Chapter 1911

Chapter 1911: Chapter 1911

Yao Xianwang didn’t waste any brain cells overthinking it. He found Song Guanchao’s number and dialed.

The beeping sounded, and the call connected.

"Chairman Yao?" Song Guanchao finally got the call he’d been waiting for.

"Sorry, Director Song, to have kept you waiting."

Yao Xianwang apologized with a smile, then in a casual tone started asking about the details of President Bao’s contact with him.

And then the doubts in his mind were cleared up.

President Bao had only met him once, and there had been no follow-up contact.

The one who lied was President Bao.

As for why he’d done it, for now Yao Xianwang didn’t care.

"Director Song, are you still in Beijing?"

"Yes."

"Tomorrow morning at ten, I’ll be at the company." Yao Xianwang extended the invitation to meet, and Song Guanchao readily agreed.

On the other end, President Bao was also on the phone, speaking to a Vice Mayor from the Xishan City Government.

Xishan City isn’t a provincial capital, its economy is mediocre, yet it’s hoping to strike a deal with President Bao and bring in Sam’s Supermarket.

By Sam’s Supermarket’s investment standards, Xishan City falls far short on all fronts, but President Bao doesn’t dare turn them down.

When someone makes a decision that runs counter to normal instinct, there’s always a hidden story.

President Bao abandoned a city like Jiangzhou that meets all the standards in every aspect and instead cozied up to the Xishan City Government for a very simple reason: they’ve got something on him.

Something that could put him behind bars.

He’s very clear that the decision to invest in Xishan City would never pass the board.

But he has no choice, and can only grit his teeth and sprint down a wrong road.

As for the consequences, he can’t be bothered to think about them.

The next day.

Song Guanchao arrived at the Walmart Group’s Beijing headquarters tower.

With him was a young man.

His name was Ren Xuan, a professional introduced by Lin Wanqiu.

Today he would act as Song Guanchao’s assistant.

They registered their names, and the receptionist called Chairman Yao’s secretary.

Soon, the secretary came out to the front desk in person: "Director Song, please come with me."

This meeting went off without any surprises; at last, Song Guanchao met this senior domestic president.

"Hello, Chairman Yao." He reached out his hand, exchanged a friendly greeting, and then sat down with Ren Xuan.

Yao Xianwang’s personality is pragmatic and straightforward; in just a few minutes, through Song Guanchao, he confirmed the Jiangzhou Municipal Government’s sincerity.

He didn’t ask too many technical questions; after all, he’s a president, not a data analyst.

The invited professional, Ren Xuan, ended up with no chance to shine.

"Director Song, please wait a moment, I’ll have President Bao come over." said Yao Xianwang.

Song Guanchao thought he was bringing President Bao in to hand off the follow-up work to him.

When President Bao got the call from Chairman Yao’s secretary, he rushed over immediately.

Walking into the office, he found Song Guanchao looked familiar, but couldn’t remember where he’d seen him.

Seeing his expression, Yao Xianwang took it all in and then introduced, "This is the Director of the Jiangzhou Municipal Government Office, Song Guanchao."

President Bao remembered at once, his expression froze; meeting Yao Xianwang’s gaze, he knew instantly that Chairman Yao had already caught his lie.

Cold sweat broke out across his back, his mind raced, and in just two seconds he thought of a countermeasure.

First he stepped forward and shook hands with Song Guanchao; the warmth was worlds apart from the perfunctory manner of their first meeting.

Then he sat down, looked toward President Bao, and with a concerned tone asked, "Chairman Yao, the situation in Gwangju should be completely resolved now, right?"

Yao Xianwang smiled and nodded, but didn’t respond.

Song Guanchao found it odd. Talking about this in front of an outsider like him—was that really appropriate?

President Bao went on, "If it’s resolved, that’s good. Otherwise my favor would’ve been for nothing."

Both Yao Xianwang and Song Guanchao were taken aback; the former scrutinized him for a few seconds and asked, "You were the one who pulled strings?"

President Bao gave a modest smile. "I used to work at Samsung Group for a few years; it’s a friend I met back then."

Yao Xianwang knew his résumé; he really had worked at Samsung.

But even so, Yao Xianwang still had doubts about what he was saying.

Given how high-profile President Bao is, if he had that kind of connection, would he really have kept quiet until now?

And we’re talking about fixing such a major issue—would he really do a good deed and not claim the credit?

But the local "troops" did the job, then patted their butts and left, without saying who had asked them to step in.

Over the past two days, Yao Xianwang had also mulled it over, guessing maybe some retired leader in Guangzhou City had called in a favor, with the aim of facilitating Walmart’s investment there.

Now with President Bao jumping out to hog all the credit, he had no way to verify it.

The reason he’d had President Bao come over wasn’t really to do anything to him, just to give him a warning not to play these little clever tricks under his nose.

President Bao clearly saw that too, and used the Gwangju credit as a gag.

Yao Xianwang took a sip of tea, planning to let this matter slide for now.

Off to the side, Song Guanchao raised an eyebrow; he’d also seen through what was going on.

The reason Yao Xianwang had called him over was not actually to connect him with the follow-up.

He didn’t know exactly what Yao wanted to do to President Bao, but this move of President Bao claiming the credit for something he’d paid a favor to resolve was clearly meant to shut Yao up.

Son of a bitch.

Cursing inwardly, Song Guanchao suddenly smiled, picked up his tea, blew on it, and without even lifting his head said, "President Bao, you’ve got some nerve."

President Bao’s smile faltered. "What do you mean, Director Song?"

Song Guanchao said, "How does something I pulled strings to resolve suddenly become your achievement?"

Once he said this, both Yao Xianwang and President Bao looked puzzled.

Not that they didn’t understand his words, but because some unrelated person had suddenly jumped in to tell them he was the one who’d solved the group’s problem.

Just hearing it sounded bizarre, and totally out of line with common sense.

By comparison, Yao Xianwang was more inclined to believe it was President Bao’s connection.

After all, President Bao is also from a major group; he has every reason to have that kind of relationship.

As for Song Guanchao, an outsider with no real ties— even if he did know the local "troops" in Gwangju, why would he help them?

It was too absurd.

"You solved it?" President Bao wasn’t angry, just found it strange.

Song Guanchao nodded. "I solved it."

He’d asked Old Jin to step in not to make Yao Xianwang owe him a favor, but simply to get things settled quickly so they could free up time to invest in Jiangzhou.

Of course, if problems cropped up during the investment, he would bring it up then and apply moral pressure on the other side.

As long as it helped secure the deal, he had no qualms about leveraging every advantage he had.

He just hadn’t expected someone to impersonate him and steal his credit.

That was something Song Guanchao could not tolerate.

"Ridiculous." President Bao flat-out didn’t believe it, snorting and shaking his head.

Seeing that Yao Xianwang’s face was also full of doubt, Song Guanchao said, "I don’t know why President Bao is so eager to grab the credit, but since I’ve run into him trying to pass himself off as the real deal, if I just sit here and do nothing, I’ll feel pretty damn uncomfortable."

He put down his teacup, lifted his chin toward President Bao. "You say you solved it, so call the local ’troops’ and have them get in touch with the Mayor of Guangzhou City. Whether it’s true or not is easy to verify."

President Bao’s face darkened. "Director Song, this is an internal matter of our group. You’re overstepping."

Seeing Yao Xianwang looking at him, President Bao knew that just saying that wouldn’t dispel his doubts, so he explained, "Chairman Yao, I can tell you here and now that I asked them to step in. But they absolutely cannot admit it, because the local ’troops’ don’t interfere in local government affairs. If they admit it, any negative impact that follows is a responsibility no one could bear."

His words were reasonable, and there really were such risks.

But that only turned the whole thing into a Rashomon.

President Bao had no way to prove he was the one who called in the favor, and no one else could prove he wasn’t.

"If you don’t dare make the call, then stop making excuses." As Song Guanchao’s sneer reached his ears, President Bao wanted to snap back, but saw him pull out his phone and dial a number. "Since you won’t call, I’ll do it. Starting now, you’ve got fifteen minutes to think about how you’re going to explain this to Chairman Yao."