Chapter 6

The other was Lin Na’s promise to Hengchuan the previous day: all forty-eight stores would be completed and handed over within ten days of the equipment arriving on site.

Lin Na froze, then pointed at the engineer.

“Technical gave me that ten-day deadline.”

He opened the original email.

“It says: ‘The first six stores will be completed within ten days of the equipment arriving. The thirty-two stores in phase two require a separate schedule. The ten in phase three are still awaiting site handover.’”

The numbers added up to forty-eight exactly.

Lin Na stared at the email, speechless.

Hengchuan’s representative asked another question.

“Where is the letter confirming the installation crew’s schedule?”

She opened the attachment.

It contained only a price inquiry email.

No dates. No signature or stamp.

She still hadn’t obtained the document she’d been told to follow up on during the rehearsal, nor had she reported the missing confirmation to the task force.

Procurement called the supplier right there in the meeting.

On speakerphone, the supplier explained that no one had confirmed during the reservation period, so the installation crew had accepted another job.

Lin Na reached for the engineer’s computer.

“Can’t you temporarily assign your own people instead? Su Nian always used to coordinate things this way…”

He held on to it.

“Please provide the headcount, qualifications, and a specific schedule. Without those, I can’t guarantee anything to the client.”

No one in the meeting room stepped in to answer for her.

Hengchuan’s representative closed his file.

“When we returned your documents, we asked you to address these issues. You told us they were resolved. Yet what you’ve presented today is still a set of unconfirmed proposals.”

He didn’t slam the table or berate anyone.

“This reflects your actual delivery capabilities. We’ll make our selection accordingly.”

That evening, Lin Na still told the group the client was merely bargaining over price. There was nothing wrong with the project.

Manager Zhou replied:

“Keep following up.”

Three days later, Hengchuan sent a formal email.

“We will not be proceeding to contract signing with your company.”

Another supplier was subsequently confirmed as its partner.

The 120-million-yuan contract opportunity went from the achievement Manager Zhou talked about every day to an attachment he couldn’t bring himself to open.

Lin Na stormed into his office. Her first words were still:

“If Su Nian had gone into the meeting for me, none of this would have happened!”

Manager Zhou rose behind his desk.

“Could she have conjured up the schedule you still hadn’t confirmed since the rehearsal?”

It was the first time I’d heard him ask Lin Na that.

She faltered, her lips moving twice.

“But you said… they were only minor issues…”

“You still have the nerve to call them minor?”

He slammed his hand on the desk, knocking over the framed certificate Lin Na had placed beside it.

The glass didn’t break.

But the “Zero Delay in Client Responses” certificate landed facedown on the floor.

Corporate headquarters soon issued a notice: all subsequent project appointments and bonuses were canceled, and a special review would be conducted.

The sheet with eighty thousand yuan circled on it was still pinned to Lin Na’s partition.

This time, no one took it down for her.

The review meeting was set for the following Monday.

In the days leading up to it, HR and audit interviewed everyone who had worked on the project separately.

When my turn came, I brought all my personal work records.

Chats I’d never quite been able to delete. Documents with more than a dozen revisions. Handover emails sent again and again, answered with nothing but “Received.”

Lin Na stopped me in the corridor.

She wore no makeup. One corner of the paper cup in her hand was crushed.

“Su Nian, let’s talk.”

I stopped.

“I admit I went too far with what I said before. Help explain things for me. Say you were originally supposed to open the meeting, but something came up and we couldn’t coordinate in time. Don’t leave me with no way out.”

I looked at her.

“My name wasn’t on the approved list.”

“We can explain the list! If we cooperate, this doesn’t have to become one person’s fault. You don’t want people saying you deliberately watched the company suffer, do you?”

Then she seemed to remember something and hastily lowered her voice.

“I know I was wrong. I’ll apologize in the group for the milk tea. I’ll make up your overtime later too.”

Even this late apology came with a new assignment.

First I had to lie for her. Only then could I get my own name cleared.

“I’ve already submitted my records. Explain whatever you need to the auditors.”

Lin Na grabbed my sleeve.