A Private Chat
Zhang Qian turned back to Director Lin and asked, "Is he the technical expert you were talking about?"
Director Lin also looked surprised and asked in confusion, "President Zhang, do you know... uh, Mr. Xiang?"
Zhang Qian frowned slightly, seemingly unsure how to answer. Xiang Kun, observing this, naturally chimed in, "I know one of Ms. Zhang's friends who is a graduate student in this city. Ms. Zhang met him once before when she returned to China."
"Oh, is that so? What a coincidence! Haha!" Director Lin said in surprise. He had also heard of the "friend of Director Zhang who is studying for a master's degree in this city" that Xiang Kun mentioned, because Zhang Qian had also made a special trip to see this friend during this visit.
After briefly introducing Zhang Qian's identity and the stern-looking female assistant, Director Lin addressed Xiang Kun's biggest question.
"Mr. Xiang, actually, I've heard my classmate mention your name several times before," Director Lin said, giving a name.
This name belongs to Xiang Kun's former boss, whom he had worked for for seven years.
Because Zhang Qian was still there, Director Lin didn't talk much about Xiang Kun's former boss, only saying that his classmate had said a lot of good things about Xiang Kun.
Xiang Kun could easily guess what the compliments were. Over the past seven years, he had truly devoted himself to the company, almost single-mindedly throwing himself into his work. However, this wasn't out of selflessness or altruism; rather, he was determined to help his boss take the company public and then use his shares to achieve financial freedom and leapfrog social classes.
That's why, when the company started to fall into trouble and had clearly gone in the wrong direction, Xiang Kun, although sensing something was wrong, still convinced himself that there was still a chance, that he could still fight and struggle. It wasn't until the boss personally announced the company's demise that his dream finally shattered.
From the boss's perspective, Xiang Kun has been an exemplary employee for the past seven years.
Even when the company went bankrupt, he didn't do what others did and pester the boss for the remaining wages and severance pay—of course, this was also because he knew he wouldn't get them anyway.
Next, Director Lin introduced the project they wanted to do to Xiang Kun, including their needs, approximate budget, and specific details such as the development timeline.
It was mostly Director Lin who was talking to him; Zhang Qian and the female assistant rarely interrupted. Only occasionally would Director Lin stop and ask Zhang Qian for instructions on certain issues.
If it were the Xiang Kun of the past, his attention would definitely be on the project that Director Lin mentioned, and his mind would be focused on the technical implementation and related issues.
But now, even without consciously observing, his brain is constantly gathering information from his surroundings. Therefore, he quickly formed a rough judgment based on the attitudes between Director Lin, Zhang Qian, and the female assistant, as well as Director Lin's choice of words and narrative style, combined with what his old friend had said on QQ:
The company where Director Lin works actually focuses on offline business, operating directly-owned stores in several coastal provinces. His former "boss," who was also the financier who outsourced work to Xiang Kun and his old forum buddies, wanted to expand the company's business into the internet and mobile platforms.
After some tentative attempts, presumably on Director Lin's advice, the investor prepared to make a large-scale foray into online platforms, and even planned to establish its own R&D department in order to vigorously develop its online business.
However, at this time, the "sugar daddy" was replaced for some unknown reason, and the new boss who "parachuted" in to take his place was Zhang Qian, a young and beautiful woman who had just returned from abroad.
Based on the background investigation he had conducted on the way, Xiang Kun knew that the company was backed by a large family business. Zhang Qian's ability to "parachute in" was definitely not solely due to her abilities, but also to her blood ties.
Generally speaking, new bosses aren't too keen on their predecessors' plans. Clearly, Director Lin was worried that Zhang Qian would reject that "grand plan" outright, so his words were tinged with a desire to curry favor with Zhang Qian. When introducing the project and specific requirements to Xiang Kun, he was also indirectly describing the project's benefits and prospects to Zhang Qian, hoping to persuade the new boss to continue supporting it.
According to Xiang Kun's observation, Zhang Qian seemed somewhat indifferent to the project, neither opposing nor supporting it. From the moment Director Lin began introducing the project, her attention remained focused on Xiang Kun.
Xiang Kun certainly didn't think that the beautiful woman had taken a liking to him. He could roughly guess that Zhang Qian was curious about his identity and was thinking about the "trick" with the A4 paper in the bar. He guessed that Yang Jie might have told her about their chance encounter at the bar, so she would definitely be more curious about him.
"So that's roughly the situation, Mr. Xiang. Not only does my old classmate often mention you, and we've collaborated before, but I also frequently visit several technical forums and have read many articles on 'Reverse Heaven and Earth.' Therefore, I have great confidence in your abilities. I hope you can come to Peng City to help me build this development team. As for compensation, rest assured, our company has always had a very good reputation in this regard." Director Lin's throat was a little dry, so he took a sip of water and began to wait for Xiang Kun's reply.
When Xiang Kun first heard him introduce the project, he had already started to come up with a solution in his mind. He had quite a few ideas. He had also thought about using this project to try out some of his own ideas and find a way to develop his own "AI assistant".
But working in Pengcheng was absolutely unacceptable to him, so after thinking for a moment, he said, "I'm really sorry, but I don't want to leave this city for the time being, so I'm afraid I can't work in Pengcheng. If you can accept outsourcing, I can help you design the entire system architecture and a few core functions, and you can find a team to complete the rest..."
He didn't think the other party would agree at all. It would be easier to talk about small projects with low complexity, but for larger projects like this, there would be issues with maintenance, expansion, and security. If Xiang Kun couldn't lead a team directly, they might as well find a larger outsourcing company to do it. They could then handle any problems that arose later, or they could find other capable people to build a team. As long as the money was right, it wasn't hard to find talent for this kind of project. At least on the surface, there were plenty of people better than Xiang Kun.
Director Lin indeed thought so, so he nodded somewhat regretfully, put away the tablet on the table that was used to display some content, and said, "If Mr. Xiang changes his mind, I hope he can contact me. My phone number is..."
At this moment, Zhang Qian suddenly spoke up, "Let's go with the plan you suggested."
Xiang Kun and Director Lin were both stunned. Then Xiang Kun looked at Director Lin, signaling him to explain that Zhang Qian might not be very familiar with project development and might not be aware of the potential problems.
Just as Director Lin was about to say something, Zhang Qian said directly, "Director Lin, Assistant Chen, why don't you go upstairs and rest? Mr. Xiang have a private talk."
What's going on?
Director Lin looked at Xiang Kun in surprise, and Xiang Kun returned the look with the same bewildered expression.
Although he had been subconsciously gathering sensory information from Zhang Qian, he never expected Zhang Qian to make such a decision.
Isn't she the boss? When she's discussing "business" with her subordinates, shouldn't she leave it to professionals and handle it with a professional attitude?
What could the two of them possibly have to talk about? She doesn't understand software engineering.