Chapter 145 - The First Client (1)
Chapter 145 – The First Client (1)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Although there was a little accident on the part of Zhao Shunrong’s escort during the whole process, Zhao Youlin assumed the position as Zhao Enterprise’s general manager without any hitch. So Zhao Youlin was satisfied with the overall situation.
Following Zhao Youlin’s official joining of the Zhao Enterprise, her pastry store gradually went on the right track as well.
After hiring An Yue and her sister, Zhao Youlin had hired two to three more waiters. They were quite young and were university students who were taking up part-time jobs.
The young girls and boys were motivated every day, ready to roll up their sleeves and start working when the business opened.
Now that she had got her staff, things were done much more efficiently. A week after the recruitment, Zhao Youlin’s store finally opened officially.
One had to admit that populated areas brought more business opportunities indeed, especially in such a busy city center area with many students and convenient transportation. Anyone could earn a fortune easily by just creating some gimmicks.
Due to the publicity at the beginning of the week and the gorgeous storefront that Zhao Youlin had previously spent a lot of money renovating, many students and even residents in the neighborhood had known a little about her store before it even opened.
On the first day of opening, many people had walked into the pastry store with the attitude of trying it out. However, after they tasted the pastries and some of the beverages provided with the pastries, most of them were really surprised, which allowed the shop to gain many returning customers. This credit was obviously related to the excellent pastry skills of the sisters.
Zhao Youlin had already known that the pastries they made would be very delicious and might even become popular when she had interviewed them the first time, but she never thought it would be so popular to the point that the demand would exceed the supply.
Looking at the good business, Zhao Youlin was glad that she had not missed out on them. Meanwhile, she felt gloatingly sorry for those bosses who missed on these two cash cows just because they were concerned about certificates. She wondered what they would think if they had the opportunity to find out about this.
Zhao Youlin found out more about the sisters’ background a few days after they moved in to live in the shop. In fact, the two were not biological sisters. They just grew up together, they were not blood-related.
These two girls had grown up as orphans. An Qi’s situation was better, although both of her parents died in a car accident, at least she had a name and she knew where she came from.
But An Yue was different. The girl was simply abandoned at the door of the orphanage as a foundling, without a name.
An Qi was five years old at the time. She somehow showed particular interest in this baby that had appeared out of nowhere. She would spend all day around her. It made the director of the orphanage feel that they had a connection, so she gave An Yue the name she had now.
Since then, the two girls had called each other sisters and had supported each other all the way to the present.
After Zhao Youlin learned of their stories, she felt more sympathy for them, but soon she understood that these two girls did not need anyone’s sympathy.
They had started from nothing and worked so hard to be where they were today. They had put in more effort and persistence than anyone else. All they needed was respect, instead of insignificant sympathy.
And the more she spent time with them, the more Zhao Youlin found these two girls to be excellent in different aspects. An Qi was more extroverted and bold. As long as she was given a platform, she could very well play her strengths. She was very good at dealing with guests, She showed some leadership qualities. As for An Yue, she was more timid and more introverted, but she was very attentive and considerate. They complemented each other. They worked well together without having to say much.
After letting the sisters lead the waiters to take care of the store for a while, Zhao Youlin confidently left the store to them for the time being so that she could concentrate on Zhao Enterprise’s affairs, which were much more complicated than the affairs at the shop.
After joining Zhao Enterprise for a few days, Zhao Youlin once again found herself being set up by that wily old fox. She had already had to deal with a lot of things, despite just joining the company.
Although Zhao Youlin had taken up a management role before, it was totally different from the current one she had. The workload was so heavy that it could give her a meltdown. Plus, Zhao Youlin was inexperienced. It was really challenging for her.
It was only at that moment that Zhao Youlin realized that she had really underestimated things, so much so that she had walked into a trap. No wonder that old master had agreed to her request so easily before, because he was just waiting for her to walk into the trap!
Despite her regrets, she was the one who agreed to the conditions. If she quitted now, it was no different than conceding to that old man.
This was something Zhao Youlin could not do. Since there was no way out, she could only struggle to adapt to it, bit by bit. It took her a long time to complete the piles of work, but at least, Zhao Youlin slowly got the hang of it.
At that moment, the first incident that required her to step in came as expected.
Zhao Enterprise was mainly engaged in the real estate business. The old master had prospectively moved the Zhao family from Rohburg, where they had a more stable foundation, to Sharnork back then. In Sharnork, a city that was filled with powerful families, he managed to let the Zhao family stand out from the prominent families and gain a foothold in the city, one step at a time.
After the old master grew older, he began to slowly hand over the foundation he had built over the years to his eldest son.
Zhao Shunrong had inherited the old master’s vigorous and resolute nature. Within a few years after he took over the company, while land flipping was a wild trend in Sharnork, he saw the opportunity and boldly made a move.
He cleverly flipped several most potential lands in Sharnork and their market value had surged by several times. He managed to expand the Zhao Enterprise’s empire in the real estate sector, boosting the Zhao family’s status in Sharnork. Zhao Shunrong had earned his prestige in the company with his capability.
Since Zhao Youlin had become Zhao Enterprise’s general manager, the contracts on her hands were mostly related to real estate development. For most of the projects, she just needed to send her subordinate to negotiate with the clients, all she needed to do was receive the results. But this time, it was obviously different from the previous case.
“You’re saying that you want me to meet with the representative of the company we are going to cooperate with this time and negotiate this contract myself?” Zhao Youlin looked up from the pile of documents she was working on and asked with some surprise at the chief secretary who was originally the right-hand man of Zhao Shunrong, though he was now temporarily assigned here to assist her.
“Yes.” The chief secretary pushed his gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose and said meticulously, “The person this time is rather special, so in order not to let them think we are being disrespectful, it could not be more appropriate for our general manager to personally go over to receive him.”
“Rather special?” Zhao Youlin raised an eyebrow. “Who is the person who came this time?”
The chief secretary hesitated for a second before he answered honestly, “It’s someone from the Ye family.”