Chapter 32#

The preparation progress of Yinghan Group’s autumn auction moved forward bit by bit, and amidst the busyness, most of it was done.

It was another overtime night. Before Yan Zishu reached the secretariat, he heard Fu Xiaoyu shouting from afar on the phone with someone: “You definitely can’t guess who sent this whatever pastel interlocking branch vase, that old man from the Ma’s Chamber of Commerce! Guess the starting price? Can’t tell, damn, look at him usually dressing like an old farmer on TV, this time he just fucking…”

At this moment, the secretariat office was silent, with only Fu Xiaoyu inside.

Yan Zishu’s temple throbbed, resisting the urge to go in, grab his collar, and question what he was doing.

If an ordinary employee did this, he would inevitably be severely scolded for having no sense of confidentiality and treating client privacy as a joke.

However, Fu Xiaoyu doing this… for Yan Zishu, it was also good; in a sense, it was simply an assist sent by heaven to his side.

Because according to the original plot, without a Fu Xiaoyu cutting in horizontally, Yan Zishu should have personally followed up on the autumn auction, deliberately asked Ji Chen for help, and designed him to leak a client registration form to a competitor during work, thereby framing the other party.

Among the clients participating in the art auction, how many were big shots with status? People were precious, and personal information was also precious. Being exposed like this, one can imagine it caused quite a stir, and finally almost triggered a huge earthquake that shook half of Dongcheng.

Such an extreme approach was a desperate move by a morbid secret admirer to get rid of a love rival.

Later, facing questioning from all sides, Fu Weishan chose to withstand the pressure to protect Ji Chen. Although there were various misunderstandings and quarrels in between, and the company’s interests also suffered losses, for Ji Chen personally, this framing did not succeed in the end.

Therefore, as a cannon fodder character who sails carefully for ten thousand years and doesn’t want to debut as a legal case—Yan Zishu had been troubled for a long time about how to complete this task. If he didn’t do it, there was no guarantee that other confidential information wouldn’t be “accidentally” leaked through some channel. And that was beyond his control, making him uneasy.

After all, the previous incident of Yuan Mu’s miscarriage had taught people the power of “accidents.”

Unable to explain, most people still believed it was his doing.

If he did it, Yan Zishu hoped to at least keep the situation under his own control.

Now, the good thing was that there was Fu Xiaoyu.

Thanks to Fu Xiaoyu being full of flaws, Yan Zishu even felt he probably didn’t need to dirty his hands. Not to mention anything else, even recording Fu Xiaoyu’s speech on the phone just now could pin the hat of leaking secrets on him; it all depended on how to operate.

Without any vigilance, not knowing the weight of things, he was indeed a fool; what a pity he had such a shrewd father.

However, since the target was the protagonist “shou,” what he had to watch was what common flaws Fu Xiaoyu and Ji Chen had in work.

Speaking of which, Fu Xiaoyu was initially not very happy when he heard he had to take Ji Chen to follow up on the autumn auction, but after going back, he somehow figured it out: Was he stupid? letting this Ji Chen be his follower, wasn’t this a good opportunity to torment the other party?

After that, he stopped saying he wasn’t happy, and instead happily directed the little fool around like a spinning top.

When the work of two rookies was mixed together, as long as one was careful enough, Yan Zishu really found a point.

Because he said “ask if you don’t understand anything” before, Ji Chen showed the press release to be sent to the news media to Yan Zishu.

As the base material for all media, the entire press release had about twenty pages of lengthy discussion. In the same folder, there were also supporting data for reference. On the last page of a certain Excel file, Yan Zishu actually saw a client list that should have been deleted but wasn’t.

This table was completed by Fu Xiaoyu—but he was now asking Ji Chen to help send it out.

Yan Zishu determined in almost a second: a god-given opportunity, this was it.

Ji Chen came to ask him: “Assistant Yan, can these be published?”

Yan Zishu pretended not to notice anything: “Yes.”

Through the transmission between various mobile phones and computers, this compressed file package was sent to the contacts of various media.

Like something thrown into the lake with a whoosh. However, whether it was a stone or a bomb depended on whether it would explode.

Actually, Yan Zishu also knew that such a missed client list, if only leaked to cooperative media, was still different from directly leaking it to competitors. The severity of the former was much lighter, and it was even possible that it would completely misfire.

Because the invited media all had business relationships, took money to sing praises, and were particularly sensible. Rather than suddenly turning hostile and reporting “Yinghan Group Leaks Client Privacy,” they were more likely to guess it was sent by mistake, but secretly “accept with a smile” and swallow the benefits themselves.

Carefully passing half a month, and another half a month, the result was that the autumn auction ended smoothly, and indeed no storm appeared.

On the day the auction ended, Yan Zishu sighed, but dared not take it lightly.

The client list was leaked, but there was no sign involving Ji Chen yet. Thus, the plot only counted as half fulfilled.

He didn’t have a mentality of fearing the world wouldn’t be chaotic; if it could really be peaceful, that would be fine, but who knows if a dud mine would suddenly explode?

*

Arriving at the company in the morning, Yan Zishu had just read a news headline when he was called over by Public Relations Director Jack.

“Heard about it? Ma’s Chamber of Commerce is suspected of money laundering.”

Jack looked around to ensure no one was there, and said this as his first sentence.

Yan Zishu didn’t ignorantly ask “what does that have to do with us.” Ma’s Chamber of Commerce, Chairman Ma, one of Yinghan’s big clients.

This news even made his heart shake violently, thinking of the phone call Fu Xiaoyu made to his friend alone in the office that night.

He thought things wouldn’t be so coincidental: “Understood. If someone comes to investigate, we will cooperate.”

Jack nodded: “How about you go tell President Fu later? After all, Chairman Ma just participated in our autumn auction, it’s a bit risky.”

Yan Zishu said: “Got it, going now.”

This seemed like an ordinary day, but everything happened suddenly.

Chairman Ma Jinrong of Ma’s Chamber of Commerce participated in Yinghan Group’s autumn auction as a consignor, providing a batch of precious collections said to be from the Qianlong period, and fetched a good price. Yinghan Group also used the media to publicize this event.

Just moments later, Ma’s Chamber of Commerce was exposed for money laundering insider information, occupying a corner in financial news.

As the attention of this news continued to soar, it was hard for the melon-eating masses not to search for suspicious activities of Ma’s Chamber of Commerce recently.

So the news of Yinghan Group’s autumn auction was immediately linked up, becoming suspected evidence of money laundering associated with both parties.

As the auctioneer, did Yinghan Group dare to guarantee absolutely no involvement and stay out of it? What evidence was there to make the public believe?

Look, the promotional photos of the two brothers being good friends were still hot!

Compared to the previous infamy of “foul corporate culture,” obviously, a solid charge like “suspected money laundering” could shake the confidence of stockholders more. Even if the conclusive investigation result hadn’t come out yet, Yinghan’s stock had fallen in a straight line, becoming very ugly at the close of the day.

Fu Weishan slammed the table fiercely before walking out of the conference room.

The conference room was silent, everyone holding their breath.

It was truly an eventful autumn.

Then for several consecutive days, the company was in chaos, entering a tense wartime atmosphere. Besides the PR department, the legal department, investment department, strategy department, etc., were not allowed to stay out of it, the so-called “twisting into a rope to tide over the difficulties together.”

And Yan Zishu, besides being busy, always had a nerve taut and unable to relax.

That feeling was like, clearly throwing a bomb into a lake, you thought it was a dud, but the lake water next to it exploded.

And couldn’t find anyone to ask: Why is it like this?

But as if to solve his confusion, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse very quickly.

Out of desperation, in order to divert public attention, Ma’s Chamber of Commerce suddenly pointed the finger at Yinghan, forcefully accusing Yinghan of leaking client information, which brought the money laundering scandal to the chamber of commerce, seeming to want to sink together.

To respond to the accusation, Yinghan was busy investigating internally, and finally found that the data given by the secretariat indeed leaked the client list.

Going around in a circle, it closed here—wasn’t the problem exactly the table Fu Xiaoyu and Ji Chen made before?

Fortunately, the investigation method was secret and not done with great fanfare. When hearing this report, Fu Weishan was silent for a while.

Then he frowned and waved his hand, asking Yan Zishu to tell the insiders to keep their mouths shut and hide the result first.

Yan Zishu agreed.

*

Returning to his apartment the next night, he stood in front of the door, about to raise his hand.

But someone beside him said faintly: “What are you thinking about so engrossed?”

Yan Zishu was startled and saw Fu Jinchi walking out of the shadows, like a lingering ghost.

He composed himself and opened the door with his fingerprint: “Mr. Fu, please come in.”

Only then did Yan Zishu remember that he hadn’t seen Fu Jinchi for a while since the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Moreover, on the Mid-Autumn Festival, they didn’t really meet properly, not even saying a word.

Fu Jinchi smiled and also said: “Haven’t seen you for a long time. Have you been busy recently?”

Yan Zishu made way for him: “A little bit.”

As usual, he let the other party come in with shoes on, went to the kitchen to boil hot water, turned back, and then looked at Fu Jinchi again.

Now that the weather was cold, the other party wore a black short trench coat, crisp and slim-fitting, still with an elegant silhouette and graceful demeanor, but the expression on his face lacked a lot of warmth like the season, cold and lonely, with a meaning he couldn’t understand or describe.

Fu Jinchi sat on the sofa as soon as he entered: “Can’t you buy an extra pair of slippers? Or should I bring you a pair next time I come?”

Yan Zishu took off his coat, walked over and explained: “Usually not many people come, so I forg…”

Before finishing the sentence, he was pressed onto the sofa, the world spinning.

Yan Zishu asked: “What do you mean by this?”

Fu Jinchi said: “Is there any news you want to know recently?”

Yan Zishu shook his head: “That would be a bit too much.”

“It’s okay, let’s start with what you are busy with.” Fu Jinchi said, “Are you being bitten tight by Ma’s Chamber of Commerce now? Dogs biting dogs, preparing to sue your company for violating the confidentiality clause of the auction contract and leaking client privacy?”

Yan Zishu admitted: “Yes, the legal department is busy preparing materials.”

Fu Jinchi said again: “Recently, Yinghan Group’s stock price has also been affected, falling very badly.”

Yan Zishu also said: “Yes, everyone can see it.”

Fu Jinchi continued: “The stock price fell, Fu the Third is unhappy. Yesterday he found out that it was actually Fu Xiaoyu who poked the hole.”

Yan Zishu waited for his following words.

Fu Jinchi said: “The other party wants to sue now. Fu the Third heard that Fu Xiaoyu happened to bring an intern, so he wanted to operate on this intern, push it all on his head and be done with it. Didn’t expect Fu Weishan to be quite distressed, disagreeing no matter what.”

Yan Zishu looked at him quietly: “Then this intern feels a bit unlucky.”

Fu Jinchi said: “In my opinion, neither Fu Xiaoyu nor this intern can be unlucky. Yan Zishu, if someone must be found to take the blame in the end, guess who will be the luckiest?”

Yan Zishu smiled bitterly: “Me?”

“So self-aware?”

“The problem lies in the secretariat. No matter which subordinate did it, the person in charge is responsible. Helen is the chief secretary, I am the chief assistant. If not her, then me. I followed up on past spring and autumn auctions; she is not that familiar. This time she didn’t intervene at all, so it’s not good to push it on her out of thin air, right? I even think I am the most suitable.”

Fu Jinchi looked down at him: “Then you are really pitiful enough. Not even a person willing to protect you.”