Chapter 119: One hundred nineteen, Reason Chapter 119: One hundred nineteen, Reason Liu Shanyue brought Song Yan Ning and Qin Yushen to her company; their car entered the underground garage, parked, and then the three of them took the elevator straight up to the twenty-seventh floor.
“This is the headquarters of our company. The cosmetics production line is located in the industrial park in the North Suburb of Beijing. This afternoon I will take you there to have a look,” Liu Shanyue said while walking alongside Song Yan Ning and Qin Yushen.
“Aunt Qin, if we can identify the problem here, I won’t go to the factory. I have to return to Yang City early tomorrow morning with my grandparents, so I need to get back early,” Song Yan Ning said. She had come here today not only to help Aunt Qin review the issue with the new product but primarily to discuss a business deal with her.
“Chairman!”
“Good morning, Chairman!” Employees greeted Liu Shanyue along the way, and she nodded in response to each one.
Once Liu Shanyue and the others had entered the office, a few employees from neighboring desks gathered together and quietly speculated about the identities of Qin Yushen and Song Yan Ning.
“That young boy who followed the chairman must be her son; he’s so handsome,” one of them whispered.
“Definitely, he bears a resemblance to the chairman around the eyes and brows.”
“He’s already so good-looking now; imagine when he grows up. With family background and looks like his, I wonder how many girls will fall for him.”
“But that little girl doesn’t look very pretty; I wonder what her relationship is with the chairman.”
“A child who is less attractive when young often turns out to be more beautiful as they grow up, especially girls. Haven’t you heard of ‘girls transform as they turn eighteen’?”
Once inside the office, Liu Shanyue and Song Yan Ning, along with Qin Yushen, took a seat on the sofa.
The secretary knocked and entered, pouring a glass of water for each of them.
“Xiaoting, go and bring a sample of the new product along with the research and development materials,” Liu Shanyue instructed the secretary.
“Yes, Chairman!” Zhang Ting responded, turning to leave the room.
“Aunt Qin, please show me the customers’ documents,” Song Yan Ning requested.
“The information is all in the computer; let me get it for you.” Liu Shanyue stood up, walked to her desk, and picked up a laptop from the table.
Returning to the sofa, she turned on the laptop, waited for it to boot up, located the copied documents, and handed it to Song Yan Ning, “Everything is in there.”
Song Yan Ning took the laptop, placed it on her lap, and carefully began to review the files.
Zhang Ting entered the office carrying the documents and samples. Seeing Song Yan Ning using the computer, she assumed the girl was playing games, and felt some displeasure. There were many important files on the chairman’s computer—losing them or infecting the computer with a virus would be troublesome. But as only a secretary, it wasn’t her place to say much. Besides, the chairman must have allowed the child to use it.
At that moment, Song Yan Ning closed the laptop, set it on the table, and took a bottle of sample product. She opened it, poured some onto the back of her hand, and then sniffed it under her nose.
Seeing this, Zhang Ting was even more disapproving, “Little sister, children shouldn’t use cosmetics; it’s bad for the skin…”
Liu Shanyue raised her hand to stop Zhang Ting, “You may leave now.”
“Yes!” Zhang Ting cast a displeased glance at Song Yan Ning and walked out. She wondered what connection this unattractive child had to the chairman, who seemed to indulge her so much.
After smelling the cosmetics on her hand, Song Yan Ning proceeded to open and sniff the rest of the bottles. Looking over at Liu Shanyue, she said, “Aunt Qin, all of these cosmetics contain salicylic acid, and the amount of it is excessive.” Salicylic acid is harmful to the skin, and an excessive amount could certainly lead to allergic reactions and damaged faces.
“But the test results didn’t show that, take a look at this document.” Liu Shanyue sifted through a pile of documents, pulled out the test results, and handed them to Song Yan Ning.
After reviewing the documents, Song Yan Ning commented, “I think this was done deliberately. Aunt Qin, have you had any disputes or conflicts with any individuals or companies recently?”
Liu Shanyue thought carefully, “Three months ago, a company from Y country wanted to acquire my company, but I didn’t agree. Could this be related?” She had worked hard to build up her company and naturally wasn’t willing to just hand it over to someone else.
“That’s very possible,” nodded Song Yan Ning. Many foreign companies liked to acquire promising Huaxia companies to expand their market presence in Huaxia—like Xufuji, which was acquired by Nestle, the world’s largest food company by sales. There were also Golden Monkey, Shuanghui, Little Nurse, Da Bao, and more—all were acquired by foreign companies.
“It looks like I need to clean up the company internally,” Liu Shanyue remarked, far from a pushover herself. Now that she knew the cause, she would certainly not just wait passively for developments.
Standing up, Liu Shanyue moved to sit at her desk, turned on the desktop computer, and accessed the company’s internal system.
Song Yan Ning looked at Qin Yushen, “Are you planning to intervene and help Aunt Qin?” With his capabilities, finding a mole should be easy.
“My mom doesn’t need my help,” said Qin Yushen with a smile. Given that his mom did not rely on the Qin family’s connections to establish the company, she was naturally capable of handling such a minor issue.
“Knock knock knock!” At that moment, there was a knock on the office door.
“Come in!” Liu Shanyue called without lifting her head.
Zhang Ting opened the door and walked in, “Chairman, there are more people causing a commotion outside, and they’ve brought reporters. They say if we don’t give them an explanation today, they’ll expose our company.”
Liu Shanyue frowned, looking up at Zhang Ting, “Didn’t they agree to give us a month?”
“I don’t know,” Zhang Ting replied, shaking her head with a face full of anxiety and concern. Their company’s cosmetics had always performed well in the market and maintained a good reputation. This batch of new products had also been tested and applied in trials before being released, but who could have expected such issues to arise?
“Let them in,” Liu Shanyue instructed Zhang Ting. She was certain that someone was behind this, trying to push the issue to the point where she had no choice but to agree to the company’s acquisition. Of course, by that time, control would no longer be in her hands, and the acquisition price would certainly be pushed to the lowest.
Soon after, Zhang Ting led a group of about a dozen people into the office.
“You’re the person in charge here, right? Look at my face—all this damage is from using your cosmetics. How am I supposed to go out and face people now? Today, you must give me an explanation, or I will not leave,” one thirty-something woman spoke up first, her tone very assertive.
“That’s right, you must give us an explanation today.”
“We trusted your brand; that’s why we used your products. But how do you treat us consumers? As guinea pigs?” The emotions of the crowd were highly charged.