Chapter 248 - 195: The Man Handles the Outside, The Woman the Inside (Part 2)

"I pulled yesterday’s performance metrics for both of you. Futong Commerce is trailing you by a factor of ten. I really can’t figure out how Li Yang’s business managed to get this big."

Yang Hui smiled. "What’s so strange about it? He got an early start. Back then, in the retail market, you could make money as long as you were daring enough. Li Yang has some management issues, but he has his strengths, too. He’s skilled at navigating the system and can endure hardship. In its early days, Futong Commerce relied on his rapid expansion to keep the company in a high-growth phase. As long as the company kept winning, the team’s morale stayed high. Besides, business was good back then, so Li Yang wouldn’t resort to boneheaded moves like this NLB gambling agreement, or inhumane management tactics like withholding sales commissions for not meeting targets.

Now the overall retail environment has soured, and his business has started to decline. At a time like this, his flaw of being headstrong and arbitrary is disastrous for the company. The decision-maker is clueless about the actual situation, pulling company policies out of thin air. Not only are they out of touch with reality, but they also go against human nature.

On top of that, he has a bad temper and refuses to listen to any real feedback from his subordinates. He’s yelled at and driven away everyone who tried to tell him the truth. The only ones left are yes-men. You could say he’s completely ignorant of the current market, like a deaf and blind man. He’s adjusting company policies based on his own wild guesses about the market. I’ve never seen anyone like him."

In the past, Ruijing Commerce was managed far better than Futong Commerce. The reason it didn’t reach the same scale was, one, Ruijing Commerce in Qingzhou got a later start. Two, the product categories Futong Commerce dealt in were on an upward trend for years. Li Yang also secured a lot of brands. He made his money by riding the coattails of brand popularity and by leveraging large-scale partnerships with property owners to negotiate lower rents, thus reducing his fixed costs.

Take NLB and Zen, the brands Yang Hui is working with now. If he hadn’t intercepted them, Li Yang would have, nine times out of ten, secured the exclusive agency for both brands in Qingjiang Province. He definitely would have made another killing.

After parking the car, Yang Hui and Serene walked while he pointed out the restaurant’s signature dishes. When Serene didn’t react for a while, he turned and saw her desperately trying to stifle a laugh.

"Am I describing the menu, or performing a comedy routine?"

Serene finally couldn’t hold it in and let out a snort of laughter. She turned her head away, only turning back after a moment to say, "It’s nothing, it’s nothing. Let’s go in."

As soon as they entered the lobby, the sales manager greeted them. "President Yang."

He was the one who helped book their table last time. "Please take us to our private room."

Just then, he saw the restaurant’s general manager. The man seemed to have spotted them and was striding over, a warm smile plastered on his face. Yang Hui stopped to watch him, noticing the manager seemed to freeze for a second before continuing his approach, though the smile on his face had faded slightly. Yang Hui didn’t see Serene shoot the general manager a look from behind him.

"Hello!"

"President Yang, hello. Welcome."

They exchanged simple greetings, and he continued following the sales manager with Serene. On the way, he explained to her, "This restaurant is owned by an elder I respect. The general manager knows I was here last time, so he came over to say hello. I don’t actually know him that well."

Serene’s expression was priceless. Yang Hui wondered why she was so quick to laugh today. She usually seemed so composed—in fact, a bit too composed for her age. ’She’s only in her early twenties, right? How does she carry herself with the shrewdness of someone who’s been navigating the business world for decades?’

’But that was precisely why he felt she was the right person to build a brand with. He could handle channel expansion; thanks to his connection with Brother Chun, opening stores wouldn’t be a problem. Meanwhile, Serene excelled at brand building and corporate management. Their partnership would be a perfect match—him handling external affairs, her handling the internal.’

Yang Hui had been to this private room before. The last time, he was here with Huang Lingyu.

As they took their seats on the sofa, Yang Hui couldn’t help but recall the last time, when Huang Lingyu had straddled his lap and he had slipped his hands under her skirt. ’Today, Serene was also wearing a dress. If she... well, okay, he was getting ahead of himself. He didn’t know why, but he could joke around casually with other women, yet with Serene, he found himself holding back.’

"Shall we discuss how we can... combine?" This was probably the riskiest joke he’d ever made with her. He was about to run the word "combine" into the ground.

Serene pretended not to catch the double entendre in his words. When it came to business, she was always dignified and poised. If Yang Hui didn’t know her identity, he would have mistaken her for the female CEO of some publicly listed company.

She sat up straight, the draping fabric of her long black dress forming elegant folds on the armchair. The slit of her skirt, however, revealed a subtly seductive detail: a cutout design.

Her waist-to-hip ratio, honed by regular workouts, stretched the form-fitting black dress into sharp curves, perfectly embodying the dual charm of a top-tier professional woman—a delicate balance of intellectual grace and sensual power.

She mused for a moment. "We talked about this last time. You’re planning to create a fashion sports brand that integrates product design and R&D, manufacturing, and sales, correct?"

Yang Hui nodded slightly. That was the only way to achieve true, complete control, from product quality all the way to customer service.

"I know about your relationship with Zhang Chun. With his help, you can at least establish a full presence in Xinyue Square across Qingjiang Province in the first year. With that as our foundation, I suggest we make a larger initial investment. We should build out the entire structure at once and operate by the book from the very beginning."