Second Aunt instinctively wanted to object. However, over the past month, she had gradually come to understand Xia Xiaolan’s temperament.

Cunning.

Domineering.

Quite the manipulator!

Beautiful women were the best at deceiving people, and Xia Xiaolan was especially skilled at this. On the surface, she claimed everyone could voice their opinions, and that Asia belonged to everyone, but the real decision-maker was always Xia Xiaolan… Her so-called welcome of opinions only applied to those she deemed reasonable.

Second Aunt opened her mouth to oppose the crowd control measure, but seeing the dense sea of heads in the store, she swallowed her words.

The escalators were already overloaded, customers packed every counter, and without crowd control, accidents could easily happen.

Having a stampede on opening day would be unlucky. As a Hong Kong native, Second Aunt was very particular about feng shui. She wanted an auspicious business opening and didn’t want to attract any negative energy!

If she opposed crowd control and an accident occurred, Xia Xiaolan would blame her.

Understanding this, Second Aunt chose to stay quiet.

For Xia Xiaolan, limiting entry wouldn’t affect sales; it would encourage consumption.

Too many people made it impossible for salespeople to properly serve customers. Better to let them in batch by batch – sell to one group before letting in the next. Those already inside would feel special, while those waiting would be curious about what was inside… It was the weekend anyway, people had time to spare, watching performances and shopping – what a perfect arrangement.

The more they restricted entry, the more people wanted to come in.

Xia Xiaolan wasn’t worried about losing customers; those waiting outside could still watch the performances.

The current crowd inside was overwhelming, keeping all Asia staff busy. Over the past month, Xia Xiaolan hadn’t cared what Second Aunt, Song Minglan, and Tina thought – as long as her women’s army executed her orders well, everything else could be discussed. Everyone’s endurance had elasticity; what they thought was their limit could be stretched further when Xia Xiaolan added more responsibilities. They could handle it!

With a boss like Xia Xiaolan, they discovered work was endless – finish one task, another followed. Though they were women, Xia Xiaolan worked them like men.

Want to rebel? Xia Xiaolan was even harder on herself, practically living in Asia’s office. What could they do?

Second Aunt was the most typical example – cursing Xia Xiaolan in private while following her orders.

Despite the complaints, Second Aunt knew deep down that only a manager like Xia Xiaolan could make money for the investors!

The second Aunt was an investor.

She needed Xia Xiaolan to make money.

If she led the opposition against Xia Xiaolan, undermining her authority to manage others, Second Aunt would ultimately harm herself.

If the major shareholder had to follow orders, how could Zhu Suizhou’s people dare disobey? At least on the surface, they had to comply.

Xia Xiaolan had forcefully integrated those “old ministers” within a month, relying on her decisive leadership style. Missing Zhu Suizhou and wanting to create trouble for the new manager by dragging their feet or being passively resistant? Xia Xiaolan didn’t resort to violence – she simply sidelined them, assigning more work to Song Minglan, Tina, and others instead.

Asia was privately owned.

Unlike state-owned department stores, they couldn’t easily hire new people or casually fire others, where people could slack off and still keep their positions.

Xia Xiaolan offered high salaries, but she wouldn’t support idle workers!

Those unwilling to work for her could leave.

Her heavy reliance on Song Minglan, Tina, and others was meant to show the old guard that many people were willing to work for her. Truthfully, there’s a workplace reality: if the boss still bothers to criticize you, they still want to use you; if they ignore you completely, you’re probably finished.

Never fear being busy – it means you’re valuable to the company.

Those who aren’t busy should be worried.

A few troublemakers, after being ignored by Xia Xiaolan, understood the situation.

The results seemed good now.

On Asia’s opening day, despite the overwhelming busyness, everyone remembered their assigned tasks from Xia Xiaolan. Each person managed their designated responsibilities, working diligently for fear of being unable to report clearly to Xia Xiaolan in the evening.

They felt quite pitiful.

New ruler, new officials.

They were supposed to build an empire with Manager Zhu, but Zhu Suizhou lost his “General Manager” position just a month before the store’s opening!

Some firmly believed Manager Zhu would make a comeback.

Most people thought so initially.

But they quickly realized the situation was unfavorable – they might not last until Manager Zhu’s return!

The newly appointed Manager Xia, despite her youth and being female, had an even more uncompromising style than Manager Zhu.

Take the three-day cultural performance for the opening.

Each Hong Kong star costs at least tens of thousands, plus transportation, accommodation, and meals. A three-day performance with over 10 Hong Kong stars, 20 mainland actors and singers, plus other programs… The expenses were enormous, and not everyone agreed.

But their opposition was futile.

Asia had a management team.

Daily operations relied on these managers.

But Asia’s development strategy didn’t depend on them. Asia was privately owned by three shareholders.

The major and second shareholders had united to push out the third shareholder, Zhu Suizhou. The major shareholder, Second Aunt, followed the second shareholder Xia Xiaolan’s lead – others couldn’t resist even if they wanted to.

If Xia Xiaolan thought this cultural performance was worth doing, everyone had to work around it.

Of course, some saw the situation changing and smartly switched allegiance to Manager Xia, while others stubbornly remained “loyal” to Zhu Suizhou.

With Asia’s opening drawing crowds to Erqi Square, secretly meeting Zhu Suizhou wasn’t difficult without being discovered.

Whether from the heat or other reasons, the man meeting with Zhu Suizhou was soaked in sweat as if he’d just been pulled from water:

“Manager Zhu, isn’t this just wasteful? The central TV advertising was one thing, but this cultural performance too – throwing money away like confetti. I think Asia can’t function without you! Please come back soon. Such a good department store shouldn’t be ruined by their reckless management…”

This man was recruited by Zhu Suizhou from another department store.

When Zhu Suizhou was in power, this man was highly valued and considered himself Manager Zhu’s “confidant.”

As for why Manager Zhu wasn’t rushing to open the store, the confidant hadn’t thought much about it.

Having worked in state-owned department stores, he was used to a slower pace. Construction delays didn’t worry him – they still received their salaries regularly, so what was there to fear?

However such people found it extremely uncomfortable under a decisive leader like Xia Xiaolan. She sidelined those who showed passive resistance. This man’s discomfort wasn’t about Xia Xiaolan spending big money on promotional events – it wasn’t coming from his pocket after all. Rather, it was about Xia Xiaolan favoring female colleagues, letting newcomers outrank veterans like him – this was absolutely intolerable!

The man looked expectantly at Zhu Suizhou.

Zhu Suizhou remained silent for a while, just watching Asia’s busy entrance.

Those citizens held back outside craned their necks to peek inside, their faces showing a clear desire to enter.

Zhu Suizhou seemed distracted, casually reassuring his “loyal minister”:

“Old Huang, don’t worry. Your presence in Asia serves a greater purpose. Whether their tactics work or not will be clear once the sales figures come in.”