Chapter Sixty-Eight: Winner II (2/2)
Yan Jin smiled too – he understood Zhou Jinrong’s motive.
Trading exhibition booths was a farce, to seize the opportunity to be sarcastic was the truth.
“I thank you for your good intentions, Chairman Zhou.” Yan Jin leaned against the wall as he held his mobile in one hand and tucked the other inside his pocket. That position had never changed since Zhou Jinrong had begun speaking to him.
“Face isn’t important, winning is the key, isn’t it?”
The smile that Zhou Jinrong had maintained on his face finally cracked: “If I’m not mistaken, although there was some accident, wasn’t SI’s final ranking still higher than YL’s by a few seats?”
Yan Jin chuckled: “Final? It isn’t the final moment yet, right?”
There was barely any difference in his tone. It was as if Yan Jin was saying a truth that everyone knew. However, the aura around him was a feeling that only winners would have – an arrogance that was aloof and remote.
Zhou Jinrong did not understand. He did not understand what Yan Jin meant by that, yet it did not stop him from getting incessantly angry.
It was obviously not the ‘final moment’ per se but what was the difference? SI and YL had already been thrown out of the top ten and Mr. Mystery had gone missing… If they had to come out with an outcome, it would still be unclear. However, even if the corporate scores were to be changed, it would only be within the top few places. There would be no chance for those who were outside of the top ten. How could there be leeway for a turnaround?
It was just some word play. What did he mean by that?
SI had beat YL – there was no doubt.
Zhou Jinrong’s only regret was that SI just had to be thrown out of the top ten and that made the success taste bittersweet.
But Yan Jin’s attitude made Zhou Jinrong feel that Yan Jin was the winner.
Unhurt and calm, eminent and unapproachable.
Compared to him, Zhou Jinrong was like a jumping clown. Even if he was wearing a mask, he could not hide that twisted look of envy.
On what basis? It was already at this point. How could he not admit defeat?
“Since Chairman Yan says so, then we shall see tonight.” Zhou Jinrong spoke through his gritted teeth while fuming with rage.
An exchange of conversation with no gains and an unclear outcome.
But Zhou Jinrong was, without a doubt, insanely angry.
Autumn Release Conference? Ragnarok? Those things were thrown out of his mind long ago.
The Zhou Jinrong right now only wanted to tear apart Yan Jin’s pretentious, calm and collected mask. He wanted to reveal what was beneath it, the ugly face that belonged to a loser just like how he had imagined it.
……
At the emergency meeting with the internal staffs, the organizers provided two solutions for this evaluation mishap. One of them was to re-evaluate everything.
This solution made the guests cringed. They had not expected that things would develop to this point. Under the glaring gaze of the public, with the scores already revealed, if they were to announce that they would be re-evaluating everything again, they would waste more time and effort and also be embarrassed by it.
They were merely guests invited by the organizers. The conference outcome would not directly affect their personal benefits. But if they were to change the scores, it would be as good as admitting that their evaluation had issues – and that would surely cause an impact to their reputation.
Hence, the guests subsequently chose the second solution, to demote.
It seemed like a good solution to demote the individual work who had ranked first. But as to how they should demote, using what kind of reason, and which rank should they demote to, were all issues.
“What is there to change? It’s so troublesome. Just leave it as it is.”
“Hey Old Chen, you can’t say that. If this was just a design competition, it wouldn’t have mattered. But the problem now is that the rank also involves an exhibition booth.”
“That’s true…” The guests agreed.
“Then maybe we shouldn’t change it? What if that person didn’t want the exhibition booth right from the start?”
“Of course that person wouldn’t want it. But he can sell it to the companies! This is a business worth a few billions, it’s an easy deal to earn big bucks. Which idiot wouldn’t want it?”
“… How about this, we leave the ranking but demote the exhibition booth placing?
They did not know which person had suddenly thought of this idea, but it actually gained consensus with everyone.
“Hey, that idea isn’t too bad.”
“Fine, let’s do it that way.”
“I agree.”
Demote the exhibition booth placing, but not the actual rank – it seemed like the best solution to solve the problem.
The organizers suggested to demote the design to third place, but some guests were still disagreeable to it – they thought that the rank was still too high.
“That won’t work. the treatment for the top three are too great, there were so many corporates fighting over it.”
“Yeah, if this goes on, could the conference still be held successfully?”
“At least the fifth place. Otherwise what difference would it make to not demote it?”
“This design doesn’t seem as good. It’s not worth the rank!”
Amidst the intense debate, only Nan Chan remained silent right from the start.
The Autumn Release Conference’s techniques were amazing. Even the meeting table was utilizing the high-quality material that was compatible with hologram technology. The top three works silently laid on the meeting table. In front of everyone was a copy of it. Even if they were unable to touch it, it was a kind a mystical experience.
She played with the hologram on her palm as if touching a gentle yet icy-cold moonlight:
“To face the heart towards the bright moon. For the bright moon to illuminate the channel. Isn’t that interesting?”
She raised her head and calmly faced everyone in the room.
“Isn’t it interesting?” Nan Chan repeated again, as if the problem that they were discussion now was something unrelated at all.
And that sentence was just like the other sentence that was the source of all these troubles.
— “But there is something I found quite interesting.”
The room fell into silence.