Chapter 32 Zhou Yuan Got in Trouble Again (2/2)
Zhou Yuan sighed with a bitter smile, “the timing wasn't right for him. There was a dispute between him and someone.”
I was instantly unhappy, ”when did you learn the obscure speaking pattern from Avalokitesvara? Let's get things straight! “
”Whoops, I can't even tell you whose problem it is.” Liu Shuai thought for a moment, then he told me the whole story.
The contradictions started with a trifle. Zhou Yuan’s design skill had recently improved remarkably— these were the exact words of our director. It seemed like the missing of the soul had produced an obvious effects—The director decided to buy Zhou Yuan a lunch at noon to reward him, so he called the whole team including Zhou Yuan and Liu Shuai to have a big meal together. Our director used to be a product manage, and he liked to talk about products and industry trends. At dinner, he commented on the current sharing economy, ”As I said last year, Bicycle Sharing would not last more than a year. You can see how many bosses have absconded with money, and how many customers can't get their deposit back today. Fortunately, my judgment was accurate. I have never used a shared bike even once, and I have not placed any deposit at all.”
As usual, other people praised the director for his accurate judgement and foresight, but Zhou Yuan said, ”Bicycle Sharing had already slid into a decline at the end of last year, so it is not difficult to make a judgement at that time. As a product manager, you chose to judge it only by subjective opinions instead of experiencing a new thing yourself. That’s not fair.”
The director thought that Zhou Yuan was joking. He looked at the colleagues and everyone showed a smile. Then he turned to Zhou Yuan playfully, ”Wow? Zhou Yuan had his own views? So, what’s your opinion? You mean that I was wrong?”
Zhou Yuan said expressionlessly, ”I'm not saying you were wrong. I'm saying that you had no judgement.”
The director took a deep breath. He smiled at Zhou Yuan, ”then tell me, if I had no judgement, why is the current situation of Bicycle Sharing the same as I predicted?”
The others felt embarrassed, so they all lowered their heads to eat, Liu Shuai was sitting right next to Zhou Yuan. He pulled at Zhou Yuan’s clothes to stop him. But Zhou Yuan seemed to not understand it. Just as he was about to say something, Liu Shuai quickly said, “ha-ha, it's obvious that our Director Yang”—Our director’s name was Yang Lao De. He always boasted that he got a nice name which meant to take the income from his efforts for granted— “Lao De is reasonable. Last year he made a prediction which has come true this year. Zhou Yuan was just joking. Ha-ha. Let’s eat.”
When Liu Shuai said this, I knew something horrible was going to happen. I knew why Zhou Yuan had said that. With Zhou Yuan's current state, which was completely unaffected by his emotions, he must have understood a lot of things and objectively made some judgments that he considered as correct. If Liu Shuai forcefully played the role of a peacemaker, Zhou Yuan probably wouldn't care about his feelings. The situation would get worse.
As I suspected, Zhou Yuan looked at Liu Shuai with a serious expression, ”you don't have to mediate. I have my own reasons.” Liu Shuai felt awkward and didn't know what to say. He looked at the others as them stared at him. Then they all lowered their heads to eat.
And Zhou Yuan looked at the director, ”The reason why Bicycle Sharing is in exactly the way you expected it to be is not that you judged the business to be bad, but you've always had a habit to think so as long as it's an emerging industry.”
The director was startled. He did not expect Zhou Yuan to reply like that, and he did not know what to say.