Business Information Identity

Chapter 7: Mismatched Couples

Other office buildings are counted by the building, but the Wanlian International office building is counted by the floor. The Wanlian International headquarters is located on Third South Road in the South District. In such a prime location, there is a five-acre freshwater lake in the center of the Wanlian International's Sun-Moon-Star Plaza. The area around the lake is covered with grass, and there are benches and green trees, making it more like a park.

The Sun-Moon-Star Plaza consists of three buildings. The area surrounding these three buildings is the headquarters of Wanlian International. Nie Zuo looked up at the three office buildings; more than seventy percent of the lights were still on. Is business good this year? No need to ask. Just come to the Wanlian International headquarters and see how many lights are on at night, how many people are working overtime, and you'll know if the economy is good or bad.

Nie Zuo sat on a bench by the lake. About fifty meters away from him stood the Sunlight Building. The Sunlight Building housed newspapers, television stations, recording studios... Those who occupied a spot in the Sunlight Building were all involved in lucrative industries of Wanlian International. It was already 10 o'clock at night, and people were still coming in and out of the building, as well as cars.

A delivery scooter pulled up to the entrance of the building. Four strong young men got out, each carrying a towering stack of pizzas to deliver upstairs. This was a typical nighttime scene at Wanlian International. Overtime, overtime, overtime...

Nie Zuo leaned back on the bench, feeling the cool breeze from the lake, refreshing and comfortable. Fifty meters away, it felt like a different world. Nie Zuo didn't pity them because they might also pity people like Nie Zuo, who wasted time by the lake. Their efforts would be rewarded with better houses, better cars, and better women to marry.

The phone vibrated, and Nie Zuo answered, “Hi!”

“I see you.”

Nie Zuo turned around and waved toward the top of the Sunlight Building. “Looks like you can get off work now?”

In a conference room on the thirtieth floor, a woman with a small telescope stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking down at Nie Zuo. “Sorry, baby, not yet. I'm still in a meeting. I sneaked out to see you.”

Nie Zuo grinned. “Does seeing me refresh you?”

“You do look refreshed, but I don't. I'm so tired that I'm too lazy to go to the bathroom. I'll go back to the meeting now?”

“Go ahead.”

The woman hung up the phone, turned off the lights, and left the small conference room. Five seconds later, the conference room door was opened again. The lights were not turned on. A man walked up to the floor-to-ceiling windows, drew the curtain slightly, and used a low-light night vision telescope to examine Nie Zuo from above, taking several photos of him. After ten seconds, he quietly left.

……

Eluo Zuo came to the Wanjian International headquarters to pick up someone, a woman who was his girlfriend, Mei Yan, an assistant accountant at Hengyuan real estate under Wanjian International. They were a couple from a university, and many people didn't think highly of their relationship. The reason was that Mei Yan was very beautiful, and although Eluo Zuo was also handsome, but beauty and handsomeness together didn't conform to the values of most people. Beauty and wealth were the mainstream values of society.

Mei Yan is 1.72 meters tall, her figure and face are without any blemish. Since being crowned as the school beauty in her sophomore year, she has been pursued by people from both inside and outside the campus, including some older men who fancied her and wealthy scions who were charmed by her. At the time, Mei Yan was puzzled, why did it have to be about being rich to court me? Her senior explained her question, 'Because you're beautiful, wealth isn't necessary to catch your attention, but without it, you definitely won't be noticed. Beauty is always a scarce resource.

That answer was cruel yet straightforward and realistic. To everyone's astonishment, in the latter half of their junior year, the single Mei Yan ended up getting together with Eluo Zuo from the History Department. Eluo Zuo became a news person that week, with everyone asking, 'Who is Eluo Zuo?' After a** conducted by some idle individuals, it turned out that Eluo Zuo was an ordinary university student who had studied abroad at a dubious British university as an exchange student in his sophomore year. He had no background or famous family, and besides studying, he worked as an assistant at a fruit shop in a market in Xinyang town.

Just as everyone wanted to research this mismatched pattern, A University had a major incident - an exam leak. Compared to the romantic stories of others, people were more concerned about their own futures, so they quickly forgot about them.

In their senior year, with the help of her older sister, Mei Yan interned at United International and successfully got a job at the headquarters after graduation. Eluo Zuo still worked as a vegetable seller in the market in Xinyang town after graduation, and the gap in their social status seemed to be getting bigger, but their relationship was not greatly affected.

Mei Yan's hair was a little messy, which clearly showed how tired she was, not bothering to comb it in the bathroom, just randomly tousling it with her hand. When she saw Eluo Zuo at the entrance of the building, she reached out for a hug immediately, leaning all her weight on Eluo Zuo, feeling very comfortable.

With many people around at the entrance, they separated, and Eluo Zuo naturally took the bag and hung it on his shoulder. Mei Yan held Eluo Zuo's right arm with her left hand, saying, 'I'm tired!'

Eluo Zuo was a bit unhappy, 'Your boss is crazy? You didn't finish work on time this week.'

'The boss is crazy; the employees have to be even crazier; otherwise, someone crazier will replace you.' Mei Yan pointed to a car that drove away from a lane not far away. 'That's Manager Wang; he didn't come home until early morning the day before yesterday.'

'So competitive?'

'What else can we do? The boss looks at performance. Now that his second son is the president, he has started to make changes, removing the worst performers in the business department every month. Before, if you didn't meet the performance standards, there were certain standards. Now, you can't afford to slack off; you're afraid of being bottomed out and eliminated if you stop for a moment.'

Eluo Zuo praised, 'Fierce.'

'Not everyone is saying bad things about it; since the internal competition mechanism came out, everyone's performance has increased dramatically. Manager Wang used to make about 10-13,000 yuan a month, but this month he earned at least 40,000 yuan, with remarkable performance. If he keeps it up for another two or three months, it will be easy for him to be promoted to assistant manager.' Mei Yan said, 'That's also a good thing. Originally, promotion not only depends on performance but also on interpersonal relationships, which is very complex. Now it's only about performance; if you make money for the company, you are the big boss. If you can't make money for the company, then you'd better leave.'

Eluo Zuo said, 'Meizi, there's no need for you in the administrative department to compete as fiercely as the business department does.'

'The administrative department also gets busy sometimes; let's not talk about that...a taxi.' Mei Yan raised her hand to hail a taxi.

The taxi drew near, Nie Zuo asked, 'Shall we go straight home?'

'No, today is our date day, I've booked a table.' Mai Yan*****，******** Zuo, 'Did you forget?'"

'I haven't forgotten, but it's already twelve o'clock in the morning... Nie Zuo smiled and helped Mai Yan pull the car door open, 'Please!'"

Mai Yan got in the car and told the driver, 'Could you please take us to He Yuan Restaurant.'