Chapter 19 (continued)

Vice President Qin?

Qin You searched the original owner's memories and managed to find a faint trace.

When Qin Hengzhong founded the Qin Group years ago, countless people came to him once it began to prosper. He valued family ties and arranged positions for all his siblings.

In those early years, his siblings had also been ambitious, and Qin Hengzhong had even given them small stakes in the company.

Time passed.

Now, some of those people no longer held their shares and stayed out of company affairs; others had changed and ran rampant at the Qin Group, relying on their seniority or status.

The two Directors Qin whom Cui Ling had mentioned were presumably among the latter.

Soon, the two entered the conference room.

Qin Hengzhong glanced at Qin You and gestured to the seat beside him. "Sit."

Cui Ling followed closely behind Qin You.

This was a different conference room from the last one, with relatively fewer people present. But Qin You's seat was not behind and to the side of Qin Hengzhong; it was the first seat on the right side of the long table.

If Qin You took out his phone to play games there, the people beside him would spot it immediately.

Fortunately, after sitting down, he saw that Qin You had no intention of playing games. He even picked up the documents on the table and leafed through them.

Qin Hengzhong said, "Let's begin."

The employee who had been waiting by the display hurriedly stood up and began the presentation.

After reading the documents and listening to the presentation, Qin You had a general understanding of the situation.

The Qin Group had acquired Kaiqiang Technology for its cloud computing capabilities, and development had proceeded in an orderly manner after the acquisition. But starting last night, users had been posting complaints online on and off, claiming that software, systems, and other products developed by Kaiqiang had defects of varying severity.

The complaints had gained little traction overnight. Only this morning had they rapidly attracted attention and spread like wildfire online, with people even adopting the slogan, "Made by Kaiqiang, guaranteed garbage."

The matter could be minor or serious. If it was handled poorly, Kaiqiang's reputation would certainly suffer. In particular, defects appearing on such a large scale would make it hard for people not to doubt Kaiqiang's capabilities, and would also be detrimental to the Qin Group's subsequent plans for it.

"...That's the situation."

After the employee finished the presentation and stepped down, most of the people in the conference room turned their gazes to Qin You.

Qin Hengzhong also looked at Qin You. "You signed the contract for Kaiqiang, Qin You, so I'll leave this matter to you."

When he finished, he looked over the faces around the long conference table. "They'll cooperate with you."

Everyone spoke up in turn.

"Of course we will. Rest assured, Chairman!"

"Yes, we'll be sure to cooperate with Young Mr. Qin!"

Qin Hengzhong said nothing more and did not stay.

He stood up, and four or five people at the table followed him out.

Cui Ling remained where he was, watching him leave.

By the time the door closed again, he could already faintly sense a change in the atmosphere of the conference room, even before he looked.

The tension everyone had been holding onto vanished as soon as the Chairman left.

They clearly did not have much regard for the second-generation heir, a general manager who had yet to establish himself.

Once everyone had retaken their seats, someone immediately spoke up.

"General Manager, how do you think we should resolve this matter?"

Cui Ling sat down silently beside Qin You.

Qin You looked around the silent conference table. "Who's in charge of public relations this time?"

Beside him, Cui Ling answered, "Qi Hailiang, Deputy Director Qi."

Qin You's gaze fell on Qi Hailiang. "Deputy Director Qi, has the PR statement been finalized?"

Qi Hailiang cast a discreet glance in a direction in front of him before replying with a troubled expression, "Young Mr. Qin, Kaiqiang hasn't given us any results yet. Even the cleverest housewife can't cook without rice."

"No results means you don't have to handle PR?"

Qin You smiled. "Then it wouldn't make any difference if someone else took your place as deputy director."

Qi Hailiang's heart skipped a beat.

Over the past half month, Qin You had hardly shown his face at the company. Even though Qi Hailiang secretly resented him for hiding away after harming Xiang He, he had not had a chance to approach him. But he did not have the nerve to openly oppose Qin You to his face.

"Young Mr. Qin, that's not what I meant. I—"

Just then, a man seated halfway down the left side of the table said with a smile, "Young Mr. Qin, you've really misunderstood Deputy Director Qi. Our Qin Group isn't some small outfit. We have a vast business, after all. If we put out a PR statement at random without any results, wouldn't people laugh at us?"

Qin You looked over.

The man was around fifty-five, with graying temples and a long, lean face. Even as he smiled, his triangular eyes had a calculating look.

Cui Ling leaned slightly closer and introduced him in a low voice. "That's Qin Andong, Vice President Qin."

Qin Andong added, "We can't act on impulse and damage the company's reputation."

Cui Ling looked at Qin You.

Qin You was asking the system, Was this in the original story?

The system said, No.

Qin You asked, What's going on?

In the original owner's memories, the acquisition of Kaiqiang Technology had simply been an achievement Qin Hengzhong had prepared for him, without a single hitch from beginning to end.

The system replied with practiced bewilderment, I don't know.

It searched through the information it had. The original owner's character and identity were all predetermined. Everything went smoothly for him as general manager of the Qin Group. According to the records, not only did no one make things difficult for him, he even got along very well with the Qin family!

Got along very well.

Understanding dawned in Qin You's eyes.

In the original story, after the original owner joined the company, he could not be called diligent, but he had worked conscientiously for a while. Afterward, he had been so thoroughly charmed by all sorts of people that he stopped paying attention to company affairs.

But now he was the general manager. Not only had he failed to show up after joining, he had also left all their attempts to sound him out or curry favor with him to Cui Ling to handle on a strictly businesslike basis, with no intention of getting involved.

He looked at Qin Andong.

He had met this vice president at a family dinner at the Qin Residence, and his attitude had been different then.

It seemed that the sugar-coated tactics originally used against the original owner had stopped working, so this pack of insatiably greedy parasites had changed strategies and were preparing to put him in his place.

The system worried, What do we do, host? I'm just a system sprite from the Emotional Rescue Division. I don't have any business functions installed, and we're doing a romance strategy mission, so how did we get dragged into a business dispute...

Qin You also lowered his gaze to the documents on the table.

Yes.

He was only doing a mission, so how had he gotten dragged into other disputes?

He had the original owner's memories, and the Qin Group's course was a minor detail he paid the least attention to.

But clearly, it was in those very details that new shoots were growing.

The document before him, full of detailed data;

Each person in the conference room, each with their own thoughts—

Every detail reminded him more keenly.

This place, this world, was not a simple mission, nor was it a book that could be discarded without consequence.

It truly existed, in flesh and blood.

From the protagonists to the supporting characters, all had independent personalities and could not be controlled by cold words and information.

Without his noticing, a face flashed through his mind, gradually growing clearer.

Even Qin Andong, a vague figure in the original owner's memories, had changed so markedly.

Then could his target really continue to have his choices influenced and his life controlled, as the system wished, by a relationship laid bare by data?

"Young Mr. Qin?" Cui Ling reminded him in a low voice.

Qin You looked up at the person in charge of Kaiqiang. "President Zhang, what's the situation at present?"

Zhang Chongwei looked ill at ease. "Young Mr. Qin, we took the matter seriously as soon as we learned of it. Please rest assured, all our employees—"

Unlike the people within the Qin Group, he knew nothing about Young Mr. Qin. The last time they had met was at the contract signing.

Though Qin You had come and gone in a hurry, smiling all the while, he had easily taken charge of the signing process while he was there. His experienced and highly efficient manner had left a deep impression on Zhang Chongwei.

Qin You said, "You only need to tell me whether all these defects really exist."

His declaration of resolve was cut short. The brisk pace, which allowed no room for idle talk, made Zhang Chongwei even more nervous. "We've been checking. As you know, there's quite a lot of data, so in such a short time—"

Qin You said, "The results of the checks."

"New users are constantly providing data, so the checks aren't finished yet. I—"

Qin You glanced at him. "Then give me the results of the checks you've finished."

"Ah, yes..." Zhang Chongwei tightened his grip on his water glass, his palm slick with sweat. He hurriedly picked up the phone in front of him and searched for the information. "I'll check right away..."

Qin You turned to Qi Hailiang. "Deputy Director Qi, do you have rice to cook with now?"

Qi Hailiang gave an awkward laugh. "Yes, yes..."

No matter how unwilling he was to accept Qin You's authority, he understood what those words meant.

Releasing the results of the checks already completed could at least ease the public outcry.

Qin You said, "Keep public opinion under control. Remember, make sure every claim can be verified."

Qi Hailiang lowered his head and thought for a moment, then looked troubled again. "Young Mr. Qin, what if there really are defects that can't be fixed? It's easy enough to release a statement, but if users discover nothing has changed and think we're fobbing them off, it'll provoke public anger."

Qin You glanced at his face. "Deputy Director Qi, which do you think matters to the Qin Group, appearances or reputation?"

Qi Hailiang was stumped and gritted his teeth inwardly.

What did he think?

He thought that for a behemoth like the Qin Group, appearances and reputation were both nonsense!

What could those indignant paupers online afford? They were not even the target users for Kaiqiang's cloud computing.

If it were up to him, he would simply throw money at the problem to make it die down. What good would come of Qin You making it so complicated?

"Report the facts."

After saying that, Qin You turned to Zhang Chongwei. "Check for and fix the defects. Contact every user who raised an issue, no matter how big or small, immediately and address their concerns."

Zhang Chongwei nodded repeatedly. "Understood!"

A notification sounded on his phone just then, and he hurriedly sent the file to the group chat.

Qin You was already on his feet. "Work out the details yourselves. Come to me when there are new developments."