Chapter 734: 729. Blinded by Greed (Seeking Subscriptions and Monthly Tickets)

Hong Mei was feeling emotional at this moment; she knew she had encountered a good person once again.

Looking at the teary-eyed Hong Mei, Liu Lu gently helped her wipe away her tears and said with a smile, "Don't cry. This is what you deserve; you put in the labor, so it's not a matter of taking care of you or not."

"Liu Jie, please rest assured, I will definitely tutor Susu and Taotao well," Hong Mei promised hurriedly.

This was the only thing she could do.

"As long as you have the heart, that's enough," Liu Lu said.

Immediately, Liu Lu took Hong Mei to look for a place to live, as Liu Lu also knew that Hong Mei was not familiar with this area.

As for why she didn't provide accommodation, the reason was simple: although Liu Lu was kind-hearted, she understood the principle that "a handful of rice can save a life, but a bushel can breed an enemy" even better.

If she truly raised Hong Mei to believe that all this was her due, that would be the greatest harm.

Therefore, even though Liu Lu felt sorry for Hong Mei and was not at all short of this bit of money, the price she offered remained the market rate.

However, Liu Lu really spent a long time looking for a place, as Hong Mei was truly reluctant to live in a nice one.

In the end, they found a shared apartment that was quite far away for five hundred yuan a month, and even that made Hong Mei's heart ache terribly.

By the time Liu Lu returned home, the sky had already turned dark.

As soon as she returned, she saw that Zhang Ran's expression was somewhat unpleasant, which made Liu Lu subconsciously become cautious.

"Dad, what's wrong?" Liu Lu quietly asked Zhang Sicheng, who was on the side.

At this moment, Zhang Sicheng was also being very careful; he rarely saw his father like this.

"I don't know either. When I got back, I heard Dad seemed to be on some phone call, and he was like this after he finished," Zhang Sicheng didn't know what the situation was.

Moreover, because the two little ones were still doing their homework, no one came to interrupt this atmosphere at the moment.

Fortunately, Huo Zhiyuan returned with Zhang Siyan at this time. Seeing this scene, Huo Zhiyuan asked, "Brother Zhang, what's wrong? Did you encounter something?"

Zhang Ran came back to his senses. Seeing the expressions of Zhang Sicheng and the others, he realized what was happening and sighed, "I ran into some frustrating matters. You all go ahead; it has nothing to do with you."

"Dad, what happened to make your expression so ugly?" Zhang Siyan asked with a grin as she sat down next to her father.

Zhang Ran looked at his daughter and said helplessly, "What else could it be? Just those messy affairs at the company. I really don't understand what these people are thinking.

I have never shorted them on wages, bonuses, or anything else, so why are they all so insatiable?"

As he spoke, a cold look appeared on Zhang Ran's face again; these guys really didn't know what was good for them.

This matter had to start from when Liu Lu sent Hong Mei away.

Just after Liu Lu and the others left, Zhang Ran received a call from Jiao Zhen. Ever since Jiao Zhen left Shangguo Supermarket and entered Maikai Supermarket, he had been streamlining Maikai Supermarket, preparing for expansion, and coordinating with some of Zhang Ran's actions.

Even when Zhang Sicheng was dealing with Youjia Grain and Oil, Jiao Zhen had contributed a great deal of effort.

It could be said that Jiao Zhen had become increasingly busy after entering Maikai Supermarket.

At first, everything was quite good. With Zhang Ran having "killed the chicken to warn the monkey," the people at Maikai Supermarket were very well-behaved, and no one dared to stick their heads out.

Furthermore, the most critical point was that Jiao Zhen's entire team had been parachuted in; it could be said they had no foundation at all at Maikai Supermarket.

On top of that, they were only managers, not the company's true shareholders.

The first things they considered were the company's stability, development, and profitability, which made them feel tied down in many matters.

Originally, Zhang Ran thought that with Jiao Zhen's methods, he could completely resolve these issues, and given how ruthlessly he had dealt with the previous management, it should have been enough to deter others.

But clearly, the idiom "blinded by greed" was not just empty talk.

When Jiao Zhen called, he started by talking about his work situation, and then began to say that his abilities were insufficient, which left Zhang Ran somewhat stunned.

At the time, Jiao Zhen said directly, "Mr. Zhang, things are not easy to handle. I don't know how to proceed at this moment.

If I act ruthlessly, it is very likely to cause resistance from those middle managers and the current new upper management. You actually know that resistance doesn't necessarily mean opposing me directly; there are many things they can do that leave me without any excuse.

Even if I know what they are thinking, if I just remove them without clear justification, then I won't be able to do my job in the future.

So I simply have no way to handle this well. And although you dealt with so many people last time, I still want to say that the management of Maikai Supermarket is too rigid.

Especially the middle management. After we took office, we did promote some middle managers, but the purpose was actually to win over their hearts.

But now it seems I underestimated the interest relationships of these people."

Jiao Zhen recounted the matter exactly as it was, and he did not avoid his own problems either.

In short, there were once again many people in Maikai Supermarket who were holding positions without doing any work, and even corruption and embezzlement were common occurrences.

As for the small matters of using their positions for personal gain and taking kickbacks, Jiao Zhen couldn't even be bothered to talk about them.

After listening, Zhang Ran was incomparably furious; he really hadn't expected these people to be so bold.

Still the same saying: Zhang Ran adhered to the principle of "don't suspect those you use, don't use those you suspect." Since he chose Jiao Zhen, he would give them the greatest authority to allow them to fully exert their talents, rather than using various means to restrict them.

Although this caused Zhang Ran's control over the company to decrease slightly, there wasn't actually much of a gap, because he was already the absolute majority shareholder; authority was merely delegated, and it was a very simple matter to take it back.

"Send all the evidence over; I'll take a look," Zhang Ran said, taking a deep breath.

Jiao Zhen agreed first, then fell silent for a moment and said, "Mr. Zhang, you still need a specialized regulatory department here. I don't mean the empty shell that exists now. I have my own selfish motives in some matters, and I'm afraid I won't be able to be ruthless enough."

Once these words were spoken, Zhang Ran's pupils constricted; he seemed to understand something.

Of course there was a regulatory department, but Zhang Ran couldn't be bothered to make the company feel anxious and fearful, especially at such a time.

So previously, it was just managed on behalf by He Qing, and it hadn't been truly constructed. But now, hearing Jiao Zhen say this, Zhang Ran knew the matter was actually not that simple.

"Hmm, I understand. I will handle these matters during this period. You just do what you need to do," Zhang Ran said in a deep voice.