KC | Chapter 90

Chapter 101, Walking the line or circles

The Cadillac got off the overpass and waited for the signal at the intersection. Chen Xi rubbed his eyes in the car, patted his face, and gave himself a brainwashing pep talk: “The weather is beautiful, my luck is pretty good, I can do it, I am the best, come on, Chen Xi!”

Lin Yiran found it amusing and patted along with him.

“Hey, don’t hit my face, you’re using so much strength, it’s like slapping me.” Chen Xi opened his hand away.

“Haha, what spell were you just chanting?”

“None of your business!” Chen Xi said unhappily. “The light changed, what are you spacing out for, hurry and go!”

The driver continued driving. After finishing his “blessing spell,” Boss Chen started pondering the philosophy of life: “Have I reflected on myself three times today, is my balance sufficient, are my clients satisfied, is my health good?”

Lin Yiran held back his laughter and listened as he went on talking to himself: “The money in my pocket was earned by selling my body, as for whether the clients are satisfied or not, anyway the contract’s signed. The only pity is this body… sigh, I’ve been pulling overtime doing hard labor lately, so there’s a bit of kidney deficiency.”

“Boss Chen’s flesh-and-blood business is really tough, making money by selling your body and still not wanting to put in the effort, you’re really the sucker here, paying and doing the work too.”

Chen Xi’s shoulders shook with laughter, “Brother Lin, I’m sleeping at your place tonight then.”

Lin Yiran raised a brow. “That sounds really awkward, are you treating my place like a hotel, or like a red-light district?”

“I just sleep more soundly over at your place, if you don’t want me to go, then forget it.” The corners of Chen Xi’s lips lifted slightly. He did not answer Lin Yiran’s multiple-choice question, taking a step back to advance, and seizing the initiative in the negotiation.

Lin Yiran had brought up living together last week, so now that Chen Xi had主动 said he wanted to come over, he was naturally pleased.

The refined scumbag, in order not to seem cheap, did not show his happiness. Instead, he put on a half-hearted, indifferent look. “Come if you want.”

Chen Xi punched him, and gave back word for word what he had said yesterday: “What are you pretending for, you’re already about to like it to death, right.”

The car drove to the last intersection, and there was another red light. Lin Yiran looked out the window at the McDonald’s dessert station, and for some reason, he held Chen Xi’s hand. “Let me tell you something, don’t get mad.”

Chen Xi: “If you know I might get mad, then don’t say it, so it won’t affect my good mood for the whole day.”

Lin Yiran: …

He had wanted to apologize, but if you didn’t want to hear it, fine, then he would not say it.

This traffic light had a very long timer. After waiting for almost 5 minutes, Chen Xi looked at the red light countdown ahead and suddenly laughed.

“A few days ago Brother Lin told me about rules, and at the time I only half understood, but today I finally got it. The reason this traffic light lasts so long is because we have to make way for people. This NB person’s time is very precious, his three to five minutes is more precious than the three to five minutes of thirty or fifty cars waiting here at the light, so he can occupy our time.”

“When watching TV dramas, members can skip ads and save time; when the trip is far, taking a high-speed train saves more time than taking a green-skin train; when going to amusement parks, you can use a FastPass to save queueing time… so the gap between classes is nothing more than exchanging money for time.”

Lin Yiran nodded.

The light turned green, and the Cadillac passed the intersection and drove into Lihua Building. Chen Xi said, “Brother Lin, give me a little more time. Maybe it won’t take 10 years before I can stand shoulder to shoulder with you.”

Lin Yiran had been grinding his way through the advertising circle for 13 years, climbing from the bottom of the mountain to the top. One day, Chen Xi would surely reach the summit too, they were only short on time.

The wealthy and powerful exchanged money for time, while workplace rookies exchanged time for money, experience, and resources.

Because of their different experience, the two of them often had a generational gap when chatting. Today, Chen Xi understood the “rules” Lin Yiran had talked about before, which meant his way of thinking and the angle from which he viewed things had changed.

Height determined vision, angle changed concepts, scale grasped life.

The view from the mountain top and the mountain foot was completely different. As long as Chen Xi kept climbing upward, there would definitely be a day when they were on the same frequency.

Lin Yiran said, “I’m waiting for that day.”

After the car stopped steadily in the underground parking lot, the two of them walked together into the elevator hall.

Lin Yiran smiled and said, “Not taking the freight elevator today?”

Chen Xi gave an “mhm” and said, “Last week when I was eating fish with Brother Zhang, you insisted on sending all those random photos. He, he seemed to have seen them. Zhang Ge’s mouth is just a big sieve, now KA definitely all knows about it. Brother Lin, I’m sorry to you, if you want to avoid suspicion, then from now on we won’t talk in Lanhai, not a single word.”

KA already knew and I’m still hiding a P for nothing, not riding the elevator with you and instead waiting all alone for the freight elevator. But if you want to plug your ears and steal the bell, I’ll play along with you, just treat it like I’m coaxing you for fun (*^▽^*)

“He saw them?” Lin Yiran flipped through the chat records with the little white rabbit on his phone, and frowned. “Which one did he see?”

Zhang Yuanji could not possibly take your phone and look at each picture one by one, he definitely just accidentally glanced at it. Some of these photos could be shown, some of them… if he saw them, then this quarter would really be hopeless.

“Just the first one. Hey, did I tell you to delete the photos, did you delete them?”

Chen Xi was about to snatch Lin Yiran’s phone when the elevator doors opened. It was as if his paws had been burned by the spotlight outside the elevator, and he immediately pulled his hand back and stood properly. He was upright and obedient, looking as well-behaved as could be.

Lin Yiran wanted to pat his head. Just as his forearm lifted, he held back and lowered it again.

The two of them walked out of the elevator. Chen Xi muttered softly behind him, his voice sounding muffled, “Brother Lin, can we still talk during the day?”

Lin Yiran deliberately put on a stern face. “No.”

Chen Xi followed behind him into Lanhai, looking wronged, and Lin Yiran said again, “Stay farther away from me.”

You lied at noon and secretly went to eat with a girl; you took the freight elevator last week and deliberately avoided suspicion with me; after the relationship got exposed, you came to me for protection again. Tell me to do something and I’ll do it, always going along with you, if this keeps up you’ll be spoiled to the sky.

Little brat.

The empty desks beside the office were covered with coffee. Wang Dan was handing coffee out to the wage slaves who had been in the top ten for collections last week. Seeing Lin Yiran return to the office, she said, “Leader, come drink coffee.”

“Oh, Luckin’s new sauce-flavored latte, I have to try this.” Lin Yiran took Wang Dan’s coffee.

Chen Xi leaned over and said, “Sister Dan, I got the incentive last week too, give me a cup.”

Wang Dan smiled and gave him a cup, then said to Lin Yiran, “Leader, I want to take my marriage leave on the 1st of next month, I’m telling you in advance.”

Lin Yiran nodded. “Where are you planning to go?”

The fact that Wang Dan was going on a honeymoon trip was only known by Chen Xi, and last week it was also Chen Xi who had pushed her to get the fake certificate. But now Lin Yiran asking her “Where are you going?” clearly meant he knew something.

Could it be… that what Zhang Yuanji said was true? The two of them…?

“Ah, to the Maldives.” After Wang Dan finished speaking, she glanced at Chen Xi, meaning: You didn’t tell him about me getting the fake certificate, right?

“The Maldives sounds pretty nice, take more photos for me to broaden my horizons in Moments.” Lin Yiran took a sip of the sauce-flavored latte. “Not bad, this Maotai really hits.”

Chen Xi didn’t understand Wang Dan’s look. He took a sip of coffee and said in a cheeky tone, “Sure enough, coffee is still better when it’s free.”

Last week, KA collected 1.2 million, with Lin Yiran accounting for 680,000, Ma Longfei 230,000, Zhang Yuanji 120,000, Chen Xi 100,000… the overall business performance more than doubled compared to the same period, and the incentive effect was obvious. To mobilize KA’s enthusiasm, Lin Yiran suggested, “Why don’t we people drinking coffee take a photo together?”

If you’re going to incentivize, then do it in a big way, get some Moments material for the triumphant soldiers, and also slap the faces of those who didn’t go to battle.

KA stood in two rows, Lin Yiran in the very center, Zhang Yuanji gave Chen Xi a push, and Chen Xi stumbled forward. Lin Yiran held his shoulder, turned around, and called the others into place.

In front of the office door, they were wearing suits, one in front and one behind. Lin Yiran’s hand rested very naturally on Chen Xi’s shoulder, and the two of them had a very intimate posture. In this most beautiful time, they smiled every day.

This was their third photo.

After morning exercises, Lin Yiran went to a top-management meeting, and Wang Shuang organized KA training.

When KA training had just started in mid-July, anyone who did not come had to ask Lin Yiran for leave. At first, no one dared to be the first to break the rule, and they all tried their best to shift client appointment times. But once that precedent was set, the number of people asking for leave gradually increased. At the beginning of August, Lin Yiran changed the training to once a week, saying he hoped to “see everyone in full working condition on Monday mornings,” which translated to “I’m coming back to Lanhai for meetings on Monday, and none of you better try to run either!”

Chen Xi had originally planned to go to the mall this morning, but because of the dog-shit leader’s bullshit demands, he had no choice but to come back to Lanhai for training. Fortunately, there was free coffee, which counted as a bit of comfort for his wounded soul.

Last month Wang Shuang had almost finished sorting through all the product knowledge with KA, and this month they started advanced lessons. Today’s PPT cover read: Industry Development.

“Today’s PPT has no content, because when it comes to talking about industries, the big shots present have all been through so many battles that they’re definitely more professional than me, so I won’t show off in front of experts.” After hanging out in KA for two months, Wang Shuang had finally learned how to communicate with this bunch of brats.

KA spoke with strength. Someone with strength like Lin Yiran could make demands forcefully, while someone without strength like Wang Shuang had to work like she was licking the client, licking the employees into doing the work.

“When I was in business before, I heard about KA’s industry experts. Today I’m lucky enough to ask a few people to share their industry development experience, and we can consider it learning together.”

The people sitting there all shook their heads and looked around, not wanting to look at her, afraid she would call their names, because none of them were prepared and they were afraid they’d make a bad share and get laughed at by others.

Wang Shuang clearly had expected this situation. She had long prepared her script: “Isn’t it almost Mid-Autumn Festival? Then let’s talk about industries related to node marketing, it just happens to be something we can learn and use right away.”

“Okay!” Zhang Yuanji had just built a connection with a certain seafood client and was thinking about hearing some fast-moving consumer goods development strategies.

Most key clients had obvious marketing nodes, and the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day double holidays were exactly a great time to harvest. The smart people in the room all wanted to learn from others’ ideas for industry development, and they all echoed her in agreement.

Each KA had their own industry tag.

Liu Xueying’s industry tag was real estate. From property developers all the way down to project planners, they could all be her sources of information. For example, Liu Xueying signed with Project A, Project A sold out, Project B launched, the planner from Project A went to work at Project B, and she continued signing Project B. Liu Xueying had been deeply rooted in the real estate industry for 8 years, and relying on the many connections she had with project planners, marketing, and general managers, she had firmly established herself in Yucheng’s advertising real estate circle.

Ma Longfei’s industry tag was automobiles. He had a harmonious relationship with major manufacturers, and every time a manufacturer launched a new product, they would leave advertising budget for Lanhai.

The KA big shots were familiar with industry operation models, and in their own designated fields they each showed their own magic. Chen Xi also wanted to have his own industry tag, but he didn’t know which industry to develop. At this moment, he thought of his laborer boyfriend again.

Brother Lin said he could not talk to him at the company, but sending messages on WeChat did not count as “talking,” right.

I’m so smart (*^▽^*)

「晨曦：Brother Lin, what industry do you think I should develop?」

「林狗：What do you want to develop?」

「晨曦：I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking you.」

「林狗：I don’t know either.」

Chen Xi thought to himself: You can play on your phone during meetings, replying is so fast, but when you’re talking to clients, you reply to me so slowly, looks like your priority order is: key clients > me > meetings.

「晨曦：If Brother Lin doesn’t do industry development, how did you sign so many clients?」

「林狗：Industry development is too slow, brother does circles.」

Author’s note:

(1) Quoting a speech by Teacher Zang Qichao