Chapter 30
"Attorney Jiang, you're so lucky! You managed to get soaked in this rain. We have to send you to buy lottery tickets on behalf of our team." Li Ye couldn't help but laugh when he saw her drenched appearance and then looked at the bright sunshine outside. Everyone else in the office burst into laughter as well.
"Hey, hurry up and dry your hair, we have to go up to a meeting soon." Li Ye pulled out a white towel from somewhere and handed it to her.
Shit! The boss laughed at me! Jiang Yu thought to herself, "You little brat, if you weren't my boss, I'd beat you to a pulp. But since you're the one paying my salary, I'll let it slide." She then put her unfinished milk tea on the table, took the towel, gave Li Ye a resentful look, and silently walked towards the restroom.
This afternoon's meeting is a real trap. I definitely need to go to the restroom to freshen up, touch up my makeup, and get into battle mode.
At 3:55, Li Ye led Jiang Yu to the conference room. Upon entering, they saw that many people were already seated, but the seating arrangements were noticeably different from usual. Xu Wanyi sat at the far end of the conference table, the seat usually occupied by the big boss, the one furthest from where she had entered. Zhang Gang, Wang Du, and others sat to Xu Wanyi's right, with their backs to the window. Across from them sat many people, some unfamiliar, some familiar.
Li Ye thought for a moment. Since they weren't using PowerPoint today and were discussing report content, sitting closer together was perfectly reasonable. So she walked towards the side closest to Xu Wanyi. Upon reaching the end, she saw there were only two seats. She couldn't very well have Jiang Yu standing between her and Miss Xu, could she? That would be too deliberate. So she sat directly in the chair to Xu Wanyi's left. This was the closest the two had been physically apart since their last visit to the hospital.
Xu Wanyi glanced at her, then looked away and surveyed the room. The meeting room fell silent.
"Alright, everyone's here, let's begin the meeting."
Since it was a legal report, the host was still Zhang Gang, and the meeting procedures were the same as before. Li Ye was already very familiar with the style of Leguang Group, so familiar that he could automatically filter out this invalid information.
"By the way, we've also invited our colleagues from the finance department to attend the meeting this time, to provide valuable opinions and suggestions on the financial data and valuation information involved in the initial draft of the legal report." Hearing this, Li Ye suddenly came to his senses. This time, they finally called the finance department. He wondered if it was Xu Wanyi's idea or Zhang Gang's idea.
"Well, Mr. Zhang has thought this through very thoroughly. He's called in our group's finance department colleagues to discuss it together. We appreciate everyone's help. Please feel free to raise any opinions you have; the sooner we bring them up, the sooner we can resolve them," Xu Wanyi proactively answered Li Ye's question. Li Ye glanced at her, unsure if she was just giving a routine introduction or deliberately saying it for his benefit. Xu Wanyi remained expressionless, revealing absolutely nothing.
At this moment, the people in Li Ye's row nodded, all indicating their full support for the department's work. Li Ye then realized that these people were from the finance department. Why hadn't she seen them before when she went to the finance department? The group's finance department... uh, the group's finance department, I get it! Li Ye instantly understood the reason.
Then, Zhang Gang continued, "Thank you for the Chairman's support, and also thank you to the colleagues in the finance department for their support. The initial draft of the report was prepared by Attorney Li Yeli's team, and our legal department's Wang Du was specifically responsible for the coordination. It can be said to be the result of their tireless work over the past two months. I would especially like to thank all of the aforementioned individuals! The report involves many target companies and is rich and comprehensive. Even I haven't had time to review it all in detail, which is quite embarrassing. Today, I'd like to take this opportunity, organized by the Chairman, to learn from everyone. Now, please let Attorney Li give us a detailed explanation of the report's content."
Wang Du felt uneasy. Hadn't he already given him the first draft? Had he not looked at it at all in all this time? He glanced at Zhang Gang, but the boss looked completely calm and had a clear conscience.
"Okay, thank you for your support and help, Chairman, General Manager Zhang and all colleagues at Leguang. Now, please let the project's lead lawyer, Attorney Jiang Yu, tell us about the report."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Yu opened the report and materials she had prepared beforehand and began to explain the entire report's chapters and logic. She and Wang Du had already reviewed this report many times, so she could speak of it with ease and fluency.
"This concludes the report. Please provide your feedback, leaders." Half an hour later, Jiang Yu finished presenting all the key points of the report.
After waiting a while and no one spoke, Xu Wanyi asked, "President Lin Hong, what are your thoughts?"
Following her gaze, Li Ye saw the person next to Jiang Yu straighten up. It was a short, thin, middle-aged man with half-gray hair.
"Chairman, from a financial perspective, this report is quite objective. The data in the report is almost all data that was recently released by the authorities, and the valuation also uses the industry average and median. The companies selected for reference or comparison are very close to the target company, either in terms of their sub-sectors or financial indicators."
Li Ye thought to himself, "It seems this person is in charge of the group's asset valuation."
"No other questions?" Xu Wanyi continued to ask. She had specifically called over the group's finance manager to finalize the valuation and prevent Zhang Gang from making a fuss about it again.
"Well, actually I had a question before, but after reading the report, it's no longer a question," Lin Hong said with a smile.
Li Ye and Jiang Yu naturally looked at him, and he quickly explained, "You are all veterans in the industry. Generally speaking, it is unlikely that a draft of a legal due diligence report would take two months. So I was wondering what the lawyers were writing. After reading the report, I found that there were more than a dozen target companies. So, hehe."
Li Ye and Jiang Yu both breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that the finance department was going to say something earth-shattering.
"This was my mistake. I only realized this morning that I should have let President Lin attend the meeting directly. It must have been hard work to read such a thick stack of reports in one day."
"Of course, of course. Attorney Li's report is very well written; he truly deserves to be called a top lawyer in Haixi."
Just as Li Ye was about to say something to politely decline, Jiang Yu's milk tea "banged" onto the table.
"Oh no!" Jiang Yu's mind went blank. She had meant to plug in her laptop, but had forgotten about the milk tea next to it. At that moment, she felt like she was in a slow-motion scene from a movie: the teacup tipped over, the tea spilling out and all over Li Ye's desk. Damn it! She drank milk tea today!
Before anyone could react, Li Ye had already quickly moved the stack of things on her left to her right, then picked up her laptop and stood up. Her movement snapped Jiang Yu back to reality, and she quickly pulled out a bunch of tissues to cover her milk tea.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Jiang Yu said as she wiped, though it was unclear who she was talking to.
Lin Hong, who was standing nearby, also brought over a box of tissues. Seeing that the milk tea had splashed onto Li Ye's pants, he tore off a few tissues and handed them to Li Ye: "Attorney Li, are you alright?"
"Oh, thank you, Mr. Lin, it's nothing."
The room was completely silent. Everyone else from Le Guang remained silent, while Xu Wanyi stared blankly at Li Ye and Jiang Yu, feeling somewhat speechless. Jiang Yu was the first person to spill milk tea during her meetings, mainly because no one from Le Guang dared to drink milk tea during meetings she attended.
"Chairman, I'm so sorry." Jiang Yu was so embarrassed that she wanted to crawl into a hole.
"Oh, it's nothing. Hurry up and get ready so we can continue the meeting." After saying that, Xu Wanyi looked at Li Ye. Li Ye seemed completely unaffected, neither angry nor embarrassed, as if nothing had happened.
"Attorney Li, do you need to change your clothes?"
"Oh, no need, it's just a little water, a quick wipe will do."
Upon hearing this, Xu Wanyi suddenly noticed that the stack of documents Li Ye had moved next to her was quite wet with milk tea. She picked it up casually, intending to wipe it clean. However, the moment her hand touched the documents, a look of tension appeared on Li Ye's face.
"Chairman Xu, this is the first draft. There's nothing to see here. I'll handle it myself."
Xu Wanyi gave Li Ye a meaningful look. Could it be that "there's nothing to see" could make the usually composed Li Ye look flustered? Even if there's nothing to see, I still have to see what it is.
"The first draft? Isn't that the one she took out of the car this morning and had with her when she ate? Is there something in this version?" Xu Wanyi thought to herself as she pulled out a tissue to wipe the tea and placed the document on her laptop keyboard.
“Uh…” Li Ye stood to the side, seemingly trying to say something more, but he didn’t say anything, only making a “uh” sound that Xu Wanyi thought was meaningless.
"Please sit down, Attorney Li. Let me read your first draft. You won't object, will you?"
"No, no, it's definitely possible. Please review it, Chairman Xu." Li Ye sat back in his chair, looking like he had nothing to lose, which made Xu Wanyi even more suspicious and curious.
"What are the Strategic Management Department's thoughts?" Xu Wanyi put down the documents in her hand for the time being. No matter how much she wanted to read them, the meeting had to continue.
Zhang Chaofeng, the general manager of the strategic management department, took over the conversation and began to speak eloquently.
Xu Wanyi knew that the Strategic Management Department was no longer of any real use. Their role had been fulfilled by the end of last year. Calling them up now was just following the group's usual practice, and also to show her father what she was doing.
Her attention returned to the report on the keyboard. It was a stack of crumpled A4 papers, with two staples along the long left side and many sticky notes of different colors pasted along the long right side. The whole document felt bumpy to the touch. She decided to look at the pages with sticky notes first.
Just as she was about to open it, she suddenly felt a gaze on her. When she looked up, she met Li Ye's eyes. However, this time Li Ye did not look at her firmly. She saw her eyes flicker twice before looking at Zhang Chaofeng, who was speaking.
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