Chapter 70: Scoring

With something like this happening, Chen Weiqiang was not in the company.

That left only her and Zheng Qian, the two vice presidents, to handle it.

"Let's do this: we'll act as if we don't know about it and see what that kid does."

"But President Liu..."

"No more 'buts.' If he really can't handle it, we'll step in to clean up this mess."

Zhengxin Shipyard.

Zheng Qian had just entered his office and hadn't even sat down yet when Xia Xixi rushed over to report the matter to him.

"How did this happen?"

Hearing Xia Xixi's report, Zheng Qian was clearly a bit bewildered.

Seven million was not a small amount. The upfront costs for these four international cargo shipments had all been paid in advance by the company. If this money couldn't be recovered, the last six months would have been for nothing.

"President Chen is currently unreachable, and President Liu hasn't given a definitive answer either." Xia Xixi told Zheng Qian that, at the moment, only his rank was sufficient to handle this matter.

Furthermore, as the head of the Public Relations Department, this matter also fell within his scope of responsibility.

Only then did Zheng Qian understand what the so-called Public Relations Department meant.

It wasn't about PR for celebrities in the entertainment industry, but rather handling these kinds of emergencies.

This department usually seemed very idle and inconspicuous in the company, but it was indispensable.

Zheng Qian had originally thought that Chen Weiqiang had given him an idle department, but he hadn't expected the Public Relations Department to be so important.

No wonder Chen Weiqiang had assigned one of his capable assistants to him.

Zheng Qian did not panic; he immediately convened a meeting with his subordinates in the Public Relations Department to investigate the background information of Jiyuan Woodworking.

In less than two hours, there was a knock at the office door.

Qin Xueli was the first to deliver the information regarding Jiyuan Woodworking.

"President Zheng, this is the information I have compiled. Please take a look."

Xia Xixi helped close the office door.

It was evident that after receiving Zheng Qian's work instructions, she had worked at full speed without any delay to investigate the background of Jiyuan Woodworking and the history of cooperation between the two companies.

The documents showed that at the very beginning of Zhengxin Group, Jiyuan Woodworking had signed a six-month cooperation agreement with the company. Now, looking at the time, the six-month period was almost up.

"President Zheng, I suspect that Jiyuan Woodworking must be well-acquainted with the company's boss. Otherwise, it would be impossible for them to sign such a contract the day after the company was founded. What do you think?"

Zheng Qian agreed with Qin Xueli's assessment.

"Why don't you give President Chen a call and ask?"

"President Chen cannot be reached right now; I cannot get through to his phone."

Knock, knock, knock.

"Come in."

The second person to enter was Yao Manman.

She first glanced at Qin Xueli standing nearby, her eyes filled with disdain.

Qin Xueli was trying a bit too hard to show off, wasn't she? To rush ahead of everyone else to give Zheng Qian the information—what was her intention?

Don't you know that Zheng Qian is my ex-boyfriend?

You want to compete with me for Zheng Qian? Do you have the ability? Would Zheng Qian even look twice at a scheming bitch like you?

Ridiculous.

Yao Manman cursed Qin Xueli in her heart, then walked to the front of the desk and presented a document with both hands.

"President Zheng, this is the information I have compiled. Please take a look."

Zheng Qian opened the second document.

What Yao Manman had compiled were the financial issues between the two companies.

Zhengxin Group was in a development stage. Although this industry didn't rely heavily on cash flow, the premise was that all clients would pay the final balance to the company according to the contract time. If everyone acted like Jiyuan Woodworking, letting the company do the work and then not paying, it would cause significant difficulties for the company.

If Jiyuan Woodworking refused to settle the seven-million balance and even sued the company, what kind of consequences that would cause—Yao Manman had annotated this in great detail in the document.

After turning the page, there was Jiyuan Woodworking's publicly available quarterly financial report.

"President Zheng, I checked the contract signed between the company and Jiyuan Woodworking. At the time, the price President Chen agreed to was about 5 percent lower than the industry average. Jiyuan Woodworking used our four international cargo ships and made at least fifty-four million in profit from it."

"Furthermore, Jiyuan Woodworking has no disputes or lawsuits with its partners, and the factory is shipping goods normally. They are fully capable of paying us this seven-million balance."

Zheng Qian frowned.

If the analysis based on Yao Manman's data was correct, then Jiyuan Woodworking was deliberately refusing to settle the shipping fees?

But the boss of Jiyuan Woodworking was a good friend and old acquaintance of Chen Weiqiang. How could he do such a thing?

Knock, knock, knock.

The third person to enter the office was Zhong Xiaoyao.

Her hair had been messed up by the wind outside; it seemed she had been out and about.

"President Zheng, I have finished the investigation."

"Don't you rush, have some water and tell me slowly." Zheng Qian told her to sit down first, seeing that Zhong Xiaoyao was still a bit out of breath.

After catching her breath, Zhong Xiaoyao began: "I went to Jiyuan Woodworking's factory and discovered that production at the factory has not stopped."

Yao Manman glanced at Zhong Xiaoyao. This young lady had already investigated this news; it was something that could be seen from the documents—was it really necessary to go to such lengths?

"Hmm, anything else?" Zheng Qian already knew this news from the information Yao Manman had just provided.

He still hoped that Zhong Xiaoyao, having gone out, could bring more information that he didn't know.

"Production at the factory has not stopped, but they are no longer shipping goods to Yebei Pier; instead, they are uniformly diverting them to Yenan Wharf."

Zheng Qian was clear about the situation with the shipyard and the piers.

The company's few cargo ships basically all departed from Yebei Pier. There was only one small-tonnage cargo ship at Yenan Wharf, and it wasn't even stationed there permanently.

Zhong Xiaoyao continued: "Most of the ships docked at Yenan Wharf belong to Yamei Group. I suspect that Jiyuan Woodworking may have colluded with the Yamei Shipyard. This legal letter is their doing—a joint sniper operation launched by the two companies against us."

Yao Manman's data had already analyzed it in detail: these seven million were not huge for Zhengxin, but they weren't small either—enough to break the company's capital chain.

Zhong Xiaoyao had acted quickly, uncovering the potential truth hidden behind this matter.

Xia Xixi summarized: "If that is really the case, then this is no longer a simple commercial dispute; Zhengxin has already fallen into a commercial struggle."

They say that a business war without smoke is the most soul-crushing war of all. I didn't expect Yamei Group and Jiyuan Woodworking to play so dirty.

Although it was still just a guess, based on the evidence and the presented data, it was almost certainly the case.

Chen Weiqiang was currently unreachable, and Liu Shiqi seemed unwilling to handle matters, so Zheng Qian had to take up the mantle.

Xia Xixi was a bit skeptical of Zheng Qian's abilities, not knowing if he could handle this matter well.

Right now, contacting Chen Weiqiang was the safest bet. Chen Weiqiang was an acquaintance of Jiyuan Woodworking's boss, President Ma Wencheng; a quick greeting and inquiry would suffice—it might just be a misunderstanding.

Zheng Qian was very satisfied with the three people who came to report the situation.

Qin Xueli had only been officially working at the company for the first day, yet she was already very familiar with the situation of the company's partners. Being able to do this showed she was serious and had put in the effort—which was not easy.

Yao Manman had a keen sense of smell, having grasped the main conflict, and her judgments were reasoned and evidenced.

Zhong Xiaoyao's actions amazed Zheng Qian, having directly investigated the potential truth hidden behind it all.

If Zheng Qian were to give them a score, Zhong Xiaoyao would get 10 points, Yao Manman 8 points, and Qin Xueli 8 points.

But the three before him could only be considered his think tank. Relying on them to solve the problem was not enough; in the end, he had to take action himself.

"You all performed well. Keep up the good work. You may go."

"Secretary Xia, pack up these documents and come with me to Jiyuan Woodworking. We are going to meet this President Ma Wencheng."