novellaaa Chapter 18 Unyielding
Chapter 18 Unyielding
On the other side, Li Xianyu appeared somewhat uneasy in the reception room on the first floor of the Riyue Group. She was constantly adjusting her clothes or smoothing her hair, and in less than half an hour, she changed her sitting posture seven or eight times.
Are you thirsty? Would you like me to get you a glass of water?
The woman in formal attire standing next to Li Xianyu seemed to notice his unease and spoke to comfort him.
"No...no need."
"Don't worry, Mr. Chen is helping the president, he should be out soon."
Li Xianyu nodded slightly, and asked tremblingly, "May I ask, is the president you mentioned the president of Riyao Group?"
The woman in formal attire said, "This is Zhao Jinglan, the CEO of our Riyao Group."
"Zhao Jinglan?"
Li Xianyu's eyes darted around, and he suddenly realized that Zhao Jinglan, the "rising star of the business world and pearl of eight provinces" who had been featured on his TV a few days ago, was the one.
After about two or three hours, Li Xianyu was getting a little impatient when some noises came from the hall outside.
The elevator doors opened with a "ding," and a stunningly beautiful woman stepped out.
People walking around the elevator stopped in their tracks and bowed slightly to the aloof woman.
"Young Miss!"
The aloof woman simply nodded slightly, offering no further response.
The icy expression on the cold, beautiful woman's face melted instantly when Chen Lie stepped out of the elevator.
"Brother Chen Lie, you've helped me a lot today. It's almost lunchtime, why don't you have a simple meal with your sister at the restaurant?"
Chen Lie hummed in agreement and said, "Then let's go along with what the host says."
Upon seeing Chen Lie's arrival in the reception room, Li Xianyu immediately pushed open the door and left the reception room, heading towards Chen Lie.
Upon closer inspection, Li Xianyu realized that the stunningly beautiful woman standing next to Chen Lie was none other than Zhao Jinglan, the "rising star of the business world and the pearl of eight provinces."
Upon seeing Li Xianyu suddenly walk out of the reception room, the woman in formal attire behind her hurriedly followed.
Upon reaching Zhao Jinglan, she abruptly stopped, bowed slightly, and called out, "President!"
Zhao Jinglan nodded slightly, but her gaze fell on Li Xianyu, and she narrowed her eyes slightly: "Brother Chen Lie, is this your sister? She's a pretty young lady, but she doesn't seem to look quite like her in the photo."
Zhao Jinglan's glance put immense psychological pressure on Li Xianyu, much like being glared at by the proctor during a humanities exam.
Li Xianyu knew that this might be the kind of authority that comes from managing hundreds of thousands of employees over time.
"Learn from... senior."
Not daring to meet Zhao Jinglan's gaze, Li Xianyu moved to stand behind Chen Lie.
"This is my sister's classmate."
Chen Lie stepped forward, shielding Li Xianyu behind him.
"Oh, so you're my sister's classmate. Let's go to the restaurant for a meal together."
With that, Zhao Jinglan instructed her assistant to lead the way, taking Chen Lie to the restaurant of the Riyue Group.
"Let's go, have a simple meal."
After saying something to Li Xianyu, Chen Lie followed and walked forward.
Li Xianyu quickly followed, his shock beyond measure.
Chen Xingyao's family background was not much different from her own, or even worse. So how did her brother Chen Lie get to know such an important person as Zhao Jinglan?
Chen Lie and Zhao Jinglan arrived at the Riyao Group's restaurant side by side.
The restaurant was empty. Zhao Jinglan randomly found a seat and arranged for Chen Lie and Li Xianyu to sit down.
During the conversation, the staff began to serve the dishes to the table. In just two or three minutes, the table was piled high with exquisite dishes, numbering as many as thirty or forty.
"Try it, Chen Lie. Since I didn't know what your taste was, I asked the restaurant to make extra. They're all staff meals, so I hope you won't mind."
Zhao Jinglan raised her hand, signaling Chen Lie to begin eating.
"Thank you for your hospitality."
Chen Lie didn't stand on ceremony. He glanced at the table and noticed that all the dozens of dishes were nutritious meals, so he started picking up food with his chopsticks.
Zhao Jinglan rested her chin on her hand, watching Chen Lie pick up food, and asked, "Little brother Chen Lie, I saw your school's evaluation of you, and it seems to say that your Qi and Blood value isn't very high. Is that true?"
"It's true!" Chen Lie nodded.
Faced with Chen Lie's frankness, Zhao Jinglan was not surprised at all. For a spiritual master, what could the level of Qi and blood represent?
"So, will these nutritious meals meet your nutritional needs?" Zhao Jinglan asked again.
"More or less," Chen Lie replied as he picked up some food.
Zhao Jinglan then looked at Li Xianyu, who was standing awkwardly next to Chen Lie.
"What's this little girl's name?"
"Me? My name is Li Xianyu."
"Why is little sister Xianyu so nervous? Do I look too fierce?"
"No...no." Li Xianyu shook his head repeatedly.
"There are some mild and nutritious meals on the table that will be good for you. Don't be so reserved, just treat yourself as if you were at home."
"Okay, sure..."
Li Xianyu picked up the bowl and chopsticks in front of her and carefully followed Chen Lie's movements to eat.
Although she was young, she was not naive. Zhao Jinglan told her to treat Riyao Group as her home. If she really treated it as her home, she would be a fool.
As the president of the Riyue Group, Zhao Jinglan can be said to have at least 60 percent of the population of Dongchuan Province operating within the framework of her customized plans.
Riyao Group is a behemoth enterprise in eight provinces including Sichuan and Shaanxi. The upstream and downstream enterprises that rely on Riyao Group for survival, the major and minor distributors of various products, and nearly a million employees, together constitute an astronomical figure. If Riyao Group were to shut down one day, half of the eastern Sichuan province would probably be paralyzed.
Li Xianyu absolutely refused to believe that the president of Riyao, who controlled hundreds of thousands of employees, was a kind and benevolent person.
At the same time, she also knew that although Zhao Jinglan in front of her seemed approachable, she was an insurmountable mountain for ordinary people like her from Dongchuan Province.
Faced with such a person, Li Xianyu felt an overwhelming sense of inferiority, so she appeared uneasy and dared not look up at him.
In contrast, Li Xianyu saw Chen Lie as calm and composed. Although he was dressed plainly, he was neither arrogant nor humble. When he appeared in the same mirror as Zhao Jinglan, he showed no sign of timidity or inferiority. He seemed to be eating his meal leisurely, as if he were at home.
Just then, Zhao Jinglan's female assistant came to the dining table.
"President, there's something I need from Manager Zhang, what do you think..."
Zhao Jinglan raised her hand to her female assistant and said, "Just say it. Chen Lie is no outsider."
"Yes." The female assistant quickly replied, "It's like this, Manager Zhang has contacted several members of the province's youth genius group regarding the endorsement of the group's new medicine, and today he finally invited Xu Yuanhao, one of the members of the genius group, to the group."
We had already planned to sign an agreement for you to endorse the new medicine, but before we could sign, Xu Yuanhao suddenly asked to meet with you.
Zhao Jinglan frowned slightly: "Does Zhang Zhen mean I still need to step in?"
The female assistant said, "Yes, what Manager Zhang meant was that if you don't meet with Xu Yuanhao, then the endorsement deal for this new medicine might not be finalized."
Zhao Jinglan snorted and said, "Then let him get lost. A newly selected member of the provincial genius team, does he really think he's someone important?"
Tell Zhang Zhen that if he's not capable, he should hand in his resignation and leave.
"Yes!" The female assistant nodded repeatedly, then leaned down and whispered, "But President, Xu Yuanhao is, after all, a potential grandmaster and a key member of the Xu family. If you have time, it wouldn't hurt to meet him."
Zhao Jinglan waved her hand to signal her female assistant not to say anything more: "A seed of a grandmaster does not mean that he will definitely become a grandmaster in the future. If it is normal, it is fine for me to meet him once."
But right now I'm entertaining my distinguished guests.
"I see."
The female assistant responded and stepped aside.
Li Xianyu secretly glanced at Chen Lie. Logically speaking, shouldn't Chen Lie say something like, "Work is important, you go ahead and do your thing, don't worry about me"?
Chen Lie, however, acted as if nothing was wrong, not even raising his head, just burying himself in his food without any reaction.
This senior doesn't seem to have very high emotional intelligence.
The meal lasted for about an hour. Of the many dishes on the table, Li Xianyu only ate a few bites, while Zhao Jinglan didn't even touch her chopsticks. Chen Lie ate almost all of the thirty or forty dishes.
After putting down his chopsticks, Chen Lie wiped his mouth, stood up, and said to Li Xianyu beside him, "I'm finished eating, let's go."
"Huh? Okay...okay."
Li Xianyu quickly stood up as well.
"Mr. Zhao, thank you for your hospitality. I have other matters to attend to today, so I'll take my leave now."
Zhao Jinglan also stood up. She waved to her female assistant who was standing guard beside her and gave her a few instructions.
Then she took out a card and handed it to Chen Lie.
"Brother Chen Lie, this is my contact information. If you encounter any trouble, you can contact me. I'd be happy to help you solve any problems."
Chen Lie took the card from Zhao Jinglan, put it in his pocket, and nodded to her.
"I've arranged for an assistant to take you back. Please come with me."
Zhao Jinglan escorted Chen Lie and Li Xianyu to the Riyao Group Plaza outside the Riyao Building, next to a superboat.
"Brother Chen Lie, you can take this Sunrise supership back now. Remember to keep in touch!"
Chen Lie nodded, boarded the superboat, and said to Zhao Jinglan, "Thank you for your kindness, President Zhao."
Zhao Jinglan said with a smile, "If you really think I care about you, then change how you address me and call me Sister Jinglan. Calling me President Zhao all the time seems too formal."
Seeing Zhao Jinglan's repeated requests, Chen Lie had no choice but to comply and said, "Sister Jinglan."
Chen Lie's change of heart pleased Zhao Jinglan greatly, and she personally escorted Chen Lie and Li Xianyu onto the superboat.
After the superboat departed, the female assistant approached Zhao Jinglan and couldn't help but ask, "President, what is this young man's identity that makes you value him so much?"
"I don't know!"
Zhao Jinglan shook her head.
Her humility and deference should have been an honor even for a martial arts prodigy like Xu Yuanhao, a member of the province's top youth talent group. However, Chen Lie remained unmoved, finding it incredibly difficult to even change his form of address to try and build rapport.
It was as if she was facing not a seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy, but a cunning old fox with decades of experience in the business world, which was truly perplexing.