Pharmaceutical Negotiator - Chapter 19

After dinner, the two joined the queue for the subway again.

The official promotion not only meant a few extra words on her badge, but also that Qi An was formally accepted into this big family. As soon as she entered the office, several young colleagues congratulated Qi An on her promotion, and Qi An pinned her badge on with extra pride.

She no longer constantly loitered around the pantry, though she would still go foraging for snacks when she was idle, as sitting for long periods could cause hemorrhoids after all.

Qi An was Zhang Si Tan’s personal assistant, and indeed, usually only Zhang Si Tan gave her tasks. Even Li Hua, a long time employee, would only occasionally ask Qi An to help print a document in very rare cases.

But not everyone had such boundaries.

As soon as he entered the office, Li Hao seized the opportunity, cutting in front of Qi An and asking her to prepare a speech draft for him.

At the end of the month, various forms of speeches and work deployments started to increase. Li Hao, as the academic representative of the Medical Insurance Bureau, was often sent out to host various talks and meetings to serve as a figurehead, despite his lack of actual ability.

“Qi An, congratulations on your promotion. This is the previous draft, please revise it for me. Make sure it doesn’t overlap [with the old one],” he said quickly.

After giving his instructions, Li Hao returned to his own cubicle.

The entire office only had two teams, the one led by Zhang Si Tan and the one led by Li Hao. The two teams shared an office and there were no distinct territories. However, due to Li Hao’s psychological bias, he automatically considered Zhang Si Tan’s area as enemy territory and avoided staying there for too long.

Qi An took the draft Li Hao handed her. Li Hao hadn’t even sent her an electronic copy before asking her to revise it.

Zhang Si Tan cast a subtle glance at the draft in Qi An’s hand but didn’t intervene. The draft wasn’t thick; speeches of this level were mostly platitudes.

Qi An was unaware of the conflict between Zhang Si Tan and Li Hao, so she started working on the task she was given. Li Hua, however, looked up at Zhang Si Tan. In the past, Zhang Si Tan had implicitly or explicitly blocked many of Li Hao’s boundary-crossing requests, so why was she indifferent this time?

Actually, Zhang Si Tan was annoyed too. Her own junior being openly poached certainly irritated her. But Qi An didn’t have many tasks recently, and learning to write a draft wasn’t a bad idea.

Thinking this, Zhang Si Tan focused on her computer, also preparing her own tasks.

Later that morning, Zhang Si Tan got up to get a cup of warm water from the pantry and circled around to the back of Qi An’s cubicle.

“’A gentle breeze blows, the summer wind is mild. We gather here together, welcoming this sacred moment. Today is one of many “todays,” yet it is a deeply extraordinary one…’”

Zhang Si Tan placed the cup she was holding onto Qi An’s desk, frowning at the line of text on the screen.

Her hand rested on the back of Qi An’s chair, her body leaning forward. Qi An could smell a faint scent from Zhang Si Tan. She hadn’t sprayed perfume today, so the smell probably came from laundry beads, shampoo.

And face cream… Qi An thought blushingly. She also wore the same face cream, the same scent as Sister Si Tan.

“Are you writing an elementary school essay?” A reprimand broke her blushing moment.

“Huh?” She turned her head, looking at Zhang Si Tan’s expression, trying to gauge her level of anger.

The woman’s hair was tied up low, with a few strands hanging down, making her face look even smaller. Her eyebrows were slightly furrowed, but no obvious anger was shown. The lipstick on her lips had faded significantly, and the arm propping on the desk edge was slender and fair.

Thankfully, she wasn’t too angry.

“Did you take Marxist theory or Outline of Chinese Modern History in university?”

“Huh?” Qi An didn’t catch the sarcasm in Zhang Si Tan’s words and honestly replied, “Yes, I did.”

Zhang Si Tan picked up the cup and returned to her cubicle. She found a white-covered book on Xi Jinping Thought from a stack and handed it to Qi An.

“Use the language from inside. Stop with the elementary school sentence construction; it’s too childish.”

This time, Qi An understood the dislike in Zhang Si Tan’s words. She took the white-covered booklet and scrutinized the draft she had written.

After a while, she excitedly sent the draft to Zhang Si Tan.

Zhang Si Tan received the file, opened it, browsed a few paragraphs, and said, “A little improvement.”

Hearing Zhang Si Tan praise her, Qi An grinned brightly, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Zhang Si Tan.

Zhang Si Tan couldn’t handle her gaze and forced herself to find something to praise: “’The people’s priorities are our priorities.’ This part is good.”

“Hehe, I borrowed that from the internet,” Qi An chuckled again.

“Hmm, you can extend that sentence, and add another paragraph. Don’t turn priorities into heartbreaking issues…”

“Got it!” Qi An, given the instruction, was full of fighting spirit and started writing the draft again.

“Let’s eat first, and then you can continue writing when we get back.”

A few minutes later, Zhang Si Tan appeared at the cafeteria with her apprentice.

In the afternoon, after Qi An sent the draft to Li Hao, he personally came to what he considered enemy territory to get the hard copy.

“Well written. You look small, but you have a lot of knowledge.”

Hearing Li Hao praise her was a different feeling from hearing Zhang Si Tan praise her. But receiving a compliment was always a pleasant feeling.

She smiled happily as she handed the draft to Li Hao, without thinking much that this was not part of her job description.

Hearing Li Hao praise Qi An, Zhang Si Tan also felt a sense of pleasure.

But she was good at facial expression management. She contained the smile in her eyes and told Li Hao sternly:

“I’m short-handed here too. If you have something, please find people on your team. My assistant reports to me.”

Zhang Si Tan’s words were blunt and gave no room for negotiation. Li Hao, having just received the draft he wanted, didn’t dare to get into an argument and glumly returned to his cubicle.

Qi An stood in the middle, her mind momentarily short-circuited, filled with joy over Zhang Si Tan’s protective behavior and the phrase, “My assistant.”

Li Hua, on the other hand, stared at Zhang Si Tan. This was the first time he had seen Zhang Si Tan directly counter Li Hao, which somewhat surprised him.

“Get ready, we’re going to see Director Liu,” Zhang Si Tan glanced at the dazed Qi An, interrupting her daydreaming.

Qi An snapped back to attention, remembering Zhang Si Tan mentioning seeing Director Liu that morning.

She grabbed a pack of nuts and threw it into her bag, then stuffed her water bottle in too. After thinking for a moment, she also haphazardly packed her power bank and data cable.

Zhang Si Tan watched her already small bag being stuffed full and couldn’t help but remind her, “Did you bring your notebook?”

“Brought it, brought it!” Qi An quickly responded.

“…” Zhang Si Tan inexplicably felt that Qi An was a little too excited. “Wait a moment, I need to touch up my makeup.”

“Mmhmm!” Starlit eyes.

Zhang Si Tan deliberately avoided Qi An’s bright eyes. She took out her powder compact and dabbed her forehead and nose, then applied some lipstick and pressed her lips together a few times.

The hand holding the makeup mirror trembled slightly when she accidentally caught Qi An’s intense gaze. Zhang Si Tan helplessly put away the mirror, slung on her bag, and prepared to leave the office.

Her powder compact was a two in one product for makeup and sun protection, with a thick texture, so she didn’t reapply sunscreen separately. She only took a parasol with a light purple canopy, which was as elegant as she was.

Qi An followed beside Zhang Si Tan, also carrying an umbrella. Hers was her favorite green, with painted elements like clouds and the sun on the canopy.

Zhang Si Tan, wearing high heels and being taller than Qi An, took larger steps. Qi An’s two short legs had to quicken their pace to keep up right beside Zhang Si Tan.

They were meeting Director Liu at a casual library. The first floor was for reading, and the second floor offered drinks and snacks, with private booths for conversation that wouldn’t disturb the readers downstairs.

The office building was a distance from the bus stop. Enduring the scorching heat, both of them quickened their steps.

Bus rides were not reimbursable, but the library was even further away from the subway station. Taking a taxi would delay them, so enduring the stifling and burning air, Qi An felt the urge to buy a car again.

She had seen a Maybach downstairs today, a sedan, which shouldn’t be a very expensive model. She had always thought the Maybach hood ornament was ugly, looking like a sticky rice dumpling stuck on the hood, not as grand as the Bentley or Rolls Royce ornaments.

Hearing Zhang Si Tan say last time that the car she bought shouldn’t be more expensive than Director Zhang’s, she was considering buying a sedan in the hundred to two hundred thousand range.

In Beijing, you needed to scan a code both when boarding and alighting the bus. Although this wasn’t Qi An’s first time in Beijing, she had always taken the subway when traveling before. So this time, she followed Zhang Si Tan, opening her transit card app, scanning wherever Zhang Si Tan scanned.

Because it wasn’t rush hour, the bus wasn’t crowded. Most of the passengers were elderly, sitting and swinging their legs.

In Shandong, the elderly rode the bus for free. Qi An didn’t know the situation in Beijing, but seeing a bus full of elderly people, she guessed they also used a special “beep” senior card.

The library Director Liu chose was a bit remote, which explained why the subway line didn’t reach there. Qi An felt the bus circled almost three-quarters of the city before arriving.

Liu Yujing, Director Liu, was mainly responsible for the drug product planning of Qi Dong Pharmaceutical, so she had a significant say. Zhang Si Tan had not met her before, but had read reports about her in industry news. She was a straightforward person.

Dealing with female leaders meant less trouble. Although there were sharp tongued and heavy-smoking women among them, at least they would ask their conversation partner for permission before smoking.

Closing their parasols, Zhang Si Tan and Qi An went up to the second floor.

The decoration on the second floor was more complex than downstairs. Perhaps because there was no need to house a large number of bookshelves, there was more space for highly designed elements. The ordering counter was large, and the antique bronze wooden cabinet resembled a counter selling elves in a magical world.

Zhang Si Tan glanced at the cabinet behind the counter; it mostly contained drinks. Based on the photo of Liu Yujing she had seen online, she scanned the people and easily met the eyes of Liu Yujing, who was also looking up to find her.

“Director Liu, I’ve long heard your name,” Zhang Si Tan walked over with Qi An, a warm smile on her face.

“Hello,” Liu Yujing, dressed in a professional suit, shook hands with Zhang Si Tan and Qi An respectively, and invited them to sit down.

A server from the counter came over and asked if they would like to order.

There was a large, thick book on the table. The book cover was decorated with satin fabric, lace, etc. It had only a few pages of content but was very heavy.

Zhang Si Tan pulled it over. Seeing a mug already in front of Liu Yujing, she knew she had already ordered, so she only chose one for herself with a name that sounded pleasant.

“What will you order?” she asked Qi An.

“The same as you.”

Just as reported in the news, Director Liu wasted no time and got straight to the point: “We highly value the cooperation with your bureau. Before coming, we roughly drafted two proposals.”

Saying this, she took out two documents from her bag and placed them on the table: “Since this is a medicine for children, the selling point must be focused on children. Proposal one is for us to fund and find child models to shoot a micro short film. The script is at the end.”

Zhang Si Tan followed her words and flipped to the end. It was a story about a child getting sick, meeting a miraculous elder, receiving Qi Dong’s medicine, and recovering.

Very… clichéd. Zhang Si Tan flipped to the second document.

“Proposal two is to invite a child patient to watch a stage play, film the entire process, and then produce a promotional video. We will also fund this and have it screened all day on large screens in shopping malls.”

Seeing Zhang Si Tan flip to the second document, Liu Yujing started talking about Proposal two. She was confident in her proposals, and since Qi Dong would bear the brunt of the cost, she felt both proposals were quite acceptable.

Both parties were keen to cooperate: Qi Dong Pharmaceutical wanted reputation, and the Medical Insurance Bureau wanted another backup resource. It sounded like a harmonious partnership.

“For the promotional video in Proposal two, have you considered broadcasting it on TV?” Zhang Si Tan said slowly.

Their drinks had arrived, also served in mugs. The milk-green color didn’t appeal to Zhang Si Tan; it looked too sweet.

Qi An, however, picked it up and took a large sip, sitting obediently to listen to their conversation.

“Getting it on satellite TV would be ideal, of course, but that requires approvals and such. I’m afraid our company won’t invest too much effort in that area.”

“Understood.” Zhang Si Tan nodded. If they settled on Proposal two, she could handle the satellite TV broadcast.

“Director Luo wants young Director Luo to take the stage, and this project is a stepping stone. So, we hope the publicity can be substantial,” Liu Yujing admitted frankly.

Mentioning the young Director Luo, who was far away in Hainan, Zhang Si Tan laughed softly: “I heard young Director Luo is vacationing in Hainan. Will the contract be finalized by you and me?”

Liu Yujing was visibly stunned, unsure if it was because of young Director Luo being in Hainan or the contract finalization: “The proposal still needs refinement. The contract will still be finalized by young Director Luo later. Miss Zhang, which proposal do you prefer?”

“Shouldn’t we hear young Director Luo’s opinion first?” Zhang Si Tan raised an eyebrow, her slender fingers resting on the tabletop.

“It’s fine, we can decide,” Liu Yujing gave a very definite answer.

“Then let’s go with Proposal two.”

“Good.” Liu Yujing was also more satisfied with Proposal two, as the investment ratio would be smaller.

“It would be best to have a meeting with young Director Luo as soon as possible. I will handle the satellite TV broadcast arrangements,” Zhang Si Tan said.

“Of course, young Director Luo is also eager to achieve cooperation as quickly as possible.”

On the way back, Zhang Si Tan pondered how to lure Luo Mu Rong out of hiding.

“Sister Si Tan, what if Luo Mu Rong really is in Hainan?”

“Heh, why would a rich young master like him run there in the middle of summer to avoid crowds?” Zhang Si Tan chuckled lightly.

Qi An nodded thoughtfully, feeling that this wasn’t a complicated matter.

She immediately took out her phone and messaged Luo Mu Rong “You didn’t go to Hainan, right?”

Luo Mu Rong quickly replied:

“I did.” followed by a mischievous smiley face.

Qi An was about to show the phone to Zhang Si Tan, but then saw another message follow:

“If you want to discuss cooperation, I can come back from Hainan immediately if you help me with a favor.”