Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Two: The Ups and Downs of the Past Two Months (1/2)

Although Yan Jin personally appeared at the funeral, something which defied others’ expectations that he wouldn’t recover from his grief, YL’s panic wasn’t entirely dispelled.

At the funeral that obviously had some other hidden meaning, many employees wanted to give some words of comfort to Yan Jin but were blocked outside the security zone. After returning from the funeral, instead of feeling relief that Yan Jin escaped uninjured, many felt even more anxious.

……

It was probably the first time they had seen Yan Jin in such a state.

It wasn’t the first time they’d been doused by Yan Jin’s ice-cold personality. Many of them had actually been won over precisely because Yan Jin wasn’t distracted by anything unrelated to work. They had chased after Yan Jin’s single-minded drive for success.

But this time, in the midst of Yan Jin’s strong presence, they felt a certain indifference.

He didn’t seem to care about enemies, friends, people, or work.

It was as if he didn’t care about anything anymore, including the jewelry corporation he’d raised.

Normally, Shao Yue slacked off however much he pleased. But this time, if it weren’t for his heroic efforts, YL would have collapsed in the short month and a half.

In the marketing department alone, two employees applied for medical leave, citing excessive anxiety, insomnia, loss of appetite, and other psychological illnesses. Shao Yue, who had only just finished up with Yan Jin’s leftover tasks, then had to deal with this internal crisis.

On March 12th, Yan Jin vanished from the public’s eye. Even his closest friends didn’t have the faintest idea of his whereabouts.

In response, Interim Chairman Shao Yue raised base salaries by twenty percent and doubled overtime pay. The pay increase helped to temporarily stabilize the shaky company. For those who hadn’t been convinced by the pay raise, Shao Yue could only rely on his strong rhetoric to trick and brainwash them. He told them that the Chairman would definitely return, that the Chairman definitely wouldn’t abandon the corporation, and that they should work hard to keep things functional in the meantime.

After he had returned from overseas, it had been a long time since Shao Yue needed to work hard with his talent for speaking. Every week, people kept asking him where the Chairman was. He felt it was like those years when he’d had debt collectors hunting him for his debt of several hundred million.

As one of the few people that were able to guess Yan Jin’s next moves, Shao Yue comforted himself that these days wouldn’t last very long.

After all, no matter what, Yan Jin had to return. He only needed to survive until then. But perhaps by that time, YL might be entirely gone.

Shao Yue recognized himself that he was quite a heartless thing. After he’d lost all his property and owed the casinos several hundred million, he hadn’t felt bad even when his old man had kicked him out of the house. But now that his words carried the hope of all the employees in the company, he felt uncomfortable deceiving them when they asked time and time again where Yan Jin was.

*Sigh*, you really had to feel for these true employees. They wanted only Yan Jin.

Who was Yan Jin? According to his own standards, Shao Yue himself was a heartless thing. Then Yan Jin—

Yan Jin couldn’t even be considered a “thing”.

Shao Yue could practically see the moment when his lies would be exposed. He’d be hounded by the employees to no end.

But maybe by that point, they wouldn’t even have the energy to hound him anymore.

Fortunately for Shao Yue, that day never came.

From the start of March to mid-April, YL’s atmosphere had become deadened in that month and a half. Almost everyone was stuck in a negative feedback loop: because there wasn’t any news of Yan Jin, they didn’t feel motivated to work. Because they didn’t feel motivated to work, they spent more time pining for the Chairman. Then they would feel even less motivated since the Chairman was still missing.

To make matters worse, Mr. Mystery had also disappeared along with Yan Jin. They didn’t have the bandwidth for new works since they hadn’t even been able to complete their previously contracted work. At the end of the last year, the design department had hired mostly talented junior designers without much experience. Since they hadn’t yet been accustomed to YL’s general workflow, with the senior designers collectively on strike, survival was difficult.

With YL in a pickle, the neighboring SI had seized the opportunity to snatch several of YL’s contracts. For a moment, it seemed like SI was about to rebound to their peak momentum. Some people that were discontent with YL started spreading rumors of YL’s incoming disaster. The scary thing was that even YL’s own employees were unable to refute the fearmongering.

Between early March and early April, nine employees had tendered their resignations despite Shao Yue’s best efforts to stop them. Just as these disillusioned employees were dejectedly finishing their final tasks and passing their duties to others, some spectacular news was released.

Yan Jin announces his return. Exact date to be decided.

Shao Yue didn’t feel like he was one to exaggerate, but when they received this news, he felt that the entire company celebrated more than when they had received their year-end bonus. There was even someone who wanted to test their luck with the law and launch firecrackers in the business district. Luckily, others prevented him from doing so.

On the day Yan Jin had returned, YL awakened like a newborn butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. In a single night, the entire dysfunctional system returned to normal as if nothing had changed.

Two days later, YL entirely corrected its course. Yan Jin hadn’t come back any different than when he’d left. Like always, he—

Sorry, that’s not correct.

It didn’t need the observational skills of Yan Jin’s die-hard followers like Secretary Fang who were always up-to-date with the latest about Yan Jin to realize that Yan Jin was acting unusual. Anybody who had interacted before with Yan Jin had felt the same way.

On work related matters, Yan Jin wasn’t as careful and focused as before. Not only did he frequently show up late, leave early, give the wrong documents, forget meeting times, and make other mistakes he previously never would, he had even laughed during the company weekly meeting.

He laughed.