Chapter 34: Rotten Workplace

Chapter 34: Rotten Workplace

In the office hall of Kelai Apartment, people came and went from time to time.

Hundreds of workstations were placed inside, with most of them empty.

As an employee responsible for external resources, Chen Feng didn’t need to report to the office often.

But the company was large enough with plenty of workstations. Almost everyone had their own assigned spot, and Chen Feng was no exception.

He usually slacked off by surfing the internet on his workstation computer.

At this moment, Chen Feng was standing in the office hall, hands in his pockets, looking very unhappy ahead.

A unfamiliar young man was sitting at his workstation, looking at him with a blank face.

“New guy? Who told you to sit here? Didn’t anyone tell you this is my workstation?”

Chen Feng snorted through his nose as he asked.

The young man shook his head. “Are you a senior? Manager Lin said this workstation was empty and told me to sit here.”

“Didn’t he tell you this is my spot?”

The young man nodded. “No, really didn’t.”

Right then, Lin De came over.

He smiled. “What? Got criticized and still don’t know to reflect, so you come here to bully the new employee?”

Chen Feng shot back. “What do you mean bully the new employee? This is my workstation!”

“What do you mean your workstation? They all belong to the company! As the manager, do I not even have the qualification to arrange a workstation? Little Tang here just arrived. I want him close to my office so I can guide him often. As for you, from now on, your workstation is over there.”

Lin De pointed to a distant corner.

Chen Feng stretched his neck to look.

A legendary CRT monitor, a Lenovo brand computer from ten years ago that gave off an old feel.

He knew this broken machine. It was used to connect to the printer in the office before. Forget surfing the internet, it probably lagged even opening QQ.

Lin De was clearly trying to annoy him.

Chen Feng had no mood to turn on the computer. He turned and left.

Not far away, Zhou Yunbo, who had been secretly watching this whole time, covered his mouth and snickered.

The idea he came up with was enough to give Chen Feng a hard time, annoy you to death!

The best outcome would be Chen Feng feeling wronged and not reporting to the office for several days in a row. Then Lin De could naturally and rightfully use company policy to fire him directly.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Chen Feng went out the door, Tang Shuang, whose workstation was in the aisle, suddenly stood up and chased after him.

Zhou Yunbo felt like old blood was stuck in his heart, extremely uncomfortable.

He really couldn’t understand what was so good about Chen Feng.

Actually, people like Zhou Yunbo would never figure out the real core of the issue.

It wasn’t that Chen Feng was good; it was that Zhou Yunbo himself was too inferior.

“You okay?”

In front of the elevator, Tang Shuang patted Chen Feng’s back and asked.

Chen Feng turned his head. “Fine. Anyway, there’s nothing to do at the company. I’ll go visit some tenants.”

“Fatty Lin is a bit too much.”

Tang Shuang spoke up for him, feeling indignant.

Chen Feng shrugged indifferently. “In a big forest, there are all kinds of birds. I’m not surprised.”

“So what are you going to do? You can’t just not come to the company forever, right?”

Chen Feng thought for a moment. “Probably just report in every two or three days. As for what to do next?”

He didn’t say it out loud, just chatted idly with Tang Shuang about this and that.

He certainly wouldn’t just sit and wait to die.

On one hand, he still needed to wait for “Dullness” to be officially released and see the results. Then he would have no worries.

On the other hand, he decided to go from defense to offense, to take the initiative.

From now on, Chen Feng would try to collect evidence and strive to find Lin De’s weak spot.

Coincidentally, Tang Shuang had transferred to the company’s planning group now. All kinds of event planning in the High-Tech Zone would go through her hands. She might be able to get some information.

“Hey Chen Feng, if it really doesn’t work out, why don’t you just transfer positions? Recently, Deputy Team Leader Sister Sun from the planning group might be taking maternity leave. The director’s intention is to promote me to deputy team leader.”

“Then my position would be vacant. When the time comes, I’ll try to get it for you, and you should also say hello to the director. If you transfer to the planning group here, even if Lin De’s reach is long, he can’t manage you.”

Chen Feng was just thinking about how to bring it up appropriately when Tang Shuang proactively mentioned this.

“But I’m not familiar with planning business.”

“It’s fine. I have the detailed materials of the company’s recent planning projects from the last two months here. I’ll send them all to you later. You can look at them more and get a feel. But you absolutely must not tell anyone.”

“I understand.”

When Chen Feng got home, Tang Shuang had already sent the entire file package over.

He looked through it roughly and immediately felt his eyes light up.

Previously, as a basic-level company salesman, due to position limitations, he had no chance to access the company’s high-level secrets.

But the planning group was different. Basically, any changes within the company had to be planned and decided by the planning group before action. These planning documents involved all aspects of the company and could be analyzed to understand the company’s important future directions.

What caught Chen Feng’s attention the most was a spokesperson marketing event plan.

He didn’t know if it was a coincidence or inevitable. Maybe this was fate; he stumbled upon important information.

The company had newly hired a spokesperson image, who happened to be the female singer He Jiaqi, who had been active in Hanzhou recently.

The signing time for both parties was just around the two days before and after Chen Feng went to sell his song and got rejected.

Once you sign a spokesperson, you naturally use them.

Next week, Kelai Apartment would hold a large brand marketing event at Shanghua Plaza in the High-Tech Zone. He Jiaqi would appear and sing five songs then.

This detailed event plan included many aspects: from the exhibition, to the artist’s food and accommodation arrangements, to personnel arrangements, and coordination with the performance company, etc.

Most importantly, because the marketing event was placed in the High-Tech Zone, many of the projects involving money flow were handled by Lin De.

Chen Feng thought about Lin De’s big, fat belly, and then thought about the watch worth over twenty thousand that Lin De had just changed to recently. He understood in his heart.

Fatty Lin must have skimmed quite a bit of money from this project!

The complete budget for this marketing event was as high as 1.2 million. Every link would cost money one way or another.

Chen Feng didn’t believe Lin De didn’t get benefits from it. It was the same principle as there being no procurement staff in the world who didn’t take kickbacks.

This was an unwritten industry rule, something everyone knew but no one was willing to admit, and the boss couldn’t be bothered to investigate—a hidden rule.

As long as Chen Feng exposed this hidden rule, Lin De would be in serious trouble even if he didn’t die.

People who do bad things think they’ve covered all tracks, but they never consider that if someone is determined to get them, there are vulnerabilities everywhere.

But Chen Feng’s investigation couldn’t be too obvious. In the following days, he only used his own resources or personally called to probe those suppliers who won the bids, testing the difference between their quotes and the prices in the planning document.

He had to admit, although Lin De was annoying, he really had some skills and was very meticulous.

The prices these suppliers quoted to him as an anonymous customer didn’t differ much from those in the planning document.

So, the kickbacks Lin De could get must be hidden even deeper.

Time passed quickly. Before he knew it, a whole week had gone by. Chen Feng’s investigation hadn’t shown results yet, but on the other end, he finally received a phone call personally from Ma Tianhua.

“Mr. Chen, at noon today, Zhong Lei’s ‘Dullness’ will be officially released. Make sure you don’t forget to pay attention.”

With Ma Tianhua’s standing in the industry, personally making this call had only one meaning.

He wanted to express to Chen Feng and Zhong Lei his emphasis on this song.

During this week, many colleagues from Q Music’s internal review department had almost all come to listen to it after hearing about it and had written their music reviews in advance.

Q Music’s attitude towards “Dullness” was becoming more and more serious.

Almost all professional reviewers with above-average appreciation ability firmly stated that if this song didn’t become popular, it would be against the natural order!