The Early Spring - Chapter 133

Chapter 133 - Laying the Groundwork

Shang Zhitao brought in another manufacturer and established a new department.

Through her continuous efforts and learning, she finally began to understand the real ways of playing the internet advertising game. Her team was extremely professional, taking home awards in various professional skill competitions, and Shang Zhitao distributed all the prize money directly to her employees.

She began rapidly outputting industry-benchmark case studies. The solid foundation she had cultivated back at Lingmei came in handy: she led her employees in brainstorming sessions to create a comprehensive and deep data model that fully monitored advertising effectiveness. When she sent it to Luan Nian to review, Luan Nian said, "The data can be broken down one layer further." So they continued breaking it down, eventually reaching the very bottom level.

She began placing tracking pixels outside the manufacturer's system to perform full-link monitoring.

By the end of April, the manufacturer organized a session for other agency partners to come and learn. Her channel manager told her, "If you don't want to present, don't present; if you don't want to teach, don't teach."

Shang Zhitao smiled: "There's nothing that can't be shared."

She asked her employees to prepare the sharing session diligently, and she personally participated in hosting them throughout the process.

Zhang Lei came as well. Shang Zhitao hadn't let him down as her guarantor; sure enough, she had quickly worked her way into the top tier of performance completion rates.

"How's it going? Exhausting?" Zhang Lei asked her.

"Exhausting. Tired to death."

"A lot of people are unwilling to share this kind of experience. Why are you acting so silly and spilling everything?"

"It's fine. Learning together, making progress together, and creating a healthy competitive environment is inherently unobjectionable. Aside from client data which cannot be shared, all our methodologies can be," Shang Zhitao said.

"I knew you were capable. Would you consider coming over to my place to lead the commercialization team? I heard your boyfriend is in Beijing, so you two are doing long-distance."

Shang Zhitao's face flushed slightly: "He comes over every week."

"So your boyfriend really is Lingmei's Luke?" Zhang Lei had known very little about Shang Zhitao's love life previously, only hearing Sun Yu mention it at her company a few days ago.

"Yes."

Zhang Lei stared at her for a long moment: "Keeping quiet while pulling off something huge."

Luan Nian was famous within the industry, so Zhang Lei's company had to arrange for a Vice President to interface with him. He had heard many things about Luan Nian—that he was brimming with talent, strict in managing people, and also sharp-tongued and difficult to get along with.

"Could you keep this a secret for me? I don't want everyone to know."

Business was intricately intertwined, and many people would run into each other here if not there. Shang Zhitao was unwilling to leverage Luan Nian's fame; she wanted others to remember her and her company because they were exceptionally good, not because she was Luan Nian's girlfriend.

"Of course. You have to invite me when you get married."

"If I get married, of course I'll invite you! Who else would I invite if not you? Over ten years of friendship is right there."

Getting married? Did Luan Nian want to get married? Shang Zhitao couldn't say for sure. She felt Luan Nian wanted to marry her, but recently he seemed a bit mysterious. He had simply asked her out of nowhere one day: "Can you take a vacation for over a month in June?"

"Why take such a long break?"

"Probably because I want to travel. Feels like it's been a long time since we went out to travel."

"Then should I make some plans?"

"Leave everything behind and just come with me," Luan Nian had said.

Luan Nian was always like this—a plain, ordinary sentence would suddenly ignite her, making her want to act willful for once.

"Just like that time we went to Tibet? No need to prepare anything, just follow you?"

"Right. Just hand yourself over to me."

"Okay."

Luan Nian knew how to light a fire in her heart, hitting the mark every single time. He knew what she truly liked, and he knew that beneath her calm exterior lay a scorching heart and a wild soul, needing only a tiny spark to set her ablaze.

While making her business thrive, Shang Zhitao also began researching the human resources construction for her team. She called Tracy to ask for advice on some issues. Tracy answered her earnestly, and finally asked her: "Are you planning to handle it yourself?"

"No. I want to ask you to recommend someone to me. As the business improves, employee growth, care, rewards, and punishments all need to be handled well. Plus, there'll be a massive amount of recruitment and training work later on. But we don't have that much money right now to recruit an entire HR team, so I want to start by hiring one or two versatile talents."

"That's not hard. I'll recommend someone to you, and you can hand it over to her completely."

The person Tracy recommended to Shang Zhitao was her former colleague, Sunny. The same age as Tracy, she was single and had returned to Harbin to care for her aging parents.

Shang Zhitao quickly set up a meeting with Sunny. She found that Sunny was very much like Tracy—she carried an air of settled maturity from having seen the world, staying low-profile and unabrasive. Chatting with her was very comfortable. Calling her Sister Sunny, Shang Zhitao pulled out a contract after their conversation ended.

"The compensation is the exact figure I mentioned just now. It should be considered top-tier in Harbin, with a year-end bonus. Of course, how the final payouts for employees are calculated, as well as how much you yourself take, will be for you to decide. Shall we sign the contract?"

Sunny was equally decisive: "Just leave it to me." She casually signed her name.

Shang Zhitao was delighted to have resolved a major issue. Her team now had an Operations Director, a Sales Director, and a General Manager of Human Resources, so she didn't have to work as exhaustingly as before.

As the company's tax payments increased, the district government also noticed in May of that year that such a company was rapidly rising, and thus arranged a meeting with Shang Zhitao. On the day of the meeting, Shang Zhitao deliberately wore a black suit and tied her hair neatly behind her head, looking capable and elegant. Before stepping out, she asked Luan Nian: "What should the core topic of my meeting be?"

"Express your ambition—that you want to scale up the business—and also tell them about your company's income-matching donation program. Finally, ask them what efforts you need to make if you want to join the People's Political Consultative Conference."

"The Political Consultative Conference?" Shang Zhitao didn't understand why he asked that.

"Mm. Two agency bosses I know are both local Political Consultative Conference representatives. Start by joining the Federation of Industry and Commerce or democratic parties. It'll be good for the company's future development. Good luck."

Shang Zhitao realized that her perspective had still been too narrow. She had thought she was merely giving a work report to officials, but that wasn't the case. She suddenly understood the true significance of this meeting.

"Good luck, God of War," Luan Nian messaged her.

"Thank you, Nian Nian."

"Get lost."

"Nian Nian" was Luan Nian's childhood nickname. One day, Dr. Liang had deliberately called him that over something, which Shang Zhitao overheard, leading her to call him "Nian Nian" for several days straight. Luan Nian found it sickeningly cheesy and forbade her from calling him that, but she insisted on doing so anyway.

Shang Zhitao did have experience dealing with the government. She brought Sunny along, since the government wanted to hear about the enterprise's development plan and hiring blueprint. Sunny told her in the car: "Government officials care about employment issues, especially resolving graduate employment, so I'll explain my section in detail. They'll also care about tax revenue; I brought the tax statements and prepared tax estimates."

"Thank you for your hard work, Sister Sunny."

"When we were leaving just now, Fu Dong said: Good luck, Harbin Sisters!" Sunny laughed. "I'm almost fifty years old, can I still be part of the 'Harbin Sisters' with you?"

"Of course you can."

Sunny truly lived up to being someone who had fought side-by-side with Tracy—her aura was powerful enough, and her experience was vast. She had already thought through many questions that Shang Zhitao had never considered before. Shang Zhitao only spoke about the strategic direction, leaving Sunny to cover everything else by herself. The government officials were thoroughly satisfied with them; the head of this enterprise possessed extraordinary caliber, ideals, and sentiment, with crystal-clear business logic, so they took special interest in them. After the meeting concluded, they gave Shang Zhitao a task: starting from the second half of the year, she could apply to attend every Political Consultative Conference meeting as a non-voting observer to understand the livelihood development plans, and they welcomed her to join in the city's construction.

This was a very good step.

Shang Zhitao was interested in city construction, feeling it was meaningful. After it ended, she called Lin Chun'er and mentioned the matter. Lin Chun'er said: "Keep it up, Taotao. Your choice is correct. Though our strength is small, our efforts are necessary."

"Alright, my friend. Please give me plenty of guidance."

"We help each other out!"

Shang Zhitao began pushing forward the company's new business, and by mid-May, the new agency license came through. Sunny set to work recruiting people. The company's compensation and benefit mechanisms were highly comprehensive, standing up to any comparison in all of Harbin.

Everything gradually began stepping onto the right track.

Shang Zhitao began preparing for her vacation.

For reasons she couldn't explain, she was filled with anticipation for this long-distance trip. She had thought she was past the age of anticipating trips, yet she would still lie awake at night.

One night, she called Luan Nian and heard it was very noisy on his end, with howling wind. She paused, surprised, and asked him: "What are you doing?"

"I'm attending an event."

"I want to talk to you."

"Not today. Go to sleep first. I'll fly over to pick you guys up the day after tomorrow. Some gear will be shipped to your place; have Fu Dong help put it in the trunk for you."

"Sure! Can I know where we're going now?"

"No."

"But I need to pack my bags."

"You are the luggage."

Luan Nian hung up after saying that.

Holding the phone, Shang Zhitao let out a huff: "Stinky man!"

Old Shang and Da Zhai strongly supported Shang Zhitao going on a long-distance trip. They felt Shang Zhitao worked far too hard and needed this kind of relaxation, plus with Luan Nian as her travel companion, they felt completely at ease.

Luan Nian had caused the rumors about Shang Zhitao to drift in a new direction.

The new rumor claimed that Shang Zhitao had met Luan Nian in Beijing, but Luan Nian's family had broken them up due to a mismatch in social standing, leading her to return to Harbin in a fit of anger. Later on, Luan Nian couldn't forget his old flame, so he chased her all the way here.

Shang Zhitao felt this version of the rumor was slightly better than the previous one.

Dr. Liang, however, was thoroughly displeased. When she heard Da Zhai mention this to her, she was furious. So one day, Dr. Liang and Luan Nian's father drove a luxury car, dressed in formal attire, and arrived at the old bistro with a savings passbook in hand.

The rumor shifted yet again—it now said that the Shang family's daughter was a business genius who happened to be in love with Luan Nian, and her future in-laws had come in person to propose the marriage.

Hearing it like that was acceptable enough. Dr. Liang departed happily.

Sometimes Shang Zhitao would think that she was truly lucky enough to meet so many good people.

As long as one lived life earnestly, life would gradually become interesting. Shang Zhitao had realized this truth.

Luan Nian arrived in the middle of the night, a day before their long-distance trip. No matter how Shang Zhitao probed, he refused to reveal the arrangements. Shang Zhitao let out a huff, turned her back to him, and pretended to be angry. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, gently nibbling her back: "Shang Zhitao, have you been attending a training class lately?"

"Hmm?" Shang Zhitao's breathing grew slightly erratic. "What?"

"Has a teacher been teaching you new tricks lately... hmm?" Luan Nian asked her. Shang Zhitao teased his appetite every day; he had seen everything under the sun, yet he was held completely spellbound by Shang Zhitao. If someone else used such tricks on him, he would sneer in disdain, but when it came to Shang Zhitao, he felt she could increase the frequency of using them.

"My mentor has been a bit busy lately..."

"That doesn't matter, because I've learned."

A satin ribbon covered Shang Zhitao's eyes, raising goosebumps on her skin. The total uncertainty of everything gave her a subtle sense of fear.

Luan Nian coaxed her softly: "Don't be afraid. Today is top-tier service."

Her hands cupped his face to seek a sense of security. But Luan Nian pulled her hands away, moving a little further from her. When he returned, his cool tongue traveled over her skin; Shang Zhitao had never experienced such a sensation before, pulling at Luan Nian to make him stop.

Luan Nian naturally wouldn't stop. He remembered every single time she had provoked him while he wasn't around. A middle-aged man holding a grudge was truly terrifying when he pulled out all the stops.

Shang Zhitao felt herself expanding into a cloud amidst the alternating heat and cold of his tongue, floating gently, unsure of where she was drifting.

Luan Nian's top-tier service almost took her life; her fingernails dug deep into his back, pleading with him to give her a swift end.

Luan Nian was naturally eager as well.

When two armies clash, the brave wins out—he used eighteen different martial skills to leave her completely wiped out.

At the very end, he asked her: "Do you want any other services?"

Shang Zhitao finally exhaled that trapped breath, removing the satin ribbon to see a scene of absolute chaos, her face instantly turning bright red.

"Rogue!" Shang Zhitao let out a coy cry.

Luan Nian laughed: "Are you satisfied with the first arrangement of the trip, Ms. Shang Zhitao?"

He had laid the groundwork far too well, leaving Shang Zhitao completely immersed, wishing only for the journey to begin as soon as possible.