KA | Chapter 20

That day, Jiang Feifan turned down all the sales appointments after mine and talked with me from five o’clock to seven thirty, asking about everything in detail, from brand building to brand operation.

During the conversation, I kept guiding her and only talked about the things she was interested in.

In the end, Jiang Feifan asked, “For the infrastructure part of the cooperation brand, roughly how much money would it take?”

Based on the information I had gathered, I said, “The estimated cost is around 300,000 yuan.”

Jiang Feifan’s eyes flashed slightly. “Then please trouble Manager Zhao to organize a breakdown of the cooperation costs.”

A quotation sheet could be handled in no time, but before that I needed to check the execution cost with the brand center, and that concerned my sales gross profit.

I said, “Okay, Headmaster Jiang, is Monday afternoon or Tuesday more convenient?”

If the time for the next face-to-face visit was not set, it would give the client a chance to drag things out and mess up the rhythm of signing the deal.

Jiang Feifan said, “Come find me here at 9:00 on Tuesday.”

After leaving Tianlai, I took the domineering car onto the ring road. Seeing the speed shoot up to 140, I immediately slowed down.

I could get a traffic ticket, but I definitely could not let my master get fined!

Thinking about it carefully, the tasks for the last two quarters had both been closely related to Shen Yuesheng. Tianlai was the first key client I had reached out to with my own ability, and this quarter I had finally been able to rely on myself!

I drove at the maximum speed, and I got home close to eight.

My mom said, “Have you eaten? There are dumplings in the kitchen.”

When I was discussing the deal, I had not been very hungry, and only now did I realize I had not eaten dinner yet.

I got a bowl, poured in some soy sauce and vinegar, and stood in the kitchen eating. My mom came over and turned on the fire to heat the dumplings.

“Mom, no need to bother, I can just eat a couple bites.”

“That won’t do. Eating cold food will give you a stomachache, and heating dumplings is not a bother.”

I put down my bowl and chopsticks. My mom said, “Xiaojing insisted on buying Baolan Shenghexiang, and she just paid the down payment today.”

“Ah? Why so urgent? Did Zhang Ming agree?”

I had originally planned to talk to my little brother about this on the weekend, but I never expected my second aunt to move so fast.

“Xiaojing said there was a subscription event at the sales office today, and the house price was 20,000 yuan cheaper than usual. The house is under your second uncle’s name, so it will be convenient to use the housing provident fund to repay the loan.”

“What subscription event? It’s all just sales hype!” My own relative had been tricked by sales, and I was furious. “My second aunt really has a hole in her head. Wouldn’t it be better to buy the house after Zhang Ming’s job is stable? If they really have to buy, then buy a smaller one on the Third Ring, and Zhang Ming could still afford it later! What if my second uncle doesn’t live to 80? If Zhang Ming doesn’t have a stable job and can’t pay back the mortgage, then what?”

“I just saw on the news that someone spent 6 million over 20 years to buy a house, and now the house price has dropped to 2.7 million. Even if they sell it, after deducting the 2 million down payment, they still owe the bank 1.3 million.” My mom sighed. “Since things have come to this, you have to think in a good way. Xiaojing did not buy at the highest house price, so this is just being better off than the ones below, not as good as the ones above.”

I was optimistic just like my mom. If my mom had not been optimistic, she would have jumped into the river holding me when I was one month old.

“I think she’s just pretending to be rich and saving face.” When the dumplings were heated, I held the bowl and ate. “Oh right, I just signed a big deal, so I can pay back my second aunt’s debt. I’ll transfer it to you, and you transfer it to her. I don’t want to talk to her, and you don’t need to lend her money anymore in the future.”

My mom laughed. “Oh, Chuan’er has really made something of himself. Just how big of a deal did you sign?”

I thought about it and said, “This client is a bit hard to handle. I have to drink with him often, and if I drink too late, I don’t go home.”

Before sleeping, I sent Shen Yuesheng a message as usual.

「Me: Master, I talked with Jiang Feifan for a long time today, and it should be almost ready to sign 【Little Dog Jump Jump】」

Usually when I called him master, Shen Yuesheng would reply at the first moment. Since he still had not replied now, that meant he was busy.

I had nothing to do and scrolled through posts. Recently, after I had searched for certain keywords, the platform recommended all sorts of novel content to me.

「The unknown secrets of rainbow boys」

「Why do gays like white socks?」

Since I had already stepped onto the road of selling myself, I had to properly fulfill the duty of a piling machine. I braced myself and clicked into the post, only to find that the comment section always called out to Teacher Hua Arm.

So I climbed over the wall and searched for this blogger, and saw videos he had filmed of having sex with his boyfriend.

With a diligent and eager-to-learn attitude, I watched a few different scenarios. Japanese GV awakened my straight-man blood. Every time I saw the insertion part, I would feel physically uncomfortable. But it was okay, I had basically learned the foreplay part, and after that, well… just play it by ear.

「Clingy one: Jiang Feifan is indecisive, she won’t make a decision too quickly」

「Me: No way, it’s already been settled」

「Clingy one: You’re too naive. Even after a contract is signed, payment can still be refused. Before cooperation, anything could happen」

Naive?

Having no bed experience did not mean I had no experience signing deals.

Once I learned the technique, next time on the bed I would scare you to death!

「Me: 【Little dog upset】」

「Clingy one: 【Patting the dog’s head】」

「Me: There are only 4 more days until I come back, I miss you so much oh【kiss hug lift high high】」

「Clingy one: Get lost」

*

Early Monday morning, I was at my workstation eating corn.

“Morning.” Chen Xi strode over, and Lin Yiran followed closely behind. Both of them were holding McDonald’s breakfast bags.

“Morning, Chen Xi. Morning, President Lin.”

Lin Yiran nodded and said “morning,” then turned into the office, while Chen Xi sat down at his workstation to eat breakfast.

“Why did President Lin come to the company today?”

Chen Xi yawned. “Today President Zhang is coming to Yucheng, so Brother Lin has to attend the senior management meeting.”

President Zhang was Zhang Guangming, the boss of Lanhai Group.

The workplace was all about one thing suppressing another. I was a dog for Lin Yiran in KA, Lin Yiran was a dog for Zhang Guangming, and office workers were all tied up by their leaders’ leashes. Nobody was better off than anybody else.

Watching Lin Yiran get bullied, my mood felt a little more balanced.

After morning exercise, I changed the proposal based on Jiang Feifan’s needs and checked the execution cost with the brand center. Just when I was happily typing out the quotation, the Tianlai admissions office director delivered bad news: the headmaster said she had something to do tomorrow, and we should make another appointment another day.

When it came to the deal-pushing stage, the client suddenly having something come up was probably just an excuse. The real intention was: they did not want to move the cooperation forward.

Shen Yuesheng had judged it so accurately. Jiang Feifan was indecisive, and the cooperation that had been settled had changed its mind.

I could not push the client forward, and I had no solution, so I could only ask the KA boss for advice.

“Chen Xi, I have a client who was supposed to sign tomorrow, but just now they suddenly changed their mind.”

While typing in a spreadsheet, Chen Xi analyzed, “There are only two possibilities when the client changes their mind at this time. One, they were cut off by a competitor. Two, there was some force majeure.”

Although there had been quite a few sales people talking together last week, I had not seen Jiang Feifan after my turn, so she probably had not been cut off.

I asked, “What kind of force majeure could there be at a time like this?”

“There are plenty of force majeure situations, parents getting into a car accident, a son jumping into a river, suddenly being struck by lightning… As for what actually happened, you have to ask the client.”

Me: “…”

A salesperson who had never cursed a client was not a good KA. The KA boss was under a lot of performance pressure, so it was understandable that his emotions were unstable, but what if he really cursed the client to death? Then who would we ask for money from?

Chen Xi said, “I’ve got a case DDL, can you go ask someone else first?”

I did not want to trouble him either, but the problem was, who was I supposed to ask?

Lin Yiran had just finished a meeting and was passing by our workstation. Chen Xi gave me a look.

I was still shaken and did not move for a long time.

Seeing my hesitation, Chen Xi spoke bluntly, “Brother Lin followed that building materials company for a whole year. Last year at the end of the year, you snatched the deal from him. If it were anyone, would they not be angry? Brother Lin snatched my deal before, and only because he felt guilty did he transfer me to KA. There were so many people in Small and Medium, so why did he transfer you to KA, have you thought about that?”

“Brother Lin is indeed a bit dog-like in some aspects, but he cherishes talent and would never easily transfer someone out of Small and Medium. Sending you to KA means you have the potential to do KA. Let me put it this way, if he really wanted to mess with you, he would not let you sit here at all!”

I had never expected that the old dog would even scheme against his wife!

But Chen Xi was right. If Lin Yiran really wanted to mess with me, he could have just made me sit in some corner, and he would not have made me sit between him and Zhang Yuanji. They often answered my questions and unknowingly helped me sign deals.

My signing deals was beneficial to KA as a whole, and it matched Lin Yiran’s goal. Now that Tianlai could not be pushed forward, I could only temporarily put away my dissatisfaction with him. Wage slaves did not have the guts to go against performance.

I knocked on the office door, and Lin Yiran put down his laptop. “Come in.”

I got straight to the point. “President Lin, I had my first face-to-face visit with the Tianlai headmaster last Friday. The headmaster originally made an appointment with me to talk again at 9:00 tomorrow, but just now she suddenly changed her mind.”

Lin Yiran asked, “What kind of person is the headmaster?”

I recalled Jiang Feifan’s characteristics and found that Shen Yuesheng’s description, although mean, fit her very well.

“A woman in her sixties, likes to wear pink clothes, has no opinions of her own.”

“No opinions of her own…” Lin Yiran said thoughtfully. “Did the headmaster only make an appointment with you?”

“No, a lot of sales people went that day. Each person had 10 minutes, but the headmaster talked quite well with me, and I did not see the sales people after me.”

“Which companies were the competitors?”

I scratched my head. “Um, I really don’t know that.”

“Do you have an informant?”

“Yes,” I said. “I previously met the director of the academic affairs office through an informant, and only after that did I see the headmaster…”

Lin Yiran interrupted, “Call the informant now and ask what is going on over there.”

I obediently did as I was told and dialed Sun Qiongyin’s number. Sun Qiongyin said Jiang Feifan would be at the school tomorrow, because when she was getting off work she saw her talking to a man and saying, come find me tomorrow morning.

After hanging up, my heart went cold halfway.

So Jiang Feifan was not seeing me because she had made an appointment with someone else tomorrow.

It was lucky Lin Yiran had reminded me to find the informant. Otherwise, if I had just waited stupidly, I might have died and still not known how I died.

“Clients will investigate from many sides before making a decision. Relying only on subjective feelings, you cannot control the situation, because you can only see one side of the matter.” Although Lin Yiran was a dog, he was not sloppy at work. His words hit the key point directly. “You feel like the headmaster talked well with you, but you did not deeply understand the competitor situation. The content of your proposal might be matched by a lower quote from the competitor, or maybe they had stronger connections.”

Shen Yuesheng would describe Jiang Feifan from three aspects, age, hobbies, and personality. Lin Yiran would analyze the problem from three dimensions, the boss’s personality, competitors, and informants. They had compound thinking, while my angle of thinking about problems was too one-sided.

I said helplessly, “Then what should I do now?”

Lin Yiran said, “Just pretend you did not see the admissions office director’s message, and go there directly tomorrow.”

Ah, that worked too?

Right, before, it was the headmaster who made an appointment with me. If they wanted to cancel, it should also be the headmaster who notified me. Since the headmaster had not said anything, why couldn’t I just go directly?

The older ginger was hotter.

Lin Yiran answered a call. “Tell President Zhang to wait a bit, I’ll go upstairs right away.”

He had already helped me quite a lot, and President Zhang was waiting for him. I could not be so clueless.

“Brother Lin, please go do your work. I’ll handle the rest myself.”

“You’re calling me brother again?” Lin Yiran put away his laptop.

If there was nothing to seek, one would not go to the Three Treasures Hall, and I only called him brother when I needed help. Having my thoughts exposed, my cheeks grew a little hot.

Lin Yiran walked to the door and said, “Prepare the contract. Gather at Tianlai at 8:00 tomorrow morning, I’ll help you negotiate.”