Chapter 29
Important things should be dealt with first—this is, of course, Cheng Shi's code of conduct. So, the most important thing today is dealing with that damned promotional brochure: he must resolve the issues raised by the branch office and give the "refreshed" brochure a new look. But can such a trivial matter stump the brilliant Cheng Shi? Of course not.
Narumi sat in front of the computer, typing a reply to an email while muttering: "Reply, internal email. Subject: Re: Regarding the 'Rejuvenating Series Promotional Brochure'. Body: In light of the issues raised in the two emails you sent, we are informing you that HO has begun processing them. Period. New line."
When Narumi replied to the email, he himself didn't know how HO would "handle" the problem, or even if they would handle it at all. But as he typed and muttered to himself, inspiration struck. Then, Narumi smoothly organized the sentences one by one. Only when he wrote a brilliant stroke would he pause and smile with satisfaction.
For no apparent reason, Cheng Shi felt that the general manager of that branch office would be as easy to deal with as Candy.
Mr. Frankie Cheng, or "we," completely agree that this brochure was indeed substandard. Fortunately, the problem has now been resolved, and "we" are confident that this solution will be approved by the branch offices. As you know, attendees at this direct selling conference will undoubtedly receive identical brochures, most of which will end up discarded on hotel conference floor seats, in corners, or in trash cans. Therefore, the challenge now is for "us" to design something entirely new for Haoskai, a new promotional material that will capture attendees' attention and get them back to their offices. This is the promotional material we are tailoring for this direct selling conference: simple, direct language, titled "Talking about 'Rejuvenation'." The branch office general manager will see that this promotional material doesn't rely on fancy layouts, excessive high-quality printing, or advertising jargon. It's a simple, straightforward electronic promotional material, easy to distribute on new media platforms, with clear and easy-to-understand text, better suited to the communication habits of the direct selling industry. It will "give attendees what they really need: colons, practical information, and arguments."
After sending the email, Cheng Shi opened a new Word document, leaned back in his chair in a comfortable "Beijing slouch" position, and then muttered to himself while typing: "Title: On 'Rejuvenation'. Paragraphs..."
"Sir Cheng, wanna go get some coffee?"
"You guys go ahead, I need to finish what I'm doing first."
Cheng Shi actually finished the project according to his plan, although it took him the entire morning. While typing, he reviewed all the previous information Candy had found for him yesterday about "Rejuvenation," occasionally searching online, extracting sentences from one place and copying paragraphs from another, piecing together an article to explain the advantages of the "Rejuvenation" series compared to all competing products this year. After finishing, Cheng Shi reread it. The article sounded very authoritative and professional, with ample data and easy-to-understand language, and no one would realize he had no idea what he was writing. He then printed out the document. He needed to polish it further. For safety, he might have the product development department double-check the information, and then have the electronics department create a WeChat mini-program from the document, sending the address to each branch office via email. This way, the cost would be negligible, and there would be plenty of time. He could even postpone sending the document to the branch offices until the last minute to show that the work was not easy.
Out of self-protection, Cheng Shi planned to CC his teacher and Joanna with the mini-program address as well. If he was lucky, this matter would be over, and he could get away with it.
After a busy morning, Chengshi found that the backlog of work had significantly decreased. Encouraged, he continued working after lunch, resolving two or three emails from among the ones he didn't want to deal with. One tricky email inquired why "we" had sent a brochure for a discontinued product to a trade show in a certain location. Chengshi quickly offered a flawless excuse. The second problem Chengshi solved was a very long email with numerous attachments. He had been putting this off for weeks, and what he initially thought was a difficult issue turned out to require only a simple decision: the email asked whether to provide the media with a 1500 yuan hospital check-up card or a 1000 yuan small appliance, in addition to confirming the press release and interview outline. The cheaper small appliance, of course! Besides, Haosikai already had small appliances in its product line, which could be handled internally, and the budget could even be reduced further. Thus, Chengshi completed two more tasks in one go.
And so, Chengshi became a berserker brimming with energy. It wasn't until almost 4 a.m. that he groggily made his way to the break room, and then suddenly remembered when he was 10 years old, in this very building in the Haosikai complex, a very, very thin aunt had demonstrated how to use the water dispenser to him. Only then did Chengshi realize that it was all because of Huang Ruoyu's guilt from the previous night when she said he was "working like a dog year after year." Chengshi wanted to tell Huang Ruoyu that what he was doing here year after year was absolutely not "working like a dog." But she didn't give him the chance. Now, he was diligently clearing the mountain of emails piling up in his inbox—was it to make up for misleading her? But wasn't that all nonsense? What did it matter what he had been doing all these years? How she imagined his work, or how he imagined her imagining his work, didn't matter. These things were completely irrelevant. Was there something he couldn't understand?
As Cheng Shi walked back to his workstation from the break room, and wiped his icy lips with his warm hands, he suddenly realized for the first time: in just a few months, he would be leaving this company forever. Everything here—the glaring lights, the shimmering blue partitions of his workstations, the clattering of keyboards, the tedious routine meetings… all these things that tormented him would disappear from his life forever. Then he would sigh with relief: finally, I'm free!
The last thing Cheng did in the office that day wasn't actually related to work, and it didn't take much of his energy; it just required a little courage. He opened his email account again, carefully browsed through all the unanswered emails, selected them all, and pressed the delete key.
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