Pampered Poisonous Royal Wife – o

Everyone shook their heads, indicating they didn’t know. Only Hua Yun answered softly, "Chairman, is it because of the incident at the front desk?"

An Yiqing didn’t deny it. She lowered her eyes to glance at the HR files, her tone calm with a faint chill. "I’ve said before: Xuanjin Yulong does not allow nepotism, no back doors, no leveraging personal connections. Do you still remember?"

Everyone nodded repeatedly. The reason Xuanjin Yulong had been able to grow so quickly to where it was today was precisely because they only used the capable, not the related.

"But after going through a year and a half of HR records, I’ve found a lot of problems." An Yiqing pulled out a page from the stack and laid it in front of everyone. "Who is Zhang Xue?"

Zhang Yuksheng took the file and glanced at it, then frowned. Given Zhang Xue’s qualifications, she had absolutely no right to become Xuanjin Yulong’s front desk receptionist. She only had a high school diploma, hadn’t even passed Level 4 of International Language, and her signature was a messy scrawl with no aesthetic sense at all.

Every single employee of Xuanjin Yulong faces strict requirements. You can lack formal education, but you cannot lack talent. Whatever you’re good at that can help the company must be clearly written in the file. But looking at Zhang Xue’s file—good at makeup? Dancing? What the hell does that have to do with Xuanjin Yulong?!

As the receptionist of an international, transnational enterprise, not knowing International Language—does that make any sense at all?!

Zhang Yuksheng was angry as well. He passed the file to the others, and everyone read it in turn, exchanging looks with one another.

They all had brains. With just a little thought, they knew this was someone who’d gotten in through the back door, riding on some connection.

"Miss, this is my dereliction of duty. I never imagined the HR Department would be so bold as to ignore the company’s rules. I’m sorry, you can punish me!" Zhang Yuksheng lowered his head and said.

Feng Yu saw this and grew a little anxious. She stepped forward and said, "Chairman, the HR Department ultimately falls under my purview. I’m the one who failed to manage it properly. President Zhang is busy all day, running himself ragged, he has no time to keep track of these things. Punish me, it was my oversight."

Hua Yun opened her mouth, wanting to try to persuade An Yiqing. But Xing Bin shot her a look, and Hua Yun had no choice but to swallow her words.

The office was utterly silent. Sitting in her chair, motionless, An Yiqing’s silence was suffocating.

After a long time, she let out a soft sigh. "I’m not blaming you. You don’t need to fight over who takes the blame. Given Xuanjin Yulong’s current size, having no problems at all is impossible. We should be glad we discovered this issue in time. A thousand‑mile dyke can be destroyed by an ant hole. If we let this develop unchecked, the road ahead will be very hard to walk."

Their heads lowered even further. Precisely because An Yiqing wasn’t reproaching them, they felt all the more guilty. In a year and a half, not only had they failed to safeguard this family business for the Chairman, they had even allowed such a gaping loophole to appear. They truly deserved a beating.

Looking at the few people hanging their heads in dejection, An Yiqing arched her brows and rapped the table. "What’s this? You don’t even listen to me anymore?! I said this matter isn’t your fault—what are you doing grabbing at responsibility like that? Xuanjin Yulong has several thousand people up and down the company; how many pairs of eyes do you have to watch everything? Human greed is bottomless; there will always be people who want more benefits. What you should be doing now is not confessing, but correcting the mistake! Go, pass the word down: at 1:30 this afternoon, we’re holding a full senior leadership meeting!"

Zhang Yuksheng immediately responded, "Yes!" He thought for a moment, then asked, "Miss, there are so many employees in Xuanjin Yulong—are you planning a major purge?"

An Yiqing let out a cold laugh. "Why not?"

"But there are so many people..." Can they really be thoroughly checked?

An Yiqing glanced at Zhang Yuksheng, casually flipped through the HR files, and smiled.

...

At 1:25 in the afternoon, the Xuanjin Yulong conference room was packed. HR, Finance, Sales, Administration—the heads and deputy heads of every department were all present. They had already heard the news that the Chairman had returned, and each of them felt a bit ill at ease. After being away for a year and a half, was the Chairman coming back to make an example out of them?

Zhang Yuksheng sat in the first seat on the right side of the conference table, eyes lowered, saying nothing. Out of the corner of his eye he had already scanned everyone thoroughly; all the varied expressions were captured in his gaze. His eyes gradually darkened. It seemed the company really did need to be shaken up.

At 1:30 sharp, An Yiqing appeared at the conference room door. She was wearing a long white dress, no makeup, her long hair down, looking like the girl next door. Yet not a single person present dared underestimate her. The seats they now occupied had been fought for by this woman, bare-handed.

Under everyone’s gaze, An Yiqing walked to the head of the conference table and sat down. She swept her eyes over everyone one by one and gave a faint smile.

"I’ve been away for a year and a half and came back today. Here, I want to thank all of you. Thank you for what you’ve done for Xuanjin Yulong over this past year and a half—my thanks to everyone."

Everyone applauded in succession, repeatedly saying this was simply their duty. An Yiqing’s smile didn’t shift a muscle. Under the table, Zhang Yuksheng secretly gave her a thumbs‑up. Win their hearts first, then hit them with a stick—Miss was ruthless.

When the applause died down, An Yiqing glanced at Zhang Yuksheng. He immediately signaled the secretary with his eyes. The secretary opened the laptop, placed it in front of An Yiqing, and respectfully stepped back.

"On my way in today, I ran into something." An Yiqing casually clicked a few times with the mouse. "I was stopped in the lobby. She said I didn’t have an appointment and couldn’t see President Zhang. Of course, she was right. I very politely told her, you just need to inform President Zhang, and he can decide whether or not to see me. But that young lady said President Zhang was in a meeting."

Everyone looked at one another; among them, two people lowered their heads, their palms slick with sweat.

An Yiqing swept her gaze around and continued, "Since she said there was a meeting, I figured I’d just wait. I waited two hours, until noon. Then she said President Zhang had taken the executives’ private elevator and left through the back. I hadn’t realized our Xuanjin Yulong had so many ’back doors’."

Cold sweat flowed; everyone fell silent. With a single sentence, An Yiqing made a double entendre. Her tone was light, yet it made everyone feel an icy chill. A tremendous pressure pressed on their hearts, making it hard to breathe.

Sitting in his seat, Zhang Yuksheng lifted his gaze to the crowd and, in his heart, had already formed a rough picture.

Just as the room sank into silence, a man suddenly stood up from his chair.

"Ch... Chairman, I want to confess to you!"