43: Chapter 43 Whirlpool

It had been over ten days since he and An Miaomiao returned to Jianning from Star City.

Shuicifang was expanding steadily, so he didn't need to worry about it.

Within those ten-plus days, he also made a trip to Zhou Island to meet with Boss Nian and finalize the supply of some new seafood.

However, as soon as he returned today, he was summoned to the company because there was a development regarding the sewage modification project, and the center of this vortex had landed on Shuicifang.

Before Yang Shiguang even arrived at the company, the management team had already gathered in the conference room, the atmosphere heavy.

"Manager You, how could you accept this? It's obviously setting us up to be used as a tool."

"Exactly, no matter what, this matter must be declined."

"If you ask me, we should just go along with General Manager Huang's wishes and take the loss."

Everyone chimed in, harboring more or less resentment toward You Li.

Only A-Long sat to the side without saying a word.

An Miaomiao and You Ge wanted to speak up for You Li, but with their leader absent, they didn't know where to start or what to say.

You Li sat in her seat with her head lowered, silent.

Soon, Yang Shiguang walked into the conference room, and he immediately sensed that the atmosphere was off.

He tossed his bag onto the table, lit a cigarette, leaned back in his chair, and said with a smile:

"Yo, why so serious? Are you holding a criticism session?"

Hearing this, You Li quickly stood up, lowering her head, and said with a grievance:

"Young Master Yang, I'm sorry…"

"Tell me the facts first."

Before she could finish, Yang Shiguang interrupted her by tapping his fingers on the table three times.

You Li froze for a moment, then slowly recounted the ins and outs of the situation.

It turned out that the province had allocated a special subsidy fund for sewage modification in Jianning, and the city had held a two-day special symposium on how to use these funds, hosted by Li Liang, the head of the Environmental Protection Bureau, with Deputy Director Yang from the Government Office attending.

The invited business representatives included "advanced" participants in the sewage modification like Yihong Hotel and Shuicifang, as well as giants in the Jianning catering industry like the Jianhua chain, which had initially opposed the sewage modification.

Since Yang Shiguang was away on a business trip, You Li represented Shuicifang at the symposium.

At the meeting, two opposing opinions clashed.

One was to provide tiered rewards based on the progress and quality of the sewage modification. The supporters of this plan were mainly enterprises that had basically completed the sewage modification and individual enterprises like Yihong Hotel. Shuicifang naturally belonged to this category.

The other was to assess and subsidize based on the amount of funds invested in the sewage modification. The supporters of this plan were naturally large chain catering enterprises like Jianhua. After all, chain restaurants have many locations, requiring large investments for sewage modification. However, if this plan were implemented, enterprises like Shuicifang and Yihong Hotel, which did not invest much in sewage modification, would naturally receive very little subsidy.

The meeting lasted for two days and concluded yesterday without reaching a conclusion.

Finally, Director Li Liang announced a three-day recess and asked the participating enterprises to draft a more suitable plan before reconvening.

However, Mr. Wang from Yihong Hotel directly nominated Shuicifang to draft the plan on behalf of the enterprises, and General Manager Huang from Jianhua, Director Li Liang, and Director Sun all expressed their support.

Under pressure, You Li had no choice but to agree.

After hearing the gist of the matter, Yang Shiguang laughed.

"Haha, Director Li Liang probably thinks highly of us, and as for Mr. Wang, there's no need to think twice—he's definitely trying to turn the tables to get revenge for the time I tricked him."

"As for General Manager Huang, it's more of a threat. As for Director Sun, it must be the will of Mayor Tianming behind him; there's a deeper meaning to all of this."

Yang Shiguang tapped his fingers on the table, deep in thought.

"Sister Li, what are the attitudes of the two leaders toward the two plans?"

You Li replied:

"Director Li leans toward tiered rewards, but Director Sun, or rather, Mayor Tianming, leans toward proportional subsidies."

Seeing that Yang Shiguang didn't speak, You Li added:

"Young Master Yang, I think there's something fishy."

"Sewage modification is the most important part of Mayor Tianming's work right now, and we are contributors to the sewage modification. Reasonably and emotionally, he shouldn't support proportional subsidies."

Indeed, if proportional subsidies were implemented, not only would the contributors feel disheartened, but it wouldn't help much with the progress of the sewage modification work. Those enterprises might not accelerate their modification progress after receiving the money, and might even continue to drag their feet.

Yang Shiguang looked around and said:

"It's not just you who finds it fishy; the whole thing is very strange."

"Not to mention why a symposium initiated by the Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau and attended by the liaison for the Executive Deputy Mayor would have a business representative draft the plan."

"Even the entire purpose of the symposium is very suspicious."

"Ask yourself, the right to allocate these special funds lies with the city. How they want to use it, how they want to distribute it—the Municipal Committee and Municipal Government could just hold a meeting to decide and then execute it according to procedure. Why would they need to ask for our opinion?"

"Then why go to the trouble of holding a symposium to decide?"

Everyone fell into deep thought, offering no answer.

Yang Shiguang paused and continued:

"There is only one reason: Executive Deputy Mayor Zhu Tianming needs this meeting, or the consensus of all catering enterprise representatives, to achieve a certain goal."

At this point, Yang Shiguang's expression darkened slightly, and he said in a low voice:

"Everyone, we may have fallen into a vortex. The cause of this vortex is in our catering industry, but the core is… in the higher echelons."

"I'll handle it. Everyone, return to your duties."

With their leader back in charge, everyone felt much more relaxed.

At this moment, Ouyang Xintian, the manager of the General Affairs Department, spoke up:

"Young Master Yang, regarding the meeting in three days, will you be attending, or will you be bringing Manager You…"

Before he could finish, Yang Shiguang's gaze turned cold, and he interrupted him with a gloomy expression:

"You Li is the Marketing Manager. She needs to oversee the operations of all stores, not be my secretary."

Shuicifang did not have senior executive positions, and because You Li arrived the earliest and had a close relationship with Yang Shiguang, she currently held a position that, while nominally equal to other management, vaguely had the trend of being second only to him.

Although she hadn't noticed it herself, aside from A-Long, many important matters were communicated by the management team to her before she reported them to Yang Shiguang.

However, You Li was the youngest among all the management, and before coming to Shuicifang, she hadn't even held a leadership position.

Furthermore, many of Shuicifang's policies were personally formulated by Yang Shiguang, while she was merely the executor.

Therefore, everyone questioned her ability, and this symposium incident was merely the fuse.

Yang Shiguang had known this for a long time. Competition within the company is a good thing; the catfish effect can stimulate vitality.

But once it became too intense and affected Yang Shiguang's layout of the entire company's organizational structure, he absolutely could not accept it.

So he needed to knock the others down a peg. With a cold expression, he looked around at everyone and said in a cold, irresistible voice:

"I just said that this symposium is very suspicious."

"If my prediction is correct, having us come up with this plan is likely the will of Mayor Tianming. He might have even communicated with Mr. Wang, and Mr. Wang nominating us is very likely at his instruction."

"In this situation, could Sister Li have refused? Even if I went, it wouldn't have worked."

"So, there is no need for everyone to be overly harsh on Manager You."

Hearing this, everyone broke into a cold sweat. They were all seasoned professionals, yet they were left breathless by the aura of an 18-year-old boy.

Even An Miaomiao was seeing such a serious Yang Shiguang for the first time, which made him feel a bit unfamiliar to her.

But, so handsome, I love him even more. My little heart is beating thump-thump-thump. What should I do?

An Miaomiao couldn't control herself and punched You Ge, who was snoring nearby, in the face.

You Ge was stunned.

Who am I, where am I, what am I doing?

Just as everyone thought Yang Shiguang was about to start scolding them, they saw his expression soften, and he smiled:

"You are all my seniors, and even if I have achieved some success, I am still just a college student."

"Currently, Shuicifang is in a period of rapid development, and I hope all my seniors will provide more support."

"We don't need to consider who is picking whose peaches right now; instead, we need to work together to make the peaches bigger. What do you all think?"

Hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and nodded in agreement.

"I will go find Mayor Tianming tomorrow to understand the situation."

"As for the meeting in three days, Miaomiao, you will come with me."

This time it was An Miaomiao's turn to be surprised.

"Me? Go to the symposium? Brother Shiguang, are you serious?"