Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After watching Maddie leave, Tina suddenly turned to glance at Zhang Lisheng before saying with a spurious smile, “Lisheng, it seems that this beautiful secretary who has been through thick and thin together with you has a very unusual feeling for you. No wonder you’ll mistakenly call me by her name.”
“It’s an accident this time. And it’s actually my fault for forgetting to lock the door yesterday. However, speaking of which, Maddie is already the secretary of LS’ Board of Directors so she should have long moved out of my office building. I’ll inform Charlie later to arrange a separate office for her…” Zhang Lisheng smiled unnaturally and said as he tried to conceal it. However, it would never cross his mind that his words would actually produce a counterproductive effect.
“The secretary of LS’ Board of Directors? That is to say, your former secretary has suddenly become a formal member of the Board of Directors of a ‘super company’ that is about to reach a net worth of tens of billions USD? What a huge and surprising ‘leap’ this is!”
“I’ve also given the same ‘leap’ to Charlie and Edward…” Zhang Lisheng pretended to shrug in a careless manner and just as he did not know how to continue his words, a charred meat smell suddenly filled his nostrils. “Tina, your meat is burnt!”
“Oh, it’s wasted now!” The girl was stunned. When she turned around and saw that the steak in the pan had become black charcoal, she hastily turned off the power of the induction cooker in an irritated manner.
“It doesn’t matter, there should be cold half-cooked burgers in the refrigerator. We can eat it after heating it up in the microwave.” Zhang Lisheng quietly breathed a sigh of relief and after ransacking the refrigerator for a while, he found a bunch of cold burgers sealed in paper bags and threw them into the microwave oven. “Go and take a bath first. Change your clothes and Charlie may come to pick us up at the airport in a while.”
“Okay.” Tina walked into the bathroom with a sullen look. Watching her disappearing back, Zhang Lisheng quickly picked and put on a casual shirt from his closet that looked stylish and had a lot of pockets. Then, he hastily picked up the phone on the desk and dialed Charlie’s number. “Charlie, I’m already awake. Have you prepared the flight and the route already?”
“Of course, boss! I’m on my way to the factory to meet you right now. We’ll fly directly to Chicago from JFK at 10.30am,” Charlie replied in a hurry, he sounded like he was driving.
“That’s good, I’ll wait for you.” Zhang Lisheng hung up the phone and only left behind one wizard gu, Beetlecar, in the underground trench of the New York factory. He commanded the other wizard gus to shrink and turn invisible with his mind and climb into the office before entering the various pockets on his body with a rustling sound.
At this time, Tina, who felt very hungry, had already finished taking her quick shower. Drying her wet hair, she pushed the door of the bathroom and walked out just in time to see many small strange insects climbing onto her boyfriend’s body before disappearing, causing her to shudder right away. “Baby, are you bringing so many ‘little pets’ for our US trip this time?”
“Of course! The ultimate goal of this trip is to have them ‘build a nest’ in the right place.” Zhang Lisheng shrugged.
“Oh, in that case, this must be a terrifying trip then!” Tina dried her hair and found a red form-fitting dress that showed off her beautiful figure in her suitcase. She walked up to Zhang Lisheng and stared into his eyes affectionately. “However, as long as you’re by my side, I’ll be willing to go anywhere!”
The atmosphere became delicate and ambiguous right away, however, it was interrupted by the sudden ‘ding’ of the microwave.
“The burgers are done. Charlie is also coming soon,” Zhang Lisheng said softly.
“Then we’ll continue in the evening.” Tina gently kissed her boyfriend’s lips and ran to the microwave oven to take out a burger in a dining tray before saying happily, “Lisheng, I only need one beef burger. The rest is yours!”
OK, but we may have to eat in the car…” Zhang Lisheng said after calculating the time. Sure enough, before he could even finish his words, a creaking sound resonated from outside the office.
It was none other than Charlie. When the LS general manager saw that Tina was also here when he opened the door, he did not show a surprised expression on his face. Instead, he joked, “Miss Tina, good morning! If I had known earlier that you’d go too, I’d have directly borrowed a plane from Mr. Dolby and asked him to adjust the route so that we don’t have to make so many detours.”
“Good morning, Mr. Charlie. It’s fortunate that you didn’t do that or I’m afraid Lisheng would have to go to this US trip all by himself,” Tina answered humorously. “I’ll be taken away by my father, you’ll be fired by your boss. ”
“That’s true. Even if Mr. Lisheng doesn’t dismiss me, I’ll also have to resign because of my stupidity!” Charlie laughed as he replied. Then, he turned his eyes towards Zhang Lisheng and his attitude changed right away. “Boss, the car is already downstairs.”
“Let’s go then!” Zhang Lisheng nodded. The three of them went down to the first floor and when they were about to leave the office building, Tina suddenly seemed to be casually pointing to the desk in the reception hall where the owner had temporarily disappeared and said, “Mr. Charlie, this is Miss Maddie’s desk right? Your ‘big boss’ just said that since she’s now the board secretary of the LS Group, she should have her own office already.”
“Oh, I’ve indeed neglected this…” Charlie was stunned for a moment before shaking his head and blaming himself immediately.
An extended black Maybach 62, was waiting outside. It was the newly added limousine for the LS Group. Zhang Lisheng pretended not to hear his girlfriend and Charlie’s conversation as he entered the car.
There were only two rows of seats in the car that was more than seven meters long. The seats for the driver and co-driver were only the seats for ordinary luxury cars but the rear seats were the same with the first-class airline seats of an aircraft. One could imagine just how comfortable it was.
Even after Tina had entered it, she could not help but say in an admirable tone. “It’s very common to have an airline seat in a limousine but this is my first time sitting on a first-class airline seat in a limousine! This really feels like a limousine for a nouveau riche.”
Upon hearing the girl’s words, Charlie, who was sitting in the co-driver seat, hurriedly turned around and said with a smile, “Miss Tina, I only thought of giving the boss the most comfortable enjoyment when I was ordering this car and I didn’t consider too much of the other things…”
“Charlie, don’t listen to Tina. She’s joking,” Zhang Lisheng interrupted the LS general manager’s explanation. “Let us talk about something else. You must also know about the incident where the Karlado people from the foreign world has leased three Cape Town provinces from South Africa by force right? What do you think of this?”
“Oh, this is a very tough question of non-linear thinking, boss!” The car started to drive out of the factory slowly and Charlie turned around to answer contemplatively. “First of all, I think this kind of thing doesn’t have much impact on my life so I’m only a bit worried. How should I say this? Since now that the foreign world’s civilization can plunder South Africa’s land by force, then one day, who knows, there may be one stronger foreign world civilization that emerges out of nowhere to invade the US too. Not only that, I feel like our pride is injured as well. After all, the US is the most powerful country on this planet and also the leader of this free world! However, we just let our planet be invaded just like that so, many people find this to be emotionally unacceptable…”
“Even if the reason the US allows the Earth to be invaded by the foreign world is because the US has spent too much military power to invade other ‘worlds’?” Zhang Lisheng asked with a grin.
“Boss, these are two different things…” Charlie blurted out. However, after he had said so, he could not find any excuse to continue his sentence.
Zhang Lisheng looked at this speechless short and fat middle-aged man face-to-face before shaking his head. “They are the same thing, Charlie. There’s one saying in China that says, the big fish will eat the small fish while the small fish will eat the shrimps. The food chain is spread out in such a manner. Unfortunately, our Earth may not be at the top of this ‘food chain’.”
“Oh, boss! Y-You’re making me panic now.” Charlie became silent for a moment before suddenly saying, “Actually, after many US civilians around me found out that South Africa has been successfully invaded by the foreign world’s people, the first thing that they felt was panic, fear, and horror. It’s just that nobody wants to admit it, nobody wants to admit their weakness…”
“I’m sorry, Charlie,” Zhang Lisheng said apologetically. Then, he looked out of the window and no longer said any word all the way to the airport.
The LS Group had chartered a Boeing Business Jet BBJ 737 that was worth about 80 million dollars. The internal area was three times than that of an ordinary long-distance business jet.
The cabin that was originally designed to accommodate more than 130 people only had 16 seats inside due to the reason that it was a business jet. For this reason, it seemed as though it would not be a problem for one to throw a ‘party’ inside as well.
After boarding through the VIP channel, the spacious internal structure of the BBJ737 clearly left a good impression on Zhang Lisheng as he sat on the beige-colored seat by the window and leaned comfortably on the backrest. Casually staring off into the distance at the ‘iron birds’ that were taking off and landing in the airport, he praised, “I didn’t expect a private aircraft would be much more comfortable than the first-class seat in a regular flight. Looks like I’m a really ignorant and ill-informed science madman. ”
“Boss, if you like it, I’ll order one immediately…”
“I like many things, Charlie.” The young man stretched himself lazily under the bright sunshine. “Just because I like it a lot, it doesn’t mean that I must have it all. Still, a plane is not a luxury so in that case, book three then. One for me, one for Tina, and one for the group.”
“W-We don’t need it, boss!” When Charlie heard it, he immediately replied with a wry expression.
Three Boeing Business Jet BBJ737s plus cabin decorations would cost about 300 million dollars. The LS Group had only one or two million dollars of circulating funds after the expansion so it should still be enough for the deposit payment for one plane but it was absolutely impossible for it to afford three.
Most importantly, other than the factory in New York that had been fully operating and raking in great profit, the remaining eight factories of the group in the eight metropolitan cities would still need to be slowly operated. It was necessary to accumulate a large amount of reserve funds and this was also the practice of large companies.
Taking out 300 million dollars at this moment to buy planes might seem insignificant compared to the company’s value, but it was still a very crazy move at the level of capital operation.
“Charlie, after the completion of the expansion of the factory, hadn’t you estimated it to be able to raise at least more than 10 billion dollars in cash through the sale of stocks? 300 million should not be a problem, right?” Upon seeing his manager’s expression, Zhang Lisheng asked in confusion.
