Chapter 155 - Next Step
The two people in the President’s office watched everything develop before their eyes. Even though Lu Chen couldn’t hear the audio of their conversation, just pretty much how the Planning Director acted in front of Lu Shao says it all.
Meanwhile, Xiu Mei who was listening and watching everything, pumped in the air celebrating their success.
The rat’s in the trap! Finally!
Listening in on their conversation, whether it was true that the Planning Director has no involvement with the Data breach leak to the press, leaking the confidential information of the company would be enough to put him under investigation.
"Things will get a bit busy again I guess." Xiu Mei announced as she stood up straight. Fixing her creased attire, she turned to Lu Chen who was now looking at her as well. She crossed her arms and smiled triumphantly.
"Mr. President, Lu Shao and I will surely deliver a satisfying result in your table a few days or weeks from now." She confidently declared.
Though it actually is their responsibility to do a good job in the investigation but right now, all Xiu Mei could think of was letting off some steam from all the stress that piled up for the past few days. And what’s best to relieve them than figure out the dirt of someone right?
"You seem to be enjoying this so much." Lu Chen observed. Somehow, his wife was very energetic ever since she shared her plan with him. It was like she was having fun cleaning up the Planning Director.
"Who wouldn’t?" Her smile reached her ears. "It’s not like I get to do this everyday."
Lu Chen blinked.
His wife so nonchalantly said that as if she was simply saying she likes this flavor of ice cream. It sounded so casual that it didn’t even sound like she was going to make a man jobless.
...But he likes it.
He smiled. Somehow, they really were similar in some ways.
"Okay, but don’t push yourself too much. I don’t want you fainting from fatigue or overwork." He carefully reminded her.
He watched her fold her laptop and pick up her things again. Picking it up, she gave him one last word before leaving his office.
"You don’t have to worry about that. I’ve been doing overtime for four years already. I’m so immuned to it by now."
"..."
Darn it, that somehow hit him where it hurts.
It’s not like he can retort against that. He can’t even deny it.
Lu Chen reflected by himself as soon as Xiu Mei left the room. He tried to think about all the things he did with her for the past four years.
"...all we did was work." He realized.
No matter how much he tried to squeeze information from his head, he fully realized something.
...that he really only interacted with Xiu Mei about business stuff.
When they were going on business trips together, it was only about work.
When they were going for dinner, it was with other partners or some team dinners.
When they were spending overtime alone in the office, it was because they were doing work.
Damn it! He... was too workaholic.
And Xiu Mei too.
He sighed.
Then he stared at the pile of work on his office table and the center table.
"..."
He pondered whether he can ever get out of his habit of being a workaholic at all.
On Xiu Mei’s side, she met up with Lu Shao outside the President’s office.
"How did it go?" Her assistant curiously asked. Since she was busy holding the fort for the both of them, she wasn’t allowed to watch the video while outside the President’s office since someone might suddenly come in their floor.
It would be bad if someone finds out that they’ve set up against the Planning Director.
Lu Shao made a ’peace’ sign to the two of them.
"Mission complete." He declared.
Xiu Mei walked up to him and patted him on the shoulder.
"Then should we move on to the next step?" Then she winked. The other two people in the room nodded.
The next day, the suspension of the Planning Director shocked almost every employee in the building. In the company, his image as a superior was friendly and kind. He was very nice with the employees no matter how high or low their position is. So imagine everyone’s reaction when they saw this announcement the very next day halting their involvement with the Planning Director.
Plus the rumor that’s going around with someone receiving bribes from other companies, everyone’s imaginations were going wild. Was it the rumors true? And that someone is the Planning Director? Is that why he’s being suspended?
A lot of people are expressing their disappointment and suspicions. Some were siding the Planning Director declaring that they trust him enough that he wasn’t the type of person to betray the company.
Oh well, the President’s team will, unfortunately, prove them wrong in the next few days.
Lu Shao already chose the people in their Investigation team to handle the investigation about the Planning Director. They are Lu Corporation’s employees that are located separately from the main building. This is to prevent them from making relationsh.i.p.s with the employees and prevent having some bias in their judgment.
For Xiu Mei’s side, she and her assistant are now keeping a tight lookout on the other suspected employees. The sudden suspension announcement would have surely shaken up the spies within the company.
She was still following Lu Chen’s orders though. That is to not clean them up for now.
So right now, what she’s doing is identifying all the rats planted inside the company and record whomever they are communicating with that’s connected with their competitors.
With the help of some investigation team people, she was being informed of the movements of a couple of suspicious employees.
"Wow, this much paperwork?" Xiu Mei ran her fingers on the pages of the folder she received. It was half an inch thick, almost making her cry for doing this torture to herself.
Is this how it feels to shoot your own foot?
Nevertheless, she scrutinized every page and information recorded in the report. She noted in her head some of the important details.
"Ms.Xiu, I’ve already sent your flight ticket details to your email for the upcoming meeting with Zen Group in City S."
Xiu Mei paused on flipping the page. What meeting? Why wasn’t she aware of this schedule?
"What meeting?"
"With the Zen Group."
She looked at her assistant, baffled. "Isn’t someone from the Marketing Team handling that? Why do I need to go?"
"Ah, haven’t you seen the email from the Assistant Marketing Director yesterday? The Zen Group made a last minute request to have someone from our side to attent the meeting."
"What time was that?"
Damn it, she didn’t see that email. She hasn’t even finished going through it!
She went to her email and scoured through the piled up unread emails. She clicked on the email that came from the Asst. Marketing Director, she read it carefully.
He forwarded the attach request by the Zen Group to have one of the President’s secretaries’ attendance in the meeting.
"...Fine." She gave in.
Their collaboration with Zen Group is quite important. It’s not some kind of partnership that they could easily throw away. But what was with the sudden request?
Then she thought about the current happenings within the company.
Hmm... maybe they were getting quite concerned with the stir happening in Lu Corporation?
Anyways, no matter how much she try to reason it out, the end decision would always just be that she has to attend the meeting.
She returned to the content of the email and saw that the meeting was scheduled for next week. It was at one of the Zen Group’s resorts in City S.
"So it would be me and the Marketing Team then?"
Her assistant nodded. "Yes, that would be the Team 3 and their temporary leader which is the Asst. Marketing Director, Ms.Xiu."
"Okay. Send me my updated schedule for this week and next week including the President’s."
"Copy that."
Her assistant resumed her work while Xiu Mei continued reading the email. It was a bit long since she was also reading the forwarded email. In preparation for the meeting next week, she decided to reply to the email to forward her to current status and content of the all the things about the negotiation with the Zen Group.
Her eyes temporarily paused on the Asst. Marketing Director’s name. Albert Chen.
Then her eyes wandered on the inch-thick folder beside her. His name was included there wasn’t it... Hmmm.
Xiu Mei gave a brief reply to the Asst. Marketing Director and inquired about the necessary details.
Then, she proceeded to sending an email to the Investigation Team. It was about her itinerary about Albert next week, and telling them to keep an eye on his movements before they go to City S and his behavior once they arrive at the resort.