103. Chapter 103: If He Leaves One or Two Alive, That's Him Showing Great Mercy
Late at night, in a Villa in the New York Suburbs, as the points of light reassembled, Xia Shang's figure slowly appeared.
Upon his return, the first thing Xia Shang did was call a Michelin Restaurant he frequently patronized. "Maine pan-seared scallops, charcoal-grilled steak... As for drinks, you decide. My requirement is that it's delivered within an hour."
"Okay, sir, we'll arrange it immediately. Please wait a moment."
After hanging up the phone, Xia Shang went to the computer desk and checked his email. There weren't many accumulated emails. The Doppelganger had left Xia Shang the work he had no authority to handle.
Then, Xia Shang quickly browsed through the work content. It was roughly divided into two points: First, quickly eliminate the public opinion impact caused by The Deep's sexual harassment.
Second, guide the direction of online public opinion regarding Translucent's cause of death.
Both of these work emails were personally sent by Vought Vice President Madelyn Stillwell. Their importance was self-evident. If Xia Shang hadn't guessed wrong, these two negative news items should have caused a major blow to Vought shares.
It's important to note that this was a critical juncture for Madelyn Stillwell's promotion.
Because Vought President Stan Edgar had already explicitly announced he would voluntarily resign as Vought President in the second half of the year. The person most likely to succeed him was Madelyn Stillwell.
However, whether she could take the position of Vought President was ultimately decided by the Vought Board of Directors.
And those directors on the Vought Board of Directors only cared whether the shares in their hands rose or fell. Therefore, the current situation was not favorable for Madelyn Stillwell. She had to recover Vought's stock price in a short time.
Of course, she also had quite a few trump cards.
Just the USB drive the Doppelganger gave Xia Shang contained a lot of dirt on many directors. However, these things couldn't be easily revealed. Once other directors found out that Madelyn Stillwell was pulling strings behind their backs, they would fire Madelyn Stillwell immediately.
If Madelyn Stillwell sent Homelander to threaten them, then the situation would spiral out of control. According to Homelander's style, if he left one or two survivors, that would be him showing great mercy. After all, Homelander didn't have that much patience to negotiate with them.
So this approach was foolish. Madelyn Stillwell had never thought of using this method to obtain the position of Vought President.
"Whoa, it's really lively online." The topic about Translucent online had completely exploded. Whether on YouTube or Twitter, it had become the latest trending topic. Xia Shang roughly skimmed through it. The speculations about Translucent's real cause of death were widely debated.
Some said that Translucent wasn't actually dead, but was sidelined by Vought because he resisted Vought's contract.
Others said that Homelander disliked Translucent and therefore killed him.
This statement, in Xia Shang's view, was somewhat plausible.
Currently, the fans of these two sides were arguing fiercely over this public opinion, almost escalating into offline duels.
Besides this, there were many more outrageous speculations.
On the contrary, few people believed the information released by Vought. Was Translucent killed by Extremist Terrorists hidden underground in New York? Come on, you can't even make things up like this. Everyone knows that Translucent's superpower makes him impervious to blades and bullets.
Therefore, netizens felt that Vought was treating their intelligence like dirt.
"Arguing so fiercely, no wonder Madelyn Stillwell is anxious." The mobile phone next to Xia Shang rang, indicating that his delivery had arrived.
Don't even talk about Michelin Restaurants not having delivery service. In Xia Shang's opinion, it was just a matter of status and money not being sufficient. As a Vought executive, he, Xia, was also a privileged person.
"Thank you." Xia Shang went to the Villa Iron Door, took out a tip from his pocket, and handed it to the Delivery Person. "Providing the most perfect service for our guests has always been our Restaurant's business philosophy." The Delivery Person was an Uncle. He took the tip Xia Shang handed him with a smile and continued, "My name is Sheffield. I'm the Store Manager of the Restaurant. I've been in Mexico learning new dishes, so I haven't had the chance to meet you before. Today finally fills that regret."
"You're too kind. Please come in."
Xia Shang didn't like smoking or drinking. One of his few hobbies was tasting gourmet food. Therefore, he often frequented various Restaurants in New York, and because of his picky taste, many Head Chefs knew him.
After a conversation between the two.
Sheffield said with a bitter smile, "Recently, environmentalism has been prevalent, and even my Restaurant has suffered. The surface was covered in graffiti, causing economic loss as high as tens of thousands of US Dollars. Furthermore, calling the police didn't help much. They are like a group of annoying flies; even if you drive them away, they'll fly back after a while."
"To be honest, I deeply sympathize with your plight. However, they are just a group of kids after all. It's normal for some to be irrational. Perhaps it will get better after a while." Xia Shang took a sip of the whiskey in his wine glass without changing his expression.
I have to say, the bottle of whiskey sent by the Restaurant was of very good quality. The layers upon tasting were very rich.
"What you said makes a lot of sense. Actually, I'm not against environmental protection. On the contrary, my whole family are staunch environmentalists. It's just that their methods are too extreme." Sheffield very gentlemanly raised his wine glass to Xia Shang. "Mr. Jervis, I heard you are the Supervisor of Vought International's Talent Department. I wonder if you could help me contact that Environmental Ambassador."
"Are you referring to the Ocean Environmental Ambassador, The Deep?"
Sheffield, this old fox who had become shrewd with age, finally revealed his fox tail.
As the Store Manager of a Michelin Restaurant, how could he personally deliver food to Xia Shang if he didn't have something important to ask for?
"That's right."
"But his schedule is very full recently. I'm afraid he can't spare the time right now," Xia Shang said with a smile.
What a greedy kid, Sheffield cursed inwardly.
"Oh right, I also prepared a small gift for Mr. Jervis this time. Please don't refuse." Saying this, Sheffield took out a black box from his arms and handed it to Xia Shang.
"You are really too kind. I am already very happy that you could come personally."
Although Xia Shang said this verbally, he quite naturally took over the black box.
"It's just a small gift. Just consider it my meeting gift," Sheffield said with a slight smile.
"I think The Deep shouldn't refuse cooperation with your Restaurant. Hope you can come to Vought tomorrow. I will personally welcome you."
"No problem, I will definitely arrive on time."
The two stood up and shook hands.
Xia Shang smiled and said, "I believe that with The Deep as your Spokesperson, your Restaurant should quickly climb to the first place on the Environmental Restaurant Ranking."
"I think so." The two exchanged a smile. Everything was unspoken.
(End of Chapter)