August 9th, Wednesday, clear, temperature 36 degrees.
Li Ye had finished his three-and-a-half-week gilded journey and returned to work at the First Branch Factory, receiving an enthusiastic welcome from everyone there along the way.
Suppressing the small satisfaction in his heart, Li Ye first went to Lu Zhizhang to discuss the situation.
The moment he entered Lu Zhizhang's office, Li Ye could not help bursting into laughter.
A ring of fever blisters had broken out around Lu Zhizhang's mouth. Clearly, he had been burning with anger.
"Ha ha ha ha, Old Lu, what has gotten you so worked up?"
Lu Zhizhang gave a few chuckles as well, then said as if he had finally been freed, "Thank Heaven, thank the Bodhisattva—you're finally back. If you'd stayed away any longer, I would've gone mad."
Li Ye pulled over a chair and sat down before Lu Zhizhang. He asked calmly, "I guessed some people would take the chance to stir up trouble. Tell me what happened, and I'll settle the score with them properly."
"Who else could it be? Park In-cheol! While you and Ding Jiuchang were both away these past few weeks, he was leaping about, pointing east and striking west, tormenting the people in the sales department until they cried out in misery. Every last one of them came to me to complain.
"I had to soothe this one and placate that one every few days. If you hadn't made arrangements with me before leaving, I really would've wanted to smack the hell out of him."
"..."
On the very first day Park In-cheol had "joined" the First Branch Factory, Li Ye had cut him down to size over "being late for a meeting."
Then, before leaving for his training course, Li Ye had laid out a plan with Lu