If, an hour ago, Jiang Xiaoyi had still felt she could tough it out, then an hour later, facing the four new framework cooperation agreements that had appeared on her desk, she felt she truly couldn’t hold on any longer.

She could handle the contract matters related to the Project Incubation Department perfectly well, but when it came to the affairs of the company’s other departments, Jiang Xiaoyi really only knew the surface of things…

Ye Zhen might understand them, but who wanted to look at that sour face of his?

But wait…she needed to shift her thinking. The world had changed now! She herself was Ye Zhen’s boss! Now that she’d run into a thorny contract, wasn’t it perfectly justified to call her assistant Ye Zhen over to help?!

The boss is in trouble, Ye Zhen will handle it!

Once Jiang Xiaoyi had worked this out, she immediately made an internal call to Ye Zhen.

Before long, though his expression wasn’t very pleasant, Ye Zhen appeared in her office.

Jiang Xiaoyi put on the bearing of a great general, tossing the several contracts on the desk over to Ye Zhen with perfect naturalness: “I have other things to do, I’m too busy—please do a preliminary review of these contracts for me first. The legal department has already gone over the clauses and found no issues, but you should look over the business terms again. Broadly speaking there shouldn’t be any problems, since several of the executives like Director Miao and Director Zhang have all explained things to me, but you’re still drawing an assistant’s salary from me, so I can’t let you eat for free.”

The investment amounts on these projects were all so large that, although several executives had explained things in detail, Jiang Xiaoyi didn’t really understand any of it. She always felt a bit uneasy, and wanted to find someone to double-check to be sure.

Ye Zhen pressed his lips together, one hand in his pocket, and took the contracts with the other, flipping through them with a casual air—the posture actually looked rather like that of a boss.

But he’d only flipped through a few pages before tossing the contract back onto the desk: “What’s there to look at in this contract?”

Jiang Xiaoyi was stunned for a moment: “What’s wrong?”

Ye Zhen sneered: “It’s all a losing proposition—how could you sign this? Are you planning to squander Ruiyi’s fortune within a year?”

Jiang Xiaoyi glanced at it—the one Ye Zhen had flung onto the desk was exactly the contract that Director Miao was pushing to advance. She explained, “Director Miao talked to me about the pros and cons of this one—it’s mainly about shifting labor costs, part of a globalization push to develop an industrial park in Vietnam…”

“Shifting labor costs? Shifting them to Vietnam? Besides project incubation, the cultural and creative industrial park’s main function is hosting exhibitions. Vietnam is frequently affected by typhoons and is also fairly humid and stifling—not a great location for hosting large-scale events.”

“As for labor, yes, Vietnamese labor is currently indeed cheaper than domestic labor, but the cost-effectiveness is actually quite low. The overall pace of life in Vietnam is fairly leisurely, and men in particular tend to be free and easy—they often take a break every couple of days, so work efficiency isn’t high. So even though wage levels are lower than domestically, any project’s timeline in Vietnam runs longer than it would domestically, and time costs skyrocket. When you tally it all up in the end, not only does the cost-shifting fail, it often actually increases costs.”

Ye Zhen’s expression was one of complete understanding: “That’s enough to fool an outsider like you—did you really think overseas industrial parks were paradise?”

“But Director Miao is an expert in this field…how could he…”

“Of course he’s an expert in this field—that’s exactly why he’s able to lead someone like you, who doesn’t understand the business, around by the nose. You must have asked him plenty of questions, right? But he answered every single one flawlessly, didn’t he? That’s precisely because he’s so skilled in this area. As for why he’d trick you into signing this kind of agreement, it’s naturally because there’s something in it for him.”

Ye Zhen paused, then said as if he were dangling a mystery: “He has a middleman connection in Vietnam, brokering the industrial park cooperation between Ruiyi and the Vietnamese side. Once Ruiyi’s eight-hundred-million investment is in place, the middleman will kick back a commission to Director Miao. Think about how much he stands to make if this deal goes through? He’s probably already grinning ear to ear planning his retirement.”

She never expected that Director Miao, who had smilingly analyzed this partnership with such a devoted, patriotic expression, was entirely faking it!

“Then what about Director Zhang’s contract? And Director Li’s deal? And…”

…

Just as Jiang Xiaoyi expected, under Ye Zhen’s concise pointers, it turned out that not only did Director Miao’s contract have problems—not a single one of the other executives’ contracts was clean either. Behind the cultural and creative project Director Li planned to invest in, one of his own relatives held shares under someone else’s name; Director Zhang’s partnership was also with someone he was on close personal terms with…

Infuriating! They really were all old foxes!

Jiang Xiaoyi frowned with a grim face and sent all the contracts back, then looked at the composed Ye Zhen: “But if I just send them back, they definitely won’t let it go—they’ll keep coming to pester me. What should I do to deal with them then?”

Ye Zhen said calmly: “Actually it’s very simple.”

Then, just as Jiang Xiaoyi perked up, ready to listen attentively, she saw Ye Zhen shrug in an infuriatingly smug way. He smiled at Jiang Xiaoyi: “But I’m not going to tell you.”

The man said in a sarcastic tone: “Reviewing your contracts falls within my job scope as an assistant, but helping you figure out how to fight your executives doesn’t. Sorry, I’m just a nameless working man named Tom—my position is too low to offer any constructive opinions. You’re the one who’s Director Jiang, you’re the one with the grand strategic vision.”

It sounded like praise, but on closer thought it was clearly Ye Zhen mocking her outright…

But Jiang Xiaoyi had no time to worry about anything else. She had real feelings for Ruiyi. Now that she stood in this position, holding more resources in hand, as long as she wasn’t controlled by others anymore, it was entirely possible she could incubate the comic project she believed in.

Speaking of the comics industry, most people probably instinctively think of Japan, but in truth, domestic Chinese comics today are in no way inferior to Japan’s—what’s lacking is only early-stage investment incubation and commercial operation and marketing. Now that Jiang Xiaoyi had money, she felt she could once again pursue her old dream of the rise of Chinese domestic comics!

“Ye Zhen, if you teach me how to handle this kind of situation, I can give you a bonus! Name your amount yourself! Just don’t be too greedy about it!”

“You think money can buy me?” Ye Zhen snorted coldly. “A talent like me, and you’re letting me waste away as an assistant in Li You’ai’s department—do you think that’s appropriate?”

So Ye Zhen wanted to become a little department head himself? That wouldn’t do.

“You haven’t produced any results here. If I promote you directly, it’ll hurt my credibility—the staff will think I’m playing favorites, that I have some unclear relationship with you. In the long run, that would easily get you isolated.”

Jiang Xiaoyi smiled: “This is for your own good. If you’re treated too well and promoted too fast, first, you’ll easily lose yourself; second, you’ll easily draw jealousy and exclusion from other colleagues at the company. These are the very things you taught me, aren’t they.”

“…” Ye Zhen gritted his teeth somewhat, but in the end suppressed his emotions and said, “Fine, forget the promotion, but I want to go back to being your assistant. I don’t want to see Li You’ai anymore.”

Wasn’t that just a matter of one sentence?

Just as Jiang Xiaoyi was about to readily agree, she heard Ye Zhen look away and continue: “Also, you need to protect my reputation.”

“?”

“I’ve been living at your villa and coming and going with you before—people have already noticed. There are rumors going around that you and I are having an affair.”

Jiang Xiaoyi suddenly understood: “Fine! Then I’ll rent you a separate place after this! You can commute to work on your own from now on, and we’ll go our completely separate ways!”

In any case, the crisis of her forced marriage to Li Yongjian had already been resolved, and her mother no longer had time to check on her every day—there was no more need for Ye Zhen to keep up appearances with her!

But the moment she finished speaking, Ye Zhen wore an indescribable expression. He tried to speak: “No, you don’t understand…”

Jiang Xiaoyi blinked, then patted Ye Zhen’s shoulder with a look of sudden understanding: “No, I understand, I really do understand—you’re in a relationship, aren’t you? And a trendy older-woman-younger-man romance at that, so you don’t want your partner to misunderstand your relationship with me. No problem, absolutely no problem! Even if it’s a big age-gap romance, I support you!”

Ye Zhen was practically furious: “That’s not what I meant! I’m not in a relationship!”

“Then what do you mean…”

The man glared at Jiang Xiaoyi: “You need to take responsibility.”

“?”

“You need to help clear things up—I’ve only had an affair with you, not with Li You’ai’s niece!”

Jiang Xiaoyi was stunned: “Huh?!”

Ye Zhen, on the contrary, grew calm: “I’m not having an older-woman romance—it’s Li You’ai’s niece harassing me unilaterally, subjecting me to inhumane sexual harassment right at Ruiyi’s front door, and you’re not going to do anything about it? I’ve already been labeled as yours—do you know how a man gets stigmatized in this society after being abandoned by a woman? Male Virtue teaches that a man, in this life, can only be devoted to one person as a virtue—otherwise he’s called impure.”

Under Jiang Xiaoyi’s dumbfounded stare, Ye Zhen applied the lesson by analogy with practiced ease: “People’s gossip is fearsome—you stole my life, do you also want to steal my purity?”

“…”

“Besides, if it comes down to becoming in-laws with Li You’ai, I’d rather take advantage of you than let that niece of his, who’s over a decade older than me, take advantage of me!”

Jiang Xiaoyi was furious—was she really that bad? What did he mean, “take advantage of” her?

She calmed herself down and decided not to argue with Ye Zhen for now: “Everything else is negotiable, but you need to solve this problem of the executives not submitting to my authority first. If you can’t handle it, you can go be matched with Li You’ai’s niece after all—since you’re a Tom and she’s a Jerry, it wouldn’t be so bad for the two of you to end up in the same family eventually.”

“Dealing with those executives is very simple. You issue a personnel transfer order directly, an organizational reshuffling. Whoever isn’t suited for something, whoever isn’t good at something, you transfer them to oversee a different department. Whichever two departments have historically clashed the most and are the most incompatible with each other, swap their executives.”

That damned Ye Zhen—he really was trying to fool her. Wasn’t this just chaos? How could a company be shuffled around so casually, like playing house!

“Wouldn’t this throw the whole company into disarray? No one would be able to perform in the area they’re skilled in…”

“Right, so that lets every old fox perform in their area of expertise.” Ye Zhen glanced at the contracts on the desk. “And then produced results like these for you.”

“…” Jiang Xiaoyi couldn’t refute that.

“Jiang Xiaoyi, put yourself in their shoes. If you were suddenly parachuted a much younger, inexperienced superior, would you submit?”

Ye Zhen smiled: “Of course you wouldn’t submit—especially these old hands who’ve been through countless workplace battles. They’ll rely on their expertise and their strong suits to create no end of trouble for you. And you, having just arrived at a new company, need time to adapt and understand the entire market environment and the company’s operations. But these old-timers won’t give you that buffer period—they’ll use their expertise and the network of connections they’ve cultivated over years entrenched in a department to easily give you trouble, leaving you overwhelmed.”

“But if you do this kind of interesting reshuffling, it gets quite fun. An executive skilled in business A gets transferred to business B, which he doesn’t understand at all—he himself now has to adapt to a new business and is also overwhelmed, unfamiliar with B, so where would he find the time or confidence to challenge you?”

“The most entertaining part is swapping executives from mutually hostile departments. Take Director Zhang, for instance—he used to love giving the Strategy Department a hard time. The mid-level managers and junior staff under Director Chen of Strategy have all been tormented and oppressed by Director Zhang, and they hate his guts. Now, if you parachute Director Zhang in to be the head of Strategy, do you think the loyal followers of the former Director Chen underneath him will go along quietly, or fight back?”

“So in corporate management, rather than trying to figure out how to handle this whole group of executives by yourself, it’s better to leverage the situation and let them wear each other down first. As long as they’re all in chaos and too busy to spare attention, who has the energy to come after you?”

“But…”

Ye Zhen cut off Jiang Xiaoyi’s question, calm and understanding: “I know what you want to ask. This method of transferring everyone into fields they’re not skilled in indeed can’t be sustained long-term—done for too long, it will hurt the company and hurt every executive’s motivation. It’s only suitable for a short period, usually the first half-year right after you’ve been parachuted in. This half-year will buy you enough time to adapt to the company without facing so much resistance. After half a year, once you’ve gotten a handle on how the company operates and know each executive’s strengths and weaknesses, that’s the right time to reshuffle again.”

So that was it!

Jiang Xiaoyi felt almost enlightened. She’d thought Ye Zhen’s reshuffling was reckless nonsense—she never expected he might genuinely know what he was doing!

“But during this half year, even though the parachuted boss gains time, doesn’t it still hurt the company?”

Ye Zhen looked at Jiang Xiaoyi as if looking at an idiot: “On corporate management, you’re not even at an elementary school level—you might still be in preschool.”

“This kind of half-year personnel reshuffling is necessary. For a company like Ruiyi, executives have typically been entrenched in their departments for over five years, and the relationships between departments have all become rigid because of it. Director Zhang and Director Chen of Strategy don’t get along, so naturally the departments each of them oversees don’t get along either. When these two departments need to collaborate, communication becomes very difficult.”

“That’s when job rotation becomes necessary. You shuffle the executives and reshuffle them—there will be internal friction at first, but for the sake of keeping the department running, eventually the Strategy Department staff will work out a way to get along with the newly appointed Director Zhang.”

“So that’s how it works” had almost become Jiang Xiaoyi’s only response at this point.

Ye Zhen spoke of things Jiang Xiaoyi had never even thought about, and yet the expression he wore while looking at her seemed as if all this should be common sense to anyone.

“This breaks the old flaw of departments each going their own way and personnel not circulating. And when, half a year later, you transfer each executive back to positions better suited to them, they’ll have rotated through other departments too and become familiar with the staff there. All these executives are old foxes—take Director Zhang, transferred to Strategy for instance. After a brief adjustment period, whatever authority he needs to establish, he’ll establish, and even after leaving Strategy, that lingering authority will remain. In the future, whenever something needs coordinating with Strategy, they’ll surely give him some face. And so on—coordination and communication across the whole company will become easier going forward.”

“China is a relationship-based society, and the workplace runs on relationships even more so. Whether you and I know each other, whether something can get done, and how quickly it can get done—these are entirely different things.”

“So a half-year rotation does no real harm—it lets a young parachuted boss get her footing, figure out the characteristics of the company’s executives and grasp the company’s operations, and also smooths out inter-departmental communication and coordination. As long as it’s done in moderation, it does the company no real harm.”

As Ye Zhen got to this point, he looked as if he could barely hold back from rolling his eyes: “You, go get me a glass of water.” Well, but still—

“Ye Zhen, while I really appreciate your advice, have you forgotten that in this world, I’m the one who’s Director Jiang?”

Ye Zhen, however, spoke with perfect confidence: “Yes, in this world, you’re Director Jiang, and I’m just a delicate man. My throat is nearly talked dry. You’re a woman—can you really treat a man like this? Don’t you understand that in this world, women are supposed to look after men, be considerate and caring toward men, protect men?!”

“…”

Jiang Xiaoyi was a bit speechless. Ye Zhen seemed to have instantly adapted to this world’s values, quite adept at applying the lesson too, even reaping the benefits of male privilege—truly a talent who could bend with the wind…