Su Meixiu spoke up, "Pardon me, Miss Zh-, I mean President Zhao, but will two employees be enough? Shouldn"t there be a consultant…" She trailed off when Zhao Lifei did not bother to look at her. Her eyes twitched in annoyance. No one had ever ignored her in a meeting before, but then again, most older CEOs, Vice Presidents, or company representatives were male and they were often mesmerized by her blinding beauty.
Wei Hantao spoke up for her. "Our president here does not need a consultant or anyone else. She can handle herself."
Yang Feng did not need further explanation to know what the inferior Vice President was referring to. Even though it happened a while back, he would never forget the excellency she demonstrated in Zhao Corporation, the way she was able to silence the people with her words. She, alone, will suffice.
Chen Gaonan took it as a sign to begin the presentation. Su Meixiu was in charge of crafting it and he was often in charge of speaking about it.
The lights were dimmed in the room and soon, everyone took their place. He was the one in charge of speaking about the proposal, never once missing a single detail as he loudly and clearly enunciated his words, completely unaware that his own boss was not paying attention to him, but was instead concentrating on the das.h.i.+ng lady sitting in front of him.
Zhao Lifei was focused on the slides, her brows slightly coming together, forming small wrinkles on her forehead as she listened with clear interest, jotting down small notes every few seconds. She looked completely serious and focused on the task at hand, improving Chen Gaonan"s opinion of her. It seemed she was not all beauty and talk after all…
Zhao Lifei thought this was quite an interesting idea. Yang Enterprise was proposing an independent community that housed the elderly. Instead of senior citizens being confined to their room where their freedom was stripped away in exchange for 24/7 care, they would be moved into their own individualized and normal apartments. There would be on-sight care, but the elderly would get to decide everything about their life and way of living, except for the medicine they would take.
All of this seems idealized and if it was in a closed community with a wide variety of amenities, without a doubt, the idea would be quite successful. The elderly population was on the rise and most were reluctant to go to nursing homes and this would be a very good alternative to it.
Zhao Lifei remembered, however, there was a similar idea like this overseas in the states, but the popularity of it was dwindling because of a glaring issue: many small companies advertising the same thing but promising something else of lesser quality.
Chen Gaonan finished his presentation and the lights turned back on. Not a single sound could be heard except for Zhao Lifei"s pen scribbling on the paper.
"This slide concludes the end of the presentation. Do you have any questions I can answer?" He was mainly directing this response to Zhao Lifei, testing to see if she was truly paying attention or just doodling on her paper.
"Yes, I do." Zhao Lifei spoke up. "This idea was once popularized overseas, but has been dwindling for quite a while now. How do you plan on addressing this issue?"
Chen Gaonan raised a brow at the reasonable question. "Well, it has not been brought to our country yet, though there are a few smaller mock-ups. Every project ever started with Yang Enterprise has had a success rate of 95%."
Zhao Lifei did not look impressed. "Yes, Mr. Chen, I understand Yang Enterprise is a good company, but I need you to answer my question."
Chen Gaonan felt stupefied at his own incompetence, not believing his said such a generic response. He blamed it on the lack of sleep, from the punishment, and the hours slaving away on the apology papers. He had given Yang Feng a draft only for the one-hundred page letter to be shredded in a machine and a new one to be requested.
"I apologize, President Zhao." The t.i.tle sounded foreign to his ears, but seeing her now, it was quite suitable for her. "Many of the ones in the states as well as this country have failed because they did not have the resources, funding, and connections to elaborate the idea to a scale as large as ours. "
He revealed a smile. "With a name as large as Yang Enterprise backing up the project with w.a.n.g Real Estate as our collaborating partner, the project is ensured success. In terms of reputation, Yang Enterprise has always maintained a clean image and is heavily favored by the people."
Zhao Lifei carefully thought over his words, her brows scrunching. w.a.n.g Real Estate was raising red flags for her.
It was her maternal family"s company. She may not speak to her parents or a lot of people from the maternal side of the family, but she was quite sure, there were shady practices happening.
If her maternal relatives were nothing but scheming people who would turn against their own family, flesh and blood, turning against their own collaborators would not be a surprise.
"I recommend investigating further into w.a.n.g Real Estate before you decide to use them as a backer. There was a scandal that broke out two days ago, hence their current drop in stocks. It was covered up but there are a lot of loose strings." She hinted, not revealing much, but that was all Chen Gaonan needed to hear.
He was surprised she was knowledgeable, but remembered her mother"s surname was w.a.n.g. At least she was resourceful enough to know this much, but he wondered, what else did she know?
"Then President Zhao, is there any company you would recommend?" Chen Gaonan was testing her to see if she was gutsy enough to blatantly advertise her grandfather"s company that was known for their hotel empire.
"That is up for you to decide, Mr. Chen." She chuckled, flipping the page of the long report.
Chen Gaonan swallowed. He was attempting to trick her, but his plan backfired. It was not the investment firm"s place to recommend a company.
She flipped to the revenue and projected cost of the proposal. It was a hefty amount to pay, but the revenue would turn out greater. They were surprisingly offering 10% shares of the company which was quite a normal number, but with the cost of it, she believed it should be higher.
"This is quite an interesting idea, I do have to admit." She raised her head, a warm smile on her face.
Chen Gaonan felt his hopes go high. It seemed she was going to accept the proposal after all.
"However, if you would like Feili to sh.e.l.l out nearly a billion just to create the enormous community, we would need rea.s.surance." She prepared to throw out a curveball that they would definitely reject, but she would counter with a "lowered" compromised that would secretly benefit Feili more.
"The company will accept the proposal given we receive 30% of shares instead of 10%."
Chen Gaonan was baffled by this and immediately responded, "That"s quite outrageous given you"re only the investment firm."
"Hm, it would seem so. Then 15% of the shares would suffice, but in return, we would like a 5% management fee, as well as 25% of the annual profits."
Chen Gaonan swallowed hard, turning to his boss, who had been studying Zhao Lifei for the longest time. He felt like crying, for even while she made phenomenal demands, his boss was still staring at her as if she was some sort of G.o.ddess gracing the Earth!
Chen Gaonan expected his boss to easily give in to her. Dejected at the idea, he could feel his shoulders slightly slump down.
Yang Feng studied her for the longest time and said, "10% of the shares, the rest is reasonable."
Zhao Lifei wondered if Yang Feng was simply dumb to realize her tactic, but then again, she learned the technique of haggling from the streets that normal people frequented, not the rich. It was foolish of her to use a haggling method, but who would"ve thought he would actually go for it?
"14%." She mused.
"12%."
"14.5% then." She shrugged, not bothered at all that Yang Enterprise could blacklist them if they wanted to. She had no problem going against the company and it would not even fazed her if she did not support this community.
The money they wanted was quite high and only a handful of investment firms would even fancy the idea. She knew most businesses would rather work with people they were more familiar with since, at the least, they would be able to gouge if their acquaintances were shady or not.
Yang Feng narrowed his eyes onto his woman, who was sitting there examining her nails without a care in the world. She was quite haughty. Too bold for her own good, too a.s.sured of her success to even entertain failure. He liked that about her, a bit too much.
"13.5%."
"15%." She replied.
Chen Gaonan began to nervously sweat as the rest of Yang Feng"s personal team begin to shake in their chairs when a deadly aura could be felt from their boss. Their teeth chattered and their bodies quivered when the wind of the north blew into the room, sweeping over the normal temperature.