Financial Workplace Survival Guide – CH 011

Chapter 11 ☆, A Friend in Need.

After Zheng Zaochuan had been driving on the highway for half an hour, Xin Xin gradually realized something was amiss.

“Are you going out of town for noodles?”

Zheng Zaochuan played a song Xin Xin liked and said, shaking his head, “Yes, that noodle shop is delicious. Let’s have noodles, then go hiking tonight. Tomorrow morning, we’ll have the perfect time to watch the sunrise.”

Xin Xin asked with difficulty, “Where are the mountains in Haining?”

Zheng Zaochuan said nonchalantly, “Let’s go to Jiangcheng. The noodles there are delicious.”

“So, between the two options of hiking across the city and eating noodles, do you think the noodles are the most important?”

Zheng Zaochuan smiled at her. “Actually, I just wanted to eat noodles. It’s because you happened to be wearing sneakers today, and tomorrow is Saturday. How perfect.”

Xin Xin’s feelings towards Zheng Zaochuan were very complicated.

Generally speaking, she thought he was crazy half the time, and half the time, she felt a rare sense of relief because of his madness. Generally speaking, Xin Xin was a very rational, methodical, and lazy person. These traits combined to create a contradictory personality: serious yet stubborn, unwilling to change, yet cautious.

When she was with Zhou Yiran, he often disliked her for this. His dislike included, but was not limited to, questions about her long-term planning, ambition, and clear goals.

Unfortunately, Xin Xin lacked any of these, and this implicit dislike led her to doubt herself.

But with Zheng Zaochuan, Xin Xin never had this worry.

Zheng Zaochuan’s ego and spontaneous nature perfectly matched Xin Xin’s tendency to go with the flow. Surprisingly, these two very different people acted like best friends, never having a heated argument.

As the saying goes, what’s poison to one person may be honey to another.

For some, Zheng Zaochuan’s lack of consistency, fear of commitment, and free-spirited attitude can be irritating. But for Xin Xin, only someone like Zheng Zaochuan could show her sights she’d never see on her own.

Compared to Zheng Zaochuan’s strengths, Xin Xin found the three-hour drive for a bowl of noodles less unbearable.

After arriving at the noodle shop, exhausted, Xin Xin found it wasn’t very large. The owner, however, seemed familiar with Zheng Zaochuan and greeted him warmly upon seeing him.

“Xiao Zheng, you’re here.”

Xin Xin nodded in agreement. The owner glanced at Xin Xin and teased with a smile, “I’ve never seen you bring your girlfriend here before. What’s wrong? Have you downgraded, or are you planning to get married? You brought your girlfriend here for noodles. Shouldn’t you young people go to Western restaurants for dates?”

Xin Xin was about to explain, but Zheng Zaochuan spread his hands. “It’s not that I didn’t want to bring someone else; it’s just that no one came with me.”

He spoke softly, as if carrying an unspoken regret.

Xin Xin looked up. Under the dim light, Zheng Zaochuan’s face was softly tinted, almost childishly innocent.

“What to eat?”

In an instant, he was back to his usual self.

Xin Xin was stunned. “Anything’s fine. Take a look.”

Zheng Zaochuan felt helpless and subconsciously rubbed her head. “You’re really hopeless. Why do you want me to take care of everything? You’re making me incredibly dissatisfied with my secretary.”

Xin Xin smiled faintly. “Remember what I said today. If I ever have to stop working, hire me as your assistant. I guarantee you’ll be satisfied.”

Zheng Zaochuan was shocked. “How could you possibly stop? You’re almost the biggest boss.”

Xin Xin was a little confused. She couldn’t explain where this feeling of uncertainty came from. Without a clear reason, she suddenly asked Zheng Zaochuan, “Do you know any houses worth buying? Those within my means.”

Zheng Zaochuan glanced at her and tossed her a set of keys. “I have a house on Annan Road. It’s empty anyway. Go move in.”

Xin Xin was touched by his generosity, but she also said she didn’t want to accept anything without merit.

“My current lease on a house hasn’t expired yet, and I’ve saved some money, so I need to start planning for my future.”

Zheng Zaochuan looked at his keys, sitting alone and despised on the table, feeling strangely aggrieved.

“Star, you feel indebted to me for everything I’ve done for you, and you insist on calculating it so precisely. So, how did you settle the debt I owed you back then?”

Xin Xin knew he was referring to the turmoil surrounding Hanhai’s IPO.

At the time, Zhao Xi was responsible for finding strategic investors for Hanhai, while Xin Xin handled the details. The project initially went smoothly, but then, around that time, Hanhai’s subsidiary, Hanhai Information Technology, faced significant negative public opinion. The controversy stemmed from media reports that a commercial software developed by the company for state-owned enterprises and large corporations was suspected of illegally buying and selling customer information.

Rumors swirled, and before the regulatory investigation was even underway, partners and investors had blacklisted Hanhai.

Seeing Hanhai facing potentially hefty fines and compensation, Zheng Zaochuan might even face jail time if the case was finally investigated.

Strategic investors that had been agreed upon with Zheng Zaochuan all turned away, and many partners decided to terminate their contracts. Within just one month, Zheng Zaochuan faced the risk of running out of funds and bankruptcy.

The project was already very mature, just one step away from completion, so Zhao Xi decided to abandon it.

However, Xin Xin insisted on helping Hanhai overcome the difficulties.

This incident had a devastating impact on Zheng Zaochuan, almost a matter of life and death. When all his company partners immediately abandoned him, only Xin Xin persevered through several nights, making countless calls to media outlets and reviewing countless pieces of leaked customer information before discovering a clue.

Some fields in the leaked information were missing, and after comparing it with the original data, Xin Xin discovered that some of the information was fabricated.

For the software provided by Hanhai at the time, different departments used different secret keys to ensure confidentiality, and the information of the developers in each department was not shared.

Therefore, on the first day of the information leak, Zheng Zaochuan had already discovered through the secret key that the problem lay with the Product Development Department.

Although he had already reported the incident to the police, it would take some time to determine the exact cause of the problem, the culprit, and whether the information trading was an individual or corporate act.

It was Xin Xin’s discovery of missing fields that led several technical staff to realize that the information they were responsible for had not been leaked. After a detailed review, they narrowed down the suspect: a senior engineer in a certain office within Product R&D Department 1.

This engineer possessed an exceptional memory, and every day, while chatting with others at work, he would silently memorize their passwords and system codes. Because he frequently worked overtime, his actions went undetected for a long time.

As for the missing fields, it was because the engineer responsible for them was an eccentric individual.

This individual was said to suffer from paranoia and constantly suspected his colleagues of harming him. Therefore, he would remove his hard drive after getting off work each day, leaving no opportunity for spies to exploit him. Consequently, the information of nearly everyone in that office was leaked, except for the information that individual was responsible for.

As for the information that other departments could not access, a rival company filled in the gaps, creating the illusion that Hanhai Technology was selling customer information.

Later, an investigation revealed that the senior engineer had been selling information for a long time, primarily for financial gain, while the rival company ultimately stole trade secrets. But this time, with Hanhai poised to go public, a rival company decided to strike back, spreading negative news that Hanhai had sold customer information to smear its competitors.

After the evidence was established, the individual quickly pleaded guilty and was imprisoned, and the rival company was also forced to suspend operations.

However, the negative impact this incident had on Hanhai has not been completely eliminated.

During that time, Xin Xin practically lived at Hanhai, pleading and calling various media outlets daily. She even resorted to leveraging her connections with government clients, using official publicity for Hanhai’s public welfare facilities and substantial donations for local economic development to clarify that Hanhai Group had not sold customer information.

To this day, Zheng Zaochuan still remembers Xin Xin rubbing her eyes late at night preparing documents. She probably hadn’t slept well for nearly a month.

When they first met, Zheng Zaochuan watched the stars with her, discussed relationships, and even had her acting as his temporary girlfriend. None of this left a deep impression on him, but the image of Xin Xin working under the spotlight that day, her face pale, lips tightly pursed, and teeth gnashing, remains etched in his mind.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Xin Xin was his savior.

Although Zheng Zaochuan felt that Xin Xin wasn’t working for Hanhai at the time, much less for him. Like Sisyphus, who had angered the gods but refused to admit defeat, she carried a boulder that didn’t belong to her with an incomprehensible effort.

Xin Xin instantly became famous.

Not only did she help Hanhai overcome its difficulties, but she also successfully found a strategic investor. Hanhai, having weathered this crisis, soared to new heights. Zhao Xi also achieved unparalleled performance, and Xin Xin was promoted exceptionally.

Looking back now, Xin Xin didn’t understand where her persistence and tenacity came from.

Perhaps it was her youth that made her unable to accept the failure of a project that was almost ready to be implemented. Perhaps it was Zhao Xi’s favoritism that caused rumors to circulate within the company, and she paid the price for her pride and competitive spirit, insisting on achieving something. Or perhaps it was Zhao Xi.

When she argued with Zhao Xi about this project, she began to break away from her role as Zhao Xi’s apprentice, and it was also a significant milestone in her growth.

She was finally no longer the girl who only knew how to make coffee.

On the day everything was settled, Zheng Zaochuan parked his car downstairs from Xin Xin’s company, just as he did today.

“Star, let’s have dinner together.”

That day, the public notice period for Xin Xin’s promotion documents expired. Zhao Xi solemnly said to her, “Xin Xin, I take back my previous assessment of you. You’ll do well, better than anyone else.”

Xin Xin smiled calmly and subtly.

Years later, she had finally made Zhao Xi retract his words.

Being steady and reliable, you won’t make mistakes, but it also makes it difficult to achieve significant advancement.

That day, she and Zheng Zaochuan ate clay pot rice with white wine. She forgot what they talked about. Mostly, it was just about her ideals and the reluctance to be abandoned.

Xin Xin had forgotten everything that day. She only remembered being drunk and half asleep, and someone gently patting her to sleep. A soft sigh fell. “Thank you.”

This was probably an illusion; Zheng Zaochuan wasn’t the kind of person who would say thank you so gently.