Chapter 450: An expert wielding a blade

Zhang Xingke was not a good person. He was someone who believed that evil was the route to nirvana. He had said ‘Lower your slaughtering blade, hence descends the light of nirvana. Thus, I must first raise my slaughtering blade’.

He had swindled Xu Tingsheng, had swindled the former owner of Hucheng’s campus in Shenghai, had swindled who knew how many of Shenghai’s training institutes, how many people...

As Xu Tingsheng had given him advice regarding things in Shenghai and reminded him to remain wary of that woman before, Zhang Xingke had not gone into detail on his defeat with him. Still, Xu Tingsheng could be certain that with his personality and methods, those training institutes in Shenghai would not have had it easy despite having emerged victorious in the end.

Fighting a battle in which both sides took substantial damage before taking his website, turning around and leaving, decisively latching onto the mighty Hucheng whose power he would later use in exacting his vengeance...and coming up with such insatiable demands right when Xu Tingsheng was in need of his services...this was all his doing.

When Xu Tingsheng, Lu Zhixin and Tianyi had discussed the matter of the shares with him, they had been sorely tempted to take a gun and shoot him dead.

He had privately approached Lu Zhixin with Xu Tingsheng as a bargaining chip to obtain that VP position...

How aboveboard was his ‘shamelessness’.

Finally, he had even been honest when expressing that he had had no other choice in joining Hucheng, even having used the words ‘for now’...he had not concealed the fact that he might have other intentions about the future.

This was just the kind of person Zhang Xingke was. He was the best candidate for Hucheng given the current situation. Of course, with his talents, he would definitely be of assistance in Hucheng’s development too.

He was also a very rational person. Therefore, over the next one or two years, at least, when their momentum was nigh unstoppable and they shared a common interest, he would give his all to push Hucheng forward ...

It was hard to say what might happen afterwards.

Whatever the case, though, Xu Tingsheng dared to use him, and Lu Zhixin dared to too.

Amidst the applause, Zhang Xingke bowed deeply towards Hucheng’s employees before he turned towards the reporters and said smilingly, “Don’t mention me when writing your articles! Especially not what I mentioned earlier...otherwise, you can wait to get a lawyer’s letter sent to you for defamation. You haven’t forgotten how our Hucheng’s a suing devil, right.”

The reporters could only force a smile. They would not have made Zhang Xingke’s arrival their primary focus in the first place. In comparison to Xu Tingsheng’s departure from Hucheng, his arrival was something that could be covered in a single line.

Therefore, they did not mind Zhang Xingke’s ‘threat’. Also, Hucheng’s reputation, ‘suing devil’, did truly exist, and was really quite frightening.

Hucheng’s employees and shareholders were smiling wryly too. Zhang Xingke had gotten into role very quickly, having already started saying ‘our Hucheng’. What a shameless dude! Just a short while ago, he had still been talking about how he had almost driven Hucheng to the brink.

“I will be here in Yanzhou for an upcoming period of time, familiarising myself with operations and management and getting to know everyone too,” Zhang Xingke continued up on stage, “And afterwards? After a while, I will be heading out to take charge of Hucheng’s expansion in the southwest...I’m planning to bring 25 people over.”

Here, he halted for a while, giving his audience some time to consider and discuss this matter.

“Who is willing to go with me? Who can go with me? All this is still too early to say now. I just hope that you’ll know about this ahead of time so you can give it some careful consideration...”

“You don’t need me to explain how great an opportunity this is, right? I will be the only one from upper management going over. What does that mean? It means that for our branch company in the southwest, we will lack people in all the leadership positions. When we have conquered that land, you will be the meritorious generals, with your own positions in Hucheng.”

Zhang Xingke gave a rousing, stirring end to that speech. He was someone with high leadership capabilities in the first place.

Faced with the countless fiery, passionate eyes that were fixated on him, Zhang Xingke smiled, saying, “Anyone who wants to and possesses the capabilities...you’re welcome to recommend yourselves to me. Middle echelons, okay. Normal employees, okay. New employees, okay too. Everyone is welcome. Till we meet again!”

The meeting ended as Zhang Xingke left the stage.

On her way out, Tang Yufei who was heading for the office for a handover of duties asked Wang Tuo why Zhang Xingke had publicised his intentions to lead a team to the southwest so early on as he had even stirred up everyone’s moods so.

Wang Tuo laughed and replied, “From the time those words were said, he has already begun to possess his own influence and faction in Hucheng. Expert, powerful.”

Tang Yufei pondered on it for a while and understood.

With Zhang Xingke’s speech, their new VP who had originally been all on his lonesome as he seemed destined to suffer doubt and alienation for a time had become a harbour. The normal and middle echelon employees with ambition, aspirations as well as capabilities...they would thus gravitate towards him.

Meanwhile, the rest of the company’s higher echelons would naturally be less guarded against him because he had clearly stated that he would be leaving. There would be no need for them to compete with him, suppress him, make him an outcast or scheme for him to make a fool of himself, etcetera.

Therefore, it was as Wang Tuo had said. Expert, powerful.

Zhang Xingke was an expert who always wielded a blade.

......

Like Zhang Xingke, Old Jin and Little Jinshan remained in Yanzhou, treating the trip as a tour. While there actually wasn’t a lot of fun stuff to do in Yanzhou, the overall experience was still pretty good as they simply gallivanted around.

Father and son would roam the city randomly during the day before spending their nights at Bright Brilliance, enjoying themselves greatly.

“Can you imagine a young child looking for pretty ladies to talk to in a bar, then saying, “Lady, your bill, this Young Master shall pay?” Tan Yao did not know whether to laugh or to cry as he told Xu Tingsheng of Little Jinshan’s exploits.

“That’s pretty normal,” Xu Tingsheng smiled.

“Doesn’t Little Jinshan go to school?” Tan Yao asked.

Old Jin and Little Jinshan just happened to come over at this time as the former answered on hearing Tan Yao’s question, “He does! Don’t we have our own training institutes? If he misses on some days, he can just make up for it afterwards.”

“Make up for it? Hah! My Dad hardly spent any time in school, but doesn’t he still earn the dough anyway?” Little Jinshan interjected.

Old Jin threw out a slap, rebuking, “Get lost! The times are different now. You must learn from your Uncle Xu. Don’t learn from me, understand?...Can’t you see how I’m even giving him money to help me come up with ideas now? You little weaselly rascal, you are studying tomorrow!”

While Xu Tingsheng was unclear on the extent of Old Jin’s wealth and would not ask about it too, he knew that Old Jin had a very abundant cashflow that was strong to a shocking extent. This was very hard to come by indeed, especially for someone like Xu Tingsheng who had gotten used to clearly having assets amounting to a few hundred million yet was in debt everywhere.

Another thing that took Xu Tingsheng by surprise was Old Jin’s vision. While the coal mining industry’s decline was still far off right now, he was already starting to consider spreading his assets. Thus, after he had returned to China and found out that the kid he had met in France, Xu Tingsheng, was actually so famous and talented, the two had been keeping in touch ever since.

It was he who had first come looking for Xu Tingsheng with a bunch of brothers, looking for something to invest in. Only then had the matter of Xu Tingsheng selling Hucheng’s shares arisen. Of course, those shares of Hucheng’s still had no way of satisfying the appetites of wealthy mining bosses like these as Old Jin and his brothers remained open to even more.