The person who caught several street vendors was none other than Old Huang.

Huang was someone whom Zhu Suizhou had poached from the state-owned store. According to Huang’s own words, during his time working at the state-owned store, he had seen plenty of these speculators loitering outside the shop. He could identify with about 70-80% accuracy which ones were regular customers and which were reselling vendors just by looking at them for a few moments.

When Huang was still working at the state-owned store, vendors had to rely on getting some so-called ‘substandard goods’ from the state stores to resell. Some citizens couldn’t gather enough ration tickets, so they would buy things from vendors at marked-up prices – well, what could they do when tickets were so hard to get… Ah, that was all several years ago. Back then, holding that power was Huang’s most glorious time.

Although the state hadn’t yet announced a complete cancellation of the “ration ticket supply” policy, with the gradual opening of the market, in many places the “ration ticket supply” had become nominal.

Huang’s glory days were gone, which was why he was swayed by the salary Zhu Suizhou offered and jumped ship to Asia Department Store.

Poor thing, a middle-aged man having to restart his career in a private department store, and he had backed the wrong horse too. He had absolute faith in Zhu Suizhou’s abilities and never got on the right path of following the truly powerful, to the point where now, wanting to get ahead, he had to rack his brains looking for opportunities.

Right now, his opportunity had come!

After catching several vendors, Huang was surprisingly summoned by Xia Xiaolan personally.

“Manager Xia, you have instructions for me?”

Xia Xiaolan looked at him, “You have quite a special talent!”

Huang slightly bent his back, lowering his eyes submissively yet with a trace of pride:

“Manager Xia, it’s nothing special, just comes from seeing it often enough.”

Xia Xiaolan had to admit, that everyone did have their expertise.

“Comrade Huang Guoqiang, now there’s an opportunity for you to use your specialty. Asia’s business is doing so well, that I suspect some jealous competitors might send people to cause trouble. The vendors you caught today are small fry – when it comes to competitors sending people over, we’ll need to handle it more carefully. You need to keep constant watch over the situation in the store and control any issues as soon as you spot them. Can you handle what I’m asking?”

Huang Guoqiang understood!

And because he understood, he was excited.

This was indeed his opportunity.

Manager Xia entrusting such an important task to him – if he handled it well, wouldn’t that mean making a name for himself in front of Manager Xia?

“Manager Xia, I’ll handle this well—”

“Don’t let the authority go to your head. If you encounter uncertain situations, report them immediately. Even if you’re sure you’ve caught someone sent by competitors to cause trouble, you can’t disrupt normal customer shopping. Handle it quietly and quickly, understand?”

Huang Guoqiang nodded repeatedly like a chicken pecking rice. As an old hand, he naturally understood Xia Xiaolan’s meaning.

Strike against the competitors’ people quickly, accurately, and decisively – don’t let them take the chance to make a scene. Public disputes and such would only affect Asia’s business, the losses would outweigh the gains!

Seeing Huang Guoqiang’s eyes and eyebrows all smiling, Xia Xiaolan couldn’t help but give this old hand another warning:

“…Comrade Huang Guoqiang, you’re also a veteran in this line of work. Though I’m young, I’m neither deaf nor blind. The first principle of working under me is to do your basic job well, mind your own post’s responsibilities, and only then handle other matters if you have extra capacity, understand? I like talented people, but if someone can be both excellent and know their place, such employees will be valued anywhere.”

Huang Guoqiang suddenly panicked.

Did she know about him spreading rumors before, or did she know about his private contact with Zhu Suizhou?

Huang Guoqiang wanted to explain, but Xia Xiaolan waved him off to go to work.

Huang Guoqiang couldn’t linger anymore. Upon leaving the office, he wiped his neck – his hand came away wet with sweat.

Why did he ever think Zhu Suizhou was better than Manager Xia?

Who knows how many people had been fooled by Manager Xia’s age and gender?

Manager Xia hadn’t dealt with him before because she couldn’t be bothered.

Huang Guoqiang smiled bitterly – he had become a marginalized minor character! The leaders above had so many things to deal with every day, naturally, they wouldn’t care what a small figure was thinking. The reason they hadn’t dealt with him before was that Manager Xia had more important matters to handle during this time—

Fortunately, he had actively demonstrated his value, otherwise, after Asia’s promotional activities were over and he still hadn’t secured a patron, he would likely have been dismissed directly!

He must grasp this opportunity. Only by doing well what Manager Xia had instructed could he atone for his sins, and perhaps even enter Manager Xia’s consideration.

With Huang Guoqiang’s change in attitude, his work attitude naturally changed too, surprising his familiar colleagues.

What had gotten into Old Huang, suddenly not being a slacker anymore?

During shift changes, Huang Guoqiang pulled his colleagues aside and analyzed himself with tears and emotion:

“I was blind before, thinking that because Manager Xia was young, former Manager Zhu should come back to manage Asia. Just think about it – Asia’s prosperity all came from Manager Xia, and now Manager Xia is leading us all to counter the state-owned stores… I was shallow-minded and completely wrong. From now on, if Manager Xia tells me to go east, I absolutely won’t go west. If anyone dares say anything wrong about Manager Xia, I, Huang Guoqiang, will be the first to fight them!”

Uh, maybe Old Huang had gone crazy.

All along, the one secretly badmouthing Manager Xia had been Old Huang himself.

The clever ones just laughed internally – this fool Huang had finally seen the situation. Slapping his face was embarrassing, but who told him to say so many bad things about Manager Xia before finally waking up?

But Manager Xia was indeed magnanimous. In other places, how could someone as clueless as Huang still get any chances? The leaders would have long since tossed him into a corner to cool off!

Xia Xiaolan wasn’t completely unconcerned. Just as Huang Guoqiang had guessed, she was waiting until this busy period was over to properly reorganize Asia’s internal structure – directly fire those who didn’t want to work properly in Asia and adjust those whose abilities didn’t match their positions.

But before starting the cleanup, she discovered this Huang Guoqiang still had some use, so she’d keep him for now – if he didn’t work out, she could fire him later.

What did she have to fear? Even cowards like Luo Yaozong had their uses sometimes.

If she dared to use Song Minglan, why wouldn’t she dare to use Huang Guoqiang?

A manager needs ability but also needs breadth of mind and bearing.

On the second day of Asia’s shopping card recharge cashback activity, new card registrations increased by 4,745 people, with daily sales of 960,000.

Losing money to gain attention, Second Aunt was still walking around beaming:

“Just 40,000 short of breaking through million in sales again!”

Yes, just 40,000 short.

Even with sales over a million, Asia wouldn’t make money.

But this was a benchmark, proving how popular Asia was. As long as people were willing to shop in Asia, why worry about not making money? Just within these two days, nearly 8,000 people had gotten shopping cards in Asia – these were all customers Asia had secured!

Xia Xiaolan also smiled:

“Let’s see about tomorrow. Tomorrow’s Monday, following normal patterns customers will decrease. Whether we can break through a million in sales will depend on luck.”

Second Aunt secretly pouted.

What luck? It depends on Xia Xiaolan’s mood, right? This woman Xia Xiaolan was simply toxic – sales would rise when she wanted them to. Those state-owned stores had jumped around vigorously, but now wasn’t it all just empty joy?