Chapter 35: Demotion and Reassignment, Go Scrub the Toilets!

Suddenly, Xu Zhihao’s phone rang. It was his most trusted assistant.

With a sneer, he lounged in his chair, crossed his legs, and answered, "Well? Is that idiot Xu Ye still standing outside like a good little dog?"

"This..." The assistant stammered. Xu Zhihao’s expression soured instantly.

"Speak when you're spoken to! Stop stuttering, you damn idiot!"

"Mr. Xu, the young chairman... the young chairman says you have three minutes to get down here, or you're fired." The assistant spoke with trembling fear.

Xu Zhihao froze for a moment, then slammed his hand onto the desk with such force that it nearly deafened the assistant on the other end.

"That idiot Xu Ye, has he grown a pair of tiger guts?" Xu Zhihao was truly incensed. "You tell him to get his ass down to the front of the building and stand there for five hours before he’s even allowed to step inside. Otherwise, I’ll make sure my sister never forgives him for the rest of his life!"

The assistant was stunned. Ignoring everything else, he was asking the young chairman to stand outside for five hours? Had the deputy manager lost his mind?

Seeing no response from the other end, Xu Zhihao slammed the table again. "Well? Are you deaf? Did you not understand what I said?"

The assistant had no choice but to relay the message, feeling like a sandwich crushed between two slices of bread, desperate not to offend either party. Everyone knew that thanks to his sister, the deputy manager would eventually become family with the young chairman. But even so... the man was the young chairman of the Xu Group. Such blasphemous, insane words—how could the deputy manager even say them?

Everyone present wondered if Xu Zhihao had gone mad. If they didn't know better, they would have thought Xu Zhihao was the young chairman and Xu Ye was some random person off the street.

Everyone instinctively looked at Xu Ye, who simply let out a light laugh instead of getting angry.

"Call HR. Tell them to issue a group-wide notice within ten minutes. Xu Zhihao is dismissed from his position and transferred to the cleaning department. He is to be responsible for scrubbing the men's restrooms throughout the entire building!"

Xu Ye’s voice echoed for all to hear. Why not just fire him? Even calling the police would be too kind. He had promised to make Xu Ruowei’s family suffer a fate worse than death. If he let them off so easily, he would be doing them a favor. They liked to leech off the Xu family?

Then go to the cleaning department and leech there. With over six hundred toilets in the Xu Group, that should be enough for you to get your fill, Xu Zhihao!

"This..." Lin Hongsheng broke into a cold sweat. He felt just as tormented as the assistant. Dammit, why drag us into the power struggle between your future family members? If the young chairman were actually reliable, that would be one thing, but... caught in the middle, what sin did I commit in my past life to deserve this?

"This... young chairman, Deputy Manager Xu is a P6-level middle manager. Regardless of the transfer or the group notice..." Lin Hongsheng tried to push back, but Xu Ye raised his hand, cutting him off without ceremony.

"This is not for you to worry about. Just do as I told you."

He had already made arrangements for some things. The reason he came here today was simply to find a pretext to act and to watch them suffer in person. Of course, this also served as a public declaration: he, Xu Ye, was no longer going to coddle Xu Ruowei’s family. They wanted to ride on his back and act wild? Keep dreaming!

In the deputy manager’s office of the Business Department:

"Bomb!"

"A straight. Can you beat that?"

Xu Zhihao, collar open with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, rolled up his sleeves and flashed the final three cards in his hand, his gaze filled with menace. The office was thick with smoke, looking nothing like the workspace of a mid-level corporate manager; no one would have doubted it if you called it an underground gambling den.

Many employees outside the office peeked in, unable to help but sigh inwardly. Their manager was always like this—doing no real work, just forcing his subordinates to play cards with him, and only he was allowed to win. Yet, a piece of trash like this was about to become the head of the Xu Group’s Shenzhen branch? How could the world be so unfair?

But what could they do? Who told him to be the future brother-in-law of the group’s young chairman? Envy and resentment were useless.

Inside the office, a crony of Xu Zhihao hesitated before saying, "Mr. Xu, the way you treated the young chairman earlier... don't you think that was a bit much?"

"A bit much? My ass! I'm not afraid, why the hell are you?" Xu Zhihao cursed bluntly. "He's just a lapdog for my sister. You guys don't know what he was like in front of me before? If I told him to stand, he’d stand. If I told him to kneel at the entrance of the building, do you think he’d dare make a sound?"

He truly didn't care. After all, this wasn't the first time such things had happened. When had that stinking lapdog ever dared to bite back? With his sister, Xu Ruowei, behind him, he could be given ten thousand guts and he still wouldn't dare do anything to him.

Just then, his assistant rushed in, looking panicked. "Mr. Xu, something happened."

"You haven't just been demoted, you've been... you've been transferred to the cleaning department!"

"Bullshit. Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Who in the whole group has the balls to demote me? Let alone transfer me to the cleaning department?" Xu Zhihao looked displeased; if it weren't for the fact that this assistant was usually sensible, he would have slapped him across the face.

"It's true, Mr. Xu. The group notice has been issued, and in the group chat... the HR manager tagged you."

"Bullshit. Does Zhang Xinwei have the guts? Is he crazy?"

Xu Zhihao cursed while unlocking his phone. Sure enough, he saw a flood of messages, several of which were tags, a confirmation notice, and over twenty private messages. Ignoring the rest, he opened Zhang Xinwei's tag, only to find it was indeed a notice of his transfer, with an electronic official announcement attached.

Late arrivals and early departures? Absenteeism? Gambling? Multiple violations? And to top it off, they were making him scrub toilets? What was that dog Zhang Xinwei trying to do? Had he lost his mind?

By now, the company group chat was in an uproar. Everyone knew Xu Zhihao was the young chairman’s future brother-in-law; how could he suddenly be demoted? And demoted all the way to scrubbing toilets at that. Even during work hours, people couldn't stop discussing it.

Xu Zhihao stared intensely at the messages, his face pale and twisted. His eyes were filled with disbelief.

How dare they? Zhang Xinwei, how could he possibly dare?!