Chapter 31: Became a White-collar Worker

Chapter 31: Chapter 31: Became a White-collar WorkerQingfeng Group’s subsidiary, Huayang Trading Company, occupied the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth floors of the entire office building. In Mile City, the rental cost for such an office building was also very high; the rent for these three floors alone exceeded 1.5 million a year, a figure not just any small company could afford. Therefore, it was evident that Huayang Trading Company’s development was indeed quite impressive.

For a subsidiary, having such a scale was indeed something Xu Yingying could be proud of. The hardships she had endured to grow a small company to this level were known only to herself.

At seven-thirty, before the start of the workday, she was already seated in her office on the fourteenth floor. Xu Yingying was seriously organizing the company’s development plans that had been created over the New Year’s holiday. It was a new year, and she harbored even greater ambitions to take Huayang Trading Company to the next level.

After working for an hour, Xu Yingying checked the time and dialed the Human Resources Department’s number. Answering the phone was the department’s Minister Cao Zhidong, a person dispatched from the group company who had connections with one of the group’s leaders. Although lacking in ability, he had been given the position of Minister of the Human Resources Department by Xu Yingying.

Although she was the president at Huayang, there was still the parent group above, so many things had to be reported to the group company. What truly irked her was that the higher-ups always appointed some people to the subsidiary companies; these people often lacked capability, but still had to be given positions, and Xu Yingying could not refuse them.

"Hello, President Xu." Cao Zhidong’s voice came through the handset, his tone respectful, which brought some comfort to Xu Yingying. At least these people still showed some fear towards her as the president. Otherwise, the company would be even harder to manage.

Xu Yingying spoke decisively, "Minister Cao, a person named Li Yifei will come to see you shortly. Arrange for him to be placed in the logistics department."

"Alright, does President Xu have any particular instructions on how he should be arranged there?"

"No, let Minister Zheng of the logistics department handle it."

Cao Zhidong, thirty-five years old, just over 1.7 meters tall with a bit of a belly, had a somewhat ineffectual appearance. His work capacity might not be strong, but he was a smooth operator, which made him largely unobjectionable under Xu Yingying, the general manager.

Personnel arrangements within the company were always made through public recruitment. Even if there were special appointments, those were arranged by the parent group. Since Li Yifei was directly referred by Xu Yingying, he must either be related to someone from the group or be one of Xu Yingying’s relatives.

Cao Zhidong, having never had the chance to currying favour with Xu Yingying, saw this as an opportunity. Li Yifei had not yet arrived, but Cao Zhidong was already thinking about how to form a good relationship with him.

As he was contemplating, there was a knock on the office door. Cao Zhidong immediately straightened up and said, "Come in."

The person who entered was indeed Li Yifei, who wore a gray jacket over a pair of jeans—not the typical white-collar attire and certainly no suit. He entered with a friendly smile and greeted Cao Zhidong, "Hello, Minister Cao, I’m Li Yifei."

Cao Zhidong looked at Li Yifei and found him somewhat familiar, but couldn’t remember exactly where he had seen him. Hesitating, he asked, "Have we met somewhere before?"

Li Yifei quickly replied, "Minister Cao, I used to be a security guard in the building; I saw you every day."

Cao Zhidong scrutinized Li Yifei again and suddenly remembered, feeling puzzled. Could it be that Li Yifei had no relationship with Xu Yingying? Otherwise, how could he have been a security guard in the building?

"Little Li, what brings you to our company?" Cao Zhidong asked tentatively.

Li Yifei chuckled, "Thanks to President Xu who noticed my hard work and specifically arranged for me to work in the company, I really must thank her for her recognition."

Upon hearing this, Cao Zhidong understood that Xu Yingying had no special relationship with Li Yifei, because Xu Yingying always valued capabilities in her personnel decisions; as long as one had the skills, promotion and pay raise were definitely possible under her.

Leaning back, Cao Zhidong immediately assumed the air of a minister and said, "Little Li, President Xu has already told me about you. Make sure you do well in the company."

"Thank you, Minister Xu. And my duties..."

"Little Wang!" Minister Xu called out, and soon a young man in his mid-twenties entered, "Little Wang, take Little Li to process the paperwork, and then take him to the logistics department. I will speak with Minister Guan."

Little Wang complied and led Li Yifei out, saying with a smile, "Hello, my name is Wang Tao."

"Hello, I’m Li Yifei. Please look after me, Brother Wang."

"No need to be so formal. In our company, as long as you work hard, there are plenty of opportunities. President Xu’s eyes are very sharp."

Listening to Wang Tao saying this, Li Yifei couldn’t help but admire Xu Yingying’s capabilities. A charismatic president has a strong power to unite, and clearly, Xu Yingying had achieved that.

After completing the paperwork at the Human Resources Department, Wang Tao took Li Yifei to the logistics department. The logistics department was located on the innermost side of the thirteenth floor and occupied three offices. The innermost was the minister’s office, followed by the offices of the three deputy ministers—one of whom had earned their position through ability, while the other two were idlers sent from above and rarely came to work. The remaining office was for the logistics department staff, divided into ten small cubicles in a typical corporate office style that didn’t interfere with each other.

Li Yifei followed Wang Tao directly into the minister’s office inside.

Minister Zheng was a woman in her thirties, named Zheng Xiuqin, slightly overweight. Although not very beautiful, she appeared very competent. Wang Tao seemed somewhat afraid of Minister Zheng; he dropped off Li Yifei and turned to leave.

Zheng Xiuqin first carefully reviewed the resume Li Yifei had just filled out, and after finishing, she looked up to size him up, pointed to the chair in front of the desk, and said, "Have a seat."

Li Yifei sat down with a smile and said, "Thank you, Minister Zheng. I will be working under Minister Zheng from now on, so please give me your guidance."

There was no smile on Minister Zheng’s face as she stared into Li Yifei’s eyes and said, "President Xu said you are a good talent and asked me to properly groom you. I hope you won’t disappoint me or President Xu."

Li Yifei immediately straightened up and said, "I will definitely work diligently and not let down the Minister or President Xu."

Zheng Xiuqin nodded her head, looked down, and said, "According to your resume, you’ve been a soldier and worked as a security guard, but you don’t have any other work experience. So, I can’t assign you any important tasks for now. You’ll help out in the department, and after some time when I get to know you better, I will give you a specific job."

"Okay." Li Yifei answered readily.

"Then come with me," said Zheng Xiuqin as she led Li Yifei to the adjacent staff office. She clapped her hands, and the several people inside immediately looked towards the door.

Zheng Xiuqin announced, "Everyone, pay attention, please. Today, I would like to introduce a new colleague."

Li Yifei immediately said, "Hello everyone, my name is Li Yifei."

Everyone looked at Li Yifei with curiosity but did not forget to applaud to welcome him.

Zheng Xiuqin then said, "Michelle, Li Yifei will be under your wing. He’ll work with you for now until he gets acclimated, and then I’ll assign him other tasks."

A girl immediately stood up, somewhat astounded, and said, "Under my charge?"

Zheng Xiuqin said sternly, "Is there a problem?"

"No... no problem," the girl immediately said in a fluster, shaking her head repeatedly.

This was a young girl in her twenties with long hair that fell smoothly behind her head, and a neat fringe on her forehead. She had a lovely oval face, and such shoulder-length hair definitely suited her oval face shape best; this girl had evidently grasped that fact.

Her eyes weren’t round, so they didn’t appear very large, but they were quite engaging, the kind that get more appealing the more you look. Her cheeks were flushed with nervousness at the moment.

She was about one hundred sixty-seven or sixty-eight centimeters tall, though that probably included the height of her high heels; her actual height depended on her shoes, which Li Yifei couldn’t see from his angle.

She wore a dark suit with a wide-open collar, a white shirt underneath, and lace rising on her chest, which made the suit look quite elegant. The woman’s breasts were prominent. The typical professional outfit on this girl made her seem more competent, but her innate demureness was something she couldn’t conceal.

She was a very pretty girl, not startlingly so, but definitely the kind you couldn’t forget after one glance.

"That settles it then. Michelle, you show Li Yifei around to meet the office staff, and you decide how to delegate the work," said Minister Zheng, and after finishing her directions, she turned and left.

Michelle hesitated for a moment, her face flushed as she walked up to Li Yifei. She pursed her lips, extended her hand, and said, "My name is Michelle."

Li Yifei shook hands with Michelle; her hands were very soft but rather cold. He smiled and said, "Hello, I’ll be counting on you to take care of this newbie in the future."

Michelle nodded and said, "I will. This is Li Zhisheng, Brother Li, the most experienced person in our Logistics Department; this is Shen Yajuan, we all call her Sister Shen; this is He Dong, Chen Fei, our company’s drivers."

Including Michelle and Li Yifei, the Logistics Department had a total of six people: two drivers, the forty-something Li Zhisheng, the thirty-something Shen Yajuan, and two thirty-something drivers, He Dong and Chen Fei.

Apart from Michelle, who was a year younger than Li Yifei, the other four were older than him, so Li Yifei dutifully called them brother and sister. However, Li Yifei didn’t mind this; after all, it meant having a beautiful younger sister.

At the moment, Li Yifei was genuinely looking forward to working in the company. During missions, he would often disguise himself and work in different places for his tasks, but he had never before worked as a white-collar employee. Now, he was eager to experience it, which was certainly an enjoyable prospect.