🐥 Triple Update on Anniversary Celebration 🐥
Ji Ran spent the entire journey reading through the project proposal.
The company participating in this IPO project was a liquor company. Its overall scale wasn’t particularly large and under normal circumstances, Fengsheng wouldn’t even have considered a project of this size worth pursuing.
Perhaps the market had been poor recently, because Fengsheng had actually come to participate in this kind of bidding meeting as well.
The project proposal itself was extremely solid. It provided analyses of the market, the industry and relevant policies, along with an introduction to the team and examples of related cases. It even included a specific proposal tailored to the company.
There were also several attachments toward the end. Ji Ran briefly went through their outlines but he didn’t have time to examine them in detail before the car had already stopped in front of the hotel.
Ji Ran got out of the car carrying the document bag. Inside were several kraft paper document envelopes, containing the sealed tender documents and project proposal, all of them stamped and securely sealed.
It was only now that Ji Ran truly felt the reality of the situation.
He was actually attending a bidding meeting.
Ji Ran followed Han Shen through the corridor. At the venue, he saw quite a few familiar faces. They were all investment banks and securities firms that had come to participate in the bidding and even Jinshi Investment Bank had sent representatives.
One of their analysts recognized Ji Ran. Although they were competitors, he still greeted him politely.
Ji Ran nodded in response before quickening his pace to catch up with Han Shen ahead of him.
Fengsheng had reserved two seats in the front row.
One was for Han Shen, while the other should have been reserved for the senior executive participating in the bidding on their behalf.
Ji Ran naturally walked toward the back.
Before he even had time to sit down, Han Shen called out to him.
“Sit up here.”
Ji Ran had no choice but to turn back. He stood beside the chair, looking somewhat bewildered.
“I sit here?”
Han Shen said, “Please, have a seat.”
Ji Ran: “……”
He suspected that Han Shen was being sarcastic but unfortunately, he couldn’t find any evidence.
Ji Ran sat down and asked, somewhat bewildered, “It’s just the two of us?”
Han Shen gave a quiet “Mm” before asking him, “You’ve read through the project proposal?”
Ji Ran said that he had.
Han Shen asked again, “Was there anything you didn’t understand?”
The proposal contained a lot of information but overall, the content was fairly straightforward. Ji Ran shook his head.
“I don’t think so.”
“Good,” Han Shen told him. “Get yourself ready. You’ll be going up to the present in a little while.”
He was going to present?
Ji Ran’s first reaction was to wonder whether he had heard incorrectly. He stared at Han Shen in disbelief.
“You’re not joking, are you?”
“You’ve already finished reading the proposal and there’s nothing you don’t understand,” Han Shen said in a calm tone, seemingly not considering this a particularly difficult task. “When it’s your turn, just explain it according to your understanding.”
“No,” Ji Ran said, his mind beginning to turn chaotic. “Why do you want me to go?”
Han Shen replied, “Amanda, who was originally responsible for the bidding presentation, had something come up at the last minute.”
That wasn’t what he had been asking!
Ji Ran began to panic.
He couldn’t understand why Han Shen wanted him to go up on stage. He was only an intern. How could something as important as a bidding meeting possibly be handed over to him?
Moreover, public speaking had never been his strong suit. He had never spoken at an occasion like this before. What if he failed……
There was no way he could take responsibility for that!
“But I’ve never done anything like this before,” Ji Ran said, shaking his head. His voice had become tense. “No, I definitely won’t be able to do it well……”
Han Shen: “How do you know if you don’t try?”
“I can’t do it.” Ji Ran was on the verge of breaking down. “There’s no way I can be responsible for a project this important.”
Han Shen looked at him with some curiosity before saying, “You’re my subordinate. Naturally, I’ll be the one responsible for you.”
How could Han Shen possibly take responsibility for him?
If he lost the project, wouldn’t Han Shen still punish him? He might even get fired……
And to think that on the way here, he had actually thought Han Shen wasn’t so bad.
Where exactly was he not bad?
He was simply the most annoying person Ji Ran had ever met!
Ji Ran had a hundred reasons to refused but Han Shen seemed to have already made up his mind.
When the people from Lanting Liquor came over to greet Han Shen, Han Shen directly gave Ji Ran a push between the shoulder blades and said, “Thank you all for your trust in Fengsheng. This bidding project will be handled by my direct subordinate.”
The people from the company were shrewd as well. The moment they heard Han Shen say that, they immediately followed his lead.
“To have Mr. Han place such importance on someone so young, Director Ji must naturally be an extraordinary talent. We look forward to hearing your insights.”
Ji Ran forced a stiff smile onto his face and shook hands with the other party.
He was already about to lose his mind.
His mind kept flashing through one passage of text and one diagram after another, the advantages of Fengsheng, Lanting Liquor’s basic situation, the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors present at the venue……
It wasn’t that Ji Ran was so socially anxious that he was completely incapable of giving a presentation. He simply tended to get nervous.
Every time he had to speak in front of an audience, he needed to rehearse it in his head countless times beforehand. If he had been given several days to prepare, or even if they had simply told him one day in advance, Ji Ran felt that he would have handled it much better.
But this time, there was simply too little time.
From the moment he first came into contact with the project proposal until now, barely more than an hour had passed.
Not to mention that Han Shen had only told him he would be going on stage right before the meeting was about to begin.
Ji Ran really disliked this kind of sudden situation.
He was an absolute J type. He was accustomed to establishing a framework for everything first and only then taking action.
Unexpected situations threw him into chaos, especially when Han Shen was asking him to do the very thing he was least good at.
Receiving notice that he had to give a public speech ten minutes later, there was probably nothing in this world more terrifying than that.
Especially when his presentation was connected to a listed company project worth hundreds of millions.
If there had been even the slightest other option, Ji Ran would have gotten up and walked away.
But where could he go after leaving?
Ji Ran didn’t even dare show how close he was to breaking down. He forcibly composed himself, then began preparing while carrying twice the pressure he normally would have.
There were many securities firms participating in this bidding meeting. Naturally, that meant the amount of time allotted to each firm was relatively short.
Ji Ran had only just finished going over the contents of the first round of the PPT in his head when it was already his turn to go on stage.
Ji Ran took a deep breath.
Under Han Shen’s watchful gaze, he stood up and opened the PPT he had copied onto the presentation computer beforehand.
It was clearly only a few seconds yet Ji Ran felt as though the moment lasted an extraordinarily long time.
The surroundings fell into absolute silence. The only sound remaining was the clicking of the mouse as he advanced the slides.
Even with his head lowered, Ji Ran could feel one gaze after another falling upon him.
Curiosity.
Doubt.
Scrutiny……
Ji Ran opened the PPT and began his presentation.
Although he was extremely nervous and under tremendous pressure, Ji Ran still forced himself to complete the task.
He didn’t forget his lines, stumble into awkward pauses, or make any other mistakes.
However, the person who had presented immediately before him had been Tang Jun from Jinshi Investment Bank.
Tang Jun was the kind of all around talent commonly found in investment banking and his social skills alone were enough to make that obvious.
He was far more accustomed to this kind of occasion than Ji Ran.
Tang Jun had begun with an interesting and humorous little story. His explanations of the business aspects in the middle of the presentation had been highly professional, while his conclusion had been inspiring and stirring, leaving an excellent impression on the representatives of the company.
Ji Ran followed Tang Jun onto the stage.
His own presentation had not contained any mistakes either.
It was simply ordinary.
From the presenter’s overall state, to his ability to control and guide the atmosphere in the room, to the way he conveyed his own professional knowledge, everything about Ji Ran’s presentation had seemed extremely ordinary.
Ji Ran stepped down from the stage.
Sparse applause sounded throughout the conference room.
Ji Ran looked at the heavy expressions on the faces of the company representatives and his heart sank heavily.
It was over.
He had messed it up.
On the way back, Han Shen didn’t scold him.
But that somehow made Ji Ran feel even worse.
The fact that Han Shen didn’t even bother to scold him probably meant that he was already disappointed in him to the extreme.
Several times, Ji Ran wanted to open his mouth and say something but every attempt ultimately ended in failure.
He returned home in silence.
Then, an hour later, he happened to see Tang Jun’s post on his Moments feed, happily sharing the news that he had successfully secured the project.
Meanwhile, Ji Ran’s side had received no news at all.
It was an obvious result, wasn’t it?
Ji Ran had never believed that a presentation like his could possibly win the project but if he had known that from the beginning, why did he still feel so miserable?
Ji Ran dragged his exhausted body back to his rented apartment. He put his backpack on the chair, plugged in his old computer to charge and sat blankly at the edge of his bed.
It wasn’t until a dull ache came from the inside of his thigh that he realized he still hadn’t taken off the thigh chain.
Ji Ran took off his suit trousers. The silver thigh chain had sunk tightly into the flesh of his thigh, leaving one crisscrossing groove after another, as though his mental stress had been given a physical form.
Looking at the marks covering his thigh, Ji Ran felt an indescribable sense of suffocation.
Because of his mistake, the company had lost a major project worth hundreds of millions. Ji Ran sank into a level of dejection he had never experienced before.
But his anger soon returned.
When all was said and done, this was Han Shen’s fault!
If Han Shen hadn’t forced him to go on stage, he never would have made such a mistake in the first place!
Ji Ran began searching online for the responsibilities of an investment banking intern.
Every company had its own approach to training and there were indeed some exceptionally capable management trainees who were allowed to participate in major projects.
But being responsible for an entire bidding meeting was absolutely not one of them.
Generally speaking, project development was handled by middle and senior management. The analysts, assistants and even VPs below them were primarily responsible for execution.
Ji Ran then asked about the work assigned to other management trainees in the company.
Most of them were ordinary projects. Someone like Leo, who was participating in the IPO of Hecheng Intelligence, was already being given a very important assignment.
The other interns clearly had such easy work.
Why did Han Shen insist on making him do all these things?
Was he deliberately bullying him so that Ji Ran would voluntarily resign?
Furious, Ji Ran opened a recruitment app and updated his résumé.
His undergraduate educational background was good and he also had plenty of internship experience. Shanghai was home to the Shanghai Stock Exchange and most of the country’s securities firms and investment banking divisions were concentrated there. Ji Ran quickly found several positions that met his requirements.
One of them was even right next door to Fengsheng. He wouldn’t even need to ask for leave to go to an interview.
But did he really want to leave?
Until this moment, Ji Ran found himself hesitating again.
Fengsheng was already one of the top institutions in the industry. Any other option after leaving Fengsheng would be a step down.
And Fengsheng wasn’t actually as terrible as he had imagined.
During these few months as an intern, he had already been exposed to several major projects. Aside from his boss, all the other colleagues were very nice……
Besides, even if Han Shen really was terrible, he was still nowhere near as awful as those bizarre bosses described in the stories online.
Ji Ran agonized over it for a long time but in the end, he still didn’t submit his résumé.
He forced himself to pull together and planned to edit the thigh chain video he had filmed that morning.
But his condition was even worse than he had imagined. He simply couldn’t bring himself to work at all.
Depressed, Ji Ran logged into his social media account and, in a fit of self abandonment, posted an update:
【I’m feeling a little miserable. Can everyone comfort me for a bit?】
The netizens were remarkably kind. Most of them encouraged and comforted him.
After reading through the comments, Ji Ran felt slightly better but he still couldn’t completely shake off the emotions weighing him down.
He felt as though he had gotten lost in a forest.
He kept moving forward yet no matter how far he walked, he could never seem to reach the right place.
Ji Ran wanted an experienced elder.
He wanted someone who could guide him out of despair.
He had once thought that person would be his father but his father had quickly proven himself unfit for the role through his authoritarian and domineering nature.
Ji Ran was lost, frustrated and unwilling to accept things as they were.
He knew there was something wrong with his life yet he couldn’t find any way to solve it.
Just as he had given up hope and was preparing to log off, a message from the orca appeared in his private messages.
【Are you okay?】
Triple update on CBCD as we are celebrating!!
This September, our Realm is turning 1 year old! So for the celebration, we are making everything special! Send us your art and vote for your favorite novels to unlock more extra updates! Find out more about it at => Velicres Realm Celebration
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Cressilia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
(っ˘ڡ˘ς) ☕ please feed the translator
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · A cold-hearted bossChapter 2 · “Your skirt?”Chapter 3 · Ji Ran was caught off guardChapter 4 · Relax, you bit your lip until it bledChapter 5 · Don’t want toChapter 6 · Women’s clothing and DaddyChapter 7 · Ji Ran hunched over and began to sob softly.Chapter 8 · Rebellion, offense, and self-rewardChapter 9 · I hate it when people flaunt their wealth in front of meChapter 10 · CompensateChapter 11 · Why are you following me?Chapter 12 · Damn, he forgot to take off his leg chainChapter 13 · Ji Ran was indeed still afraid of him.Chapter 14 · A message came from OrcaChapter 15 · Self-blame, anger, and tears.Chapter 16 · You have to pay more!Chapter 17 · Did you come here just to yell at me?Chapter 18 · Just bear with it a little longerChapter 19 · Women’s clothing live streamChapter 20 · Could you come and pick me up?Chapter 21 Part 1 · It’s all an actChapter 21 Part 2 · It’s all an actChapter 22 · The actions could be even more brutalChapter 23 · A slapChapter 24 · He wanted to surrender a part of himself