10 His Burden (2/2)
So he's been treating the company like a battlefield and originally decided to do a private preliminary inspection of the situation on his own. No wonder I would see him wandering around looking serious and nonchalant.
Staring at his sharp profile, Lin Qian continued to think, Boss, you really are clever and dedicated. I'm lucky to work for you. But, you're still really insensitive as well.
Li Zhicheng and Lin Qian left the Security Department and went to the parking lot. When they arrived, they walked directly towards his Hummer. Seeing him walking towards the driver's seat, Lin Qian hesitated for a second and said, ”Mr. Li, do you want to let me drive?” She thought that CEO's weren't supposed to drive themselves.
Not even glancing at her, Li Zhicheng opened the car door and said, ”No.”
”Okay.” Lin Qian couldn't argue with him.
Aida Group had two production bases, an older one and a new one.
The old one was in the vast industrial park behind the main building. The luggage and bags produced there were mainly for the domestic market. Now that their market had shrunk dramatically, production had been put on hold in many locations.
Lin Qian guessed that Li Zhicheng had already carried out a full inspection at the old base, as they were driving directly to the new base located around thirty miles away in Xiangchuan County. With relatively low rent and a good transport system, the county had attracted many manufacturers from Lin City to set up their bases there.
However, Lin Qian didn't expect that the situation at Aida's new base would be even worse than it was at the old one.
Built under the supervision of the former CEO, the industrial park was, without a doubt, new and beautiful. Aida had heavily invested into this base to specially produce high-end luggage and bags for their international market. But currently, there were only a few people working, even at this location. Lin Qian guessed that at least ninety percent of the plants had halted production based on what she was seeing. She figured that only a few plants were still running to support the poor sales in their overseas market.
Lin Qian had already realized that Li Zhicheng was pretty much permanently expressionless, so she wasn't surprised to see that he had remained emotionless since they had stepped into the dismal industrial park. She could see him walking up ahead, looking as he usually did. Lin Qian knew better than to act worried because she realized that any normal person would be uncomfortable with the fact that what he was taking on was such a mess. She decided to keep quiet and act carefully so she wouldn't annoy her boss.
They quickly arrived at the gates.
After putting on the dark blue smocks that Gao Lang had prepared for them, and clipping on and the passes that Li Zhicheng kept in his car, they entered the plant.
The plant was still running with long rows of rumbling machines. The employees were working the assembly line, looking unmotivated and dazed.
They had barely taken a few steps into the plant when a bulky supervisor came over looking grim. ”Who are you guys? And why are you here?”
Li Zhicheng was observing the semi-finished bags on the assembly line and didn't even bother looking up after the man spoke. Confused, the man stood there and waited. Lin Qian thought, Although Li Zhicheng usually doesn't act arrogant, he does have a powerful presence. She immediately showed the supervisor their passes and her employee card, and then dismissed him.
After a full tour through the base, they finally stopped at the large warehouse that kept the raw material inventory.
It was nearly noon. The sun shined brightly on the concrete floor from outside the warehouse, looking warm. But inside the warehouse, it was cold and unbearably quiet.
It was the most depressing scene she had witnessed since joining Aida. There were huge piles of raw leather that was used for making their luxury bags. They were stacked up like mountains, from floor to ceiling.
It's all money, wasted money, causing bills of unimaginable prices! Lin Qian was deeply concerned about it.
Having written many reports over the past few days, Lin Qian understood the details of Aida's downfall well. Following the seemingly impressive plan of entering the overseas market that he had developed himself, the former CEO had implemented the strategy of quickly expanding their production scale and sales to increase their profitability. Because of this, they had stocked up on large amounts of raw materials to prepare for the potential ”explosive upcoming growth.”
Eventually, something did explode, but it was only the crisis. Aida is now at risk of collapsing.
While she was criticizing the former CEO in her mind, she stole a glance at Li Zhicheng by her side, only to see him staring at the piles of raw materials with a cold look, hands resting in his pants pockets.