Pharmaceutical Negotiator - Chapter 14

In the evening, lying on the bed in the bedroom, Zhang Sitan opened the message page for Qi Shenli.

She sent over a picture she had taken that day.

In the picture, Qi An was sitting at her desk, with her head buried in the computer, working very seriously.

Qi Shenli quickly replied, first thanking Zhang Sitan for taking care of Qi An, and then saying not to spoil her, and to scold her when necessary.

Zhang Sitan faintly curved her lips, and replied to Qi Shenli, saying that Qi An was very serious.

She turned off her phone, smoothed her hair and rested it behind her head, lying flat to go to sleep.

She slept until morning and went for her usual run.

Coming out of the bathroom after washing up, Zhang Sitan heard the sound of the range hood operating in the kitchen.

Ever since Qi An moved in, Zhang Sitan didn’t dare to walk around the house without a bra, just wearing a vest. Yet, Qi An was dressed even more formally than her; her outfits were never like loungewear, as if she could head out the next second.

At the moment, she was wearing a long silk dress, a pale purple melting into the folds of the fabric. The style of the dress was very simple, with only small ruffles turned up at the cuffs, wrapping around her wrists, making her look slender.

The kitchen range hood was still “buzzing,” but there wasn’t much smoke in the house because the oil in the pan hadn’t heated up yet.

A pool of oil lay in the pan, and it took a very long time for a small bubble of steam to appear.

“What are you frying?”

“Pan fried dumplings.”

Zhang Sitan followed the direction of Qi An’s finger and noticed that there was a bag of instant pan-fried dumplings bought from the convenience store on the table.

“You don’t need to pour that much oil for these.”

“Ah.” Qi An thought she had done something wrong and stared blankly at the oil pan.

“It’s okay, I’ll fry them. You go out first, be careful not to get splashed by the oil.” Zhang Sitan gently reassured her.

“Oh.” Qi An was a little disappointed. She had purposely gotten up early today to try and cook for Sitan. When she bought these dumplings, she specifically checked the instructions on the back of the package, choosing them because they were simple to make, just heat and eat.

Qi An retreated from the kitchen, wandered around the living room a couple of times, and then silently returned to the kitchen.

The oil was hot now, and Zhang Sitan slid the dumplings in one by one. Her technique was skilled; the oil was sizzling fiercely, but showed no intention of leaping out.

“Sister Sitan, do you need any help?” Qi An clasped her hands together, picking at her fingers, her eyes darting around the kitchen, unable to find anything she could do.

Zhang Sitan turned her head back and saw her troubled little expression, sighing inwardly that the child was overthinking things.

“How about you wash and soak the beans? We’ll make porridge tonight.”

A porridge of rice mixed with various beans makes for a rich and sticky texture. Paired with a few stir-fried dishes, this was Zhang Sitan’s most comfortable way of eating.

Beans are hard, so they need to be softened by soaking beforehand when cooked with rice grains, so that the cooking time in the electric rice cooker is just right.

Seeing that she had a purpose, joy reappeared on Qi An’s face. She pulled open the cupboard door and took out the bottles and jars inside.

“How much should I pour?” Qi An asked.

“A small handful of each is fine.”

Qi An poured some red beans, green beans, and black beans into the basin. She put the jars back in place and then rinsed and rubbed the beans in the basin under the faucet.

Finally, when the dumplings were out of the pan, Qi An sat in front of the coffee table, rubbing her hands, ready to eat.

Zhang Sitan used a spatula to press down hard on each dumpling, and the oil gushed out, yellow and bright, pooling beneath the dumplings.

So that’s what happens when you pour too much oil.

Qi An awkwardly lowered her head, knowing she was the culprit behind these oily dumplings.

“Eat up.”

“Mm!”

Qi An took her chopsticks and picked up a dumpling; the texture was a bit hard.

The downside of pouring too much oil was now one more…

Finally, when they finished eating, Zhang Sitan took the plates and the pan to wash, using detergent twice before they became sparkling clean again.

The facial recognition system in front of the building was very smart. When no one was around, the screen was black, but as soon as someone stood in front of it, the screen automatically lit up.

And its “eyes” were especially powerful; whether you wore glasses or not, whether you wore makeup or not, it could recognize you.

Of course, it might also be that the difference between Zhang Sitan’s look with and without makeup wasn’t that significant.

Zhang Sitan clocked in, and Qi An followed closely behind.

Qi An’s face appeared on the screen, and a line of text appeared next to it: Employee Qi An, Clock-in Successful.

Qi An looked at the two words “Employee,” a sense of unfamiliarity and novelty intermingling within her.

She proudly looked at it several times. Zhang Sitan, who was walking ahead, turned around and saw that she hadn’t caught up, and reminded her, “Let’s go.”

“Coming!” Qi An bounced quickly, proud of her new identity.

The task Zhang Sitan had assigned her today was to summarize Qidong Pharmaceutical’s quarterly reports from the last five years.

She accepted the task, sat down at her desk, vaguely remembering that Zhang Sitan seemed to have said to look on some official website.

Qi An tentatively typed “Qidong Pharmaceutical official website” into the search engine, and there really was one in the search results.

Not rushing to click into the official website, Qi An first looked at the first search result displayed on the page, which was the enterprise information shown under Qichacha (a company information website).

Qi An read line by line. Legal representative… date of establishment… registration status…

Registered capital…

…988.188 million RMB…

Is this a lot or a little…

Qi An was confused. Thinking that her task was to look at reports, she exited the page and clicked on Qidong’s official website.

Qidong Pharmaceutical’s full name was Qidong Medicine Co., Ltd.

Fortunately, its official website layout was very clean and clear at a glance.

Finding the quarterly reports section, Qi An scrolled down the mouse, looking at the dense small text on the computer screen, and instantly felt the task was daunting.

Q3 2023 Report, H1 2023 Report, Q1 2023 Report, 2022 Annual Report, 2022…

She randomly clicked into one, and a death smile floated onto Qi An’s face she had numerophobia. Looking at those full and packed numbers that needed two commas and a decimal point to separate, all she wanted to do was slack off and sleep.

But Zhang Sitan was sitting right across from her, so she certainly couldn’t slack off.

With a feeling of indignation, Qi An patiently opened a few more reports.

Quarterly reports were usually ten something pages, but the one Qi An had opened now actually had 147 pages.

She glanced at the title: Half-Yearly Report…

“Ugh.” Qi An let out a heavy sigh.

Zhang Sitan raised her head and looked over at her, which scared Qi An into retracting her head and quickly focusing her attention on the data.

Speaking of which, what exactly did she learn in her university computer classes?

Excel, WPS, PS…

Hiss, she was quite familiar with Wenxin Yiyan (a Chinese AI model).

Thinking of her bold statements during the interview, Qi An couldn’t help but feel a little guilty.

Qi An sat in front of the computer, half guilty and half-vigilant, just going through the motions.

Across the single desk, Zhang Sitan was typing on her keyboard, making a pitter-patter sound.

Li Hua wasn’t at his desk. Earlier, Qi An had overheard that he seemed to have gone to check on something.

The subsequent “something” was a professional term that Qi An had heard and forgotten.

Finally, someone came over to notify Zhang Sitan that she had a meeting. Seeing her leave with a thick-covered notebook, Qi An’s nerves finally relaxed a little.

She glanced at the time on the computer; only an hour had passed. Lying weakly on the desk, Qi An was on the verge of tears.

She couldn’t make anything out from reading the reports. Zhang Sitan had previously warned her not to open pages unrelated to work, which scared her so much that she didn’t even dare to play Minesweeper.

Sitting idly, she was afraid others would notice her embarrassment, so she could only grab her water cup and go to the pantry to get some water.

The cup was one she had brought from home today, with a small sticker that said “Keep it up” on the transparent body.

Leak oil [a pun in Chinese on “Keep it up,” meaning she wanted to slack off], she didn’t want to do this anymore. The difference between reality and imagination was not a ravine, but a whole galaxy.

Qi An returned to her desk, hugging the full cup of water, and gulped it down. Soon, she found a new way to slack off.

Go to the pantry to get some water, drink it, and then go to the restroom. On the way back and forth, she would slow her pace, dawdling to waste time.

She even went to take a look at the stairwell Zhang Sitan had mentioned. The door was indeed very heavy; it required both hands to push it open forcefully.

The stairwell was small, with no clutter piled up, and felt empty and a little chilly.

Qi An pouted. Who would come here to cry?

But when Zhang Sitan came back, she could only sit obediently at her desk.

Zhang Sitan walked around behind her to look at the content on her computer. Qi An quietly sat up straight, trying to shield the screen.

She didn’t know if her ostrich strategy worked, but Zhang Sitan didn’t say much and returned to her own desk.

Flipping through Qidong’s annual report, which looked like a thesis, Qi An ignored the content in the first few sections of the table of contents and slid directly to the tenth section, Financial Report.

As she slid down, Qi An noticed that the sections on preferred stock and bonds were blank. Qi An, who had absolutely no concept of economics, suddenly spotted two blank pages in the otherwise densely packed report. Her eyes immediately lit up, thinking she had found a big chunk of valuable information.

She copied the lines from the report into her notebook: During the reporting period, the company had no preferred stock. Bond related information is not applicable.

Although she didn’t understand it, it felt pretty impressive.

The person who made this stack of reports was truly amazing, managing to process so much data so systematically.

Maybe there was an intern at the other company right now, weeping and complaining, with everything looking confusing and overwhelming.

“The world is a giant makeshift band.” Qi An suddenly recalled this popular phrase from the internet.

“What are you mumbling about?” Zhang Sitan’s voice drifted over faintly, startling Qi An.

She only then realized that she had spoken her thoughts out loud.

Meeting Zhang Sitan’s gaze, she saw her looking at her sternly, and Qi An’s heart skipped a beat. Accustomed to the gentle Zhang Sitan, seeing a serious Zhang Sitan was a little unsettling.

“The world is indeed a giant makeshift band, but this doesn’t mean you can act like a clown. Instead, you should approach the things you need to do with a relaxed attitude. You shouldn’t over-stress, but you also cannot slack off arbitrarily.”

Qi An felt a little guilty. She thought about how she had been full of great enthusiasm for this job, wanting to do her duties well, yet today she had been slacking off the whole time. Her computer was on, but the screen hadn’t changed for a long time, and her mind had wandered.

“Let me see your notes.”

Zhang Sitan took the notebook from Qi An’s desk. She saw a few lines written on it in a shaky hand. When she saw the last line about preferred stock and bonds, she couldn’t help but be amused by her ignorance.

Qi An saw Zhang Sitan smile and thought the atmosphere had eased, so she cautiously looked up at her.

“What is the point you are trying to make with this?” Zhang Sitan pointed to the lines in the notebook and asked her.

The point? The point! The point is…

Qi An widened her eyes, her mind racing, trying to put the words together.

Preferred stock… bonds… stock… debt… borrowing money!!

“Qidong… Qidong has no debt situation?”

Zhang Sitan was speechless and looked at her helplessly.

“How did you reach that conclusion? Did you just imagine it?”

Uh, of course, I imagined it. I don’t even know what preferred stock and bonds mean…

Qi An felt the small patch of sky above her head descend, pouring down with heavy rain.

She knew Sister Sitan was angry. But she also felt a little wronged. She didn’t know anything, and with so many pages of reports, what could she possibly figure out?

It’s tough. She thought of Wang Kai’s meme of crying out to the heavens.

“What this passage means is that Qidong has no preferred stock, and its bonds have already matured. If you want to see the debt situation, you should look at the interest-bearing debt section in the report, which will show bank loans, non-standard items, and such.”

She thought the angry Zhang Sitan would scold her, but instead, she patiently explained it to her.

Qi An understood her intention: she wanted her to look at the interest-bearing debt section.

What did it matter to her whether Qidong borrowed money or not!

The chosen worker of fate!

However, this time she completely calmed down and carefully browsed the report.

When it was time for lunch, Zhang Sitan knocked on her desk: “Time to eat.”

Qi An had filled herself with several cups of water all morning and wasn’t hungry at all.

Seeing her rooted in her seat, Zhang Sitan said with reluctance: “Food is the fuel of life. You can look at it again when we come back.”

…Qi An obediently got up from her chair and followed Zhang Sitan.

She was neither iron nor steel; she was just a miserable, tormented worker.

But when she got to the cafeteria and smelled the rice and the scattered aroma of meat, Qi An instantly perked up.

She held her meal card and waited in line, suddenly feeling pleased with herself again. Work was hard, but she was also amazing, having completed a morning of work despite the hardship.

While eating, Qi An bit into a large steamed bun, determined to turn her indignation into appetite.

Zhang Sitan knew she was tired but didn’t comfort her. The transition from student to worker, from carefree to burdened and resilient, was a feeling she needed to experience for herself.