Chapter 55

“Is there anything else?” Zhou Sujin asked him, clearly indicating that the call was about to end.

“Yes, hold on a moment,” Lu Yu still had a lot to say.

Zhou Sujin was always adept at strategizing in business matters. Anyone who offended him wouldn’t have a chance to escape. However, when it came to Wei Lai, he felt it necessary to carefully consider the situation.

“And what about Wei Lai? The problem arose right after the cooperation started, and it’s because of you,” Lu Yu said.

Zhou Sujin paused for a moment. Others might not understand Zhao Lianshen, but he did. “Even without Baiduo Industry, Zhao Lianshen would have made other arrangements. Moreover, Baiduo has considerable value that can be leveraged. It depends on how she uses it. Let her handle it herself.”

Lu Yu was a bit bewildered, suspecting that he might have misunderstood. So he asked directly, “Are you saying you’re not going to interfere with Wei Lai? And you’re not going to tell her that Zhao Lianshen is the actual controller of Baiduo Industry?”

Zhou Sujin replied, “With a company as powerful as Baiduo, why would they readily cooperate with her? As the highest decision-maker in the company, and given her previous experience in venture capital, she should have the most basic risk awareness.”

Lu Yu was at a loss for words.

If it were for him and his wife’s company to be affected because of his feud with someone else, he would definitely worry about his wife getting angry and it affecting their relationship. But when it came to Zhou Sujin, it was like, “It’s not my problem; she should have risk awareness herself as a company decision-maker.”

“But… what if Wei Lai didn’t notice this risk? And you knew about it but didn’t warn her? It could cause conflict between you and your wife. What will you do then?” Lu Yu expressed his concerns.

Zhou Sujin didn’t answer directly. Instead, he asked Lu Yu to ask the remaining two questions all at once.

“What makes Wei Lai Zhao Lianshen’s opponent?”

“The supermarket is Aunt Cheng’s hard work. If irreversible losses occur, have you thought about the consequences?”

Zhou Sujin remained silent for a moment. “I’ve already answered all your questions. Think back to what I said earlier.”

Lu Yu realized he was overly worried. He had been nervous for so long, but Zhou Sujin didn’t seem to take it seriously at all.

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Sujin went back to the living room.

Ning Rujiang was arranging flowers. Every time her nephew came, he would buy a bunch of forget-me-nots.

The tea table that used to be in the yard for tea was still by the window. When the weather warmed up, they could move it under the ginkgo tree and have tea in the yard.

With the window open, she gestured for her nephew to look outside. For the second time, she asked him, “During the best months of the year, do you two consider taking wedding photos?”

Their courtyard could easily pass as a scenic spot. Several friends’ children who got married wanted to use the courtyard for photoshoots, but she refused, reserving it for her nephew and Wei Lai.

Zhou Sujin replied, “We’ll do it when Wei Lai wants to.”

Ning Rujiang suggested her nephew ask Wei Lai why she didn’t want to take wedding photos.

After arranging the last sprig of forget-me-nots in the vase, she asked her nephew, “If you don’t want to ask, I’ll ask Wei Lai when I see her. What do you think?”

Zhou Sujin declined, “No need to ask.”

Ning Rujiang hesitated but decided to respect her nephew’s wishes.

She changed the subject, “When you have time, bring Wei Lai home for dinner. Your father said he hasn’t met Wei Lai yet and has some complaints about you.”

Zhou Sujin replied, “We’ve met, and I greeted her in the video call.”

Ning Rujiang remained silent.

In reality, her brother-in-law’s real issue wasn’t that her nephew hadn’t brought Wei Lai home, but that her nephew had challenged his authority by not marrying according to his wishes, which made him unhappy.

All she could do was smooth things over, “Regardless, your father has given you both wedding gifts, which means he accepts you two. It’s time to go home.”

Zhou Sujin reiterated, “I’ll bring her home when the time is right.”

On the day of her uncle’s fiftieth birthday, Wei Lai saw those elders and felt that they were all powerful figures in the upper echelons of society, and she couldn’t handle it. If she saw her father, she would be even more overwhelmed.

Ning Rujiang conveyed her sister’s words. As for when her nephew would bring Wei Lai home for dinner, she couldn’t control that; it was purely out of curiosity, “So, when do you think it will be appropriate?”

Zhou Sujin replied, “After Wei Lai Supermarket goes public.”

That night, Wei Lai messaged him, saying that after thinking it over, she decided not to consult him about the risk control issues and would make decisions on her own. If the decisions turned out to be wrong, she was prepared to bear all the consequences.

The next morning, Wei Lai instructed her assistant to notify the senior management to convene a meeting.

After reaching a strategic cooperation agreement with Baiduo Industry, the supermarket’s organizational structure and operating model were adjusted again. The original seventeen stores remained under the original management team, while the eighteenth store and subsequent ones were separated and operated under the new model, unified under the name Wei Lai·Baiduo. A new team was assembled to run these stores.

Wei Lai promoted Kang, the store manager, to the general manager of the top seventeen Wei Lai stores and provided him with stock incentives. She appointed Yu Younian as the general manager of Wei Lai Baiduo and allocated him 1% of real stock shares. Chen Qi was appointed as the deputy general manager and CTO, with 3% of real stock shares.

Wei Lai stated, “The focus of our work now is on mergers and acquisitions.”

Yu Younian was slightly surprised, “Mergers and acquisitions?”

Wei Lai nodded. Besides Wei Lai Supermarket and Fumanyuan, there was another chain supermarket in Jiangcheng with a scale between the two.

However, due to the boss’s unsuccessful investments in other industries, he faced numerous disputes and lost interest in managing the supermarket. The management was in chaos, the former glory was gone, and now some stores couldn’t even pay salaries. Many employees had resigned one after another.

“There are a total of thirty-six stores, all in good locations. I’ve decided to take over all of them.”

Lu Manyi was also tempted to acquire them but hesitated due to funding issues. He didn’t dare to acquire all thirty-six stores at once.

Chen Qi roughly estimated the funds needed for the acquisition and expressed concern, “We’re not financially comfortable either.” The funds could be used for other purposes.

Wei Lai said, “Baiduo has money. Continue to seek financing from them. This matter will be fully handled by you.”

She then turned to Tang Yi, “During the merger and acquisition period, it’s up to you to avoid and control related risks.”

Tang Yi had nothing else to do, “No problem.”

After the meeting, Tang Yi returned to her office first. She took out a folded A3 paper from her bag and brought some freshly picked cherries from her grandmother’s house to Wei Lai.

Wei Lai hadn’t had breakfast yet. She had just opened a bag of toast, and there was a jar of cherry sauce on the table that Zhao Yihan had given her.

Tang Zhi placed the basket of cherries on her desk, “You haven’t had breakfast again?”

“I was up until three in the morning thinking, and I almost didn’t wake up in the morning. I didn’t have time to eat,” Wei Lai said, spreading a layer of sauce on the toast. There was no need for courtesy between her and Tang Yi. She ate her toast with sauce and placed the cherries on the low cabinet.

Tang Yi was about to speak but remembered that the door was still open. She went to close it.

“Do you suspect that Chen Qi was planted by Mu Di?” She sat down on the chair in front of the desk.

Wei Lai nodded. Although Chen Qi had cleared his suspicion, it didn’t mean that he wasn’t involved.

She swallowed the toast and said, “I don’t have evidence.”

“If it were easy to find evidence, would he dare to do things for Mu Di under Director He’s nose?” Tang Yi opened the A3 paper she had in her hand, “I’ve done my best, but I still can’t confirm whether the capital behind Baiduo is from Zhao Lianshen.”

The large paper was densely filled with analysis of the major shareholders and executives of Baiduo.

Wei Lai carefully read all the analyses, then opened the shredder and shredded the paper folded along the crease.

She continued to eat her toast with sauce, contemplating for a moment, “Since we can’t confirm it’s him, let’s just assume it is.” Ensuring there were no risks at all.

Tang Yi watched as Wei Lai enjoyed her toast and suddenly felt tempted. She reached out and grabbed a slice. Not being a fan of spreads, she laid a piece of tissue on the table to catch the crumbs before leisurely eating the toast.

“If Baiduo Industries really belongs to Zhao Lianshen, using his money for mergers and acquisitions, establishing a logistics team with his money, and having ambitious and capable people like Chen Qi working hard for you sounds great.”

The only thing to worry about would be that when Wei Lai Baiduo goes public, she will face Zhao Lianshen’s interference, and she will have to deal with Chen Qi’s potential “mistakes” at work.

Wei Lai responded, “I thought you would object to giving Chen Qi shares.”

Tang Yi replied truthfully that she might have been concerned about the risks before because Chen Qi was not easy to control.

But now she understood that she couldn’t just focus on the risks and become conservative and stubborn. What mattered was how to anticipate and deal with the risks.

People like Chen Qi with such personalities were suitable for equity incentives, as they would work even harder.

Relying solely on Wei Lai herself, it was uncertain when they could break into the top thirty of the supermarket industry. With assistants like Chen Qi and Yu Younian, along with the financial support of Baiduo Industries, they could possibly break into the top twenty within three to five years.

After eating two slices of toast to suffice for breakfast, Wei Lai called Yuan Hengrui to ask when he would be available to meet at his office to discuss renting office space.

Yuan Hengrui was pleasantly surprised. As long as Wei Lai asked, he would be available at any time. However, he wasn’t at the office at the moment, so he calculated how long it would take him to get back. “How about eleven o’clock? Does that work for you?”

“That’s fine. Let’s meet.”

Yuan Hengrui hurried back to the office and, upon his return, went straight to the restroom to tidy up his hair and shirt in front of the mirror, ensuring everything was in order, even though Wei Lai wouldn’t notice.

The office always had Wei Lai’s favorite coffee, even though it was unlikely she would ever drink it again.

With the coffee brewed, Wei Lai arrived as scheduled.

Yuan Hengrui brought the coffee over and chuckled, “I really feel like my office is shining brightly now.”

Since Wei Lai was already married, he returned to the main topic and asked her what she needed the rented office space for.

Wei Lai smiled, “For office work, of course.”

“Don’t you already have an office area?” And it wasn’t small, located upstairs in the supermarket’s headquarters, making everything convenient.

Yuan Hengrui asked again, “Which location are you planning to rent?” There were several high-end office buildings owned by Jiang’an Group distributed in various places, and there happened to be one next to Wei Lai Supermarket’s headquarters.

Wei Lai replied, “I want to rent the one next to the supermarket, the whole floor.” She intended to separate the office area for Wei Lai Supermarket from that of Wei Lai·Baiduo.

Wei Lai·Baiduo was a new company registered separately by Wei Lai Supermarket and Baiduo Industries in proportion to their investments, with Lemon Food also holding a small stake.

The current office space was actually enough for the teams of both companies, but she decided to separate them to avoid any interference.

Yuan Hengrui had been busy with group matters recently and hadn’t paid much attention to the supermarket’s developments. Hearing that she wanted to rent an entire floor, he was surprised, “Do you have that many people in your team now?”

“We don’t have that many people yet. We’re still building the team.” If the mergers and acquisitions progress smoothly, they will need the entire office floor by the end of the year.

Yuan Hengrui had his secretary make a call to confirm, but for the time being, there wasn’t an entire floor available for rent. A company would be moving to the business park in August, freeing up one and a half floors.

“Probably around mid-August.”

“That works.”

It was just right.

After putting down the phone, Yuan Hengrui leaned back in his chair and said, “At this rate, you might be able to buy the storefront of Jiang’an Yunhui Store next year.”

Wei Lai smiled and said, “Thank you for your kind words.”

As she passed by the Xinming Group building on her way home, she used to come here often to see Zhang Yanxin. Looking at the logo at the top of the building, it felt like a lifetime ago.

If she hadn’t met Zhou Sujin after breaking up with him, she wondered what her current relationship status would be.

Regardless of whether she had found new love or remained single, the only thing she could be certain of was that no one would ever indulge her as much as Zhou Sujin did.

While waiting at a red light, she edited a message on her phone and sent it to him: “CEO Zhou, I miss you.”

Zhou Sujin was on his way to the airport, and his gaze lingered on the message for a few seconds before replying, “I know. I’ll pick you up after you finish work tonight.”

Wei Lai received his reply when the traffic light was counting down from three seconds, but before she could respond, she started driving as the light turned green. Suddenly, a layer of mist obscured her vision, and it took her a moment to clear her eyes and see the road clearly again.

Back at her apartment, she told Zhou Sujin that she hadn’t gone to the office in the afternoon and had instead caught up on sleep at home.

This nap lasted until evening, and when she woke up, she finally felt alive again.

After tidying up her small apartment, she went to the nearby supermarket to buy a pair of men’s slippers.

She waited in her car for Zhou Sujin, holding the car keys, from the time the sun was about to set until dusk fell, but he still hadn’t arrived.

As the night fell and the stars appeared, she reclined in the backseat to admire the sky.

However, she wasn’t as focused on watching the shooting stars as usual, glancing outside the car from time to time, afraid of missing him.

So when the Bentley turned into the driveway, she saw it immediately and quickly pushed open the car door to get out.

Zhou Sujin was wearing a black shirt today and stepped out of the car with a suit in his hand.

Uncle Yan was still in the car, so when she rushed over to Zhou Sujin, she only hugged him briefly. When she tried to let go, he held her in his arms, causing her heart to skip a beat.

Zhou Sujin asked Uncle Yan to return to the hotel first. Since the back door of the Bentley was still open, he noticed the starry sky inside and asked her, “Do you want to keep watching?”

Grabbing his hand, she replied, “Will you watch with me?”

Zhou Sujin, although he never understood the appeal of fake stars, still got into the backseat.

Without the benefit of airline seats, once they were in the car, she could hold him.

Glancing down at her, Zhou Sujin asked, “Why didn’t you go to work? Are you having trouble dealing with some tricky issues at the supermarket, or is there something you haven’t figured out yet?”

“I can handle everything, and I’ve figured everything out and started implementing it.” She looked up at him from his embrace. “I’m just suddenly a little tired. But when I see you, I’m not tired anymore.”

She told him that Wei Lai Supermarket and Wei Lai·Baiduo were now operating separately, with the first seventeen stores belonging to Wei Lai Supermarket, focusing solely on the local market in Jiangcheng.

The subsequent stores were managed by Wei Lai·Baiduo, with ambitions to expand to second-tier and above cities nationwide, aiming to open four hundred new stores.

Zhou Sujin nodded in approval, “Well done, minimizing the risks for Wei Lai Supermarket.”

“Thank you for the praise, CEO Zhou. It’s necessary to minimize the risks, especially since the first fifteen stores represent twenty-five years of my mother’s hard work.”

As for why she had added two more stores to Wei Lai Supermarket, she paused before explaining, “The seventeenth store holds a different significance for me.”

Zhou Sujin straightforwardly asked, “Because of me?”

She nodded, “Yes.”

Whenever he became direct like this, she couldn’t keep up, so she changed the subject and invited him, “Would you like to come up to my apartment?”

“I’ve been wanting to go up and take a look.”