Chapter 65: Who Can Truly Be Trusted
The office rented for the Zijiang Road branch was on the second floor of a street-facing shop. Several small restaurants clustered nearby.
But Xiao Liang preferred convenience. He liked being able to talk business while eating, so he usually just called in food to the office or their rented house. Both places were stocked with crates of beer.
Today, with Gu Peijun and his brother Xiao Xiao present—and sensitive matters to discuss—he had Zhang Feili reserve a private room at a nearby restaurant. When the time came, he gathered everyone and headed over.
The “private room” in such a place was nothing fancy.
A cramped cubicle of barely four square meters. Concrete floors. Lime-washed walls that would dust your clothes white if you brushed against them. Plastic stools with uneven legs that wobbled under you.
The menu was simple.
Two hot dishes—a large bowl of pickled fish and a pot of braised goose. Four cold dishes—smashed cucumbers, poached chicken, vinegar peanuts, and sliced pig’s head. Then two cases of beer were hauled in before anything else.
Only after a few chilled beers slid down their throats did Xiao Liang begin talking about Xu Lihuan’s next assignment.
“I called you back today, Old Xu, because from here on, you’ll be fully in charge of everything in Xijiang,” he said. “Zhang Ming will return to Dongzhou and set up another branch office there…”
Xu Lihuan frowned slightly. “Restarting production will take time. For now, we can only source small quantities of stock from other factories. Wouldn’t it be enough to just maintain the Xijiang market? Do we really need to start working Dongzhou already?”
“We won’t push too aggressively,” Xiao Liang replied. “But Dongzhou is still our home ground. We can’t ignore it completely. Start by hiring a few people locally and get the basic market promotion and distribution channels in place.”
He took another sip of beer before continuing.
“And there’s another issue—we’ve pushed a bit too much stock into Xijiang. If demand softens after peak season, we may need to buy some inventory back from distributors and move it to Dongzhou to clear. I might not care much about the juice factory itself, but whatever we do, we do it cleanly.”
He paused, then added, “That’s just from the perspective of beverage sales. I’ve got other plans as well. When I said I’d send Zhang Feili and Liu Weiwei back to the factory, I wasn’t just trying to placate Gu Peijun.”
“Not just placating me?” Gu Peijun shot back immediately. “Then I really *will* take them back this time.”
He sighed, clearly exasperated.
“Every time I see Secretary Zhou, Mayor Liu, or Principal Zhang, they ask about how Feili and Weiwei are doing in Xijiang. They’re worried we’ve sold them off to some remote mountain village! If I don’t bring them back soon, I’m afraid they’ll come here themselves to drag them home!”
Zhang Feili’s father was Zhang Qiang, principal of Yun She Middle School. Her father-in-law was Zhou Jianqi, deputy Party secretary. Liu Weiwei’s uncle was Deputy Mayor Liu Hui. Two young women gone for over a month—of course their families were worried.
Xu Lihuan chuckled. “What about Director Wu? Hasn’t her husband stormed the factory yet, accusing us of selling his wife off?”
After He Hong’s arrest, Wu Qiyan had effectively taken over as head of the finance department. Experienced and capable, she was someone Gu Peijun very much wanted back.
But judging from Xiao Liang’s attitude, that wasn’t going to happen.
Gu Peijun laughed and said, “If Director Wu decided to keep a boy toy on the side, her husband wouldn’t dare say a word—let alone come to the factory making a scene.”
Wu Qiyan’s value wasn’t just her competence.
In Xiao Liang’s previous life, after Xiao Yujun seized control of the juice factory during restructuring, both Wu Qiyan and Xu Lihuan had refused his high-paying offers and left to find their own paths.
Wu Qiyan had long seen through Xiao Yujun’s schemes—his quiet siphoning and transfer of assets over the years. Though she feared retaliation and didn’t publicly expose him like Gu Peijun did, she held firmly to her principles and refused to become an accomplice.
Even the inconsistencies in the factory’s accounts weren’t due to incompetence—they were, in a way, her silent resistance.
Unfortunately, in that era, no one cared enough about such discrepancies for them to matter.
For the new company, Xiao Liang needed someone trustworthy to handle finance and administration. And in Yun She, there were very few people he could truly rely on.
There was no way he’d return Wu Qiyan at a time like this.
As for sending Zhang Feili and Liu Weiwei back—it wasn’t about distrust.
Their situations were simply too complicated.
Take Zhang Feili.
She was gentle, kind, and over time, Xiao Liang couldn’t deny the subtle stirrings she awakened in him. But as long as she remained married to Zhou Bin—as long as she was still Zhou Jianqi’s daughter-in-law—there was no way Xiao Liang would place her in a core position within the new company.
She was the kind of woman who could make any man’s heart waver—especially now, after his rebirth, when he saw her even more clearly.
But distance, for now, was necessary.
He noticed the hesitation in Zhang Feili’s eyes and spoke directly to her.
“Whether you and Liu Weiwei go back is your choice. But one thing you can be sure of—we’ll clear all inventory within the two-month deadline. When it comes to bonuses, they’ll be calculated based on the full inventory. You won’t lose anything just because you return now.”
“I can vouch for that,” Gu Peijun added quickly, worried they might hesitate because of the money. “And besides, with so many positions opening up at the factory, you’ll have plenty of options. In the end, the factory will still be under Xiao Liang’s control—he’s just saying he won’t take over for now.”
Then he turned to Xiao Liang. “Why don’t you just tell them your next plan? Otherwise, I’m afraid I won’t be able to ‘convince’ them to come back.”
“Convince?” Zhang Feili shot Xiao Liang a sideways glance. “You make it sound like we’re fools, just waiting to be tricked back and forth.”
She didn’t want to return.
But it wasn’t about the bonus.
The past month had been unlike anything she had ever experienced. A life so vivid, so intense, that she found herself reluctant to let it go—almost addicted to it.
She feared that once she returned to the factory, while the others stayed on with the new company, that world would close its doors to her.
And yet… she had the least justification to stay.
“It’s about time we shared the next phase of the plan anyway,” Xiao Liang said.
The first move had already been successfully made.
He no longer feared the township discovering his broader intentions. There was little they could do to restrain him now.
At worst…
He would simply hand in his resignation.
