Peng Yang knocked and entered Wang Ning’an’s office. After taking the documents his boss had signed, he hesitated, clearly wanting to say something. Wang Ning’an noticed and told him to speak.
“Vice President, Secretary Chen just told me that President Yu’s assistant took all the files she was bringing to you. Should I go get them back?” Peng Yang had worked for Wang Ning’an for nearly a year. Much had happened in that time, but he remained utterly loyal. Even when executives from other departments tried to recruit him while Wang Ning’an was away, he had refused. He knew he could learn more from the vice president and advance much faster by staying beside him.
“No.” After thinking briefly, Wang Ning’an rejected the idea. Before Peng Yang could ask why, he explained, “Most of those files are for new projects. If President Yu believes he can handle them, let him take responsibility. If anything goes wrong, he’ll answer for it. It won’t concern me.” Peng Yang understood instantly. This could be another chance for the vice president to gain the chairman’s trust. President Yu had forcibly taken the projects; if they failed, the chairman could hardly blame Wang Ning’an. He might even transfer more of President Yu’s authority to him.
“Then I’ll go to President Yu’s office and demand those files back right now.”
“Go ahead.” Wang Ning’an smiled and nodded. Peng Yang was quicker and better at reading his intentions than his previous assistant. That made his work much easier.
Peng Yang took the signed documents to the secretarial department and asked that they be distributed. As he turned to leave, Secretary Chen casually asked where he was going.
“To President Yu’s office.” Secretary Chen froze, and by the time she came to her senses, he was gone. Once she figured out what he meant, she told the other secretaries. Satisfied to hear them discussing it, she smiled and walked away on her towering heels. No one who survived in the business world was entirely naive.
News quickly spread that President Yu had seized files destined for Vice President Wang. Several people saw Peng Yang visit Yu Yong’s office to retrieve them, only to be driven away by Yu’s assistant. The assistant even boasted that all recent projects would be handled by President Yu and Vice President Wang could rest easy.
Yu Yong’s reputation as an incompetent fool was not an unfounded rumor. People had begun calling him that during his first month as president.
Back then, Yu Hongming had not realized just how incompetent his brother was. Yu Yong had actually signed a document in the wrong place, costing the company several million. Although that wasn’t a tremendous sum for the firm, Yu Hongming never entrusted important documents to him again.
Now President Yu was claiming responsibility for several major projects?
Almost nobody in the company expected him to succeed.
Peng Yang went to see him again later, pointing out that the projects were important and the chairman had already assigned them to the vice president. If something went wrong, who would take responsibility?
Yu Yong became furious. He might really be incompetent, but who enjoyed having that fact pointed out in public? For years, he had wanted to prove that he wasn’t an idiot. With Yu Hongming in control, however, he’d never been allowed near anything important. How could he demonstrate his abilities? Now his older brother seldom came to the office. This was his chance.
Peng Yang made three visits and was cursed out each time. Wang Ning’an eventually told him to deliver the projects’ supporting materials to Yu Yong so he could consult them before making decisions.
Yu Yong refused even that. He threw the documents at Peng Yang and ordered him out.
By the time Yu Hongming found out what had happened, disaster had already struck. One of the projects Yu Yong had insisted on controlling had gone wrong, and the consequences were anything but minor.
A seller approached Shenghui with an unverified medicine proposal. Wang Ning’an declined it, but the seller submitted the proposal again by email, and it ended up in the files Yu Yong had intercepted.
Yu Yong contacted the seller and demanded evidence. The seller produced staged testimonials and presented people pretending that the product had helped them. Their coordinated deception convinced Yu Yong.
Yu Yong paid a high price for the formula and secretly had his assistant approach a manufacturer about producing the claimed treatment in large quantities. He bypassed the usual departments because he wanted all the credit and ordered his assistant to tell no one. He also asked the publicity department to begin preparing an advertising campaign.
The publicity staff were puzzled. They had heard nothing about a new cancer treatment. Similar claims had been made about many medicines, but few truly worked. As a major pharmaceutical company, Shenghui needed to be especially cautious about every product it released.
When the publicity staff suggested consulting Wang Ning’an, Yu Yong became furious. He shouted that the company belonged to the Yu family and threatened to dismiss anyone who failed to obey him.
The publicity director still felt it was too risky to proceed. He sent word to Wang Ning’an, who advised them to agree verbally to Yu Yong’s request for the moment, simply to placate him. That satisfied Yu Yong, who eagerly resumed his secret project, setting the stage for disaster.
Yu Yong had his assistant find a cancer patient to take the purported medicine. He intended to present the patient publicly after several months if there was improvement. But the patient died before several months had passed. According to the subsequent examination, taking the wrong medicine had caused the cancer cells to spread, hastening the patient’s death. The family immediately reported the matter to the police and went to Shenghui’s headquarters to protest in tears. Newspapers carried the story the next day, causing an enormous uproar.
By the time Yu Hongming learned what had happened, the police had already taken Yu Yong away.
Yu Yong’s foolishness had inflicted huge losses and severely damaged Shenghui’s reputation. The authorities opened an investigation into the medicine. Yu Yong had arranged it privately, without even a certificate of compliance. Regulators also decided to examine Shenghui’s other medicines, one by one.
Newspapers competed to print stories declaring that Shenghui’s medicines had killed a patient. Consumers who read them became alarmed and refused to buy Shenghui products. Sales fell sharply that month.
Yu Hongming already knew how things had happened. There were many witnesses who could speak for Wang Ning’an, leaving him to direct his anger at his younger brother.
Yu Yong and his assistant were not held at the police station for long. They gave an account of events and handed over the formula. The police discovered it in their records from a previous fraud case involving a gang that specialized in swindling unsuspecting people. Other people had fallen for the same scheme before. After paying a fine, Yu Yong was released, only to face Yu Hongming’s fury.
“You really are something, you fucking idiot!” Yu Hongming slapped Yu Yong hard across the face, bitterly regretting having put this incompetent man in the president’s seat. He should never have left Yu Yong some authority merely to keep Wang Ning’an in check. Had he known this would happen, he might as well have promoted Wang Ning’an directly.
Yu Yong did not dare strike back or even argue. He had never seen his elder brother so furious and now understood just how serious the situation was.
At that moment, Yu Hongming’s secretary entered. “Chairman, we just received calls from several of our major long-term customers. They all want to return their orders.”
Shenghui’s major customers placed orders worth at least several million each, sometimes more than ten million. They ordered at least once a month, and those whose stock sold quickly might order twice. If these clients all returned their goods, inventory would pile up in warehouses. Even if they paid penalties, Shenghui would suffer tremendous losses.
Yu Hongming’s face and neck flushed with rage. He raised his hand and slapped Yu Yong again. “Look what you’ve done!”
“Chairman, what should we do? Customers keep demanding returns. At this rate, the company’s losses will be incalculable. We need a solution.”
The secretary sounded anxious.
“What does the vice president say?”
Yu Hongming asked.
“The vice president says he can’t do anything. He tried to stop President Yu at the time, but President Yu refused to listen and insisted on having his way, even using his rank to overrule him.” Seeing the chairman’s grim face, the secretary added in Wang Ning’an’s defense, “Actually, it’s thanks to the vice president that things weren’t even worse. If he hadn’t stopped President Yu from having the publicity department launch a promotional campaign, the impact on the company could have been much greater.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Yu Hongming had known nothing about this.
The secretary explained that Yu Yong had demanded that publicity promote the cancer medicine, and Wang Ning’an had made the staff agree only in appearance, thereby preventing the incident from becoming an even bigger fiasco.
Seeing the abrupt change in his brother’s expression, Yu Yong hastily protested, “Big Brother, Wang Ning’an really has designs on the company! He must have deliberately let me…”
Yu Hongming could bear no more and kicked him.