CEO is Picky but Handsome - Chapter 8

At two o’clock in the afternoon, the directors’ meeting was officially held.
The meeting place was set at the 22nd floor conference room, and the participants were not only the ten directors, but also their respective assistants and the executive vice president of Phoenix Group, Gu Xinzhang.
According to the usual practice, Huo Jun sat on the chairman’s seat at the oval table, and the rest of the directors were seated according to the number of shares they held. Gu Xinzhang sat at the bottom of the table. The assistant directors were seated against the wall, and the chairman’s assistant, Ye Ling, was arranged to sit at the right hand side of Huo Jun, at the back of the table, for the convenience of handing over documents and making additional speeches.
As the meeting began, Huo Jun first exchanged pleasantries with the directors. All of them usually don’t see each other much, and rarely have the opportunity to gather together for a meeting like this, so the atmosphere at the beginning was still very harmonious and even warm. However, when Ye Ling stood up from his seat and spoke in place of Huo Zhun, the directors who were originally laughing and joking all straightened up, not to mention laughing, and even their beards didn’t shake a bit.
The draft of the speech would be distributed in advance to all the participating directors, not to mention that all the directors who care about the development of the group don’t need to know what Phoenix Group has done in the last half a year through the draft of the speech, so after listening to Ye Ling’s speech, everyone immediately went into a state of questioning Huo Zhun like a series of shots.
Huo Jun was so young when he took up Phoenix Group, his ability was naturally not weak. He was able to answer all of the directors’ questions with ease, and occasionally cracked a few jokes, causing the directors to burst into laughter, and regulating the atmosphere from tight to loose, making it a happy place. Ye Ling did not dare to relax like him. He sat behind Huo Jun with full concentration, not daring to miss every word in Huo Jun’s speech, and with the content mentioned in his boss’s words, he found the required data and information in the folder in time, put it under the projector, and projected it on the curtain to present it to the people attending the meeting.
Although the two did not communicate too much in advance, they worked surprisingly well together, and as time passed by, the directors questioned less and less, replaced by more and more approving glances. Huo Jun leaned back on the armrest of the black seat, knowing that a battle would soon be won again. Not far away, Executive Vice President Gu Xinzhang, who has already experienced many board meetings, looks over from afar, and while all the directors are looking down to compare the information in their hands, he points to his side and quietly gives him a thumbs-up.
Huo Jun follows the direction of his finger and looks over – to his right, Ye Ling is holding a pen in one hand and a folder in the other, browsing the information in her hands. Looking over from Huo Jun’s angle, his ear to neck is a smooth arc, as beautiful as his performance today.
Perhaps because he had been gazing for too long, Ye Ling noticed something and subconsciously raised his head, colliding squarely with Huo Jun’s gaze. His slightly furrowed brows are not yet stretched out, and those two black pearl-like eyes carry inquiries that actually call Huo Zhun’s heart to tighten for no apparent reason, and he sits up straight in desire.
“Little Huo, what you just said is all true and I agree with it, but about that Rigel Network acquisition, shouldn’t we reconsider?” Suddenly, Xu Shenqing, the company’s fourth largest shareholder, who was two seats away from him and to his left, asked.
Xu Shenqing had always prided himself on being a startup patriarch, and thus had always been explicitly and implicitly at loggerheads with Huo Jun. The Ruige Technology he was talking about was currently the fifth largest Internet technology company in China, specializing in social networking and instant messaging products. Nowadays, as countries around the world became increasingly connected, the role of social networks became more and more prominent. Phoenix Group has been focusing on industrial projects, but the Internet industry is becoming more and more prosperous, they also want to get a share of this industry, and the most convenient and fastest way is to directly acquire mature Internet companies. Rigel Technology has therefore become the first target of Phoenix Group, and is also the focus of Phoenix Group’s business in the second half of the year.
The visitor was not kind, Huo Jun smiled faintly and said, “Uncle Xu, what does that say?”
In terms of generation, Xu Shenqing is the uncle of Huo Jun’s late wife, Xu Yingchen, and although this blood relationship is unknown to be expended hundreds of miles away, Huo Jun still maintains respect for him. He is over fifty years old, with severe hair loss, a typical Mediterranean head, at this moment, the Mediterranean Xu always smiles in a fictitious way, “You just said that Ruige Technology had a good financial situation last fiscal year, but how did I hear that their company is actually suffering from a large funding gap and serious losses. Originally, the media was going to report it, they bought connections at the last minute, which suppressed the news.”
When these words came out, the originally quiet conference room instantly resounded with whispers.
“Oh? It’s not easy for Uncle Xu to inquire about such confidential news.” Huo Jun is not moved at all, he has a smile on his lips, but his gaze is as cold as ice, looking straight at Xu Shenqing, “Is there any evidence?”
“Can your Uncle Xu believe without evidence? Uncle Xu is not a reckless young man, less experience to do things impulsively, your uncle Xu can do things carefully.” Xu Shenqing half mocking half ironic, sentence rushed to Huo Jun, “Uncle Xu not only have evidence, but also brought the evidence.”
Saying this, he takes a stack of bound documents from his assistant’s hands, stands up, and throws them far in front of Huo Jun.
This action is contemptuous to the extreme, yet Huo Jun doesn’t think it’s disobedient in the slightest, and even maintains a three-quarter smile as he flips through the stack of documents.
With just one glance, his heart shook violently.
This was a copy of Rigel Technology’s financial report for the last fiscal year.
The data was completely different from the one he had gotten, and even, completely opposite.
While Huo Jun had gotten a good report, this one was shocking.
He narrowed his eyes slightly.
The edges of this report are twisted, and it is clear that someone took a picture of it with a cell phone and printed it out directly. Huo Zhun was born in the business, slightly familiar with the finance, as far as his experience is concerned, he can’t see the falsification of this financial report in the slightest.
But his intuition told him that the report must be fake.
As a company founded five years ago, Rigel Technology provided him with the financial report is too perfect. With rising profits and higher and higher performance, what is the need for such a good company to seek acquisition? Therefore, Huo Jun had also suspected whether there was any falsification in it. But after sending more than manpower, the investigation results show that this company although good performance, but their own ability is limited, so seek acquisition, is hoping to borrow external help company better development.
This has long been confirmed in Huo Jun’s many conversations with the current head of Rigel Technology, which is why he finally believed in Rigel’s sincerity and vigorously promoted its acquisition.
However, what Xu Shenqing has done is tantamount to giving Huo Jun a public slap in the face. Everyone knows that Ruige’s acquisition was led by Huo Jun, and if he was even cheated out of a single financial report, who would still believe in his ability to do his job?
In other words, if even a small acquisition goes wrong, who still believes he’ll be able to steer the Phoenix Group ship well?
What’s the matter, is this another attempt to force the palace?
Huo Jun smiled coldly as he looked at Xu Shenqing, his gaze so cold that it sent chills down Xu Shenqing’s spine, and he couldn’t help but take a step backward.
At that time, Xu Shenqing’s assistant had already distributed the photocopied financial reports to the hands of the directors, although Xu Shenqing has always known that this Huo’s president is not easy to deal with, but it is difficult to ride a tiger, he still had to be tough, to finish this big show.
Besides – he looked around – it’s not like he’s alone, there are quite a few people here who support him.
“Look at this, you guys, this is not a profit, it’s clearly a loss! They don’t have much liquidity on their books, and they’re anxiously waiting for us to fill in the holes.” Xu Shenqing jittery, a bitter and pained posture, spittle flying, “Xiao Huo ah, thanks to Uncle Xu there are a few reliable old relationship, otherwise you say you this acquisition, is not to Ying Chen father’s family property are corrupted!”
Yo, moved the old father-in-law out.
Huo Jun really wanted to give kudos to the person who wrote the script.
Phoenix Group was founded by Huo Jun’s father-in-law, forming such a huge scale after two generations of decades of accumulation. When he passed the helm to his son-in-law, there was a great deal of controversy, and to this day, the board of directors, led by Xu Shenqing, often take Huo Jun as an “outsider”.
If in the past, when Huo Jun first took over the group, he would still be furious when he heard such questions, but after so many years, he has long been able to laugh it off and settle the score afterwards.
Now, for example, he is about to be poked to the bridge of his nose and scolded, but even more so, his face does not change color: “Uncle Xu, you first calm down, where exactly did you get this financial report? Is it trustworthy?”
“How is it not credible? This is Uncle Xu heard that you want to acquire Ruige Technology, and he took great pains to ask an old friend to get a real financial report. This is an internal secret, and only a few top executives of Ruige Technology have seen it. You guys take a look, the word “confidential” on the header of the page can’t be fake.” Speaking here, Xu Shenqing deliberately paused, “How, Xiao Huo, you don’t believe?”
The irony in this sentence is already very strong, and those who can’t hear it anymore, unless they are stupid.
Huo Jun looks around, only to see the shareholders looking either shocked or obscure or unable to hold back a bit of a smile on their lips, thinking that some of them have known for a long time that Xu Shenqing is going to make things difficult for himself in public today, and even pushed behind the scenes, happy to see it happen.
Everyone says that he took a big piece of pie from his father-in-law’s hands, but only he himself understands what kind of a mess it is to tear each other down.
Huo Jun smiles faintly, casually handing the stack of documents to Ye Ling behind him, and continues with Xu Shenqing’s words, “Indeed, I don’t believe it. It’s not uncommon for financial reports to be falsified during acquisitions, and since it’s possible for Ruige to falsify, it’s naturally possible for its competitors to intentionally falsify to thwart the acquisition. Therefore, I believe that any ‘evidence’ that emerges now should be treated with caution, and we can’t draw conclusions based on one side of the story alone.”
With a “snap”, Xu Shenqing angrily slapped the document in his hand on the table.
“Xiao Huo, what do you mean! Do you think Uncle Xu is colluding with outsiders to hoodwink you? Uncle Xu is also a director, living most of his life, watching the group grow and expand, what need does Uncle Xu have to hoodwink you!” Xu Shenqing was so angry that he only slapped the table, “You you …… why are you so disobedient! Or is it that you’re so active in acquiring Ruige Technology that you’ve reached some kind of private agreement with them? I can hear that you often meet with their senior management a while ago, this financial report …… you are not already aware of the forgery?!”
This is extremely excessive, even if Huo Jun’s qi practice is good, he can’t help but snort coldly and ask, “What does Uncle Xu mean by this? Is Uncle Xu suspecting me of enriching myself?”
The originally chaotic atmosphere instantly quiets down as everyone looks at each other, knowing that today’s matter must not end well.
As the executive vice president, Gu Xinzhang was able to sit in on the directors’ meeting, his influence in the company could be imagined. Seeing the stalemate between the two, he rushes out to round off the situation, “Mr. Xu, you’re going a bit too far, Mr. Huo’s dedication to the group is something everyone can see, how could he have any other ideas?”
Xu Shenqing covers his heart, looking like he’s on the verge of a heart attack, and a few of the older directors around him hurriedly pull him down to let him sit down and catch his breath. Gu Xinzhang’s interjection simply gave him an excuse to continue to play, and immediately, he unforgivingly slapped the table, “You shut up! You and him are all in cahoots! Let me tell you, I’ve dedicated most of my life to the group, and even father Ying Chen didn’t let me suffer this humiliation! I, I …… Huo Zhun, you must give me a statement today! How come I’ve taken the trouble to return the favor for the company and made a mistake!”
“Huo Jun ah, this is black and white, also stamped with an official seal, can’t be fake ah.” On the right hand side, the company’s third largest shareholder also advised, “Your Uncle Xu is also a good intention, why don’t you suspend the acquisition project first, and we’ll start again after we’ve investigated clearly, how about it?”
Have you finally gotten to the point?
Huo Jun sneers in his heart.
After Rigel released the intention to be acquired, there were three companies throwing olive branches to it at the same time, and to this day, to be able to stand out from these three companies, the Phoenix team personnel have put in a tremendous amount of effort. Once the project was stopped, the motivation of the project staff would be greatly reduced, not to mention the possibility that the other two companies would take advantage of the situation, and by then, the financial and human losses would be incalculable.
What’s more, once the project is stopped, the board of directors will impeach the chairman of the board.
If the tiger is not powerful, do you think I am a sick cat?
Thinking of this, he clears his throat-
Suddenly, behind him, Ye Ling leans up.
“Mr. Huo, can I say a few words?”
Huo Jun froze, “What are you going to say?”
“I think that there’s something wrong with this financial report.” Ye Ling says.