Chapter 13
On Tuesday morning at 9:30, Li Ye arrived at the headquarters of Leguang Group again.
Unfortunately, the weather wasn't cooperating. Unlike last time when it was sunny and bright, it had been drizzling since morning. The spring rain was as fine as silk and as misty as smoke. Pedestrians on the road hurried along, holding umbrellas and walking quickly to their respective destinations.
Jiang Yu had been there for a while, and the light rain did not affect her attire or her spirits at all; she looked radiant. At this moment, she and Feng Jing were standing by the glass curtain wall in the lobby, chatting and laughing, seemingly having a very pleasant conversation.
Good morning, Li Lu!
Good morning, Attorney Li!
When the two saw Li Ye enter, they came to greet him one after the other.
"Good morning, Mr. Feng." Li Ye had drunk too much yesterday and wasn't in great spirits today, but at least he still remembered this chairman's assistant.
"Let's go, Attorney Li." Li Ye felt that Feng Jing's gaze towards her seemed a little different, as if he were more familiar with her. How could he not be more familiar? He's already shown you the way twice, what are you thinking?
Just like last time, Feng Jing led them directly to the conference room on the 49th floor. Unlike last time, before even opening the conference room door, Li Ye could hear voices coming from inside, and upon closer listening, it seemed there were more than one person.
When the door opened, wow! The huge conference room was almost completely full, with people sitting even along the walls. They seemed to have already finished one round of meetings and were now discussing something with the people next to them.
Xu Wanyi sat in the same seat she had sat in before, surrounded by two people talking to her. One was Zhang Gang, the legal director of Leguang Group, whom she had met during the last presentation. The other was a middle-aged man she had never seen before.
She quickly realized that this business plan involved everyone at the top of the Leguang Group. Xu Wanyi had gathered them all today to signify the start of the plan's execution. It was also a way for Li Ye to get to know these people, as he would need to deal with them for a long time to come.
Of course, Li Ye also discerned another layer of meaning: what support and cooperation she needed in future work, she should quickly say it today and assign it, taking advantage of the chairman's presence, so that each department could take on its tasks and go back to work hard.
Once I thought about it that way, the solution became clear.
Li Ye strode into the conference room. Since everyone was busy with their own things, only a few people sitting at the door noticed them coming in and nodded to them in greeting.
There were only two seats left in the entire conference room, which seemed very out of place, and they were right opposite Xu Wanyi.
Li Ye assumed it was prepared for him, so he quickly walked to his seat, put down his bag, took out his laptop, and opened the materials he had prepared. Jiang Yu followed suit; since the boss was there, she could just follow along.
After Li Ye sat down, Xu Wanyi looked up at her briefly before turning back to talk to Zhang Gang.
Li Ye felt that Xu Wanyi's glance at her wasn't because she was Li Ye, nor because she was a lawyer, but because someone was sitting across from her, and it was just an unintentional glance.
However, the others were not as calm as Xu Wanyi. They all knew that the theme of today's meeting was to connect with project lawyers, and their lawyer was the legendary lawyer Li Ye, who was said to have charmed both men and women.
At this moment, Li Ye was sitting in the middle of the conference room. She was tall and sat very straight, making her appear more than half a head taller than the people around her. Many people even forgot that they were in a meeting and stared straight at her face.
Li Ye was used to this and continued organizing his materials, taking out a ballpoint pen and opening his notebook.
Xu Wanyi noticed it too, of course. It had been like this since she was young; wherever she appeared, it had the same effect, even more so than when she herself appeared.
However, she remained expressionless and continued doing what she was doing.
The two of them possess acting skills that are absolutely Oscar-worthy!
Before deciding to hire Li Ye, Xu Wanyi really struggled with the decision. Judging from the overall performance of the three law firms that came to give reports, Li Ye was undoubtedly the most capable and experienced lawyer, without exception. If it weren't Li Ye, she wouldn't have needed to consider anything at all to make a decision.
The reason she hesitated was precisely because this person was Li Ye.
They shared a complicated and unresolved past, a bittersweet memory that would forever remain indelible in her youth. It took her many years to recover, and she never wanted to fall into that situation again.
But why did she get angry when she saw her embracing another woman by the river that day? Did she still have feelings for her? These were questions Xu Wanyi needed to figure out.
If Li Ye becomes the lawyer for this project, he will become an important factor in her plan. And any factor that might affect her plan is something she must carefully consider.
Having racked her brains without finding a solution, she took out the documents again and repeatedly compared the materials from the three law firms. She recalled the presentations of the three lead lawyers. The other two were far inferior to Li Ye, and one of the lawyers' assistants didn't even blink when he saw her.
What's the point of comparing them? She knew it perfectly well, but for some reason, a voice inside her kept stopping her from hiring Li Ye. Headache!
So Miss Xu's procrastination kicked in again. When she finally had to make a decision, she reluctantly thought about it again. Now that time had passed, Li Ye must have forgotten most of it. As long as the principles were set and the line was never crossed, everyone was no longer a child and knew where the boundaries lay.
Well, I won't have any other thoughts anyway. To put it another way, if Li Ye really has other intentions, I can simply refuse and extinguish any sparks.
Thinking about it this way, it seems to solve the problem. Okay, let's do it this way! Xu Wanyi finally breathed a sigh of relief. With a flick of her finger, she checked Li Ye's name in the lawyer selection section of the internal system, and then clicked, completing a major task!
Leguang Group notified Li Ye that the meeting would be held at 10:00 AM, while their internal notification stated it would be at 9:00 AM. Before Li Ye arrived, Xu Wanyi had already reviewed the key points of the meeting and the responsibilities of each department, mainly emphasizing the importance of the meeting and matters of principle.
Her logic was consistent with Li Ye's logic. When Li Ye came, all he had to do was to refine the key points of the work and the specific tasks. This way, others would not only know what they were responsible for doing, but also what they should do.
Five minutes before ten o'clock, Xu Wanyi finished what she wanted to say. She looked up at the time and subconsciously calculated in her mind how long it would take for Li Ye to arrive. By the time she realized she was calculating the time, Li Ye had already pushed open the door and entered.
So actually, Xu Wanyi saw Li Ye the moment she entered, but Li Ye was so surprised by the huge crowd in the conference room that she didn't notice Xu Wanyi.
When everyone's attention was on Li Ye, Xu Wanyi could no longer stand Li Ye's innocent look and signaled Zhang Gang to start the meeting—the chairperson of this lawyer coordination meeting was naturally Zhang Gang, the chief legal officer.
Zhang Gang cleared his throat. "Ahem, now that Attorney Li has arrived," he said, glancing at Li Ye, and the two nodded to each other.
"Let's begin our meeting now. I'd like to introduce our lawyer for this project, Attorney Li Ye from Yuande Law Firm. Attorney Li is..." Zhang Gang's introduction of Li Ye, based on his own knowledge and background, was objective and comprehensive.
Although Leguang Group is a traditional enterprise, in the few years since Xu Wanyi took over, he has vigorously implemented reforms to rejuvenate the company, promoting many young people to middle-level positions. Therefore, there are quite a few young people around thirty years old among those present.
Many of them had heard of Li Ye, both the good and the bad. After hearing Zhang Gang's introduction, some people's eyes lit up with admiration, while others were full of resentment, thinking that Li Ye was just a pretty face.
"Now we'll hand the microphone over to Attorney Li and hear her arrangements for the overall legal affairs of the project."
"Thank you, Chairman Xu, General Manager Zhang, and thank you to all the leaders and colleagues present for attending today's coordination meeting. I am Li Ye from Yuande Law Firm, and it is a great honor to be a lawyer for Leguang. After our team's research, we have decided..."
Li Ye spoke eloquently, drawing upon the materials he had prepared beforehand.
As time went on and Li Ye's narration deepened, the entire conference room gradually fell silent, and many people took out their laptops or paper notebooks to take notes.
Li Ye discussed and arranged the project from several aspects, including the business segments of Leguang Group, the timeline of legal matters, staffing, and the work of various departments within the group.
The outline and steps were consistent with what Chairman Xu had said that morning, but the timeline was very detailed. The chairman had not mentioned what each department needed to do at each point in time, the information they needed to provide, and the approximate number of people required.
In short, Lok Kwong Group started in the pharmaceutical industry and currently has four business lines: pharmaceuticals, new energy, finance, real estate, and cultural tourism, making it a typical traditional enterprise group.
Unlike other traditional enterprises, Xu Shenzhao has a keen business sense, and his team ventured into new energy early on. With surplus funds, they began applying for financial licenses and currently hold several.
They started developing real estate when the real estate market was booming, but their real estate business was much smaller than other similar companies, and they could never be classified as a real estate company in credit rating assessments.
Cultural tourism is their side business, which used to be unprofitable, but in recent years they have made many acquisitions and their profit margins have gradually increased.
Xu Wanyi's business plan involves the entire group, and Li Ye's approach is to start with the easiest part and finish with the most difficult part.
The main business of Leguang Group is the pharmaceutical industry, which was also Xu Wanyi's main focus in the past few years. The other industries are very scattered and disorganized. Li Ye once drew a diagram, which showed that the industry was extremely complicated and messy.
Her general idea is: first, to integrate the group's industries, either by bringing them under the Leguang Group or by placing them under a newly established company; second, to find some excellent target companies for mergers and acquisitions to expand market share.
These two steps are not sequential; they can proceed simultaneously, regardless of which is faster. When the time is right, the most suitable exchange will be chosen to list the highest-quality assets from each industry.
"Okay, that's my basic idea and the general plan for future work. Finally, because our group is so large, I hope that Mr. Zhang's side, as the main liaison department, can work together with our legal team to complete this project."
After speaking, Li Ye looked at Xu Wanyi and Zhang Gang, waiting for them to continue.
It's not unreasonable for her to make this request; it's standard practice in the industry. Firstly, some large companies have incredibly arrogant employees who are impossible to get external lawyers to work with. Secondly, such a large company only has a handful of people, and having them run around asking for documents one by one would be incredibly inefficient.
“Okay, Mr. Zhang, please set up a team within your department to specifically liaise with Attorney Li’s team.”
Xu Wanyi thought to herself, "This is good. I don't have to see you every day, so I won't get annoyed."
Zhang Gang immediately replied, "Yes, Chairman, Attorney Li, don't worry. I will arrange for someone from the legal department to handle this. The person in charge is Wang Du from our department, whom you met last time."
"Okay, thank you Chairman Xu, General Manager Zhang, the other executives, and all my colleagues at Leguang Group. I will need your support in the future. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me and my colleagues. Also, because we have limited manpower and Leguang is indeed a very large company, please forgive any shortcomings in our work."
Xu Wanyi glanced at her casually. It was the first time she had seen Li Ye act so dignified. She had just been admiring how smoothly and effectively the work arrangements had been made, how thoughtful they were, and how well he understood their company. But in the blink of an eye, he started speaking in official jargon. No wonder he was a lawyer; he could say whatever he wanted to people.
"Chairman, senior executives, is there anything else you'd like to add?" Zhang Gang took over the conversation.
"It's gone," Xu Wanyi said softly.
Seeing that the chairman was speechless, the other executives naturally had nothing to say either.
"Okay, that concludes today's coordination meeting. Thank you, Attorney Li, and thank you, Chairman and all the executives."
After the meeting adjourned, most of the people in the conference room quickly left. Li Ye glanced at the time; it was already 3 PM! She had been talking non-stop for almost four or five hours!
Le Guang's colleagues must hate her so much, but that's just how she is. Once she starts working, she becomes highly focused and easily loses track of time.
At this point, only Xu Wanyi, Zhang Gang, and Feng Jing remained from Le Guang's side. Zhang Gang seemed to be reporting something to Xu Wanyi, perhaps continuing the conversation from the topics discussed before the meeting began.
It seems that Xu Wanyi has indeed changed a lot; she is now a complete workaholic.
"Chairman Xu, General Manager Zhang, this is our employment contract. It's not far away, so we brought it with us."
Li Ye took the contract from Jiang Yu, walked over to Xu Wanyi and Zhang Gang, and handed the contract to Zhang Gang.
"Okay, Attorney Li, we'll complete the procedures, stamp it, and mail it to you. Have Attorney Jiang give the address to Wang Du."
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