Volume 1, Chapter 21: Zhou Yang’s Prophetic Words

"Huh?" Bai Lu was startled.

She was currently wearing only a T-shirt; if she took that off, she would be left in her undergarments.

Sensing her hesitation, Zhou Yang said, "If you're really not comfortable, you can put on a very thin layer of clothing, and I will perform the diagnosis through the fabric."

That was acceptable.

Bai Lu returned to the bedroom, changed into a very light, revealing outfit, and walked out feeling bashful. It was no wonder she felt awkward; the garment was practically as good as wearing nothing at all. It was made of silk, smooth to the touch, and clung to her frame, clearly highlighting her soft, rounded curves. Furthermore, the fabric was translucent; under the glow of the lights, her sexy physique was vaguely visible.

"Will this do?" Bai Lu asked, standing before Zhou Yang.

"Yes!" Zhou Yang nodded.

The most beautiful campus belle of Shen University, alone in a room with him, appearing before him in such a seductive manner—in the past, this was something Zhou Yang wouldn't have dared to dream of.

"Senior, you can just lie down on the sofa," Zhou Yang said.

"Oh, okay!"

Following the records of the *Golden Scales* in his mind, Zhou Yang began to locate the relevant meridians and acupuncture points on Bai Lu's body. Bai Lu bit her lower lip gently, her face flushed with shame until the very end.

"It’s not a major issue," Zhou Yang said. "I’ll mark the points on your body with a pen in a moment. You can buy a massager online and just massage those specific spots every day. Combined with the prescription I’ve written for you, the results will be very obvious in a month."

"Thank you so much!" Bai Lu sat up, her face still bright red. "So many doctors couldn't fix my problem; I never expected you to be so confident."

"This is an ancestral technique!" Zhou Yang replied. "Senior, the meal is finished and the diagnosis is done, so I should head back now."

"Won't you stay a little longer?" Bai Lu offered out of politeness.

"Sure, I'll stay a bit longer!" Zhou Yang, who had already begun to rise, sat back down.

Bai Lu: "..." *I was just being polite, and you actually took me seriously!*

Subsequently, the two chatted about many amusing anecdotes from their university days, which made Bai Lu laugh out loud. After 10:00 PM, when Tang Yumei called to check in, Zhou Yang bid farewell to Bai Lu and returned to his place.

The night passed without incident.

The next day at the office, Zhou Yang learned that Liu Yan had called in sick and wouldn't be coming to work.

"How did he suddenly get sick?"

"Who knows? I heard he was accidentally hit by a car last night."

"Oh my, he’s going to be stuck at home for a while then."

As his colleagues whispered among themselves, Zhou Yang stood up and went to Su Jing's office. Today, Su Jing was wearing casual attire, making her appear less sharp and more graceful and composed.

"Director Su, Liu Yan has taken leave. Should someone else be assigned to mentor me?" Zhou Yang asked.

"I was just considering that," Su Jing said. "How about this: accompany me to pay a visit to Liu Yan's home first, and we'll decide after we return."

After all, Liu Yan was the top salesperson in the Sales Department. With the top performer in trouble, it was only natural for Su Jing, as the department head, to pay a visit.

Su Jing then took Zhou Yang and her assistant, Chen Xue, and drove to Liu Yan's house. Liu Yan was also from out of town, but thanks to his strong sales performance the previous year, he had earned enough to buy an apartment near the company. Liu Yan was resting at home and was caught off guard by Su Jing’s arrival.

"Oh, Director! Why didn't you let me know you were coming in advance?"

He had gauze wrapped around his head, and both sides of his face were swollen like steamed buns, looking quite comical.

"How did you end up like this?" Su Jing asked, surprised. "And this car accident was quite dangerous—you only hit your head? There's nothing wrong with your body?"

"Tell me about it, ouch!" As he spoke, the movement of his facial muscles caused him to wince in pain.

Just then, Zhou Yang and Chen Xue walked in from the door.

"This is a small gesture from the company!" Chen Xue and Zhou Yang placed some gifts on the coffee table.

Zhou Yang stood to the side, looking at Liu Yan with a grin: "Master, I've come to see you too. Oh my, how could you be so careless!"

Seeing Zhou Yang, Liu Yan felt as if he were looking at a nightmare; his face turned ghastly.

"Liu Yan, just focus on recovering at home. I’ll have Chen Xue look after your potential clients for now!" Su Jing said. "And as for Zhou Yang, I’ll arrange for someone else to mentor him."

"I actually have a client to negotiate with this afternoon!" Liu Yan said. "With our company launching this new batch of medicine, this client is a major account. If we can secure him, he alone could help us hit the department's target for this quarter!"

"Oh? Which one?"

"Sanxing Pharmaceuticals!" Liu Yan said. "But I can't go negotiate with this client this afternoon!" Looking like a pig’s head would only make people laugh at him.

"You don't need to worry about that. I’ll have Chen Xue and Zhou Yang go and handle it for you first!" Su Jing said. Before becoming an assistant, Chen Xue had also won top sales awards and had plenty of experience.

Liu Yan secretly chuckled when he heard Su Jing say that. He knew better than anyone that Sanxing Pharmaceuticals would never cooperate with their company. He said this to make himself look capable and to shift the blame. If he claimed he was sick and handed the client over to Chen Xue and Zhou Yang, and the deal fell through, the blame would fall on them. He could even turn around and bite back at them later.

Chen Xue felt a bit uneasy. She hated these thankless tasks, but since the director had spoken, she had to obey unconditionally as an assistant.

After leaving Liu Yan's place, the three grabbed a bite to eat on the street and returned to the office in the afternoon. Liu Yan had invited the general manager of Sanxing to visit the headquarters for talks, and Chen Xue and Zhou Yang took over to host the clients.

Three people from Sanxing arrived: General Manager Luo, his secretary, Xiao Cai, and an older man who was introduced as a technician.

Chen Xue and Zhou Yang first took the three clients on a tour of the headquarters park, then moved to the scheduled conference room, opened the prepared PowerPoint, and explained the advantages of the new EPS medicine. Su Jing also arrived at the conference room; after all, for a client this big, she, as director, had to show her face.

After listening to Chen Xue’s presentation, the Sanxing team looked indifferent, seemingly uninterested. Seeing this, Chen Xue panicked and hurriedly used various sales tactics to try and pique their interest. Su Jing also stepped in to smooth things over; she could see the lack of interest, but she would fight for any sliver of opportunity.

Supported by Su Jing’s powerful sales ability, the other side finally relented and agreed to purchase a batch of the new product to pilot in their stores first.

However, just then, Zhou Yang, who had been silent, suddenly said, "I don't recommend doing that."

Everyone looked at Zhou Yang, wondering what he was up to.

Zhou Yang said, "Personally, I feel that this new product still has some problems. I suggest that General Manager Luo wait a while. Let’s wait until the new product has received enough market feedback before making any plans. There's no need to rush."

This statement was completely counterproductive. Both Su Jing and Chen Xue were stunned. They had finally managed to get the other party to agree to a trial, and he was there claiming the medicine was defective and telling them not to cooperate. This wasn't just undermining them; it was disparaging the company.

Su Jing’s beautiful eyes were practically spitting fire. Was this Zhou Yang losing his mind? The Sanxing representatives were also confused; they had never seen a salesperson sabotage his own company like this.

Zhou Yang, however, remained calm. "Our new product’s health benefits are beyond doubt, but it contains a specific herb that, when combined with other ingredients, can cause certain side effects. These side effects have almost no impact on healthy individuals, but for users with low immunity or hidden health issues, it could lead to adverse consequences!"

Everyone was astonished and looked at each other in dismay.

"I'm sorry, General Manager Luo, there might be some misunderstanding here. Our product is perfectly fine!" Su Jing hurriedly smoothed things over and signaled Chen Xue.

Chen Xue pulled Zhou Yang aside and whispered, "Zhou Yang, someone is looking for you outside!"

Zhou Yang knew they were trying to kick him out, so he sighed helplessly and walked toward the door. He had been sitting in the corner without saying a word because he had been carefully studying the ingredients of the new medicine. He discovered that this medicine was almost identical to a formula recorded in the *Golden Scales*. That formula had once been altered by removing one specific herb because that ingredient reacted with others to cause side effects in people with weak constitutions. This was experience gathered by his ancestors over many years of medical practice; simply looking at it from a pharmacological perspective wouldn't reveal the issue. Therefore, if this new medicine were fully launched into the market, it would certainly cause problems, and customers would eventually come back to demand refunds.

"This gentleman!" The oldest man from Sanxing called out to Zhou Yang. "You also understand technology?"

"I know a little bit about Traditional Chinese Medicine," Zhou Yang replied modestly.

"Hmm." The old man nodded and said nothing more.

The negotiation ended fruitlessly, and no partnership was reached.

Back in her office, Su Jing’s expression was as dark as water.

"Zhou Yang, I told you today to follow along and learn, not to speak out of turn. Why did you decide to act on your own?" Su Jing snapped coldly. "Do you know how much the company stands to lose because of this?"

Chen Xue stood to the side, head bowed, not daring to breathe.

Zhou Yang argued his case: "I only know that this new product was only put on the market yesterday. There will definitely be problems later on. If we had entered a trial cooperation with Sanxing now, once those problems surfaced, we would have lost this client forever."

"How can you be so sure our medicine will have problems?" Su Jing’s chest rose and fell with anger. "Are the many people on our R&D team not as good as you? If you have such talent, you should have gone into R&D! Why come to the sales team?"

Zhou Yang wanted to retort, but Chen Xue pushed him out of the office: "Go and cool off!"

Inside the office, Su Jing slammed a file onto the desk, her face flushed with rage. "This Zhou Yang, he really is an idiot! A total idiot!"

...

Five days later, Liu Yan returned to work. Upon hearing about the incident, he flew into a rage. He stormed into Su Jing’s office and said, "Director Su, it's obvious Zhou Yang is trying to sabotage me. The client had already agreed to a trial, and he pushed them away. A client that big—if we had signed them, the entire quarter's target would have been met. Zhou Yang is trying to ruin our department!"

Liu Yan said emotionally, "Director Su, if you don't fire Zhou Yang, I'm quitting!"

Su Jing was in a difficult position. Truth be told, she wanted Zhou Yang gone, too. But Zhou Yang had been transferred by the higher-ups, so simply getting rid of him wasn't appropriate. She had originally planned to wait for the one-month probationary period to let him go naturally, but she hadn't expected him to stir up such a mess.

However, just then, Chen Xue ran into Su Jing's office in a panic, exclaiming, "Director Su, there's a problem—a real problem!"

"What problem?" Su Jing felt like her head was about to explode.

Chen Xue said, "Zhou Yang mentioned the other day that this batch of new products might have issues. This morning, some distributors came to the company to cause a scene, claiming that the new products they were distributing have caused various degrees of physical abnormalities in users. The users are now joining forces and threatening to take them to court!"