Chapter 54: Heartbroken

It was afternoon and the sun was blazing overhead. Moreover, it was the outskirts of the city and there was little traffic on the road. There were only the trees by the roadside shining under the sunlight.

Lin Qian stood by the pavement for quite a while before she managed to hail a cab. Of course, her destination was Aida Organization. The moment she entered the taxi, she called Li Zhicheng.

The line was busy.

Knowing he would be under great pressure, she decided not to call again. After such a big announcement, it was not a surprise that he would be swamped with calls.

The cab travelled very quickly on the road. The window was open and wind flooded in. Lin Qian’s feelings were like the wind, pounding and unstable.

The news that she had just watched floated in her mind once again, with Ning Weikai’s demeanor full of confidence, and the several key words: “industry leader”, “hundreds of millions in investments”, “intense competition”… all automatically flowing into her brain.

Her phone was filled with news related to the Sha Ying brand, which had already flooded the internet. Pages and pages of introductions of its features, advertising measures that had covered all grounds, and just looking at it made one tremble in fear.

“Ultra-light”, “ultra-strong”, “water-resistant”, “dirt withstanding”, “designed by the world’s top designer, Jason Wu”, “a whole line of the hottest stars and tens of millions spent on endorsements”, “570 department stores nationwide jointly promoting”…

The rumors regarding “Mind jumping ship” were spreading more and more intensely, such that truths and rumors were no longer distinguishable.

Thinking about these b*stard things, Lin Qian’s fingers just anxiously tapped at the car window to the point that the driver also asked anxiously, “Girl, what has made you so anxious?”

Lin Qian did not say a word in response.

She could still feel a dull ache in her back and legs. Her mind was racing between thoughts of the passionate two days spent with Li Zhicheng, and that their competitor had launched a strong counter-attack. She had no idea how bad the situation was. This made her even more anxious.

Very quickly, Lin Qian’s phone was flooded with calls.

The calls were endless and there were even more messages. In an instant, 50 messages had come in, and opening them, almost all were from the subordinates and close affiliates of the company, asking her what had happened and whether Mind had really jumped ship.

Lin Qian decided not to check anymore.

The phone calls were in the same vein. At such times, the frontline resources were all as anxious as she was. Lin Qian was able to stay composed when dealing with them, reassuring them with a few gentle words and expressing that the organization’s general headquarters would definitely have a countermeasure in place for them to stably continue existing sales. They need not be afraid of New Bori.

However, not being afraid was a lie. New Bori was the leader of the industry, and with their clear and direct challenge to Aida, who wouldn’t be scared? Each and every person who called her had their hearts laden with anxiety.

After a time, Lin Qian simply stopped picking up calls. She silenced her phone to vibration mode and put it in her pocket, lifting her head to look forward.

Not long after, she arrived at the organization’s general headquarters.

The main entrance was still a peaceful scene. Gao Lang and a few other security personnel were seated in the security pavilion, and seeing her walk toward them, they joyfully smiled at her till their eyes were squinting. Lin Qian felt as though a huge stone was pressing onto her chest but still maintained her usual expression and smiled at them, before taking swift strides in.

When she arrived at the top floor, she knew that she wasn’t the only anxious one. To the right of the reception counter of the executive floor, there was a large reception room. At this moment, it was completely filled with people and there were even several people who could not squeeze inside and were standing by the door. Xue Mingtao had brought several of Vinda’s managers. Also, some of the mid-tier staff from the general headquarters had rushed over.

The moment Lin Qian arrived, she was ushered to the reception room by the administrative secretary at the reception counter, “Manager Lin, you can sit here and wait a while as well. Currently, President Li and some other executives are having a conference call meeting with the Chairman.”

Lin Qian nodded her head. Such a executive meeting was not something that she could participate in. Although she desperately wanted to see Li Zhicheng, at such a time, she definitely could not cause trouble.

Her phone was still vibrating non-stop and she turned the phone off. The important people had already rushed over to this place. She greeted Xue Mingtao and some others, and everyone’s face was solemn and serious. They were sitting in the nicely renovated reception room that looked like a luxurious palace and drinking good tea that was served by the administration secretary, but nobody could taste its flavor.

Some people were smoking, some people were silent and others were drinking while scolding New Bori: plagiarizing Aida’s concept and engaging in low-handed means of competition. However, the question everyone was most concerned about was whether or not Mind was really planning to break their contract, becoming New Bori’s weapon to take down Aida?

For now, no one knew.

The reception room was in uproar from start to end. The atmosphere was stuffy and stifling. Lin Qian did not say much and sat on a sofa in a corner, thinking about Li Zhicheng. Her heart was so perplexed, it was as if weeds were growing through it.

No one in the room anticipated that they would end up waiting the whole afternoon. Separated by a wide corridor, the executive meeting room on the opposite side still had its door firmly shut, with no hints of movement.

At dusk, Jiang Yuan came out from the meeting room and came over to pass out orders.

Lin Qian and everyone else stood up.

She had to say, Jiang Yuan was really Li Zhicheng’s chosen man. Even at such a critical point in time, he still maintained his usual gentle smiling appearance. Slowly looking around the room, he said, “President Li wants to get everyone to go back to their homes. Several executives and the Chairman still have things to discuss to produce a solution. Everything that has to be said will be left till tomorrow during work.”

Li Zhicheng had always been held in high regard and with Jiang Yuan saying this, most were nodding their heads and standing up to leave. However, there were a few anxious individuals who approached Jiang Yuan and asked, “Exactly what do you plan to do about this issue? Everybody who gathered here are also very anxious.”

The moment those words were said, everyone, including Lin Qian, turned to look.

Jian Yuan simply smiled, “President Li said that the method used must be flexible.”

Thus, the people did not say anymore, nodded their heads and were convinced to walk out of the meeting room. Lin Qian could almost imagine the way Li Zhicheng had said it, his eyebrows relaxed and his gaze deep and piercing. But those words had indeed made her heart stabilize a lot more. Thinking about the way he gently loved her for the past couple of days, she couldn’t help but feel a wave of palpitation in her heart.

She purposely dawdled until the end and indeed, Jiang Yuan stood on the spot and did not leave. Waiting for her to pass by him, he said in a low voice, “Manager Lin, President Li wanted me to relay that he will be going to Shenzhen with Vice-president Gu to talk to President Wang and will only be back in two or three days.”

Lin Qian said, “Thank you.” Even though she was filled with uncertainty about the potential of Mind jumping ship, now was obviously not the right time to ask.

After Jiang Yuan had finished relaying what he had to say, he turned and left, returning to the meeting room. Lin Qian slowly walked over to the lift and fell deep in thought. Because there were quite a lot of people, the lift had already gone down once. The remaining people left behind were coincidentally Xue Mingtao and a few other people from Vinda. Lin Qian just stood together with them.

With a “ding”, the lift arrived.

Everyone was burning with impatience and did not care to be courteous, with everyone squeezing their way into the lift. Lin Qian remained at her spot until the end. Just as she wanted to enter, she suddenly heard the sound of a door coming from behind her. Subconsciously, she turned her head around and saw that the door of the executive meeting room had just been pushed open. Li Zhicheng was the first to exit, Gu Yanzhi following right behind, as well as Liu Tong, Jiang Yuan and the others. Li Zhicheng’s expression was still as water. He still wore the clothes that Lin Qian had picked out for him that morning. He normally wore a white shirt but today, Lin Qian insisted on him wearing a black one. At this moment, the black shirt with his suit and without a tie, his entire person looked cold, handsome and of large stature. His looks were brought out by the shirt to be particularly eye-catching … eye-catching yet cold.

Just then, a few executives had dispersed to return to their own offices, while he and Gu Yanzhi were walking towards the CEO’s office. As if he had noticed something, when he reached the door, he turned around and looked over to the lift.

Lin Qian’s eyes met with him in mid-air. The feelings in the depths of their eyes were indistinguishable as the two were too far apart. However, Lin Qian’s heartstrings quivered slightly. Even with such a faraway glance, she also felt some reassurance.

At the same time, she also felt her heart ache and a deep worry for him.

The lift doors closed slowly, blocking her line of sight. Meanwhile, Li Zhicheng who was in the distance had also turned his body to walk into the office.

The lift went down slowly.

Surrounding her were all her most familiar colleagues that had a tacit understanding between them, and no one said a word in those moments. Lin Qian thought about what Li Zhicheng had told her before:

For such things, I will write three pieces, and this is the second piece…

If anything happens in the future, don’t be scared…

Was the current situation all within his calculations after all?

She was unable to ascertain that, because this wasn’t a small situation. New Bori had given its all in attacking them, and additionally, Mind was now wavering in its position. Li Zhicheng had even mentioned that Mind would not change its stance. With the way things were developing, it was very possible that things had already exceeded his expectations!

Just then, Xue Mingtao’s phone rang. He picked it up, and hurriedly said two sentences, before hanging up. He raised his head to look at everyone.

“At four in the afternoon, New Bori’s Sha Ying officially launched their first batch of products.” There was a sharp glint in his eyes, “I’ve sent people to get their hands on two pieces.”

At this moment, including Lin Qian, everyone who was in the lift had their eyes light up.

“Immediately send one piece over to President Li,” he said, “The other piece will be brought back to our office and must be analyzed right away!”

“Alright!” Almost everyone responded in unison.

Eight o’clock at night.

Lin Qian, Xue Mingtao and the others were seated in Vinda’s meeting room.

A brand-new black backpack was placed in the middle of a round table. The logo of the bag was very obvious, an abstract eagle spreading its wings was on the top right corner, similar to many of the top European and American brands like ARC’TERYX, Salewa, Black Yak and had the same high-end feel.

For a short period, there was not a single person in the room who spoke. The staff from the technology department had just thoroughly studied it, analyzing the bag’s qualities and data.

The fabric was very similar to what Aida used in their products, but whether or not it was Mind still required further testing.

However, just based on its other aspects, it was already enough to make everyone speechless.

Lin Qian had always thought that Aito was a product that had achieved excellence.

It was not the most expensive product in the market, and neither was it the most popular product that consumers were after.

But it was definitely the first product in history to match up ideally with the aspirations and hopes of an entrepreneur, one that was most able to touch the hearts of people, and had become a leading product in the market.

It was the fruit of all the effort and intelligence from both Li Zhicheng and her, along with every single staff from Aida, the company which had gone through such long periods of obstacles yet remained resilient. It was the hope that could fulfill their ambitions to reach the pinnacle of their industry.

Lin Qian had previously thought that it was such a strong product, they need not be afraid of New Bori’s launch of an attack on them. Ning Weikai could potentially invest more in the market advertising, tap connections that Aida could never reach, or even riskfunds just to defeat Aito… But Lin Qian was very sure of one thing, and that was even if New Bori were to make a copy, their new products would never be as stellar as Aito’s. Even if they wanted to fight, Aito could also respond in kind.

Why? Because in the days that they had devoted themselves so deeply to their work, the staff of Aida had looked into every small detail and ensured its intricacy. Only then did they fulfil Li Zhicheng’s requirement for the “perfect longbow”, casting a market miracle as a result of the past few months.

Hence, Lin Qian was so confident, completely and utterly confident. Her confidence in Aito was as strong as steel.

However, at this moment, looking at the authentic piece of Sha Ying’s product, her steel-like confidence was shattered in an instant.

Sha Ying was actually more outstanding than Aito. Ignoring the marketing tactics and brand name, all aspects of Sha Ying’s quality and character, essentially the bag itself, had actually surpassed Aito overall! And within such a similar price range!

An experienced technician presented his analysis and sighed, “Its weight is 750 grams, lighter than Aito’s 803 grams; its capacity is 35 liters, greater than Aito’s 30 litres; its weight tolerance is also better… Water-resistance, fast-drying and tolerance against dirt have all performed better… Moreover, they’ve also used the YTT zip technology, NK wear-resistant technology…”

Lin Qian and the others grew even more silent. The technologies that were mentioned were known by people in the trade as the newest development in the European outdoor brands (a patented technology). They were so new that local enterprises that specializing in outdoor products had yet to successfully bring them into the market.

No one had anticipated that New Bori had long taken secret actions and used them in the production of Sha Ying.

The technician continued, stating, “As for the exterior…” He had not finished. He didn’t need to. Everyone in the room knew the reputation of Jason Wu, a top designer from America. Even Lin Qian was an avid follower of his. Although beauty is in the eye of the beholder and is subjective, based on Lin Qian’s perspective, this style of bag was clean and modern, with a certain unique beauty to it.

This kind of beauty was not something that the Aito product, which was a result of the blood, sweat and tears of the exterior designers of Aito, could compete with.

That night after Lin Qian had left the office, she did not return to her own home, but continued to wait in Li Zhicheng’s townhouse.

Since she did not know specifically when he would be coming back, she wanted to wait in his home until his return.

The night fell quiet and lonely as she sat under the empty grape frame, looking at the surface of the dark lake and trees, and there was only one feeling within her, a feeling of sadness.

Regardless of whether Li Zhicheng’s had expected these moves by New Bori, regardless of whether they would be able to counterattack in the future, thinking of Sha Ying and Aito now just made her upset.

The most depressing event is when one puts in all their effort to succeed, and at an unexpected moment, realizing someone has surpassed you. All your hard work had ultimately gone to waste.

You thought that you were outstanding enough to resist any attack: diligent, intelligent, dedicated. Why would you not expect to succeed?

But there was bound to be someone who was smarter than you, more outstanding than you, and even possibly with more determination. Lin Qian had to admit New Bori had indeed come up with an even more perfect product than Aito, and had does so in a shorter amount of time. If they didn’t give it their all and put in their blood, sweat and tears, it would have been an impossible feat.

Lin Qian had always prided herself in being the most outstanding talent in the industry, and she had always thought that New Bori’s market advantage was not due to them having outstanding talents and enterprise, but rather because of the support from Zhushi, which had immense wealth.

Now, she realized, Ning Weikai and his team were truly more gifted than she thought.

They were indeed worthy of their title as the industry champion. In comparison, the Aida team was still lagging behind by an considerable distance, and were, perhaps, simply not a match for New Bori.

And the result of such a large gap, was, by looking at the product itself, Aito… had already been defeated.

Lin Qian stayed silent for a long time, finally lifting her head to look at the vast night sky.

By now, Li Zhicheng should have arrived in Shenzhen.

Regardless of how he chose to proceed thereafter, he would have already recognized that Aito had a high possibility of being short-lived, being defeated completely in this market battle.

Li Zhicheng, what’s on your mind right now?

Two days later.

Early that morning, Ning Weikai went to Zhushi headquarters for a meeting.

The moment he entered the meeting room, he felt multiple gazes whizzing by and landing on him. Some were of envy, some were of respect, some were of jealousy, some remained calm and collected.

Ning Weikai smiled slightly, walked over to be next to the oldest son of the Zhu family and sat down on his own seat.

Having competed in the commercial world for so many years, he of course knew that in the most successful times, one had to be even more careful and low-key in order to avoid making enemies. However, he had to admit, looking at the brothers from forcing a fake smile made his heart feel swell with pride.

The operations management department reported on the results and dates of the individual companies and divisions as usual. Sha Ying, which had only been on the market for two days had set a scary sales record that even Ning Weikai himself did not expect.

Their sales were three times that of Aito!

Ning Weikai could almost predict the flopping market that Aito was about to face. No matter if Li Zhicheng had any follow-up plans, Ning Weikai could be sure that Sha Ying was so outstanding that it had exceeded everyone’s expectations.

Now, it was Li Zhicheng’s turn to take a blow.

Through a full morning of meetings at Zhushi headquarters, Ning Weikai had been in a very good mood. Similarly, in a good mood were Yuan Jun and the other core people of the company, as well as the entire newly-formed Sha Ying department.

After returning to his office, Ning Weikai first told Yuan Jun, “Notify the human resource department to distribute the bonus for the Sha Ying division ahead of time. Other than that, take my share of the bonus and distribute it amongst them.”

Yuan Jun said, “You sure? Is this really ok?”

Ning Weikai arrogantly waved him off, “Just do what I ask. They have done so well. As their boss, what’s there for me to be stingy?”

Yuan Jun smiled and nodded his head.

Just then, an executive that was in charge of sales walked in, his face grim, “President, Li Zhicheng has gone to Shenzhen and after Wang Taishi signed the agreement with us. He is now also in Shenzhen.”

Ning Weikai had predicted this. He nodded his head and gave the order, “Watch them closely.”

Looking at him remain so calm, the executive and Yuan Jun did not say more and retreated back out.

Ning Weikai sat in silence for a moment and retrieved a document from his drawer. He walked to the window and dug one hand into his pants pocket, serenely lowering his head.

It was half a month ago when New Bori signed a collaboration agreement with Mind.

According to the contents of the agreement, Mind would break their contract with Aida that month and New Bori would compensate them three times of the contract break penalty. Meanwhile, Mind’s yearly production had to be dedicated to satisfying the purchasing requirements of New Bori to ensure it could supply its goods to other enterprises.

Securing this agreement had not been easy. The old fogey, Wang Taishi, was extremely stubborn, cold and proud. However, there were many methods in this world to cause someone to relent, because everyone has an Achilles heel. Wang Taishi was perhaps a man that was relatively free of weaknesses, but he still had family. What about his wife, son and daughter? The two sales managers that Ning Weikai deployed were experts at manipulating human nature and benefits.

Moreover, Ning Weikai had always thought that in the commercial world, nobody would be unwavering or not tempted by opportunities. If they were not swayed, it was simply because the benefits were not good enough.

Between manipulating his weaknesses, he had also given Wang Taishi sufficient temptation to whet his appetite. Finally, the deal had been pushed through.

At this moment, Wang Taishi should have already come clean with Li Zhicheng.

He lifted his head, looking at the blue sky out the window, and he suddenly felt down, and also a bit of defiant indifference. He called Yuan Jun, “Prepare the car, I would like to go out. There’s no need for you to follow.”

Where should he go? At first, Ning Weikai simply wanted to go out and get a breath of fresh air, but unknowingly, he drove and ended up at New Bori’s flagship store on Spring Street.

He sat in the car and looked at the surging crowds at the doors. Many customers could not even squeeze their way in, which made his heart so, so joyful.

New Bori was his entire blood, sweat and tears. It was Zhushi’s, but also his.

After watching for a while, his gaze was caught by a girl standing on the corner of the street.

She was dressed in casual attire, a cap on her head, with both hands in her pockets, standing on the opposite side of the road and silently looking at New Bori’s flagship store. That expression… cannot be described as sadness, but rather a loss of what to do in the midst of frustration. Her usual intelligent and bright demeanor was nowhere to be seen, appearing to be rather pitiful.

Ning Weikai looked at her for a while before pushing open the car door and walking over.

“Zero dollars.” He walked to her side and looked at her while smiling.