang City. Now his old classmate had come to work at Aoli too, so his career luck could be said to have turned around. Lin Yiran was like an NPC in an otome game, as long as you slept with him, your future would be smooth sailing and you could soar straight to the top.

“This ‘Jiang Jingwen’ is the planning director, but I heard from people in the planning department in the break room that the final approver for every marketing plan is the store general manager.” Wang Xin quickly threw a few more screenshots at Chen Xi. “Here, our store general manager is this ‘Li Ying.'”

Chen Xi looked at Li Ying’s work photo. She was probably around 40, with a thin face and bright, piercing eyes. She looked like a capable businesswoman.

“I went through three rounds of interviews at Aoli. The interviewer in the final round was General Manager Li. She spoke incredibly fast and worked very efficiently. Less than 5 minutes after entering the room, she said to get ready to start next week, haha.”

Chen Xi clinked glasses with him. “Brother has real strength, no need to say much in an interview, just pass instantly, haha.”

“To come here, you really need to have something. The mall I worked at before was divided by category, while Aoli attracts brands. This year-end they’re opening the second phase, and they lack domestic brands to fill the numbers, so they were recruiting a leasing manager. Luckily, I had accumulated quite a lot of brand and manufacturer resources before. If I had kept quietly working all the time, Aoli wouldn’t have taken me either.”

“So the old employer before actually had some use, haha.”

Wang Xin nodded. “Isn’t that so? If I didn’t have the manufacturers supporting me, where would I even have anywhere to jump to?”

Thirty years ago, most parents’ generation only had a high school education. It was truly rare for one student from a village to go to college, and the school assigned jobs after graduation, so life was easy with a guaranteed iron rice bowl . Nowadays, college students were everywhere, and there were plenty of master’s and postdoctoral degree holders. Unless it was a good major from a famous university, the remaining 80% of college graduates could hardly find a job they were satisfied with.

Three years after graduation, time passed in a flash. Some people were still watching, some were drifting with the current, some were gradually showing their edge… Three more years and this class gap would gradually widen.

Manufacturer resources were Wang Xin’s capital for changing jobs, and key client resources were Chen Xi’s capital for gaining a foothold in the advertising circle.

No matter what industry he was in, if he settled down to work, treated every client seriously, and kept enriching his network, the road ahead would only get wider and wider.

Chen Xi ate two bites of beef and wanted to gather as much information as possible, so he kept asking, “For all your projects, is the final approver General Manager Li? So many projects, like investment promotion, marketing, construction… can she approve all of them?”

“Of course not. Business talks like cross-industry cooperation are handled by the vice president, ‘Han Qiulin.’ Construction is handled by the store general manager’s assistant. General Manager Li only handles the planning and investment promotion departments.”

Chen Xi went “oh” and thought to himself: the planning department could take kickbacks from advertising companies, and the investment promotion department could take kickbacks from suppliers. These two departments had the most grease money, so it seemed Li Ying was a real stingy iron rooster.

“When does your Mid-Autumn event start?”

Wang Xin stuffed his mouth full of tripe. After chewing a few bites and swallowing, he said, “This year Mid-Autumn and National Day are being celebrated together, and Aoli is planning to do something big. The event starts one week before National Day, and lasts for half a month including National Day. The investment promotion department has already started recruiting suppliers for external booths these days, and I’ve been busy with that all this time.”

The event started on 9.23, so advertising placement had to be done on 9.16. Talking to their planning department now was perfect, it really was a heaven-sent opportunity.

“What’s the process for Aoli to purchase suppliers?”

“The process here is really complicated. Suppliers have to first be entered into our OA system, then bid on the platform. I’ll forward you the platform URL later. If you see a suitable bid, you can come talk to Jingwen on Monday. The planning department isn’t like our investment promotion department, they definitely take holidays on every festival and season change.”

“Got it, brother.” Chen Xi clinked glasses with him.

It really was better to eat with a real brother. The conversation was happy, and gathering intel was smooth. In just three or five sentences, he had gotten a clear grasp of Aoli’s key people, cooperation process, and needs. If he could have a few more brothers like this, that would be great.

At Wang Xin’s eating speed, if he didn’t hurry and eat the tripe, there would be none left. Chen Xi used the strainer spoon to scoop two strips of tripe from the spicy pot, thinking: if you don’t eat spicy, why eat hotpot? It still had to be the spicy pot that was powerful and satisfying enough.

Chen Xi opened his second bottle of beer and told the waiter to take away the rest of the liquor. “Brother, you still have to work this afternoon, so let’s drink a little less. Once this bottle is finished, we’re done.”

“Haha, sure. When we have time some other day, let’s have a proper drink again.”

After eating half a plate of spicy-pot lamb, Chen Xi’s stomach felt a little uncomfortable. He suddenly remembered the scene of going to the bathroom after letting loose last time, and felt lingering fear.

“You eat slowly, I’m going to the restroom.” Chen Xi grabbed a handful of tissues and quickly went looking for the bathroom, afraid that if he wasn’t careful, he’d end up following in Zhang Yuanji’s footsteps of “losing his underwear.”

Chen Xi finally let out a breath of relief while sitting on the toilet. Luckily, there had been no danger.

「事事顺利666：Brother, come sign the contract tomorrow morning at 10.」

Heh, at home you relied on yourself, outside you relied on your brothers. A real brother was reliable, while plastic brothers were rarely this proactive in handling things.

「晨曦：Alright, thanks, Brother Sun. Fist-palm.jpg」

Brothers were good, but for them to come looking for me in groups over the weekend, that really was…

Sigh, he could only wrong Brother Lin and make him endure one more day.