ZS | Chapter 9

“Gu Zheng?”

The man held the resume in his hand and looked at the young man sitting opposite him, lost in thought.

“Mm.”

Gu Zheng sat upright, a spoiled young master in a suit, looking no different from a business elite.

“You graduated from Stanford?”

“Mm.”

“Why come to do sales?”

“Didn’t graduates of Tsinghua and Peking University still sell fried skewers on the street?” Gu Zheng said.

Yesterday, the young master had been spurred on by his ex, and on a whim he submitted a resume to Lanhai. He had originally thought he would have to wait ten or fifteen days, but he had not expected to receive an interview invitation this morning, which meant the ad company really was short of salespeople, and it also showed that “Lanhai KA” was not a good job. Good jobs had thousands of people lining up to wait for them, how could you submit a resume and get an interview right away?

When he first entered the office, Gu Zheng had caught sight of the sign, this was the vice president’s office, and the man interviewing him now was Lanhai’s vice president, Lin Yiran.

Lin Yiran asked, “You didn’t have any sales work experience before?”

Lanhai KA’s recruitment requirements were: more than five years of sales work experience or more than three years of large-account sales experience, and Gu Zheng had none of that. However, that should not have been some big problem, since the other party had let him come, it meant he met the conditions.

Gu Zheng said, “I have resources.”

Lin Yiran put down the resume, folded his hands on the desk, and looked at him with burning eyes. “You have resources in the cultural tourism industry?” It was a question, and it could also have been a statement. Just one look at each other, and Gu Zheng had already determined it was a statement. That meant the other party knew his identity.

Gu Zheng nodded. “Mm.”

Lin Yiran asked the question every company executive asked in an interview: “Why do you want to do sales?”

Gu Zheng had two reasons for coming to Lanhai. One was that he wanted to find a job with five social insurances and a housing fund. The other was that he wanted to experience life and prove that what other people could do, he, Gu Zheng, could do too. Although they had already broken up, the feeling of being lectured by an ex felt worse than being lectured by his own dad. As for why he wanted to do sales, he really had not thought it through yet.

Gu Zheng lied through his teeth, “They all say salespeople are good with words, I want to learn negotiation scripts and add to my life experience.”

Lin Yiran did not comment on that cookie-cutter interview answer, and changed the way he asked, “What do you want to get from this job?”

Though Gu Zheng had never gone through a job interview, he had watched plenty of job-hunting shows, and the mentors in them all asked: What is your dream? How had it turned into: What is your motive here?

This lousy ad company did not even have a first interview or a second interview, and you could come straight to see the vice president after submitting a resume. It had already reached the last step, so why was it still so picky?

Gu Zheng did not want to waste time, so he got straight to the point, “I want Pingsheng.”

Lin Yiran’s gaze flickered slightly, he opened the MacBook on the desk and clicked a few times, then turned it toward Gu Zheng. What came into view was a list, and there were about ten companies on the list, all local giants. Lin Yiran asked, “Do you know anyone on the list?”

Gu Zheng did not understand.

Lin Yiran said, “Every trade has its rules, salespeople care about first come, first served, if you want Pingsheng, then you have to show some sincerity.”

“You mean I have to sign other clients in exchange for Pingsheng?”

Lin Yiran nodded.

Sales should not have been about fighting each other for orders, whoever had the ability signed the clients, so Lanhai was so disciplined?

Gu Zheng suspected the other party wanted to probe his resources, so he crossed one leg over the other and folded his arms as he looked back. “Who is Pingsheng’s salesperson, come on, let’s talk together?”

At worst, he could go to Pingsheng again with that pretty boy and see who Ah Sheng signed with.

“If it were my client I would just give it to you, the key is... I also can’t afford to offend Pingsheng’s boss.” Lin Yiran gave a soft sigh, spelling out the pros and cons. “If there isn’t a client on the list that you know, then forget it. Lanhai can’t satisfy your needs, and you don’t meet Lanhai’s recruitment conditions.”

Signing a deal or not was a true-or-false question, while signing a deal or getting hired was a multiple-choice question.

Multiple-choice questions with obvious contrasts were often easier to choose than true-or-false questions.

Lin Yiran’s words hit Gu Zheng’s weak spot exactly.

From the moment he entered the office, Lin Yiran had first made small talk to lower his guard, then step by step extracted information and asked out his real purpose, and he had been following the other party’s train of thought the whole time, while Lin Yiran’s manner of speaking was unhurried but in fact pressing in step by step.

If he wanted to sign Pingsheng, he had to get in first; if he wanted to get in, he had to bring client resources.

The vice president really did have a couple of tricks.

Gu Zheng scanned the list and compromised, “The boss of Xiling Pharmaceutical has a pretty good relationship with my family.”

Lin Yiran tapped his phone a few times, and in less than five seconds, the pretty boy pushed the door open and came in.

“Brother Lin, looking for me?”

He called the vice president bro?

Why wasn’t he softening his stance? So this pretty boy was a connected hire after all.

Lin Yiran nodded, brief and to the point: “Gu Zheng knows the boss of Xiling Pharmaceutical. When you arrange a meeting, the two of you can discuss it together.”

The pretty boy looked over, and showed a mouthful of little white teeth as he smiled. “Oh, it’s you!”

Lin Yiran raised his brows. “You know each other?”

The pretty boy said, “We just saw each other last night. Thanks to this hothead, otherwise Shen the skinflint would have had to drag things out for a long time before signing the contract.”

It was one thing to call me a hothead, but how could he call Ah Sheng Shen the skinflint?

They ate the client and still insulted the client, salespeople really were no good.

Gu Zheng was just about to explode when Lin Yiran spoke first: “This is Lanhai KA’s Chen Xi, the group’s top KA salesperson across the three provinces, serving dozens of leading companies, incubating more than a hundred creative ad cases, with cumulative contracts worth over a hundred million.”

Why say such a long title?

Did the company vice president admire front-line sales?

The rainbow flattery from the other side had been blown into the sky, if he said anything insulting now, it would seem deliberate.

Gu Zheng held out a hand and said stiffly, “I’m Gu Zheng.”

Chen Xi gave him a light handshake, blinked those big eyes, and asked, “When are we going to Xiling Pharmaceutical?”

“Why the rush, I...”

Chen Xi interrupted him, “Can you not make the appointment?”

The young master feared provocation the most.

“Uncle Wang always came over to my house to play mahjong, there is no such thing as not being able to make the appointment!”

After saying that, Gu Zheng called Xiling Pharmaceutical’s boss, Wang Guangcun. After some pleasantries, he asked, “Uncle Wang, are you at the factory this afternoon?”

As soon as those words came out, Chen Xi’s eyes lit up, and Lin Yiran’s gaze also turned a bit deeper.

Gu Zheng’s tail went up to the sky from pride, and he continued, “Ah, then when are you free?”

“I want to talk about advertising business.”

“Oh, oh, that works too, have your marketing director come over, say hello, I’ll head over in a bit.”

After hanging up, Gu Zheng snorted at the two of them, feeling vindicated.

Chen Xi walked to the front of Lin Yiran’s desk, reached out with a paw, and Lin Yiran very cooperatively took out the car key.

“What are you standing there for, let’s go.” Chen Xi said.

Gu Zheng said “Oh,” and followed him in a daze to the underground parking garage, feeling that something was a little strange.

He had clearly come for an interview, the vice president had neither said whether Lanhai wanted him nor whether Pingsheng would give him to him, and he had just been told to go talk a deal with the pretty boy.

The moment he said he knew the boss of Xiling, the vice president said, “Arrange a meeting one day and go together,” but when it came to the pretty boy it turned into “When are you going?” He had just wanted to argue back, and then the pretty boy provoked him, and then...

Wait, was I being set up?

Chen Xi strode ahead, and Gu Zheng followed behind in a bad temper. “Your salespeople really do move customers fast. I haven’t even gotten hired yet, and I’m already helping you talk a deal.”

“Haha!” Chen Xi laughed until he bent backward and forward, that expression as if saying: you only just realized?

The young master immediately turned on his heel and went back.

Chen Xi did not stop him, and said lightly, “You don’t want Pingsheng anymore?”

Gu Zheng stopped in his tracks.

Chen Xi patted his beloved car and said with a smile, “Oh, we’ve already come this far, why get hung up on it, get in.”

Gu Zheng looked closely, damn, a Mercedes S400!

The pretty boy was actually pretty rich.

No, the car key had been given to him by the vice president, this was the vice president’s car.

The pretty boy definitely had an unusual relationship with the vice president!

Gu Zheng applied what he had just learned on the spot and threw out a multiple-choice question, “Lin Yiran and Shen Yuesheng, which one do you want?”

Chen Xi rolled his eyes around once, looked over, and said slyly, “You’re a 0.”

The roar of the Mercedes engine swallowed the “I’m a 1!” that Gu Zheng shouted.

Gu Zheng was so furious that he barked, “You’re the 0!”

“I really am a 0.” Chen Xi was frank about it, and suddenly smiled, smiling in a slutty way. “I have a friend who used to go on a blind date with Shen Yuesheng. He said he was a 1. You get along with him, so you’re not a 0, are the two of you both trying to be the 1?”

This pretty boy didn’t know his place, his man should have been the vice president.

But they had already broken up, whether Shen Yuesheng was a 0 or a 1 had nothing to do with him, he had no right to interfere.

A lump of stale phlegm stuck in his throat, Gu Zheng did not want to explain, and cursed.

When the traffic light turned red, Chen Xi loosened his seat belt with a frown.

A narrow waist was cinched into suit pants, and above the belt there was a raised strip, with the trace of a chain visible beneath the shirt. The seat belt had just pressed into the chain, and he was uncomfortable, so he frowned and shifted the seat belt.

A chain around the waist, you gays sure played wild.

The Mercedes sped along the elevated road, Gu Zheng said nothing, and Chen Xi smiled lazily, his expression just like he was teasing a dog.

“Look at you, one little provocation and you puffed up with anger, like a pufferfish. You can’t argue with me, you can only sulk there.”

The shameless pair cooperated flawlessly, a perfect match, and dragged him into the ditch. Gu Zheng couldn’t argue and still wasn’t convinced, and when his temper flared, he didn’t care about office rules and blurted out, “Your company is really damn shameless, squeezing free labor before I’ve even been hired!”

Chen Xi wasn’t angry even after being scolded. “If you can’t control your emotions like this, you’re bound to be easily tricked, and you’re also bound to do things you’ll regret.”

“None of your business!”

“The first time I saw you last night, you seemed like someone who got angry at the slightest provocation. I want Xiling Pharmaceutical, and you don’t want to go. In order to achieve my goal, I could only provoke you. If you take the bait when you’re provoked, is there a problem with saying you’re easy to fool?” Chen Xi said casually. “A lot of people, in order to achieve their goals, deliberately say things that aren’t what they really mean. If you can’t control your emotions well, then you can only lose out on benefits.”

We were about the same age, how had you ended up with so much dad energy?

Gu Zheng stiffened his neck and said nothing.

After arriving at the drug factory, Chen Xi and Xiling Pharmaceutical’s marketing director chatted about a bunch of things, GMV, ROI, PV, UV... Gu Zheng listened like it was all foreign.

In elementary school, the teacher spoke on the stage, he answered from below; in a university debate, he could shut the other side up with just two or three sentences.

This was the first time today Gu Zheng had felt like a fool who couldn’t speak, yet Xiling’s marketing director, in order to show his respect for him, often paused in the middle of speaking to ask for his opinion. But he didn’t understand anything, so what was he supposed to say?

At first Chen Xi deliberately waited a few seconds, and after seeing that he really couldn’t pick up the conversation, he would cut in and take it over whenever the marketing director asked for an opinion again.

The front-line salesperson and the marketing director of a listed company chatted animatedly, neither rushed nor cheap in their pace. What Gu Zheng admired most was that Chen Xi had not prepared at all before coming to Xiling, everything he talked about was his on-the-spot improvisation based on deep understanding of the industry.

Seeing that the visitor knew the business, the marketing director talked about Xiling’s strategic plan for next year and proactively added Chen Xi on WeChat. Chen Xi drew out Xiling’s current bidding projects, guided the marketing director to provide pointers at the appropriate timing, and strove for the possibility of cooperation. The three of them chatted until around 4:30, and Chen Xi casually found a reason to end the conversation and left Xiling Pharmaceutical with Gu Zheng.

Gu Zheng asked, “Weren’t we talking pretty well just now, why not keep talking?”

Chen Xi said, “Today we came here without an appointment, outside the marketing director’s plans, so he definitely still had his own work unfinished. Xiling got off work at 5:30, and today was Friday, they definitely had to write weekly reports, so at the very least, give him an hour.”

After saying that, he shed the disguise of a business elite and went back to his cheeky grin, showing a mouthful of little white teeth. “Leave some room for people, and you’ll be able to meet again later.”

You really had human relations and social niceties figured out.

Gu Zheng cupped his fist. “I’ll still have to learn more from Manager Chen in the future.”

It was just polite talk, but he did not expect Chen Xi to take the opening and start lecturing him again. “Do you know what was most important in that negotiation just now?”

“How would I know.”

You people said a bunch of things I didn’t understand, being able to grasp the point would be strange.

Chen Xi said, “It was reciprocity.”

Gu Zheng did not understand.

Chen Xi explained, “On a first meeting, the client won’t care about my views on a certain business segment of theirs, they’ll only care whether my status, vision, knowledge, and industry expertise can match theirs on the same frequency, and that directly determines whether we can cooperate in the future.”

“So, to put it bluntly, it’s all about chemistry?”

Chen Xi nodded. “You could say that too. In terms of professionalism, salespeople in the industry are all not bad, and vision and knowledge are accumulated through talking to clients, so the important reason Xiling’s marketing director took the initiative to add me on WeChat was our status and position.”

“Ha, after all that, it was because of me, the one who didn’t say anything?”

Chen Xi nodded again, giving Gu Zheng the final lesson before he started work.

“Only with strong backing can you achieve parity in status.”

That flattery made the young master feel smooth and comfortable, with every pore open, his tail lifted high.

Chen Xi’s status in his heart went from pretty boy to sales big brother in one flash.

Salespeople had a lot of tricks, maybe he could ask about...

Gu Zheng once again learned by doing, and said, “I, I also have a friend.”

“Hahaha!”

“Don’t laugh!”

“Fine, fine, I won’t laugh, go on, what happened to your friend?”

Gu Zheng’s face grew a little hot, he cleared his throat, and said, “My friend somehow ended up in bed with a business partner, and couldn’t figure out what the other side’s purpose was, and wanted you to help analyze it.”

“Huh? How can business partners somehow end up in bed?”

“Just, maybe they drank a little alcohol, and their heads weren’t very clear...”

“Impossible.” Chen Xi interrupted him. He didn’t know what came to mind, paused for a few seconds, then put away his cheeky grin, his expression unusually serious. “If the other person really didn’t want to, it would have been impossible for you to carry it through to the end at all.”

A bolt from the blue.

One sentence awakened him from a dream.

When Zhuo Hang first recognized me in bed, he had kept silent the whole time, just wanting me to keep touching him, and later when he saw the situation wasn’t right, he made up an excuse and said he had only failed to resist because he had been drugged, to make the story fit itself. Zhuo Hang had trained in sanda, and if he had really wanted to refuse, he could have knocked me into a concussion with just a couple of moves. Zhuo Hang was so proud, if he had not wanted to, just on the basis of a transaction, there was no way he would have let me carry it through to the end...

Yuxi Reading House

So, the transaction I thought it was, in his view, was not just a transaction. The premise for the transaction to be established was that he wanted to do it with me.

A tangled mass of thoughts connected into a line, and Gu Zheng instantly understood: Zhuo Hang liked me.