The tactics once used against Ye Qiusuo, Zhang Chengjue now got to experience himself, and the taste was exceptionally unpleasant.
Over the years, the company had seen many researchers come and go, buried in their projects. Many didn't even know their own monthly salary, their minds and eyes filled only with experiments. Having seen this often, Zhang Chengjue naturally took Ye Qiusuo for this kind of person; otherwise, the company wouldn't have remained under his control for so long.
He never imagined that Ye Qiusuo would not only retaliate but also turn his own methods back on him.
"Have you been waiting for this opportunity all along?" Zhang Chengjue questioned Ye Qiusuo, his eyes full of disbelief, as if betrayed.
Ye Qiusuo said calmly, "Good advice is wasted on those doomed to perish."
"This company has your share too. Don't you know how devastating the failure of this project would be for the company?" Zhang Chengjue challenged.
"So..." Ye Qiusuo lowered her gaze to her newly scabbed fingertips, a faint smile curling at the corner of her lips before she looked back at Zhang Chengjue, "Now I'm cleaning up your mess."
Zhang Chengjue: "..."
Among the five people in the conference room, apart from Ye Qiusuo, perhaps only Song Jiren remained somewhat calm.
After all, from the very beginning, he had been neutral, not blindly following Zhang Chengjue.
A shareholder should just collect dividends; meddling in all that messy business was pointless.
Moreover, Song Jiren understood clearly what the rise of Tianqiu Tech was truly built upon.
Even a pig can fly if it stands in the right wind.
If Ye Qiusuo was that powerful wind, then Zhang Chengjue was the pig on the wind's edge. Once the wind stops, the pig is bound to fall to its death.
With the dilution of shares, Ye Qiusuo became the company's largest shareholder, reclaiming decision-making power. Zhang Chengjue's original ID card was revoked; he didn't even get to keep the purple one, instead receiving a white ID card like the other shareholders.
Zhang Chengjue could still go to the office, but there was nothing left for him to handle. He could, like the other shareholders, not come to the company unless necessary, only needing to vote in major meetings and collect dividends in the future.
If Zhang Chengjue were the type to quietly accept dividends, he wouldn't have done such things in the first place. This blow hit him extremely hard.
After this shareholder meeting, Zhang Chengjue still came to the company every day. He wanted to see how Ye Qiusuo, an academic researcher, could manage the company without him handling all matters, big and small.
However, reality defied Zhang Chengjue's expectations.
Ye Qiusuo not only kept the company running, but she also acted with a heavy hand.
It had taken him two years to bring in new people, yet Ye Qiusuo uprooted them effortlessly.
First, she purged the company's security personnel and reinforced all systems, restoring Tianqiu Tech to its former impenetrable state.
Back when Ye Qiusuo heard Lu Minglang's probing, she knew Tianqiu Tech's internal stability was compromised. For a tech company, information leaks are the greatest taboo, and at worst, they lead to technology theft.
Next, all researchers hired in the past two years were re-screened, a task Ye Qiusuo handled personally.
Anyone unqualified was dismissed immediately, with compensation paid on the spot.
Researchers who were just there for credentials or experience were kicked out, and those with questionable backgrounds were also filtered out one by one.
"Professor Ye, is this your way of getting revenge?" Ye Qiusu stormed in, resignation letter in hand, to confront her.
Previously, she only knew Ye Qiusuo as one of Tianqiu Tech's earliest batch of researchers, unaware she was a major shareholder. Ye Qiusuo had always kept a low profile; old-timers in the company weren't big on gossip, and newcomers didn't know about this.
It wasn't until Zhang Chengjue was ousted and became a dividend-collecting shareholder that everyone learned Ye Qiusuo was the company's largest shareholder.
"Revenge for what?" Ye Qiusuo removed her glasses; she had been reviewing researchers' files all day.
"I..." Ye Qiusu was at a loss for words. She couldn't very well say she had subtly targeted her at the university.
As women in the same field, Ye Qiusu had once been the center of attention. Because she was female, everything she did was prefixed with 'beautiful.' Admittedly, Ye Qiusu enjoyed this label; it made her feel special.
But now she was in her forties, her youth faded, and suddenly Ye Qiusuo appeared. Yet, no one specifically pointed out Ye Qiusuo's gender. Logically, Ye Qiusu should have been pleased, but now she understood one thing: all these years, the so-called 'beautiful professor' title actually carried undertones of discrimination and gossip.
"I want to know why you're making me leave." Ye Qiusu suppressed her anger. Joining Tianqiu Tech had brought her too many benefits; her recent appointment as department head was also closely tied to her position at Tianqiu Tech, signifying full recognition of her abilities.
"This project has no research value." From her review these past days, Ye Qiusuo didn't realize the company had so many messy projects. Take Ye Qiusu's project, for instance. Not only had it been researched before, but Ye Qiusu herself had done it five years ago. Now, with a name change, it actually got approved at Tianqiu Tech.
"The project isn't finished yet. How can you say it has no research value?" Ye Qiusu sneered. "Professor Ye, that's not the attitude a researcher should have."
Ye Qiusuo looked seriously at this department head. "Perhaps the department head would like to discuss this project in detail with me?"
Ye Qiusu: "..."
At this point, anyone with real substance would have stepped up to discuss it with Ye Qiusuo.
Unfortunately, Ye Qiusu felt a pang of guilt. She really was just riding on her long-established reputation.
Tianqiu needed renowned researchers, and she needed to borrow Tianqiu Tech's prestige. In theory, they could have coexisted peacefully.
Ye Qiusuo reached out, brushed aside her silver chain, picked up her glasses and put them back on, lowering her head to look at the documents on the desk. "If there's nothing else, department head, you may leave."
Strictly speaking, Ye Qiusu wasn't a Tianqiu Tech employee, as her main job was at Huajing University. If Tianqiu terminated the project, they might not even need to pay compensation.
Zhao Guiyin was about to knock and enter when he bumped into Ye Qiusu storming out, unusually furious. Her usual elegant demeanor was gone, replaced only by a look of humiliation.
He watched her leave, deep in thought.
Presumably, Ye Qiusuo had been rather direct.
Since being recruited, compared to Zhang Chengjue, who became increasingly blinded by power, Zhao Guiyin had always seen things clearly.
Ye Qiusuo appeared upright and steady, but in reality, her methods were formidable. When dealing with people of little threat, she was always blunt and direct, seeming to lack cunning. But if her bottom line was crossed, she could effortlessly seize their weaknesses and then act.
Zhang Chengjue forgot, but he didn't.
When the project that propelled Tianqiu Tech's meteoric rise was still in the experimental phase, two key researchers were bribed separately. One company even rushed to be the first to release a product.
And then?
Just as everyone was furious, feeling years of effort were wasted, that company's product suddenly encountered frequent problems. The other company's product was still on the production line, unsure whether to proceed or halt.
Both companies had poured vast amounts of capital into it, and it all went down the drain.
At that moment, Ye Qiusuo produced another product, casually remarking, "There were still some issues with the previous one that weren't resolved. Now it's ready."
No one knew that the hard-earned achievements from back then contained flaws.
And Ye Qiusuo had known about the researchers' issues from the start; she had just pretended not to.
Back then, Zhao Guiyin understood one thing: a person whose intellect borders on the supernatural only calculates others based on whether they are willing to or not.
"President Ye, here are last month's reports." Zhao Guiyin came in holding a thick stack of papers. He had switched his form of address with unusual smoothness. While others were still calling out 'Professor' or 'Doctor,' he had already started calling her President Ye.
Ye Qiusuo looked up at him and ultimately didn't ask him to change it.
Reports like these could easily be sent directly to a computer, but staring at a screen for too long is bad for the eyes, which is why Zhao Guiyin had printed them out.
As an assistant, he always managed to be meticulous and leave no room for error.
...
"Xixi, where's the money in your accounts?" Wei Qi sat facing Xie Xi, somewhat shocked. "All the money from every account has been withdrawn. What are you planning to do?"
Xie Xi leaned back in his chair. The warm winter sun streamed through the glass, spilling over him, giving his whole person a lazy, languid air. He took a sip of the hot tea he was holding and said nonchalantly, "Lent it to someone."
Wei Qi: "???"
She suddenly remembered the early days when a celebrity had been scammed and couldn't help but take a sharp breath. This money was basically everything Xie Xi had saved up over all these years. Just the interest alone was an astronomical figure, and now...
"Call the police, Xixi. It's not too late to call the police now." Wei Qi stood up abruptly. "For a telecom fraud case involving such a large amount, the police will definitely investigate immediately."
Xie Xi: "Telecom fraud?"
Wei Qi was exasperated. "No matter what the other person says, anyone asking for money is a scammer!"
Xie Xi slowly finished the hot tea in his cup. "Is Professor Ye a scammer too?"
Wei Qi: "???" What does Professor Ye have to do with this?
After a moment, Wei Qi finally grasped Xie Xi's meaning. "You... Professor Ye borrowed money from you? What does she need such a large sum for?"
"Don't know." Xie Xi knew nothing, having answered none of the questions. Back then, when she asked to borrow it, he just agreed. Ye Qiusuo had even carefully drafted a contract for him. Xie Xi signed it casually without even glancing at it.
Wei Qi: "..."
Knowing it was Ye Qiusuo put Wei Qi's mind slightly more at ease.
Professor Ye couldn't possibly be running a scam. Finding her would be easy enough.
"You signed a contract? Let me see it." Wei Qi still wasn't fully reassured. It was such an enormous sum. After Xie Xi withdrew it, the bank had even sent people through indirect channels to sound out the situation.
Xie Xi went upstairs, dug out the contract, and tossed it to his agent. "She said she'd pay it back within two years."
Wei Qi started reading it carefully, growing more and more astonished as she went. "Xixi, did you draft this contract?"
Curled up in a soft armchair, his long legs folded, Xie Xi said lazily, "No."
His attention was fixed on the tree outside the window. The plum blossoms seemed to be blooming.
After finishing the entire contract, Wei Qi wore an expression of speechless complexity. Looking at the interest rate, it was clearly usurious.
If Xie Xi were the one borrowing the money, Wei Qi would have been furious.
And this Professor Ye, what did she need such a huge loan for anyway?
Wait, since when had their relationship become this close?
Wei Qi was just about to ask Xie Xi when she realized he had fallen asleep just like that.
"..."
What Wei Qi didn't know was that it was precisely because their relationship wasn't particularly close and their fields were different that Ye Qiusuo had asked Xie Xi for the loan in the first place.
When borrowing the money, Ye Qiusuo had even already prepared her strategy, planning how to persuade him.
In the end, Xie Xi agreed without even asking a single question. Even now, he still didn't know how high the two-year interest would amount to.
...
The major purge at Tianqiu Tech was common knowledge within the industry. There was even talk that Tianqiu was about to collapse, as the Mogu incident had already damaged Tianqiu Tech's reputation, dragging down their other products.
However, just as everyone thought Tianqiu Tech was about to decline, Ye Qiusuo's project was completed.
— The Smart Medical Watch.
A watch capable of detecting over a hundred common illnesses was launched.
