Final Civilization

Chapter 27: Planting Landmines

Luyuan Manor.

"She gave that pretty-boy lawyer 30 million?"

Wang Linquan putted the ball into the hole, picked up his cigar from the cigar tray, and walked while saying, "So, changing the group's legal team really might have been a last-minute decision?"

"No one can say for sure, but she definitely wanted to change it for a long time."

Liu Qigang was a member of the Tianzhou Group board of directors, the head of the Tianqi financial division. He had a prosperous appearance and a pair of smiling, squinty eyes.

"A few days ago, her daughter was almost killed in a car crash, and then she immediately started internal restructuring. Could it be a self-injury scheme?"

"Probably not."

Wang Linquan shook his head, waved his hand to dismiss the two beautiful female caddies following him, and said, "Even if she wanted to make a move, she wouldn't use her daughter's life to do it. I had someone investigate the accident. Yan Duoduo was just that close to dying."

"Moreover, the nature of this incident is different. It was an attempt at murder, meaning it's a fight to the death. Usually, apart from sworn enemies, no one would do this because it benefits no one."

Liu Qigang nodded: "I think so too. However, Yan Jing definitely knows this as well. She probably wants to use this opportunity to make trouble and launch another big purge.""Hmph!"

Wang Linquan said disdainfully, "What's there to fear from her? Let her make a scene. The more inflated a person becomes, the harder they fall."

After saying that, he glanced at Liu Qigang: "You also need to pass down the word. It's best not to give her any leverage during this period. That crazy woman is not easy to deal with. Who knows what she's plotting this time?"

"You think that lawyer has a problem?" Liu Qigang frowned upon hearing this.

"Does he have some special identity, or is he some mysterious figure from somewhere?"

Tsk!

"What problem could a stinking lawyer who can't even earn enough in a year to buy me a bottle of wine possibly have?" Wang Linquan clicked his tongue and looked at Liu Qigang:

"I'm telling you, Old Liu, the most important thing for you right now is to uninstall your short video apps!"

He continued,

"That little lawyer just happened to save someone by chance, earned himself a big red envelope from Yan Jing, and might have caught her eye to be her pretty-boy plaything. Last time I even saw him trying to curry favor with Yan Duoduo. Hmph, putting on an act, nothing more than wanting to skip a few years of hard work. What I'm talking about is the restructuring of several subsidiary divisions within the group. Now that the legal team has been changed, all aspects will need new people to push things forward again. Yan Jing might very well be planning to make her move in these areas."

Liu Qigang nodded: "Then let's give them something to do, keep them busy for a few months first."

"That's right."

Wang Linquan blew a smoke ring and said meaningfully while looking into the distance, "Someone wants to deal with Yan Jing. That's good news for us. We shouldn't get involved in anything. During this time, let's just quietly play some golf, do some fishing."

"Hahahaha, right." Liu Qigang laughed in agreement.

...

After receiving Yan Li's call, Han Ming drove to Tianzhou Group to reconnect with his colleagues from the advisory team about the current work progress.

"The workload is much heavier than expected. We estimate we'll need to be stationed here for at least four weeks or more. Everyone will have to work hard during this period."

During the team meeting, Yan Li pushed several thick stacks of case files aside and looked at Han Ming.

"It's only been one day, and people from several major group divisions like shipping, finance, and real estate have already come to interface with us. There's been a lot of probing up and down the ranks. Meetings with just manager-level personnel are scheduled through Thursday. Tianzhou's enthusiasm is actually much higher than we anticipated."

"Isn't that good?"

Han Ming smiled: "High employee enthusiasm indicates strong execution capability and active management in a company. That's a good thing."

"That depends on whether what they're enthusiastically pushing forward is trouble."

Male colleague He Jin pushed two documents towards Han Ming at this point, his expression helpless.

"Before we could even warm our seats, they delivered two landmines. One is the newly acquired Baihe Sand and Gravel Resources Company, which needs to lay off 60% of its workforce, totaling over 500 people."

"A sand mining group?" Han Ming frowned.

"Yes." Another female colleague, Feng Xiaoyun, nodded:

"The previous company's management of labor legal relations wasn't perfect, so there are quite a few issues. Compensation is manageable, but the worry is triggering a mass incident. The mining industry itself is tightening due to environmental policies."

"So once it makes the news, it might implicate the entire company's mining business." Han Ming added.

"Exactly."

"What about the other one?"

Yan Li gestured to Feng Xiaoyun, who then took out a tablet, pulled up a video, and played it on the conference room screen.

"Director Guo, according to the group's requirements, for the department restructuring, we need to have senior management positions supplementarily sign non-compete agreements. These are the standardized clauses that require your signature."

In the video, a middle-aged man in a suit, with a greasy head and large ears, was receiving a lawyer's interview with an arrogant posture and an aggressive tone.

"Sorry, I've already signed a non-compete agreement. No one ever told me about supplementary clauses. What does this mean? Do you think I've harmed the company's interests, or are you planning to fire me after I sign, worried I'll cause losses to the group?"

"You're overthinking it. Our law firm is perfecting the legal risk control system as required by the board of directors. All senior management needs to sign simultaneously; it's not targeting you specifically. The non-compete agreement clauses have undergone compliance review. If you have any objections, you can raise them directly, and I'll explain them to you."

"Don't beat around the bush. You just want to fire me and add an insurance policy, right? Just follow the process and give me the compensation. The previous non-compete period was 12 months; this one changed it to 24 months. Who would sign such a clause? Do you think I don't understand the law?"

"Director Guo, the group has no intention of dismissing you. We just need to perfect..."

Beep.

Feng Xiaoyun paused the video and pointed at the screen recording of their afternoon interview, saying:

"Guo Chang, General Manager of the Tianqi Financial Credit Department. This person was previously a relative of a former Tianzhou director, got in through connections. He's been employed for 6 years, has a high school education but held the position of Risk Consultant, and climbed all the way to the position of Credit Department General Manager. A few months ago, Chairwoman Yan restructured the group's business. That director was kicked out of Tianzhou, and the entire system related to that director was dismissed. However, Yingcheng has been slow to move against this person."

Han Ming was surprised:

"The director got taken out, but a department general manager in a subsidiary company can't be touched?"

Yan Li spoke up at this point:

"He came in through the back door early on and didn't sign a non-compete agreement. Later, when Tianqi Financial's business expanded, the supplementary agreement that was signed had major problems. It was Yingcheng who reviewed and found the loophole, wanting him to sign a supplementary agreement. He directly refused and kept delaying until this year when the director backing him was kicked out. Yingcheng prepared to negotiate with him, only to find out that as the Credit Department General Manager, he not only holds a large amount of client credit records and risk assessment algorithms but also a large batch of confidential loan information for corporate cooperative clients."

"And these, just happen to not be covered in the most crucial non-compete agreement?"

Han Ming smiled:

"It seems there really is leverage..."

"Then, speaking of which, the drafting of that previous agreement might have intentionally planted a landmine. For such a high-risk position, the agreement was actually that sloppy."

"It's impossible to investigate now."

Feng Xiaoyun sighed.

"Client credit records, risk assessment algorithms... these can still be reported as trade secrets for data property identification. But that information about the cooperative clients..."

She shrugged as she spoke, looking quite troubled. "The impact of that is comparable to a nuclear weapon."

"Exactly. Tianqi Financial's business scope in Jinghai isn't small. Some things weigh nothing on the scale, but once put on the scale, no one knows how much loss it might implicate." Yan Li also said:

"So this is the real big trouble."

"No wonder Yingcheng kept dragging their feet too. They must have known this could be a huge landmine." He Jin gave a bitter smile.

Han Ming nodded thoughtfully:

"We just took over and they send us such a huge landmine. It seems like they want to put us in our place."