Chapter 65: Heart Higher than the Heavens

The night was quiet.

Lin Qian walked into the front lawn of the townhouse and the first thing she weaved through was the grape rack.

Under the moonlight, the few seedlings from last year had already grown to almost the height of her waist. The big leaves were gently swaying in the night breeze.

Next year, they should be able to climb up the tall grape rack, right?

Maybe it was because she felt solemn and at a loss that she didn’t go into the house right away but rather took out her phone and took a few photos of them to keep as a memory. Then, she let out a sigh and pushed the door to enter the house.

Li Zhicheng was sitting on the sofa wearing a simple, light grey T-shirt and black sports shorts which made him look clean and sturdy. He lifted his eyes to look at her and patted the sofa lightly with his hand to gesture for her to sit next to him.

Lin Qian sat with him side by side, her focus immediately drawn by the television.

The news that was broadcasting was related to the American company DG Organization buying SMQ.

Of course, the news did not have much information that was of value. Both parties had maintained a low profile and the news that the media got were mostly rumors or based on unsubstantiated claims.

Perhaps the very topic of foreign acquisition brought with it a sensitivity that was hard to pinpoint, but watching this segment of the news in addition to thinking back on Cheng Zheng’s words that day made Lin Qian have an inkling that they may share a common fate.

She turned her head to look at Li Zhicheng and asked him straightforwardly, “Will you sell Aida?”

Li Zhicheng held up the remote control and turned off the television.

“What do you think?” he asked her instead.

Lin Qian said honestly, “I don’t know.”

“What did you talk about with your brother today?” he asked again.

Lin Qian repeated Lin Mochen’s words without leaving out a single word. Of course, she skipped the phrases like “waiting to die” that Lin Mochen had said… After listening, Li Zhicheng nodded his head, and changed the topic to ask instead, “Have you told him that we have gotten engaged?” Lin Qian recalled her brother’s reaction then and naturally did not reveal the truth, answering, “I’ve told him. He was a little upset at first because we didn’t tell him immediately, but he is still happy overall and even congratulated us.”

A trace of amusement slowly found its way into Li Zhicheng’s eyes as he asked in a soft voice, “Really?”

Lin Qian felt self-conscious but was able to keep her composure, “Of course it’s real, if not what else can it be?” Internally, however, she thought, you can sense that something is not quite right? Alright I guess birds of a feather flock together and you are indeed the person who understands him the best in this world.

Luckily, these two fellows need not get into a fight.

Li Zhicheng did not harp too much on the question, but looked at her and said, “Once the matter of acquisition has been resolved, both my father and I will officially call on him and give him a visit.”

Lin Qian’s face heated up slightly, “Up to you.”

As they discussed this topic, the atmosphere in the house seemed to become more romantic. The two glanced at each other and Li Zhicheng extended his hand to pull her into his embrace, his hand gently tracing and stroking her cheek.

“What are you doing?” Lin Qian immediately felt a little frenzied by his touch.

“What do you call me?” he asked slowly.

Lin Qian was stunned as she understood. It was the first time, after all, and she had difficulty saying it out loud. Why did she feel so hesitant?

“You say it first,” she threw the question back at him.

Li Zhicheng lowered his head and pecked her lips; his voice had an indescribably touching quality.

“Wife.”

Lin Qian’s heart felt as if it had been hit by something suddenly.

She did not expect that such a normal term that everyone used could actually make her so…

Touched.

She extended her hand to hook it over his neck and whispered, “Husband.”

His face was close to hers and he looked at her darkly and deeply. In that moment, neither of the two said anything. The air surrounding them had seemingly heated up a few degrees, making her heart palpitate.

After a while, she opened her mouth to speak, “You haven’t told me, are you selling Aida or not?”

Li Zhicheng guided his hand along her waist, slowly grazing it, and his handsome face revealed a certain degree of graveness and solemnness. He stretched out his hand to bring over the chessboard with the chess pieces that were on the other corner of the coffee table.

Lin Qian’s interest was piqued, “Setting up a chess simulation again?”

Li Zhicheng did not answer but simply picked up four black pieces and placed them onto the chessboard from top to bottom.

“If we reject the acquisition by DG Organization, Aida will face these four main threats.” His hand was gently propped against the chessboard, “One, financial resources. DG is much stronger than us in their financial resources and if they start contending for the market in the future we will surely be at an extreme disadvantage.”

Lin Qian nodded her head. This was also what she was worried about. Their battle against New Bori, who was only slightly stronger than them, had required all their effort to get the upper hand. What more would be required when it came to DG who was the world’s number one bag manufacturer , and was so many times stronger than New Bori?

“Two.” His voice was low as he said, “SMQ’s shell. Beforehand, the sales of DG had been unable to take off in China because they had yet to be acclimatized. They were not successful in setting up their sales team and internet marketing, but now, this lethal flaw of theirs has been made up for by SMQ.”

Lin Qian silently nodded her head and was unable to hold back any longer; she scolded vehemently, “Chen Zheng, you fool!”

“Three, the consumers’ mindset.” His gaze seemed indifferent. Lin Qian took over, “Many Chinese citizens have the mindset that international brands are always better than local brands. This has inadvertently become their innate advantage.”

She also had a greater love for international brands… Embarrassing.

Li Zhicheng had seemingly also thought of her whole pile of skincare products, clothes, leather shoes… He gazed at her and Lin Qian immediately felt anger stem from her embarrassment, shouting, “Don’t you also have a lot…”

Li Zhicheng was quick to retort, “Only outdoor equipment.”

Lin Qian was stunned and upon thinking about it found that it really was true. Other than outdoor shoes, caps, jackets, tents and such, his other things were always products of local brands.

“Land Rover!” she burst out, triumphantly.

“The car is the company’s property.”

“That’s true…” Lin Qian furrowed her brows and continued to think when her eyes lit up as she said with a little embarrassment, “… There’s still the condoms!”

Li Zhicheng was slightly stunned, having not expected her to consider this as well.

Slight amusement flashed past his eyes, “Alright, this I admit.”

Lin Qian was speechless, “…” and she turned her head to face the other side. He is annoying sometimes.

“What about the fourth threat?” she asked.

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Li Zhicheng extended his hand to gently pinch her cheek that had gone a little red, answering, “People’s hearts.”

Lin Qian was dumbfounded and waited for him continue, “DG wants to buy us out and will definitely offer very attractive benefits wavering the hearts of many. Everyone under the sun is out to get benefits. We cannot prevent the fact that the hearts of the employees of Aida will sway.”

Lin Qian remained silent, as Li Zhicheng picked up a white piece, placing it opposite the black piece.

“What is this?”

“The advantages of agreeing to the acquisition.”

Lin Qian’s eyes widened suddenly as she looked at his cold and handsome profile.

So… he was already considering the possibility of being bought out?

“Any of these four threats individually is sufficient to completely wipe out Aida.” He slowly said, “But if we agree to the acquisition, the outcome is very simple in that we will obtain a very large sum of money. The bag industry is a traditional manufacturing industry with low margins overall. If we are able to take this sum of money and dabble in real-estate, investments… I believe we would easily earn back many times the profit of what we can make in the bag industry.”

Lin Qian still remained silent.

She believed whatever Li Zhicheng had said. With his foresight and abilities, which field would he not excel in making money? When she thought about selling Aida, why was it that she was unable to feel happy?

It was a ridiculously heavy heart and a sense of being lost that she felt instead.

She lowered her head once again to look at the five chess pieces on the chessboard before finally lifting her head to look at him dumbfounded.

So, his decision was to?

“I have indeed harbored the thought of selling Aida off before.” He looked into her eyes and ascertained her guess.

Lin Qian felt her heart move: harbored the thought before? These words meant that…

Li Zhicheng sat leaning against the sofa and looked at her quietly. She was initially seated slanted into his embrace but had now turned her entire body to face him straight on. Li Zhicheng rested both hands on her waist and his gaze had also become pensive.

“This afternoon, I went online to research mergers and acquisitions involving companies in China,” he said. Lin Qian had a feeling that what he was about to say would be important and subconsciously nodded her head, “Yea, then?”

“I found that actually, many of the famous brands in China in the various fields had all been bought out.” He said indifferently, “In the face of foreign acquisition, there is basically no relation between their choice and eventual ending.”

“Mm.” Lin Qian was not extremely patriotic but whenever she saw news reports like these, she still felt like it was a little distasteful. Even if the foreign acquisition meant better technology and products, the brand would ultimately not be China’s anymore. Moreover, the number of national brands that had been taken over was not small.

Li Zhicheng, however, switched the topic of conversation and said, “There’s only one field where there is an overall resistance against foreign acquisition.”

Lin Qian’s heart started to beat fast, taking over, “The household appliance industry!” She had seen news about this before.

Li Zhicheng looked at her and nodded his head, “The news reported that China’s enterprises have held out against international household appliance tycoons for many years and paid very heavy prices before they finally succeeded in chasing them away. And now, the result is…” He calmly looked at her, “Under such competitive circumstances, the Chinese enterprises instead started to tirelessly improve their technology and skills, becoming the global leader in many of the products. Foreign enterprises get scared just looking at China’s household appliances.”

Lin Qian did not know what would be best to say, but felt that because of his words, warm blood slowly started to circulate around her entire body. He extended his hand and with a sweep, he gathered all the chess pieces that were spread out across the chessboard and threw them back into their container.

Then, he lifted his head to look at her and asked, articulating each and every word, “Do you really think it is impossible for Li Zhicheng’s enterprise to win over foreign enterprises? And not become the world’s number one?”

It was already deep into the night.

Lin Qian lay on her bed and her mind could no longer store any other information. All it contained was the words that Li Zhicheng had previously said, which were repeatedly playing in her heart.

Although Aida was now number one in China, there was still a huge gap to becoming the leading enterprise in the world.

But listening to him so calmly speak about such ambitious goals did not make her feel the least bit doubtful.

She just felt full of heated drive.

The bathroom door opened and Li Zhicheng walked out after taking his bath. His figure like a cheetah’s and his damp short hair was a picture of sexy handsomeness. Now, Lin Qian liked him regardless of how she looked at him. She did not even wait for him to come closer before she leapt off the bed and stretched out her hands to hug him.

Li Zhicheng, seeing his woman so passionately run at him to give him a hug, all of a sudden made him pause in his tracks. His reaction was fast as he grabbed her, lifted her upwards and Lin Qian’s entire body was suspended in mid-air, entangled with him.

He looked at her darkly.

Lin Qian looked back at him, saying in a gentle but strong voice, “I still want to be your adjutant. Going through thick and thin, through all the tough times with you!”

“Alright.” He replied softly, “Whatever my lady wants can be done.”

Lin Qian couldn’t help but smile and with a “tsk” she said, “I want to be your adjutant regardless.” Her voice became gentler as she said flirtatiously, “Mr commanding officer, please tell me your intelligently formulated plan.”

Li Zhicheng threw her onto the bed and lowered his head to plant successive kisses on her, before hugging her and lying down together, “As long as you know your opponent as you know yourself, no battle will be lost. I need to understand their situation in greater depth.”

Lin Qian nodded her head as she knew this as well. In the military before the high-ranking officers go out to war, they have to have a complete understanding and knowledge of the opponent’s military strength, provisions and the fighting style of their high-ranking officers. Only then would they be able to ensure victory. Previously, the reason why Li Zhicheng had won both his battles was because he had a tight understanding of Chen Zheng’s and Ning Weikai’s personalities and characters.

She thought for a bit and said, “Those few people in my brother’s company had never made contact with them before. I have specially collated the information on DG company before. I can tell you about it.”

“Great. Thank you so much Adjutant Lin.”

Lin Qian smiled slightly and leaned into his embrace, starting to recall the important information.

“Those few partners of my brother’s, as well as his subordinates, used two words to sum them up: sly and heartless. They will add many restrictive conditions in the clauses of the acquisition agreement. At one glance, one may think that it is nothing much; when something actually happens like the management of the enterprise is unsatisfactory or there is a change in the conditions, these seemingly unnoticeable conditions will be put to good use. They will then have a reason to devour your enterprise in a mouthful. And these conditions are either legal or in the grey areas. One has to admit that regarding the experience in financing and acquisitions, local enterprises are still a far cry from international enterprises.”

Li Zhicheng nodded his head. Lin Qian also sighed, “I reckon, Chen Zheng has definitely done himself in.”

Speaking of Chen Zheng, Li Zhicheng was not the least bit soft-hearted as he said emotionlessly, “He only has himself to blame.” Lin Qian blinked and looked at him. Actually, Chen Zheng was not wrong to say that this time SMQ had reached a dead end and they were really dragged down by them. New Bori’s sales of the casual bags were measly and with such a void in the market, SMQ inadvertently jumped on the bandwagon, before being beaten to the punch by Aida… Li Zhicheng’s “a sword with three carvings” simply referred to the fabric market, the casual bags market and getting rid of SMQ.

She couldn’t help but look at Li Zhicheng again.

Back then, when she had been slapped by Chen Zheng’s underling, he said that he would remember those tears of hers.

However, she never expected that he would wait such a long time before dealing SMQ a fatal blow, at the same time taking revenge for her.

Ah… That slap of Chen Zheng’s had a massive cost after all.

“The several executives of the DG Organization’s Asia-Pacific region, as well as the few in marketing, are also very unique.” She continued, “Some of them specialize in electrical sales, so their businesses in the Taiwan and Hong Kong regions are flourishing. We have to be especially careful of them launching a large-scale online marketing concept.

“The people in their advertising team are the best in the world. Honestly speaking, we cannot even compare. Every time I watch a commercial they produce, I always feel amazed.

“Apart from that, their operating process is highly efficient and extremely fast. According to their methods employed in other countries, they will very possibly be able to launch a “lightning battle” that can take over the entire market as long as they have sufficient preparation.”

The night was quiet and as the two discussed in hushed voices, it unknowingly already inched into the second half of the night.

Lin Qian felt pride fill her chest, but also clearly understood that there was the fear of a bumpy road ahead. They were about to go up against a strong opponent. They had never been pitted against one so strong before and it was still unknown whether or not they would be able to win as the weaker party.

At the same time, Lin Mochen’s plans for acquisition was going ahead in perfect order.

His second target was New Bori.