Chapter 23
Chasing Debt
While chatting with "Last Night"s Sorrow", Pang Jing Dong took off his shirt and checked his wound.
The wound was a result of the bullet slashing pa.s.s his shoulder. Even though the wounded area was big, the wound was not deep, plus the bullet was not left inside, so Pang Jing Dong was considered lucky.
His past experiences in gunfights allowed him to treat the wound with ease. He took out some medicine to sterilize his wound and bound up his wound in a simple way.
Usually, this kind of injury would not cause someone to faint. After finishing the treatment, Pang Jing Dong felt a sense of pain from his forehead and realized there was a swollen lump when he looked into a mirror.
Normally, if one fell unconscious from external impact, the person would not remember the brief moment before the impact upon waking up. From his observation of the wounds, Pang Jing Dong interpreted himself to be knocked down by the force of the bullet, causing his forehead to collide with something solid and fainted.
Jing Ling Ling was extremely worried about his injuries, who repeatedly asked him to do a check out at the hospital. However, from his past experiences in battles, Pang Jing Dong knew there was nothing serious about his wounds; thus he disagreed.
What happened today was just an encounter for Pang Jing Dong, but it completely changed Jing Ling Ling"s view, who was now incredibly interested in this mysterious man, Pang Jing Dong.
Therefore, even though Pang Jing Dong was quite depressed to keep b.u.mping into Jing Ling Ling a few times, it was kind of inevitable. However, Jing Ling Ling had now taken the initiative to do so. On the second day, Pang Jing Dong received a call from Jing Ling Ling, under an unusual circ.u.mstance.
On this day, Pang Jing Dong was surprisingly punctual to work, arriving just in time for the company"s General Meeting.
During the meeting, Shen Jia Yao publicly gave Manager Ling Hong Tao a disaster.
After Pang Jing Dong"s company was bought by the Shen Family into their Zheng Dong Enterprise, it had become one of its private-funded subsidiary company and changed its name to Zheng Dong Real Estate Corporation. There were other subsidiary companies under Zheng Dong Real Estate Corporation; Manager Ling Hong Tao was in charge of one of the renovation subsidiary companies.
The profits made by the renovation company was not too bad, but there was a lot of problems. One of the biggest problems was the company had lots of uncollectable debts.
Manager Ling Hong Tao was quite reliable at his work; These debts were not all his fault. The truth was, many of the enterprises would have the same problem due to different complications. Shen Jia Yao clearly knew about it, but she was using it as an excuse to pick on Ling Hing Tao, so she would able to carry out the company"s reforming starting from the renovation company.
"Do you have anything else to say?" Shen Jia Yao asked in a cold tone.
"Err…" When facing his strict superior, Ling Hong Tao was sweating heavily on his forehead. He spoke in a hesitating way, "Most of the people who owe us, they have some triad backgrounds…"
"If they are allowed to owe us money just because of their background, how"s my business going to profit?" Shen Jia Yao interrupted Ling Hong Tao without patience, and pointed toward the doc.u.ment in front of her, "If doing business is so easy, why would I hire you as a manager with a high pay?"
Ling Hong Tao wiped the sweat from his forehead and explained, "Mrs. Shen you should know that it"s quite hard to do renovation business in the current market; Low profit, with high compet.i.tion. In such an extreme environment, those bosses who are used to owing debts are not worried they couldn"t find other companies to do the work. Many of the companies even quoted prices lower than the cost of the materials to their customers. It"s not easy that our company had managed to get these many projects to maintain our profit margin. As for the excessive debts owed by customers, it"s inevitable. I"ll think of a way somehow…"
Shen Jia Yao calmed down her tone, "Fine! I believe you! It"s indeed difficult for those with complicated backgrounds to pay in short periods." Upon saying this, Shen Jia Yao’s tone turned strict, "But, how do you explain this?"
Shen Jia Yao threw a pile of doc.u.ments toward Ling Hong Tao, causing him to be nervous again after relaxing a bit.
Even though the case Shen Jia Yao picked on did not involve much money, but the whole company knew the person who was owing the debt did not have any complicated background, nor did she have any power. She was just a mere woman, but still, no one could handle her.
Not only Zheng Dong Renovation Company offered renovation services for businesses, but it also provided renovation services for ordinary houses. Around half a year ago, a doctor bought a house with a large surface area and requested the company to renovate it luxuriously. Zheng Dong Company had fulfilled the person"s request. However, the payment of the remaining fifty thousand dollars was yet to be made until today.
Looking at the sum, fifty thousand dollars was nothing for Zheng Dong Renovation Company. The problem was, if a person could drag the debt for a long time, it would bring negative impact to the company, provoking other customers to do the same thing. Hence, the company had sent few waves of people to collect the debt, but all returned empty-handed, as the woman was too pungent.
Those doing real estate or renovation would have some kind of connection with people from the triad backgrounds. Ling Hong Tao was not an exception. He had considered hiring someone from his connection. However, people from the triad were not as powerful as people expected; there were things that they could not handle. When dealing with a female, especially if she was a shameless person, no one would be able to deal with her. Furthermore, fifty thousand dollars would only be enough to cover their hiring fee, thus it was not worth it in an economical view.
Now that Shen Jia Yao had mentioned this, Ling Hong Tao knew clearly that he did not have any valid reason to explain himself. It was reasonable if the debts owed by people with complicated backgrounds to be collected, but if the debt owed by a pungent woman was a problem too, Shen Jia Yao would definitely say, "So what kind of debts will you be able to collect?"
Ling Hong Tao understood he was going to lose his job; Sweats were raining down from her forehead, causing his shirt to be wet.
At this moment, Pang Jing Dong stood out and said, "I"m sorry, general manager. Previously, I volunteered to help Manager Ling to chase this debt, but as I was too busy during this period, I haven"t got the chance to do it."
"You?" Shen Jia Yao looked at Pang Jing Dong, with a doubtful expression she asked, "This does not belong to your responsibility, why did you volunteer to do it?"
"Doctor Di works at the central hospital. I have a cla.s.smate who"s her superior. I was thinking to use this connection to resolve the issue."
Pang Jing Dong was totally lying. He did not discuss it with Ling Hong Tao, and his cla.s.smate was non-existent. The reason Pang Jing Dong was doing this, was to earn a favor from Ling Hong Tao.
Since Pang Jing Dong started working at the company, Ling Hong Tao had been unfriendly toward him for no particular reason, plus Pang Jing Dong"s lazy att.i.tude at work which caused Ling Hong Tao to be more biased against him. According to Zhou Tong"s intel, Ling Hong Tao often bad mouthed Pang Jing Dong in front of the company"s executives.
Confucius once taught, when facing your enemies, you must recompense injustice with justice, which meant if someone gave you a kick, you must return a punch, this was the right principle. However, sometimes, it was more effective to recompense injustice with kindness, especially when the person would be useful to you; What Pang Jing Dong was doing belonged to the later option. Besides that, it was not exactly Pang Jing Dong"s responsibility, so even if he were not able to complete the task, he would not be blamed. In other words, this was a game with zero cost.
Shen Jia Yao roughly guessed Pang Jing Dong"s intention, but she did not plan to expose it, "When do you plan to do it?"
"After the meeting!"
When the meeting was dismissed, Ling Hong Tao gave Pang Jing Dong a grateful glance.
As for Doctor Di, after the meeting, Pang Jing Dong gave the hospital a call and pretended to be her friend. He learned that she was on a night shift since yesterday and would be finishing work soon. Glancing at his watch and saw that the time was sufficient, Pang Jing Dong immediately went to her workplace.
"Is Doctor Di in?" Pang Jing Dong asked a few doctors in the room as he arrived.
One of the doctors replied, "She"s still in the ward. She would be back here soon to change as she was about to finish her work! You are…"
"Oh, I"m her friend!" Pang Jing Dong did not declare his purpose, to leave some respect for Doctor Di. However, when he said the word "friend", the people in the room started smiling weirdly.
"What kind of patient is this?! Didn"t even understand after I"ve explained it so many times. Serves him right to be gravely ill. It"s better if he dies soon!" A loud voice was heard coming from outside of the room. Following the voice was a doctor wearing a large white coat, who entered the room and walked angrily toward her desk while slamming her notebook onto the desk.
"This woman"s voice is too loud!" Pang Jing Dong was shocked from her entry, who felt his ears were still buzzing from it.
Another doctor looked at the woman and twisted his mouth at Pang Jing Dong"s direction.
"You are…" The woman looked at Pang Jing Dong with her squinting eyes.
"You must be Doctor Di? I"m from Zheng Dong Renovation Company!" Pang Jing Dong reached out his hand toward her.
"What"s wrong with you guys?" Doctor Di frowned her eyebrows, ignoring his gesture for a handshake, and said with an annoyed tone, "Didn"t I tell you guys many times before? All my money has been used as funds in the stock market. There was a huge drop in the stock values a while ago, so my funds are frozen. I"ll pay you when I earned some money!"
Since Doctor Di had already said so, Pang Jing Dong stopped being polite to her, "We have already given you a long time due to your circ.u.mstance. Furthermore, the values of the stock market went up recently, so you should have earned back your capital!"
"Can"t I earn more money?"
"How much is more money?"
"Until I say so!"
"What if you say you will pay us after the value went up by 10000%?"