Epiphanies of Rebirth Chapter 50 (Part 1)
Translated by Pure
Edited by Alkonost
Chapter 50.1 Mother Xiao was very satisfied. What a shy child.
Mao Dongqing was screaming into the phone, his voice irritated and anxious. "Why don't you believe me? There is no such thing as a pie falling from the sky! One thousand and two hundred every month, do you really think that’s plausible? For what reason?! Why would those people give you such a high salary?"
Shi Yuan was on the other end of the phone; he was the one who had taken the lead and led a few others to disband their team. His voice was just as agitated. "Why not? Everyone already signed the contract, the treasure mine is here! Weren’t we also paid about the same in the Special Administrative Region? Leader!! Mr. Qi already said that they are short of people now. If you are willing to come, he’s willing to give our entire team an annual bonus worth a quarter of our salary. That’s getting four months’ worth of our monthly income! Please, do it for our team! Why are you so insistent on going to that New Beginnings Real Estate?"
Mao Dongqing sighed.
Shi Yuan had a nasty quarrel with him that night, so nasty that even now Mao Dongqing could still recall the hurtful words he had blurted out then. He couldn't understand how a group of good brothers, who would resign in anger because of him being kicked out, would fall apart from a dispute over a meager amount of money.
He said a hundred times that the salary offered by Qiqing Real Estate was abnormal, but that crazy Shi Yuan instigated more than half of the people to fight against him. Not to mention him taking those people and directly ignoring his orders, Shi Yuan was now lobbying him on the phone, wanting him to bring the rest of the team over.
"How many times do I have to say it for you to understand? Yan City is nothing like the Special Administrative Region! And why was your monthly income more than 1,000 yuan back then? It was because I persuaded my partners to distribute it out of my personal dividends! We are all friends, that’s why I took care of everyone. What about Qiqing Real Estate?" Mao Dongqing asked feebly. "Are they a charity group?"
After a few seconds of silence, his earnest words only received a sneer.
Shi Yuan replied in a gloomy tone, "It turned out that you thought we would be incompetent after we left you? You think we don’t deserve this level of salary? Ha! We all graduated from prestigious universities, no one is any worse that you! We kindly helped you, but it turned out that all this time you believed you were helping us one-sidedly. You speak in a pompous manner, but anyone with common sense would not lead his group of good brothers to an employer that’s offering one-third of what we could actually be making! Unless you had received some kind of benefit, one would be a fool to do this type of thing! Leader, we treated you wholeheartedly and this is how you repay us?"
"Mao Dongqing, you really disappointed me!"
After Shi Yuan said this, he hung up the phone angrily. Mao Dongqing was muddled by all of his accusations and was unable to react in time; he almost wanted to vomit blood. Mao Dongqing smashed down the receiver before facing the worried eyes of the rest of the team that were surrounding him. Shi Yuan spoke loudly, so everyone probably heard what he said.
Seeing Mao Dongqing’s expression, they could only sigh along with him.
"Forget it, let them go." The only girl in the team, Sun Yiqing, patted him on the shoulder. She also felt helpless. "It's all been said and done, what else can you do? Leader, you've done your best. We believe in you."
*******
Qiqing's Real Estate.
After Qi Qing heard the situation, he ruthlessly stubbed out his cigarette butt in the ashtray and cursed with a gloomy face, "That blind man doesn't know what’s good for him!"
Jiang Qiaqia traced her lips with a lip liner in front of the mirror. After she filled in her pretty, plump lips, she said: "Outrageous. We even offered so many benefits to Shi Yuan. For every person he brought in, he would be given 600 yuan, but after so many days, he only managed to persuade five people. I heard they broke their friendship with that cripple in their team because of this matter."
Qi Qing was worried. "This isn’t good. If Qi Kai finds out, he’s going to make a fuss."
"Is Qi Kai sick in the head? Instead of doing proper business, he keeps pondering these crooked methods every day. Did you hand him our proposal plan for Plot No. 2 yet? How long does he intend to delay?"
Jiang Qiaqia was extremely agitated. After they won the land auction for the plot at the foot of Wubao Mountain, the next course of action was for the shareholder to hold a meeting to plan the future development of this land. This step was crucial and should be done as soon as possible, but Qi Kai seemed unperturbed. He would just stare at New Beginnings Real Estate’s recruitment process all day long.
It was okay in the past as they were only recruiting scattered employees. But this time he heard about Mao Dongqing's team from god-knows-where. That’s a team of about twelve people! And Qi Kai had the audacity to ask Qi Qing to find a way to poach them from New Beginnings Real Estate!
Qi Qing was powerless; he and Jiang Qiaqia had already become annoyed by Qi Kai’s petty schemes. He mentioned his proposal for Plot No. 2 countless times, but every time Qi Kai diverted it to other topics. Qi Qing was still clueless as to if this land were to be sold or taken into development. Qi Kai only contacted him when he needed someone to act upon his narrow-minded shenanigan. However, Qiqing Real Estate was already overcrowded; without any plans for Plot No. 2 and no new ongoing projects for the time being. Apart from dividing into several project teams to make idle theoretical discussions, Qi Kai still hadn’t arranged any work for at least one-third of his thirty-plus employees.
But Qi Kai's attitude was firm. When he saw that Qi Qing and his wife were unwilling to follow his orders, Qi Kai even reversed his previous attitude of playing dumb and willingly proposed to pay the wages of the dozen individuals he asked them to poach.
Lin Jingzhe's words in the auction house made him suspicious. It made Qi Kai feel as if he had fallen into a deep pit even though he had won Plot No. 2; he couldn't climb out but also refused to retreat. He was determined to make more trouble for Lin Jingzhe, and since matters have come to this, the money that had to be spent will be spent.
To be precise, it was just a small favor. Since they were already tied to the same boat, Qi Qing couldn't refuse.
He sighed and fell back onto his chair. Qi Qing’s heart was pounding with exhaustion, "F*ck."
He wasn't sure why, but recently he had been feeling quite lightheaded. Misery truly breeds in company. Even the Heavens didn’t want him to have a day of peace.
The brick phone on the coffee table rang with a series of rapid beeps. Qi Qing’s chest tightened and his limbs felt weak. Peeved, he closed his eyes for a while, not wanting to answer the call. He waved his finger.
Jiang Qiaqia received his signal, put away the lipstick, and leaned over to pick up the phone. "Hello?"
But soon, her polite and gentle voice changed. "Impossible! We didn't make such arrangements, did you make a mistake?"
Qi Qing immediately realized that something had gone amiss. He opened his eyes and leaned on his chair as he stared sharply at his wife.
Jiang Qiaqia frowned as she looked back at him. She shook her head silently and said into the receiver, "No?... Are you sure? That’s absurd! We really didn't..."
Unaware of the situation, Qi Qing became more and more worried. He simply snatched the phone from her hand and answered it himself, "What's the situation?"
The caller was a director who they had been introduced to by Qi Kai. He accepted all kinds of requests as long as it was in Yan City. He was daring and well-informed. The initial list of job applicants recruited by New Beginnings Real Estate was collected by this director under Qi Qing’s request.
This person had a sense of propriety and usually would not take the initiative to contact his previous clients unless absolutely necessary. However, this time he was acting uncharacteristically, even to the point of questioning Qi Qing in an accusatory tone.
"Mr. Qi, I’m not trying to criticize you, but your appetite seems insatiable! Yes, you won a good piece of land with Dominion Properties some time ago. Your future is limitless and I congratulate you! Don’t you think thirty-plus employees is more than enough for you to lead? You want to keep tabs on New Beginnings Real Estate, for the sake of you and Mr. Qi, I can help you with this, but now... you’re doing me an injustice!"
Qi Qing was stupefied by his accusations, and it took him a long time to react. "Wait, wait, wait...you–you please speak slowly. What's going on? Why are you so angry all of a sudden?"
The other party sneered. He then sighed, "Forget it, forget it. Consider myself unlucky, I’ll just swallow this unspoken grievance. Mr. Qi, we are all respectable people, so there is no need to make an unnecessary mess. Our cooperation is hereby terminated. From now on, let’s go our separate ways., Act as if you never knew me and I’ll pretend I never knew you."
After he said this, the director hung up the phone with a click. Qi Qing, the target of the director’s furious rant, was left speechless and confused. He and Jiang Qiaqia exchanged a puzzled look. Neither of them knew why the director was acting so frantically. But when Qi Qing took out the phone book and dialed back, he refused to answer.
What was going on? It was unfathomable.
Qi Qing was so dazed that even the pain in his heart stopped. At this moment, there was a knock on the office door.
One of their new hires, the head of the human resources department, walked in with a serious face, "Mr. Qi, we have a situation. A large number of job applicants suddenly came..."
Qi Qing was still immersed in thought over the confusing phone call. Impatiently, he waved his hands and said, "What's the matter with you? Why are you here about this matter? Just like before, let them leave their resume and have them come at the end of the month for an interview. Do you still need me to teach you how to stall for time?"
"No—" The employee was not driven away by his words. On the contrary, the uneasy look on his face deepened. He hesitated for a moment, stepped forward, and then whispered to Qi Qing, "Mr. Qi, these people are a little different. They all said that they were headhunted by you and had already arranged an appointment to speak with you. Some people told me they even asked for a few days off from their original company especially for this trip. Now they are all gathered outside, if you don't show up, I'm afraid they will make trouble..."
"Headhunted?" Qi Qing was at an even greater loss. "When did I ask a headhunter to contact them? Did your Human Resources Department do it?"
The head of HR straightened up in fright and waved his hands in fear, "Mr. Qi, stop joking. How could we poach people casually without your instructions? What's more, now that we have their resumes, it's clear they’re all employees from the administration department of major corporations in the industry! Even if we want to poach, we would never go for these companies!"
Qi Qing was startled. "The major corporations in the industry?"
His gaze turned to Jiang Qiaqia. Jiang Qiaqia also realized that something was wrong as she asked sharply, "Are you sure? Which major corporations?"
In front of her worried expression, the head of HR counted with his fingers, "New Era Group as well as Burgeon Real Estate, Amaranthine Land Holdings, and Anju Conglomerate, these are the main ones."
Jiang Qiaqia opened her mouth in a daze, she was completely speechless.
Translated by pure, hosted on puretl.com / do not repost!
