E-Ladies: Navigating the Wired World
Chapter 145: Episode 145: Fate is Truly Ineffable

Chapter 145: Episode 145: Fate is Truly Ineffable

Since Zhou Xueyin strictly set three rules for Liu Feifei, that woman indeed restrained herself somewhat, knowing that no matter what, her position was lower than Zhou Xueyin’s, so she no longer dared to throw her weight around or give orders.

However, she would still occasionally make Pei Chu spend money on her, but most of the time, Zhou Xueyin managed to resolve it.

One day at the beginning of May, Zhou Xueyin took the sales report from April of ’08, before the acquisition, to the 9th floor of Silver Web Building to find Chen Lu for confirmation and signature, so as to verify inventory.

Passing by the sales department of Zhongonline, Zhou Xueyin unexpectedly saw a familiar figure.

Isn’t that Wei Jingzhu? What’s he doing here?

Wei Jingzhu also saw Zhou Xueyin and didn’t seem particularly surprised, as if he had known he would encounter her.

"Xiaojing? What are you doing here?" Zhou Xueyin took a detour to approach Wei Jingzhu’s workstation.

"I’ve been working here for almost a year, of course, I’m here," Wei Jingzhu said with a smile.

"So you knew you would run into me? And you haven’t told me all this time?" Zhou Xueyin looked at him with feigned anger.

"No, no... I only found out last month," Wei Jingzhu waved his hands, explaining, "In March, I indeed knew that the group was going to acquire a forum media company, but I didn’t expect it to be yours..."

"I also didn’t expect to truly become colleagues with you. Oh right, I need to go sign first—talk later!" Zhou Xueyin glanced at the director’s office; Chen Lu was indeed there.

"You go ahead, we’re in the same company now, we can get in touch anytime!" Wei Jingzhu watched as Zhou Xueyin left.

In fact, the two of them hadn’t seen each other in a very long time, and although they had kept in contact, they hadn’t talked much about work.

Zhou Xueyin only knew that he had joined an IT vertical media company, but she didn’t know much else.

Today was completely unexpected; to actually meet here, in the CBIS group.

The world is too small, and they were too fated.

"Xiaowei, that’s pretty cool! Isn’t she the new president of the group’s newly acquired forum? Impressive, right?" Wei Jingzhu’s leader, Zhang Lei, having seen the two talking, teased with a noticeable hint of sourness, "I heard that her company is full of beauties. When can you bring your brothers along for a look?"

"You’re joking. She and I are just ordinary friends; we’re not as familiar with each other as you think," Wei Jingzhu replied with a polite smile to Zhang Lei.

"False modesty, huh?" Zhang Lei could feel that Wei Jingzhu did not want him to bother people from another company, so he found an excuse to send him out, "I’ll be meeting a client tomorrow; go to the market and get me two PS3s."

"PS3?" Wei Jingzhu confirmed.

"Yes, PS3! You heard right, the latest console that was released," Zhang Lei confirmed.

"Will you provide the money?" Wei Jingzhu didn’t want to spend his own money on company affairs, the few times he bought PSPs were fine since the boss was a friend, and the price was not too expensive.

But this time it was PS3s, which were costly, and Zhang Lei asked for two right off the bat. Without money, he probably wouldn’t be able to get them.

"What money? Just give them a few extra promotional slots, and that should do—pay them? They should be honored!" Zhang Lei gave Wei Jingzhu a disdainful look.

"Then you’ll have to sign some sort of debt-for-assets contract; otherwise, it’s hard for me to ask for goods without payment," Wei Jingzhu knew Zhang Lei’s habits too well.

He often didn’t follow through with what he promised verbally, agreeing easily but not delivering when it came to money.

After having been bitten twice and actually losing money to the dealers, Wei Jingzhu was determined not to engage in such unrewarding efforts again.

"Hey? Am I the leader here, or are you the leader? You’re teaching me how to work, what’s that about?" Zhang Lei’s mind was racing with cunning thoughts. Swapping debts for assets would lower sales performance and affect the channel’s image, "Forget it, just get a couple of PSPs. Ask the boss to throw in some extra games!"

"You’re paying, right?" Wei Jingzhu repeated his question.

"We’ll invoice it and claim it on expenses!" Zhang Lei said impatiently.

Why didn’t you say so earlier and avoid all this back and forth?

Not being able to chat with Zhou Xueyin anymore was a bit depressing, but it didn’t matter. There’s plenty of time, and since they were now working in the same building, was there any worry about not having a chance to meet?

After coming out of the director’s office with the signed document, Zhou Xueyin passed by Wei Jingzhu’s workstation and found it empty.

She thought maybe he was off doing something else and gloomily went upstairs. She didn’t notice that someone was following her.

After boarding the elevator, Zhang Lei looked obsequiously at Zhou Xueyin: "Hello there! I’m the head of Zhongonline’s gaming channel, Zhang Lei."

"Oh, hello..." Zhou Xueyin sized up the man in front of her, who was disheveled and reeked of cigarette tar. She subconsciously took two steps back.

"I hear that your forum has a cosplay section, right?" Zhang Lei actually did some homework on 51buy.

"Yes, what about it?" Zhou Xueyin was puzzled about his intentions and looked at him guardedly.

"Here’s the thing, we’re negotiating with a game client, it’s pretty tough... If your forum could help recruit some cosplayers for a promotion or something..." Zhang Lei tentatively inquired, beating around the bush.

"Are you saying you want us to post a call for cosplayers, and then have them do commercial performances? Is that it?" Zhou Xueyin looked at Zhang Lei skeptically.

"Commercial performances might be a bit tricky..." Zhang Lei appeared troubled, "The gaming channel is the least valued, I hope Miss Zhou can understand."

"Who would come to a show with no payment?" Zhou Xueyin gave him a scornful look.

Just then, the elevator arrived, and she walked out without looking back, while Zhang Lei hurriedly followed.

"Miss Zhou, Miss Zhou, please help me out." Seeing that Zhou Xueyin was about to return to her office, Zhang Lei was getting anxious, "You wouldn’t want your friend Wei Jingzhu to lose his job, would you?"

"What do you mean?" Zhou Xueyin stopped, frowning at Zhang Lei, "You can’t just target someone because negotiations didn’t go well, can you?"

"No, no, you’ve got it all wrong, it’s not what you’re thinking," Zhang Lei quickly explained in a humble tone.

"Wait for me in the meeting room... I have to file some documents." Realizing how persistent Zhang Lei was, Zhou Xueyin had no choice but to find an excuse to first attend to her own business.

"Great! Please hurry!" Zhang Lei sat contentedly in the small meeting room next to Zhou Xueyin’s office.

After delegating her tasks to Wang Anqi, Zhou Xueyin glanced at Liu Feifei, who was once again sleeping in the office, and shook her head in resignation. Not even a week had passed since they agreed on new rules, and already her true colors were showing... there seemed no hope for improvement.

"I’ve kept you waiting. Now, what’s your plan?" Zhou Xueyin pushed open the meeting room door, looking at the bored Zhang Lei.

"I’m out of options. Our boss said that if we can’t secure this game client, the game channel might be shut down... so..." Zhang Lei spoke with a helpless tone, looking at Zhou Xueyin pleadingly, as if she was his lifeline, "You wouldn’t want Xiaowei to lose his job, right?"