Chapter 599 - 267: Xu Yun, Save Me

(...10,000 words omitted)

「The next day, at Baiyun Media Co., Ltd.」

Su Mu was in her office. Seeing Ning Qian, who had come to deliver a package, she asked doubtfully, "You didn’t go home last night?"

"Huh???"

"You haven’t changed your clothes. You’re wearing the exact same thing as yesterday."

Su Mu said this because she knew very well that Ning Qian, just like her, always wore a different outfit every day.

Unless she hadn’t gone home.

Ning Qian hadn’t expected Su Mu to be so observant. She explained, "I went shopping with a friend last night. It got too late, so I just stayed over at her place."

"A guy or a girl?"

"A female friend."

Su Mu glanced at her and offered a kind reminder, "Don’t just stay out overnight in the future. Xu Yun will be unhappy if he finds out."

"Er..."

"Oh, right."

Su Mu asked, "I’m planning a team-building event soon. Do you have any good ideas?"

"Personally, I think as long as you don’t schedule it during a holiday, it’s fine."

Ning Qian said, "Otherwise, what’s supposed to be a good thing will just end up annoying everyone."

"I know that."

Su Mu said, "After you leave, go ask around privately and see what everyone thinks. Get a wide range of opinions and let me know."

"Okay, President Su."

After Ning Qian left, Su Mu called her assistant in.

With Yu Xuan gone for a long time, she had been forced to find a new female assistant. The new hire was a 985 university graduate with some internship experience. She was also quite sharp and had high emotional intelligence.

"President Su, you were looking for me."

"I have to go out for a bit. If anything comes up at the company or if someone comes looking for me, just take a note of it. I’ll handle it when I get back."

"Understood."

The assistant proactively asked, "President Su, do you need me to drive you?"

"No need."

Just as Su Mu was about to leave, she suddenly remembered something. "Also, don’t worry about the receptionist Ning Qian’s attendance record. And more importantly, don’t order her around to do menial tasks."

"Okay, President Su. I understand."

On the assistant’s first day at the company, her colleagues had kindly let her in on a few secrets.

The company’s atmosphere was great and the benefits were excellent, but she should be careful not to mess with the receptionist.

She was confused at first, until one day she accidentally found out the other woman’s salary. Then, she understood instantly.

’What normal receptionist with a regular bachelor’s degree makes 50,000 a month!’

’That’s no different from just handing her free money!’

Now, hearing President Su’s special reminder again, she understood even more clearly. This receptionist named Ning Qian was someone who existed outside the normal rules.

The assistant thought about how she had marked Ning Qian down for being late this morning. She immediately made up her mind to delete the record as soon as she got back to her desk.

’All these rules and regulations are for restraining the worker bees. They don’t apply to the privileged class.’

’In this company, Ning Qian enjoys the same privileges as President Su.’

’Yes, I’ll find a chance to ask her out for lunch later. I need to get closer to her, become her friend.’

「After leaving the company, Su Mu drove to a private room in a teahouse.」

Upon seeing her, the middle-aged man immediately stood up. "President Su, hello."

"President Ma, hello."

Su Mu took a seat and asked with concern, "How did the financing talks go with the other party?"

"It’s basically settled."

The middle-aged man replied, "They agreed to invest 20 million for a 35% stake."

"Good. You did well."

Su Mu nodded in satisfaction and asked, "When are you scheduled to sign the contract?"

"Tomorrow."

"Alright. I’ll transfer the money to you then."

Su Mu said, "The 10% I hold, plus the 32% you helped me acquire, gives me 42% of the shares.

"Add to that the 10% you secretly bought from other shareholders, and together we’ll hold over 50%. That gives us the power to dismiss and reappoint management."

"President Su, in that case..."

"Don’t worry. I won’t go back on my promise to you."

Su Mu smiled. "After the contract is signed and I have that 32% stake, I’ll call for a shareholders’ meeting before the IPO and put you in the CEO’s seat."

"Then thank you, President Su. It’s a pleasure working with you."

As he spoke, the middle-aged man extended his hand, intending to shake Su Mu’s.

But Su Mu ignored it.

She simply raised her teacup and said with a smile, "To our successful collaboration."

The middle-aged man awkwardly retracted his hand.

Afterward, the two discussed some more details to avoid leaving any clues for Su Zhi’an to discover.

The reason Su Mu had lost her last confrontation with Liang Yan over money was that she had been saving the funds in her account to acquire shares in her own family’s company.

Although this was a personal matter, it was also a case of using company business to settle a private score.

This way, she could not only deal with that mother and son and gain absolute control of the company, but also let Xu Yun acquire a company that was about to go public and become profitable.

Why was it Xu Yun’s?

Because the money to buy the shares was, after all, Xu Yun’s. So, Su Mu had arranged for someone to purchase them by proxy, acting under the name of Baiyun Media Co., Ltd.

On the surface, President Ma was the holder of this 32% stake, but behind him was Baiyun Media Company, and Baiyun Media Company belonged to Xu Yun.

So, when all the layers were peeled back, Xu Yun was the true owner of that 32% stake.

Meanwhile, Xu Yun, oblivious to the fact he would soon own a company preparing for an IPO, was at home on the phone with Yang Siqi, listening to her passionate work report.

Ever since their e-commerce live streams went viral, their daily order volume was dozens of times higher than what they sold in their physical, offline stores.

No wonder brick-and-mortar stores couldn’t compete with e-commerce.

In a physical store, they might sell a dozen pairs of dumbbells a day, at most.

But in an online live stream, after the host finished introducing the product and shouted, "Link goes up in 3, 2, 1!", an inventory of 100 units would be completely snatched up by viewers in just a few minutes!

Now, Yang Siqi’s problem wasn’t whether she could sell the products or get business; it was that her inventory couldn’t keep up with demand!

She now had a bold idea: she wanted to acquire a fitness equipment manufacturer as soon as possible, produce the goods herself, expand the production lines and volume, and then sell them directly.

In other words, she would go from being a product distributor to controlling the entire supply chain herself.

After hearing Yang Siqi out, Xu Yun understood.

’So she’s not taking profits. She wants to reinvest everything they earn to grow bigger and stronger, transforming from a simple distributor into a fully integrated enterprise that handles both manufacturing and sales!’

To be honest, Xu Yun didn’t care about the paltry sum she was making anyway. He agreed immediately, letting her do as she pleased.

’If she makes a profit, it’s a pleasant surprise.’

’If she loses money, she loses money. It doesn’t matter.’

The more his women had to do, the more at ease he felt.

It kept them from sitting at home all day with nothing to do, getting influenced by toxic "chicken soup for the soul" posts online, and letting their minds wander into problematic ways of thinking.

Yang Jiang once said that the highest form of love a man can show a woman is to teach her the skills to survive in society, to give her resources and help, so that even if he leaves her one day, she can be independent and live life on her own terms.

What Xu Yun was doing now was something like that.

He had given nearly every woman around him a career, letting them strive, grow, and become exceptional on their own.

But at the same time, he held all the control tightly in his own hands.

The women were like kites he was flying. As long as they didn’t betray him, he would never pull back the string, letting them soar as high as the sky would allow.

After getting off the phone with Yang Siqi, Xu Yun went back to scrolling through the news.

He discovered that besides his own viral live streams, Jiang Peiyao’s Cloud Charity Organization had also suddenly appeared on the trending topics list.

He clicked on it and saw it was because a video story titled "The Son Eats Leftovers; The Proper Meal Is for His Mother" had gone viral overnight on short-video platforms.

To give it more exposure, Xu Yun used his "Young Master Xu" account to repost it, adding a comment: "This charity organization seems pretty good. If you’re having trouble, you could try reaching out to them."

Just after he finished reposting and was about to take a break, Xu Yun received a call from a long-unheard-from number. It was Lin Wanzhou.

The two of them hadn’t been in contact since returning from their trip.

Xu Yun asked with a smile, "Old Lin, what made you think of calling me?"

"Xu Yun, help me!"

Xu Yun’s expression changed. He asked urgently, "What happened?"

"The person I like... just messaged me."

Xu Yun: "???"