Chapter 64

After taking one day off, Jiang Yicen left work at the normal time the next day. He used his family's new concealer to cover the darkened marks—Nan Shuyi had applied it for him that morning, and the effect was quite good.

But before applying it, Nan Shuyi couldn't resist sucking on it a few more times, which made Jiang Yicen so angry that he shoved him out of the room, locked the door, and followed a makeup tutorial online to apply it himself. From the moment he left the house to arriving at the office, he didn't say a single word to Nan Shuyi.

Knowing he was in the wrong, Nan Shuyi not only carefully tried to appease him with smiles but also bought his favorite sandwich, making an effort to apologize.

This time, Jiang Yicen didn't indulge him. He kept giving him the cold shoulder, simply ignoring him since talking was useless. The more attention he gave Nan Shuyi, the more excited he got—like an excited puppy.

However, Nan Shuyi had his ways.

In the afternoon, he asked Jiang Yicen to join him for the first round of internal testing for the new product. But this testing wasn't at Nanyuan; instead, they had to go to Jiangda.

Nan Shuyi thought Jiang Yicen would ride with him in the car, but he ended up taking the company bus with his colleagues.

Nan Shuyi knew he had miscalculated.

This new product was originally part of Jiang Yicen's work scope, as it was a collaborative project with the Jiang family.

The new product developed by Jiangda had already entered its first round of internal testing. Today, everyone from Nanyuan involved in this project had to go and taste the new flavors. Meanwhile, Jiangda had also invited supply chain partners and private business owners to sample the new products. Many from Nanyuan were going too, even using the company bus.

Nan Anru officially handed over the new project to Nan Shuyi, and his authority at Nanyuan was gradually expanding.

Although Nan Shuyi was now the head of the marketing center, the new project also fell under his responsibility.

In the new project between Jiangda and Nanyuan, Nanyuan provided the funding, while Jiangda contributed the technology and production lines. Currently, Jiangda had to report the project's progress to Nanyuan periodically. The new project manager at Jiangda was now Jiang Yiting.

Nan Shuyi decisively abandoned his own car and, for the first time, boarded the company bus he had previously disliked.

Jiang Yicen wasn't sitting alone; next to him was Assistant An.

As soon as Nan Shuyi got on the bus, he saw that the area around Jiang Yicen was quite lively—there wasn't even a seat for him, so he had to reluctantly take a seat in the back.

Jiang Yicen was chatting with Assistant An.

He had gotten to know Assistant An over time and learned quite a bit about him.

Assistant An graduated from a prestigious university. He was a poor student sponsored by Nanyuan. After graduation, to repay Nanyuan, he became a capable assistant to Nan Anru. With his abilities, he could easily serve as the CEO of a listed company.

From his conversation, Jiang Yicen could tell that Assistant An was a young man of great knowledge and talent, able to effortlessly discuss any topic—much like his own learned older brother.

There were still many aspects of the new project that Jiang Yicen didn't understand, so he took the opportunity to ask Assistant An, learning a lot from him.

Although Assistant An was willing to answer his questions only because of his connection with the Nan family, that was unavoidable. Some favors had to be called in when necessary; at most, he could return the favor if Assistant An ever needed his help in the future.

Sitting in the back, Nan Shuyi's aura was as chilly as an air conditioner set to eighteen degrees Celsius. A certain director who had intended to sit next to him to curry favor silently moved a little farther away. If he had known Master Nan was in a bad mood, he wouldn't have sat there. Lately, there were rumors at the company that Master Nan had an excellent temper, often delivering food and drinks to their department, even sending dozens of makeup sets to female employees that morning. This made the director believe that Master Nan was as easygoing as the rumors suggested, conveniently forgetting how Nan Shuyi had sarcastically criticized other leaders during meetings.

Now he regretted it—never trust rumors blindly.

The group arrived at Jiangda before two o'clock.

This internal testing for the new product marked the beginning of exchanges between the two companies. The early development phase was led by Jiangda, while Nanyuan was only responsible for the initial investment.

Nanyuan's investment wasn't paid to Jiangda in one lump sum; instead, it was disbursed in stages. Only after passing Nanyuan's phased inspections would the next installment of funds be released. During this process, many detailed funds were involved, and Nanyuan also had to exercise oversight.

Before Nan Shuyi took over, the person in charge of the new project at Nanyuan was Hu Zheng, who was considered part of the "conservative faction." He was the overall head of the traditional beverage series, and everyone called him President Hu.

When getting off the bus, Nan Shuyi deliberately stood behind Jiang Yicen and quietly poked him in the waist, annoyed that he hadn't sat with him during the ride.

Jiang Yicen turned to look at him, moved his lips, and softly said two words: "Childish."

Nan Shuyi finally broke into a smile. Jiang Yicen's scolding wasn't really scolding—he always spoke so gently, his scolding didn't hurt. Of course, his punches really hurt.

Jiang Yicen wasn't a big name at Nanyuan. In fact, most people thought he was just a newcomer that Nan Shuyi wanted to groom, so no one paid much attention to him.

He simply stood behind the group.

Nan Shuyi and Assistant An—one was Nan Anru's son, the other his special assistant—both stood out wherever they went. Along with the person in charge, President Hu, the three were surrounded by a crowd at the center, while Jiang Yicen stood in a less noticeable spot in the back.

Among the welcoming party from Jiangda, the leading figure was Jiang Yiting.

He was wearing an expensive custom-tailored suit, quite eye-catching.

When Jiang Yiting was dressed up, he could look quite impressive: "Welcome, all Nanyuan leaders, to our Jiangda."

President Hu had dealt with him many times: "We're all old acquaintances, Little President Jiang."

At Jiangda, everyone called Jiang Gongming President Jiang and Jiang Yiting Little President Jiang—this was a common understanding.

President Hu had been interacting with them for a while, so he followed suit.

He suddenly slapped his forehead: "Ah, I feel a bit redundant here. Master Nan and Little President Jiang are brothers-in-law."

Master Nan had been in a good mood ever since getting off the bus. He didn't mind President Hu mentioning their "relationship"; instead, he said, "President Hu has a good memory. Little President Jiang is my brother-in-law."

Jiang Yiting smiled and followed along: "I didn't expect Shuyi to come today. Let's have a good chat later."

Nan Shuyi raised his eyebrows, a mysterious smile playing on his lips: "I'll give my brother-in-law a surprise later."

Jiang Yiting also greeted Assistant An, and under his guidance, the group headed to the new product testing hall for the day.

Many supply chain heads from various regions had already been invited and were present. Despite the large number of attendees, everything was well organized.

Jiang Yicen followed behind. When they entered the testing hall, the greeter at the entrance handed each of them a stack of forms.

"Please, sirs, taste our new products and rate them on the survey form. Jiangda thanks you for coming."

So it was a survey form. Jiang Yicen found this new product tasting quite interesting.

But with so many people, could the data be reliable? Could fairness and objectivity be guaranteed?

His doubts were soon resolved. He overheard Jiang Yiting explaining to President Hu, Assistant An, and Nan Shuyi up ahead.

"In addition to this initial internal testing, we'll conduct in-person surveys and adjust the flavors based on the results."

"We've developed hundreds of flavors across three series, with fifteen flavors selected from each series for everyone to taste. After combining feedback and survey results, we'll decide which ones to launch."

During this tasting event, Jiangda didn't just let them sample new products; they also introduced Jiangda's past achievements and background, likely hoping that Nanyuan would continue the collaboration.

Jiang Yicen felt that all this content was rather superficial, so instead of following the crowd around, he began seriously tasting the new flavors and scoring each one.

Three series, different flavors, targeting different customer groups.

The first series targeted sports-oriented new products; the second series was for conventional beverages; the third series focused on health-oriented new products, with a slightly functional twist—flavors like honeysuckle, chrysanthemum, and isatis root.

The marketing plan for this project was assigned to him, but since the new products weren't fully developed yet, he couldn't draft a plan. Besides, the Jiang family was taking the lead, and Nanyuan only needed to provide support.

He had asked Nan Shuyi why Nanyuan had chosen Jiangda back then.

Nan Shuyi joked that he had taken a liking to him. Jiang Yicen was speechless for a few seconds, then Nan Shuyi finally told him that Jiangda had an excellent beverage production line, which Nanyuan had high hopes for, and their R&D team was also decent, worth investing in.

Originally, Nanyuan wanted to acquire shares in Jiangda, but since Jiangda was a family business with disorganized internal management, they chose investment instead—partly because of the connection with Nan Shuyi and Jiang Yicen, and partly because Nanyuan acknowledged Jiangda's technology.

One providing technology, the other providing investment—it made sense.

However, the main reason Nan Anru signed off on this was to secure a good future for Nan Shuyi.

Next to each new flavor were tasting cups, with staff standing by to pour and hand the cups to tasters.

There was no need to engage in bureaucratic talk; just focusing on real work made being alone quite enjoyable.

The staff also handed out booklets that introduced the beverage formulas, processes, packaging positioning, and so on—probably intended for the supply chain attendees.

Jiang Yicen got down to tasting seriously from the first series, checking boxes on the survey form after each cup, and finally writing his opinions in the comments section.

If it were purely Jiangda's business, he wouldn't bother with this effort, but since Nanyuan had invested, every bit of help counted—the investment money couldn't go to waste.

Jiang Yicen was tasting diligently, recording meticulously.

When he reached the tenth cup, as his taste buds got mixed up, he asked a staff member for some water.

The staff member told him there was water in the rest area, where he could help himself or have a staff member bring it.

Jiang Yicen nodded and walked over there. Noticing that Nan Shuyi and Assistant An were still sticking to Jiangda's schedule, he went on his own, planning to come back later—it shouldn't matter.

The rest area was down a corridor, with a sign at the entrance indicating it was reserved for today's test guests.

He walked in, looking for a waiter to ask for water, but didn't see anyone. Instead, he heard laughter from the other end.

"Mr. Chen, since you've been on a reality show before, you must be able to sing and dance. How about putting on a little performance here? If you do, I'll reward you generously, and it might help ease your debt burden."

The person surrounded by a few young men was a young man in the same uniform as the staff in the tasting area.

It was clear he was being harassed.

If Jiang Yicen heard correctly, one of the speakers was Jiang Yifeng, and sitting next to him were likely sons of business owners—a bunch of typical playboys. Four or five of them sat around Jiang Yifeng, surrounding the young staff member, harassing and teasing him, completely shameless.

From their conversation, it seemed they knew the young staff member.

The staff member wasn't entirely submissive and knew how to stand up for himself: "Sorry, gentlemen, I'm here to work. Singing and dancing are just my personal hobbies."

One of the playboys said, "Didn't you only get into Jiangda because you know Lu Xiao? Do you know who the young master of Jiangda is?"

The staff member repeated the same answer, and his dismissive attitude angered the group.

At that moment, Jiang Yifeng deliberately dropped a cup full of juice to the floor.

He said mockingly, "Oops, sorry—my hand slipped. Could you clean that up?"

The staff member turned to get a mop, but someone suddenly grabbed his shoulder: "Where are you going?"

Staff member: "To get a mop."

Jiang Yifeng: "Get a mop? Just kneel and wipe it slowly. I heard you helped Lu Xiao clean up the wine he spilled at a bar last time. Isn't our Second Young Master worthy of that?"

The staff member asked patiently, "What exactly do you want? I don't recall offending the Second Master."

Jiang Yifeng: "But you're Lu Xiao's man, and this is my family's company. You don't know a thing—why are you working here at all? Just trying to freeload."

Playboy: "Mr. Chen, as long as you wipe the juice off the floor, we'll let you go back to work and earn money."

So who was Mr. Chen? Who was Lu Xiao?

Jiang Yicen had never heard of them.

However, the surname Lu rang a bell—Lu was the surname of Jiang Yiting and Jiang Yiting's mother, while the other half of Jiangda's business was under the Jiang name.

It was said that after Madam Lu divorced Jiang Gongming, she focused on tutoring the Lu family's eldest grandson and had him join Jiang's company to assist. On the surface, the future heir of the Lu family seemed to be Jiang Yiting, but whether he could keep that position depended on his biological mother's vote.

With such complicated relationships, no wonder Jiangda was such a mess.

Jiang Yicen had initially been misled by appearances, but as he learned more about these companies and the backgrounds of these people, he was secretly glad he hadn't waded into the muddy waters of Jiangda.

Just as Jiang Yifeng continued to humiliate Mr. Chen, Jiang Yicen stepped forward, raised his phone, and asked with feigned innocence, "Second Brother, what are you all doing here? Having fun?"

The first thing he had looked into after arriving in the modern world was the law—he knew to record video for evidence, as nothing was more direct.

Jiang Yifeng looked up, saw Jiang Yicen approaching with a smile, and tensed up all over.

"Jiang Yicen, what are you doing at Jiangda?"

Jiang Yicen continued holding up his phone and asked, "I'm here as a guest, Second Brother. Since Big Brother isn't here yet, won't you let me join in the fun?"

Jiang Yifeng thought, "..."

Jiang Yicen actually dared to threaten him. What a damn low move!