Chapter 1: He is actually the general manager

  Gu Xixin was woken up by the alarm clock on the cabinet when she was having a dream about being forced to go on a blind date.

  In her dream, she was "escorted" by her mother into a coffee shop and reluctantly sat down in front of a man who looked decent. Perhaps the man was somewhat satisfied with her, without waiting for her to greet him, he smiled subtly, revealing two shiny gold teeth that scared Gu Xixin into a loud scream. Before she could escape from the coffee shop in her dream, she was woken up by the alarm clock.

  Although she was reluctant to leave her comfortable bed, she still turned off the alarm clock and got up. Seeing that the hour hand of the alarm clock had already pointed to eight o'clock, Gu Zhi Xin was shocked: "Damn it, I didn't hear the first alarm, I'm dead."

  With her usual "abnormal training" in a flash, Gu Xixin got herself ready and out the door in just 15 minutes. As she squeezed onto the bus, she glanced at her watch and saw that there was still half an hour before she had to punch in at the newspaper office. This meant that if she wanted to avoid being late, she would have to run from where the bus dropped her off.

  It's all over. Who let herself have a bad memory, watching movies until two o'clock in the morning. Gu Zhi gnashed her teeth secretly.

  She finally managed to punch in just before 9 o'clock. Sneaking into the office, everyone was already seated and started working, each waving their slender fingers on the keyboard "flying".

  Gu Zi Xin didn't have time to eat breakfast in the morning, so she first made a cup of coffee for herself and prepared some small pastries to comfort her growling stomach.

  She walked over wearing high heels with a height of more than 10 centimeters.

  Shen Zihan is the one who gets along best with Gu Xixin in this newspaper, because both of them have an outgoing personality, so they often hang out together.

  Shen Zihang is also a urban beauty, and her usual dressing style has always been the fashion icon of the female colleagues in the newspaper office. What makes Gu Xixin admire most is that she can wear several centimeters high heels to rush to various interview sites every day, competing with male reporters for the best location and angle to take photos.

  "Hey, where's the material on that single mother who fought off a thug that I asked you to get back for me two days ago?" Shen Ziheng was in charge of the "Social Perspective" news section. Judging from her appearance, she should be doing some fashion reporting, but as soon as she joined the newspaper, she requested to join the social news section, leaving everyone shocked. From then on, she spent every day chasing after and reporting on trivial events in society - whose daughter-in-law wasn't taking care of their elderly parents, whose thousand-year-old tree had bloomed, who had killed someone for a few thousand yuan, and so on. And yet, while lamenting that her long-term exposure to such materials was making her psychologically dark, she still ran around enthusiastically, as if she were two different people, as Gu Xixin would say.

  "Ah... I forgot. I was in a hurry when I left the house this morning, sorry." Gu Zixin looked at Shen Zihuan with embarrassment.

  Shen Zihan had an "I knew it" expression, "Hey, I told you yesterday evening on purpose to remind you, just in case you were busy and forgot about me. You really didn't disappoint me, I was preparing to submit the draft today, what am I supposed to do now?" Shen Zihan stared at her with wide open eyes.

  Before Gu Zixin could speak, the internal phone on the table rang, "Little Gu, come to my place." Qiao Xudong said over the phone.

  "Wait for me, the editor called me." Gu Zhi Xin ignored Shen Zi Han's "you're dead meat" expression and hastily walked towards the inner room.

  She thought Qiao Xu'an would criticize Su Bing for being late in the morning, but unexpectedly, Qiao Xu'an just handed her a stack of documents.

  "I just received a call, some households in Lishui Huating, the new district of Shengyu Real Estate, have quality problems with their houses. After coordinating to return the house, the owners are now gathered at the Shengyu Group to discuss the matter." Qiao Xuan looked at her and continued, "You hurry over there now to take a look at the situation, take some photos on the scene, and see if you can dig up some fresh material. It just so happens that we've been thinking of doing a series of elite interviews recently, this might be an opportunity. Put aside your current work for now."

  Gu Xixin walked out of the editor's office and returned to her own cubicle, saying to Shen Zihan who was sitting in her seat rummaging through things, "I have to go for an interview, if I finish early I'll head home and get you the materials, okay." Before she could respond, Gu Xixin had already gathered her camera and notebook and hastily ran out.

  The air was moist and refreshing after a light rain, but the water splashed by her high heels made Gu Zhi Xin very annoyed. "I knew I shouldn't have worn high heels for this interview."

  Flagged down a taxi and headed straight for Shengyu Group. Fortunately, the newspaper office is not far from there, should make it in time.

  Gu Xixin briefly flipped through the materials given by Qiao Xu'an, which were all routine materials, including the group's founding time, enterprise scale, corporate culture, public reputation and so on. Gu Xixin roughly flipped through them and got a general idea in her mind.

  After getting out of the taxi, Gu Zixin found that the situation was more serious than she had imagined. A group of people had gathered in the square in front of the office building, although there were not many people, but they were all visibly agitated.

  "It's a waste of all these years of good reputation that Sheng Yu has accumulated, this time it's estimated to be ruined." Gu Xi muttered to herself.

  She hung up her press card, adjusted the camera to shooting mode and began to move towards the center of the crowd. There seemed to be a lot of people, but actually most of them were just onlookers. In such mass petition events, basically no one cares if you are a journalist or not, so naturally no one has time to cooperate with your work, so everything depends on yourself.

  After much difficulty in reaching a good shooting location, it was discovered that several familiar reporters from other newspapers had been waiting there for some time. After hastily exchanging greetings, Zixi quickly snapped off a few shots.

  "The house we bought hasn't even been lived in yet and it's already become like that, why can't we demand a refund?"

  "Get your person in charge out here, today you must give us an explanation!"

  "Don't talk so much nonsense to me, I just want a refund, don't care about anything else!"

  "If you don't give us an explanation today, we'll sue you, no matter what!"

  A dozen or so homeowners were chattering away, making it impossible to get a word in edgewise. The person who appeared to be the sales manager of Shengyu, surrounded by everyone, had to use a great deal of effort to quiet everyone down.

  "Everyone listen to me, the building has such quality problems, we are very sorry. However, there is no provision for refunding the house in the contract, and our company has never had such a precedent, so refunding the house is definitely not possible."

  Just as everyone was about to lose control, the manager added: "Let's see if this is okay with you all. We will find a construction team to repair your homes until you are satisfied. Moreover, due to the quality problems of the houses that caused losses to you all, we will compensate double."

  "No way, we have to check out!" "Right, we must check out!" Before the manager could finish speaking, another commotion started in the crowd.

  "Has it been like this for as long as you've been here?" Gu Zi Xin asked a familiar reporter in a low voice.

  "It's not like that, they just sent two middle-level staff from the company to deal with it, and the general manager has never shown up. I heard they have coordinated many times already, these residents probably won't get an effective solution today, might need to sue."

  "I also find this strange. Normally, such a thing wouldn't be exposed by the major newspapers, but it's been half a day and no one has stopped them."

  In just a few moments, residents began swarming into the lobby of the office building, with several bold and physically strong individuals already charging in.

  Cui Xinhuan and several other reporters also pushed forward, trying to get the best angle. Holding her camera, she took pictures while backing away, but lost her footing and stepped into a flowerbed at the edge of the square, causing her to stumble. She reflexively pulled out her foot from the mud, but because she used too much force, she directly stomped backwards. Before Cui Xinhuan could react, she had already firmly stomped on the leather shoes of a man behind her.

  "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it was an accident." Gu Zi Xin stared at the person's shoes and repeated, not even daring to lift her eyes.

  Just by looking at the suit he's wearing, and the mud stain on his expensive-looking leather shoes with a distinctive heel print, you can tell that he's not cheap. "Today is really an unlucky day to go out," thought Ruo Xin.

  After half a day, the other party still didn't react at all. Gu Xixin raised her head and saw a man standing in front of her, his height was at least one head taller than hers. His lips were pursed tightly, and there was no expression on his face, but his eyes stared at her intently. The emotions in his eyes were complex and unclear, giving off an unfathomable feeling.

  "Trouble, looks like I've met a tough one." Gu Zhi Xin's heart sounded an alarm.

  "Sir, I'm very sorry. I was too busy taking pictures and didn't notice what was behind me. Did I step on your foot?"

  The other party didn't say a word, still staring at her as if what she said hadn't entered his ears.

  Gu Xixin couldn't care less and turned back to take a look, those few people who rushed in had already been stopped by the security guards, she thought, can't keep wasting time with him like this.

  "Sir? Sir?" Gu Xixin tried to tap his sleeve. The other person seemed to struggle out of a dream, and quickly regained composure on his face.

  "You..."

  "Sorry, sir, I still need to take some photos, is that okay? If you need me to make compensation, just wait for me here." Before he could finish speaking, Gu Xixin hastily threw out a few words, nodded and bowed, then rushed into the crowd.

  In the crowd, two middle-level managers were surrounded and at a loss for what to do. One of them seemed to have seen something and his facial expression relaxed slightly. He then turned to face the crowd and said: "Everyone please calm down, let Mr. Yin Shu, the general manager of Sheng Yu Group, explain things to you."

  Following his gaze, Gu Xixin turned her head and saw that the person from just now was walking towards the center through the crowd.

  "Ah, General Manager, looks normal though." whispered Gu Zixi.

  As they spoke, Yin Shu had already walked into the middle of the crowd and stood still. The two managers took a step back, making room for him.

  Standing on the steps in front of the door, Yin Shu swept a glance over the crowd, his eyes returned to Gu Xixin's face, paused for a moment, and then moved away.

  "Everyone, I'm very sorry. I admit that this time the quality problem of the house is our responsibility. From the beginning of Shengyu to now, I think everyone has seen the building quality and group reputation of our company. And everyone's choice of Shengyu's property is also a trust in us, so we feel very sorry for this situation." He paused and continued: "However, the company really doesn't have a precedent for returning houses. We will compensate the residents' losses to the greatest extent possible. Does anyone have any opinions?"

  For about ten seconds or so, the crowd was silent, as if everyone had been intimidated by his aura, and no one dared to speak up again.

  "Our demands are not excessive, we've saved for a lifetime to buy an apartment, and now there's a quality problem, who can accept this?" After a while, someone in the crowd spoke up, but their tone was much more cautious.

  "If this time can't be resolved properly, everyone will lose confidence in you. Who will dare to buy your houses in the future?" Someone echoed.

  "Right, withdraw", "Whatever you say, withdraw". Someone took the lead and everyone began to unite again, the situation facing loss of control once more.

  Yin Shuo's expression didn't change, he turned around and whispered a few words to the people behind him, then turned back and said loudly: "Everyone, I apologize, I understand your feelings. As for me personally, I am also willing to satisfy everyone's wishes within my ability. However, the decision to withdraw from the house is not something that I or anyone in the Shengyu Group can make alone. We need to hold a board meeting to discuss it. Please give us some time, we will definitely give you an answer that satisfies everyone." The crowd was silent, with no sound, as everyone was thinking about whether they should accept this arrangement.

  "Alright, you can now hold your meeting and discuss. We'll just wait here. Today we've made an exception, we won't leave until we get a satisfactory result, don't think you can easily shoo us away." said one middle-aged man who seemed to be the leader.

  Yin Shu turned around and instructed a few words to the people behind him, then led them into the building, presumably to convene a board meeting.

  Gu Xixin and the others waited together, about two hours passed, and the middle-level manager who just came out announced: "After discussion by the board of directors, it is decided that we can provide refunds to everyone. Please prepare relevant documents for households that have registered with our company, and handle them according to the agreement."

  Nobody noticed that Yin Shu had put on sunglasses and quietly left.

  Digression

  Newcomer here, friends passing by, please leave a comment, no need to collect, the author is grateful.