Chapter 248 - Nothing to Lose (2/2)

Xu Guansong responded in a way that portrayed that he had the interest of the employees at heart. At this juncture, he couldn’t turn back, and his best hope was to plow ahead without fear of Xiao Luo as he had nothing to lose. He needed to be perceived that he had the conviction and courage to argue with Xiao Luo. Doing it in front of all the key employees of the company would strengthen his standing. So what if Xiao Luo was back. He honestly did not believe that Xiao Luo would really dare to fire him.

As he had hoped, on hearing his words, a looks of doubt formed in everyone’s eyes. Firing Xu Guansong for only being rude to Zhang Dashan was unreasonable and a disappointing decision. The fear had been seeded in their minds, and it played to Xu Guansong’s advantage.

“Are you threatening me?” Xiao Luo glanced at him calmly.

“I dare not, you are the boss of Luo’s Workshop, and we are all your subordinates. You can fire whoever you want, I am just reminding you not to disappoint us all. No matter how high a building is, as long as its foundation is unstable, it will collapse,” Xu Guansong said so in an impartial manner, playing to the sentiment of the crowd.

His words sounded earnest, from the bottom of his heart, and it touched the souls of the listeners. Even Luo Qi and Li Zimeng felt that Xiao Luo was unreasonable, what more the others.

“Sir, Vice President Xu is loyal to the company and has been hard at work all along. If you fire him just because he had been rude to President Zhang a few times, I would be the first to object.”

“Yeah, President Xiao, please do not disappoint us as we are all loyal to the company.”

“It’s normal to have differing views during company meetings. Vice President Xu only voiced out his opinion, he wasn’t deliberately being rude to President Zhang. If this isn’t even allowed, who would dare to speak up in meetings the next time?”

“A good decision requires everyone to work as a team and partic.i.p.ate in the discussion actively. If there wasn’t even freedom for us to voice our thoughts, there would be no need for a meeting at all, and President Zhang might as well just make all the decisions himself.”

Xu Guansong’s trusted subordinates began to speak up in support of him. They firmly believe that Xiao Luo would relent.

But Xiao Luo just smiled and stared coldly at Xu Guansong, and said, “Xu Guansong, do you really not know why I am firing you?”

Xu Guansong was slightly stunned, and he suddenly sensed something amiss. He coughed a couple of times dryly and forced himself to calm down. It was all or nothing, he spoke with the conviction of one with nothing to hide, “President Xiao, don’t mince your words, just say it out loud. A straight foot has no fear of a crooked shoe. I, Xu Guansong, swear on my dignity and have never done anything detrimental to the company!”

“Do you?”

Xiao Luo laughed in derision, then called out fiercely, “Department Head Guo!”

The door to the conference room was pushed open. A lady in office attire walked in, her face pale and uneasy.

Guo Fu, the head of the finance department?!

Only then did everyone realize that Guo Fu wasn’t in the conference room when the meeting commenced.

Xu Guansong had also just realized it. His expression changed drastically, and he cast Guo Fu with a meaningful stare as if warning her of something.

“The first thing I did after coming back was to visit the finance department and check the accounts for the period I was gone, and I realized that Department Head Guo had manipulated the financial reports,” Xiao Luo said very calmly.

While Xiao Luo was talking, Zhang Dashan turned on the projector in the conference room, promptly clicking on two files and projecting the reports in question on the screen.

Two financial reports were displayed, one interim and the other external. It showed that the contents of the two were identical, except for the final sums of transaction.

“The company pays taxes according to this financial report. Under the item of the total transaction, the external report has an amount of five million dollars less than that of the interim report. However, the tax expense reported to the company by the finance department is about 200,000 dollars more than the actual amount of taxes we are required to pay. This 200,000 dollars didn’t enter the government’s coffers, nor did it enter the pockets of everyone seated here.”

Xiao Luo turned his gaze to Guo Fu and smiled mockingly. “Department Head Guo, tell us, whose pockets did it enter? As long as you tell the truth, I will not pursue your case, given that no significant damage has been done yet.”

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