TYRPSM Chapter12

Feeling apprehensive, Manager Zhao knew that Nie Yunshen’s word was an imperial edict in the Risk Control Department. The consequences of defying such an edict were severe so he resigned himself to his fate and picked up his pace to finish his current tasks, preparing himself to accompany the “Emperor” on his inspection tour.

To his surprise, less than two minutes after “Emperor Nie” had gone inside, he suddenly called out, asking him to bring the Xinshan files into his office.

Since the amount for this project wasn’t large, Xiao Zhao had been the one in charge of following up on the approval process; Nie Yunshen knew very little about this case. Reviewing the company’s current status before a site visit was the bare minimum level of respect shown to a client.

Xinshan was an upstream supplier for real estate companies, primarily engaged in the design, production, and installation of doors, windows, and steel structures. Due to the unique nature of the industry, the payment cycles and settlement processes for both upstream and downstream were quite long. For some government projects, the final paying entity and the contracting entity might not even be the same. Therefore, every single transaction had to be verified against bank statements. The documentation was complex, filling two thick FC expanding folders.

Xiao Zhao placed the two stacks of files on Nie Yunshen’s desk tremblingly. However, as if intimidated by Director Nie’s powerful aura, the top folder suddenly slid forward, knocking over the coffee cup resting beside it.

—The backup phone he had just switched to this morning was now soaking directly in coffee.

A deathly silence filled the office.

Xiao Zhao’s legs went weak and he nearly collapsed to his knees. He felt deep down that he must have failed to check the lunar almanac before leaving the house or perhaps he hadn’t prayed enough at the temple this year; otherwise, how could he be cursed with such incredibly bad timing!

“Di… Director Nie… I-I-I didn’t do it on purpose…”

Nie Yunshen silently picked up the coffee-soaked phone and gave it a shake. This backup phone hadn’t been high quality to begin with; now, after a full cup of coffee, it had completely given up and was in its final death throes.

Watching the screen flicker once and then go completely black, Xiao Zhao’s scalp tingled with dread. He immediately blurted out, “I’ll pay for a new one!”

Nie Yunshen waved a hand with an air of weary resignation. “Forget it. Just get out.”

Xiao Zhao left with his heart pounding like a drum. Nie Yunshen pulled out a few tissues to wipe the coffee off his desk, then stared at the new phone Shu An had sent, thinking silently: Is the universe really forcing me to accept this gift?

Looking at the situation, it seemed he had no other choice.

He sighed before picking up the box for the new phone, unboxing it, inserted his SIM card, then activated it. Once he had downloaded his usual apps and logged into WeChat, the very first thing he did was transfer 10,000 yuan to Shu An.

A minute later, Shu An replied with three question marks.

Nie Yunshen tapped out a message and fired it off: “If you don’t take the money, I’m smashing the phone, packaging and all, right into your face.”

Shu An was silent for a while. Realizing that Nie Yunshen was probably entirely capable of doing exactly that, he helplessly accepted the payment and replied, “There’s really no need to be so formal. It’s not like I haven’t received things from you before.”

Nie Yunshen: “???”

What the hell was that supposed to mean? This guy scammed him out of his body, and now he’s gloating about it?

Shu An didn’t reply again and Nie Yunshen couldn’t be bothered with him further either. Seeing that the thirty minutes were up and he hadn’t read a single word of the client’s information, the professional Director Nie simply pulled out the BCA and headed out the door, planning to read it in the car.

In addition to Xiao Zhao, the group included a risk control assistant and the RM¹Relationship Manager from the Business Department who was responsible for the Xinshan account.

When Du Cheng found out that Nie Yunshen was going to inspect this case personally, his jaw nearly hit the floor. He immediately summoned the RM to ask if there was something wrong with the file.

The RM shook her head like a rattle, repeatedly guaranteeing that there were no issues. For such a small case, she’d already spent two or three months on it; if there were still problems, she might as well offer her head on a silver platter.

Du Cheng stroked his chin and pondered for a long time, unable to figure out which of Nie Yunshen’s nerves had misfired today. Ultimately, he could only instruct the RM to make sure she served this “Great Buddha” well and to keep her eyes and ears open to see exactly what kind of mischief Director Nie was up to.

The RM flashed an “OK” sign, grabbed her bag, and followed right after Director Nie. The group then departed the office in a grand, sweeping procession.

Xinshan Company was located in the western suburbs of Z City, adjacent to the neighboring D City. It was nearly a ninety-minute drive from the city center, meaning there was no way Nie Yunshen would make it back before the end of the workday.

CEO Shu, however, had no idea. Having announced his intention to “court” Nie Yunshen, he felt he should behave the part. Though Shu An had zero experience in pursuing someone—especially another man—he figured it all boiled down to the same old routines including dinner, dates, and gifts. There weren’t many new tricks under the sun; in that regard, men and women were probably alike.

And so, the perpetually busy CEO Shu did something unprecedented: he left the office early and drove to F Bank, intending to take Nie Yunshen out for dinner after work.

Yet he waited from 5:30 to 6:30 and then from 6:30 to 7:30 without catching a single glimpse of Director Nie at all. Shu An sent two WeChat messages but received no reply. Finally, seeing how late it had become, he couldn’t help but call only for the phone to ring and ring with no one picking up.

Shu An frowned, slightly unsure whether Nie Yunshen was truly buried in work or intentionally avoiding him. Just as he was debating whether to head upstairs to find him, he turned his head and spotted Du Cheng walking out of the building.

He stepped out of his car and greeted Du Cheng, asking if Nie Yunshen was still at work.

Du Cheng looked completely bewildered. “He went to the suburbs for a site inspection; he probably isn’t coming back to the office today. Are you waiting for him, CEO Shu?”

Shu An maintained a calm, subtle smile. “No, I just happened to be passing by and thought I’d grab a casual dinner with an old classmate. I couldn’t get through to his phone so I assumed he was still working late.”

“He’s been out since noon,” Du Cheng laughed. “Risk control people often have to head out for site visits. If you want to grab him for a meal, you’ve got to give him a heads-up in advance.”

Shu An nodded and offered a polite “thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Du Cheng said. “Though today was truly an anomaly. I don’t know what got into that guy surnamed Nie; he ran off to a project that didn’t even require his presence faster than anyone else.”

Shu An paused and was slightly startled. “You mean… he wasn’t originally supposed to go on a site visit today?”

“Exactly. It’s just a small project worth a few tens of millions; there’s no reason for a high-and-mighty director like him to make the trip personally.”

Shu An softly uttered two words: “Is that so?”

“I’m telling you,” Du Cheng shook his head with a laugh. “Maybe our Business Department’s performance has been so poor lately that Director Nie has no cases to review. He must be bored out of his mind.”

Shu An’s lips curved into a slight smile. “You’re being far too modest, Director Du. Just after I returned to the country, I heard my father praising you as a young and promising leader with outstanding abilities, noting how much effort you’ve put into the Lans Group over the years. I had originally planned to find a suitable time to invite you to dinner; since we’ve run into each other today, there’s no time like the present. I hope you’ll do me the honor.”

As the project lead for the Lans Group account, Du Cheng naturally had no reason to refuse Shu An’s invitation. He readily hopped into the car and they headed to a well-known Spanish restaurant in the city.

Meanwhile, Nie Yunshen’s group had arrived at the Xinshan factory past four o’clock. They toured the various workshops to understand production conditions and staff morale as they were accompanied by the owner. They inspected the inflow and outflow processes and cycles for the raw materials and finished goods warehouses, a circuit that took over half an hour. Finally, they returned to the office to share some tea and conversation with the owner.

Beyond the physical inspection of the site, verifying company credentials, and auditing financial data, the most critical part of a site visit is actually the conversation with the boss.

Everything from the company’s current status and future outlook, industry bottlenecks, and the flow of funds to project cycles, repayment sources, product advantages, and market environment, and even the executive backgrounds, equity ratios, and the boss’s personal hobbies or private life, must be pieced together bit by bit through casual dialogue.

Any business owner who has managed to scale a company to a certain size is an experienced “fox”. Out of every ten sentences they speak, nine are a mix of truth and lies. Most of the information requires risk control personnel to perform their own analysis to sniff out hidden red flags. This is where a risk officer’s insight and professional intuition are really put to the test. Consequently, the most exhausting part of every site visit isn’t the travel or the physical inspection, but the mental strain of staying 120% sharp while engaging in a battle of wits and courage with these old foxes.

Although it was only a small project, the moment Nie Yunshen arrived on-site, he automatically switched into his rigorous professional mode. To him, there was no fundamental difference between a 20-million-yuan case and a 200-million-yuan case when it came to risk control. The inspections, the verifications, the negotiations, and the due diligence—not a single item could be treated lightly. Over the course of several hours, he gained a crystal-clear understanding of Xinshan’s current operations, financial status, upstream and downstream credentials, settlement cycles, factory capacity, and employee wages. He even managed to fish out how many children the owner had and whether he was keeping a mistress on the side.

The group didn’t leave the Xinshan premises until after six o’clock, and as luck would have it, they hit the evening rush hour. By the time they returned to the city center, it was already past eight.

Xiao Zhao and the RM still had to head back to the office to organize the files, so Nie Yunshen dropped them off at the bank entrance and only then did he finally find a moment to check his phone.

Shu An’s WeChat avatar indicated two unread messages. He clicked in; the first was, “Want to grab dinner tonight?” The second was, “Are you off work?”

He checked the timestamps on the messages: the first at 5:45, the second at 6:30.

Exiting WeChat, he noticed a missed call from Shu An at 7:20.

Nie Yunshen was so hungry his stomach was sticking to his back so he instinctively started to call back. But with his thumb hovering over the screen, he suddenly remembered what the other party had said at noon. He checked the time again, it was already 8:30; the other party had likely finished eating long ago.

Nie Yunshen turned off the screen and tossed the phone aside before starting the car and drove off. Having no idea what to eat alone, he silently went home and dug out a bucket of instant noodles.

While waiting for the noodles to soak, Director Nie sprawled on the sofa like a salted fish and scrolled through his Moments.

His parents were in Iceland watching the aurora;

His eldest brother and sister-in-law were showing off their son;

Du Cheng was out eating and drinking with someone… wait, why did the person sitting across from Du Cheng look so familiar?

“Salted Fish” Nie sat up straight before tapping the photo to zoom in. Even though it showed only a profile, he was sure, absolutely certain, that it was Shu An!

What the hell did this mean? Why were Du Cheng and Shu An having dinner together? Had he received a fake WeChat message? Was Shu An not actually trying to ask him out for dinner?

Du Cheng had captioned the photo: “Diamond-tier tall, rich, and handsome. Keyword: SINGLE!”

Below it, a crowd of people were frantically liking the post, with many female colleagues commenting that they wanted to pursue him.

Nie Yunshen, who was already harboring a stomach full of irritation from having nothing to eat, was now bordering on pure rage.

Single my ass! He was in bed with me the day before yesterday, confessed to me yesterday, and just said he was going to pursue me today! And now he’s f*cking single?!

Director Nie felt like he was about to cough up a mouthful of blood, completely failing to consider why exactly he was this angry.

He jumped up with a bang, then rushed to the dining table, snapped a photo of the bucket of instant noodles and posted it to his Moments in a fit of utter grief and indignation.

---

Unlock advance chapters HERE!