CHAPTER 203: PROBLEMS EXPOSED AND AN APPEAL
Just as Yan Jin had predicted, SI’s teamwork problems had led them to a ruinous abyss. But, not even Yan Jin could have imagined that this moment would come so quickly.
YL had held countless meetings on how they should respond to the new SI. The design department put in countless hours of overtime into revising designs. Going into the Autumn Conference, the whole of YL was more nervous than ever before. It didn’t matter that the chairman and the chief designer had thrown aside everything to go on their honeymoon. YL didn’t relax at all.
When they finally met SI at the conference, YL had discovered that perhaps some of their preparations had been unnecessary.
It was like preparing three months for a high school math compet.i.tion and receiving a simple elementary school level geometry question as the last problem.
No comparison was needed; SI had already eliminated themselves. This was probably the first time people had seen a company release two series that were so stylistically different. What was more, the physical design and approximate colors were so similar it was like they were intended for the same theme.
Did they want to surprise people with their novel approach? Or had internal conflict brought the worst out of compet.i.tion from within? Regardless, the judges didn’t look upon this too favorably. They simply offered the most basic of niceties and gave very typical evaluations before moving on. A few judges didn’t even give them pa.s.sing marks.
At YL’s exhibits, a crowd of judges surrounded the “Riptide” series, admiring it.
Undoubtedly, only the most special of designs could attract such a crowd of judges. For SI, except for the initial interest, they were excluded from the discussions entirely. YL, which had been much more restrained with their pre-conference marketing, was the one now s.h.i.+ning brilliantly under the spotlight. Their intent to challenge the top spot was clear.
Thus, Xiao Yu, who had even sacrificed his honeymoon for his lofty aspirations, attracted lots of attention.
“Sorry, I’m not currently open to new opportunities right now.”
“I’m very satisfied at YL currently.”
“Um, well, total compensation is…”
With great difficulty, Xiao Yu turned down offers and appointments from countless recruiters and executives from Cities B and H. At the next moment, Xiao Yu was surrounded by reporters. Xiao Yu even felt he was more fatigued than when had been designing the “Riptide” series. In the end, he couldn’t take it any more and found an excuse to leave the venue to hole up inside Yan Jin’s car.
When he closed the car door, Xiao Yu heard a voice.
“You won’t be needed for the remaining tasks either. Shall we head home now?”
Xiao Yu recoiled in surprise. “d.a.m.n, how come you’re here too? You don’t want to look after our exhibit anymore?”
“We shouldn’t waste the people on the company payroll,” Yan Jin said.
“Tsk, how evil. Reflect upon your sins.”
“Haven’t you run away too?” Yan Jin pointed out.
“I, I didn’t have a choice…” Xiao Yu felt guilty for running away just like Yan Jin and shamelessly changed the subject. “Hey, what do you think is going on with SI?”
“If you’re talking about today, it’s quite obvious. The new hires and veterans are fighting for power, and neither can conquer the other. SI probably didn’t expect the result to be such a joke.”
Xiao Yu nodded in agreement. “I thought the same. They were supposed to design one blueprint but made two in the end. There must have been some issue finalizing it. And, the two designs were created by two different designers with their own styles. All the supporters of SI through the years must feel betrayed that SI dared to submit both pieces to the conference.”
“Even individually, the two works aren’t anything special. They can’t compare to your ‘Riptide’,” Yan Jin praised.
“Of course. Who do you think I am?” Xiao Yu was weak to flattery and began to brag.
Yan Jin laughed and rubbed Xiao Yu’s curls.
“Hey, stop, stop! I just got my hair styled this morning.”
Xiao Yu leaned away to avoid Yan Jin’s evil clutches, but unexpectedly, Yan Jin didn’t let him go. Yan Jin released his seatbelt and pounced onto Xiao Yu.
“Since we’re going home anyways…,” Yan Jin said as he trailed kisses along Xiao Yu’s face.
“Stop messing around; who said we’re going home? I want to stay a little longer and keep an eye on the situation.” But, Xiao Yu didn’t push him away and let him play for a while longer. Then, he added with some concern, “I wonder what SI will do next.”
“You were fired by them; why are you still worrying about them?”
“It was just a thought. You can pretend I didn’t say anything.” Xiao Yu shrugged.
“They don’t need your concern. The Nan Family is now supporting SI, so SI won’t collapse that easily.”
“Every time we talk about the Nan Family, I always hear you say how powerful they are. But, I haven’t seen much of that recently.”
“Unfortunately… we’ll see them very soon,” Yan Jin snorted coldly.
“Alright, I hope they don’t disappoint me,” Xiao Yu said lightly.
Yan Jin hesitated before deciding not to say anything.
……
“You don’t need to say it. I won’t agree.”
Chu Ge made a clear gesture of dismissal.
“You’d prefer to see us forced to bow down before the Yan Family?”
Sitting across from Chu Ge was the current head of the Nan Family and Chu Ge’s youngest uncle, Nan Xu.
At almost fifty, he already had graying hair beside his temples, but his spirits were unfaltering. While he didn’t have the brashness of youth and had retreated from heading the Nan Family day to day, he was still the decision maker behind the scenes.
“Those are your problems. It has nothing to do with me.” Chu Ge remained unmoved by all of Nan Xu’s threats and entreaties. “Even my own father no longer cares about this failure. Can’t you pretend you never saw me?”
Nan Xu laughed. “That’s because your father doesn’t know you’ve come back. If he knew, you wouldn’t be able to escape either.”
Chu Ge could only reply helplessly, “Then, you just have to keep quiet, right?”
“That will depend on what you do.” Nan Xu turned the beads on his Bodhi bracelet.
Chu Ge felt that it was really tiring to battle wits against this kind of old fox.
When Chu Ge had personally brought Nan Chan to the hospital, he’d already been prepared for his true ident.i.ty to be revealed. However, he never could have expected that the first to see through it was not his own father, but his uncle.
But, upon second thought, this was quite normal. If something happened with Nan Chan, Nan Xu would definitely be the first to hurry to the hospital. With Nan Chan crying and screaming to see Chu Ge in her unstable mental state, it wasn’t hard to figure out.
With the candidate successors locked in internal strife and something happening to Nan Chan, Nan Xu naturally couldn’t allow such a gift horse like Chu Ge to slip through his fingers.
So far, Chu Ge had been under house arrest at the Nan Family home. Nan Xu came every day to try to brainwash him. On top of not allowing him to attend Yan Jin and Xiao Yu’s wedding, Nan Xu now wanted Chu Ge to pressure Yan Jin’s company.
In some sense, Chu Ge was impressed with Nan Xu’s patience. He clearly wasn’t going to say yes, but Nan Xu still came every day to pester him.
“If I return to the Nan Family now, it won’t do much good for you. If I announce my intention to compete for successors.h.i.+p, Nan Chan won’t have any chance to become the next head, right?” Chu Ge had been pestered so much he stopped repeating that he would never become Yan Jin’s enemy. Instead, he tried convincing Nan Xu from Nan Xu’s point of view.
“Your uncle isn’t that petty.” Nan Xu was very unhappy with Chu Ge’s question. “The Nan Family has persisted for so many years without a female head. If it weren’t for the next generation being so useless, how could I expose my own treasured daughter to all the scheming and plotting as the head of the family?”
Chu Ge rolled his eyes and didn’t comment.
He wasn’t old and senile enough to forget Nan Chan’s clinical depression and OCD diagnosis.
“Furthermore, Little Chan only became like this because of Yan Jin. We can’t turn a blind eye to this as the Nan Family.”
“Because of Yan Jin?” Chu Ge repeated as if heard a great joke.
“Isn’t it? That little rat first broke off the engagement and then canceled his marriage promise. He made my daughter into this deranged mess…”
“I’m warning you, Uncle. You and I both understand how Nan Chan ended up like this.” Chu Ge’s tone turned cold. “It’s because of the Nan Family. We forced her into this.”
Nan Xu shook his head with a smile.
Chu Ge waited for him to speak.
“Young man…” Nan Xu sighed deeply. Then, his voice lost all the light teasing from earlier, leaving only an extremely serious tone. “Look how Yan Jin’s situation has changed in the short time after coming back from overseas until now. The Yan Family has been very successful, while the Nan Family is still in obvious decline. Do you think this is a coincidence, that we, the Nan Family, are just unlucky?”
“Isn’t that the Nan Family’s own fault?” Chu Ge pointed out bluntly.
“If that’s what you think, it’s no wonder Yan Jin was able to completely eliminate you from this war ten years ago.”
Chu Ge impa.s.sively said, “You’re foolish enough to bring up decade-old events? Our old scores from ten years ago have nothing to do with Yan Jin at all. He wasn’t even in the country.”
Nan Xu chuckled. “He only needed to make a single announcement from his own office to drive Little Chan crazy.”
“That’s not…”
“You were never as good as him in manipulating others.”
“What are you trying to say?” Chu Ge frowned.
“For the fight against the Nan Family, he got rid of you ten years ago. Ten years later, he used the same method to eliminate Nan Chan.”
“Utter nonsense,” Chu Ge spat out, syllable by syllable.
“Whether it’s ‘utter nonsense’, you’ll find out very quickly,” Nan Xu said superciliously.
“… The war between our families is ready to erupt at any moment. It’s only a matter of time before all pretenses are dropped. But, the fight can’t prove anything. I don’t believe any conclusion we can draw about ten years ago,” Chu Ge stated after quickly organizing his thoughts. He leaned back against the sofa as if to say, Say whatever you want; I don’t care.
“The Yan Family hid you for so long. You believe that even this has nothing to do with Yan Jin?”
“It’s true that this is related to him, but I was the one who begged him to do so.” Chu Ge had expected him to bring up Yan Jin hiding him for so many years and had a prepared response. “Aside from Yan Jin, n.o.body in the Yan Family knows who I am. I became the Yan Family’s doctor for some personal reasons. It wasn’t entirely to hide my ident.i.ty.”