Chapter 46 Who Provokes Whom

"Brother, what are your usual hobbies? Do you like reading, playing golf, or something else?"

Zha Lan tried his best to portray Chen Xiao as refined and sophisticated.

Chen Xiao replied, "None of those. I just play LoL, and after that, I enjoy appreciating beauties!"

Appreciating beauties, and playing LoL?

Zha Lan was taken aback. You are openly driving in the fast lane! Can this kind of hobby just be stated publicly?

Besides, Xu Wu was sitting right next to them. Weren't you afraid she'd find out, or are young people nowadays just this daring?

After a moment of awkward laughter, Zha Lan said, "Brother, that's quite a hobby you have. Very down-to-earth!"

"Oh? Does President Zha also play LoL often?"

Zha Lan forced a couple of dry laughs. At his age, how could he dare? Over-exertion would turn him to ashes!

Xu Wu sat to the side without chiming in, but she felt the conversation between these two was bizarrely mismatched, like talking about completely unrelated things.

Trying to steer the conversation back to the main topic, Zha Lan looked at Xu Wu and said, "Brother, I heard from President Xu that your company's base salary is about to drop to 4,000. That's just too low!"

Well, it was indeed too low, though his own base salary hadn't dropped to 4,000. Chen Xiao didn't bother to explain and simply nodded.

"Ah, especially for young people nowadays, the pressure of buying a house, getting married, and buying a car is huge. With a base salary of 4,000, unless you have extremely high commission income, simply making ends meet becomes a problem."

He continued, "Brother, you must feel a lot of pressure over there, right?"

Chen Xiao shook his head. "Not really."

Zha Lan said solemnly, "How could that be? Brother, don't let the fact that you've been landing so many orders fool you. On one hand, it shows you're exceptional, but on the other hand, there's a strong element of luck involved."

"Orders aren't something that keep rolling in forever. Sometimes you don't get a single one for half a year."

Chen Xiao had to concede this point, so he nodded again.

Zha Lan went on, "That's why a basic salary is the real guarantee of livelihood! Look at our company—take President Xu as an example, her base salary is over 20,000!"

Chen Xiao fell silent. A base salary of 20,000 with a 3% commission—if she could secure a certain volume of orders, Xu Wu's income wouldn't be much better than a regular salesperson under Dr. Feng.

Of course, that was assuming she only relied on the base salary and failed to land orders, which was a different story. But if someone consistently failed to land orders, could they really keep staying there?

Zha Lan assumed Chen Xiao had been stimulated upon hearing about Xu Wu's base salary of over 20,000.

Striking while the iron was hot, he said, "Brother, we all go out to make a living. Take yourself for example—you'll need to buy a house eventually. The lowest property prices in Jiangzhou are currently 30,000 per square meter. Working at Dr. Feng Robotics, the pressure to buy a house must be immense."

"Not really. I already have one!"

Zha Lan was stunned for a moment, then figured that, like many young people, Chen Xiao must have had the down payment covered by his family.

"Then the mortgage pressure must still be quite high!"

"It's fully paid in cash. No mortgage needed!"

"Uh......" "Well, brother, a car is also a major purchase. We definitely have to buy that ourselves and not rely on our family forever."

"I already have a car. Two, actually!"

...Damn it, are you here to crush my morale? If you already have everything, why are you even bothering to work?

After a brief pause, Zha Lan asked again, "Brother, what do you think of my company? Care to offer some feedback?"

Chen Xiao thought for a moment and said seriously, "Not enough recreational facilities! The bonus commission is too low!"

Zha Lan's heart tightened. A lack of recreational facilities was easy to fix, but low bonus commissions meant Chen Xiao had objections to his incentive measures. If that was the case, talking about poaching him was out of the question; they might not even be able to cooperate in the future.

"Brother, what is your sales commission rate?"

Upon learning that Chen Xiao and his team enjoyed a 5% sales commission, Zha Lan showed a magnanimous side. Without hesitation, he decided to raise the commission for Chen Xiao's orders in cooperation with Zhifei Aerospace to 6%, and promised to retroactively pay the difference for the previous two transactions!

This immediately boosted Chen Xiao's favorable impression of him. After all, the man was practically handing out free money.

Xu Wu went outside to process an application form, and right in front of Chen Xiao, Zha Lan signed it and instructed the finance department to wire the funds.

"Ah, thanks for the advice, brother. From now on, we really need to show more care for our employees, and our compensation packages must beat out competing companies!"

While Xu Wu was out dealing with the finance department, Zha Lan lowered his voice and asked, "Brother, I really appreciate your capability. Any interest in coming over to help me out? I have a vacant position for a Vice President of Sales waiting right here for you!"

I knew you harbored "evil intentions" all along!

Chen Xiao sighed and put on a look of sincere regret. "Thank you for the appreciation, President Zha, but unfortunately, I think I'll stay at Dr. Feng Robotics for now. One thing you can rest assured of—any future business on this side will still be directed right here to you."

I don't just want your remaining orders; I want all of your orders.

He pondered for a moment. He had heard that the boss of Dr. Feng Robotics was a great beauty, and Chen Xiao had just stated his hobby was appreciating beauties?

We have a beauty like President Xu right here too. Aren't you tempted at all?

"Brother, our company doesn't forbid office romances, you know!"

What the heck? Zhao Xiangjun isn't even at your company. Whether you forbid it or not has zero to do with me!

After testing the waters extensively and ultimately confirming that Chen Xiao had no plans to resign anytime soon, Zha Lan retreated to a secondary plan: solidify the relationship first and wait for him to have a change of heart.

"Brother, whenever you have free time, come over and hang out at your big brother's place. Treat it like your own home, don't be a stranger!"

There was certainly no need to be a stranger, especially since their payments were so prompt.

He had already received the notification messages:

"Ding~! Received sales commission bonus of 210,000 yuan paid by Zhifei Aerospace!"

"Ding~! Detected that the host received a sales commission bonus of 210,000 yuan from Zhifei Aerospace. Rewarded with a dedicated dedication blessing amount of 3.15 million yuan!"

Brother Zha, making money for a house isn't that hard after all. A single signature from you is worth an entire apartment! He looked at Zha Lan with a peculiar expression.

Even Zha Lan's previously utterly hideous face suddenly appeared warm and amiable.

Zha Lan kept Chen Xiao for lunch, and as he saw him out at noon, he repeatedly told him, "Come over and hang out whenever you're free, and give me plenty more suggestions!"

"With a big brother like Brother Zha and a beauty like President Xu, I'll definitely be visiting often!" Chen Xiao joked.

Watching Chen Xiao get into his Mercedes-Benz CLS and drive away, Zha Lan turned to Xu Wu and said, "President Xu, this Chen Xiao is truly quite formidable."

His words carried a double meaning, referring to both financial strength and business capability.

Chen Xiao didn't head straight back to the company. As a great brick-moving salesperson, he always believed his true battlefield was inside the client's office.

If you don't go out and interact with clients, orders will never magically appear—just like this massive deal with China Inspection. If he hadn't taken the initiative to make a move, he never would have reaped this harvest.

He headed to the Jiangzhou Design Institute, where Bai Lu happened to be in that afternoon.

As the key assistant who had helped Chen Xiao close his "first-ever" business deal, Bai Lu's importance went without saying.

When he entered Bai Lu's office, she was sitting by her computer, deeply engrossed in her work.

Yet, remembering his first impression of her, Chen Xiao figured she was just putting on a show. A person who could casually slack off during work hours to go get a beauty treatment—would she really be this intensely focused the moment a client arrived?

Her act deserved a perfect score of 100!

"Chen Xiao, you're here. Have a seat first!" Bai Lu offered a smile. Ever since they successfully closed those two deals last time, meeting again made them feel like friends.

Chen Xiao was also quite thick-skinned; he walked right over, picked up Bai Lu's personal tea leaves, and brewed himself a cup!

His casual demeanor, treating the place as if it were his own, actually made Bai Lu feel even closer to him.