201: Chapter 200 The Head of the Shen Family with a Monthly Salary of 20,000

The corridor outside the meeting room.

Shen Bingtong stood by the floor-to-ceiling window.

She leaned against the window frame.

The glass of the floor-to-ceiling window turned into a mirror under the afternoon sun.

She wasn't eavesdropping, nor did she deign to.

But from the reflection in the glass just now, she had seen everything clearly.

Qin Feng had taken Gu Qianqian by the wrist and led her to a corner, the two of them pressed against a filing cabinet.

The man's hand rested on the woman's waist as he lowered his head to her ear, his lips almost brushing her earlobe.

Then the woman gave him a push, but instead, she fell into his embrace.

Shen Bingtong withdrew her gaze.

Gu Qianqian's ears were very red when she came out of the office.

However, her gait had already returned to the efficient rhythm of the morning.

The relationship between Qin Feng and Gu Qianqian went far beyond superior and subordinate.

Qin Feng felt protective of Gu Qianqian. And it wasn't just protectiveness.

He had relaxed all his muscles when he drew close; his back wasn't tense, and the angle of his arms was an embrace rather than a defensive posture.

That was a posture of trust.

This woman was Qin Feng's Achilles' heel.

It didn't seem like a loss to have discovered this information.

However, unless it was absolutely necessary, she wouldn't use it.

Shen Bingtong looked at her reflection in the glass window.

Leather jacket, cargo pants, Martin boots.

Standing in the corridor on the twentieth-something floor of the Qinsheng Group, she looked completely out of place among the office workers in shirts and ties.

A monthly salary of twenty thousand.

When Shen Bingtong finished reading the folder in her study last night, she had pre-imagined a dozen scenarios for their meeting.

None of them involved entering the Qinsheng Group as a bodyguard.

I, the dignified leader of the Shen Family, actually came here to be someone's bodyguard for twenty thousand a month...

Shen Bingtong thought self-mockingly; if word got out, people in the Jinling underworld would probably laugh their heads off.

Still... being a hands-off boss didn't seem bad either. At least she didn't have to use her brain; it was much easier than being the head of the Shen Family.

Gu Qianqian walked over from the corner with a folder tucked under her arm.

She stopped in front of Shen Bingtong.

Her face had already returned to that cold CEO expression.

Only the red on the tips of her ears still held a lingering warmth that hadn't faded.

"Follow me in."

Gu Qianqian pushed open the door to the meeting room.

"Sit next to me during the meeting."

Shen Bingtong followed her inside.

The meeting room was rectangular, with a twelve-person oak conference table in the middle.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling window was the Jinling skyline. Sunlight streamed in from the west, casting a band of light across the table.

Legal Department manager Qian Peng was already sitting in the second seat on the left, with a stack of contract copies spread out before him.

He was thirty-five or thirty-six, with a round face, gold-rimmed glasses, and thinning hair styled in a comb-over.

Marketing Department Vice President Zhou Hai sat opposite him, flipping through a PPT on a tablet.

In his early forties, he had a square face, a straight back, and a tie knotted meticulously.

Finance Director Chen Fang sat in the seat closest to the door. Her laptop was already open, the screen filled with spreadsheets.

Thirty-eight years old, with short hair and thin-framed glasses, her lips were pursed as she checked the data.

The three of them looked up at the same time.

Gu Qianqian walked in front, and they all looked at the person behind her.

Dressed entirely in black.

A motorcycle leather jacket, cargo pants, and Martin boots.

Her face was devoid of any expression.

Qian Peng's hand stopped on the contract copies.

Zhou Hai's finger, which was flipping through the PPT, hovered above the screen.

Chen Fang's eyes peeked over the top of her laptop screen, the gaze behind her lenses becoming more wary.

Gu Qianqian pulled out the chair at the head of the table and sat down.

Shen Bingtong sat in the seat to her right, placing her helmet on the table.

Gu Qianqian opened the folder.

"Let's go over the progress of Hanhang Heavy Industry's asset restructuring today."

Her voice switched into work mode, completely different from the tone she had used with Qin Feng just now.

"Qian Peng, where are we with the legal documents for the equity transfer?"

Qian Peng snapped out of it and pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses.

"President Gu, the registration for the change of equity for the parent company has been submitted. Industry and Commerce said it will be approved within three working days."

He flipped a page of the contract.

"However, there are issues with the equity structure of two subsidiaries under HNA. They have cross-shareholdings, and the legal relationships need to be clarified before the changes can be made."

"How long?"

"A week at the earliest."

"Too slow." Gu Qianqian pulled a form out of the folder and pushed it over.

"For the cross-shareholding part, give me a solution before the end of the day today."

The corner of Qian Peng's mouth twitched.

"President Gu, if it's by the end of today, it might..."

Gu Qianqian glanced at him.

"Fine." Qian Peng took the form.

"Zhou Hai, what about marketing?"

Zhou Hai turned the tablet around, facing the screen toward Gu Qianqian.

"Of HNA's three original core customers, two have already expressed willingness to continue cooperation."

"The third one, Old Man Zhou from Jinding Heavy Industry, is more hesitant. He said he wants to see the new management's plan before deciding."

"How much of HNA's revenue does the contract with Jinding account for?"

"Twenty-two percent."

"A major portion." Gu Qianqian's fingertips tapped twice on the table.

"Make an appointment with him. I'll negotiate personally within this week."

Zhou Hai nodded and made a note on the tablet.

"Chen Fang, what about finance?"

Chen Fang pushed up her thin-framed glasses and turned the laptop around.

"There's a discrepancy between book assets and actual assets. The fixed assets are inflated by about eight million."

"I suspect that depreciation wasn't sufficiently accounted for, and the residual value of a batch of equipment was estimated too high."

"Which equipment specifically?"

"The CNC production line in Workshop No. 3 is still listed on the books at twelve million, but I had someone take photos today."

Chen Fang pulled up a photo.

"See for yourself. Can this rust be worth twelve million?"

Gu Qianqian glanced at the photo and frowned.

"Inventory all fixed assets again and hire a third-party appraisal agency."

"The costs?"

"Follow the normal approval process."

Chen Fang nodded and turned the computer back to continue recording.

Shen Bingtong sat next to Gu Qianqian without saying a word.

Her hands rested on her knees, her posture relaxed.

But her eyes were moving.

From the way Qian Peng's fingers flipped the contract, to the rhythm of Zhou Hai's swiping on the tablet, to the frequency of Chen Fang's typing.

She took in all three of their micro-expressions.

When Qian Peng said 'a week,' his eyes flickered to the upper left.

That wasn't recall; he was fabricating an excuse. The reality was likely faster, but he wanted to leave himself some leeway.

When Zhou Hai mentioned 'Jinding Heavy Industry,' his speaking speed increased; he wasn't confident about this client and was using information density to cover his insecurity.

Chen Fang was the steadiest of the three; her eyes never deviated from the data.

Interesting.

This CEO of Qinsheng Group wasn't bad at managing people.

But among these three subordinates, at least one and a half were slacking off.

At this point, Qian Peng finally couldn't help himself.

His gaze moved from the contract to Shen Bingtong for the third time before quickly retracting.

He reached under the table, pulled out his phone, and his thumb swiped rapidly across the screen.

Opposite him, Zhou Hai's phone vibrated in his trouser pocket.

Zhou Hai calmly pulled it out and glanced at it on his lap.

The wechat message was from Qian Peng.

"Who's the newcomer? The kind with a gaze that could kill."

Zhou Hai's thumb tapped out three words on the screen.

"Don't dare ask."