The assistant smiled. There was no need to offend him.
After all, he was the manager of the Channel Development Department, several ranks his senior.
Continuing on, the assistant ran into the HR manager.
"Wang Zhu, where are you off to?"
"President Zhao asked me to get President Yang."
"President Yang?"
The HR manager was keenly aware of such matters. She'd heard that morning that the email announcing the new general manager's appointment would be sent out in the next day or two.
She had also attended Fang Zheng's celebratory dinner last night. 'Logically, it should be Fang Zheng.'
But she knew the general manager's assistant was meticulous about workplace titles and would never address someone as "President" without cause.
After all, there was only one "President" in the entire company: President Zhao.
The two of them were on good terms, so the assistant gave her a nod. "It's confirmed. President Yang."
The HR manager's head was buzzing. 'Fang Zheng was so full of confidence yesterday. How long has it been? How could there be such a huge reversal?'
She glanced over at Fang Zheng instructing the Product Department. He seemed to have already settled into the role of general manager. 'I wonder what he'll do when he finds out the results.'
DRING DRING DRING~.
Her phone rang. She picked it up and saw it was a call from the HR Director at headquarters.
"The choice for your region's general manager has been confirmed. It's Yang Hui."
Even though she already knew the news from the assistant, the official notice from HQ's HR still left her astonished.
'A twenty-four-year-old regional general manager... Yang Hui has broken another record.' She glanced at Fang Zheng, who had just left the Product Department and was now making his rounds over to HR. 'How is he going to handle this?'
"Manager Fu, employees have been going downstairs to line up before it's even time to clock out. This is a very bad look for the company. You need to come up with a new attendance policy to regulate this."
Manager Fu scoffed. 'You're not even the regional general manager yet. First the Product Department, now the Human Resources Department... We'll see how you deal with this mess once the results are out.'
Seeing her lack of a reaction, Fang Zheng grew annoyed.
"An attitude like that could affect your future promotions and raises."
Heh...
Manager Fu couldn't stop herself from retorting, "Where else would I get promoted to? It's not like I'm going to be the next general manager. I'm not that full of myself."
Fang Zheng didn't realize she was mocking him, but he was still unhappy with her attitude. He snorted coldly and walked away. 'Just you wait. I'll make things difficult for you.'
Likely out of spite for Fang Zheng, Manager Fu leaked the news of Yang Hui's impending promotion to regional general manager in one of her private group chats.
In less than three minutes, the entire open-plan office erupted.
"No way!"
"Holy shit! Didn't Fang Zheng say it was a sure thing? He even bought everyone dinner."
"Oh god, I hope he didn't hear what I said about President Yang this morning."
"I'm so screwed. Dammit, that fucking idiot Fang Zheng dragged me down with him."
"I knew it! How could someone as capable as President Yang possibly fail the interview? With that long, horsey face of his, there's no way headquarters would've picked Fang Zheng."
The Operations Department got the news around this time as well. The group of female supervisors let out a collective sigh of relief. With their own boss becoming the regional general manager, a rising tide would lift all their boats.
Plus, his promotion would leave the Operations Manager position vacant—the outcome they had hoped for most. They only worried that their boss might be unhappy about them attending Fang Zheng's dinner the previous night.
Looking over at Yang Na, they realized that by steadfastly sticking with her boss, she had become the biggest winner of all.
They even started to wonder if Yang Na would be the one to succeed him as Operations Manager.
Yang Na was ecstatic. 'So my boss is the new general manager! Now neither of us has to leave the company!'
'The job market is so bad right now. Who would want to quit unless they had absolutely no other choice?'
Everything had worked out for the best. The worried expression on her face vanished. The "Zhang Bichen of Ruijing" was back.
The IT department manager's face turned deathly pale. 'This is it. I'm screwed.'
'My department is just a peripheral part of administrative support. My position is completely dispensable; it wouldn't matter at all if this management role was cut.'
'Making an example of me would be the path of least resistance for Yang Hui.'
'What do I do?'
He snuck into the restroom and slapped himself hard across the face, once with his right hand, once with his left. "That'll teach you to run your mouth! That'll teach you!"
The thought of losing his job, of having no income...
...of his girlfriend looking down on him, of her cheating on him, of her leaving him.
He sat down on the toilet lid, buried his head in his hands, and began to cry.
As Fang Zheng continued his "patrol," he suddenly noticed the way people in the office were looking at him had changed.
Before, their expressions had been fawning and complimentary. Now, it was as if they were looking at a clown.
And it wasn't just one or two of them. It was everyone.
He walked up to Qin Hong, his gaze lingering on the pale skin of her collarbone. "Manager Qin, come to my office for a moment."
"I'm busy."
Qin Hong didn't even look up. 'Damn it. I let that fucking idiot use me for nothing. How could I have ever believed him?'
'I keep betting on the wrong horse. At least I didn't offend Yang Hui. And he seems quite satisfied with my figure, otherwise he wouldn't 'measure' it with his eyes now and then.'
Fang Zheng froze, looking around suspiciously. He then saw one of his own employees from the Channel Development Department frantically gesturing to him, a panicked look on his face.
Coupled with everyone's bizarre behavior, he sensed something was wrong and quickly headed for his office.
Once inside, his employee from the Channel Development Department followed him in. "Boss, this is bad! Everyone's saying that Yang Hui has been confirmed as the next regional general manager."
"How is that possible?"
Fang Zheng had barely sat down before he shot back up to his feet.
'My interview performance was outstanding! His was over in ten minutes! How could he be the one who got selected?'
"The news came from President Zhao's assistant and from HR. I heard they both got the official notice. Right now, Yang Hui is in President Zhao's office discussing the handover."
CLACK~.
The pen in his hand dropped to the floor, but he didn't even notice.
'How could this be?'
He remembered those strange looks out in the main office area. 'I'm a goddamn laughingstock.'
'Last night, I acted like I had the world in my grasp. I even paid for everyone's dinner out of my own pocket to celebrate early.'
'And now they announce today that Yang Hui is the regional general manager. How will I ever show my face here again?'
'And most importantly, Yang Hui is definitely going to come after me.'
'No wonder he didn't show up this morning. He must have already known he was chosen. He's probably been thinking about how to deal with me this whole time.'
'No, I have to go beg for mercy. Otherwise, I won't be able to keep my job.'
'As for my pride... what's pride compared to my job? It's not the first time I've had to be shameless.'
"You can go now."
After his subordinate left, Fang Zheng paced anxiously around his office, trying to figure out the best way to apologize to get Yang Hui to let him off the hook.
Meanwhile, Yang Hui was sitting in President Zhao's office.
The two were seated on the guest sofa while the assistant prepared tea.
"A Hui, you are the most outstanding young man I have ever met."
President Zhao had never been stingy with his effusive praise for him.
"Congratulations on becoming the new regional general manager."
"President Zhao, I actually had something I needed to report to you today."