The other Division General Managers, including Vice President Wu, all turned their attention to Jian Hang. They thought to themselves, ‘Surely she’ll know her place and behave herself better in front of Elder Ji Xianggu this time.’

“These sales figures for the Fourth Division,” Ji Xianggu sighed.

Jian Hang readily admitted, “It’s truly a terrible sight. So today I wanted to discuss with Mr. Ji how to improve the taste of the carbonated drinks and boost sales.”

Upon hearing this, Ji Xianggu paused, looked up at the sales figures, and asked, “Improve the taste?”

Jian Hang nodded, “Yes.” She was used to getting straight to the point, “All the carbonated drinks currently on the market have too much carbonation, are not refreshing enough, and are hard to distinguish in terms of taste. There is not much difference between green grape flavor and green apple flavor.”

After she finished speaking, the atmosphere in the meeting room suddenly turned cold.

Jian Hang was the first person to publicly criticize and question the R&D center without holding back.

Ji Xianggu remained calm and did not respond.

Ignoring the strange looks from others, Jian Hang continued, “The poor sales of the Fourth Division products are 50% the responsibility of the Fourth Division, and the other 50% is due to the product itself. Reduce the amount of carbonation and increase the fruit flavor and smoothness, then Lemeng’s sparkling drinks will have a market.”

“Ms. Jian,” Zhong Yanyue couldn’t listen any longer. If Jian Hang continued, she might drive Ji Xianggu away, and then no one would be able to handle the situation.

She cited the blueberry juice from the Second Division as an example, saying, “When the blueberry juice was first launched, the distributors were not optimistic about it, but now it has become a best-selling beverage.”

She stopped there.

The problem wasn’t with the product itself; the biggest problem was with the sales team.

Jian Hang said, “Juice and carbonated drinks are two different things.”

Qin Moling crossed his legs, leaned back in his chair, and casually drank his water. Suddenly, he sat up straight, screwed on the lid, and without giving anyone else a chance to speak, looked at Jian Hang, “If we do it your way, do reduce the bubbles, then the texture will be too soft, not much different from the soda water from the First Division. If we add fruit flavor, the fruit flavor will be too strong and it will become the juice series from the Second Division.”

Jian Hang met his cold gaze. “Whether the amount of bubbles is large or small, whether the fruit flavor is strong or weak, as long as the degree is well controlled, it can’t become soda water or juice.”

Qin Moling retorted, “How do you control this level? If you don’t control it well, it’ll become like the carbonated beverage of the Third Division. In that case, what’s the point of having the Fourth Division? I told you before that R&D is my bottom line; there’s no room for negotiation, and it’s not negotiable.”

Jian Hang calmly replied, “I know. But…”

Qin Moling interrupted her, “Since you know, then think about how to market it, instead of just shifting the responsibility to the R&D center.”

He controlled his tone, his eyes filled with restraint, and looked at her, saying, “You’re just the General Manager of the Fourth Division, know your place.”

Jian Hang’s fingertips hovered above the laptop keyboard, then slightly retracted.

Qin Moling noticed her subtle movements, and his Adam’s apple bobbed. “Let’s rest for ten minutes first. Ms. Jian, come with me to the conference room next door.”

Jian Hang closed her notebook and said to Ji Xianggu before leaving, “Mr. Ji, let’s continue our conversation later.”

Others: “…”

Even after all this, she still wouldn’t give up.

Upon arriving at the next meeting room, Jian Hang remained silent.

She was calming herself down; it wasn’t easy to completely separate her husband from her boss.

She was once hit in the face with a court summons by a senior executive of Yinlin. The summons was in a file folder, and the folder was thrown at her. She was stunned at the time.

Compared to that incident, what did what Qin Moling say to her today amount to?

Qin Moling looked at the person in front of him and said, “Jian Hang, before you came to Lemeng, I told you that the R&D center’s authority could not be given to the Divisions. That would cause chaos.”

“I know.” Jian Hang looked at him. “If you ask me to assume the role of a wife, I will definitely do so consciously. I will always be mindful of my boundaries, know who I am, and know what I shouldn’t even dream of. But as the General Manager of the Fourth Division, I know I may be overestimating myself, yet I still have to try. I’m sorry.”

She quickly composed herself, flicking her wristwatch, “Was this watch a gift from President Qin or my husband?”

“It’s for my wife.”

“Okay.”

Jian Hang never expected that the first time she would hear him call her ‘wife’ would be at a time like this. She glanced at her watch, “Then I’ll accept it. Don’t send me anything in Mr. Qin’s name again, and don’t come to my office during lunch break. Remember your position as my boss.”

“… Jian Hang!”

“Call me Ms. Jian. The one who is having a disagreement with you right now is Ms. Jian, not Jian Hang.”

Jian Hang didn’t have time to talk to him much. “I still need to go see Mr. Ji. I heard he often leaves halfway through a meeting.”

She stepped aside and passed by him.

The only sound in the conference room was the static of everyone’s laptops.

Ji Xianggu took off his reading glasses, pressed his brow bone, and stared intently at his notebook.

Everyone could see that he was actually thinking of something and not really looking at anything.

Vice President Wu sighed inwardly. This time, Jian Hang has completely offended the R&D center and Ji Xianggu.

No one was a saint, and no one liked to be criticized or blamed. Anyone would be angry if they were told the product they worked hard on was worthless.

“Mr. Ji,” Jian Hang sat back down.

Ji Xianggu put on his glasses. “Go on,” he said.

Jian Hang said, “It’s still a matter of the texture of the bubbles.”

Ji Xianggu told her to stop, “If you want to reduce the bubbles, have you considered that you will lose consumers who like lots of bubbles? It’s not worth it.”

“There will be no loss.”

“Tell me.”

“What if we add a shaking step. If you want less bubbles, just drink it straight away and enjoy the fruity flavor in the delicate, gentle bubbles. If you want more bubbles, especially for young people after exercise who crave the stimulating sensation of lots of bubbles, then shake it a few more times. This added shaking step can also become a selling point and promotional element for our product.”

Vice President Wu interjected, “President Jian, have you considered the issue of air pressure in the bottle after shaking? Who would buy a product that sprays out immediately upon opening?”

When Vice President Wu asked that question, everyone mentally rejected Jian Hang’s suggestion—they originally thought she had come up with some brilliant idea.

Ji Xianggu gestured towards Jian Hang with his chin, “Go on, since you brought this up, you must have thought of a solution.”

“Improve the bottle opening design, change it to a press-type, or add a pressure relief valve.” Speaking of this, Jian Hang hooked her laptop to the projector said, “This product should be positioned as: Vibrant, Healthy, and S

tylish.”

Qin Moling walked slowly to his seat. He had heard everything Jian Hang had said.

He looked at the large screen, where three large words were magnified countless times on the projector. They looked extremely impressive.

Ji Xianggu suddenly took off his glasses, put them in their case, stuffed them into his cloth bag, and repeated, “‘Vibrant,’ ‘Healthy,’ ‘Stylish’—that’s how it should be. Xiao Jian’s idea is good; I’ll go back and discuss it with them.”

He was busy packing the documents into a bag, and without even looking up, he told Qin Moling, “You guys continue with your meeting.”

Having finally taken the second step, Jian Hang took a deep breath, picked up her water glass and drank about half of it.

She wasn’t this nervous when she closed the distributors accounts last time.

Ji Xianggu walked up to Jian Hang and handed her his phone, saying, “Scan my QR code to add me on WeChat. We can communicate promptly if needed in the future.”

Zhong Yanyue looked at Ji Xianggu in disbelief. She had heard the former general manager of the Second Division say that Ji Xianggu never added any people from any Division.

After adding each other’s contact information, Ji Xianggu strode out of the conference room, but after a few steps he turned back to the door. “Xiao Jian, you might as well not attend the meeting here. What do you think you can possibly get out of talking to them?”

Everyone: “…”

Ji Xianggu waved his hand and said, “Come on, follow me. I’ll take you to see the R&D center.”

Marriage First, Love Later translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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T/N: Sigh. I wish I liked Zhong Yanyue better. She’s just so… tedious. I can’t sympathize with her at all.

As for Jian Hang, I know she wants to separate her husband from her boss, but I do wonder how many of her bosses did she ever walk out on after they called her to their office to scold her? 😂

KO-FI has unpublished my page and denied my appeal. Some of you have been supporting me from Day 1 and I can’t even reach out because Ko-fi won’t let me DM my subscribers. I hope your coffee is always hot and your pillow cold on both sides. Much, much love.

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