KA | Chapter 4

Phone calls and WeChat messages couldn’t reach him, and even when I saw him in person, I couldn’t get a word in. He completely refused to communicate… Most sales reps would probably give up here.

But I absolutely would not give up!

If I couldn’t get a word in once, I’d go twice. If twice didn’t work, I’d go three times. A determined woman fears a persistent man , and as long as I had thick skin and showed up enough times, there had to be a way to get him to talk to me.

If Chen Xi could do it, so could I.

I had to save face, for the sake of my sales numbers, for money, and for the dignity of being a sales representative!

Just shouting slogans without strategy was stupid . Shen Yuesheng was too aloof. If I gave him a long-winded marketing pitch, he’d definitely get annoyed. I needed to compress my proposal into five minutes, and I had to figure out a way to get him to listen to me calmly.

Mid-market clients usually signed on with discount policies; key accounts mostly required moving clients through material and emotional means.

Zhang Yuanji gave gifts to his major client; Chen Xi drank with his; Lin-ge took clients horseback riding and golfing…

Since I’d already lost face with Shen Yuesheng last time, this time I had to apologize first.

When giving gifts, you have to know what the person likes. Shen Yuesheng liked skiing, so I spent 200 yuan and ordered a HEAD skateboard.

The skateboard arrived over the weekend. On Monday, I put on athletic wear, clutched the skateboard, and slipped into Pinsheng during the lunch break when students were free to move around.

The main building had tall stone columns supporting a broad corridor. The walls of the main hall were hung with portraits of historical figures. On both sides of the corridor leading to the main hall were various practical training rooms. Following Chen Xi’s description, I headed toward the elevator at the end of the corridor.

Taking this elevator straight to the fifth floor, the office at the very end was Shen Yuesheng’s.

The numbers on the elevator display jumped floor by floor. “Ding,” the doors opened, and I came face-to-face with those peach blossom eyes again, completely unprepared.

Shen Yuesheng was inside the elevator. I was outside.

Today he wore a gray casual suit, and a faint cedar scent emanated from him. He still looked listless, his lips pressed slightly together, and when he looked over, his eyes were full of indifference.

“President Shen, hello. I heard you like skiing, so I bought you a skateboard.” I shoved the skateboard at his chest.

Shen Yuesheng glanced at the brand name and looked somewhat disgusted.

The elevator doors began to close. In the last second before they shut completely, I suddenly darted inside.

Shen Yuesheng, holding the skateboard, looked a bit dazed. I had a sudden idea and pressed the button for the fifth floor.

Hehe, now you can’t shake me off!

Shen Yuesheng: “…”

The elevator rose.

I seized the moment and got straight to the point: “President Shen, I’m not here to sell advertising today. I’m here to help you control public opinion.”

“Pinsheng’s IPO is imminent, and public opinion will have a major impact on the company’s stock price. Not only can I release a large volume of press releases for you, but I can also monitor all news about Pinsheng on platforms like NetEase, Sina, Tencent, Baidu, and Douyin. Using SEO and other technical means, I can suppress negative public opinion for you.”

The external environment had an important impact on a company’s IPO. The fact that Pinsheng’s IPO hadn’t gone through yet meant they were definitely waiting for the right moment.

Shen Yuesheng was clearly caught off guard by my guess. For the first time, an expression appeared on his stern face.

The elevator reached the fifth floor. I learned from the security guard on the spot, gave him a “hehe” smile, and pressed the button for the first floor.

When dealing with a sharp-tongued client, you had to output your own viewpoint first and not let them speak.

“Sorry about that, President Shen. I really didn’t mean to just now.” After the pleasantry, I continued with my pitch: “Lanhai has a public opinion monitoring system. If Pinsheng generates negative news, the system will alert us. Then we’ll conduct press release coverage from the dimensions of keywords, topics, and industry demographics to suppress the negative sentiment. I can combine the system with manual work to provide Pinsheng with public opinion monitoring services.”

“For the first collaboration, I’ll only charge you 200,000 yuan for labor costs. How does that sound?”

Public opinion monitoring was a type of advertising service. By saying I’d only charge for labor costs, I was actually padding the numbers quite a bit. 200,000 yuan in sales would give me 70,000 yuan in gross profit. Combined with the 30,000 yuan in gross profit I’d already signed, that would be exactly enough to complete my quarterly sales target of 100,000 yuan in gross profit.

The elevator returned to the first floor. Shen Yuesheng opened my hand, which was resting near the buttons, and blocked the elevator door with his long leg, signaling me to get out.

I was afraid that if I got out, he’d go back up to the fifth floor, so I pushed on his back and got out of the elevator with him.

His back was really thin, kind of hard on the hands.

A guy who’s nearly six feet tall, how could he be so skinny?

This time, Shen Yuesheng didn’t pretend not to understand. He hugged the skateboard and walked toward the laboratory across from the elevator.

There were a lot of people at the elevator entrance, not a good place to talk. By doing this, Shen Yuesheng was clearly showing interest in what I’d said and wanted to discuss it further!

My eyes lit up with excitement, and I immediately followed.

Once inside, Shen Yuesheng closed the door and said coldly: “Are you a stray dog?”

I never expected that he brought me inside just to scold me.

Last time in bed he was like a vixen, and now that he’d put on a suit, he’d turned into a cold, domineering CEO.

To secure a chance at signing the contract, I said earnestly: “President Shen, I’m not forcing a sale. Public opinion monitoring really is useful for Pinsheng.”

“All this dragging and dawdling, is it interesting?” Shen Yuesheng threw down the skateboard and turned to leave.

After lurking for a week, now that I’d finally seen him, how could I let you slip away so easily!

In desperation, I grabbed his hand.

Shen Yuesheng suddenly yanked his hand away, rubbing his palm repeatedly on his suit as if it had touched something dirty.

Well, I had to admit, this cold demeanor was pretty seductive.

Shen Yuesheng said: “On Lantern Festival, my ex brought his one, and we had dinner together.”

“Ah.” I figured out what he meant. “So that day you were in a bad mood, and on impulse you asked me out.”

Shen Yuesheng nodded.

Was he always bringing up his ex because he wanted to rekindle things?

No, if he still wanted his ex, he wouldn’t have broken up.

Maybe my focus shouldn’t be on “ex” but on “on impulse.”

That day he asked me out on impulse, and after I rejected him, he blocked me. But he didn’t expect me to turn around and cling to him instead.

But if I didn’t stick to him, how was I supposed to close the deal?

I swallowed hard and deliberately twisted his meaning: “Even though your ex is a jerk, making me the bottom because of that is a bit much, don’t you think!”

Shen Yuesheng looked over, his eyes light and distant. “Now that I think about it, being on top requires effort. It’s better to just lie there.”

“This isn’t about top and bottom!” I said indignantly. “I, I’m straight.”

“Hehe.”

Gosh, why did he laugh like that, so creepy!

Afraid things were heading in an uncontrollable direction, I steered the conversation back: “President Shen, I’m not here to sell myself. I just came to discuss advertising…”

Shen Yuesheng cut me off. “I don’t want to discuss advertising. The reason I asked you out was to sleep with you.”

He’d been pretty subtle before, but now he was being so direct. Was he showing his true colors?

Blame me for believing Chen Xi’s words, thinking you wanted to negotiate a lower price. I went to great lengths to dig into your real needs, only to find out that your real needs, your latent needs, your apparent needs were all just wanting to sleep with me!

Shen Yuesheng leaned in, a faint smile on his face. “This time you’ve learned to be clever, not saying things too absolutely. Hehe.”

Help me, I’m never going to “hehe” again. Please don’t “hehe” at me.

The cedar scent filled my senses. I instinctively stepped back, caught off guard.

The scent the vixen was spraying wasn’t perfume at all. It was pure adrenaline, making my heart beat faster and faster.

Shen Yuesheng touched my forehead lightly with his index finger and said: “Pinsheng does need public opinion monitoring, but your quote has a lot of padding in it.”

“If this price includes sleeping with you, I can consider it. If not, then let’s not talk about it.”