Chapter 222: The Encounter Network Boss's Sarcasm - She Was Told to Go Find Chuck, Since He Was Best at Calming People Down!
Breakfast continued. But apart from Chuck's usual calmness, Jane and Alex were somewhat distracted, not really believing that Chuck's behavior had calmed the other party down.
But reality proved surprising.
"Erica, really? Thank you so much." Alex received a call from Erica, the owner of Encounter.com. After hanging up, she looked at Chuck with amusement in her eyes. "Erica said everything's settled—Mr. Foley has really calmed down."
"He investigated Chuck, found out who Chuck is, and then calmed down?" Jane's lips twitched.
"Erica's persuasion certainly played a part," Alex chuckled. "But Chuck was right—mainly because once he found out who he was, Mr. Foley was indeed able to calm down."
"Let me guess," Jane retorted sarcastically. "Everyone has the same intuition that no rich person is clean, and none of them can withstand investigation, especially after pissing off a detective and being investigated by him."
"And this detective is an advisor to powerful agencies like the IRS and FBI," Alex added. "Unless the other party is some clueless trust fund baby, anyone with a brain knows not to cross Chuck over something like this."
"All capital is built on blood and exploitation—you should know that very well," Chuck glanced at her. "Be careful at work."
"Okay," Alex smiled and stood up. "I'm heading to work."
Jane felt uncomfortable again. After watching her 'inappropriate mother-in-law' leave, she couldn't help but ask, "Now that everything is done, when are we going back?"
"Do you miss Monica?" Chuck asked.
"...I'll give you another chance to rephrase that!" Jane glared at Chuck through gritted teeth.
"Aren't you afraid of Monica?" Chuck looked at her.
"Are you serious?!" Jane exclaimed, exasperated. "You made that deduction yourself—that Bianca had a high probability of deliberately shooting her best friend. Have you forgotten? You actually expect Monica and me to..."
"What does this have to do with you and Monica?" Chuck bluntly stated. "Neither of you is rich."
"..." Jane paused, speechless for a moment.
She couldn't very well reveal the key reason they were similar, could she?
After spending several days in Chicago, carefully guarding herself and determined not to fall for any more tricks, Jane finally asked again, "How much longer are we staying here? If you have any ideas... just say it, I definitely won't agree."
"You know me, I always speak directly," Chuck said. "This has nothing to do with you."
Jane didn't seem happy to hear this, and said dejectedly, "Then it has to do with Alex?"
Seeing that Chuck didn't deny it, she became curious. "What about her?"
"Do you know what she does?" Chuck reminded her.
"She's an HR specialist," Jane said thoughtfully. "She specializes in terminating employees for big companies. Are you worried about causing conflict and putting her in danger?"
"Yes," Chuck nodded. "This kind of job is about being the scapegoat for big companies. Once the conflict escalates to a breaking point, she'll be the first target."
"Then why don't you try to persuade her to quit this kind of work?" Jane exclaimed in surprise. "The economy is terrible right now, there are already so many conflicts—the risk of something going wrong has increased significantly."
"I did tell her, but she wouldn't listen," Chuck said. "With these things, theory is no substitute for practice; only real experience changes your perspective."
At the headquarters of Encounter.com.
"Erica." Alex, having finished her work, knocked on the CEO's office door.
"Alex, come in." In the office, a tall, short-haired woman smiled and beckoned to Alex. "Finished?"
"Finished," Alex smiled. "I have to thank you for giving me a little more work so I can stay here. Otherwise, the company would definitely have sent me somewhere else."
"You're helping me out too," Erica sighed. "The market is rough these days—even Encounter.com isn't doing well. We still need to downsize. I've tried my best to keep the core team. Otherwise, according to John, it would be a massive layoff to cut costs."
"Is this what's causing your argument?" Alex suddenly realized, feeling worried for her friend.
Running a family business isn't easy. Small-scale operations are fine, but once the stakes get higher and it's time to divide power, conflicts arise—especially in a family business where the wife's abilities surpass the husband's. That's a powder keg. Who controls the company is the biggest trigger.
"Yeah, you know," Erica sighed with a wry smile, then composed herself and changed the subject with a smile. "You want to stay here because of Chuck?"
"Not entirely," Alex smiled a little embarrassedly, seeing Erica's gossipy expression.
"I know, I know—it's 99.999% for him," Erica teased.
Neither of them were naive young girls, but rather experienced women. After overcoming their initial reserve, they quickly began to chat deeply, the topics of which were best left unsaid.
"I really envy you," after a period of laughter and conversation, Erica looked at Alex with envy. "You found such a man with top-tier looks and physique, and most importantly, he's capable and has stamina!"
"It's not as perfect as you think," Alex shook her head.
"It's better than John," Erica said sarcastically. "Have you been to his office? Did you see all those bookshelves? Not a single book had a crease, except for a Bible."
"He's quite devout," Alex chuckled.
"Heh," Erica sneered. "His path to salvation is indeed in that Bible. He opens it every day, and there's a hollow cut out inside, where he puts what he's really interested in: a thick guide to escort services, not much thinner than the Bible itself, every page filled with photos and prices."
"Ah, that's..." Alex was at a loss for words.
"Now you know why he chose to start a website—it's either an adult site or a dating site, right?" Erica sneered. "That's his interest and inspiration. I feel like this could be made into a movie, called 'The Salvation of John Foley'! It would definitely shock the world!"
Just as Alex was pondering what to say, a commotion outside made her look over immediately.
"What's going on?" Erica noticed it too and pressed the intercom, asking the assistant.
"It's terrible! Someone has hanged themselves!" the assistant's panicked voice came through.
"What?!" Erica and Alex were both shocked and quickly headed outside to go downstairs.
The dating site headquarters occupied three entire floors.
"Erica, it's not a good time to go down," the assistant, looking at his phone, quickly stopped Erica and Alex as they prepared to go downstairs. "Everyone's really upset."
"Who? Why?" Erica stopped, frowning at the assistant.
"It's Andrew Morse," the assistant said, looking at Alex.
Alex was stunned. "Andrew Morse? He's on the termination list. I just spoke with him yesterday, and he seemed fine. How could this happen?"
"I don't know," the assistant said. "All we know is that during his final week of handover, he was doing fine, got up and left his workspace, went to the break room, grabbed a rope, came back, tied it to the ceiling, and hanged himself. By the time everyone found him, he was already dead. Everyone is very emotional because this is the third suicide in this industry this month."
He glanced at Alex. "Everyone is saying it's Alex and the other HR specialists' fault! They're all worked up and want to confront her!"
"I'll go see," Alex said, walking numbly toward the elevator.
Actually, she wasn't unaware of these things, but before, they were just industry gossip, something to sigh about and then move on. Now that she'd actually witnessed it, when she felt her conversations had gone well and her termination counseling had been effective, someone had suddenly committed suicide. The shock was immense.
"Alex," Erica called out, her eyes hesitant and conflicted. When Alex turned around, uncertainty crossed her face. "It's good for you to go see them. Talk to them calmly; it's not your fault."
"Okay," Alex agreed, shook her head, and went downstairs.
After Alex left, the assistant whispered, "Erica, it's best to leave via the private elevator now. It's not safe here."
"Okay," Erica nodded, quickly tidied herself up in her office, grabbed her handbag, and hurried toward her private elevator in her high heels.
The assistant followed.
"John, do you know what happened?" Erica called her husband after getting into the private elevator.
"Don't panic, what's the big deal?" John Foley's nonchalant voice came from the other end of the line. "Just follow protocol."
"Alex went down to comfort the employees," Erica added.
"It's what she should do," John Foley chuckled. "Isn't this what we're paying them for? If she can calm the rest of the staff down, that's her skill. If not, and something goes wrong, at least the staff can vent their emotions, right? Either way, it's not our problem."
Seeing his wife remain silent, knowing what kind of person she was, he couldn't help but say sarcastically, "Isn't she close to that Chuck Wolfe? Call him and ask him to help your 'best friend.' I'm sure they'll all calm down once they know who he is!"
He then hung up the phone with a satisfied air.
Although knowing Chuck's numerous consulting titles and achievements, and knowing who Chuck was, and having truly calmed down under his wife's persuasion, choosing to drop the matter, it was still a somewhat frustrating outcome for him.
Now, hearing that Chuck's lover was in trouble, even if it was also trouble for his company, he was still pleased.
Because employee suicides, handled through proper procedures, would only result in some acceptable financial losses.
He had plenty of money!
It was like spending a little money to legitimately cause trouble for Chuck, without him being able to retaliate.
If he weren't still rational, he really wanted to call Chuck himself, inform him of this, and say these words to him personally—that would have been even more satisfying.
What a shame.
Erica put away her phone, escorted by her assistant, exited the private elevator, got into her car smoothly, and drove away from the building. After much consideration, she dialed Chuck. "Is this Chuck? This is Erica, it's like this..."
She explained the situation anxiously, but before she could express her carefully crafted response, Chuck interrupted her. "Where are you?"
"What?" Erica was stunned.
"Alex went to calm the employees. Where are you, the actual boss?" Chuck asked calmly.
Erica fell silent, listening to the dial tone, her eyes growing increasingly complicated.
"It's not your fault," the assistant, acting as the driver, glanced at her in the rearview mirror, his face full of concern. "Nobody wanted this to happen; he was just too fragile."
Normally, she wouldn't mind showing her vulnerable side to further manipulate her assistant, so she could use him at a crucial moment.
But at this moment, she wasn't in the mood. She simply turned her head to look out the window, her gaze suddenly focusing on a figure that had just passed by. If she wasn't seeing things, the car that had just driven past contained Chuck.
"Impossible, I must be seeing things. How could he have arrived so quickly?" Erica muttered to herself.
Encounter.com Headquarters.
"This is the third one this month!"
"These so-called HR specialists are all liars. They only tell us that change is a good thing, and that many successful people's illustrious careers started with change. But what they won't tell us is, what are the odds of that happening?"
"Yes, there was Bob who committed suicide earlier this month. He had an eight-year-old daughter and a ten-year-old son. He earned $90,000 a year, but after being laid off, he only received $250 a week in unemployment. He couldn't afford his mortgage and his family of four had to rent a single room. He saw through it all and wanted to try again, but that HR specialist fooled him.
They said his children didn't admire him because he had lost his dream, and that children admire those who pursue their dreams. They said his termination was actually a good opportunity to pursue his former dream of becoming a French chef, because it was on his resume—he minored in culinary arts in college. They said do it for his children, if not for himself.
He was fooled, signed the agreement, and soon after leaving, discovered the specialist's words were complete bullshit. What pursuit of dreams? He couldn't even survive without money—how could he pursue dreams, let alone for his children? He didn't dare pursue his dreams when he was young and had no responsibilities, but now his family of four depended on him, and they were talking about pursuing dreams for his children?
After repeated failures, unable to support his wife and children, and unable to bear the disappointment in his children's eyes, he chose suicide."
"Andrew is dead now—we need an explanation! These layoffs must end immediately, and that HR specialist must get out of here!"
"Yes! It's all Alex's fault! She must have manipulated Andrew, making him not insist on negotiating, signing the agreement, and then regretting it and doing something so extreme!"
The crowd was furious.
When Alex came down, this was the situation she faced. Despite her repeated attempts to calm and reassure them, it was to no avail. Driven by the agitated employees, she was cornered at the spot where Andrew had hanged himself. The more they talked, the more worked up they became. These past few days, facing pay cuts, immense work pressure, and the constant threat of being fired, they seized this opportunity to vent their frustrations.
Alex, a woman of considerable experience, shouldn't have been so passive, but all her composure vanished before the lifeless body lying on the ground. Her mind was filled with the image of Chuck warning her against this line of work.
Some employees, captivated by Alex's flawless appearance, and others, influenced by the melancholy in Alex's ice-blue eyes, began to lose their anger. But some of the more impulsive employees reached out to grab Alex's hair, shouting, "Stop acting!"
Their outstretched hands were caught by another hand.
(End of Chapter)
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