The Sneaky Deal

The day finished with Wu Lina completely immersed in her project to the extent that she did not get a chance to go and have her lunch. She managed in tea and coffee in the office. She didn't meet Zhou Zhili also. She had said that she would be accompanying CEO Yang on his visit to their one of their company's hardware manufacturing units located on the outskirts of the city and would return later in the evening. She told her that she might not be able to come to Brother Zhang's party also.

At six in the evening Wu Lina got up from her chair, straightened out her dress and stretched her limbs. Her shoulders were hurting and she was dying for a genie to appear and massage her shoulders. Oh, how she missed Zhou Zhili today.

She had finished most of her project. There were some glitches in the codes that another member of the team had written. So whenever she tried to integrate the two codes, it would glitch. She sent an email to him regarding the problem and started to leave.

She picked her purse from the table, switched off the computer and walked out of the office. She arrived at her home at 7pm and directly went to take a hot shower. She changed into very light clothes. Her stomach was grumbling. She was very hungry and even though there was a party in the evening she prepared some instant noodles for herself. The party was supposed to start by 8:30pm. Wu Lina didn't want to go but brother Zhang had personally accosted her three times with the invitation. Honestly, she found it irritating.

The hotel where the party was being hosted was located half an hour from her house, a ten minutes drive from the Yang Corporation. It wasn't an elite hotel but was popular amongst the younger crowd. Being in the downtown area where most companies had their office headquarters, the hotel was a center of activities. It had a discotheque in the basement, which made it even more well-liked by the youngsters. It was difficult to get a reservation for hosting a party in Hotel Black Rose and one had to plan months in advance, as there was a long queue.

***

Meanwhile on the outskirts of the city, Yang Xinyu went inside the manufacturing unit to talk to the senior manager. Some of the units of their premium product, touch-screen laptops, had been returned back by the customers because of the faulty processors.

This was a grave issue that had to be dealt with delicately, as they had to find out whether the processors that the company was supplying them with were faulty or not. The customers were threatening to sue the Yang Corporation. If the processors were faulty, he had to bring in all the faulty laptops from the market and give suitable compensation to the customers. The product was fairly new and only about a thousand units were sold. The compensation would be easily manageable, but the reputation of the company would suffer.

The company, which supplied the processors, belonged to Yang Fangxu's uncle who had the habit of taking undue advantage of the fact that his sister was the mistress of the Chairman of the Yang Corporation. He had begged the Chairman to collaborate with the company.

Yang Xinyu never liked the owner of the company but he had to buy parts from them because of his father's insistence.

However, he was very angry this time and was ready to cut off this collaboration at the drop of a hat.

Yang Xinyu demanded to see the production. He went to the shop floor to check out the production. He went to the procurement office, the sales and marketing office and several other departments to hold meeting with the officers to assess the whole situation.

By the end of the day a probe unit comprising of three managers was set up who would directly report their findings to CEO Yang. Yang Xinyu found out that other than this issue, there were several other problems that needed his attention instantly.

This was perhaps the biggest problem that the Yang Corporation had faced in years. Unbeknown to the Chairman or Yang Xinyu, the Vice President of the company had accepted bribes from Yang Fangxu's uncle. He knew that even if the allegations against him were proven, in the worst scenario, he would be fired from the company. The Yang Corporation would never send him behind the bars because they had their own reputation to maintain.

Yang Xinyu called the Vice President of the manufacturing unit and reprimanded him for performing poorly. He told that he would take the decision to fire him if the issue was not rectified within twenty days time. Even though the Vice President had his strategy planned, he wasn't prepared for this sudden inspection.

Yang Xinyu along with his team reached the manufacturing unit at 11am in the morning and were there till 7pm in the evening. When he came out of the room he overheard Bo Xilai saying, "Have you also been called for Zhang Wei's party?"

"Yes, Bo Xilai. Zhang Wei had invited both Wu Lina and me three times personally. However, I don't think I can make it to the party now. It starts at 8:30pm and I am still caught up here. Even if we start now it would take us an hour to reach the city. I have texted Wu Lina to make an excuse for me. She will be attending Zhang Wei's party," she replied sadly.

Bo Xilai nodded dejectedly.

Brother Zhang! Again! Yang Xinyu was turning red in anger. After a troublesome day at the office, he had this extremely important matter to deal with – Zhang Wei!

He reached up to them with blood boiling and asked, "Where is the party?"

"Bo Xilai and Zhou Zhili looked at the infuriated face of the CEO and started shaking. "Sorry CEO Yang. We have already excused ourselves. We won't be going," replied Zhou Zhili afraid that the CEO may explode here.

"Where is the party?" I am asking you again," he demanded the answer in a low, intimidating tone.

"At Hotel Black Rose rooftop," answered Bo Xilai.