Chapter 17
The successful opening of overseas markets filled the entire Xia family with a joyful atmosphere.
"Liu Yun, go to the county and reserve a few tables for a celebration party tonight."
"Just so you know, we're leaving an hour early today. Tomorrow, everyone except the courier packing team will have a day off. The courier packing team will be given time off in lieu of their shift."
Being able to eat delicious food and have a holiday is a good thing for any working person.
Liu Yun happily accepted the task and went out.
With the spatial ring, going to the county town became much easier. Liu Yun quickly booked the best hotel in the county. When she informed the other employees of Hongqi Piao about this, she was met with a chorus of exclamations of surprise and praise.
Xia Ke could vaguely hear them cheering for the holiday from inside the room, and a smile crept onto her face.
"Host, please allow me to remind you that the task of developing new projects has been stalled for a long time."
These days, Xia Ke has been urged by the system many times, and she has become more and more proficient in dealing with the system.
"It's underway, it's underway. You're with me every day, and you've seen the R&D team working overtime every day to make the flying carpet."
Apart from the courier team, all other employees in the company work from 9 am to 6 pm with a two-hour lunch break. Xia Ke used to hate working overtime, but now that she is her own boss, she doesn't ask her employees to work overtime.
She doesn't believe that overtime will bring much benefit to the company. Rather than taking up employees' rest time to work, it's better to complete work tasks efficiently within the limited time.
Unfortunately, this boss is easygoing and doesn't want to exploit her employees, but unfortunately, her employees are too hardworking, especially the R&D team. Every day, apart from eating and sleeping, they work non-stop from the moment they open their eyes.
Xia Ke said several times that although she was in a hurry, she wasn't in a particularly urgent one. She told them to prioritize their health, not to overwork themselves, and to take their work time. She said that spending all day in the office was not a good idea.
Hearing this, her colleagues in the R&D team scratched their heads and chuckled. "Boss, we're not tired. How can we be tired doing what we love? It's very fulfilling to thoroughly understand the flying carpet information and develop the flying carpet. Besides, we don't have anything else to do after get off work, so we might as well work overtime."
This last sentence is the key point.
Hongqi Village is too poor. At night, everyone just plays on their phones and watches TV at home. There are no entertainment activities. If the people in Hongqi want to relax and have some fun, they have to go to the county town. Although there is a spatial ring, it only takes a few seconds to get to the county town. But there are still not many new things in the county town. The employees have been there a few times and are no longer willing to go.
Okay, Xia Ke stopped trying to persuade them, and just asked HR to compile statistics on the overtime hours of each department. When calculating salaries at the end of the month, not only were overtime wages included, but a bonus was also given to everyone.
We can't let down the employees who have dedicated themselves to the company.
The celebration party was attended not only by staff from Hongqi Piao, but also by relatives who often came to help the Xia family, and even by Xia Ke, the village chief of Hongqi Village.
The group was large and lively.
The meal lasted a full four hours, but fortunately, since they were a large group, the hotel didn't mind that they occupied the private room for so long.
...
Xia Ke had drunk a bit too much the night before. The company's employees were all familiar with her and knew she had a good temper, so they all came over to toast her. It was the first time they had eaten and drunk together, and Xia Ke gave them all face and drank.
This led her to drink a bit too much.
I wanted to sleep in a little longer this morning, but I was woken up by the phone ringing at just past eight o'clock.
"Hello."
"What? The person who broke into my house that day confessed? Officer, please wait a moment, we're coming right away."
When Xia Kexing arrived at the police station, officers were already waiting for them.
The police didn't keep the audience in suspense; once everyone was seated, they directly announced the interrogation results.
"According to the confessions of the individuals, they were instructed by someone from a company called Youwei Technology to go to your house."
At this point, the police officer paused for a moment and looked at the overly young and handsome face opposite him.
This is actually the owner of the world-renowned Space Ring. In the countryside, news travels fast. Everyone had already heard that a very profitable company had opened in Hongqi Village, but no one expected that its owner would be so young. You really can't judge a book by its cover.
"The main purpose of going to your house is for the space ring. They want to sneak into your room or your company's R&D department to see if they can find the space ring data. Youwei Technology Company promised them that as long as they are willing to go to your house, they will be given 50,000 yuan each, and if they can find something useful, they will be given an additional 100,000 yuan."
"These guys are petty thugs from the neighboring county. They're used to eating, drinking, and having fun and have never seen so much money. They were tempted as soon as they heard that someone was offering money. After asking around, they found out that Hongqi Piao was operating from a residential building with no security or access control. It would be very easy for them to sneak into your house. Moreover, they heard that your family had become rich. Even if they didn't steal the data that Youwei Technology Company wanted, they could still steal some money, so they agreed without hesitation."
"I just didn't expect to be caught as soon as I sneaked into the yard."
After listening, Xia Ke was speechless at the fact that a few thieves still wanted to steal money in this day and age when electronic payments are so prevalent, and she also felt a strong sense of urgency to strengthen security at Hongqi Piao.
The space ring data has already been submitted, so we won't go into that. But the flying carpet data is still at home.
What if a few more data thieves come and, if we're not careful, they actually steal the Flying Carpet data? Even if they don't steal the data, what if they target her employees, especially her colleagues in the R&D department? Poaching just one of them would be a huge loss.
It seems that the company's non-compete and confidentiality agreement rules need to be made more stringent.
Security needs to be strengthened.
Once the company building is completed, this problem will be solved.
The individuals' actions constituted attempted theft of trade secrets. Since no loss was caused to Hongqi Piao Company, only 15 days of administrative detention is required.
Xia Ke, as the victim, was not satisfied with the outcome, but the national laws were in place, and she could only abide by them.
As she was leaving, the police officer earnestly advised her to strengthen security, saying that no one can guard against thieves for a thousand days, and that taking good measures to protect company data and property was the best choice.
Xia thanked the police officer for his kindness, and understood the importance of strengthening security. As soon as she left the police station, she instructed Liu Yun to install access cards in each of the rooms that served as offices as soon as possible.
"Oh, right, besides the access card thing, you also need to pick up my sister from the provincial capital tomorrow."
“She has a lot of luggage and brought a few friends with her. Why don’t you pick up two more cars after you get to the provincial capital? It’s about time our company bought a car. My sister has a driver’s license and can drive. Once you pick up the car, you can take my sister and her friends back directly.”
Liu Yun readily agreed.
Xia An submitted her resignation after agreeing to go home to help her sister, but she had projects on hand and the handover process took a long time, so it took her so long to get her resignation certificate and go home.
She didn't come home alone this time; she also poached several of her most capable former colleagues.
Poaching people is unethical, but what can you do when her sister offers higher salaries? Everyone has the right to choose a better opportunity. She wanted to laugh at the thought of the manager's green face and fiery eyes when all the capable people in the department submitted their resignations. It was so satisfying to see that bald, meddlesome man so angry.
You bald jerk, I'm done! Let's see how you try to manipulate me and cause trouble for no reason!
Five people were poached by Xia An this time: two cameramen, one editor, one director, and one business executive. They were all people who had a pleasant working relationship with Xia An.
The group arrived in the provincial capital at noon.
As soon as I exited the station, I saw a girl holding up a sign that read "Xia An".
This must be the assistant the younger sister sent to pick them up.
After introducing themselves and exchanging greetings, Liu Yun first treated everyone to a hearty dinner before setting off for Hongqi Village.
Xia Ke and her sister hadn't seen each other for almost a year. The last time they met was last March when they came back together to celebrate their grandmother's 60th birthday. Logically, they should have been able to meet again during the Chinese New Year, but her sister's company had something come up with unexpectedly, and she only had a three-day holiday from New Year's Eve to the second day of the Lunar New Year. She didn't have time to go home, so they didn't see each other.
Mr. and Mrs. Xia were especially happy today. Mrs. Xia got up early to start preparing dinner, and she made all of Xia An's favorite dishes.
Parents miss their children the most. The two sisters used to work away from home and could only come back once a year for the Spring Festival or other holidays. The two old people missed their daughters, but they knew that work was a serious matter. In addition, the journey was long and tiring, so they could only keep their thoughts to themselves and dared not say anything to burden their two daughters.
Now things are much better. Coco's tech company is thriving, and not only is she staying in the village with them, but her sister has also been called home. They no longer have to miss their daughter so much at night that they silently shed tears and are afraid to call her.
"Mom and Dad! Coco! I'm home!"
When Xia An and his group drove home from the provincial capital, the sun had already set. As soon as the car came to a stop, Xia An's loud voice echoed throughout the Xia family's courtyard.
"Oh my, my An'an, you're finally back! Let me see, you must not have been eating well while you were away, you've lost weight!"
After sharing their heartfelt feelings, everyone sat down neatly around a table to eat.
After the meal, Xia An formally introduced Xia Ke to Hongqi Piao's new partner.
Poaching talent naturally required Xia Ke's consent. Even the best wine needs advertising; to increase sales and profits, marketing is essential. Unfortunately, she's not cut out for it, otherwise her Douyin account would have been up and running long ago. But it's not too late now; the professionals have finally arrived.
Xia Ke, along with all the staff of Hongqi Piao, warmly welcomed the new employees and signed pre-prepared contracts with them early the next morning. The salaries were more than double those of their previous jobs.
As they looked at the numbers on the contract, the last trace of regret they had felt for following Xia An vanished.
...
The development of the flying carpet has entered its later stages. Currently, the performance of the flying carpet developed by Hongqi Piao is 80% similar to the original version. However, there is still one aspect that the R&D department has not been able to resolve.
That is the issue of safety protection. When the original flying carpet reaches a certain height, a protective screen will rise around the flying carpet. This protective screen is transparent and thin, and can effectively prevent wind, falls and impacts. However, as of now, the research and development team has made zero progress in the development of the protective screen.
They couldn't find the material called "smoke" mentioned in the flying carpet's development materials, and using other materials as substitutes wouldn't achieve the same effect as the original.
"Are other alternative materials completely unusable?"
The flying carpet is a confidential project of the company. Apart from the eight members of the R&D team and Xia Ke, no one else in the entire Red Flag Flying Company knows about it.
However, today Xia Ke brought Xia An to the R&D department. Xia An is her own sister and can be trusted, and on the other hand, Xia Ke wants to launch the flying carpet related products as soon as possible. Her system task progress has indeed been delayed for too long this time, and the system has expressed its dissatisfaction many times.
Fortunately, the protective screen is not the core of the flying carpet. As long as the flying carpet research and development project is launched on the market, her system tasks can still be judged as completed.
"Yes, it can be used. We currently use glass specifically designed for civil aircraft, which is high in strength, transparent, impact-resistant, anti-fog, and anti-icing. It can be used as a protective screen for the flying carpet."
"But just a flying carpet is too monotonous. I asked you to come here today to help me shoot a video of the flying carpet, so we can see the reaction to the project and hear some suggestions from netizens."
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