54 Heartbroken (1/2)

It was afternoon and the sun was blazing overhead. Moreover, it was the outskirts of the city and there was little traffic on the road. There were only the trees by the roadside shining under the sunlight.

Lin Qian stood by the pavement for quite a while before she managed to hail a cab. Of course, her destination was Aida Organization. The moment she entered the taxi, she called Li Zhicheng.

The line was busy.

Knowing he would be under great pressure, she decided not to call again. After such a big announcement, it was not a surprise that he would be swamped with calls.

The cab travelled very quickly on the road. The window was open and wind flooded in. Lin Qian's feelings were like the wind, pounding and unstable.

The news that she had just watched floated in her mind once again, with Ning Weikai's demeanor full of confidence, and the several key words: ”industry leader”, ”hundreds of millions in investments”, ”intense competition”… all automatically flowing into her brain.

Her phone was filled with news related to the Sha Ying brand, which had already flooded the internet. Pages and pages of introductions of its features, advertising measures that had covered all grounds, and just looking at it made one tremble in fear.

”Ultra-light”, ”ultra-strong”, ”water-resistant”, ”dirt withstanding”, ”designed by the world's top designer, Jason Wu”, ”a whole line of the hottest stars and tens of millions spent on endorsements”, ”570 department stores nationwide jointly promoting”…

The rumors regarding ”Mind jumping ship” were spreading more and more intensely, such that truths and rumors were no longer distinguishable.

Thinking about these b*stard things, Lin Qian's fingers just anxiously tapped at the car window to the point that the driver also asked anxiously, ”Girl, what has made you so anxious?”

Lin Qian did not say a word in response.

She could still feel a dull ache in her back and legs. Her mind was racing between thoughts of the passionate two days spent with Li Zhicheng, and that their competitor had launched a strong counter-attack. She had no idea how bad the situation was. This made her even more anxious.

Very quickly, Lin Qian's phone was flooded with calls.

The calls were endless and there were even more messages. In an instant, 50 messages had come in, and opening them, almost all were from the subordinates and close affiliates of the company, asking her what had happened and whether Mind had really jumped ship.

Lin Qian decided not to check anymore.

The phone calls were in the same vein. At such times, the frontline resources were all as anxious as she was. Lin Qian was able to stay composed when dealing with them, reassuring them with a few gentle words and expressing that the organization's general headquarters would definitely have a countermeasure in place for them to stably continue existing sales. They need not be afraid of New Bori.

However, not being afraid was a lie. New Bori was the leader of the industry, and with their clear and direct challenge to Aida, who wouldn't be scared? Each and every person who called her had their hearts laden with anxiety.

After a time, Lin Qian simply stopped picking up calls. She silenced her phone to vibration mode and put it in her pocket, lifting her head to look forward.

Not long after, she arrived at the organization's general headquarters.

The main entrance was still a peaceful scene. Gao Lang and a few other security personnel were seated in the security pavilion, and seeing her walk toward them, they joyfully smiled at her till their eyes were squinting. Lin Qian felt as though a huge stone was pressing onto her chest but still maintained her usual expression and smiled at them, before taking swift strides in.

When she arrived at the top floor, she knew that she wasn't the only anxious one. To the right of the reception counter of the executive floor, there was a large reception room. At this moment, it was completely filled with people and there were even several people who could not squeeze inside and were standing by the door. Xue Mingtao had brought several of Vinda's managers. Also, some of the mid-tier staff from the general headquarters had rushed over.

The moment Lin Qian arrived, she was ushered to the reception room by the administrative secretary at the reception counter, ”Manager Lin, you can sit here and wait a while as well. Currently, President Li and some other executives are having a conference call meeting with the Chairman.”

Lin Qian nodded her head. Such a executive meeting was not something that she could participate in. Although she desperately wanted to see Li Zhicheng, at such a time, she definitely could not cause trouble.

Her phone was still vibrating non-stop and she turned the phone off. The important people had already rushed over to this place. She greeted Xue Mingtao and some others, and everyone's face was solemn and serious. They were sitting in the nicely renovated reception room that looked like a luxurious palace and drinking good tea that was served by the administration secretary, but nobody could taste its flavor.

Some people were smoking, some people were silent and others were drinking while scolding New Bori: plagiarizing Aida's concept and engaging in low-handed means of competition. However, the question everyone was most concerned about was whether or not Mind was really planning to break their contract, becoming New Bori's weapon to take down Aida?

For now, no one knew.

The reception room was in uproar from start to end. The atmosphere was stuffy and stifling. Lin Qian did not say much and sat on a sofa in a corner, thinking about Li Zhicheng. Her heart was so perplexed, it was as if weeds were growing through it.

No one in the room anticipated that they would end up waiting the whole afternoon. Separated by a wide corridor, the executive meeting room on the opposite side still had its door firmly shut, with no hints of movement.

At dusk, Jiang Yuan came out from the meeting room and came over to pass out orders.

Lin Qian and everyone else stood up.

She had to say, Jiang Yuan was really Li Zhicheng's chosen man. Even at such a critical point in time, he still maintained his usual gentle smiling appearance. Slowly looking around the room, he said, ”President Li wants to get everyone to go back to their homes. Several executives and the Chairman still have things to discuss to produce a solution. Everything that has to be said will be left till tomorrow during work.”

Li Zhicheng had always been held in high regard and with Jiang Yuan saying this, most were nodding their heads and standing up to leave. However, there were a few anxious individuals who approached Jiang Yuan and asked, ”Exactly what do you plan to do about this issue? Everybody who gathered here are also very anxious.”

The moment those words were said, everyone, including Lin Qian, turned to look.

Jian Yuan simply smiled, ”President Li said that the method used must be flexible.”

Thus, the people did not say anymore, nodded their heads and were convinced to walk out of the meeting room. Lin Qian could almost imagine the way Li Zhicheng had said it, his eyebrows relaxed and his gaze deep and piercing. But those words had indeed made her heart stabilize a lot more. Thinking about the way he gently loved her for the past couple of days, she couldn't help but feel a wave of palpitation in her heart.

She purposely dawdled until the end and indeed, Jiang Yuan stood on the spot and did not leave. Waiting for her to pass by him, he said in a low voice, ”Manager Lin, President Li wanted me to relay that he will be going to Shenzhen with Vice-president Gu to talk to President Wang and will only be back in two or three days.”

Lin Qian said, ”Thank you.” Even though she was filled with uncertainty about the potential of Mind jumping ship, now was obviously not the right time to ask.

After Jiang Yuan had finished relaying what he had to say, he turned and left, returning to the meeting room. Lin Qian slowly walked over to the lift and fell deep in thought. Because there were quite a lot of people, the lift had already gone down once. The remaining people left behind were coincidentally Xue Mingtao and a few other people from Vinda. Lin Qian just stood together with them.

With a ”ding”, the lift arrived.

Everyone was burning with impatience and did not care to be courteous, with everyone squeezing their way into the lift. Lin Qian remained at her spot until the end. Just as she wanted to enter, she suddenly heard the sound of a door coming from behind her. Subconsciously, she turned her head around and saw that the door of the executive meeting room had just been pushed open. Li Zhicheng was the first to exit, Gu Yanzhi following right behind, as well as Liu Tong, Jiang Yuan and the others. Li Zhicheng's expression was still as water. He still wore the clothes that Lin Qian had picked out for him that morning. He normally wore a white shirt but today, Lin Qian insisted on him wearing a black one. At this moment, the black shirt with his suit and without a tie, his entire person looked cold, handsome and of large stature. His looks were brought out by the shirt to be particularly eye-catching … eye-catching yet cold.

Just then, a few executives had dispersed to return to their own offices, while he and Gu Yanzhi were walking towards the CEO's office. As if he had noticed something, when he reached the door, he turned around and looked over to the lift.

Lin Qian's eyes met with him in mid-air. The feelings in the depths of their eyes were indistinguishable as the two were too far apart. However, Lin Qian's heartstrings quivered slightly. Even with such a faraway glance, she also felt some reassurance.

At the same time, she also felt her heart ache and a deep worry for him.

The lift doors closed slowly, blocking her line of sight. Meanwhile, Li Zhicheng who was in the distance had also turned his body to walk into the office.

The lift went down slowly.

Surrounding her were all her most familiar colleagues that had a tacit understanding between them, and no one said a word in those moments. Lin Qian thought about what Li Zhicheng had told her before:

For such things, I will write three pieces, and this is the second piece…

If anything happens in the future, don't be scared…

Was the current situation all within his calculations after all?

She was unable to ascertain that, because this wasn't a small situation. New Bori had given its all in attacking them, and additionally, Mind was now wavering in its position. Li Zhicheng had even mentioned that Mind would not change its stance. With the way things were developing, it was very possible that things had already exceeded his expectations!

Just then, Xue Mingtao's phone rang. He picked it up, and hurriedly said two sentences, before hanging up. He raised his head to look at everyone.

”At four in the afternoon, New Bori's Sha Ying officially launched their first batch of products.” There was a sharp glint in his eyes, ”I've sent people to get their hands on two pieces.”

At this moment, including Lin Qian, everyone who was in the lift had their eyes light up.

”Immediately send one piece over to President Li,” he said, ”The other piece will be brought back to our office and must be analyzed right away!”

”Alright!” Almost everyone responded in unison.

Eight o'clock at night.

Lin Qian, Xue Mingtao and the others were seated in Vinda's meeting room.

A brand-new black backpack was placed in the middle of a round table. The logo of the bag was very obvious, an abstract eagle spreading its wings was on the top right corner, similar to many of the top European and American brands like ARC'TERYX, Salewa, Black Yak and had the same high-end feel.

For a short period, there was not a single person in the room who spoke. The staff from the technology department had just thoroughly studied it, analyzing the bag's qualities and data.

The fabric was very similar to what Aida used in their products, but whether or not it was Mind still required further testing.

However, just based on its other aspects, it was already enough to make everyone speechless.