Our Glamorous Time

Chapter 12: Standing Firm

It was nearly two o'clock in the afternoon. Lin Qian had documents for the meeting prepared and carried them into Li Zhicheng's office. When she opened the door, she saw him standing in front of the window, lost in thought.

Lin Qian put the documents on his desk and was about to leave when she heard his clear and cool voice. "You join me in the meeting."

Surprised at first, she soon became inwardly delighted. She remained calm and said, "Alright."

He was allowing her to participate in such an important and confidential strategic meeting. Lin Qian thought it meant that he trusted her. Well, young and inexperienced as he is, the boss knows how to judge people and use them.

In the well-lit meeting room, eight people sat around a long, auburn-colored meeting table made of oak. These were Li Zhicheng, Gu Yanzhi, the vice CEO in charge of production and technology, the vice CEO in charge of functional divisions, the marketing director, the production director, the finance director, and the purchasing director.

Currently, they constituted the core management team of Aida.

Li Zhicheng sat in the middle. And Lin Qian had, of course, no place at the table but sat behind him on a seat by the wall.

The meeting was hosted by Gu Yanzhi. His attitude was still free and easy despite the critical topic they were going to discuss. He looked around and said steadily, "Okay, let's begin. I'll say a few words first.

"The meeting today is for discussing the future development of Aida. I believe you all know our current situation better than Mr. Li and I. Mr. Li just took over our company a short time ago. So the objectives and rules for today's meeting are practical and realistic attitudes, full and thorough discussions, a consensus on the direction of future development, and strict implementation of future development. Okay, Finance Director, you go first."

The meeting room was then silent. Lin Qian was impressed by Gu Yanzhi's speech. What bureaucratese he's speaking! But on second thought, he really did use every word purposefully!

She glanced at Li Zhicheng and found him appearing calm and focused. Amongst the group of middle-aged people, he appeared extraordinarily young and handsome.

At that moment, the finance director turned on the projector. After a brief overview, he went straight to the point and dropped a bombshell: "We've checked and found that after we have paid off the Carcinogen Incident, with both accounts receivable and accounts payable included in the calculation, the capital that the entire group can mobilize in the short-term is rough..." He paused for a second and then continued, "Two to five million dollars."

Silence fell on the meeting room again. People looked at each other, speechless. Lin Qian felt her heart skip a beat. On her lap was a notebook, on the top left of which she had written "10 million." She then crossed it out and instead inserted "2 million."

It turned out that the situation was even worse than what her brother had estimated.

Two million dollars! What can a company do with two million dollars nowadays, especially a company of thousands of employees like Aida?

She couldn't help but glance at Li Zhicheng again, only to see him sitting straight and looking up calmly at the finance director, one hand resting on the table.

The grand scene of when he had been escorted into the office by a fleet of expensive vehicles two days earlier came to Lin Qian's mind. It was a great contrast to the current situation. Lin Qian started to take pity on him.

After a moment of awkward, depressing silence in the room, it was the marketing director's turn to speak.

His name was Xue Mingtao. A capable man in his forties, he looked composed and refined. Lin Qian knew something about him: When the former CEO had been pushing to open foreign markets, Xue Mingtao had been treated lightly and given little power. Now that there was a new CEO, he had regained control of marketing. He had been an underdog for so long that he was ready to launch a marketing campaign to turn things around.