Chapter 192: Leading by Ten Steps

"I wonder what Miss Cui would like to discuss with me?" Zheng Qian asked.

It was already quite late. The sooner they talked, the sooner he could finish and go back to sleep.

"Actually, it's nothing major. It's just that my immature cousin caused a bit of a misunderstanding with you previously."

"He realized he did something wrong and insisted on coming along when I told him I was coming to see you, so he could personally apologize to you."

Wow.

Good grief.

Cui Ziqing truly lived up to her name.

She could actually say something like that.

The meaning was correct, but she phrased it so beautifully.

Just from her opening statement, it was clear that Cui Ziqing was on a high level.

Zheng Qian absolutely did not believe that Cui Jinghui could say something so humble.

"Jinghui, you were so eager back home. Now that you've seen President Zheng, why don't you hurry up?" Cui Ziqing shot a glance at Cui Jinghui.

Cui Jinghui hesitated.

If there were no one else around, it would be easy to say.

The key was that Song Qingli and Shi Yuzhu were both present.

Shi Yuzhu knew full well how imposing he had acted previously.

Back at school, he had even relied on his influence to bully Song Qingli's deskmate.

Off-campus, Shi Yuzhu liked to make friends and knew just as many people as Cui Jinghui.

Song Qingli had stayed on campus as a teacher, guiding wave after wave of new students.

It was true that there were only two people watching.

But if he bowed his head and apologized to Zheng Qian today, by tomorrow, everyone on and off campus, both inside and outside their social circles, would know about it, and he would become the laughingstock of everyone.

"What is wrong with you, Cui Jinghui?"

"Sorry about that, President Zheng. He hasn't woken up yet."

Cui Ziqing pinched Cui Jinghui hard.

Cui Jinghui's expression changed drastically.

There was no other way; if he wanted to rise up in the Cui Family.

He had to apologize.

"Brother Qian, the previous matters were my fault. Please be the bigger person and don't take it to heart."

Hiss...

He actually apologized.

Shi Yuzhu was shocked.

Was his old childhood friend Zheng Qian really doing so well now?

Even Cui Jinghui had to apologize to him.

Shi Yuzhu knew Cui Jinghui; he was definitely not the type to lower his head to someone voluntarily. It must have been forced by Cui Ziqing.

But was there really any subtle difference between voluntary and forced?

Both meant bowing to Zheng Qian.

Both meant losing face.

Even Song Qingli couldn't help but sigh.

When she was a student, she had heard plenty of legendary stories about Cui Jinghui.

Now, he had actually lowered his head to Zheng Qian.

Indeed, university was a watershed. Cui Jinghui relied on the Cui Family's massive assets to have his status today, while Zheng Qian had gone from a man with no background to a current board member of the Qianhe Group.

Cui Jinghui was ten thousand times unwilling.

But what could he do at this moment?

Zheng Qian wasn't just some board member of the Qianhe Group; he was the Chairman!

The difference between a Chairman and a board member was immense!

A board member only held a small portion of the company's shares.

But the Chairman held the vast majority of the company's shares, possessed firm discourse power and control over the company, and was the absolute helmsman.

Zheng Qian's net worth far exceeded their imagination.

Zheng Qian's capabilities had long since jumped out of their scope of understanding.

If Zheng Qian were just a senior executive of the company, Tang Xingyu could still suppress him.

But Zheng Qian was the Chairman of the Qianhe Group. Right now, the Qianhe Group and Yuehua Shipping were in a hostile relationship, and Zheng Qian was essentially a competitor to Tang Xingyu's father.

Usually, in their circle of classmates, everyone started at roughly the same point. If someone was one or two steps ahead, they could show off a little.

Zheng Qian was essentially ten steps ahead of them, if not more!

Who knows what Zheng Qian had done in the years since graduation to build the Qianhe Group.

Cui Jinghui felt inferior; he couldn't even handle his own cousin right now.

Even if he handled his cousin, his uncles would still use his older female cousin to suppress him.

His life was just too difficult!

"Miss Ziqing, may I ask what you wanted to see me about?" Zheng Qian asked, getting straight to the point.

"Qian, should Song Qingli and I step aside? You two should talk about your business."

Only then did Shi Yuzhu truly feel the gap between him and Zheng Qian.

Shi Yuzhu might never be able to say a few words to someone of Cui Ziqing's level in his entire life, perhaps only getting a word or two in when hanging out with Cui Jinghui.

In daily life, he and Cui Ziqing were people from completely different worlds, unreachable.

Now, Cui Ziqing had downed three glasses of XO just to sit at Zheng Qian's table to discuss business.

He had to be sensible; it was best to step aside.

"No need. From now on, you are an employee of my company. We are all on the same side, so just listen in."

Cui Ziqing didn't shy away from it: "The reason I rushed over at this hour is mainly to bring my cousin here to apologize to you."

"I wonder if President Zheng could be the bigger person and forgive him?"

"My cousin has deeply realized his mistake and has just sincerely apologized to you."

"Look, regarding the previous two incidents, you didn't suffer any losses, did you?"

As for the past, let it be.

In this society ruled by law, Zheng Qian couldn't exactly take Cui Jinghui's life.

He had beaten Cui Jinghui until his head looked like an Indian man's, his arm was in a cast, and he heard some ribs were broken, yet the other party hadn't pursued responsibility.

Everyone would be developing in Yezhou in the future; they would be seeing each other all the time.

"Fine, I'll give you some face today. I won't pursue this matter further."

Zheng Qian represented Red Rose, and Cui Ziqing represented the Cui Family.

With him saying this, it was equivalent to a truce between both sides, each developing their own business, minding their own business.

"Good! President Zheng is truly magnanimous!"

"A toast to President Zheng!"

Cui Ziqing poured three more glasses of wine and downed them in one go.

Earlier, that was a drink to join the table.

Now, this was an apology drink.

"President Zheng, besides that, I also want to talk to you about a collaboration," Cui Ziqing smiled and said.

"What kind of collaboration?" Zheng Qian asked.

Cui Ziqing pointed to the wine glass on the table, then brought up the matter of the Maldives wine, hoping to reach a collaboration with Red Rose.

It would have been better if she hadn't brought this up.

As soon as she mentioned it, Zheng Qian remembered that the Cui Family had previously imposed a wine blockade on Red Rose.

If not for that, Red Rose wouldn't have fallen into Zheng Qian's hands so cheaply.

The Cui Family had previously wanted to use this point to swallow Red Rose in one bite.

If he didn't give the Cui Family a taste of anti-monopoly now, it would really be unjustifiable.

You want to order wine, right?

Fine.

Ten times the price.

"Miss Ziqing, you should have investigated by now. The wines in my shop are all imported, high-end goods, and the cost is not cheap."

"I believe you should have investigated it, right? If not, that's fine, I can tell you that these wines are shipped from the Maldives, and the transportation cost is very high."

Manufacturing costs, transportation costs, plus the fact that Zheng Qian was now the owner of the wine type; if you were buying from him, he had to make some profit, right?

You want to order wine? Sure.

Ten times the price!