Chapter 51: Chapter 24: The Comforter Exploded
After Manager Yang and Xiaohu left, Huang Xiaopang eagerly asked, "President E, was what you just said true?"
Gao Xue’e laughed, "The logic is true; as for the matter itself—well, it could be true!"
Huang Xiaopang: "What do you mean by ’it could be true’? Is our company really going to sign a collaboration agreement with Sesame Apartment? Find everyone’s rental contracts and re-sign them at the agreement price?"
Gao Xue’e replied, "Why not?"
Huang Xiaopang slapped his thigh, "That’s totally doable!"
He Kao chimed in, "President E, this was something you just thought of, right?"
Gao Xue’e admitted, "I indeed just thought of it, but it’s not impossible to manage. This isn’t the business I oversee. If I went ahead and proposed it to administration, they might think I’m overstepping my authority, causing them trouble... He Kao, how do you think it should be managed?"
He Kao: "You don’t handle these affairs, and you don’t live in Sesame Apartment. If you go directly to the administration to propose it, it feels like you’re talking just to gain favor, but leaving the work to the administration.
I think you could first post something on the company’s intranet, tallying how many people live in Sesame Apartment and gathering opinions. Then everyone can collectively suggest the company sign a collaboration agreement with Sesame Apartment. With this foundation, everyone can approach the administration.
Including people from their own administrative department would definitely have residents there. The vice president transferred from the group headquarters, someone named Liu, is also said to live in Sesame Apartment, and there might be other department heads..."
Huang Xiaopang: "Leave it to me, I’ll post it and then encourage everyone to share it in the employee group. I know quite a few colleagues who live in Sesame Apartment, so I’ll get them to help spread the word!
President E, the figures you mentioned earlier, three hundred, five hundred—who collected those?"
Gao Xue’e laughed again, "I just said that casually, no one has ever collected that data. So this matter is partly due to the company’s administrative oversight; they should have talked to Sesame Apartment long ago.
But I wasn’t completely baseless; in our department of over thirty people, seven rent apartments in Sesame Apartment, so estimating from the proportion, it’s not insignificant."
Tengxin is an ultra-large-scale group. Just at the Qi Yuan Branch headquarters, there are more than five hundred direct employees working in the headquarters building. Adding local branches like subsidiaries, there are nearly two thousand employees in Qi Yuan alone.
So the numbers Gao Xue’e mentioned earlier, though seemingly casual, were not entirely without basis.
He Kao asked again, "The Bada Group project you mentioned, is it that E-Life Apartment, and is it real?"
Gao Xue’e: "Of course it’s real. If they knew about this, they’d be eager to come and sign the collaboration agreement. But that place is quite far, more than three kilometers from the company, which is over a half-hour walk, and the surrounding facilities aren’t as convenient as here.
Riding a bike requires crossing several main roads, and part of the way doesn’t even have a bike lane, which isn’t safe. It’s fine on sunny days, but it’s hard to get a taxi in rain or snow, and public transport is very crowded during rush hours.
I think as long as the price isn’t too different, living in Sesame Apartment is more comfortable, just a few steps to the office. They’ve heard that place is opening in three months. If someone really wants to move there, I suggest waiting six months; it’s all newly renovated and needs time to release formaldehyde."
Huang Xiaopang: "Of course, it’s still better to continue living here; no one likes moving all the time. President E, if we sign the agreement price, how much discount can we get on the rent?"
Gao Xue’e: "I can’t say for sure, but according to our company’s usual practice, we’d probably get a forty percent discount."
In fact, Gao Xue’e just came today to console He Kao; she hadn’t planned any of this beforehand.
Manager Yang from the Sesame Apartment sales office was also there as per leadership instructions to soothe He Kao. If he had just consoled him, nothing would have happened, but he presumptuously tried to coerce He Kao to change his mind and ended up clashing with Gao Xue’e.
When did Gao Xue’e become so down-to-earth, actively sharing employees’ concerns and speaking casually with Huang Xiaopang like this? She went out of her way to come today because He Kao and Huang Xiaopang saved her at the swimming pool.
When did these two guys save Gao Xue’e? It was during the last departmental team-building event at Bada Club, on the same day that Qian Guran switched the Beast Claw Pendant.
That day, Gao Xue’e was swimming nicely in the pool but suddenly felt the water lose its buoyancy. No matter how hard she paddled, it was in vain...
Luckily, Huang Xiaopang immediately noticed something was off with her and darted over to her like a white tofu curd in water. He Kao, who was competing with Huang Xiaopang, of course, came over too. The two, from left and right, hoisted her up, practically dragging her to the shore.
In an emotional stir, Huang Xiaopang almost gave President E artificial respiration, but fortunately, He Kao pulled him away. Gao Xue’e wasn’t unconscious nor holding her breath; she just choked a bit and was startled with no need for first aid.
At that time, Qian Guran was busy swapping the items, missing the entire scene.
There was also another "hero" who, at the first sign of trouble for Gao Xue’e, dived into the pool with a graceful and agile pose, quickly swimming over to save her... but he was a step too late; there was nothing for him to do because Xiaopang and He Kao were faster.
The third party involved is President Peng, the boss of Jinxing Media Company. Jinxing Media collaborates with Bada Group and its departments. The co-branded card campaign for Bada Club was planned by them, and this team-building event was also coordinated by Boss Peng.
With this premise, after hearing about He Kao’s ordeal, Gao Xue’e naturally showed concern. Unexpectedly, she encountered this situation today and made an impressive impromptu performance, earning sincere praise from two employees present.
"President E, you were really impressive today!" Huang Xiaopang rarely spoke to Gao Xue’e this way.
He Kao also followed up with a thumbs up, applauding: "Indeed, so impressive, both beautiful and fierce!"
Originally coming to offer comfort, Gao Xue’e ended up receiving a wave of compliments, even secretly admiring herself a bit. When bidding farewell, even the sound of her high-heeled shoes seemed somewhat light and buoyant, and she was in a very good mood.
There’s an idiom in Eastern Country, "Disasters never come alone." Manager Yang at Sesame Apartment Sales Office was quite unlucky on Sunday, but it soon proved that he was even more unfortunate on Monday!
Liang Kai hadn’t rested well all weekend, feeling inexplicably anxious.
He inquired internally and found that the police hadn’t taken further action, only conducted interviews and registration, and there was nothing unusual around, which made him feel relieved.
Therefore, on Monday, he woke up late, still lazing around at about eight o’clock, but suddenly startled awake. This was a response to his spiritual sense and physical sensation because a breeze had blown against his crotch.
Sleeping with the windows closed, how could there be wind in the bed? Because, unbeknownst to him, someone had entered the room, standing at the foot of the bed, reached out, and lifted the quilt from below.
Liang Kai was bewildered, his first reaction was to reach behind the pillow to grab the gun hidden in the gap between the mattress and the headboard.
The intruder was masked and wearing shooting range earmuffs, throwing an object into the bed between Liang Kai’s legs, resembling three small bamboo tubes bound together.
Then he covered Liang Kai with the quilt and quickly crouched down, hiding beneath the foot of the bed. Liang Kai had just grabbed the handgun and hadn’t had time to kick off the quilt when a loud explosion erupted from beneath the covers...
Although the explosion occurred under the quilt, with the duvet, mattress, and human flesh serving as buffers, the noise was still significant in the enclosed room, heard almost throughout the entire building!
Someone next door was brushing their teeth in the bathroom when suddenly the blast accompanied by the vibration caused the mirror in front of the sink to fall, nearly scaring them to death... The closer the room, the greater the shock received.
Someone called the police, and personnel from the apartment management and security also arrived, but everyone waited until the police got there before opening the door. Upon opening the door, only smoke filled the room, and the window glass was cracked, evidently something had exploded.
However, the bed was vacant, with the bedsheets and quilt missing. The mattress had a charred mark with scattered bloodstains mixed with some bamboo fiber-like material upon closer inspection.
What happened, did someone play with explosives in bed and blow themselves away? How could the bedsheets and quilt disappear together? Based on experience, the police analyzed that the scene must have been cleaned.
The crucial question isn’t just what happened, but where did the person go? Luckily, the floor’s surveillance had been repaired, and the police immediately checked the monitoring records, with bewildering results.
The resident of this apartment is Liang Kai, who hadn’t left the room since entering last night after dinner, at least according to monitoring records. The newly repaired surveillance showed no signs of being tampered with or malfunctioning.
The apartment is on the nineteenth floor, it’s unlikely Liang Kai escaped through the window. How could a grown person just disappear, unless they were flushed away through the toilet?
The police did check the toilet, conducted bloodstain and other tests but found blood residue only on the mattress, also ruling out the possibility of being dismembered and flushed down.
Something surely happened inside the room, and the police certainly don’t believe a person could vanish into thin air, only concluding he somehow evaded surveillance and escaped.
Either he left on his own, or was abducted.
Due to lack of other evidence, it was ultimately classified as a missing persons case. No one knows what happened inside, anyway after the loud bang, the person disappeared, with the reason for the disappearance remaining unknown.
Many personal items in the apartment were still there, including wallets and keys, but one item was missing, or rather the police didn’t find it, which was the mobile phone indispensable to modern people.
Actually, there’s another item missing inside the room, unbeknownst to the police, which was Liang Kai’s handgun.
The perpetrator took away Liang Kai and the gun, evidently making a wise choice. If left behind, it’d constitute a firearm murder, a particularly serious case!
Taking those two items away, the case was categorized as a missing persons case with significant suspicions, yet regardless of how major the suspicions were, it remained a missing persons case, reducing the police’s attention and investigation intensity by at least an order of magnitude.
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