Darkstone Code-Chapter 951 - 949: Underhanded Tactics

"Good morning!"

Shi Haoyun’s young salesperson walked into the office with a briefcase, constantly greeting others with a joyful glow of positivity on his face.

Once he finishes his current projects, he might get promoted and receive a raise, climbing one rung from the bottom tier, managing three to five people under him.

He was about to build his first team in life, and he would be the absolute core of that team.

They wouldn’t be squeezed together with everyone else here, unable to stretch their legs.

They would be in a private office, enjoying better treatment and free coffee. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

This is a great process; if his team could continue to succeed, then he might become a partner at this branch office, then a senior partner, a partner at the headquarters, or even a shareholder.

All this is thanks to the troubles they encounter Every Moment. Without the troubles they faced, Shi Haoyun wouldn’t have thought about aggressively expanding his business quickly, nor would he have had such an opportunity to secure numerous contracts.

Every contract to him was like an award.

As soon as he sat on the chair, a young girl next to him turned around to look at him, "The phone was ringing non-stop while you were away..."

"Really?" The young salesperson smiled, showing his pearly white teeth, "I see, thank you for reminding me."

"You’re welcome!" The female colleague responded nonchalantly, "I heard you were called to the general manager’s office yesterday?"

The young man nodded modestly, "We talked about the promotion."

The girl’s eyes lit up, "What did you talk about?"

The young salesperson actually didn’t intend to share these details; as he was thinking about how to decline, the phone rang.

He smiled slightly apologetically, then entered his workspace, no longer speaking with that female floozy.

She had been sleeping with at least ten employees in this office; some even said she often mingled with those big clients.

Some of them might be rumors from people who didn’t like her, but not every malicious rumor can be fabricated.

Regarding the floozy, the young salesperson had no interest at all.

He adjusted his attitude the moment he picked up the phone, "Hello, what can I do for you?"

Using polite language, learned from Every Moment; Every Moment’s service had shown all companies in the Federation the huge gap between each other, but only Every Moment and their employees could achieve this—

As long as you have a consumption record with Every Moment proving you are a loyal customer, you could request your manager to join you on a journey of deeper human discussions anytime, anywhere.

Other companies couldn’t do this, but using polite language wasn’t overly unreasonable.

If you could take money out of others’ pockets and put it into the capitalist’s pocket, and then the capitalist would leak a little back to yourself, using polite language wouldn’t make him feel inferior.

"Hello, I’m...from the store at 72 Main Street, if you remember me."

The young salesperson immediately recalled the store owner, a middle-aged man in his forties who was also part of his success, "Yes, I remember you, is there something up?"

The store owner’s voice was filled with anticipation, "I want to ask when your counters can be delivered; the sooner, the better. This way, I won’t have to keep moving things around here frequently."

"Counters?"

The young salesperson didn’t react immediately, "What counters?"

He seemed to realize something, "You’re talking about our display stands, right? That has to wait until after the court verdict; we will have a unified action plan, so you don’t need to worry too much."

At this moment, the young salesperson was unaware of what had happened; he only thought the other party had run out of Every Moment cigarettes and was suffering losses, hence wanting to change the current situation, nothing more.

But the following words made the young salesperson’s scalp tingle suddenly, feeling restless.

"Didn’t I win the lawsuit? Do I have to wait until everyone won before you can deliver the display stands?" the store owner’s tone was slightly dissatisfied.

A minty chill rushed up the spine to the top of his head; he shivered, his voice wavering slightly, "Who said we won the lawsuit?"

Every Moment’s legal department requested the court to adjourn the trial based on the company’s current equity structure not being confirmed and the acquisition battle not being completely over.

Courts across various places agreed to their application because it wasn’t just an excuse to delay; they indeed faced frequent equity changes.

Only when their equity changes were over or stabilized would it be most appropriate to proceed with the trial.

In other words, even if Every Moment were to lose, the earliest message should come out in late April, not now!

The young salesperson looked at the desk calendar, which showed April 11th at present, completely mismatched.

The store owner on the other end of the receiver seemed unaware of the problem, continuing, "Court people came the day before yesterday, they took Every Moment employees away along with all their counters, I’ve reserved those places for you."

"I hope you could deliver my display stands as soon as possible, you know, I can’t keep them empty; it’s too dangerous for me!"

Counters were sometimes crucial for protecting the store owner from getting hurt, blocking intruders from easily contacting the store owner, and indeed, it was risky to keep them vacant.

The young salesperson hurriedly stood up, "There hasn’t even been a trial; what else did those people say..."

He paused while speaking, "Listen, I’ll come over now, wait for me at the store."

After saying that, he hung up the phone, leaving the coffee he just bought untouched on the table and dashed out of the office hall.

The girl next door pouted; she initially intended to get closer to her "neighbor," hoping to join his team when he forms one.

But she could sense that he wasn’t interested in her, which made her exceptionally ashamed.

The floozy never thought of herself as a floozy; they would even think those calling them floozy were just issuing ridiculous jealous remarks because they couldn’t get close to this "floozy."

The young salesperson ran out of the office, hailed a cab, and soon arrived at...72 Main Street. Looking at the empty counters of Every Moment, he suddenly realized that Every Moment hadn’t done nothing, they had counterattacked.

The young salesperson didn’t enter the shop; the store owner greeted him spontaneously, but he didn’t communicate with him, sprinting over to another store over a hundred meters away.

When he stood at the door, looking at the counters that were readjusted, he noticed that the display stands from Every Moment were also gone.

Terrible!

He rushed into the phone booth by the road, dialing the general manager’s number with trembling hands, and conveyed the message.

An hour later, branch offices across the Federation gathered the same message at the headquarters—Every Moment’s display stands were gone; someone claimed to have won the lawsuit and removed those stands.

"Who do you think came up with this idea?" Shi Haoyun’s legal department not only had people from Shi Haoyun, but also those from Duocai.

The headquarters of the three major tobacco companies were in Bupen, even on the same street; facing east from the president’s office allows one to see Every Moment’s iconic building—a spindle-like structure with thin ends and a thick middle as an office tower.

Shi Haoyun’s legal department head shook his head, "This doesn’t look like...’s work style, it’s someone else’s approach, not his."

The "Mr...." he referred to was the head of Every Moment’s legal department.

Being called the head, this skilled legal professional also had his own law office and was often active in various lawsuits.

In the Federation, even among the six major banks, none have a completely self-owned legal team; most corporate legal departments are outsourced.

The costs of lawyers are too high for ordinary people to afford; they only come to the company to perform their duties as needed.

Most of the time, they are busy with their affairs—

Of course, when paid, they arrange for some young lawyers to provide 24-hour service in the company, but not all, nor will the chief lawyers from law firms be stationed year-round.

This kind of lawyer, costing hundreds or thousands per hour, demands at least ten thousand per month for permanent residence, and hiring a complete team requires monthly payments reaching five, six, seventy, eighty thousand!

These costs don’t include specific work requirements; these fees solely cover the in-office consultation.

Having them gather evidence, investigate, do... any activities outside the office will exponentially increase costs.

So in most enterprises, corporations, legal departments are outsourced, bundled to a law firm, or a gold-tier lawyer from a law firm is employed as the legal department manager.

The top circle in this industry isn’t large, so lawyers in this room can instantly see that this wasn’t Every Moment’s legal department’s method.

They are more likely to find loopholes for solutions or even counterattacks but would avoid dirty tactics that might trap themselves.

Shi Haoyun’s president rolled up his sleeves inefficiently, puffing on his company’s produced cigarette, asking irritably, "So what’s next?"

"What might they do next, can anyone tell me that point, at least let me know what we are going to face?"