Chapter 123 - Meeting
The very next day, Xiu Mei received the full report about yesterday's incident. The report contained all the details about the stolen data on the system, and how the virus entered their servers. The necessary precautions were done. For the stolen data, Xiu Mei pulled up an emergency meeting that morning with the other relevant directors and worked out a decision.
Xiu Mei glanced at the empty workstation of Lu Shao and the empty room of Lu Chen's.
Yesterday, as soon as Lu Chen read that report, the two of them finally dashed out of the office. Lu Chen did not even come back the whole night at home at all. She couldn't help but be worried that something serious had come up.
"Ms.Xiu, the marketing director called a short while ago and requested a meeting for the next hour." Her assistant informed her as soon as she returned to her workstation from the meeting.
Xiu Mei glanced at the time and nodded.
After an hour, she waited at the conference room on her floor. She was busily writing typing something on her laptop when she heard the door opening.
"Ms.Xiu, we meet again." A familiar voice entered her ears.
She spun around to look behind her and saw the man she met in the elevator a few days ago. Before she could even stand up from her seat to politely greet him back, he stood in front of her while holding out his hand.
"I'll formally introduce myself again. I am Albert Chen, the Assistant Marketing Director and the temporary Captain for the Marketing Team 3." That weird and strange man she met before suddenly transformed into a formal employee in front of her.
Xiu Mei swiftly returned the greeting in the same way. "Nice to meet you, Asst. Marketing Director Chen. The Chief Business Officer and the President's Secretary."
"It's an honor meeting you as well, Ms.Xiu. On behalf of the Marketing Team, I am here today as the representative and in-charge of the issue about the incident yesterday."
Xiu Mei nodded and gestured for him to sit on the empty chair across her. The two of them started discussing their plan for the solution about the excess amount of orders.
"For the customers who already ordered the item, but they weren't included in the first 200 orders, I suggest we inform them that we're canceling the order and we'll do a refund. We'll be giving them discount coupons or a pass on our events as compensation." Albert explained while showing her the slides containing the total amount of exceeded orders that were recorded.
"That was the original course of action if it were just a normal line. But since we're expecting that majority of the customers who ordered are fans of the Manhwa artist and some are our loyal customers who are a collector of our limited-edition line, the backlash we'll have will definitely not be small." Xiu Mei commented as she shared her opinion on this matter.
"For that, we'll be coordinating with the PR Team for the announcement of the problem with the exceeded amount of orders received. Then for the fans, we can compensate them with a ticket for the official launch event we'll be having next week. Aside from the discount coupons, we can also give them the merchandise that we'll be distributing in the event and deliver it to their homes if they can't come. This way, we can appease the fans somehow."
Xiu Mei thought about it for a bit before nodding. The compensation for the fans seems favorable and since a lot of people are actually asking for a pass to the event, it is currently the best option on appeasing them.
"For our loyal customers, since a lot of them are collectors, we can somehow assume that a lot of them are still included in our first 200 orders for each line. For those who weren't included in that list, we can still do the discounts but what I'll suggest is for them to be given the heads up first for our upcoming limited edition products then we can give them a chance for pre-ordering. Though, that'll be only limited to our next two or three limited-edition campaigns."
"That seems plausible. What about the expected expenses for this plan? And the losses we will be shouldering?"
The two of them continued on discussing the issue until they've finished finalizing the plan of action.
"Ah, we've been meeting for two hours ah?!" Albert exclaimed in surprise when he looked at his watch. Xiu Mei followed suit and looked at hers, showing that it was already way past lunchtime.
This was quite normal for her every time she gets too absorbed with work.
"Then Ms.Xiu, can I ask you out for a late lunch?" Albert's character changed from being serious to being lively in a snap after officially ending their meeting.
Xiu Mei opened her mouth to decline his invitation but Albert just acted on his own and went to order food for delivery.
"Or we can just have lunch here. Or we're not allowed to eat here?"
Xiu Mei frowned. This guy… isn't he forgetting that she's still his boss ah? Why is he treating her as if they're really good friends when they've only met twice—thrice if we include the one at the party.
"Asst. Marketing Director Chen—"
"Oh, you can just call me Albert." Is what he casually said while continuing to order food on his phone.
Xiu Mei felt slightly annoyed.
"Mr.Albert, I still have some other matters to attend to so, unfortunately, I'll be declining your invitation for lunch. Then, I'll be going first." Grabbing her folders, she stood up from her seat and walked towards the door.
"Ah, please make sure to turn off the lights please before you leave the room. Thank you." And with that, she left the room and returned to her workstation. Her assistant's table was still empty, probably not finished with her lunch yet.
Then thinking back the Albert is still in the conference room, if he comes out and sees that she's alone then that guy would probably try to convince her for lunch again.
She sighed as she massaged her temples. The Lu Corporation hired another annoying staff ah.
In the end, she decided to take refuge in Lu Chen's office temporarily until that Asst. Marketing Director leaves this floor.
Xiu Mei clocked out on time today as well. She rushed back home and was greatly disappointed after seeing Lu Chen's home slippers still sitting on the shoe rack. It means that he still wasn't home yet.
She sighed and became more worried. She wondered why he suddenly acted weird after reading that incident report yesterday. And now she got even more worried after realizing that he didn't come home for two days.
On Lu Chen's side.
"Boss, we've confirmed that the hacking was done by the same person years ago." Lu Shao reported. The temperature inside the room lowered by a few degrees after Lu Chen heard that. With a cold hardened gaze, he looked over at Lu Shao, the Legion Head, and his three other subordinates standing before him.
"Did you find out the reason why he's targeting the Lu Corporation now?"
"We're still not sure about the motive, Master. But for sure, this is connected to the case your cousin was investigating on before he died." The Legion Head responded.
"Continue investigating it, and keep alert. That person was able to kill a lot of our men back then. That person surely has his own set of trained men."
"Understood."
All his subordinates left the room, leaving him alone. The heavy atmosphere continued to worsen as Lu Chen continued reading on the investigation done by the organization.
Seems like the mastermind behind his cousin's death is coming back now. After forcing him to stop pursuing his cousin's killer, this time, he will definitely not back down. This is now his opportunity to put that person behind bars once and for all, and if that doesn't work, he could just drag him here to his headquarters and torture him.
Remembering that awful memory of his cousin's death and Lu Qiang being an orphan, all Lu Chen could feel right now was anger and resentment. Just to keep his dirty secrets, that person killed a lot of people. He couldn't let that person run free ah.
His train of thoughts was abruptly cut off by the sound of his phone ringing. He looked at the screen and saw that it was his wife who was calling. Staring at the screen for a few seconds, he flipped his phone and didn't answer the call.
He wasn't prepared to answer the phone ah.
Right now, he was Lu Chen, the chief of The Blade, the First Ranking Legion in the underworld. This ugly side of his, even if her family is already aware of his relations with the underworld, he still wasn't prepared to show this dark side to Xiu Mei yet. Because he wasn't sure how she would react once she learns his secrets.