Chapter 560 - Iris Long Fever
Iris Long"s friends from Cross Academy left the country after visiting the Dragon Palace mansion to eat dinner with her and Jin Liwei.
It was a pity that her language teachers, Professor Kalisha Schwarz and Professor Hisakawa Akio, couldn"t make it to the grand launch. Like Headmaster Erwan Dupont, the two professors had scheduling conflicts. However, they sent presents congratulating her on her company"s successful launch.
In the next few days, both Iris and Jin Liwei returned to work. The workaholic couple didn"t allow their break to negatively affect their performance. It was as if they didn"t leave work with how quickly they reintegrated themselves.
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Jin Corporation.
"Good morning, President Jin!"
The employees greeted Jin Liwei as soon as he walked into the lobby, followed by his loyal a.s.sistant Xu Tian.
He nodded. "Good morning."
It was obvious that he was in a good mood. He had been in a great mood in the past few days after returning to work from his break.
It started when he caught an employee listening to "Monster of Insanity" while working. The employee had earphones on but accidentally disconnected it, leaking what he was listening to everyone. When he discovered that the President was standing right behind him, he almost peed his pants and grovelled to the floor to ask for forgiveness. But before he could do so, Jin Liwei nodded and said:
"You have great taste in music."
Then Jin Liwei left.
After that, there had been a surge of "accidental" music leaks throughout the company—all Iris Long songs, of course.
Whenever a mobile phone rang, it would an Iris Long song. Copies of "Rebirth" alb.u.m were also displayed on work desks, hoping that their President would see them if he came over. Those who had actual signed alb.u.ms or memorabilia (proud Black Stars) felt superior to the others.
"We"re REAL fans of Boss Iris," they were often heard saying. "At least we"re not using her to get on the President"s good graces, unlike some people."
Even the cafeteria started playing more Iris Long songs, prompting Jin Liwei to see for himself after hearing about it. As a result, he almost caused a stampede when he decided to eat lunch in the cafeteria with Xu Tian and the other executives. The employees felt like an immortal being just descended to the mortal realm to grace them with his presence.
His good mood infected the entire company"s morale. They were all gradually getting used to seeing him (occasionally) smile. Before this, the company"s productivity would skydive in the rare event that he actually smiled because the sight was just too shocking. Now, however, his smile had the opposite positive effect. It made the employees more productive! They began performing well at work, hoping to gain his praise and see his smile more often.
However, the happy atmosphere didn"t permeate the entire company.
The board of directors was particularly tense at the moment, especially the members who belonged to the Jin branch families.
Jin Chenggong was fired from his position in the board. Even his entire branch family was disowned from the Jin clan.
The Jin branch families only held a minority in the board of directors but their combined influence was far greater because of their surname. They were proud of their Jin name, a.s.suming that it made them special compared to the other members of the board who weren"t Jins or Lus. However, their sense of security and pride was shaken when Sir Lu Jianhong finally used his unrivalled authority in the company to fire Jin Chenggong from the board of directors.
Now they remembered that there was still someone else who could take away the privilege that they were currently enjoying.
Sir Lu Jianhong, one of the original founders of the company now known as Jin Corporation. The original Jin founder might be gone, but the original Lu founder was still very much alive. Sir Lu Jianhong had taken a backseat and allowed the Jins to run the company for many years. He even let the company be renamed as JIN Corporation in honour of his late brother and best friend.
This apparent removal of the Lu presence in the company gave the mistaken impression to the Jin branch families that their clan was the sole force holding the power and authority in Jin Corporation. They had forgotten that Sir Lu Jianhong owned exactly 50% of the company by himself, making him the majority shareholder. Compare that to Jin Liwei who only owned 25%, part of which he inherited from his father and the other part he acquired by himself as a young executive. The other 25% became minor shares distributed among the Jin branch families, other executives, and public shareholders.
It was Jin Liwei"s grandfather who decided to split up his own 50% shares upon his death, distributing it to his own son and clan members, selling some at discount prices to well-deserving employees who worked hard to help make the company successful since the beginning, and offering the remaining shares to the public in order to establish Jin Corporation as a truly world-cla.s.s business.
For many years, the Jin branch families took it for granted that their surname was the most visible presence in the company. Now that Sir Lu Jianhong used his rightful authority to fire someone from the board of directors, they realized that the paltry shares they owned were only droplets of water compared to the vast ocean the old man owned.
After him, Jin Liwei was the next biggest shareholder. If the several predictions were correct and Sir Lu Jianhong would pa.s.s down all of his shares to Jin Liwei, then Jin Liwei would become the ultimate majority shareholder, holding 75% of the shares. If that happened, then Jin Corporation would truly be controlled solely by the Jins.
This was supposed to be great news to the Jin branch families, if not for the fact that Jin Liwei easily disowned a branch family from the clan because of a woman. Did this mean that if they expressed their disapproval for Iris Long as their next madam, they would also be disowned and lose everything?
How could they stay calm after this?
At that moment, the branch families split allegiances. All of them didn"t want to lose their current positions and privileges. They wanted to stay in the Jin clan and keep their shares of Jin Corporation, but their methods of keeping the current status quo differed from one another.
One side completely submitted themselves to Jin Liwei and his decision to marry Iris Long. They might disapprove of her and think that she was unsuitable for their clan head, but they would accept her because Jin Liwei had already chosen her. At least in this way, they would remain in Jin Liwei"s good side and keep them safe from being disowned.
Some of them were even starting to believe that Iris Long might not be such a bad match for Jin Liwei after all, especially after hearing about the successful and history-making launch of her company, Orchidia Beauty. If Orchidia Beauty continued to be profitable in the long-term, then she would at least be pa.s.sable as Jin Liwei"s wife. They couldn"t expect someone like her to grow her company on the same level of Jin Corporation, could they?
"Impossible," they thought, laughing at the ridiculous idea.
As for the other side, they also wanted to maintain the current status quo but they didn"t want to accept Iris Long. Never! Thus, they began promoting a radical idea—to make Rose Young their next Madam.
First of all, they believed that Rose Young was many times more suitable than that celebrity Iris Long who was trying to become a fake businesswoman.
Second of all, most of them personally knew Rose Young and were quite close to her and her family. They knew what kind of a wonderful, intelligent and talented woman she was, unlike that Iris Long who suddenly turned from being a devil to an angel.
Third of all, they were the ones who voted for Rose Young and made her the new CMO of Jin Corporation. Thus, she would naturally feel grat.i.tude for the help they gave her.
These reasons made them believe that if they successfully made Rose Young their next Madam, not only would they keep the current status quo but also make it more advantageous for them courtesy of her sense of grat.i.tude for helping her. They helped her get to her position, so she had a responsibility to pay them back, no?
Amidst the good mood and high morale of Jin Corporation, these schemes were being plotted in the shadows. Pulling the strings behind this radical group was Jin Chenggong who still retained his influence on some of the Jin branch families and Romeo Young all the way from Singapore who had proven himself as a great "friend" to those who needed to accomplish little (shady) tasks that might get them into trouble with the law.
While all of these people were speeding up the plan to make her the next Madam of Jin Corporation, Rose Young was suffering in the company. Everywhere she went, she would see, hear and feel the presence of Iris Long.
"d.a.m.n all these a.s.s-kissers, using that s.l.u.t to brownnose on Big Brother Liwei!"
This made her work extra harder, drowning herself in work, in order to stop herself from going crazy because of what she called the "Iris Long fever" in the company. As a result, her work performance improved by leaps and bounds. The other executives and members of the board of directors praised her achievements during a routine meeting. This only made the radical group believe that they made the right decision in supporting her.
"Thank you, everyone. I"m the CMO, after all. This is part of my work," she modestly replied. Then she glanced at Jin Liwei, hoping to hear him praise her, too.
However, Jin Liwei only nodded, not sparing her a word or even a look, breaking her heart.
"This is all your fault, you s.l.u.t!"
While she was silently cursing Iris Long, the CFO"s mobile phone rang.
"I"m a monster created by love
Your love, oh your love"
It"s haunting me, it"s turning me
Into a Monster, a Monster, a Monster of Insanity!!!"
The red-faced CFO struggled to find his phone inside his briefcase. His rock music ringtone blared loudly in the conference room. It was heard by everyone in the meeting, including Jin Liwei who had an amused expression. However, only Xu Tian detected the amus.e.m.e.nt from his usual cold and indifferent expression. Finally, the CFO found his phone and turned it off in a hurry. He cleared his throat and immediately apologized.
"My apologies, especially to the President. My carelessness made me forget to set my phone on silent mode before the meeting."
Silence.
"Nice ringtone," Jin Liwei commented. "Continue with the meeting."
"Yes, sir!"
Rose Young almost coughed out blood in her fury.
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