What Xu Tian did, Qin Yuan did not know, and that Xie Fengbei would deal with Xu Tian was something Qin Yuan would never even imagine.
In the ten minutes after parting ways with his employees, he went to the office. The previous boss of this entertainment company had already left, so it now essentially belonged directly to Qin Yuan.
Listening to his subordinate’s report, Qin Yuan learned that the company had suffered losses year after year, and managing to hold on until now could almost be considered a miracle.
As for further details, Qin Yuan did not bother listening too closely; knowing the general picture was enough.
The ten minutes passed in a flash, and Qin Yuan walked out of the office. As soon as he stepped out, he saw the employee who had previously mistaken him for an auditioning artist. The employee’s attitude had completely changed; the moment he looked up and saw Qin Yuan, his heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly lowered his head.
What on earth did I just say to the new boss?
Infinite regret filled the employee’s heart.
Looking at the man, Qin Yuan actually felt a favorable impression of the company.
The money lost there could easily be recouped by investing in a single decent film.
It just so happened that since this company had problems and he had taken it over, if he were to start a new company from scratch, he would have to recruit people all over again.
Many of the employees here were veterans, and it was obvious that they held some emotional attachment to the company.
Otherwise, with salaries delayed for several months, anyone else would have run off long ago.
The company had problems, but the employees were still decent.
He walked into the conference room.
Some people were already seated inside.
Some had caught wind of a rumor earlier that a wealthy young scion from a prominent family seemed to have bought out the company.
They were not entirely sure if it was true.
When everyone turned their heads and saw Qin Yuan walk in, quite a few of them initially thought he had walked into the wrong room, sharing the same thought as the employee outside that an auditioning artist had entered the wrong place.
Someone near the door even wanted to remind Qin Yuan, but Qin Yuan turned and smiled slightly at him. The resolute aura carried within that smile instantly left everyone speechless.
He walked straight to the CEO’s seat and sat down. His subordinate, the one primarily responsible for handling this company, followed and stood beside Qin Yuan.
Holding a stack of files and documents, the subordinate placed them all in front of Qin Yuan.
Qin Yuan picked up one document and began flipping through it quickly.
After reading for a little over two minutes in a pin-drop silent conference room, Qin Yuan raised his head.
The company still had quite a few people, numbering several dozen up and down.
There used to be more, over a hundred, but nearly half had left by now.
“Has everyone arrived?”
Qin Yuan swept his gaze across the crowd and then asked.
“There are still a couple of cleaning ladies.”
“Call them all in. The meeting won’t take more than half an hour; it will be over very soon.”
Having said that, Qin Yuan deliberately glanced toward the back of the crowd.
Although that particular employee had already retreated to the back of the crowd, everyone else was holding their heads high while he kept his head slightly lowered. Noticing Qin Yuan’s gaze, the others looked back as well, and someone even made a little room for him.
The employee’s hands were trembling slightly.
Fortunately, Qin Yuan only glanced at them briefly without lingering, leaving everyone unsure of who exactly he had been looking at.
A department head immediately hurried out and called the two cleaning ladies over.
When the cleaning ladies entered the office, a large crowd was already standing inside, so they did not squeeze to the front and instead stood near the back.
The conference room door closed. For a moment, no one spoke, and neither did Qin Yuan.
He lowered his head again to look at the documents for a while longer, focusing primarily on matters concerning the employees, their overdue work, and the scope of their job descriptions.
Qin Yuan pursed his lips and read carefully for a good while. When he slowly raised his head, he felt that the atmosphere throughout the conference room was quite oppressive.
It felt as though everyone was waiting for the company to dissolve on the spot so they could immediately become unemployed and start looking for new jobs.
“I imagine you all have attended plenty of meetings like this before. Today, I will try to keep the time as short as possible. If there are any matters in the future, we can handle them over our phones.”
“I basically understand the general situation of the company.”
“Let us resolve your employee issues first, and we can take our time with the other problems later.”
“The company has suffered some losses, but I will cover this money. As for your overdue wages, before ten o’clock tonight, the finance department will calculate everything in a lump sum and deposit it into your accounts.”
“In addition, an extra month’s salary will be issued as a bonus.”
“Once you receive your pay, you are free to stay if you wish, or leave if you find a better place.”
“Next month’s salaries will be adjusted. I can make a promise to everyone here: each person’s pay will be raised by about twenty percent.”
“The specific figures will not be lower than that.”
“The cleaning ladies, you may step outside now.”
There was nothing further for them in the meeting, so they were excused to return to their respective posts.
“Some of you inside probably know a little about me. This isn’t the first time we’ve crossed paths, is it?”
As soon as Qin Yuan finished speaking, the gazes of a few people in the crowd flickered instantly.
“Knowing is even better. That way, I assume you can tell whether what I say is true or false.”
“I’ve recently developed an interest in the entertainment industry, and your company happened to fit the bill. Now that I’ve taken it over, I am your boss from here on out.”
“No one has any objections, right?”
Qin Yuan specifically posed the question to everyone.
The crowd had remained silent, but by the time Qin Yuan reached this point, his handsome face seemed to be radiating light in the eyes of everyone present.
He looked like a deity descending suddenly from the heavens to rescue everyone from imminent unemployment.
“How could anyone have objections? Nobody has any objections. As long as we can keep working at the company, that is all anyone could ask for.”
“Yes, yes, everyone has grown rather attached to this place.”
“We are deeply grateful to you for coming, Young Master Qin.”
A few more outgoing people in the crowd spoke up one after another.
“That’s good. I was worried some of you might be unhappy in your hearts and afraid of me.”
“It seems time has flown by; we’re almost at the half-hour mark.”
“Then let’s bring up one more thing: compile detailed personal profiles for the veteran artists and submit them by tomorrow. This includes, but is not limited to, their personal romantic lives.”
Qin Yuan closed the document in his hand.
“Alright, that concludes today’s meeting. Everyone back to your posts. The boss has changed, but the work remains the same. I look forward to us all striving together.”
Qin Yuan looked out at everyone, his smiling, handsome face more stunning than any artist in the company. Even though these were just verbal promises, sitting right there, he gave off a feeling that made it impossible not to trust him.
The employees filed out one by one.
The subordinate and the company’s original vice president stayed behind.
The two of them accompanied Qin Yuan in the office to review the documents.
When Qin Yuan flipped through the employee handbook front and back, he was directly amused.
“Cancel fixed-time punch-ins. People can come in whenever they want, as long as their total working hours are enough.”
Many of them had families and probably had matters to attend to.
Yet the official starting time was eight in the morning, and they frequently had to work overtime at night. No matter how one looked at it, management was squeezing the staff too hard.
He had no interest in being that kind of exploitative boss.
“By the way, today is Valentine’s Day. Go order fresh flowers and chocolates immediately, and send them to every single employee.”
“Do not restrict it to female employees or male employees.”
The vice president turned to walk to the door. When he pulled it open and mentioned this to an employee outside, that employee immediately looked inside toward the office.
In just those thirty-odd minutes, many things had completely subverted everyone’s past perceptions.
“Everyone gets a half-day off today, after you have had lunch.”
“Is there a cafeteria?”
Qin Yuan looked up and asked the vice president.
“No.”
“None?”
“Then let’s set one up. Having employees run outside to eat means they don’t even have enough time to rest during their break.”
“Young Master Qin.”
The vice president’s brow had already furrowed. The company was busy right now, and giving a half-day off immediately would cause many tasks to pile up.
“I don’t think the world will end if something isn’t done immediately.”
“If any issues arise or losses occur, put them all on my head.”
Qin Yuan’s gaze suddenly turned sharp, and the vice president instantly fell silent.
“Everyone takes the afternoon off to go have fun, and tell finance to issue a five-hundred-yuan red envelope to each person.”
“Five hundred seems a bit low. Make it a thousand.”
“Xiaonan, call finance.”
Qin Yuan signaled his subordinate, Xiaonan, who had been managing the handover here all along.
The subordinate walked aside and made a quick phone call, and the finance department sprang into action immediately.
The people remaining in the company now had very few ties to nepotism.
Those people had all fled long before the company ran out of easy money to siphon off.
Those who stayed were either long-term veterans or newcomers who had just joined recently.
Among them were even a few college students, seniors out working who hadn’t even received their diplomas yet.
Qin Yuan had transferred two hundred million into the company’s account beforehand, and this money was more than enough to plug those holes.
The finance department moved quickly. She was one of the very first to know what the new boss’s situation was.
After all, before the person even arrived, the money had arrived first.
It was the first time the accountant had ever seen so much money in the company account. She had been shocked at the time and checked the zeroes repeatedly.
Now, told to issue a thousand-yuan holiday bonus to every employee, with an extra share for herself, no one could possibly dislike a boss like this.
The accountant even wondered if she was dreaming. Otherwise, having spent several days crying in her rented room, things had suddenly taken a turn for the better like a village appearing behind blooming willows and flowers.
After compiling the roster of personnel along with their account and card numbers, she didn’t need further instructions for something ordered directly by the new boss. She simply proceeded to transfer the funds.
Quickly transferring the money to everyone, many employees sitting at their workstations suddenly received a thousand yuan and initially thought finance had made a mistake.
Soon after, however, the finance department posted in the company group chat, conveying the new boss’s intent to everyone.
“This is a Valentine’s Day holiday bonus from Young Master Qin. The boss said that while it’s not a huge amount of money, it represents a gesture from him.”
As soon as the accountant finished typing, the vice president suddenly popped into the chat.
“Everyone gets the afternoon off. Work a bit harder this morning, and enjoy the holiday properly this afternoon and evening.”
“Starting tomorrow, punch-ins will be flexible; cumulative working hours just need to reach eight hours.”
“Is this real?”
“Am I dreaming?”
“It was ordered by Young Master Qin.”
“Young Master Qin, he…”
“Did he come to the company to do charity? Is there really a boss like this?”
“Giving out holiday red envelopes on the first day, plus giving everyone the afternoon off. The key is that this festival isn’t even a traditional public holiday.”
“Why don’t you go straight to the conference room and ask Young Master Qin yourself?”
The vice president replied.
“No, no need. I’m going to work now.”
The employee who raised the question instantly went ghost quiet.
The other employees were still somewhat in awe of the stern vice president, so they put down their phones and went back to work seriously.
The vice president used his phone to issue a few more instructions before Qin Yuan called out to him again.
The vice president approached. He stood while Qin Yuan sat, so the vice president bent slightly forward.
“President Yang, it seems you haven’t been resting much lately, leaving work very late at night?”
A faint trace of a smile curved the corners of Qin Yuan’s lips. The vice president could not guess what he meant. His heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly wondered if failing to handle his work within regular hours gave Qin Yuan the impression of poor efficiency.
The vice president instantly grew nervous.
“You took three days of leave when you got married a while back. Marriage is a major life event after all, and three days isn’t quite enough for family harmony.”
“Take half a month off.”
“Young Master Qin, I, nothing is wrong at home. My wife is very supportive of my work.”
“You misunderstood. I’m not questioning your work efficiency. If anything, it’s a good thing you’re here, or this company would have collapsed long ago.”
“You haven’t rested properly all year round. Haven’t you noticed your health is suffering?”
“Your dark circles are so deep you could pass for a national treasure.”
“You’re only in your thirties, yet you look like an elder of mine.”
“Take half a month off starting tomorrow, and report back after half a month.”
“Don’t worry, no one will take your position.”
“I plan to rebrand the company’s direction. The old methods don’t make money and just exhaust everyone. Let’s pivot so people can have an easier time and make more money.”
“What do you have in mind, Young Master Qin?”
The vice president had no idea what Qin Yuan intended to do.
From what he understood of Qin Yuan, though mostly through rumors, it was true that Qin Yuan had never touched the entertainment industry before.
Now that Qin Yuan had suddenly taken over this company, the vice president couldn’t shake the feeling that Qin Yuan didn’t understand the business well, and if he ran things entirely based on mood, he would suffer heavy losses.
“We’re breaking into the film and television sector and investing in movies to produce.”
“Doesn’t the company have a few artists? Let’s put them on the big screen to make a name for themselves.”
“Many of the company’s artists have rather ordinary qualifications,” the vice president said bluntly.
The truly talented ones wouldn’t end up at their company anyway.
“Don’t you worry about that. With me here, the company is guaranteed to make money.”
“Alright, you may go out now. You have the afternoon off too.”
“Then what about you, Young Master Qin?”
“I’m taking the afternoon off as well, of course. Valentine’s Day is for spending time with your lover, naturally.”
Qin Yuan smiled.